LOUISIANA PURCHASE: On this day in 1803, American Minister to France Robert Livingston, James Monroe and Barbé Marbois signed the Treaty for the Louisiana Purchase in Paris. The Americans had been authorized by President Jefferson to offer up to $10 million for New Orleans and its environs and were shocked to be offered the whole enchilada for only $15 million (cheap!). Certain that the United States would approve, Livingston took the deal. Back then, owing to the difficulty of communications, diplomats had to have more discretion that they do now.  That was also true for a whole lot of other people separated by distance from their “superiors.”