For the succeeding five years this agreement was observed and little conflict existed. On October 1, 1800, however, Spain signed a treaty giving the ownership of the Louisiana territory back to France. The news of this treaty did not reach Jefferson until May of the following year. As soon as he became aware of the change in ownership of the territory, Jefferson realized that this was part of a plan by which Napoleon hoped to establish France as a great power in the New World. Although Napoleon still permitted Spain to remain in control of the port of New Orleans, the future threat to the navigation rights of the western farmers still remained. At any moment, Napoleon might send troops to the Gateway and forbid Americans to use it for navigation. This would affect almost forty per cent of the total export trade of the United States. By April 1802 Jeffersons concerns in this matter became even more intense. Napoleon had shipped armed forces to Santo Domingo to suppress the uprising. Once this had been accomplished, the troops were under orders to take possession of Louisiana with its key port city of New Orleans. On the eighteenth of that month the President wrote his now-famous letter to the American Minister to France, Robert R. Livingston.
There is one place on the globe, one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans through which the produce of three eighths of our territory must pass to market. . . it seals the union of two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.
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