The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-15

For a score of years after the winding
of our national independence the boun-
darfes of the United States remained as
they had been fixed by the treaty of
Paris in 1888. To the north were the
British possessions; our Western boun-
Diary was the Mississippi. from its source
to the island of New Orleans. That
island and all west of the Mississippi be-
longed to Spain, as did, also, the two
Floridas-East Florida corresponding to
the present state, and West Florida,
which was a strip along the gulf. cut
ting off what is now the southern por-
ton of Alabama and Mississippi. The
first addition to this domain was Louis
lana: not merely the territory in the
present state of that name, but the
whole basin of the Mississippi west of
that river. The acquisition of this vast
region practically doubled the area of
the young republic. The story of that
acquisition involves many considerations
geographical, political and commercial.
First we must see what Louisiana was;
we must study its history, its people, its
Importance.
The Spaniards had first discovered and
very slightly explored the region, as the
story of De Soto's burial II the "A sis
sippi reminds us. Spains nominal claim
was undisturbed for nearly two centuries.
Then from the north the French began
to explore, and in 1878 Pere Marquette
feated down the great river from the
Wisconsin to the Arkansas, and thence
Slowly worked his way northward again.
In 1852 the Chevalier de La Sale pushed
down the river to the gulf, and on it's
shores took possession of the whole re-
gion in the name of the king of France,
calling it Louisiana in his honor. Settle
ments soon followed, and Biloxi Mobile
and New Orleans were founded. The
last named city became the French me-
tropolis. The character of the French
colonization was very much the same as
in Canada. There were mobiles seeking to
mend their fortunes, or in quest of ad-
venture: there were peasants, sober and
Industrious; and there was a cons idera-
BILE proportion of those who had been
swept up in the streets and lanes of
cities, and deported for their eountry's
cool.
Growth in population was never as
rapid in Louisiana as in Canada, and
the latter Jagged far behind the English
colonies. One of the earliest and most
famous attempts at a "boom' was made
by John Law and his Mississippi scheme.
1t was an age of commercial bubbles.
Ills company governed 1OulSidlld- LII
several years, but their exaggerations
and financial excuses hurt instead of
developing the country. Keen-eyed
Frenchmen saw the commercial and po-
Iitica1 Importance of the control of the
Mississippi. but the genius of the French
people does not lie in colonization. They
have never eolonized successfully on
large scale, and Louisiana was burden
rather than help to France.
1t proved a burden to its next owner,
also Our first lesson showed us that as
a result of the Seven Years war France,
by a secret treaty, gave New Orleans
and all her possessions west of the Mis-
sissippi to Spain. This was in 1853. The
actual transfer was not made till 1888.
Bitter was the modification of the French
settlers, and heroic, though ill-judged.
their resistance. Some of the noblest of
the colony who had dared to demand
the credentials of a Spanish governor
when he came to take over the dominion,
were brutally executed, and by the name
of "Cruel OReilly'' the Irish-Spaniard
who was guilty of humanity is branded
with infamy
Spain now held all the waterways to
the gulf And in those days waterways
were the only avenues of transportation.