orialist of a body of
Americans, who, after sharing equally with us in all the dangers and
hardships of the revolutionary war, had retired to a distance and made
a settlement for themselves. If, in such a situation, Congress had
established a temporary government over them, in which they were not
personally consulted, they would have had a right to speak as the
memorial speaks. But your situation is different from what the situation
of such persons would be, and therefore their ground of reclamation
cannot of right become yours. You are arriving at freedom by the easiest
means that any people ever enjoyed it; without contest, without expense,
and even without any contrivance of your own. And you already so far
mistake principles, that under the name of _rights_ you ask for _powers;
power to import and enslave Africans_; and _to govern_ a territory that
_we have purchased_.

To give colour to your memorial, you refer to the treaty of cession, (in
which _you were not_ one of the contracting parties,) concluded at Paris
between the governments of the United States and France.

"The third article" you say "of the treaty lately concluded at
Paris declares, that the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be
incorporated in the union of the United States, and admitted _as soon as
possible, according to the principles_ of the Federal Constitution, to
the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens
of the United States; and _in the mean time_, they shall be protected
in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the exercise of the
religion they profess."

As from your former condition, you cannot be much acquainted with
diplomatic policy, and I am convinced that even the gentleman who
drew up the memorial is not, I will explain to you the grounds of this
article. It may prevent your running into further errors.

The territory of Louisiana had been so often ceded to different European
powers, that it became a necessary article on the part of France,
and for the security of Spain, the ally of France, and which accorded
perfectly with our own principles and intentions, that it should be
_ceded no more_; and this article, stipulating for the incorporation of
Louisiana into the union of the United States, stands as a bar against
all future cession, and at the same time, as well as "_in the mean
time_" secures to you a civil and political permanency, personal
security and liberty which you never enjoy