The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1883-08-31

dangers of war, and yet ready to engage
in it for the control of the great water
way to the Gulf-the President made
the greatest conquest aver achieved
without antecedent war, and at a cost SO
small that the total sum expended for
the entire territory does not equal the
revenue which has since been collected
on It's soil in a single month in time of
great public peril. The ountry tins
acquired forms to-day the sta es of Lou
islana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas
Nebraska, Minnesota, west of the Miss
issippi;- Colorado. north OF the Arkan-
sas; and Oregon, besides the Indian Ter.
rltory and the territories of Dakota, Wv
omlng, Montana, Idaho and Washing
ton.
This coup d'etat of the First Consul
was an overwhelming surprise and dis
appointment to the English Govern.
ment. B%onaparte was right in Assuming
that prompt action on his part was peces-
sary to save Louisiana from the hands Of
the English. Twelve days after the
treaty ceding Louisiana to the United
States was signed, the British Ambassa.
dor at Paris, Lord Whitworth, demand
ed his passports. At Dover he met the
French Ambassador to England, Gener.
al Andresasy, who had likewise deman-
ded his passports. Lord Whitworth
loaded eneral Andreassv with tokens
of esteem and conducted him to the shin
which was to bear him back to France,
According to an eminent historian, the
two Ambassadors, in the presence of a
great concourse of people, agitated, un-
easy, sorrowful. At the moment of SO
important Il determination, the warlike
passion subsidized, and men were seized
with a dread of the consequences of a
desperate conflict. At this solemn mo-
ment the two nations seemed to bid
esch other adieu not to meet again til
after a tremendous war and the con-
vulsion of the world"
The consequences that would have
followed England's acquisition Of Louisi-
ana must have proved in the highest de.
gree embarrassing, /. not disastrous to
the Union. Had England seized
Louisiana as %Bonaparte feared, the Flor
idas, cut off from the other colonies of
Spain, would probably have fallen into
her hands by easy and prompt negotia-
ton, as they did, a few years after, into
| the hands of the United States. Eng
land would thus have planted her colo
MES on the three land sides of the I'm
ion, and on the ocean side her formid-
able navy confronted the young Repub-
lie.
No colonial acquisition ever made by
England on any continent would have
proved go profitable to her commerce,
and so strengthening to her military po-
sition, as that of Louisiana. This fact
was clearly seen by Bonaparte when
he hastily made the treaty ceding
it to the United States. That England
did not attempt to seize it, in disregard
of Bonaparte's c~ession, has beena source
OF surprise to many historians. The OBJ
vious reason was that she dreaded the
complication of war in America when
she was about to assume so heavy a bur
den in the impending European con-
test.
The Inhabitants of the Union in 1908
were 6.000,0 900 in number, of great ener-
~ and confidence, a large portion ac-
customed to the sea, and able to sen!
swarms of privateers to prey on British
commerce. Citizens of an independent
Government would be ever more for
midable than were rebellious %colonists
in the earlier struggle with the mother
country, and, acting in conjunction with
France, could have effectively main
tanned the contest. Considerations of
this nature doubtless induced the Ad-
dington Ministry to acauiesce quietly in
a treaty whose origin and whose assured
results were in every way distasteful,
and even offensive, to the British Gov
ernment.