316 The Winning of the West 



chasers not merely of New Orleans, but of all the 

 immense territory which stretched vaguely north- 

 westward to the Pacific. Jefferson at moments felt 

 a desire to get all this western territory ; but he was 

 too timid and too vacillating to insist strenuously 

 upon anything which he feared Napoleon would 

 not grant. Madison felt a strong disinclination to 

 see the national domain extended west of the Mis- 

 sissippi; and he so instructed Monroe and Living- 

 ston. In their turn the American envoys, with sol- 

 emn fatuity, believed it might impress Napoleon 

 favorably if they made much show of moderation, 

 and they spent no small part of their time in ex- 

 plaining that they only wished a little bit of Louis- 

 iana, including New Orleans and the east bank 

 of the lower Mississippi. Livingston indeed went 

 so far as to express a very positive disinclination 

 to take the territory west of the Mississippi at 

 any price, stating that he should much prefer to 

 see it remain in the hands of France or Spain, and 

 suggesting, by way of apology for its acquisition, 

 that it might be re-sold to some European power! 

 But Napoleon saw clearly that if the French ceded 

 New Orleans it was a simple physical impossibility 

 for them to hold the rest of the Louisiana territory. 

 If his fierce and irritable vanity had been touched 

 he might, through mere wayward anger, have dared 

 the Americans to a contest which, however disas- 

 trous to them, would ultimately have been more so 

 to him; but he was a great statesman and a still 

 greater soldier, and he did not need to be told that 



