R 



increasingly restive. Their representations to the federal 

 government demanding action against Spain became 

 more numerous. The chief officials in Washington, and 

 the president, too, were concerned over the situation. 

 They were well aware of the "Spanish Intrigue" and its 

 dangerous potentials. The best American diplomats were 

 assigned to the problem of converting Spanish policy to 

 a less arbitrary one in the treatment of Mississippi River 

 shippers. By the Treaty of San Lorenzo, October 1795, 

 Spain agreed to free navigation on the great river and, 

 equally important, to duty-free deposit at New Orleans 

 pending exportation. With the signing of the treaty the 

 Spanish clique in Kentucky abandoned whatever 

 schemes its members had had. 



Nearly three years of "maiiana" passed before the 

 New Orleans deposit was actually opened. Kentucky 

 tobacco farmers were ready, and thousands of hogs- 

 heads of leaf were freighted down the river. Then, to 

 everyone's astonishment except the Spanish, the deposit 

 was suddenly closed in October 1802. Napoleon may 

 have had something to do with that for, though few 

 knew it exactly, France had acquired the vast territory 

 of Louisiana by retrocession. 



eal estate bargain 



Planters and traders of Kentucky had been outraged 

 before by Spanish commercial and political behavior. 

 The latest demonstration infuriated them. They may not 

 have been entirely responsible for the step the federal 

 government took promptly upon news of the New Or- 

 leans closing. But the anger openly expressed by Ken- 

 tuckians and their neighbors did serve to accelerate a 

 governmental decision that had been ip the making. The 

 result was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the most im- 

 portant of all real estate transactions and an unbelievable 



36 



