296 The Winning of the West 



So it was with the acquisition of Louisiana. Jef- 

 ferson, Livingston, and their fellow-statesmen and 

 diplomats concluded the treaty which determined 

 the manner in which it came into our possession; 

 but they did not really have much to do with fixing 

 the terms even of this treaty; and the part which 

 they played in the acquisition of Louisiana in no 

 way resembles, even remotely, the part which was 

 played by Seward, for instance, in acquiring Alaska. 

 If it had not been for Seward and the political lead- 

 ers who thought as he did, Alaska might never have 

 been acquired at all ; but the Americans would have 

 won Louisiana in any event, even if the treaty of 

 Livingston and Monroe had not been signed. The 

 real history of the acquisition must tell of the great 

 westward movement begun in 1769, and not merely 

 of the feeble diplomacy of Jefferson's administra- 

 tion. In 1802 American settlers were already clus- 

 tered here and there on the eastern fringe of the 

 vast region which then went by the name of Louisi- 

 ana. All the stalwart freemen, who had made their 

 rude clearings and built their rude towns on the 

 hither side of the mighty Mississippi, were straining 

 with eager desire against the forces which withheld 

 them from seizing with strong hand the coveted 

 province. They did not themselves know, and far 

 less did the public men of the day realize, the full 

 import and meaning of the conquest upon which 

 they were about to enter. For the moment the navi- 

 gation of the mouth of the Mississippi seemed to 

 them of the first importance. Even the frontiers- 



