intelligible to the people of Louisiana, whatever that of
their government may be," The purchase of Louisiana was
announced to the Senate by President Jefferson, October 17,
1803.--Editor.

A publication having the appearance of a memorial and remonstrance, to
be presented to Congress at the ensuing session, has appeared in several
papers. It is therefore open to examination, and I offer you my remarks
upon it. The title and introductory paragraph are as follows:

"_To the Congress of the United States in the Senate and House of
Representatives convened_: We the subscribers, planters, merchants, and
other inhabitants of Louisiana, respectfully approach the legislature
of the United States with a memorial of _our rights_, a remonstrance
against certain laws which contravene them, and a petition for
that redress to which the laws of nature, sanctioned by positive
stipulations, have entitled us."

It often happens that when one party, or one that thinks itself a party,
talks much about its rights, it puts those of the other party upon
examining into their own, and such is the effect produced by your
memorial.

A single reading of that memorial will show it is the work of some
person who is not of your people. His acquaintance with the cause,
commencement, progress, and termination of the American revolution,
decides this point; and his making our merits in that revolution the
ground of your claims, as if our merits could become yours, show she
does not understand your situation.

We obtained our rights by calmly understanding principles, and by the
successful event of a long, obstinate, and expensive war. But it is
not incumbent on us to fight the battles of the world for the world's
profit. You are already participating, without any merit or expense in
obtaining it, the blessings of freedom acquired by ourselves; and in
proportion as you become initiated into the principles and practice of
the representative system of government, of which you have yet had no
experience, you will participate more, and finally be partakers of the
whole. You see what mischief ensued in France by the possession of power
before they understood principles. They earned liberty in words, but
not in fact. The writer of this was in France through the whole of
the revolution, and knows the truth of what he speaks; for after
endeavouring to give it principle, he had nearly fallen a victim to its
rage.

There is a great want of