The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-26
so long as the earth spins upon It's axis
or slides down the ecliptic.
One 0f JefersOu'a Mistakes.

so long as the earth spins upon It's axis
or slides down the ecliptic.
one of JeRerson's Mistakes.
One of the strangest omissions in all
literature was Jefferson's failure to include
this colossal achievement among those
great and beneficent deeds upon which he
chose to rest his fame, as enumerated in
his celebrated auto-epitaph, which Is
known and read of all men.
The Corsican little knew what he was
selling The Virglnan, with all his wis
dom and all his ardent optimism, had no
adequate conception OF what he was buy
ing Indeed after a century of marvellous
development, no man--not even the most
sauguine of us, citizens Of that purchase,
In this hour OF enthusiasm and cxaltation
would risk his reputation as prophet
by undertaking TO definitely estimate the
riches of the gorgeous empire. They beg
gar arithmetic and the Imagination. The
mathematical and financial powers of the
human mind are not equal to the compre-
hension OF the unspeakable heritage of
our children and our children's children
beyond the Mississippi.
Napoleon would nave done better part
by the French had he transferred them,
bag and baggage, with their Lares and
penates 10 Louisiana, and abandoned La
Belle France bodily and forever to Eng
land, Prussia, Austria, and her other enc
mics.
If Jefferson had lived a thousand years
he could never again have 80 multiplied
his country's wealth and strength, for
the all-sufficient reason that nowhere on
this planet is there such another body of
land as that which he added to the
union.
Boundaries Were Uncertain.
The boundaries of the territory were I'M
certain, which enables us to establish
them according 10 our will and according
to our strength.
If we had been as strong then as now,
and had at that time developed our pres
ent abnormal unappeasable, all-devourlng
land hunger, we would have construed the
limits of the purchase as stretching from
the Aurora Borealis on the north to Cape
Horn on the south, and from the Father
Of Waters on the east to the setting sun
In the west.
The title which the first consul convey
ed 10 us was inchoate, but at New Or
leans Andrew Jackson converted Napoi-
cons nobulous quit claim into general
warranty deed, against which even the
gates Of hell shall not prevail.
Napoleon sold that vast empire for a
mere song-for $15,000.000 an amount OF
money which Congress now votes away
in the twinkling OF an eye, and without
debate. Within that territory are proba-
bly, a hundred counties-any one of which
is worth more than that entire sum.
Missouris Vast wealth.
MISSOURI alone has So ,0s0O 600 OF prop
erty in sight. How much more she has
hidden away In safety deposit vaults bank
vaults old tea kettles and Old stockings,
this deponent saith not. Nothing short of
onniscience can estimate the undeveloped
and inexhaustibe wealth beneath her
crust Year by year her people pay more
taxes. state, county, township, municipal
and school, than constituted tile entire an
nuaI revenues Of the federal government
during the administration Of George Wash
ington, old John ADAMS and Thomas JEFF
fersor-a greater sum than the annual
revenues Of Great Britain when elizabeth,
mightiest King of the House OF Tudor. was
upon the throne-yet Missouri has the low
or tax rate and the largest per capita
school funds of all the states OF the re-
public.
There Is not a county In Missouri, which.
from It's own products and resources san
not spread a feast more toothsome than
Epicures or fsucullas dreamed OF or any
ever tasted by any monarch IN the world
prior to the coronation Of Queen Victoria.
Build another Chlnese wall about the
Louisiana purchase, cut off the citizens