Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/179

THOMAS JEFFERSON 143 overawe the Barbary pirates, who had been prey ing upon American commerce for twenty years; and Decatur and his heroic comrades executed their task with a gallantry and success which the Ameri can people have not forgotten. The purchase of Louisiana was a happy result of the president s tact and promptitude in availing himself of a golden chance. Bonaparte, in pursuit of his early policy of undoing the work of the seven-years war, had acquired the vast unknown territory west of the Mississippi, then vaguely called Louisiana. This policy he had avowed, and he was preparing an expedition to hold New Orleans and settle the adjacent country. At the same time, the people of Kentucky, who, through the obstinate folly of the Spanish governor, were practically denied access to the ocean, were inflamed with discontent. At this juncture, in the spring of 1803, hostilities were renewed between France and England, which compelled Bonaparte to abandon the expedition which was ready to sail, and he determined to raise money by selling Louisiana to the United States. At the happiest possible moment for a successful negotiation, Mr. Jefferson s special envoy, James Monroe, arrived in Paris, charged with full powers, and alive to the new and pressing importance of the transfer, and a few hours of friendly parley ing sufficed to secure to the United States this superb domain, one of the most valuable on the