er to acquire territory for the United
States and the power to extend by treaty the territory of the United
States, and held that the first was unconstitutional. Mr. Gallatin held
that the United States as a nation have an inherent right to acquire
territory, and that, when acquisition is by treaty, the same constituted
authorities in whom the treaty power is vested have a constitutional
right to sanction the acquisition, and that when the territory has been
acquired Congress has the power either of admitting into the Union as a
new State or of annexing to a State, with the consent of that State, or
of making regulations for the government of the territory. Mr. Jefferson
concurred in this opinion, while at the same time he thought it safer
not to permit the enlargement of the Union except by amendment of the
Constitution. Mr. Gallatin's view was practically applied in the cases
named, and later in the annexation of Texas, although he disapproved of
the latter as contrary to good faith and the law of nations. He advised
Jefferson, also, not to lay the treaty by which Louisiana was acquired
before the House until after its ratification by the Senate, taking the
ground that until then it was not a treaty, and urging that great care
should be taken to do nothing which might be represented as containing
any idea of encroachment on the rights of the Senate. He personally
interested himself in the arrangements for taking possession of New
Orleans, and, considering the expense as trifling compared with the
object, urged the dispatch of an imposing force of not less than fifteen
thousand men, which would add to the opinion entertained abroad of our
power, resources, and energy; five thousand of these to be active
troops; ten thousand an enrolled reserve. The acquisition of Louisiana
was the grand popular feature of the foreign policy of the first term of
Jefferson's administration. The internal management left much to be
desired.

While his general views were exalted, and his principles would stand the
nicest examination in their application, Mr. Jefferson was not fortunate
in his choice of methods or men. It is not enough for an administration
to be pure; it should be above suspicion. This his was not. Time has not
washed out the stain of his intimacy with William Duane, the editor of
the infamous "Aurora." Citizen Duane, as he styled himself in the first
days of the administration, quarreled with Gallatin because he would not