There is on the globe one single spot the possessor of which is our natural and constant enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the products of three-eighths of our territory must
pass through to sell ... France placing herself in that door, assumes to us the attitude of
defiance (open resistance). Spain might have retained it quietly for years. Her peaceful
dispositions(actions), her weak state, would induce(encourage) her to increase our presence
there, so that her possession of the New Orleans would be hardly be felt by us... It never be
that way in the hands of France
... Circumstances render it impossible that France and the United States can continue long
friends when they meet in such a difficult position...
The United States is now fixed on the affairs of Louisiana. Perhaps nothing since the
Revolutionary War has produced more uneasy sensations through the body of the nation.
Thomas Jefferson letter to Robert R. Livingston (1802)
Why was New Orleans a problem for the United States?