" Such proof on the part of France of good will toward the United States," he wrote Livingston, in September, 180 1, " would contribute to reconcile the latter to France's possession of New Orleans." But when, a year later, a French army, commanded by Leclerc, Napoleon's brother-in-law, had devastated St. Domingo and aroused the hostility of American merchants and shipmasters by his arbitrary treatment, Jefferson sensed the danger of having Napoleon for a next-door neiglibor on the Mississippi. In a moment his tone changed from one of peace to a threat of war. " The cession of Louisanan to France," he declared, in a letter to Livingston, April 16, 1802, " works most sorely on the United States. There is on the globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans. France, placing herself in that door, assumes to us the attitude of defiance. The day that France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low-water mark. It seals the union of two nations, who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation."

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. 103

In his anxiety the President also instructed Madison, his Secretary of State, to write Pinckney, the American minister at Madrid, to guarantee to Spajn, if it had not already parted with its title, peaceable possession of Louisiana beyond the Mississippi, on condition of its ceding to the United States the territory, including New Orleans, on the east side. As the year wore on, however, and Leclerc's death followed his report of his losses, Jefiferson became much easier, advising Livingston that French possession of Louisiana v/ould not be '* important enough to risk a breach of the peace." But before the ink had time to dry, almost simultaneously with the death of Leclerc, came the news, through Governor Claiborne of the Territory of Mississippi, that the Spanish Intendent had forbidden Americans the right to deposit their merchandise atNew Orleans.