against France for depredations by French privateers, which amounted to 20,000,000 francs ($4,000,000).  This offer Livingston declined, and Marbois asked him to name a price.  Livingston, after a polite and politic disavowal of any anxiety to seek a larger expansion of territory, cautiously remarked, “We would be ready to purchase, provided the sum was reduced to reasonable limits,” but refused to make an offer, postponing the matter until the arrival of Monroe, who, he was informed by the United States Government, had been appointed minister with special powers to negotiate this purchase of New Orleans.

Talleyrand told Livingston that if they gave New Orleans, the rest would be of little value, and Marbois dropped his price to 80,000,000 francs ($16,000,000) and the claims, and later said if we would name 60,000,000 francs and take upon us the American claims to the amount of 20,000,000 more, he would submit the offer to Bonaparte.  Our minister declared that sum was greatly beyond our means, and wished Bonaparte reminded that the whole region was liable to become the property of England.  The minister of the public treasury admitted the weight of this possibility, but said:  “Try if you can not come up to my mark.  Consider the extent of the country, the exclusive navigation of the river, and the importance of having no neighbors to disrupt you, no war to dread.”

The American minister was not long in deciding to accept Napoleon’s proposition to acquire the whole territory, but still waited to conclude negotiations until the arrival in Paris of Monroe.

The great treaty was, in its essential elements, the work of three days.  On April 11 Talleyrand asked Livingston “whether he wished to have the whole of Louisiana?” On April 12 Monroe arrived, but was too ill to attend a conference.  Livingston again saw Talleyrand, and on April 13 two conferences took place between Marbois and Livingston, lasting several hours and ending at midnight, in which both negotiators agreed upon a treaty of transfer and acquisition, leaving open the amount to be paid.  Upon this point they did not widely differ.  Livingston’s memorable midnight dispatch, dated Paris, April 13, 1803, and finished at 3 o’clock in the morning, gives the authentic official history of the Louisiana purchase treaty.  The Livingston letters tell that the decision to sell Louisiana was reached on Sunday, April 10, after Napoleon had had a prolonged conference with Talleyrand, Marbois, and others.  The idea of selling originated in the active brain of Napoleon.  It was opposed by Talleyrand, Berthier, and others, but Napoleon contemplated war with England, and needed funds.  The Louisiana Purchase tract was so far away and would require so much money and so many men to protect it, that, in his estimation, it was probably better to dispose of it at a good price rather than hold, and he feared, in the event of war, which was imminent, he would lose the colony of Louisiana within