Morning journal and courier., 1885-12-01
ArruE HrsroR1oAL SOCIETY.

1AMA EuECMAOc'>-A &O A WeAAO1A~S
 Present.
 The parlors of the Historical society rooms in the old State House were crowded last evening with select audience, who listened with much attention to the reading of an in teresting paper by Judge Lyman E. Munson, whose subject was 'The Louisiana Purchase" Judge Munson said: ''The territory covered by the Louisiana Purchase was of vast ex- tent, and of undeaped proportions. Able statesmen ciaiMed the treaty covered the whole of Texas to the Rio Grande. It was also claimed that it embraced all the north ern portion of the country bordering the British possessions, from the Mississippi river to the Pacific. The subject of the boundaries and the right of possession be- came matters of grave dispute and eornpli- cated relations between Spain and the United States, to be settled either by the arbitrament of war or by diplomacy. The latter prevailed, and in 1919 we gave up our claim to Texas, from the Sabine to the Rio Gfande, and Spain gave up it's Florida possessions and abandoned all claim ed rights to the north and west ot the noun tains and we were in recognized peaceable possession of all the vast country we are considering. The extent of this territory is but little known, understood or cotnpfehend- ed by the people of this country to-day. It is territory larger in extent than the thlr- teen original States of the Union. 1t IS greater in agricultural resources. It is rich CT in mineral wealth. It has greater va riety of climate and soil Its mountains are the largest and most magnificent in grandeur on the continent. It's scenery IS
 the finest; its natural curiosities the most sublime in the country, and it's river
 courses the longest in the world. The
 Louisiana Purchase" embraces territorial
 area more than twenty-six times as large as
 the great State of New York, more than 142
 times as large as Massachusetts and more
 than 264 times as large as Connecticut What
 have we done with this large empire farm
 purchased eighty-two years agos We have
 admitted Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas,
 Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, Nebraska
 and Colorado as States of the Union
 and we have left for future admission Dakota,
 Montana, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming and
 Indian Territory. Nine great States, each
 nearly double the size of the State of New York, have already been admitted into the
 Union, and five great territories texcluding
 the Indian Territory) yet remain to be ad-
 mitted, large enough in the aggregate to
 make 1115 States of the size of New York,
 63 States of the size of Massachusetts and
 IF States of the size of Connecticut.
 These States and Territories contain pop
 ulation of more than ten millions of people,
 while the population of the United States
 when the treaty was signed was about six
 millions. Take another fact. Remove all
 the 6O, ,000, ,000 people of the United States
 into the States and Territories covered by the Louisiana Purchase' and it would give
 about ffty-one persons to the square mile, while Connecticut has one hundred and
 thirty-three, Massachusetts two hundred and five and the State of New York one hundred and eight to the square mile.
 Since the days of Lewis and Clark, eighty two years ago, how changed the realities of our national life. The mighty river with Is swift current, it's shifting sand bars, hee to- day and there tomorrow, filled wiR snaes which have come down from mOfntain for | ests hundreds of miles above still rolls it's | floods to the sea, in some paces miles from where they passed oversits murky bosom, but not then as now bering the wealth of nations.
 Instead of our bots creeping up it's waters l by hand power, low steam power, harnessed l to great ships; More numerous than the ships ! of TarshIsh laden with passengers and 1 freight, plw up and down it's waters for thousandsof miles, opening up to settle
 ment an civilization vast, rich country, which smericans can have almost for the
 asking Great cities line the river banks,
 railr0d bridges span it's waters from shore
 to s5shore, civilized homes, cultivated fels and rich harvests brighten the ladscape, greeting the eye in all directions. Bnderous railroad trains move ever it's vast llains, winding through dismal chasms and climbing along frightful precipices, drawing the wealth of nations from ocean to ocean and from the lakes to the gulf This territory between the Mississippi river and the Pacific ocean, then an nnhroken wilderness is to-day 2 -nzTp 1nsS,,Ia TIT ,aacsaa
 possibilities too great to be guessed at #
 Railroads penetrate the country in all ci- rections, Iowa alone having about ,5OO more miles of railroad than all the six New Eng land States combined.
 The telegraph flashes daily intelligence from Rocky Mountain homes into editorial rooms in New York, London, Paris, St. Pe- tersburg, the steam press catches it up. sending 1t of at the rate of 100000 impres- sions an hour, and 1t is read in every part of the civilized world in different languages be- fore the pointers on the dial-plate complete their circuit.
 The widely separated dates between the signing of the treaty at Paris April 30 and it's arrival at Washington July 1, between the draft of instructions to Captain Lewis in April and their signing June Both, according to our quick thinking and rapid execution seems almost incredible; but when we remem- Der that the first steamboat that plowed the
  that the first railroad constructed was in 1926, running four miles from the Quincy quarries in Massachusetts to tide water, that not telegraph wire was known in the land, that eighty-two years ago the post rider mounted his horse with mail pouch and sad dle-bags and travelled on horseback through the wilderness and over the mountains from Washington to the Mississippi river, we can realize in some measure the delays and diff culties of such journey. It took President Jefferson weeks to communicate line or a word from Washington to the Mississippi river in any direction. I will say that no man, however extensive his reading, his quate idea of the vastness and value of the 1 Louisiana Purchase'' from such sources alone; but he will fall short of the great reality which will open be- fore him as he journeys over it 1 by steam power day after day, week in and | week out in continuous direction, and l comprehends by comparison and by contrast that the great Empire State of New York is after all but mere speck on the surface. but dust in the balance, when weighed 1 against the mighty empire west of the Miss | issippi river embraced within the l Louisiana Purchase" While Jefferson l was Secretary of State under Adams | his ministers were instructed to procure this territory by treaty or l purchase if possible, and his sleepless eve all movement in reference to it with l jealous care till the treaty was signed and l ratified by Congress. Owing to the non-ar- | rival of the treaty when the instructions to | Lewis Clark were prepared, and the treaty i not having been ratified by Congress, Jeffer- son even at this time treated all of this coun- try as foreign land
 We find in his instructions the following;
 "As your movements while within the limits of | the United States will be better directed by occa- s1onal communications adapted to circumstances as they arise will not be noticed here. What fol partre from the United States.
 Your mission has been communicated to the min sters here from France, Spain and Great Britain and through them to their governments and such assurances given them to it's objects we trust will satisfy them. The country of Louisiana hay. ng been ceded by Spain to France. the passDort you have from the minister of France the reDre- | sentative Of the present sovereign of the country will be protection of all it's subjects and that from he minister of England will eutitle you to l Allegiance with whom you may happen to meet"
 Armed with passports from foreign l nations, and backed with the assistance and orders of our government, the expedition started and faithfully completed the work assigned them, returning to St. Louis. September 23, 1906, having crossed the country from the mouth of the Missouri iver to the mouth of the Columbia on the Pacific coast and back again.
 General Sherman's march to the sea was 1 lot attended with more anxiety to the government and the country than was the bsence of this little band unheard of for n0r han tvzyov k..s,- \