The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1898-12-22
A Comparison.

moral ADVANCE WHICH IulS Country udS
made in the last 100 years. In the
historical books 1898 does not figure
with any prominence, but in reality it
is an important landmark in the his
tory of expansion. It was just 100
years ago that the provisions of the
treaty of peace with England in 1888
were fully and finally carried out. For
fifteen years after that date the United
States in its endeavOrs to secure the
boundaries guaranteed in that agree
ment, was INSTRUCTED by two nations.
England and Spain. The British held
possession of posts at OswegO, Niagara,
Detroit and other places in United
States Territory on the northern from
tier until jays treaty, which, among
other things, provided for their evac-
uation, went into operation in 1896,
and even then the work of abandon
ment was carried on with a slowness
which was exceedingly exasperating to
the people of the United States.
With Spain, however, the United
States had much more trouble in secur-
ing it's treaty rights under the agree
ment of 1883 than it had with England.
Then, as now, Spainwa slow in grasp
ing the justice of any demand by any
, other nation, and in that particular
crisis the situation for this country was
rendered doubly embarrassing by thel
fact that Spain was still one of they
great powers of the earth while the
United States was only an insignificant
spot on the map, and had no rights
which any of the great nations felt
Bound to respect. Spain contended
that the Florida region which she had
gained from England during the Ameri-
can revolution, and which extended
west to the Mississippi, went as far
north as the mouth of the Yazoo, about
the parallel of 800 north latitude, which
would make the southern line Of the
United States on the Mississippi end at
that point. Both England and the
United States, on the other hand, in
sisted that the country's boundary
vent down to latitude 80. At last,
the protests and threats of the United
States and SPANS dangers in the Ma
poleonic wars then under way, COM
PEELED the latter to accede to the
American demands. Spain did this in
the treaty of San Lorenzo of 1875
which was ratified by the Senate in
1896, but 1898 arrived before the
Spanish flag went down in Natchez,
and the stars and stripes went up.
Then, fifteen years after the treaty Of
independence and just 100 years ago,
the title of the United States to all this
territory between the Atlantic and the
Mississippi. and from the Great lakes
to the Florida line, was definitely con-
firmed.
Americas situation in 1898, material.
" and morally, makes a striking con-
trast with that of 1898. On the day
when Govosa's forces lowered their
flag at Natchez and sailed down to
New Orleans, the person who stepped
below the southerly line Of Georgia into
the lower end of what is now the state
of Mississippi, or who crossed the
Mississippi river, would be in foreign
land. We were surrounded on three
sides by powerful nations. England
was north of us as now, and Spain was
south and west Of us as she held Florida
which comprised the present state Of
that name and a strip westward along
the southerly line of what are now the
states of Alabama and Mississippi tt
the Mississippi river and she held al
the region west of the river. The
population of the country was abou
100000. The Louisiana cessiol
and all the other annexatiOns wer
still in the distance. Nobody coulC
have foreseen at that time that tn
narrow strip of populated area east o
the Alleghanies with the scarcely les
diminutive stretch of wilderness be
tween these mountains and the Missis
sippi would ever reach the Gulf of Mexi
co and the Pacific much less could an
one foresee that this country woul
annex all of Russian America, absor'
all the islands of value on the Gulf q
Mexico and acquire possessions scat
tered through the Pacific extende,
almost to the continent of Asia. Th
growth of America from population
of 100000 and an area of 827,00
square miles in 1893 to an area Q
100000 and population of 85,000,C0
in 1898. attended as it has been by