The "American Domination," we venture to suggest, should have opened with at least a sketch or résumé of the state of facts immediately preceding the cession—the condition of trade between the Upper Mississippi and New Orleans, the order of Morales, (October, 1802) closing the river, the supposition throughout the West that the action of Morales was authorized by the French government, the excitement caused by it, etc. etc.
The Mississippi to be closed!
It would be difficult at this day to convey an idea of the consternation and indignant anger of the inhabitants of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys at the announcement. The country was in a blaze of excitement. Meetings were held, resolutions passed, and, what was more significant, rifles were repaired, powder purchased, and knives sharpened.
When Germany, a few years since, sang and shouted
"Sie sollen ihn nicht haben,
den freien Deutschen Rhein,"
war may or may not have been imminent; but when the hunters of Kentucky and the backwoodsmen of Ohio swore, as they picked their flint-locks, "They sha'n't have the Mississippi!" the oath meant business. In their eyes the free navigation of the Father of Waters is a part of every Western man's heritage, [Footnote 276] and when he clears a farm in the great valley, the right freely to carry his produce down to the mouth of the Mississippi is to him simply what the lawyers would call an easement, passing with the title to his acres.
[Footnote 276: "No power in the world shall deprive us of this right."—Petition to Congress.]
Prominent on Mr. Gayarré's pages stands out the figure of Claiborne, Governor of Louisiana from 1804 to 1816. We rise from the perusal of Mr. Gayarré's book with a higher estimate than ever of this distinguished man.
Calm, prudent, wise, temperate, and magnanimous, Claiborne is one of the most admirable characters in American history.