Richard [Nicholls] Harison / Harrison - Onondaga and Oswego ...

Throughout this time, Jefferson had up-to-date intelligence on Napoleon's military activities and intentions in North America. Part of
his evolving strategy involved giving du Pont some information that was withheld from Livingston. He also gave intentionally
conflicting instructions to the two. He next sent Monroe to Paris in 1803. Monroe had been formally expelled from France on his last
diplomatic mission, and the choice to send him again conveyed a sense of seriousness.
Napoleon was faced with revolution in Saint-Dominque (present-day Republic of Haiti). An expeditionary force under his brother-inlaw
Charles Leclerc had tried to re-conquer the territory and re-establish slavery. But yellow fever and the fierce resistance of the
Haitian Revolution destroyed the French army in what became the only successful slave revolt in history, resulting in the
establishment of Haiti, the first independent black state in the New World. Napoleon needed peace with Great Britain to implement
the Treaty of San Ildefonso and take possession of Louisiana. Otherwise, Louisiana would be an easy prey for Britain or even for
the U.S. But in early 1803, war between France and Britain seemed unavoidable. On March 11, 1803, Napoleon began preparing to
invade Britain.
Napoleon had failed to re-enslave Haiti; he therefore abandoned his plans to rebuild France's New World empire. Without revenues
from sugar colonies in the Caribbean, Louisiana had little value to him. On April 10, 1803 Napoleon told Treasury Minister Francois
de Barbe-Marboid that he was considering selling the whole Louisiana Territory to the U.S. On April 11, 1803, just days before
Monroe's arrival, Barbé-Marbois offered Livingston all of Louisiana instead of just New Orleans, at a price of $15 million,
equivalent to about $217 million in present day terms.
The American representatives were prepared to pay up to $10 million for New Orleans and its environs, but were dumbfounded
when the vastly larger territory was offered for $15 million. Jefferson had authorized Livingston only to purchase New Orleans.
However, Livingston was certain that the U.S. would accept such a large offer.
The Americans thought that Napoleon might withdraw the offer at any time, preventing the United States from acquiring New
Orleans. So they agreed and signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803. On July 4, 1803, the treaty reached
Washington. The Louisiana Territory was vast [828,800 square miles], stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert’s
Land * in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. Acquiring the territory would
double the size of the United States at a cost of less than 3 cents per acre.
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* Rupert's Land, also sometimes called "Prince Rupert's Land", was a territory in Bristish North America, consisting of the
Hudson Bay drainage basin, that was nominally owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company for 200 years from 1670 to 1870, although
numerous aboriginal groups lived in the same territory and disputed the sovereignty of the area. The area once known as
Rupert's Land is now mainly a part of Canada, but a small portion is now in the United States. It was named after Prince Rupert of
the Rhine, a nephew of Charles I and the first Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company.
In 1861 a copy of the New York Mercury, 1764, hung framed on the walls of the Columbia University Library, which gave an account
of the [King’s College] Commencement in that year, at which John Jay and Rich. Harison were graduated, and held a public
disputation.
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“John Jay: Founding Father,” by Walter Stahr, page 15.
http://books.google.com/books?id=yYKRZ2DBDqYC&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=%22richard+harison%22+%22John+jay%22&sourc
e=bl&ots=oeTEzUWpK5&sig=PoSGtOB1VYuAI8pxGX3FPCOrjo&hl=en&ei=YeHKTPiTIYHGlQec99DoAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBQ#v=one
page&q=%22richard%20harison%22%20%22John%20jay%22&f=false
Richard Harison was graduated from King’s College on May 22, 1764. That morning he joined the fifty boys from the college’s new
grammar school, his classmate, John Jay. President Cooper and the other faculty members in an impressive academic procession.
They marched out the east gate of the college yard, along what is now Park Place, across Broadway, across the southern corner of
triangular common, across Boston Road, and down to St. George’s Chapel. The chapel was a new building, in the latest style, with
elegant windows and a hexagonal steeple. It was crowded that morning, for the audience included the commander of the British
troops in North America, His Excellency General Thomas Gage, “accompanied by several of the Members of his Majesty’s Council,
the Judges of the Supreme Court, the President and Governors of the college, and many of the Clergy and Gentlemen of the City
and County.” Jay’s parents were not present, however; his father apparently decided to stay in Rye with his invalid wife and other
children.
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< President [Myles] Cooper [portrait by John Singleton Copley] opened the ceremony with a prayer,
related the events of the academic year, and then gave an “instructive exhortation to the young gentlemen
who were to be graduated.” After a speech by Harison, Jay gave a “spirited and sensible English
dissertation on the happiness and advantages from a state of peace,” no doubt touching on the recent
end of the French and Indian War. The two young men then “entertained” the audience with a debate on
“the subject of national poverty, opposed to national riches.” After speeches by two graduates from earlier
years, who by virtue of the passage of time were receiving their masters’ degrees, Cooper closed the
ceremony with another prayer. The academics then processed back to the college hall, where they “dined
together in honor of the day.” The bill from the previous year’s meal suggests that it was a grand feast. On
that occasion, fifty-nine diners managed to fifty six bottles of Madeira, eleven bottles of claret and fourteen
bottles of cider. The food was probably equally extensive.
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