Louisiana Purchase, Part 3: Napoleon’s Unexpected Gift
George Caleb Bingham. “Jolly Flatboatmen in Port.” Saint Louis Art Museum.
As a boy growing up in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson listened to his father tell captivating stories of the pristine wilderness beyond the Appalachian Mountains and dreamed of what opportunities lay in the uncharted lands of North America. As Jefferson grew to manhood, he became a proponent of national expansionism, recognizing that the future greatness of the country lay outside the original thirteen colonies.
Just one year after the country had gained its independence, Jefferson crafted the Land Ordinance of 1784 which called for the creation of several states from the Northwest Territory, recently granted to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. Jefferson understood the urgency of developing this rich land and adding its bounty to the new nation. The edict was adopted by the Confederation Congress and led to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which created a blueprint for the systematic expansion of the new nation, one of most consequential documents in the history of the United States.
When Jefferson became President in 1801, one of his priorities was to guarantee navigation rights on the Mississippi River for western commerce and, if possible, expand national boundaries in the process. Although Pinckney’s Treaty had secured American navigational rights on the Mississippi and the right of deposit in New Orleans, President Jefferson had seen too much of Spanish interference and recognized how tenuous was America’s hold on the river. The President also hoped to expand the southern boundary of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico and desired to purchase Florida from Spain.
So, it struck like a thunderbolt when word leaked out in May 1801 that Spain had secretly agreed to transfer Louisiana and, possibly Florida, to Napoleon and France. As the French expedition to St. Domingue took shape, it was also rumored that once Napoleon’s forces secured the sugar island, their next destination was Louisiana. The rumors were true as Napoleon told Denis Decres, his Minister of the Navy, “My intention is that we take possession of Louisiana with the shortest possible delay.”
The French arrived at St. Domingue in February 1802 but by the end of the year 30,000 Frenchmen were dead and the expedition crushed by Haitian rebels and an inhospitable climate. Importantly for the interests of the United States, with that loss, Louisiana became expendable to Napoleon. Despite Napoleon assuring King Carlos IV that he would never part with Louisiana, and most certainly not to the United States, the French Emperor began to think of doing just that.
“Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours.” Wikimedia - Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington.
While all this was happening in the Caribbean, President Jefferson had been keeping a wary eye on the French and doing what he could to thwart their efforts towards Louisiana. In the spring of 1802, he used Pierre DuPont, an exiled Frenchman whose family had established a gunpowder factory in Delaware, to get word to Napoleon of the American position. Jefferson asked Du Pont to inform Napoleon that while he did not want to go to war with France, he would do so to prevent France from possessing Louisiana.
The President fully understood the significance of trading a weakened Spain for a powerful Napoleonic France as the country’s neighbor in Louisiana and Florida, for as long as those areas were under Spanish control, the likelihood was great that one day they would be part of the United States, but French control was much more problematic. As the President wrote to Robert Livingston, the United States Minister to France, in April 1802, “There is on the globe one single spot the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of three-eighths of our territory must pass to market.” Jefferson directed Livingston, who had been busy for months laying the foundation with French officials for the purchase of New Orleans, to warn Napoleon that France acquiring Louisiana “rendered it impossible that France and the United States can continue long friends. From that moment, we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.”
Besides the President, others in the country were calling for war with France should that country acquire Louisiana. Especially loud in the cries for war were westerners who wanted to seize the territory and end the never-ending worry that the Mississippi and New Orleans would be closed to their flatboats. To quell the rising emotions and to demonstrate his resolve to keep the river open to Americans, President Jefferson appointed James Monroe minister plenipotentiary to France to assist Livingston in his negotiations with the French government.
Monroe arrived in Havre, France in April 1803 with instructions to offer as much as $10,000,000 for New Orleans and West Florida (it was believed at the time that Spain had ceded both Florida and Louisiana to France). Secretary of State James Madison further advised Monroe and Livingston that if talks should fail, they should “enter into conferences with the British government to fix principles of alliance.” A shocking reversal for an administration who had never trusted Great Britain.
But before Monroe reached Paris, Napoleon had made his decision regarding Louisiana, stating to his Finance Minister, Francois Barbe-Marbois, “I renounce Louisiana. It is not only New Orleans that I cede; it is the whole colony.” Napoleon realized that “to retain it would be folly” as he need all his resources, military and financial, to defeat Great Britain in the coming conflict. Accordingly, on April 11, Foreign Minister Talleyrand called in Livingston and asked him what the United States would offer not just for New Orleans but rather for the entire colony of Louisiana. Livingston must have been thrown off his guard as he shockingly told Talleyrand that he must decline this incredible offer as “our interests extended only to New Orleans and the Floridas.” By the next morning, Livingston had somewhat recovered himself and waited on Talleyrand to reopen the discussion but the Frenchman feigned indifference to the whole matter.
Monroe finally arrived on the 13th and the two Americans conferred all day on the next steps they should take with the French ministers. After Monroe left, Livingston called on Barbe-Marbois, fearful that the extraordinary opportunity presented by Talleyrand would be rescinded. From midnight until about 3:00 in the morning, the two conferred and hammered out what proved to be the essential terms of the Louisiana Purchase.
Next week, we will discuss closing the deal known as the Louisiana Purchase. Until then, may your motto be “Ducit Amor Patriae,” love of country leads me.
The midnight deal Robert Livingston, United States Minister to France, struck with Francois Barbe-Marbois, Napoleon’s Finance Minister, on April 13, 1803, to purchase the Louisiana territory was one of the most impactful agreements in the history of the United States. It resulted from months of conversations Livingston had had with numerous French officials, creating a foundation for the details that would follow. But as important as this step was, there remained several hurdles to overcome.