powers loom up before it, was anxious for an excuse to appease America. Talleyrand, therefore, informed President Adams, through William Vans Murray, our Minister to the Netherlands, that if the United States would send another Minister to Paris he would be received, "as the representative of a great, free, powerful and independent nation." It was a crisis such as few men have had to face, but John Adams, however lacking in political wisdom, did not lack courage. Having convinced himself that Talleyrand, for once, was speaking the truth, he decided that the interest of the country demanded peace, and determined to have it. Without waiting to consult Washington, the leaders of his party, or even the members of his Cabinet, he sent to Congress the name of William Vans Murray as Minister to France. In making this nomination, Mr. Adams informed the Senate of his intention "instruct Mr. Murray not to go to France before he received direct and unequivocal assurance from the French Government, through its Minister of External Relations, that he would be received in character, have its privileges extended to him, and be met by another minister of equal rank, title and power, to treat of, discuss, and conclude, all controversies between the two republics.' "1 When this extraordinary nomination was reported in the papers, next day (February 19, 1799), people refused to credit the news, as they had heard nothing of Talleyrand's proposal, the Senate having sat with closed doors. The Federalist leaders, finding such important matters going forward without any previous party consultation, looked the nomination with decided disfavor, while the Senate, astonished at the sudden change in Adams' position, 1 Document quoted, Marshall, II, p. 293. upon sent a committee to induce him to withdraw the nomination. Adams, however, stood firm, until the committee threatened to report against it, when he withdrew the name of Vans Murray, and substituted a commission, composed of Chief Justice Ellsworth, Patrick Henry and William Vans Murray. This second nomination was reluctantly confirmed. Henry, however, refused to serve, and William Davie, of North Carolina, was put into his place. The commission thus constituted, immediately sailed for Paris, where they were well received, and, in the course of a few months, concluded a treaty 1 which, while not entirely satisfactory, served to avert the war which everyone had thought inevitable. Jefferson and the Republicans were jubliant. They saw that the days of Federalist supremacy were numbered. The Kentucky Resolutions had brought the weakness of the Administration clearly before the public, and Adams' heroism had hopelessly divided the Federalist party. In the presidential election of the following year (1800), this division was painfully apparent. Out of a total of one hundred and thirty-eight electoral votes, Adams received only sixty-five, while Jefferson and Burr, the candidates of the Democratic party, received seventythree each. The election, therefore, went to the House of Representatives, which chose Jefferson, upon the thirtysixth ballot, and Burr was relegated to the position of Vice-President. 1 Text of treaty, "Kentucky Gazette," January 26, 1801. CHAPTER IX KENTUCKY AND THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA DURING the period intervening between the proclamation of Pinckney's treaty of 1795 and the election of 1800, which made Thomas Jefferson President, the right to navigate the Mississippi and to deposit goods at New Orleans had produced marked results. Trade between Kentucky and the southern ports had grown with astonishing rapidity,1 and Governor Garrard, in his Message of November 4, 1800, dwelt upon that fact with great satisfaction. Trade by way of the Mississippi, according to his economic system, would readily lend itself to "an exchange of commodities," thus preventing the export of specie and protecting the circulating medium of the State. It was therefore more desirable than trade with the East, which could offer no such advantage. For this reason he urged the advisability of "giving premiums on importations by way of the Mississippi," in order to call the attention of Kentucky merchants "to that essential channel of our foreign commerce.' But while the Governor was laboring to encourage southern trade, foreign politics were rapidly and secretly creating conditions looking to its complete destruction. The sagacious French Minister, Talleyrand, had never 1 Madison to Charles Pinckney, November 27, 1802 (Madison's Works), for figures indicating the value of this Kentucky trade. 2 Butler, pp. 295–296. lost sight of his design to regain Florida and Louisiana for France, but his plans were not brought to maturity until the vision of an American Empire dawned upon the mind of Napoleon, First Consul in name, but Emperor in fact, of France. Then Talleyrand sent instructions to the French Minister at Madrid bidding him make arrangements with Spain for the transfer of those two provinces to France, which was the first step in Napoleon's design to restore to France the imperial domain, which had been lost when Wolfe scaled the rocky heights of Quebec, to die on the plains of Abraham. In the year 1800 suggestions coming from the First Consul of France had much the force of law with most of the European States, and the secret treaty of San Ildefonso was speedily concluded, Spain agreeing to deliver Louisiana to its original possessor, the French nation. 2 Napoleon, however, was not as prompt in taking possession of his new domain as he usually was in following out his plans, and it was November, 1801, before Leclerc, with a French army, weighed anchor for the Louisiana Territory. Fortunately for America this expedition never reached its destination, for Leclerc's orders were to stop at San Domingo, and destroy the little negro Republic which Toussaint Louverture had erected in that island. This, the First Consul considered a mere incident: but it proved otherwise: seventeen thousand French soldiers were lost in the attempt, and a second army perished by yellow fever, while endeavoring to keep the negroes in subjection; and still no French troops had been 3 1 McMaster, II, p. 625. 2 October 1, 1800. landed in Louisiana. In the meantime, Morales, Spanish Intendant at New Orleans, supposing that these troops would soon arrive, had issued the following proclamation, which struck a staggering blow at the commerce of Kentucky and the West: "As long as it was necessary to tolerate the trade of neutrals, which is now abolished, it would have been prejudicial to this country, that the Intendant complying with his duty should have prevented the deposit in this city of the property of Americans as granted to them by the twenty-second article of the Treaty of Friendship, Limits and Navigation of the 27th of October 1795, at the expiration of the three years prefixed; but now that, with the publication of the treaty of Amiens, and the reestablishment of the communication between the English and Spanish subjects, that inconvenience has ceased, considering that the 22d article of the said treaty prevents my continuing this toleration, which necessity required after the fulfillment of the stipulated time, this ministry. can no longer consent to it, without an express order of the King's. Therefore without prejudice to the exportation of what has been admitted in proper time, I order that from this date shall cease the privilege which the Americans had of bringing and depositing their goods. in this capitol. And that the foregoing may be publicly known, and that nobody may plead ignorance, I order it to be published in the accustomed places, copies to be posted up in public; and that the necessary notice be given of it to the Department of Finance, Royal Custom-House, and others that may be thought proper. "Done at the Intendancy, signed with my hand, and |