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Importance of the Mississippi to the Americans. The most important navigable river in the Louisiana territory was the Mississippi. Horses and cattle that the American settlers raised were annually driven east to Atlantic markets, but grain and other produce were put on barges, which floated down the Mississippi to ports that were visited by merchant ships of Spain and France. So important was the Mississippi river to the farmers along its banks that there arose a fear that the river would eventually be used by subjects of Spain only, and many American settlers threatened to sever their allegiance to their country. This feeling of insecurity among the Americans along the Mississippi River was intensified in 1600 when Napoleon, by a secret treaty, obtained Louisiana from Spain. The treaty was so very secret that Americans were naturally alarmed lest Napoleon's plan of a world empire might include the Mississippi Valley and thereby prove a menace to the United States. No one understood the situation better than did President Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson's Designs. To avert the danger of war and preserve the Union, President Jefferson designed two measures of far-reaching statesmanship. The first was a proposal to purchase from Napoleon the City of New Orleans and the adjacent land on the east bank of the Mississippi, known as West Florida. This would insure commercial freedom to the West and soothe the irritation of the settlers. Jefferson's second design was to dispatch an overland exploring expedition up the Missouri River to the Pacific. By this he hoped to accomplish several desirable objects, to-wit: to build up friendly trade with the Indians along the Missouri and westward to the mountains; to attract the fur trade of