Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/197

Rh The ocean having been now abandoned to Great Britain, Napoleon placed little value on the friendship of a nation without a navy, three thousand miles away, and deter mined on a policy of neutrality. Such a nation could be useful to him only in one way, and to a trifling extent. If America would buy Florida and pay for it in such a way that the money should come through his hands, he was willing to dictate a sale to Spain, and to intercept the purchase money. After abandoning the invasion of England, and just before Austerlitz, September 4, 1805, he signified his willingness to co-operate in the transfer of Florida, and suggested $7,000,000 as the price. The United States had heretofore demanded West Florida, without price, as part of Louisiana. This new proposition for its purchase must be referred to Congress. (Annals of Congress, 1805-1806, pp. 1226, 1227.)

After violent opposition, in which many of the President’s former friends participated, an act was passed for foreign negotiations, and the President sent instructions to General Armstrong, the minister at Paris, to offer $5,000,000. The instructions reached Paris in May, 1806, eight months after Napoleon s suggestion had been made. Such dilatory proceedings were not fitted to keep pace with Napoleon s rapid combinations. In the meantime, he had formed new plans. He seemed now to desire that affairs between the United States and Spain should remain unsettled. Nothing could be obtained from him except peremptory refusal to decide the matter. Mr. Alison, the English historian, suggests that he was even then planning to place his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain. It is more probable, however, that he had now conceived a plan for exercising over the ocean an indirect control, which he had failed to acquire by naval force. In this purpose he hoped to make use of the United States. The cession of Louisiana had not forced the United States from neutrality. Per-