Washington, November 1, 1803.

My Dear Sir,

Your favors of April the 6th and June the 27th were duly received, and
with the welcome which every thing brings from you. The treaty which has
so happily sealed the friendship of our two countries, has been received
here with general acclamation. Some inflexible federalists have still
ventured to brave the public opinion. It will fix their character with
the world and with posterity, who, not descending to the other points of
difference between us, will judge them by this fact, so palpable as to
speak for itself, in all times and places. For myself and my country I
thank you for the aids you have given in it; and I congratulate you on
having lived to give those aids in a transaction replete with blessings
to unborn millions of men, and which will mark the face of a portion on
the globe so extensive as that which now composes the United States of
America. It is true that at this moment a little cloud hovers in the
horizon. The government of Spain has protested against the right of
France to transfer; and it is possible she may refuse possession, and
that this may bring on acts of force. But against such neighbors as
France there, and the United States here, what she can expect from so
gross a compound of folly and false faith, is not to be sought in the
book of wisdom. She is afraid of her enemies in Mexico. But not more
than we are. Our policy will be to form New Orleans and the country on
both sides of it on the Gulf of Mexico, into a State; and, as to all
above that, to transplant our Indians into it, constituting them a
Marechaussee to prevent emigrants crossing the river, until we shall
have filled up all the vacant country on this side. This will secure
both Spain and us as to the mines of Mexico, for half a century, and we