The things we do!

By this cession we
hereafter shall hold within our own grasp, what we have heretofore enjoyed
only by the uncertain tenure of a treaty, which might be broken at the
pleasure of another, and (governed as we now are) with perfect impunity.
Provided therefore we have not purchased it too dear, there is all the
reason for exultation which the friends of the administration display, and
which all Americans may be allowed to feel." [Footnote: York Herald, July
6, 1803.]
I quote this to show how far from appreciating France's generosity the
easterners, and especially the anti-Jeffersonian Federalists in America,
were at that time. Other and less conscientious newspapers put the
prodigality of Jefferson's commissioners more graphically:
"Fifteen millions of dollars! they would exclaim. The sale of a wilderness
has not usually commanded a price so high. Ferdinand Gorges received but
twelve hundred and fifty pounds sterling for the Province of Maine.
William Penn gave for the wilderness that now bears his name but a trifle
over five thousand pounds.


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