The ingenuity of Livingston’s idea was not to be disputed; and as a ground for a war of conquest it was as good as some of the claims which Bonaparte made the world respect. As a diplomatic weapon, backed as Napoleon would have backed it by a hundred thousand soldiers, it was as effective an instrument as though it had every attribute of morality and good faith; and all it wanted, as against Spain, was the approval of Bonaparte. Livingston hoped that after the proof of friendship which Bonaparte had already given in selling Louisiana to the United States, he might without insuperable difficulty be induced to grant this favor. Both Marbois and Talleyrand, under the First Consul’s express orders, led him on. Marbois did not deny that Mobile might lie in Louisiana, and Talleyrand positively denied knowledge that Laussat’s instructions contained a definition of boundaries. Bonaparte stood behind both these agents, telling them that if an obscurity did not exist about the boundary they should make one. Talleyrand went so far as to encourage the pretensions which Livingston hinted: “You have made a noble bargain for yourselves,” said he, “and I suppose you will make the most of it.” This was said at the time when Bonaparte was still intent on punishing Spain.
Livingston found no difficulty in convincing Monroe that they had bought Florida as well as Louisiana.[60]
“We consider ourselves so strongly founded in this conclusion, that we are of opinion the United States should act on it in all the measures relative to Louisiana in the same manner as if West Florida was comprised within the Island of New Orleans, or lay to the west of the River Iberville.”
Livingston expected that “a little force,”[61] as he expressed himself, might be necessary.
“After the explanations that have been given here, you need apprehend nothing from a decisive measure; your minister here and at Madrid can support your claim, and the time is peculiarly favorable to enable you to do it without the smallest risk at home.... The moment is so favorable for taking possession of that country that I hope it has not been neglected, even though a little force should be necessary to effect it. Your minister must find the means to justify it.”
A little violence added to a little diplomacy would answer the purpose. To use the words which “Aristides” Van Ness was soon to utter with striking effect, the United States ministers to France “practised with unlimited success upon the Livingston maxim,—
‘Rem facias, rem
Si possis recte; si non, quocunque modo, REM.’”
CHAPTER IV.
In the excitement of this rapid and half-understood foreign drama, domestic affairs seemed tame to the American people, who were busied only with the routine of daily life. They had set their democratic house in order. So short and easy was the task, that the work of a single year finished it. When the President was about to meet Congress for the second time, he had no new measures to offer.[62] “The path we have to pursue is so quiet that we have nothing scarcely to propose to our legislature.” The session was too short for severe labor. A quorum was not made until the middle of December, 1802; the Seventh Congress expired March 4, 1803. Of these ten weeks, a large part was consumed in discussions of Morales’s proclamation and Bonaparte’s scheme of colonizing Louisiana.