Chief among these was the certainty that the transfer from weak hands to strong hands would be passionately resented by the United States; and until peace with England was fully assured, and the power of Toussaint broken, it would be folly for the First Consul to risk a conflict with the United States.

That they would fight rather than see the western prairies pass into the First Consul's hands was abundantly manifest.
It is proved by many patriotic pamphlets.

The most important of these--"An Address to the Government of the United States on the Cession of Louisiana to the French," published at Philadelphia in 1802--quoted largely from a French _brochure_ by a French Councillor of State.

The French writer had stated that along the Mississippi his countrymen would find boundless fertile prairies, and as for the opposition of the United States--"a nation of pedlars and shopkeepers"-- that could be crushed by a French alliance with the Indian tribes.

The American writer thereupon passionately called on his fellow-citizens to prevent this transfer: "France is to be dreaded only, or chiefly, on the Mississippi.