A Wilderness So Immense

by Jon Kukla

  Claiborne and the twelve thousand Americans who flooded into Louisiana in the decade after 1803 almost overwhelmed New Orleans’s baffling patterns of race, language, law, and culture. Jefferson and his countrymen had always assumed that the Creoles would be displaced, assimilated, or marginalized by English-speaking settlers—and they might have been, except for the aftermath of the Haitian and French Revolutions. Between May 1809 and January 1810, New Orleans welcomed ten thousand French-speaking refugees from St. Domingue by way of Cuba—equal numbers of whites, slaves, and free people of color whose arrival made the city even more Caribbean, reinforcing everything that Claiborne and his countrymen found exotic and dangerous about New Orleans for decades to come.11

  Controversies over race, religion, law, language, and culture not only delayed Louisiana’s statehood until 1812, they worked like the rumblings of an earthquake along the vulnerable fault lines of nineteenth-century American society and government. By 1818–1819, when treaties among the United States, Spain, and Great Britain gave America the rest of Florida and drew the final boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase, the second half of our national history was well under way. The land north of the thirty-third parallel was now called the Missouri Territory, to avoid confusion with the State of Louisiana south of it.

  As Americans brought their internal improvements and their slaves to New Orleans and the new territory, the nation’s long-deferred debate over slavery grew increasingly angry. The consequences of the Louisiana Purchase scoured at the mortar of the Constitution, as the New Engenders’ arguments for state rights and secession—arguments that surfaced during the Jay-Gardoqui negotiations of 1786, after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803–1804, and again during the War of 1812—went south.

  In 1820, when the Missouri crisis erupted over the creation of another slave state from the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, a grand compromise was necessary to preserve the union: henceforth the new states were admitted in pairs, one slave and one free, to keep a balance of power in the Senate. This Missouri Compromise worked until the 1850s, but the Missouri Question (as the “Louisiana Question” had come to be known, to avoid confusion) haunted the conscience of America until the cannon roared at Fort Sumter—and long beyond.

  Americans today live their lives in the wake of the Louisiana Purchase. It reshaped our hemisphere so completely that we cannot easily imagine anything different. It spurred exploration and expansion. It lured the republic toward the temptations of empire. Lewis and Clark tracked the northern reaches of the vast territory in 1804–1806 and staked a claim to the Pacific Northwest. Zebulon Pike and others headed south and west. The landscape inspired artists from George Caleb Bingham and George Catlin to Thomas Hart Benton, Ansel Adams, and Georgia O’Keeffe. A nation that once may have been resigned to sharing the Mississippi with a foreign neighbor now embraced the Pacific Coast as its “Manifest Destiny.” But DeVoto knew all this in 1953 when he said the event was “still too momentous to be understood.” He knew the Louisiana Purchase brought geographic expansion, discovery and exploration, and sectional and constitutional conflicts that led to the Civil War. And he sensed that something was missing.

  As we mark the two hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, our vantage point suggests that David Ramsay and Bernard DeVoto were too close to their subject—too close in time—to comprehend its momentous implications. Even as recently as 1953, one hundred fifty years after the event, some of the long-term consequences of the Louisiana Purchase were not yet apparent. Today, as its two hundredth anniversary converges upon the four hundredth anniversaries of Jamestown Island and Plymouth Rock, our perspective may be clearer simply because we and our children have lived longer with the results of the Louisiana Purchase.

  How different the United States was for our parents and grandparents in 1953: Eight of ten Americans then lived on a farm or in a small town; today eight of ten live in urban areas. The Korean War was ending. French soldiers were losing a war in Vietnam. Joseph Stalin was in the final year of his life, and Joseph McCarthy in the final year of his credibility. Fidel Castro was an obscure prisoner in a Cuban jail. Neither the Berlin Wall nor the Watergate Hotel had been built. Color television was experimental, and only 29 percent of American women worked outside the home, compared with 57 percent today. Spanish was a foreign language. Segregation was the law in the American south and widely practiced throughout the country. Brown v. Topeka was in the lower courts. The Salk vaccine was in field tests, and the Pill was just a dream. Today, in short, we have a vantage point denied to David Ramsay in 1804 and Bernard DeVoto in 1953.

  In the two centuries of Anglo-American colonial history from Jamestown to the Louisiana Purchase, American public life had become the domain of Protestant, agrarian, English-speaking men. Whites were free, blacks were slaves, and Native Americans did not count. Starting at New Orleans in 1803, five million Americans along the Atlantic Seaboard accelerated an encounter with diversity that has been sustained by geographic expansion and immigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Ramsay and DeVoto could not yet see it, but the Louisiana Purchase was a turning point at America’s halfway mark toward an inclusive national history. Looking back from the year 2003, Americans should marvel at who we have become—the very antithesis of John Winthrop’s Boston, Timothy Pickering’s Salem, James Monroe’s Virginia, or Thomas Jefferson’s yeoman republic. We may wonder what the next two centuries have in store.

  Travelers who actually visited New Orleans two centuries ago probably came closest to seeing the human significance of the Louisiana Purchase that eluded David Ramsay and Bernard DeVoto. The Jeffersonian polymath Benjamin Henry Latrobe, for example, arriving in 1819 to complete the construction of waterworks for the city of New Orleans, encountered “a more incessant, loud, rapid, and various gabble of tongues … than was ever heard at Babel.” He found the three-caste society of New Orleans “wholly new even to one who has traveled much in Europe and America”12—a bustling urban place filled with Catholics, Creoles, French, Spanish, Africans, Native Americans, West Indians, and Anglo-Americans. With Irish, Germans, and countless others soon to arrive. At the Cabildo in New Orleans on December 20, 1803, the United States began a long encounter with diversity that has forced us, and that should inspire us, to think and to live far differently than the Founders expected.

  Although Ramsay and DeVoto did not have the imagination to envisage it, we live at a moment when census officials report that Spanish-speaking Americans have become the nation’s largest minority group. Is it not time for Americans to look beyond the colonial East Coast dichotomy of black and white? Without forgetting that the Louisiana territory witnessed ugly and vicious moments of racial discord and bloodshed, we want to hope that perhaps—standing at the beginning of a millennium and on the eve of a bicentennial—perhaps we can learn a lesson from the good people of that “Gallo-Hispano-Indian omnium gatherum of savages and adventurers” who lived in the “unmeasured world beyond that river” and scared the dickens out of Fisher Ames.

  If a candid reconsideration of the Louisiana Purchase helps us see diversity rather than dichotomy in the history we share with one another and with the world, perhaps we Americans can begin to look back at the Louisiana Purchase as a tributary in a long and slow and often tragic story of eventual inclusion. And perhaps the most fascinating part of the story of the Louisiana Purchase—the destiny of America—remains farther downstream.

  — APPENDIX A —

  Treaty of 1795 Between the

  United States and Spain

  His Catholic Majesty and the United States of America desiring to consolidate on a permanent basis the Friendship and good correspondence which happily prevails between the two Parties, have determined to establish by a convention several points, the settlement whereof will be productive of general advantage and reciprocal utility to both Nations.

  With this intention His Catholic Majesty has appointed the most excellent Lord Don Manuel de Godoy and Alvarez de
Faria, Rios, Sanchez Zarzosa, Prince de la Paz Duke de la Alcudia Lord of the Soto de Roma and of the State of Albalá: Grandee of Spain of the first class: perpetual Regidor of the Citty of Santiago: Knight of the illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece, and Great Cross of the Royal and distinguished Spanish order of Charles the III. Commander of Valencia del Ventoso, Rivera, and Aceuchal in that of Santiago: Knight and Great Cross of the religious order of St. John: Counsellor of State: First Secretary of State and Despacho: Secretary to the Queen: Superintendant General of the Posts and High Ways: Protector of the Royal Academy of the Noble Arts, and of the Royal Societies of natural history, Botany, Chemistry, and Astronomy: Gentleman of the King’s Chamber in employment: Captain General of his Armies: Inspector and Major of the Royal Corps of Body Guards etc. etc. etc. and the President of the United States with the advice and consent of their Senate, has appointed Thomas Pinckney a Citizen of the United States, and their Envoy Extraordinary to his Catholic Majesty. And the said Plenipotentiaries have agreed upon and concluded the following Articles.

  ARTICLE I

  There shall be a firm and inviolable Peace and sincere Friendship between His Catholic Majesty his successors and subjects, and the United States and their Citizens without exception of persons or places.

  ARTICLE II

  To prevent all disputes on the subject of the boundaries which separate the territories of the two High contracting Parties, it is hereby declared and agreed as follows: to wit: The Southern boundary of the United States which divides their territory from the Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida, shall be designated by a line beginning on the River Mississippi at the Northernmost part of the thirty first degree of latitude North of the Equator, which from thence shall be drawn due East to the middle of the River Apalachicola or Catahouche, thence along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint, thence straight to the head of St. Mary’s River, and thence down the middle there of to the Atlantic Ocean. And it is agreed that if there should be any troops, Garrisons or settlements of either Party in the territory of the other according to the above mentioned boundaries, they shall be withdrawn from the said territory within the term of six months after the ratification of this treaty or sooner if it be possible and that they shall be permitted to take with them all the goods and effects which they possess.

  ARTICLE III

  In order to carry the preceding Article into effect one Commissioner and one Surveyor shall be appointed by each of the contracting Parties who shall meet at the Natchez on the left side of the River Mississippi before the expiration of six months from the ratification of this convention, and they shall proceed to run and mark this boundary according to the stipulations of the said Article.1 They shall make Plats and keep journals of their proceedings which shall be considered as part of this convention, and shall have the same force as if they were inserted therein. And if on any account it should be found necessary that the said Commissioners and Surveyors should be accompanied by Guards, they shall be furnished in equal proportions by the Commanding Officer of his Majesty’s troops in the two Floridas, and the Commanding Officer of the troops of the United States in their Southwestern territory, who shall act by common consent and amicably, as well with respect to this point as to the furnishing of provisions and instruments and making every other arrangement which may be necessary or useful for the execution of this article.

  ARTICLE IV

  It is likewise agreed that the Western boundary of the United States which separates them from the Spanish Colony of Louissiana, is in the middle of the channel or bed of the River Mississippi from the Northern boundary of the said States to the completion of the thirty first degree of latitude North of the Equator; and his Catholic Majesty has likewise agreed that the navigation of the said River in its whole breadth from its source to the Ocean shall be free only to his Subjects, and the Citizens of the United States, unless he should extend this privilege to the Subjects of other Powers by special convention.

  ARTICLE V

  The two High contracting Parties shall by all the means in their power maintain peace and harmony among the several Indian Nations who inhabit the country adjacent to the lines and Rivers which by the preceding Articles form the boundaries of the two Floridas; and the beter to obtain this effect both Parties oblige themselves expressly to restrain by force all hostilities on the part of the Indian Nations living within their boundaries: so that Spain will not suffer her Indians to attack the Citizens of the United States, nor the Indians inhabiting their territory; nor will the United States permit these last mentioned Indians to commence hostilities against the Subjects of his Catholic Majesty or his Indians in any manner whatever.

  And whereas several treaties of Friendship exist between the two contracting Parties and the said Nations of Indians, it is hereby agreed that in future no treaty of alliance or other whatever (except treaties of Peace) shall be made by either Party with the Indians living within the boundary of the other; but both Parties will endeavour to make the advantages of the Indian trade common and mutualy beneficial to their respective Subjects and Citizens observing in all things the most complete reciprocity: so that both Parties may obtain the advantages arising from a good understanding with the said Nations, without being subject to the expence which they have hitherto occasioned.

  ARTICLE VI

  Each Party shall endeavour by all means in their power to protect and defend all Vessels and other effects belonging to the Citizens or Subjects of the other, which shall be within the extent of their jurisdiction by sea or by land, and shall use all their efforts to recover and cause to be restored to the right owners their Vessels and effects which may have been taken from them within the extent of their said jurisdiction whether they are at war or not with the Power whose Subjects have taken possession of the said effects.

  ARTICLE VII

  And it is agreed that the Subjects or Citizens of each of the contracting Parties, their Vessels, or effects shall not be liable to any embargo or detention on the part of the other for any military expedition or other public or private purpose whatever; and in all cases of seizure, detention, or arrest for debts contracted or offences committed by any Citizen or Subject of the one Party within the jurisdiction of the other, the same shall be made and prosecuted by order and authority of law only, and according to the regular course of proceedings usual in such cases. The Citizens and Subjects of both Parties shall be allowed to employ such Advocates, Sollicitors, Notaries, Agents, and Factors, as they may judje proper in all their affairs and in all their trials at law in which they may be concerned before the tribunals of the other Party, and such Agents shall have free access to be present at the proceedings in such causes, and at the taking of all examinations and evidence which may be exhibited in the said trials.

  ARTICLE VIII

  In case the Subjects and inhabitants of either Party with their shipping whether public and of war or private and of merchants be forced through stress of weather, pursuit of Pirates, or Enemis, or any other urgent necessity for seeking of shelter and harbor to retreat and enter into any of the Rivers, Bays, Roads, or Ports belonging to the other Party, they shall be received and treated with all humanity, and enjoy all favor, protection and help, and they shall be permitted to refresh and provide themselves at reasonable rates with victuals and all things needful for the sustenance of their persons or reparation of their Ships, and prosecution of their voyage; and they shall no ways be hindered from returning out of the said Ports, or Roads, but may remove and depart when and whither they please without any let or hindrance.

  ARTICLE IX

  All Ships and merchandize of what nature soever which shall be rescued out of the hands of any Pirates or Robbers on the high seas shall be brought into some Port of either State and shall be delivered to the custody of the Officers of that Port in order to be taken care of and restored entire to the true proprietor as soon as due and sufficient proof shall be made concerning the property there of.

 
; ARTICLE X

  When any Vessel of either Party shall be wrecked, foundered, or otherwise damaged on the coasts or within the dominion of the other, their respective Subjects or Citizens shall receive as well for themselves as for their Vessels and effects the same assistence which would be due to the inhabitants of the Country where the damage happens, and shall pay the same charges and dues only as the said inhabitants would be subject to pay in a like case: and if the operations of repair should require that the whole or any part of the cargo be unladen they shall pay no duties, charges, or fees on the part which they shall relade and carry away.

  ARTICLE XI

  The Citizens and Subjects of each Party shall have power to dispose of their personal goods within the jurisdiction of the other by testament, donation, or otherwise; and their representatives being Subjects or Citizens of the other Party shall succeed to their said personal goods, whether by testament or ab intestato and they may take possession thereof either by themselves or others acting for them, and dispose of the same at their will paying such dues only as the inhabitants of the Country wherein the said goods are shall be subject to pay in like cases, and in case of the absence of the representatives, such care shall be taken of the said goods as would be taken of the goods of a native in like case, until the lawful owner may take measures for receiving them. And if question shall arise among several claimants to which of them the said goods belong the same shall be decided finally by the laws and Judges of the Land wherein said goods are. And where on the death of any person holding real estate within the territories of the one Party, such real estate would by the laws of the Land descend on a Citizen or Subject of the other were he not disqualified by being an alien, such subject shall be allowed a reasonable time to sell the same and to withdraw the proceeds without molestation, and exempt from all rights of detraction on the part of the Government of the respective states.