OCTOBER 17, 1803.
Gentlemen of the Serrate:
In my message of this day to both Houses of Congress I explained the circumstances which had led to the conclusion of conventions with France for the cession of the Province of Louisiana to the United States. Those conventions are now laid before you with such communications relating to them as may assist in deciding whether you will advise and consent to their ratification.
The ratification of the First Consul of France is in the hands of his charge d'affaires here, to be exchanged for that of the United States whensoever, before the 30th instant, it shall be in readiness.
TH: JEFFERSON.
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Source: A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on printing, of the House and Senate Pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States. New York : Bureau of National Literature, Inc., 1897 |