The Clerk accordingly went with the said message, and, being returned, Mr. Speaker adjourned the House until the first Monday in November next.
FOOTNOTES
[1] This paragraph is entitled to the careful consideration of all who aspire to a practical knowledge of the principles of our Government, and an intimate acquaintance with its early working. Louisiana had been ceded to the United States by the French Government: the treaty for the cession was now to be submitted for the ratification and the legislation which were necessary to carry it into effect: and the President sets out with showing that he had legislative authority for what he had done—that the sanction of Congress had been given to the acquisition beforehand—before the negotiation had been instituted. It was Congress—the legislative authority—which had given that previous sanction, held so vital by Mr. Jefferson: and, notwithstanding that previous sanction, the treaty, after ratification by the Senate, was to be submitted to the legislative power, for the exercise of their functions, as to those conditions which the constitution had vested in Congress. What these functions were, in the understanding of Mr. Jefferson’s political school, was to give, or refuse the appropriation according to the dictates of their own discretion, uncontrolled by the treaty stipulation.
[2] Boundaries of the Province of Louisiana, as contained in a paper communicated by Mr. Jefferson to Congress.
The precise boundaries of Louisiana, westward of the Mississippi, though very extensive, are at present involved in some obscurity. Data are equally wanting to assign with precision its northern extent. From the source of the Mississippi, it is bounded eastwardly, by the middle of the channel of that river, to the thirty-first degree of latitude; thence, it is asserted, upon very strong grounds, that, according to its limits, when formerly possessed by France, it stretches to the east as far, at least, as the river Perdido, which runs into the bay of Mexico, eastward of the river Mobile.
It may be consistent with the view of these notes to remark, that Louisiana, including the Mobile settlements, was discovered and peopled by the French, whose monarchs made several grants of its trade, in particular to Mr. Crozat, in 1712, and some years afterwards, with his acquiescence, to the well-known company projected by Mr. Law. This company was relinquished in the year 1731. By a secret convention, on the 3d November, 1762, the French Government ceded so much of the province as lies beyond the Mississippi, as well as the island of New Orleans, to Spain; and, by the treaty of peace which followed in 1763, the whole territory of France and Spain, eastward of the middle of the Mississippi, to the Iberville, thence, through the middle of that river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea, was ceded to Great Britain. Spain having conquered the Floridas from Great Britain, during our Revolutionary war, they were confirmed to her by the Treaty of Peace of 1784. By the Treaty of St. Ildefonso, of the 1st of October, 1800, His Catholic Majesty promises and engages on his part to cede back to the French Republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations therein contained, relative to the Duke of Parma, “the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it actually has in the hands of Spain, that it had when France possessed it, and such as it ought to be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other States.” This treaty was confirmed and enforced by that of Madrid, of the 21st of March, 1801. From France it passed to us by the Treaty of the 30th of April last, with a reference to the above clause as descriptive of the limits ceded.
[3] The bill thus passed was in these words:
“That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized to take possession of, and occupy the territories ceded by France to the United States, by the treaty concluded at Paris on the thirteenth day of April last, between the two nations, and that he may for that purpose, and in order to maintain in the said territories the authority of the United States, employ any part of the army or navy of the United States, and of the force authorized by an act passed the third day of March last, entitled “An act directing a detachment from the militia of the United States, and for erecting certain arsenals,” which he may deem necessary; and so much of the sum appropriated by the said act as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated for the purpose of carrying this act into effect; to be applied under the direction of the President of the United States.
“Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That until the expiration of the present session of Congress, unless provision for the temporary government of the said territories be sooner made by Congress, all the military, civil, and judicial powers exercised by the officers of the existing government of the same, shall be vested in such person and persons, and shall be exercised in such manner, as the President of the United States shall direct, for maintaining and protecting the inhabitants of Louisiana in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion.”