In Preparation For the Louisiana Purchase, President Jefferson Rushes to Establish a US Presence in New Orleans

As the United States expanded westward, navigation of the Mississippi River and access to the port of New Orleans became critical to American commerce, and by 1802 President Jefferson had visions of the U.S. acquiring it from Spain, which had taken it over from France in 1762. But in early 1802 came reports that Spain would retrocede to France the entire vast territory of Louisiana. Such a transfer of authority was cause for concern, and Jefferson’s idea of obtaining the port city was altered by the prospect of having the much more powerful France of Napoleon Bonaparte as a next-door neighbor, instead of the feeble Spain. In April 1802 Jefferson wrote U.S. Minister to France Robert Livingston: “Every eye in the U.S. is now fixed on this affair of Louisiana. Perhaps nothing since the revolutionary war has produced more uneasy sensations through the body of the nation.”

By the fall of 1802 it was clear in the U.S. that the Louisiana territory would indeed return to French rule, and in October Spain’s King Charles IV signed a decree transferring the territory to France. The Spanish agent in New Orleans, acting on orders from Europe, revoked Americans’ access to the port’s warehouses, and as word of that reached Washington, so did news that France was sending troops across the Atlantic. Many feared this was to fortify New Orleans and enforce a closure of that port to the Americans. While Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison worked to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels, factions in the West and the opposition Federalist Party called for war or advocated secession by the western territories if necessary to seize control of the lower Mississippi and New Orleans from France. Instead, in early 1803 Jefferson appointed James Monroe to join Livingston in France to see if that nation would consider selling New Orleans to the United States. This cautious and non-inflammatory decision by Jefferson may have been his wisest as President.

The reason is that Napoleon was losing interest in his failing ventures in the Western Hemisphere. The Haitian Rebellion by slaves and free blacks had seemed over in early 1802, but when it became apparent that the French intended to re-establish slavery there, blacks again revolted in the summer. The French army sent to suppress the revolt met with defeats and was decimated by yellow fever, and by late 1802 a new war with Britain seemed, correctly, just on the horizon. France’s minister of finance, Francois de Barbé-Marbois, counseled Napoleon that Louisiana would be worth less without Haiti and, in the event of war with Britain, the territory would likely be taken by the British sitting pretty in nearby Canada. France could not afford to send forces to occupy the Mississippi Valley, so why not abandon the idea of empire in America and sell the territory to the United States? Napoleon agreed.

Thomas Jefferson had known Benjamin Franklin’s grandson Wiliam Bache since the latter was a boy; and in fact Bache played a small role at the final meeting between Jefferson and Franklin. On his deathbed in 1790, Franklin received a visit from Jefferson, during which, Jefferson relates, “He directed his little grandson (William Bache) who was standing by the bedside, to hand him a paper from the table, to which he pointed. He did so; and the Doctor putting it into my hands, desired me to take it and read it at my leisure…I…said I would accept his permission to read it, and would carefully return it. He said ‘No, keep it.’ He would have no further need for it. After Franklin died, Jefferson befriended the young Baches, and watched after their interests when he could.

By 1797 Bache was a physician, and in that year he married Catherine Wistar, sister of the noted anatomist Caspar Wistar. This united two of Philadelphia’s most illustrious families. The following year yellow fever struck the city. In part because of fear of the epidemic, which killed William’s brother Benjamin, and also because of Jefferson’s urging, the couple decided in early 1799 to move from Philadelphia to Albemarle County, Virginia. In 1800, after a stay of several months at Monticello, they moved into their new house not far away. But Bache’s income proved inadequate to support the family and they were soon experiencing financial difficulties; so Bache sought a government appointment from President Jefferson. In 1802 he was named to care for sick American seamen in New Orleans. Meanwhile Catherine Wistar Bache and their children moved back to Philadelphia. They would be reunited in 1803 when William was appointed Surveyor of the Port of Philadelphia, a position he held until his death in 1820.

In 1798, Congress enacted a law “for the relief of sick and disabled seamen.” While this law doubtless had a humanitarian aspect, establishing favorable conditions for sailors (in a world where American international trade was virtually all maritime) it was primarily an instrument of American economic policy. This was initially articulated by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 11, when he envisioned “A nursery of seamen…will become a universal resource.” The hospitals established under the law not only functioned as a medical safety net for mariners, but were understood to serve as an incentive to recruitment into the merchant marine. In the words of U.S. Senator F. O. J. Smith, they would “induce a certain portion of its citizens” to become seamen despite “risks of health, and of life itself, far beyond what are incident to any other class of pursuits.” The marine hospitals would end up treating several thousand mariners per year, and in so doing helped to maintain a stable supply of healthy maritime workers. Thus the “nursery of seamen” created by this law and other encouragements indeed powered the United States’ economic expansion.

Jefferson was much concerned about the need to establish maritime hospitals, and in a Special Message to Congress on February 24, 1802, he showed that New Orleans specifically was very much on his mind. He stated: “I also inclose information respecting the situation of our seamen and boatmen frequenting the port of New Orleans and suffering there from sickness and the want of accommodation….When we consider how great a proportion of the territory of the United States must communicate with that port singly, and how rapidly that territory is increasing its population and productions, it may perhaps be thought reasonable to make hospital provisions there of a different order from those at foreign ports generally.” Two months later, Congress directed customs officials to support the lease of ward space in New Orleans. So in New Orleans the federal government created a marine hospital before the United States officially assumed control of the Louisiana Purchase. Dr. William Bache was named by President Jefferson to supervise the new hospital.

Autograph Letter Signed as President, Washington, October 11, 1802, to Bache, urging him to arrive at his new post before the pliant Spanish would be replaced by the incoming (and hard to predict) French. “I want to pay you the £10 for Polly Carr, making, with the balance due yourself $143.33. You will of course drop me a line as soon as you shall have fixed a day for your departure, and the money shall be lodged in Mr. Jefferson’s hands before you will be there. We wish you to be at your destination before the French take possession. If they have sent troops from France on that destination as is said in the newspapers, they will perhaps find employment in Santo Domingo [Haiti], which has risen again in general insurrection. Present my respectful salutations to Mrs. Bache and accept yourself assurances of my friendship and respect.” Polly Carr was Jefferson’s niece who was apparently using Bache’s services as a physician.  The Mr. Jefferson referred to was George Jefferson, the President’s cousin, who often handled matters for him.

On April 11, 1803, Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand told Ambassador Livingston that France was willing to sell all of Louisiana. The purchase would be consummated. And as for the New Orleans Marine Hospital, in its first year it treated over four hundred American sailors.  One of just a handful of letters of Jefferson from this period relating to Louisiana or New Orleans.