It was the purchase of Louisiana, therefore, which
gave impetus to a plan which had been creeping upon New England, aided
and stimulated by the Essex Junto. They agreed that the inevitable
consequences of the annexation of this vast territory would be to
diminish the relative weight and influence of the Northern section; that
it would aggravate the evils of slave representation and endanger the
Union by the enfeebling extension of its line of defense against
foreign-invasions. But the alternative to annexation was,—Louisiana and
the mouth of the Mississippi in the possession of France under Napoleon
Bonaparte.
The acquisition of Louisiana, although the
immediate cause for this project of disunion, was not its only, nor even
its most operative cause. The election of Mr. Jefferson to the
Presidency had meant to those swayed by sectional feelings the triumph
of the South over the North,—of the slave representation over the free.
On party grounds it was the victory of professed democracy over
Federalism. Louisiana was accepted as the battle ground, however, and
from that point the war was waged.
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