Louisiana and Aaron Burr 31 1 



We can now readily see that this victory was 

 certain to come even had the Americans been left 

 without allies. France could never have defended 

 the vast region known as Upper Louisiana, and 

 sooner or later New Orleans itself would have fallen, 

 though it may well be only after humiliating defeats 

 for the Americans and much expenditure of life and 

 treasure. But as things actually were the Ameri- 

 cans would have had plenty of powerful allies. The 

 Peace of Amiens lasted but a couple of years before 

 England again went to war. Napoleon knew, and 

 the American statesmen knew, that the British in- 

 tended to attack New Orleans upon the outbreak 

 of hostilities, if it were in French hands. In such 

 event Louisiana would have soon fallen; for any 

 French force stationed there would have found its 

 reinforcements cut off by the English navy, and 

 would have dwindled away until unable to offer 

 resistance. 



Nevertheless, European wars, and the schemes 

 and fancies of European statesmen, could determine 

 merely the conditions under which the catastrophe 

 was to take place, but not the catastrophe itself. 

 The fate of Louisiana was already fixed. It was 

 not the diplomats who decided its destiny, but the 

 settlers of the Western States. The growth of the 

 teeming folk who had crossed the Alleghanies and' 

 were building- their rude, vigorous commonwealths 

 in the northeastern portion of the Mississippi basin, 

 decided the destiny of all the lands that were drained 

 by that mighty river. The steady westward move- 



