Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Part 62

A resolution was offered in Congress authorizing the President to call out 50,000 militia and take possession of New Orleans, but the United States sought security, and a subst.i.tute resolution was adopted appropriating $2,000,000 for the purchase of the Floridas and New Orleans, the Floridas being at first the entire cession contemplated, even without the island of New Orleans. The chancellor, Robert R.

Livingston, had been appointed as our minister to France at a time when the affairs of that country were in a somewhat precarious condition.

Napoleon, then only 34 years old, was dictator, surrounded by enemies.

President Jefferson wrote Livingston to make the best terms he could with Napoleon, either for the mouth of the river, site for a city, or place for deposit. He at no time spoke of acquiring the whole tract.

Livingston, with great tact and judgment, kept the matter before Napoleon, realizing not only the importance of the small tract originally involved, but the incalculable advantage that would be derived by the United States could the accession of the whole territory be accomplished. He was, therefore, greatly surprised by a question from Talleyrand, in which he was asked "What we would give for the whole tract?" This was followed by a proposition from Napoleon's representative, Marbois, the state treasurer, in which he offered to sell all the Louisiana Territory to the United States for 100,000,000 francs ($20,000,000), with a provision that the United States should pay the claims of American citizens against France for depredations by French privateers, which amounted to 20,000,000 francs ($4,000,000).

This offer Livingston declined, and Marbois asked him to name a price.

Livingston, after a polite and politic disavowal of any anxiety to seek a larger expansion of territory, cautiously remarked, "We would be ready to purchase, provided the sum was reduced to reasonable limits," but refused to make an offer, postponing the matter until the arrival of Monroe, who, he was informed by the United States Government, had been appointed minister with special powers to negotiate this purchase of New Orleans.

Talleyrand told Livingston that if they gave New Orleans, the rest would be of little value, and Marbois dropped his price to 80,000,000 francs ($16,000,000) and the claims, and later said if we would name 60,000,000 francs and take upon us the American claims to the amount of 20,000,000 more, he would submit the offer to Bonaparte. Our minister declared that sum was greatly beyond our means, and wished Bonaparte reminded that the whole region was liable to become the property of England. The minister of the public treasury admitted the weight of this possibility, but said: "Try if you can not come up to my mark. Consider the extent of the country, the exclusive navigation of the river, and the importance of having no neighbors to disrupt you, no war to dread."

The American minister was not long in deciding to accept Napoleon's proposition to acquire the whole territory, but still waited to conclude negotiations until the arrival in Paris of Monroe.

The great treaty was, in its essential elements, the work of three days.

On April 11 Talleyrand asked Livingston "whether he wished to have the whole of Louisiana?" On April 12 Monroe arrived, but was too ill to attend a conference. Livingston again saw Talleyrand, and on April 13 two conferences took place between Marbois and Livingston, lasting several hours and ending at midnight, in which both negotiators agreed upon a treaty of transfer and acquisition, leaving open the amount to be paid. Upon this point they did not widely differ. Livingston's memorable midnight dispatch, dated Paris, April 13, 1803, and finished at 3 o'clock in the morning, gives the authentic official history of the Louisiana purchase treaty. The Livingston letters tell that the decision to sell Louisiana was reached on Sunday, April 10, after Napoleon had had a prolonged conference with Talleyrand, Marbois, and others. The idea of selling originated in the active brain of Napoleon. It was opposed by Talleyrand, Berthier, and others, but Napoleon contemplated war with England, and needed funds. The Louisiana Purchase tract was so far away and would require so much money and so many men to protect it, that, in his estimation, it was probably better to dispose of it at a good price rather than hold, and he feared, in the event of war, which was imminent, he would lose the colony of Louisiana within sixty days after he took possession. The treaty of Amiens was at an end; Austria was threatening; a British fleet was in the West Indies; he was disgusted at the disastrous campaign in Santo Domingo, angry with Spain, and desired to be free for new campaigns in Europe. The First Consul, impressed by our minister's social rank in his own country, no less than by his merciless logic and solid understanding, had given his promise that debts due for the spoliation of our commerce should be paid. This promise, of which he was again reminded, could only be kept by realizing on sale of public lands, as he had no other resource. Small wonder that he wished to be rid of the whole irritating subject of Louisiana.

Monroe, on his arrival in Paris, found that the negotiations for the purchase were already far advanced by Minister Livingston. Owing to the illness of the special envoy, he was not presented to the First Consul until May 1, and hence, as a negotiator, had nothing officially to do with the treaty, which was virtually negotiated April 13, and finally concluded April 30. On that day the treaty was signed in the presence of Napoleon by Marbois and the two American representatives, and when the negotiations were completed Napoleon made the following prophecy: "This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of the United States. I have given England a rival."

The agreement, in the form of a treaty, reached Was.h.i.+ngton July 14 for ratification. Congress was called in special session October 17; the treaty was confirmed by the Senate after two days of discussion; a resolution was pa.s.sed, to take effect immediately, but only after much opposition. Many persons were strongly opposed to the purchase, condemned the acquisition of a wilderness, and expressed their belief that the territory was not worth the price to be paid, and that its control would be difficult and unprofitable.

The exact cost ultimately agreed upon was 64,000,000 francs in the form of United States 6 per cent bonds, representing a capital of $11,250,000. In addition to this, the American Government agreed to a.s.sume and pay the obligations of France to American citizens for French attacks upon American s.h.i.+pping. These were estimated at 20,000,000 francs, or $3,750,000, making the total payment $15,000,000. The tract comprised 554,000,000 acres. Napoleon sold the territory for 2 cents an acre, or 10 acres for one franc. When the negotiations were pending, Marbois expressed to Napoleon the difficulty of reaching a definite conclusion as to boundary. When Talleyrand was questioned as to boundaries, he returned evasive answers, and said he did not know, and when pressed to be more explicit, said: "You must take it as we received it." "But what did you mean to take?" asked Livingston. "I do not know,"

replied Talleyrand. "Then you mean that we shall construe it our own way?" said Livingston again, to which Talleyrand made final reply: "I can give you no direction. You have made a n.o.ble bargain for yourselves, and I suppose you will make the most of it."

When we consider that Jefferson at one time was willing to give $2,000,000 for New Orleans alone, we can marvel that so vast an empire as the whole province should come to us for the price paid. We can afford to overlook any defects in the treaty details and forever hold in grat.i.tude the ill.u.s.trious men who, by their diplomatic skill, their earnestness of purpose, and well-directed efforts, achieved one of the greatest triumphs in the world's history. It well justified the a.s.sertion of Minister Livingston as he placed his name to the treaty of cession, and rising and shaking hands with Monroe and Marbois, said: "We have lived long; but this is the n.o.blest work of our lives."

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition was held to commemorate this most important event in the history of America--the purchase from France of the vast Louisiana Territory--an event second only in importance to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which const.i.tuted the first great advance of the United States toward national expansion, and at the same time insured to them the control forever of the greatest natural waterway on earth, the Mississippi River.

The Missouri Historical Society was the first organization to take formal steps toward the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the acquisition of this territory. In acknowledgment of the public sentiment expressed, Governor Stevens, of Missouri, called a convention of delegates to be appointed by the respective governors of the twelve States and two Territories that had been created in the Louisiana Purchase. Ninety-three delegates attended the meeting on January 10, 1899, and unanimously voted that an international exposition should be held in St. Louis as a means of giving expression, by practical demonstration, to the universal appreciation of what had been accomplished within this vast region during the century.

An executive committee was appointed, of which Hon. David R. Francis, of St. Louis, was made chairman. The aid of the United States Government was sought, and, after preliminary work on the part of the members of the committee in raising the $10,000,000, which Congress had made a condition should be secured before rendering material a.s.sistance, a bill was pa.s.sed March 3, 1901, appropriating $5,000,000 toward "celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase Territory by the United States by holding an international exhibition of arts, industries, manufactures, and the products of the soil, mine, forest, and sea in the city of St. Louis, in the State of Missouri."

This enormous tract of land that for a century had been steadily contributing to the material advancement of the world was now to show that it was ready and able to a.s.sume its full share not only in practical life and progress but in the deeper phases of science and art, and to demonstrate the nature of its resources by partic.i.p.ation in the greatest universal exposition ever held. By this exposition it was not only above all else to ill.u.s.trate the marvelous development of the territory whose acquisition it was meant to celebrate, but it was likewise "to provide for a comparative display of the products, natural and artificial, of the nations of the world, to be arranged in cla.s.sified groups, the exhibits of each nation in every cla.s.s to be set down by the side of those of all other nations, thereby better to insure comparison and an intelligent verdict as to merit by the direct and practical contrast thus secured." It was to demonstrate the feasible combination of the artistic with the useful, the beautiful with the enduring, the graceful with the strong.

The three most significant dates historically connected with the acquisition of the magnificent domain known as Louisiana are April 30, 1803, when the great treaty was signed; October 19, when the treaty was ratified in the Senate of the United States by a vote of 24 to 7; and December 20, of the same year, when our Government received formal possession at New Orleans from the French prefect, Laussat. The council chamber of the Cabildo (which building was so ably reproduced at the exposition) and the balcony adjacent were the scene of the formal retrocession of Louisiana from Spain to France, and also of the event so much more momentous to us--the ceremony in which France delivered Louisiana into the keeping of the United States.

On August 20, 1901, by a proclamation of the President, "in the name of the Government and of the people of the United States, all the nations of the earth" were invited "to take part in the commemoration of the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, an event of great interest to the United States and of abiding effect on their development, by appointing representatives and sending such exhibits to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition as would most fitly and fully ill.u.s.trate their resources, their industries, and their progress in civilization." This invitation was sent through the Department of State of the United States to the chief magistrates of all civilized governments, from nearly all of whom official acceptances were received in reply.

It has become a matter of history that ground was broken for the site of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition December 20, 1901, that day being the anniversary of the one on which the jurisdiction over the Louisiana Territory pa.s.sed from France to the United States in 1803. The dedication exercises were held on the afternoon of April, 30, 1903, and were designed to commemorate not only the one hundredth anniversary of the signing of the treaty by Livingston, Monroe, and Marbois, transferring the territory from France to the United States, but also to dedicate in a formal manner the grounds and palaces of the exposition then rapidly advancing toward completion, though not to be opened before the following spring.

The exercises were partic.i.p.ated in by representatives from nearly all civilized nations, and the presence on April 30, 1903, of the President of the United States, ex-President Cleveland, the Joint Committee of Congress, the amba.s.sadors and ministers of twenty-six foreign governments, the governors and representatives of more than forty States and Territories, conferred upon it the official indors.e.m.e.nt of the nations of the world, and added the weight and dignity which the sanction of governments alone could give.

When the treaty of cession was concluded in 1803 President Jefferson represented less than 6,000,000 people and there were but 50,000 white settlers in the Louisiana Territory. President Roosevelt in 1903 represented 80,000,000 people, the Purchase contained 15,000,000 inhabitants, and the 865,000 square miles which it comprised had been geographically divided into twelve States and two Territories. It was an area greater in extent and in natural resources than that of the original thirteen States, and const.i.tuted the largest real estate transfer ever known in the history of nations.

The price of $15,000,000 paid for it was considered exorbitant by those who were opposed to the purchase in 1803, yet the possibilities of the country, then so vague and ill-defined, so amply justified the prophetic faith of its advocates that a century later many millions of dollars in excess of the purchase money were spent in commemorating the transfer of a tract of land without which the present greatness of the United States would not have been possible. The present value of the agricultural products alone of the area for one year are a hundred times, and the taxable wealth more than four hundred times, the purchase money.

The board of lady managers was created pursuant to a clause in section 6 of the act of Congress of March 3, 1901, empowering the National Commission[A] of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition as follows:

[Footnote A: The creation of the National Commission of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was authorized by act of Congress, March 3, 1901, and the members were appointed by President McKinley. According to section 12 of an act approved June 28, 1902, the Commission will cease officially to exist on the first day of July, 1905, at which time, also, will expire the term of appointment of the members of the board of lady managers.]

And said Commission is hereby authorized to appoint a board of lady managers, of such number and to perform such duties as may be prescribed by said Commission, subject, however, to the approval of said company. Said board of lady managers may, in the discretion of said Commission and corporation, appoint one member of all committees authorized to award prizes for such exhibits as may have been produced in whole or in part by female labor.

The following is the complete list and order of appointment of the members of the board of lady managers made by the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission, acting under the authority conferred by the aforesaid section 6 of the act of Congress of March 3, 1901:

Name. Date By whom.

appointed.

Miss Helen M. Gould Oct. 16, 1901 Hon. P.D. Scott.

Mrs. John A. McCall Oct. 18, 1901 Hon. M.H. Glynn.

Mrs. John M. Holcombe do Hon. F.A. Betts.

Miss Anna L. Dawes do Do.

Mrs. William E. Andrews do Hon. J.M. Thurston.

Mrs. Helen Boyce-Hunsicker do Do.

Mrs. James L. Blair do Hon. John M. Allen.

Mrs. Fannie L. Porter do Hon. P.D. Scott.

Mrs. Frederick M. Hanger do Do.

Mrs. Richard W. Knott Nov. 19, 1901 Hon. William Lindsay.

Mrs. Was.h.i.+ngton A. Roebling do Do.

Mrs. M.H. de Young do Hon. Thomas H. Carter.

Mrs. Belle L. Everest do Hon. John F. Miller.

Mrs. Marcus P. Daly Nov. 20, 1901 Hon. Thomas H. Carter.

Mrs. William H. Coleman Nov. 21, 1901 Hon. John F. Miller.

Mrs. Edward L. Buchwalter do Do.

Mrs. Lewis D. Frost do Hon. John M. Thurston.

Mrs. Finis P. Ernest Nov. 22, 1901 Hon. George W. McBride.

Mrs. James B. Montgomery Jan. 22, 1902 Do.

Mrs. John Miller Horton Sept. 30, 1902 Hon. M.H. Glynn.

Mrs. Daniel Manning Oct. 2, 1902 Do.

Mrs. Carl von Mayhoff do Do.

Mrs. James Edmund Sullivan do Hon. Thomas H. Carter.

Mrs. Annie McLean Moores Oct. 3, 1902 Hon. John M. Allen.

Miss Lavinia H. Egan Nov. 29, 1902 Do.

OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF LADY MANAGERS, LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION

Mrs. Daniel Manning, president, Albany, N.Y.; Mrs. Edward L. Buchwalter, first vice-president, Springfield, Ohio; Mrs. Finis P. Ernest, second vice-president, Denver, Colo.; Mrs. Helen Boice-Hunsicker, third vice-president, Hoboken, N.J.; Miss Anna L. Dawes, fourth vice-president, Pittsfield, Ma.s.s.; Mrs. Belle L. Everest, fifth vice-president, Atchison, Kans.; Mrs. M.H. de Young, sixth vice-president, San Francisco, Cal.; Mrs. Fannie L. Porter, seventh vice-president, Atlanta, Ga.; Mrs. William H. Coleman, treasurer, Indianapolis, Ind.; Miss Helen M. Gould, New York, N.Y.; Mrs. Richard W.

Knott, Louisville, Ky.; Mrs. John M. Holcombe, Hartford, Conn.; Mrs.

Frederick M. Hanger, Little Rock, Ark.; Mrs. James Edmund Sullivan, Providence, R.I.; Mrs. Margaret P. Daly, Anaconda, Mont.; Mrs. Mary Phelps Montgomery, Portland, Oreg.; Mrs. Carl von Mayhoff, New York, N.Y.; Mrs. John Miller Horton, Buffalo, N.Y.; Mrs. Lewis D. Frost, Winona, Minn.; Mrs. W.E. Andrews, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.; Mrs. Annie McLean Moores, Mount Pleasant, Tex.; Miss Lavinia H. Egan, Shreveport, La. Miss Julia T.E. McBlair, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., hostess of the building of the board of lady managers.

_Standing committees_.--Executive: Mrs. Daniel Manning, chairman; Mrs.

Holcombe, Miss Egan, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. Coleman, Mrs. Buchwalter, Mrs. Moores, Miss Dawes, Mrs. Knott, Mrs. Hanger, Miss Gould.

Entertainment: Mrs. Daniel Manning, chairman; Mrs. Porter, Mrs. Everest, Mrs. Sullivan, Mrs. Ernest, Mrs. de Young, Mrs. Horton, Mrs. von Mayhoff, Mrs. Hunsicker. Foreign Relations: Miss Dawes, chairman; Mrs.

Knott, Miss Gould, Mrs. Holcombe, Mrs. von Mayhoff, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. Moores. Congresses: Mrs. Buchwalter, chairman; Mrs. Hanger, Mrs.

Andrews. Press: Mrs. Knott, chairman; Mrs. Hanger, Miss Egan, Mrs.

Moores. Woman's Work: Mrs. Montgomery, chairman; Mrs. Holcombe, Mrs.

Daly, Miss Gould, Mrs. Buchwalter, Miss Dawes, Mrs. de Young.

Legislative: Mrs. Buchwalter, chairman; Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. Coleman.

Awards: Mrs. Hanger, chairman; Mrs. Knott, Miss Egan, Mrs. Porter, Mrs.

Hunsicker. Auditing Committee: Mrs. Andrews, chairman; Mrs. Ernest, Mrs.

Montgomery.

_Special committees_.--Hall of Philanthropy: Miss Helen M. Gould, chairman. Creche: Miss Helen M. Gould, chairman; Mrs. Everest, Mrs.

Andrews, Mrs. Sullivan. House: Mrs. Ernest, chairman; resident members of board and members of rotating committee on duty. Model Playground: Mrs. Holcombe, chairman; Mrs. Hanger, Miss Gould. Editing Minutes: Mrs.