The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1859-02-27


for itself and eoquenty indicates the scholarship the
patriotism and aud noble heartedness of the talented
son OF the Iron City from whom il emanates e
NrnnAskA cnr, November rs, 1858
To Mcss Russell Erctt j. Heron Foster james p Barr
Charles Mcknight, j. &. Backofen, VIM NJ Daring
ton, T. j. Bingham esqs., committee, &c
GESrLEMkS Your circular letter OF invitation, dated
the eth inst and addressed 10 me at Omaha, made It's
long journey by very circular route and has just come
to hand. recognise your committee old friends
ow-studcnts, and companions and not of you
seems know where live. This Is not 10 your credit
and might argue that how live whether live at all
has become thing OF great concern to the men who
boys with Sat home Let me say, then, in
the hope of compelling you to look after me little, that
live at Nebraska C, in the midst of three thousand
pleasant people you would meet in summer day. IL
lies the bank of the Missouri river at the mouth
of Table creek, and is built the site of " Old Fort
Kearney, being, almost to minute, In the same iat
tu,ic with rttsburg.
While write this reply to your letter, your celebration
is going The day of '1he Capture OF Fort Du
quesne has counted its century, and Fort Pitt is a
hundred years old.
That your festival of and memory, OF humble
gratitude and Just exutation is well worthy of the great
occasion, / feel sure If / it. Though many
waters divide u.s. and half empire OF States h between
U.S. do not feel altogether absent from the feast.
The military ond civic procession, the standards of war
and the banners Of peace the Of cannon and the
beating OF drums the shouts of people and the beating
hearts tho tumult of universal joy the trembling voice
of the venerable and beloved patriarch who is fifty chosen
to invoke the Divine blessing the manly face and man
ly tone of your gifted and eloquent oratorbeeve me,
almost and hear for my heart and all my thoughts
fixed on the day and its eventful memories.
You have In respect exaggerated the importance Of
the fall of Fort Duquesne' the 25th of November
1858. 10 accomplish its reduction was the iavorte
uro and idea of Washington 1t the first fort for
LITIGATION of the French which was taken when he
present, and he first within the walls and with his
hand planted tho flag of England ON its ''yct smo-
king ruins "
1t il very true as you remark that the ganest pro-
ect ever matured in the French cabinet the line
military Notifications basis Of colonial settlement
designed to connect Louisiana and Canada and perma
ncnty establish French cendancy in the valleys of the
Mississippi Ohio, and St Lawrence and consequently to
confne tho Anglo Saxon dominion the slope of
the Allegheny mountains. The great Napoleons dream
of Russian and Asiatic conquest did not equal this
Although the taking of Fort Duquesne followed from
recent of the English forces in Canada parcu
arly the capture and destruction of Fort Fronenac it
was nevertheless '.thc great result The French do
minion of the Ohio brought to end, and the
9Th of September of the next year the whole of Canada
fellnto the hands of Great Britain at the equalization
and surrender OF Montreal
Then followed the treaty of Paris in 1868, by which
Canada and all the other dominions of France in North
America east of the Mississippi, coded to Great
Britain result which, in the of events followed
naturally, IL not inevitably from he great result,
which you commemorating on its Centennial An
nivcrsary The protest of the French cabinet indeed
unworthy
great Napoleon's mightiest dream But it broken
by the downfall of "Fort Duquesne, and fell to pieces
The fragments were all gathered up by Great Britain in
1885, and after her peculiar fason To us all the
history at this point becomes curious and interesting
In November 1862, the preIimnarics of peace were
signed between France and Spain the part and
England and Portugal the other. On the same day.
November 81 the King of France authorized his minister
the Duke de Choiseu to deliver TO the minister Of Spain
an act for the absolute cession all e country known
by the of Louisiana, las also New Orleans and
the island which that city is situated The cession
formally made and completed on the 23d of the
month.
In February l763, the treaty of Paris was made by
the same parties and Great Britain become possessed not
only of Canada but Of all that part of Louisiana lying
least Of line drawn along the middle of the Mississippi
from its source to the river Iberyle and the lakes Maui
repas and Ponchartan, to the sea-" Thus all east of
that line from the headwaters of the Mississippi the
Gulf Of Mexico was transferred to England while Spain
retained all the balance of "the country known by the
Again. by the treaty between France and SPAN made
October lst 1900 his Catholic Majesty engaged
cede and did retrocede to the French republic the pro-
vince Of Louisiana to the extent of the Spanish interest
and ownership at the mothat is oil Of the Louisiana
country lying west Of the Mississippi river
In 1853 France had surrendered and transferred to
England Spain her whole interest in North America
and in 1900 she reganed by treaty this part of her
gna possession and that very possession in 1909 the
Great Napoleon transferred to the United States.
Let here turn back and consider little the events
which followed the capture of Fort Duquesne
BY degrees the of the revolution become necessary
1t commenced carried on, and concluded Eighteen
years after the taking of Fort Duquesne American indie
pendence declared and in years achieved
Washngton's Bkrmish with De Jumonville was the
first blow struck in the contest between England and
France for dominion in America When the conflict was
and France had lost all the French statesman and
dplomatst, whose appears already in this letter.
consoled himself 1t is said with the persuasion that
triumph, fatal for England, had been accomplished He
well remarked that the colonies would no longer need
the protection Of the mother country and in substance
that they would resist taxation and strike for indie
pendence.
In respects it the very idea that you have with
much clearness and force expressed 1t thai
paign which made Washington. 1t there " that he
cognition of his eminent merits by the then colonies
which resulted in disappointment Commander chief
of the revolutionary army and it there that the
first seeds of the revolution sown.
Not only spirit of selfrelancc infused into the
people OF the colonies but very wholesome spirit Of
disgust with British pretension. The people were pro-
verbally loyal, but they proverbally proud and
they felt tho acctaton of superiority which of the
English troops assumed the of the colonies
and they could not but the actual nfcrorty when
they contrastcd Braddock with Washington, and Major
Grant with their own provincial field officers
If France had been successful there is telling how
But France failed, and independence, from combination
of causes, followed. And efficient, though not an
immediate, that whole French war, in which
accomplished 1.-THE capture Of Fort Duquesne.''
When we became nation, the Atlantic the
East and the Mississippi the West boundaries OF
the American rcpubc and thus it remained until 1903
Louisiana had changed owners more than France