Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-07-13
THE TERRITORIAL GROWTH OF
THE UNITED Sta TIES.

THE UNITED STATES.
The thirteen original colonies con-
tanned within their boundaries the
area now occupied by fifteen States,
namely: Maine, New Hampshire, Yer
mont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Vir-
ginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, North
Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
During the war of the revolution 1t
was a question whether there should
be any such nation as the United Stat
es. Immediately after that war it was
a question whether the territory OF the
United States should include merely
the area contained in these thirteen
colonies, or something more than
that. In the first negotiations for
peace Great Britain had no idea. OF
ceding any territory beyond the head
waters of the rivers that flow into the
Atlantic Ocean. If our negotiators
had been men of different character
or different caliber the peace of 1888
would probably have left the United
States bounded on the west either by
the Allegheny Mountains or by the
Ohio, Tennessee and Alabama rivers.
Hardly any one expected that Messr5.
Franklin, Adams and Jay could pos
sibly obtain the cession Of any such
boundaries as were finally fixed by
the Treaty of Versailles. Without any
disparagement of the other two COM
missioners, it should be said that it is
mainly the firmness of Mr.. Jay that
we owe the fact that the western
boundary of the United States in 1888
was fixed at the Mississippi River, and
that by the provisions of the Treaty
of Versailles there was secured forever
to the United States the right of free
navigation of it's waters.
Only twenty years later, Napoleon
Bonaparte, having acquired the prov
ince of Louisiana from Spain, sudden
ly offered it to the United States; and
Mr.. jefferson, whose patriotism on
that occasion over-rode the narrow
ness of his principals, concluded the
bargain: and the United States acquir-
ed a territory within whose bounda-
ries are now included the present
States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mis-
souri,, Iowa, half of Minnesota, North
and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas,
the Indian Territory, part of Colorado
and Wyoming, and the whole of Mon
tana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Once committed to the policy of an
nexation neither Mr.. Jefferson nor his
successors and disciples, Presidents
Madison and Monroe, ever lost sight
of Florida as a possible possession of
the United States, and finally, in 1919,
Florida became ours, and our coast
line was complete from EastpOrt to
the Sabine River. There is no need to
rehearse here the story of the strug-
giles of Texas for independence, the
establishment of the Texan Republic
and the final admission in 1845 of the
Lone Star State into our territory.
Then followed the Mexican war, and,
as a natural result, the ceSsiOn of that
great area within which are now COM
pretended the States of California
and Nevada, part Of Colorado, the
Territory of Utah, part of Wyoming,
and most of the Territories of ArizO-
ma and New Mexico. Our present area
was completed by the cession, in 1858,
of the tract lying south of the Gila
River, since called the Gadsden pur-
chase, and the addition of Alaska to
possessions in 1867 by cession from
Russia.
Thus we see how the area of the
United States has been built up. In
1776 it could hardly be said to reach
as far west as the Allegheny Noun
tains, and embraced no part of Flori-
da. In 1878 it reached nomially as far
as the Mississippi River, but there
were vast stretches of that area that
acknowledged no human jurisdiction
and in which no traces of civilization
could be found. Within the past CEN
tury there has been added to our ma
tiOnal domain, entirely exclusive of
Alaska, an area almost twice as large
as that which we then possessed; and,
what is still more important, this i'm
mense territory has been rapidly TAX
en- up by enterprising settlers, and is
becoming filed with homes of happy
husbandmen. AS we look back on this
our nations birthday, surely our peo-
pie have every reason for thankful
has guided them in all the years that
have gone by, and which, let us hope
and trust, will overrule our destinies
during the coming centuries.-Ma
Express.