Autograph Letter Signed.  1pg.+ stampless address leaf. To Hon. George Tibbits, Member of the House of Representatives. City of Washington

"We rejoice to hear of a Peace with Morocco – without Tribute – and think we shall soon be able to effect the same with All the Barbary States in the same manner. I hope the Fear of some will not be realized with regard to our getting Possession of Louisiana  - without Blood. It will prove a very important Acquisition to the United States…"

Written, significantly, the day Napoleon’s France formally ceded the 827,000 square miles west of the Mississippi River to the United States, Gale, a prominent New York merchant, was diplomatic in praising the “wisdom and measures” of Thomas Jefferson’s Administration to  Tibbits, a fellow Troy merchant, who was elected to the US Congress as a Federalist.  Some members of that Party opposed the Louisiana Purchase – and even talked idly of secession -  frankly because they feared that bringing in huge new areas of land that could be settled by small farmers, would strengthen Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans.