who landed his cargo on the levee at New Orleans, among the
motley throngs, province and city seemed like a foreign country, and the
inhabitants aliens in speech and habits. From the buildings, with their
many arcades and balconies and varied coloring, to the courts of law
where the Code Napoleon, introduced by Laussat, added confusion to the
Spanish law, the atmosphere of New Orleans was that of a city of the Old
World, where one civilization was superimposed upon an older. Men bred
in the traditions of the English law might reasonably doubt whether the
people of Louisiana were ready for self-government.

Before the new territorial government could be organized, a remonstrance
had been drawn up by the people of Louisiana and forwarded by three
commissioners with all possible dispatch to Washington. In the following
year (1805), Congress so far yielded to the complaints of the people of
Louisiana as to authorize an elective assembly and to hold out the
promise of eventual statehood.

But what were the bounds of Louisiana? No one knew with certitude. The
letters of Livingston and Monroe had convinced Jefferson that Louisiana
included at least West Florida, and for two years he sought by every
diplomatic device to wrest from Spain a confirmation of this shadowy
title. That Spain did not intend to cede West Florida and that France
had no expectation of receiving it seems clear enough from the
instructions to Laussat. What he handed over to the American
representative was Louisiana, with the Rio Bravo and the Iberville as
boundaries. With some show of right, Jefferson might have occupied
Texas; he preferred, however, to chase his phantom claim to Florida. For
Texas nobody then cared, but the Floridas were coveted by Southern
planters.

In a letter written soon after the signing of the Louisiana Treaty,
Robert Livingston relates a suggestive conversation which he had with
Talleyrand. "What are the eastern bounds of Louisiana?" asked Livingston
rather naively. "I do not know," replied Talleyrand; "you must take it
as we received it." "But what did you mean to take?" Livingston
insisted. "I do not know," was the reply. "Then you mean that we shall
construe it our own way?" "I can give you no direction," replied the
astute Frenchman. "You have made a noble bargain for yourselves, and I
suppose you will make the most of it."

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The history of the Barbary Wars is well told by G. W. Allen, _Our