letter[1] in regard to the appointment of a new French minister at Washington. Two names had been suggest,—La Forest and Otto. Neither of these was quite satisfactory; some man would be preferred whose sympathies should be so entire as to make reticences and restraints unnecessary. The idea that Jefferson could put himself in Bonaparte's hands without reticence or restraint belonged to old theories of opposition,—a few months dispelled it; and when he had been a year in office, he wrote again to Livingston, withdrawing the objection to La Forest and Otto. "When I wrote that letter," said he,[2] "I did not harbor a doubt that the disposition on that side the water was as cordial as I knew ours to be." He had discovered his mistake,—"the dispositions now understood to exist there impose of themselves limits to the openness of our communications."
"Even before Livingston sailed, the rumors of the retrocession of Louisiana had taken such definite shape[3] that, in June, 1801, Secretary Madison instructed the ministers at London, Paris, and Madrid on the subject. These instructions were remarkable for their mildness.[4] No protest was officially ordered against a scheme so hostile to the interests of the Union. On the contrary, Livingston was told, in September,
