Hon. J. L. M. Curry , LL.D., William Robertson Garrett , A. M. , Ph.D., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 1.1, Legal Justification of the South in secession, The South as a factor in the territorial expansion of the United States
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

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[163] notice that he would demand his passports, and matters assumed a threatening aspect. In November, 1804, Mr. Monroe, then at London, was ordered to Madrid. He passed through Paris to invoke the co-operation of Napoleon, but was coldly received. He somewhat defiantly took his departure for Madrid, which place he reached January 2d, and left May 26, 1805, having accomplished nothing. As yet, there seemed nothing to indicate danger to America.

Before the close of the year, however, the war cloud of Europe burst, and events took a turn which rendered American relations precarious beyond all human foresight. The wonderful achievements of Napoleon caused European politics to vary with the rapidity and novelty of the shifting views of the kaleidoscope, leaving only one thing in Europe permanent—‘the naval supremacy of Great Britain.’ While adhering to the hope of wresting Florida from the necessities of Spain and France, Jefferson found his negotiations complicated with questions growing out of foreign hostility to the rapid development of the American merchant marine. Unexpectedly thrown on the defensive, his efforts must be directed to thwart the hostility of Great Britain against American trade, and his diplomacy must be adapted to meet the fleeting conditions of European politics; looking now to Spain, and again to France, and again to Great Britain.

In the autumn of 1805 two great events disconcerted the policy of America as well as the relations of Europe. October 21st, the naval victory of Trafalgar confirmed Great Britain's supremacy on the ocean. December 2d, Austerlitz made Napoleon dictator of continental Europe, shattered the combinations of Pitt and caused his premature death. Both of these events were adverse to American interests.

Napoleon had applied the purchase money of Louisiana to building a navy. The most magnificent army which