His dispatches to Madison became a sealed book in the Department of State; his letters to Jefferson were not suffered to shadow the President's halo ; his work, practically completed before Monroe's arrival in Paris, did not reach the eye or the ear of the American people. The great achievement filled the air, rejoicing the country as no other event since the treaty of peace with England, but little praise came to Livingston. The public gave Monroe credit for the treaty, and Livingston discredit for the claims convention. When, finally, Monroe admitted that his part in the negotiation amounted to nothing, he also encouraged tJhe belief that Livingston did as little. It is impossible to say, of course, just w'hat influenced Napoleon to give Marbois the order of April ii. It was not war, for war did not come until a year later ; it was not money, for the Prince of Peace would have given more ; it was not anger at Spain, for no real cause then existed ; it was not fear of England, for Bonaparte did not fear an enemy he expected to crush ; it was not St. Domingo, for Leclerc's failure already belonged to the past, with Corsica and Egvpt. Perhaps Napoleon himself could not have given the real reason. But. however this may be, the fact is deeply imbedded in history that Livingston was the first American to suggest the acquisition of that then vast and dimly outlined country which has been known for over a hundred years as the Louisiana Purchase -- stretching west and northwest of the Mississippi, above the winding Arkansas, beyond the waters of the Missouri, across plains and flower-covered prairies to the far-away Rockies, where the Yellowstone leaps from its hiding, and snow-clad summits pierce a summer's skv.