"

We hope and believe that one of the predictions of this luminous mind
will not be fulfilled, although we have lately seen some appearances of
its accomplishment.

"Perhaps it will also be objected to me, that the Americans may
be found too powerful for Europe in two or three centuries: but
my foresight does not embrace such remote fears. Besides, we
may hereafter expect rivalries among the members of the Union.
The confederations, that are called perpetual, only last till
one of the contracting parties finds it to its interest to
break them, and it is to prevent the danger, to which the
colossal power of England exposes us, that I would provide a
remedy."

"The conferences began the same day between Mr. Livingston and M. Barbe
Marbois, to whom the first consul confided the negotiation." Pending the
preliminary discussions, Mr. Monroe arrived at Paris; but even then Mr.
Livingston despaired of success, and said to Mr. Monroe, "I wish that
the resolution offered by Mr. Ross in the senate had been adopted. Only
force can give us New-Orleans; we must employ force; let us first get
possession of the country and negotiate afterwards." Mr. Livingston,
however, was happily mistaken. "The first difficulties," says M.
Marbois, "were smoothed by a circumstance which is rarely met with in
congresses and diplomatic conferences. The plenipotentiaries having been
long acquainted, were disposed to treat each other with confidence." The
negotiation, under such auspices, proceeded rapidly, but not without
some distrust on our part.

"Mr. Monroe, still affected by the distrust of his colleague,
did not hear without surprise the first overtures that were
frankly made by M. de Marbois. Instead of the cession of a
town and its inconsiderable territory, a vast portion of
America was in some sort offered to the United States. They
only asked for the mere right of navigating the Mississippi,
and their sovereignty was about to be extended over the largest
rivers of the world. They passed over an interior frontier to
carry their limits to the great Pacific ocean."

The termination of this important negotiation was as speedy and
satisfactory, as it has been and will be important in its consequences.
M. Marbois truly observes, "the cession of Louisiana was a certain
guarantee of the future greatness of the United States; and opposed an
insurmountable