4827. LOUISIANA, French possession of.—[further continued] .
I believe * * * that
this measure will cost France, and perhaps
not very long hence, a war which will annihilate
her on the ocean, and place that element
under the despotism of two nations, which I
am not reconciled to the more because my
own would be one of them. Add to this the
exclusive appropriation of both continents of
America as a consequence. I wish the present
order of things to continue, and with a view
to this I value highly a state of friendship
between France and us. You know, too well
how sincere I have ever been in these dispositions
to doubt them. You know, too,
how much I value peace, and how unwillingly
I should see any event take place
which would render war a necessary resource;
and that all our movements should
change their character and object. I am thus
open with you, because I trust that you will
have it in your power to impress on that
government considerations, in the scale
against which the possession of Louisiana is
nothing. In Europe, nothing but Europe is
seen, or supposed to have any right in the
affairs of nations; but this little event, of
France's possessing herself of Louisiana,
which is thrown in as nothing, as a mere
make-weight in the general settlement of accounts,—this speck which now appears as an
almost invisible point in the horizon, is the
embryo of a tornado which will burst on the
countries on both sides of the Atlantic, and
involve in its effects their highest destinies.
That it may yet be avoided is my sincere
prayer; and if you can be the means of informing
the wisdom of Bonaparte of all its
consequences, you will have deserved well of
both countries. Peace and abstinence from
European interferences are our objects, and
so will continue while the present order of
things in America remains uninterrupted.—
To Dupont de Nemours. Washington ed. iv, 435.
(W.
April. 1802)
