Beschreibung:

MADISON, JAMES, President . Letter signed ("James Madison") as Secretary of State, TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, Minister Plenipotentiary to France, [Washington, D.C.], 31 January 1804. 18 pages, 4to, 265 x 205mm. (10 1/8 x 8 in.), PARTLY IN CODED CIPHER, light browning, three small punctures at left margin from previous binding, two of the five four-page gatherings cleanly separated at central fold, red cloth chemise, red quarter morocco gilt . MADISON REPORTS THE TRANSFER OF POWER IN LOUISIANA AND PLANS FOR THE GOVERNANCE OF "A PEOPLE WHOSE DESTINY [FRANCE] HAS COMMITTED TO THE JUSTICE, THE HONOR AND THE POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES" An exceptionally long and detailed diplomatic letter with key passages in secret numeric cipher (used by the Secretary of State since Jefferson's tenure for diplomatic communications of a highly sensitive nature). Shortly after the formal transfer of authority from France to the United States, which took place on 20 December 1803, Madison reports the event, which consummated the Louisiana Purchase, to the American Minister who opened negotiations with France in 1802. He describes details of the transfer so that Livingston can inform the French government and asks Livingston to search for documentation of the exact boundaries of the vast new territory: "...[I have given] you information of the transfer of Louisiana, on the 20th December, by the French Commissioner, M. Laussat, to Governor [William C.C.] Claiborne and General [James] Wilkinson, the Commissioners appointed on the part of the United States to receive it. The letters subsequent to that date from Governor Claiborne, who is charged with the present administration of the ceded territory, show that the occupancy by our troops of the military posts on the island of New Orleans, and on the western side of the Mississippi, was in progression; and that the state of things, in other respects, was such as was to be expected from the predisposition of the bulk of the inhabitants, and the manifest advantages to which they have become entitled as citizens of the United States. A bill providing for the government of the territory has been some time under the deliberation of the Senate, but has not yet passed to the other branch of the Legislature. The enclosed copy [not present] shows the form in which it was introduced...The precise form in which it will pass can not, therefore, be foreknown...It is pretty certain that the provisions generally contemplated will leave the people of that district, for a while, without the organization of power dictated by the Republican Theory; but it is evident that a sudden transition to a condition so much in contrast with that in which their ideas and habits have been formed, would be as unacceptable and as little beneficial to them as it would be difficult for the Government of the United States. It may fairly be expected that every blessing of liberty will be extended to them as fast as they should be prepared and disposed to receive it. In the meantime, the mild spirit in which the powers derived from the Government...will...be administered, the parental interest which it takes in the happiness of those adopted into the general family, and a scrupulous regard to the tenor and spirit of the Treaty of Cession, promise a continuance of that satisfaction among the people of Louisiana which has thus far shown itself. These observations are made, that you may be the better enabled to give to the French government, the explanations and assurances due to its solicitude in behalf of a people whose destiny it has committed to the justice, the honor and the policy of the United States... "...It does not appear that, in the delivery of the Province by the Spanish authorities to M. Laussat, anything passed denoting its limits, either to the east, the west, or the north; nor was any step taken by M. Laussat...calculated to dispossess Spain of any part of the territory east of the Mississippi [i.e. West Florida]. On the contr