Oakfield High School - Oak Leaves Yearbook (Oakfield, WI)

Page 12 text:

nation’s sure expansion. In this way began the great American Exodus, properly following the Genesis of the Constitution. While this western movement was going on. President Jefferson and some of the leading statesmen were busy in the East, laying the foundations of a broader, a greater, a nobler domain. Napoleon Bonaparte, the French ruler and dictator, surprised the Americans by offering them the large territory of Lousiana, then in his hands, for the sum of fifteen million dollars. This great tract included the grandest river valley in the world, and was one million square miles in area. President .Jefferson realized its value, and, stretching his Constitutional powers “'til they cracked,” as he himself said, he bought Louisiana, at the rate of two and one-half cents an acre. Thus the American flag, then glistening with seventeen stars, was made to float proudly over the wide west, doubling our national domain. The United States, being a progressive country, did not for long call Louisiana its latest possession. A new territory, Florida, was soon ceded to us by Spain, for the sum of five million dollars. This new land rectified our southern frontier and added sixty thousand square miles of territory to the United States. On July 10, 1820, the red and yellow flag of Spain was hauled down, and the “red, white, and blue,” with thirteen stripes and twenty-four stars, was hoisted. Our country was growing strong and powerful now, and was justly beginning to feel itself one of the national powers. Everything heretofore added to our domain had been gained by diplomacy and purchase, but a new strip of territory soon presented itself to the ambitious government as a very desirable addition to our country. Texas, then a part of Mexico, had been settled partly by westward-forging Americans, who rose in arms against Mexican anarchy, wrested the reins of government from the oppressor, founded an independent Republic, and soon applied for admission into the Union. The request, seeming very favorable, was granted, and and a state five time the size of England was soon represented on the flag. But, as was to be expected, Texas and Mexico became at once involved in serious boundary difficulties which resulted in war between the United States and Mexico. At its close the former had secured, whether fairly or unfairly, all the disputed territory and a strip of land composing New Mexico and California besides. Before the end of the Mexican affair, this ever progressing, ever-energetic country of ours was busy obtaining new territory in the far West. The great region of the North-West, between the Rockies and the Pacific, and between Russian America on the North and Mexican America on the South, lay an almost unknown region. But it was known that there were splendid mountains, rivers, and fertile lands there. In 17i 2 the foundation of the American title to Oregon was secured by the entry of Captain Gray into the Columbia river valley. American trading posts were established and in 1818 the United States and Great Britian, who also claimed the region, made a treaty for its joint occupation. American missionaries and settlers were soon pouring over the rugged mountains until the British began to be jealous of American supremacy. Happily, negotiations with Great Britian settled the disputes and brought within

Page 11 text:

THE ROMANCE OF CONQUEST The pages of history are filled with romances as entrancing and captivating as are contained in the best tales of love and adventure. There are many different phases of this historical romance, but none is more interesting than the Romance of Conquest, and to us in particular, the Romance of American conquest. Between the ideas of discovery and those of conquest there is a close connection. Every nation, in acquiring new territory, assumes the role of a discoverer, a claimant, a conqueror, and an organizer. If we will look back in History’s volume, to the early eighteenth century, we will find that not all nations have succeeded in carrying out these successive roles. The North American continent, tho discovered and claimed by Spanish, French, Portuguese, and English, was left, by the year 1763, almost entirely in the hands of the last who had conquered and colonized it. The years came and went. British rule continued and became oppressive. At last there dawned a day when the transplanted Englishmen, living in English colonies could no longer endure the rule of the mother country. As a result they created a new nation, giving to mankind a new name to place in the gallery of the worldpowers. The formal creation of this new nation took place on July fourth, 1776, in the form of a Declaration of Independence, by which the thirteen dependent colonies became the thirteen independent States of America. But tho this great event brings thrills of gladness to our hearts, tho we think of it with a swelling pride we must also call to remembrance the eight long years of gloomy war which followed it, in order that that Declaration might not have proven in vain, but might be instead, a glorious reality. And, when the war was ended and the independence of the little nation secured, a new and distinct race of people had been born, to us, prouder than all others,—the Americans. From that time on, this people has been making conquests of its own, and forming a Romance than which there is none more thrilling. After the United States became an independent nation, there were several years of distress and misery. The idea of a Federal government was laughed to scorn by Europeans, and the first attempt of the United States in that direction, the Confederation, prov ed a failure. But failure has never been able to discourage Americans, and a new Constitution was formed, which has ruled the people successfully ever since. Soon after the wheels of the national government had been set in revolution, the nation, obeying the true instinct of development, began to expand toward the west, crossing the hitherto impenetrable wall of the Alleghanies. There were two streams, one of New England Yankees, and one of Pennsylvanians. They met beyond the mountains and pushed on untiringly thru the great, unknown, western wilderness, lead by the desire for homesteads, and, perhaps, by the love of adventure. Another parallel procession in the South headed by Daniel Boone, crossed Kentucky and Tennessee. Soon in the valleys of the Ohio and the Cumberland, log cabins, churches, and school-houses arose showing the promise of the

Page 13 text:

the sole possession of the American Government that part of the Oregon territory south of the forty-ninth parallel, thus adding to our domain a strip of land larger than Texas. Another cession of territory from Mexico at this time made the western strip still larger, and added the so-called Gadsden’s Purchase to the national domain. The country was now called to face the problem of expansion; consequently, great questions loomed up concerning the organization of all this western territory. It might have been a long time e’er these wild new regions became aught but sparsely settled, had it not been for the discovery of gold in California. When that news swept over the land, California, from having been a mere name in a romance or the geographical expression of an obscure region, was transformed into an alluring image whose face reflected light and magnetism all over the earth. Young and old, good and bad, were attracted to the Pacific slope, and in four years two hundred fifty thousand men of every sort and character were on the new El Dorado. Tho expansion and boundary questions were thus settled for a while, the Federal government was not to be left in peace. The great battle of Slavery was to be fought in Congress before it was was fought in the field. All compromises were in vain,—the North and South could not agree. We know the result, an inevitable clash between these people of one blood, one tongue and one government. The question whether this great nation of ours should keep on growing in size and wisdom and rerenown, or should be torn asunder, to lose all the power it had gained since its birth of independence, became one of momentous importance. There is no need to dwell on that war for we are all familiar with it. What we wish to emphasize here is that this nation came forth from that conflict whole and united. It had been proven once for all time by a terrible experience, indeed, that the United States was one Union, forever inseparable. After the passions of war had cooled, and the hatred and bitterness had died away, men turned once more to the ever new and enticing project of expansion. On the Pacific, the greatest of oceans, the Americans were, in their enterprise, far in advance of their possessions. Russia and England both laid claim to the power to rule navigation in the Pacific waters; and the American eagle found itself facing the new problem of trying to please both the Russian bear and the English lion. Trouble was avoided, however, by a treaty with Russia in 1867, which added to the United States territory all of Alaska, a very valuable asset. Out in the Pacific, nearly midway between America and Asia, lie a group of twelve islands, forming a land area nearly as large as New Jersey. These islands, the Hawaiian, first came under the notice of the United States, when, in 1820, fourteen of our missionaries sailed to them and founded the modern history of Hawaii. Altho the islands struggled nobly for a Christian, republican Government, internal troubles hindered them greatly and they finally petitioned the United States for admission to the Union. In 1894 the Republic of Hawaii was proclaimed and soon became and integral part of the United States. Altho the Government was thus constantly gaining new territory, it was not satisfied, but turned longingly towards that island in the Atlantic,