From the book Madison to Charles Pinckney (1801) On different occasions, since the commencement of the French Revolution, opinions and reports have prevailed that some part of the Spanish possessions, including New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi, had been or was to be transferred to France. . . . Jealousies probably still remain, that the Atlantic States have a partiality for Great Britain, which may, in future, throw their weight into the scale of that rival. It is more than possible, also, under the influences of those jealousies, and of the alarms which have at times prevailed, of a projected operation for wresting the mouth of the Mississippi into the hands of Great Britain, she may have concluded a preoccupancy of it by herself to be a necessary safeguard against an event from which that nation would derive the double advantage of strengthening her hold on the United States, and of adding to her commerce a monopoly of the immense and fertile region communicating with the sea through a single outlet. . . . Jefferson to Livingston (1802) The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain to France, works most sorely on the United States. On this subject the Secretary of State has written to you fully, yet I cannot forbear recurring to it personally, so deep is the impression it makes on my mind. It completely reverses all the political relations of the United States, and will form a new epoch in our political course. . . . A Convention between the United States of America and the French Republic. Keywords: Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon, Livingston, Madison, Charles Pinckney, Mississippi, Atlantic States, Purchase of the Territory of Louisiana: State Papers and Correspondences bearing upon the purchase of Louisiana

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