Book II
INTO THE WEST
I
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
"Spain, knowing she cannot hold Louisiana, has ceded it to France!" The winds of ocean bore the message to America.
"Napoleon? Is he to control us also?"
Never so vast a shadow overawed the world. Afar they had read of his battles, had dreaded his name. Instantly colossal Napoleon loomed across the prairies of the West.
Napoleon had fifty-four ships and fifty thousand troops, the flower of his army, sailing to re-establish slavery in Hayti. But a step and he would be at the Mississippi. He was sending Laussat, a French prefect, to take over New Orleans and wait for the army.
"Shall we submit? And is this to be the end of all our fought-for liberty, that Napoleon should rule America?"
The fear of France was now as great as had been the admiration.
Gaily the flatboats were floating down, laden with flour and bacon, hams and tobacco, seeking egress to Cuba and Atlantic seaports, when suddenly, in October, 1802, the Spanish Intendant at New Orleans closed the Mississippi. Crowding back, for twenty thousand miles inland, were the products of the Autumn.
The western country blazed; only by strenuous effort could Congress keep a backwoods army from marching on New Orleans. A powerful minority at Washington contended for instant seizure.
