t
lived, and for some time before the new rupture Napoleon saw that it
would be his best policy to concentrate his strength in Europe, and not
endeavor to defend distant possessions in America. At the same time it
was evident to President Jefferson that the continued occupation of the
city of New Orleans by a foreign power was a menace to American interests
in the rapidly growing West. The President therefore instructed Robert R.
Livingston, the American Minister to Paris, to propose to Napoleon the
cession to the United States of New Orleans and adjoining territory,
sufficient to secure the free navigation of the Mississippi. James
Monroe, American Minister to England, was associated with Livingston in
the negotiations. The American representatives were surprised and elated
upon learning from M. Barbe-Marbois, Napoleon's Minister of Finance, that
the First Consul was ready to dispose of all Louisiana to the United
States. Barbe-Marbois conducted the negotiations on behalf of France;
both parties were anxious to arrive at a settlement before the English
should have an opportunity to attack New Orleans, and on April 30, 1803,
the treaty was signed by which the United States, for the sum of
$15,000,000, came into possession of an immense territory extending from
the North Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. The loan necessary was
negotiated through the celebrated house of Hope, of Amsterdam, the money
was paid to France, and the United States entered upon its vast estate.

The very next year President Jefferson sent out the expedition of Lewis
and Clark to the headwaters of the Columbia River, and caused a complete
survey to be made to its mouth. This river had been discovered in 1792,
by Captain Robert Gray, a native of Tiverton, Rhode Island, and a famous
navigator, who sailed in a ship fitted out by Boston merchants. Had
Jefferson's energetic action been followed up with equal vigor by his
successors we would never have had the Oregon boundary dispute, and
Marcus Whitman would never have felt summoned to take that famous ride so
worthily chronicled by Oliver W. Nixon.

* * *

With Aaron Burr's alleged treason I will deal very briefly. It will
always be a disputed point whether that restless and unprincipled and yet
gifted person plotted to alienate territory of the United States, or only
to play the part of a Northman in territory belonging to Spain. Admitting
Burr to be innocent