sachusetts  Bay,  Rhode  Island  and  Provi-  Louisiana  Purchase. — Spain's  restric-
dence  Plantations,  Connecticut,  New  York,  tion  of  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  the  great  natural  commercial  artery  of
Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  the  American  continent,  was  a  great  an-
Carolina,  and  Georgia.  The  boundaries  noyance  to  the  settlers  on  the  western
of  many  of  these  States,  as  constituted  by  slopes  of  the  Alleghanies.  It  was  not  un-
their  charters,  extended  to  the  Pacific  til  Oct.  17,  1795,  and  after  many  attempts,
Ocean;  but  in  practice  they  ceased  at  the  that  Thomas  Pinckney  succeeded  in  nego-
Mississippi.  Beyond  that  river  the  tiating  a  treaty  of  friendship,  boundaries,
territory  belonged,  by  discovery  and  and  navigation.  On  Oct.  1,  1800,  by  the
settlement,  to  the  King  of  Spain,  treaty  of  St.  Ildefonso,  Spain  retroceded
All  the  territory  west  of  the  present  to  France  the  vast  province  of  Louisiana,
boundaries  of  the  States  was  ceded  by  Bonaparte's  design  to  revive,  in  New  Or-
them  to  the  United  States  in  the  order  leans,  the  former  colonial  glories  of  the
named:  Virginia,  1784;  Massachusetts,  French  monarchy  more  and  more  menaced
1785;  Connecticut,  1786  and  1800;  South  the  United  States;  navigation  was  again
Carolina,  1787;  North  Carolina,  1790;  closed;  and  in  Congress,  James  Ross,  Sen-
Georgia,  1802.  This  ceded  territory  com-  ator  from  Pennsylvania,  introduced  reso-
prised  part  of  Minnesota,  all  of  Wiscon-  lutions  authorizing  the  President  to  call
sin,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio  (see  out  50,000  militia  and  to  take  possession
Northwest    Territory),   Tennessee,    and  of   New   Orleans.     Instead   of   this,    Con-

15


ACQUISITION    OF    TERRITORY


gress  appropriated  $2,000,000  for  the  pur-
chase of  the  city,  and  sent  James  Monroe,
as  minister  extraordinary,  to  co-operate
with  Livingston,  minister  to  France,  in
the  proposed  purchase.  April  11,  1803,
Livingston,  who  had  already  begun  nego-
tiations for  the  purchase  of  New  Orleans,
was  suddenly  invited  by  Napoleon  to
make  an  offer  for  the  whole  of  Louisiana.
