fferson's first important act as President was to dispatch to the
Mediterranean three frigates and a sloop-of-war to overawe the pirates,
and to cruise in protection of American commerce. Thus began that series
of events which finally rendered the commerce of the world as safe from
piracy in the Mediterranean as it was in the British channel. How
brilliantly Decatur and his gallant comrades carried out this policy, and
how at last the tardy naval powers of Europe followed an example which
they ought to have set, every one is supposed to know.

The second important event was the acquisition of Louisiana. Louisiana
meant the whole territory from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean,
embracing about one million square miles. All this region belonged to
Spain by right of discovery; and early in the year 1801 news came from the
American minister at Paris that Spain had ceded or was about to cede it to
France. The Spanish ownership of the mouth of the Mississippi had long
been a source of annoyance to the settlers on the Mississippi River; and
it had begun to be felt that the United States must control New Orleans at
least. If this vast territory should come into the hands of France, and
Napoleon should colonize it, as was said to be his intention,--France then
being the greatest power in Europe,--the United States would have a
powerful rival on its borders, and in control of a seaport absolutely
necessary for its commerce. We can see this now plainly enough, but even
so able a man as Mr. Livingston, the American minister at Paris, did not
see it then. On the contrary, he wrote to the government at Washington:
"... I have, however, on all occasions, declared that as long as France
conforms to the existing treaty between us and Spain, the government of
the United States does not consider itself as having any interest in
opposing the exchange."

Mr. Jefferson's very different view was expressed in the following letter
to Mr. Livingston: "... France, placing herself in that door, assumes to
us the attitude of defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly for
years. Her pacific disposition, her feeble state would induce her to
increase our facilities there.... Not so can it ever be in the hands of
France; the impetuosity of her temper, the energy and restlessness of her
character, placed in a point of eternal friction with us and our
character, which, though quiet and loving peace and the pursuit of wealth,
is high-minded,