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Show ) 272 TJH: MTSSOURJ QUER'riON. that the black, when in the condition of a slave, is happier than when free, as, in proporLion to the comfort and happiness of a11y kind of people, such will be the i ncr·cnse ; and the ncxi cen ns will show what has lJccn the iurrcase of both descriptions, free and slave, und will, I think, pro'i'e the truth of the. c opinions. In this discussion Lhe qnestiou as to the purcha e of Louisiana has been introduc 'd, and gives me an opportunity to state my opinion on the subject. So fn,r· as my kn owledge of the faels, prece(ling that purchn sc, enable me to form an opinion, I pronounce that :Mr .• Teffcr. on, in planni11g the purcha e, and the gentlemen who were employed in negotiating it, covered th 'msclvcs with glory. 'rhe facts tltnt preceded that purchns were th cf-i : In the yenr 17 6, Spain de. patched a Minister, nnm c<l Gardoqui, to this co untry, instructed to off ·r to form with us a treaty of commerce, which , he. said was nn au van tageous one, if we would, in tlte same treat.y, consent to give up tl1e navigation of that part of the ri vcr· Missi.·si ppi \\l1ich ran through the Spaui h dominion s.' 'fhis, sir, I asserted on this floor some dayR up:o, and. now repeat, that, on this treaty being, according to the thc'u routine of bu. inc. s, referred to :Mr. Jay, then Secretary for F or •irrn Affair, he did, to the bc.·t of my recollection , rcporl that it wonld, in his opinion, be expedient to adopt it; that seven, all of lhe Eastern and N orth crn States, did vote for it, l>nt that, owing to the Confederation requiring that nine States shonld be necessary to form a treaty, it was at length defeated. If any part of the public bn, incss in th is country, in which I have been engaged, ever gave me more pl en, ure than others, it was the agcnry I had, in associ ation with an honorable gentleman, now high in office, and in 'Va.·hington, in preventing it. I uelievc I may venture to say, that it was owing tons the whole of the vVcstcrn country now belongs to ns, and that. the Mi::;sissippi now flows through American THE MISSOURI QUR. ''J'TO:\". •; .... ~ L.. I •' lands, and that the American flng now wav •s nJonc 011 h<'r waters. r, therefore, hn.vc rrlwnys felL more thnn :t fraternal-! have felL, si r, a prrtermd love for this conn try. Nor, sir, is this the only important agency I have had in the affairs of this very valnn,blc part of our Union. H will he remembered that, in the year 1802, the lnienclanL of New Orleans issued a proclamation, shutting that port to the further reception and d posit of American produce, under the treaty of 1795, and that, on hi:-; doing so, a fcnnent was excited througl1out the Union, of the most o.larm in rr nnture. b ' that war was called for, both in the Senate and out of doors, which it was difficult for all the prncl enec and love of peace of the President to re press. Being, at that time, the Minister of the United States in Spain, I received instr·uctions from our govern mont to usc every exertion in my power, consistent with its dignity, to get the deposit restored, which I fortunately did, and this afl'air led to tho acquisition of both the river anJ whole country in the manncr you know. At the time I went to Burope, I was alone commissioned and an thorizcd to treat for, an cl purchase, all the part of Lonisiana, in clncling New Orlcau., to the cast of the Mi ~sissippi and the Plorida. ; but, on arriving in Europe, I found Loui. iana had bern previously secretly soiJ. to Bonaparte, of which I in formed Mr. JeG'crson, and he took the measures \vhich acco mpli shed the pnrposc. In pnrsuing the nrgn men Ls of some gentlemen on this Ruhject, I have omitted to notice one of theit· arguments springing from thnt prrrt of the third section of the fou rth article, which snys, "the Congress Hhall hn.vc the power to make all needful rules and regulations rcspectiug the territory, or other property belonging to the United States," because this article certainly refers rnly to the territorial state, to which I have already referred, and in which, I do not hesitate to aver, that, in making such regulations for the government of the terri ~ory, they are no more author- IS |