Page:Henry Adams' History of the United States Vol. 2.djvu/44

1803. summoning Marbois, he made a short oration of the kind for which he was so famous: —


 * "Irresolution and deliberation are no longer in season; I renounce Louisiana. It is not only New Orleans that I cede; it is the whole colony, without reserve.  I know the price of what I abandon.  I have proved the importance I attach to this province, since my first diplomatic act with Spain had the object of recovering it.  I renounce it with the greatest regret; to attempt obstinately to retain it would be folly.  I direct you to negotiate the affair.  Have an interview this very day with Mr. Livingston."

The order so peremptorily given was instantly carried out; but not by Marbois. Talleyrand, in an interview a few hours afterward, startled Livingston with the new offer.


 * "M. Talleyrand asked me this day, when pressing the subject, whether we wished to have the whole of Louisiana. I told him no; that our wishes extended only to New Orleans and the Floridas; that the policy of France, however, should dictate (as I had shown in an official note) to give us the country above the River Arkansas, in order to place a barrier between them and Canada.  He said that if they gave New Orleans the rest would be of little value, and that he would wish to know 'what we would give for the whole.'  I told him it was a subject I had not thought of, but that I supposed we should not object to twenty millions [francs], provided our citizens