Day-by-Day / July 3, 1803

July 3, 1803

News from France

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand letter, written in Paris announcing that the Louisiana Purchase Treaty has been officially signed, reaches Washington City. President Jefferson writes to Henri Peyroux, the former commandant of St. Genevieve, seeking his cooperation and help with the Western Expedition.

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838)

by Pierre-Paul Prud’hon (1817)

Portrait of Talleyrand wearing a dark suit of clothes

Public Domain courtesy The Met: Purchase, Mrs. Charles Wrightsman Gift, in memory of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, 1994.

Charles-Maurice Talleyrand was a skilled diplomat who survived three French monarchies, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Empire. Today, a talleyrand is used to describe a skilled politician or crafty diplomat. This portrait replaces “the earlier, sumptuous costume of Talleyrand’s earlier position as Napoleon’s Grand Chamberlin with the far more somber clothing seen here, suggestive of Talleyrand’s retreat to private life and renunciation of Napoleon’s imperial ambition.”[1]“Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Talleyrand,” The Met, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/110001788 accessed on 5 May 2022.

Talleyrand’s Letter Reaches Washington

It was on the third of this month the eve of the anniversary of Independence, that we received two pieces of news of the deepest interest for this country,—that of the rupture between France and England, proclaimed by the latter on May 16, and that of the cession of Louisiana and New Orleans, made by us on April 30.

—Louis-André Pichon[2]Pichon to Talleyrand, 18 Messidor, An xii. (7 July 1803) Archives des Aff. Étr., cited in Henry Adams, History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson, exported from … Continue reading

Louis-André Pichon was the French chargé d’affaires in Washington, DC from 1801 to 1804.

Jefferson Writes Peyroux

Washington, July 3. 1803.

Dear Sir

. . . . .

[Capt. Lewis‘s] journey being merely literary, to inform us of the geography & natural history of the country, I have procured a passport for him & his party, from the Minister of France here, it being agreed between him & the Spanish minister, that the country having been ceded to France, her minister may most properly give the authority for the journey.

. . . . .

[B]efore Capt. Lewis’s actual departure we learn through a channel of unquestionable information that France has ceded the whole country of Louisiana to the US. by a treaty concluded in the first days of May. but for an object as innocent & useful as this I am sure you will not be scrupulous as to the authorities on which the journey is undertaken; & that you will give all the protection you can to Capt. Lewis & his party in going & returning.

TH: JEFFERSON[3]Thomas Jefferson to Henri Peyroux de la Coudrèniere, 3 July 1803, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0497 accessed 8 May 2022.. [Original source: … Continue reading

Henri Peyroux de la Coudrèniere had been commandant in St. Genevieve but due to accusations of disloyalty, he was moved to New Madrid. In May 1803, he was removed from that command and could not help Jefferson in any official capacity. Lewis gave a copy of Jefferson’s letter to Spanish lieutenant governor Dehault Delassus in their meeting on 7 or 8 December 1803.[4]A. P. Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785–1804, Bison Books edition. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 598n5, 719–21.

For Lewis’s passports, see February 28, 1803 and March 1, 1803.

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 “Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Prince de Talleyrand,” The Met, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/110001788 accessed on 5 May 2022.
↑2 Pichon to Talleyrand, 18 Messidor, An xii. (7 July 1803) Archives des Aff. Étr., cited in Henry Adams, History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson, exported from Wikisource on 28 April 2022, 2:819.
↑3 Thomas Jefferson to Henri Peyroux de la Coudrèniere, 3 July 1803, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0497 accessed 8 May 2022.. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 40, 4 March–10 July 1803, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, pp. 653–654.]
↑4 A. P. Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri 1785–1804, Bison Books edition. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990), 598n5, 719–21.

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.

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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).