ary capacity in the business of
diplomacy, as well as for the integrity of his principles, and the
frankness and amenity of his manners. By living long among us, he seems
to have acquired not only an affection and respect for the American
people, but an ardent admiration of our political institutions, which
have adhered to him with undiminished strength through the various
fortunes he has since encountered. He has prefixed to his History, an
"Introduction," which is, as it professes to be, "An Essay on the
Constitution and Government of the United States of America;" and
although the venerable author had passed his eightieth year, he had lost
none of the freshness of his attachment to our republic and its
citizens, or of the vigour of his pen in portraying them. No foreigner
has ever understood us so well, and few Americans better.

That part of his history which relates to the cession of Louisiana to
the United States, is particularly entitled to attention from its
curious details, and will be received with implicit belief, as M.
Marbois was the negotiator on the part of France in that extraordinary
transaction, fraught with consequences so momentous. He relates nothing
but what was in his personal knowledge. We will not anticipate our
notice of this event, but we cannot suppress the remark, that the
acquisition of this vast region by the United States, now so prosperous,
so loyal and efficient a portion of our grand confederacy, by which we
were not only saved from a war, but liberty, happiness, and wealth have
been spread over a country, before that time neglected, mismanaged, and
unproductive, and dispensed to an intelligent and industrious people,
who had for a century been struggling with oppression and innumerable
difficulties, changing with their repeated changes of masters, was owing
to the keen sagacity and prompt decision of Napoleon. It is thus that
the destinies of mankind wait upon the fortunes, the caprice, the
foresight, and the blunders of the great, and are determined, for weal
or wo, by causes and accidents in which those who are most affected by
them have no agency. The people of Louisiana, and their fertile
territory, which from their first settlement had been a subject of
barter among the powers of Europe, to make a peace, to round off a
treaty, or answer some policy or interest of a distant sovereign, are
now irrevocably fixed as a member of a great republic, never again to be
a helpless and degra