It's fun to talk about things in code, to give things nicknames that those outside the circle of trust won't understand.

While we strongly doubt that Livingston, Monroe, and Barbé-Marbois were trying to write the Louisiana Purchase documents in a secret language, we do totally applaud their use of allusion, which is the art of talking about something without actually calling it by name.

Like calling New York City the Big Apple, or referring to that serial dater on the soccer team as Casanova.

For our treaty negotiators, they save their allusive references for the good stuff: the Treaty of Mortefontaine is "the Convention of the 8th Vendémiaire an 9/30 September 1800" (T.0); the Treaty of San Lorenzo is "the Treaty concluded at Madrid the 27 of October 1795, between His Catholic Majesty & the Said United States" (T.0); and the Treaty of San Ildefonso is "the Treaty concluded at St Ildefonso the 9th Vendémiaire an 9/1st October 1800 between the First Consul of the French Republic and his Catholic Majesty" (T.1.1).

Okay, that last one is pretty straightforward, but you get the idea.

So, why did they do this? Probably because treaties can be called different things by different parties in different places at different times.

Like that Mortefontaine thing? It's also known as the Convention of 1800. And the Treaty of San Lorenzo also goes by Pinckney's Treaty and the Treaty at Madrid.

Heck, even the Louisiana Purchase is known by a different name in France; there, it's the Vente de la Louisiane (or "Sale of Louisiana").

We guess when it comes to governmental documents, sometimes allusion clears the water more than it muddies it.