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Conclusion •  • Conclusion Protest against territorial government in Orleans Territory occurred in three stages. The first stage of organized protest against territorial government lasted from March 1804 until October 1805. Leaders organized supporters, and the territorial government administered by Claiborne was criticized in letters to officials in the Jefferson administration, in New Orleans newspapers, and in a petition to Congress. In the second stage of protest, which lasted from approximately November 1805 until the final arrest of Aaron Burr in January 1807, opponents of territorial government were influential in the territorial House of Representatives established by an act of Congress in 1805. They also gained a foothold in the appointed Legislative Council and a voice in Washington, in the person of Daniel Clark, who won the election for territorial delegate to Congress in May 1806 over Claiborne’s candidate. During this stage, opponents of territorial government became a political faction that challenged territorial government and, more specifically, Claiborne’s administration of this government through legislation and speeches in the Orleans legislature and in the House of Representatives and Senate in Washington. The last stage of the protest marks the decline of the faction. After they were implicated in the Burr Conspiracy, Daniel Clark and Edward Livingston, leaders of the party generally opposed to territorial government and specifically opposed to Governor Claiborne, lost influence in Orleans society. Clark’s duel with Claiborne and Livingston’s waterfront property acquisitions further contributed to the decline of the political fortunes of each man. The election of Julien Poydras, a French Louisianan planter and Claiborne’s political ally, to Congress as territorial delegate marked the end of the real political influence of those who were involved in the original protest against territorial government that began in 1804. The evolution of the three stages of the protest movement can only be understood , however, in the context of Jefferson’s plan for Louisiana. Jefferson made small concessions to Louisianans on the issues of representation, slaves, land, and laws, but he let nothing interfere with his plan to see Louisiana incorporated as an American state in an “empire of liberty.” It is clear that this was Jefferson’s goal from the first day of American possession and that he Conclusion •  • considered the rights and privileges of Louisianans as subordinate to this goal. It is also equally clear, however, that Louisianans did not expect the author of the Declaration of Independence to rule over them as a king. 1 In November 1803 Louisianans hoped that Pierre Clément Laussat’s unauthorized promises of citizenship and statehood that were based on his embellished interpretation of the third article of the treaty of cession between France and the United States would be fulfilled immediately or soon after the United States took formal possession of the French colony. Citizenship and statehood would secure Louisianans’ property and representation rights. Jefferson’s primary objective for Louisiana was not to satisfy Louisianans but to ensure that their home became an American state. Jefferson believed that Louisianans were incapable of self-government, and he was uncertain about their loyalty to the United States. Because he was not prepared to risk his project for an “empire of liberty” that included Louisiana, Jefferson supervised the establishment of a territorial government that was ultimately responsible to him. Under An Act Enabling the President to Take Possession of Louisiana, passed on October 31, 1803, the Republican-controlled Congress granted Jefferson the power to “vest all the Military, civil and judicial powers exercised by the officers existing government (under France) in such person and persons as the President of the United States shall direct.” In effect, this act allowed Jefferson to rule Louisiana in the much the same manner as the French and Spanish had prior to the Louisiana Purchase. The president appointed one man, William Claiborne, to “exercise all the powers and authorities heretofore exercised by the Governor and Intendant.” 2 The act of October 31, 1803, was designed as a temporary measure to allow for American administration of Louisiana until Congress passed a new bill that clearly defined the structure and mechanics of government for the new territory . Etienne de Boré, mayor of New Orleans, wrote Jefferson and expressed his hope that Congress would at least grant Louisiana the “second stage” of territorial government. The Northwest Ordinance stipulated that when the population of a territory reached 5,000 free white males, a representative assembly would be established there. Jefferson, however, had already rejected the Northwest Ordinance as a model for...

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