4866. LOUISIANA, Treaty ratified.—[further continued].
It is not true that the Louisiana treaty was antedated, lest Great
Britain should consider our supplying her
enemies with money as a breach of neutrality.
After the very words of the treaty were finally
agreed to, it took some time, perhaps
some days, to make out all the copies in the
very splendid manner of Bonaparte's treaties.
Whether the 30th of April, 1803, the date expressed,
was the day of the actual compact,
or that on which it was signed, our memories
do not enable us to say. If the former, then
it is strictly conformable to the day of the
compact; if the latter, then it was postdated,
instead of being antedated. [316]
—
To W. A. Burwell. Washington ed. v, 20.
Ford ed., viii, 469.
(M.
Sep. 1806)
