The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-15
No 6. Louisiana Purchase.
 


 Louisiana Purchase.
 [Concluded.l
 By JOHN wITHERSPOoN DuBOSE.
 The treaty of Ildefenso, October l, 1900, EFas secret preliminary of hostility on &Ae part of the First Consul toward the United States. The First Consul employ 70 his talents in the destruction of Euro- beam monarchies, but he was not the less &o&ious of the liberty, fast. growing into national life and from across the Allan Spain, to retro-cede Louisiana to Fpance; 70 him. in fact. He, the mighty surveyor and locator of boundary lines of empire, atory secured to the United States by Britain. depended at last upon possession lississippi. New York held by the Brit 1sh throughout the Revolutionary War, was evacuated by this treaty of ns condition precedent of American con trol of the Atlantic coast, but possession of New York was not more essential to the control of the Atlantic coast by the Eederel Government than possession of New Orleans was essential to orderly au- fhorfty In that Government over the east ern side of the Mississippi. Within the very year of the secret retro-cession treaty. France had met the United States Ia battle on the high seas. In February, 1900. and in February, 1799. Captain Trax- ton of the United States Navy had met end defeated the French on the high seas: the friendship of the Bourbon King of France for America, the intense bitter
 onaDarte towsTd this nj p0Ssr eountTy was never to be doubted. He held a powerful army in St Domingo at the very mo- ment he signed the treaty of Ildefenso; That he contemplated the transfer of that army to New Orleans. intelligent Americans were well convinced.
 Commodore Maury. the geographer of er basins drained into the Gulf and the caribbean Sea greatly exceed in extent and Tn capacity of production the river Mexico Is the Mediterranean of the New World and nature has laid it on scale more grand" etc: We are accustomed to Waterloo. 1t is well within the range of 3eBiumate study of the most wonderful man of all time to indulge some specula- of all between the Alleghanies and the 6acinc; what of the promise of his em- pire! He had already the Code Napoleon, @ apt that it is surviving law in Louisi- ana to this day: he could have transport @ tnather large part of the population or France and thousands of the inhabi- Sants of his conquered States of Europe. When he sold Louisiana" he was forced 10 the act, less by the emergencies of his position In Europe than by the peril of capture of New Orleans by America. He mighf~ make terms at his own option to Pacify Europe and save Louisiana from England. but he could not save New Or leans from the United States under any from America in time to reduce him to enterprise limited to Europe only, to his ruin. Wellington, at Waterloo, provided ser srrn the wrsss restoration of hereditary mon dogma of divine right of Kings might Rake root, for the Holy Alliance" and scr la correlated claims of heredity in civil hand, made provision in the very phrases oI the Louisiana treaty Article I'D for kEe principle of the rights of man, for the TOT the supremacy of the Constitution oyer the flag. If in this centennial of Ecgui.sition; .sI the port of New Orleans has matchless fields of grain rich as the fields of the Nile. to the Unparalleled cattle ranges, to the measureless stores 1na," the loss to New Orleans, not more uunatural than the gain to remote and diScuIt New York, IS of the defiance of abnormal political power over the princi- ples taught by Jefferson.
 Boundaries.
 Where lay "Louisiana?" A man uuh- Nshed and used in London as late as I71O bounds the territory by the Perdido Riv- er on the east and the Rio Grande on naseSt sne west 4 ,Ss map published by the De in different places and at various times. from 1870 for fifteen years, shows that ane pTesent states of Washington, Oregon chase In 1888. nevertheless the Depart ment Of the Interior publishes a correct- Se map, claiming that not Texas. or Ida 20 or Oregon or Washington were of the Louieiana Purchase.
 There are several letters of Mir. Jeffer- eon written pending the completion of that Mobile and Mobile Bay came within {he lines of the Purchase. He contended n x0r tne Perdido on the east and the Rio Grande oa the west as the proper south @<n limits of Louisiana"
 Cn January 2S 1905. Messrs. Monroe se,,sn ana r1nckney; then at Madrid for the purpose or adjusting the boundaries of Louisiana" addressed a note to tha Spanish Minister. saying of the boundary linss, they are the river PerdIdo on the the west. and the facts and princinIes which Justify this conclusion are so sat lsLactory to our Government as to con 2 better right to the Island of New opt f1pt leans under the cession than they have to she .h whole district of territory which is AGr. Monroe, then President, despatcbaG !. special messenger to Texas to warn of Q party of adventurers who were preparing saimed % by the united shis statas the territory kon's Messages. Vol. ". pp. 4S24SSi There is other evidence from MT. Monros' ghe Envoy Extraordinary who had nego, papers of General Jackson, found after Dis death. was letter from Presidant tAOnI0e ApoioBetlc or that feature of tha Florida Purchase treaty, of February 2a 1s2s which surrendered Texas to Spain'
 Having long known the repusnance ltn which the eastern portion of our Union. or rather, some of those who hava enjoyed its confidence (for I do nof thdntS 8hat the people themselves have anH Tish or interest of that kind) have sa..y Es aggrandizemenA in the West and | l$outh- have been decidedly of inc onin1 Jinu Non that we ought to be content with Florida for the present and until thh nuh' | pc opinion in that quarter shall he recoD- Rlled SsiSl to any further change.H fBen- | Mr. Webster. in 1S42 as Secratarv os $tate, maaintained in his corresnonSenoaa ey1th Mexico that Texas had been siIrrat esred. as 2 part of the Louisiana 0' Pur- E ur- Ehaase, under the stipulations of tbo Florida Purchase. Presidents Poi. anS .ns Iyler sent messages. respectiyelV. to Congress referring to Texas as of tbe tbee original Louisiana oA the
 Status of the Sections
 There is so much of tragedy in tbe sa aueI of the Louisiana Purchase that some