Monday will mark the 215th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. On April 30, 1803, Robert Livingston, who was the U.S. minister to France, and James Monroe signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty in Paris. It has been described as the greatest real estate deal ever.
Students of American history will remember that President Thomas Jefferson had only authorized Livingston to buy New Orleans. But the French treasury minister, Francois de Barbe-Marbois, acted on orders from Napoleon Bonaparte and told the U.S. representatives that he would sell a huge tract for $15 million, just $5 million more than Jefferson had authorized for the purchase of New Orleans.
"We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives," Livingston said.
He correctly predicted that the purchase would place the United States "among the first powers of the world." Meanwhile, Napoleon said: "This accession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a maritime rival who sooner or later will humble her pride."
Earlier this year, I stood in a room at the Clinton Presidential Center Center in Little Rock and stared at three original Louisiana Purchase Treaty documents on loan from the National Archives. The temporary exhibit also included information on the 1804-05 expedition up the Ouachita River by explorers William Dunbar and George Hunter. The journal and compass used by Dunbar and Hunter were on display. In a fountain in front of the building was a 38-foot replica of the "Aux Arc" keelboat used by the explorers.
I returned to the Clinton Center a few days later to attend the annual Fusion event that focuses on the arts and humanities in Arkansas. This year's topic was the impact of the Louisiana Purchase on the state. Not only was land that would become the state of Arkansas part of the purchase, Arkansas also is where the official Louisiana Purchase land survey began in October 1815. We celebrate that fact with a state park in a swamp between Brinkley and Marvell and with a sculpture in front of the Statehouse Convention Center in downtown Little Rock. Titled Straight Lines on a Round World, it's among the largest freestanding glass sculptures in the world. Little Rock attorney John Gill worked for years with Sharon Priest, Ron Maxwell and others to ensure that Arkansas' role in history would be commemorated in a high-profile location in the capital city.
Though it's one of our smallest state parks, Louisiana Purchase Historic State Park is my favorite. In the quiet of the swamp, one can sense how important this spot was in American history. In October 1815, surveyors Prospect Robbins and Joseph Brown set out from the Mississippi River. Robbins began at the mouth of the Arkansas River and headed due north. Brown began at the mouth of the St. Francis River and headed due west. Their lines crossed in the swamp and became the initial point for surveys of the American West.
"Since Arkansas was first [to be surveyed], the survey enabled early sale of land that contributed to Arkansas being the third state admitted into the union west of the Mississippi River after Louisiana and Missouri," Gill says. "The survey of the Louisiana Purchase, ordered during the administration of President James Madison, began shortly after the end of the War of 1812, in part as a means for the federal government to pay its veterans with land. The nation's greatest asset was land west of the Mississippi River, and it was necessary to survey that land so that it might be apportioned fairly to veterans and sold to settlers and other investors."
While surveying the boundary between Lee and Phillips counties in 1921, Tom Jacks and Eldridge Douglas from Helena found witness trees that had been marked by Robbins' party more than a century earlier. The L'Anguille chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Marianna held a ceremony on Oct. 27, 1926, to place a stone marker at the site. The Arkansas Legislature authorized a state park in 1961, but no money was appropriated. In fact, development didn't begin until 1977.
Visitors these days can walk down a boardwalk to the 1926 monument, reading interpretive panels about the Louisiana Purchase, the survey and the Delta. Gill will quickly tell you that this was one of the most important surveys in the history of Western civilization. And it began right here in Arkansas, though the vast majority of Arkansans know nothing about it.
"This survey was a key to the growth of the United States," Gill says. "We read all the time about the Lewis and Clark expedition, but Robbins and Brown ought to get recognition. I'm hopeful that the sculpture in Little Rock will at least make Arkansans more aware of their history. People will see it and want to read more about the survey. ... Lewis and Clark were tourists compared to these guys."
Brown's survey line marks the northern border of Phillips County. He continued west to the Arkansas River, which he reached on Dec. 4, 1815. Another surveyor continued the baseline along what's now Baseline Road in Little Rock. Robbins proceeded north, reaching what's now the Missouri border in late November 1815. He then continued on to the Missouri River. Other surveyors made their way to the Canadian border. On Monday, the 215th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, raise a toast to Robbins and Brown, along with the modern-day Arkansans who have ensured that they aren't forgotten.
------------v------------
Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 04/28/2018