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MONROE, James, President. Autograph letter signed ("Jas Monroe") to General John Mason, Georgetown, 12 February 1803. 1 full page, 4to, integral address leaf, docketed by recipient, paper evenly age-toned.
MONROE'S HURRIED DEPARTURE TO NEGOTIATE THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE: "YOU KNOW HOW SUDDEN MY APPOINTMENT WAS"
A letter penned in obvious haste, as Monroe makes last-minute preparations for his departure to France to take up the post of Envoy Extraordinaire, charged by Jefferson with the sensitive and important mission of concluding negotiations with the government of Napoleon for the purchase of New Orleans. The excited Monroe writes, "I intended to have seen you this evening and to have conferred on our private affairs in wch. I own with pleasure that I have rec[eive]d a strong proof of your friendship, but was delay'd in the city [Washington] 'til this moment and am now packing up to set out in the morning in the stage for New York. You know how sudden my appointment was, & with what haste I am departing in discharge of its duties." He asks if he may pay a debt he owes Mason from Europe, in installments, otherwise, "write me to New York if it your wish for me to make the payment here. I will inform you...what my arrangement will be..."
Monroe was living quietly in Richmond when Jefferson, concerned that America's resident minister in Paris, Robert Livingston, was incapable of pursuing the critical negotiations in Paris, wrote Monroe to request "a temporary sacrifice to prevent the greatest of all evils in the present prosperous tide of our affairs." Monroe could hardly do other than accept. The appointment as Envoy was speedily confirmed by Congress on January 11, and Jefferson wrote Monroe that "All eyes, all hopes, are now fixed on you..." After spending several weeks in Washington conferring with Jefferson and Secretary of State Madison, Monroe sailed from New York on 8 March. Ironically, the day before his arrival in Paris, the American negotiators were stunned to learn that the French Minister Barbe-Marbois, at Napoleon's request, proposed selling not just New Orleans but all France's possessions west of the Mississippi. By 30 April, with Monroe's guidance, the historic Treaty, doubling the size of the United States and insuring its westward destiny, was signed.
MONROE'S HURRIED DEPARTURE TO NEGOTIATE THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE: "YOU KNOW HOW SUDDEN MY APPOINTMENT WAS"
A letter penned in obvious haste, as Monroe makes last-minute preparations for his departure to France to take up the post of Envoy Extraordinaire, charged by Jefferson with the sensitive and important mission of concluding negotiations with the government of Napoleon for the purchase of New Orleans. The excited Monroe writes, "I intended to have seen you this evening and to have conferred on our private affairs in wch. I own with pleasure that I have rec[eive]d a strong proof of your friendship, but was delay'd in the city [Washington] 'til this moment and am now packing up to set out in the morning in the stage for New York. You know how sudden my appointment was, & with what haste I am departing in discharge of its duties." He asks if he may pay a debt he owes Mason from Europe, in installments, otherwise, "write me to New York if it your wish for me to make the payment here. I will inform you...what my arrangement will be..."
Monroe was living quietly in Richmond when Jefferson, concerned that America's resident minister in Paris, Robert Livingston, was incapable of pursuing the critical negotiations in Paris, wrote Monroe to request "a temporary sacrifice to prevent the greatest of all evils in the present prosperous tide of our affairs." Monroe could hardly do other than accept. The appointment as Envoy was speedily confirmed by Congress on January 11, and Jefferson wrote Monroe that "All eyes, all hopes, are now fixed on you..." After spending several weeks in Washington conferring with Jefferson and Secretary of State Madison, Monroe sailed from New York on 8 March. Ironically, the day before his arrival in Paris, the American negotiators were stunned to learn that the French Minister Barbe-Marbois, at Napoleon's request, proposed selling not just New Orleans but all France's possessions west of the Mississippi. By 30 April, with Monroe's guidance, the historic Treaty, doubling the size of the United States and insuring its westward destiny, was signed.