o
navigation. The successful conclusion of the negotiations was hailed
with great rejoicing in Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Fleets of flat-boats loaded with tobacco, pork, flour, grain and
whiskey began to move down the river. In 1799, more than a million
dollars worth of goods were received at New Orleans from the country up
the Mississippi. In October, 1802, the Spanish Intendant at New
Orleans, acting on his own responsibility, suddenly withdrew the "right
of deposit" at the city, and contrary to the provisions of the treaty,
he refused to assign an equivalent establishment at any other place on
the banks of the river. The western people were wild with rage. It was
necessary to send troops to Kentucky to prevent an armed expedition
against the Spanish province. Fortunately, the Spanish government
disavowed the action of the Intendant and in April, 1803, the river
trade was again restored. Desirous of avoiding such difficulties in the
future, Jefferson pushed the negotiations already begun with Napoleon,
to whom Spain had ceded her claims to Louisiana, for the purchase of
New Orleans and the territory through which the river flowed from the
possessions of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. The
negotiations ended in October, 1803, with a wholly unexpected
result--the purchase of the entire Louisiana province. In December, the
United States took possession of the newly acquired territory and the
undisputed control of the Mississippi was secured forever.

The opening of the Mississippi marked the beginning of an active
internal commerce within the United States. The farmers of the Ohio
Valley, which was now being rapidly settled, found an outlet for their
heavy agricultural produce, and consequently secured a purchasing
power, enabling them to buy manufactured goods and merchandise, which,
notwithstanding the distance and the inferior roads, could be carried
to them in wagons from the East. Though the produce of the western
farmers was shipped down the Mississippi, very few of their supplies
were brought up the river, because of the difficulty of urging a
flat-boat against the powerful current of the stream. This triangular
trade of the Ohio Valley grew rapidly. The receipts at New Orleans, in
1807, including the cotton, sugar and molasses of Louisiana, which made
up a third of the total, amounted to $5,370,555. The money for which
the products of the West were exchanged at New Orleans was almost
in