United States minister plenipotentiary James Monroe meets Napoleon Bonaparte and wordsmithing of the Louisiana Purchase Convention continues. Secretary of State James Madison tells of imminent war between Britain and France.
James Monroe c. 1819
by Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791–1872)
Oil on canvas. White House copy of the 1819 painting by William Kloss, et al. Courtesy White House Historical Association, www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/james-monroe.
Monroe Meets Napoleon
Monroe’s journal records his first meeting with Napoleon Bonaparte:
May 1st. 1803 Sunday
I accompanied my colleague to the Palace of the Louvre, where I was presented by him [Napoleon] to the Consul.
. . . . .
At ½ after eight we met Mr. Marbois at his own house, in conformity to an appointment which we made with him at the Consuls, and entered on the subject of our proposed treaty.
. . . . .
He said he would see the Consul next morning, fix the points in question, & come prepared sometime in the course of that day to conclude & sign the treaty as of yesterday, being Saturday.[1]“Journal or Memoranda—Louisiana” in Stanislaus Murray Hamilton, ed. The Writings of James Monroe, Vol IV, 1803–1806 (New York: G. P. Putman’s Sons, 1900), 4:15–17; available … Continue reading
Madison’s News
Washington May 1. 1803
My Dear Sir [James Monroe]
We have just recd. the Message of his B. [British] Majesty which is represented as the signal of a certain rupture with France. From the positions taken by the parties, both diplomatic & military, such an event seems scarcely avoidable. I hope we shall be wise enough to shun their follies, and fortunate enough to turn them by honest means to our just interests. You will probably have arrived very critically for the purpose.
The attention here is much alive to the transfer of the [Louisiana] Country to France; and it becomes her, if she wishes to be on cordial terms with us, to proceed in every step with strict justice, and examplary frankness.
In this hurry I can only add for myself & family affectionate respects to you & yours.
James Madison[2]James Madison to James Monroe, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-04-02-0668 accessed 18 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Secretary … Continue reading
Notes
| ↑1 | “Journal or Memoranda—Louisiana” in Stanislaus Murray Hamilton, ed. The Writings of James Monroe, Vol IV, 1803–1806 (New York: G. P. Putman’s Sons, 1900), 4:15–17; available at archive.org/details/writingsjamesmo03monrgoog/. |
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| ↑2 | James Madison to James Monroe, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-04-02-0668 accessed 18 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series, vol. 4, 8 October 1802–15 May 1803, ed. Mary A. Hackett, J. C. A. Stagg, Jeanne Kerr Cross, Susan Holbrook Perdue, and Ellen J. Barber. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998, pp. 562–563.] |
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