Memorandum from Henry Dearborn, 31 December 1804
Memorandum from Henry Dearborn
[1803-1804?]
Together with such tract or tracts else where, within the Province not exceeding in the whole, one million acres, as particular circumstancies may in the opinion of Congress render it expedient to dispose of.
MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 137:23689); in Dearborn’s hand; undated.
Dearborn’s use of the word Province implies that this note had reference to Louisiana prior to the establishment of territorial government in March 1804. Perhaps Dearborn proposed the clause as an additional exception to the restriction on sale of lands in TJ’s draft constitutional amendment of July 1803, or in some subsequent discussion of policy (Vol. 40:686, 687).