The right of depositing merchandise at New Orleans, which had been granted to the citizens of the United States by the Spanish governor of Louisiana, in a late treaty, and which was absolutely necessary to the people of the western states, was withdrawn this year, and caused a general agitation. A proposal was made in congress to take forcible possession of the whole province of Louisiana; but milder measures were adopted, and the right of deposit was restored. In the year 1800, Louisiana had been secretly ceded to France, and Jefferson, in 1802, opened a private correspondence with Livingston, in Paris, on the subject of this cession. The United States had hitherto, he said, considered France as their natural friend, but the moment she became possessed of New Orleans, through which three-eighths of the produce of the Americans must pass, she would become their natural enemy. The case was different with a feeble and pacific power like Spain; but it would be impossible that France and the United States could continue friends when they met in so irritating a position. That the moment France took possession of New Orleans, the United States must ally themselves with Great Britain; and, he asked, was it worth while for such a short-lived possession of New Orleans for France to transfer such a weight into the scale of her enemy? He then artfully suggested the cession of New Orleans and the Floridas; but adds, and even _that_ they would consider as no equivalent while she possessed Louisiana. In January, 1803, agents were sent over to negotiate the purchase of Florida; but instead of the purchase merely of New Orleans and the Floridas, as had been planned, they were able to effect that of all Louisiana, equal in extent to the whole previous territory of the United States. They owed their good fortune to the war which was so suddenly renewed between France and England, when the government of France, convinced that the possession of Louisiana would soon be wrested from her by the superior naval power of England, readily consented to make sale of it to a third power, and the rather, as the money was very acceptable at that time.[70] For the trifling sum of 15,000,000 dollars the United States became possessed of that vast extent of country embracing the present State of Louisiana, which was called “the Territory of Orleans,” as well as of “the District of Louisiana,” embracing a large tract of country extending westward to Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. The treaty was concluded at Paris in 1803. The area of the country thus ceded was upwards of 1,000,000 square miles, but all, excepting a small proportion, occupied by the Indians, its natural proprietors. Its inhabitants, chiefly French, or the descendants of the French, with a few Spanish creoles, Americans, English and Germans, amounted to between 80,000 and 90,000, including about 40,000 slaves.