Nappanee High School - Napanet Yearbook (Nappanee, IN)

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(Errntorial Arquiaitimi nf abr Httitrb £tatru By RAYMOND WALTERS HEN our forefathers signed the treaty of peace at theclose of the Revolutionary war, it is more titan probable that not one man among them had even the slightest thought of the future size and greatness the country that they had established was to obtain. A growth from approximately 800.000 square miles with about 3,100,000 people sparsely settled on about 300.000 square miles in 1790 to about 3,556,000 square miles, besides the Island possessions, with about 70,000,000 people could not possibly have been conceived of then by even the greatest thinkers. The territory acquired was mostly by purchaseand at eight different times: namely: at the close of the Revolutionary war, the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the Florida purchase In 1829, the Texas annexation in 1845, the Mexican Cession in 1848, the Gadsden purchase in 1853, the Russian purchase in 1867, and last, the land acquired at the close of the war with Spain in 1898. By the treaty of peace at the close of the Revolutionary war, the United States consisted of all the territory it now holds east of the Mississippi river except Florida. This land could not be counted as an increase in territory to the United States for it was the nation then. There were about 849,145 square miles and consisted of the thirteen original states with their valuable claims to Western lands. From this land, besides the thirteen original states, the states of Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee. Ohio. Indiana, Illinois, Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin were formed besides most of Mississippi. Alabama, and Minnesota. There were no definite boundaries, but this did not raise much discussion until afterward. The first real increase was the Louisiana purchase in 1803. This territory was a wide expanse of land west of the Mississippi, owned by France. The United States was negotiating only for a port at the mouth of the Mississippi, but Napoleon needed money and startled the American embassies by offering the entire country. President Jefferson wanted the land badly, because he feared that if left in the hands of a strong nation like France it could be colonized and used to a great disadvantage against our nation: but the cort-stitution contained nothing in respect to land purchase and this was therefore beyond his powers. It was finally bought for $15,000,000, Jefferson relying on the will of the people to maintain his decision. This purchase was very important to the United States, for besides the great increase of territory. It secured the claims of the United States to the Oregon territory, and Texas, and the land of the Mexican Cession. From this territory was formed the states of Louisiana, Missouri. Arkansas. Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska. Montana. Wyoming. North and South Dakota, Idaho and Oklahoma and parts of Minnesota and Colorado. This land comprises al»out one-third of the entire territory of the United States, and has added to our country the valuable cotton fields of the South and the greater part of the prairies and the priceless wheat fields of the North, lias not Napoleon's word proven true when he said that '‘this accession of territory establishes forever the power of the United States, and gives to England a maritime rival destined to humble her pride?” The next addition of territory was the Florida purchase in 1829. This made an Increase of about 59,000 square miles and added Florida and gave Mississippi and Alabama their openings on the Gulf of Mexico: for Florida at that lime consisted of the Florida of today and a strip of land along the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi river. The real cost of this purchase was the assumption by the United States of the debts owed by Spain to citizens of our country: but it rounded out the corners of the nation and gave better protection from the Indians who would attack and then retreat Into Florida where our trooj»s could not follow. In 1846 the boundary line was definitely set tled as to the north-western limit of the United States. In 1818 it was decided to leave this land for further arbitration and that It was to be occupied jointly by the citizens and subjects of both United States and Great Britain. In 1824 and 1825 the northern limit of Oregon had been defined as 54 degrees 40 minutes in treaties between Russia on one part and Great Britain and the United States on the other. The claims of Great Britain and the United Slates to this land were extremely vague. The United States advanced their claims on, tirst, the discovery of the Columbia river by Captain Gray: second, the assignment under the Florida treaty to whatever rights the Spaniards had to these lands by discovery and exploration: third, the exploration of Lewis and Clark: and fourth, actual settlement: while the British claimed that Drake had sailed along the coast before any Spaniard: that the Spanish rights amounted to little in view of the agreement as to this coast in 1790 known as the Nootka treaty; that a British navigator had made a more thorough exploration of the Columbia, although it was based on information of Gray’s: and that British fur-trading companies practically occupied this region. These claims were so vague that compromise was inevitable: but politicians took the matter up as a means of conciliating the North to the admission of