The Mobile Act was the popular name of a bill signed into law in early 1804 by United States President

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

. The law defined revenue boundaries for the newly acquired territories that the United States had gained from its purchase of

La Louisiane Louisiana or French Louisiana was a district of New France. In 1682 the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle erected a cross near the mouth of the Mississippi River and claimed the whole of the drainage basin of the Missis ...

from France.''La Louisiane française 1682-1803''
(2002); Website; Culture of France; accessed July 2020. Note: Although named, "", that name became the French term for the U.S. state of Louisiana, so, by 1879, the colonial region was referred to as . The act anticipated that Mobile would be designated as a port of entry for a new revenue district. Mobile was, however, at the time a part of the Spanish province of

West Florida West Florida () was a region on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. Great Britain established West and East Florida in 1763 out of land acquired from France and S ...

Background

Following the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase () was the acquisition of the Louisiana (New France), territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River#Watershed, Mississipp ...

from

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the U.S. had quickly established the

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

''An Act for the Admission of the State of Louisiana...''
Government website;

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

; accessed July 2020 and Orleans Territories."An Act Erecting Louisiana into Two Territories..."
Government website; Library of Congress; accessed July 2020 President Jefferson displayed an active interest in the area to the east of

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, the Spanish province of

(which included the "

Florida Parishes The Florida Parishes, on the east side of the Mississippi River—an area also known as the Northshore or Northlake region—are eight parishes in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The Florida Parishes were part of what ...

" and the area surrounding the mouth of the

Mobile River The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georg ...

in today's state of

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

). The U.S. claimed that the purchase was based on the former boundaries of French Louisiana as they existed in 1762, which included all the lands west of the

Perdido River The Perdido River, also historically known as Rio Perdido or by its native name of Cassaba, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 15, 2011 river in the U.S. states ...

(today the boundary between Alabama and

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, however,

disagreed An argument is a series of sentences, statements, or propositions some of which are called premises and one is the conclusion. The purpose of an argument is to give reasons for one's conclusion via justification, explanation, and/or persuasion ...

with this position because the purchase treaty specified the boundaries of Louisiana as France possessed it and as Spain received it,^{p. 48} which occurred in 1769 when Spain took title to and possession of

, during the time that West Florida was a British colony.''Mobile, Alabama''
"Thomas Jefferson – Monticello" online webpage; via "The Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia;" accessed July 2020. Contesting and strongly objecting to the U.S. position, Spain, with France's backing, continued to exercise control over its West Florida province. — excerpt of website's Footnote #1^{p. 109–118}

The act

In November, 1803, John Randolph, chairman of the

Ways and Means A ways and means committee is a government body that is charged with reviewing and making recommendations for government budgets. Because the raising of revenue is vital to carrying out governmental operations, such a committee is tasked with fi ...

Committee, introduced into the House of Representatives a bill to carry into effect the laws of the United States within its new acquisition. On February 24, 1804, President Jefferson signed it into law. Its fourth and eleventh sections gave it its popular name, the Mobile Act. The act defined revenue boundaries for the newly acquired territories and gave Jefferson the opportunity to apply its provisions to a new district that would include Mobile, which was part of

Spanish West Florida Spanish West Florida ( Spanish: ''Florida Occidental'') was a province of the Spanish Empire from 1783 until 1821, when both it and East Florida were ceded to the United States. The region of West Florida initially had the same borders as the e ...

. With regard to watersheds that discharge their waters to the Gulf of Mexico, the act authorized the president (1) to annex to the Mississippi revenue district all such navigable waters wholly within the United States east of the Mississippi River and (2) to place all such waters to the east of the

Pascagoula River The Pascagoula River is a river, about 80 miles (130 km) long, in southeastern Mississippi in the United States. The river drains an area of about 8,800 square miles (23,000 km²) and flows into Mississippi Sound of the Gulf of Mexico. ...

into a separate revenue district and to designate suitable ports of entry and delivery. "These two sections placed a full legislative interpretation on the theories of Livingston, Monroe and Jefferson, and there remained only the open or tacit acquiescence of Spain to make good the title of the United States as far as the Perdido. "In a violent personal interview which he Spanish minister to the U.S., Marqués de Casa Yrujo held with him, Madison speedily learned that Spain would by no means consent to this interpretation. The incensed Spaniard demanded the annulment of these offending sections, and gave at great length the Spanish interpretation of the obscure territorial clauses. … As neither he nor Jefferson had demanded possession of the territory at the time Louisiana was transferred, the situation was an awkward one for both of them. … As Madison rendered him no adequate explanation of the administration's course, Yrujo withdrew from Washington in anger. "The president then cleared the situation by his proclamation of May 30, 1804," in which he placed all of the waterways and shores mentioned in the Mobile Act, lying within the boundaries of the United States, in a separate revenue district, with

Fort Stoddert Fort Stoddert, also known as Fort Stoddard, was a stockade fort in the U.S. Mississippi Territory, in what is today Alabama. It was located on a bluff of the Mobile River, near modern Mount Vernon, close to the confluence of the Tombigbee and ...

as its port of entry and delivery. Fort Stoddert had been built in 1799 in the Mississippi Territory to the north of Mobile and West Florida. Thus Jefferson virtually annulled the act. According to the British minister to Washington, this course was "perfectly satisfactory" to Casa Yrujo, who nevertheless "continued to harp upon it as a characteristic example of American duplicity." ^{pp. 97–100} Jefferson "had evidently permitted Congress to pass the act in order to test Spanish resistance to

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claim. When this proved unexpectedly strong, he wavered … and, by implication, threw upon Randolph the major part of the blame for the unfortunate legislation." The testy Ways and Means Committee chairman did not forget the affront. ^{p. 100}

Results

When

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

gave no support to the American border claims, Jefferson did not have the power to contest the situation and did not press the issue, letting it lie for the time being. In the following years the U.S. negotiated for trade passage rights through the port of Mobile using diplomatic channels. Spain remained the dominant government and military power in the area for several years. Then, following a revolt resulting in the short-lived

Republic of West Florida The Republic of West Florida (, ), officially the State of Florida, was a short-lived unrecognized republic in the western region of Spanish West Florida for just over months during 1810. In December, 1810, the United States occupied and an ...

, the U.S. occupied and forcibly annexed the Florida Parishes in 1810."Proclamation 16 – Taking Possession of Part of Louisiana (Annexation of West Florida)"
UCSB online; accessed July 2020 Two years later, during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

, General

James Wilkinson James Wilkinson (March 24, 1757 – December 28, 1825) was an American army officer and politician who was associated with multiple scandals and controversies during his life, including the Burr conspiracy. He served in the Continental Army du ...

occupied the remainder of

, including Mobile. From 1813 on there was a continual American presence in the city. The U.S. formally purchased the lands through the 1819

Adams–Onís Treaty The Adams–Onís Treaty () of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty, the Spanish Cession, the Florida Purchase Treaty, or the Florida Treaty,Weeks, p. 168. was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to ...

with Spain, taking legal possession of the entire Florida Territory on July 17, 1821.

References

{{Authority control United States federal legislation 1805 in American law

Background

The act

Results

See also

References