Arizona republican., 1903-11-19
HOW THE WEST WAS BOUGHT

In the November Scribner is a his 1 tory of the Louisiana Purchase, by | Noah Brooks. It reads like a strange romance now. For $15.OOO,OO0 Messrs. Livingston and Monroe bought from | the agent of Napoleon a tract of coun- try including the Mississippi and Mis- sCuri and so much land that by the | purchase the area of the republic was | doubled. Still when the news came. a month later, President Jefferson. while | exalted over it, feared that the pur- chase was unconstitutional, and a storm of protest arose over half the republic against it. Then the question arose as to how it was to be govern ed, and then, too, the cry of imperial | ism was raised, and Jefferson was called King Tom
 That history ought to make all Americans thoughtful. It was the moving of the finger of destiny. but the nations eyes were blinded: they could not see the purpose; they had | no conception of how momcntous was 1 to b. the outcome of the transaction. | It was in a little way as it is when the waters are called up frlm the breast of the ocean, carried or the winds to the mountain tops, and prccipitated in snow and ice, there to remain through uncOunted years. to receive other de- pcsits of snow and ice until a glacier is builded up. and then. when the time is ripe, the be1ting of the sunbeams and the earth's rotation starts the frozen mass in hoW back to the sea and the mountain tops are ground into soil out of which is to grow food to support millions Of mortals which ar the time the STOW fell and for millions of years therea fter existed only in the mind and the plans of God. A mighty wilderness was bought and q
 provincial peOTle, unconscious of the majesty and promise of the vast addi- ticn, derided the purchase. sought to
 impeach the motives behind the pur-
 chase, and stoTmcd because of the inn mense sum to be paid out of their
 taxes for it. Still the Father of Wat
 CTS was rolling down before their eyes:
 they knew something of the wealth of
 the valleys of the Rhine, the Danube
 and Don; they were familiar with the
 history of the valleys of Asia and of
 the Nile, but they could not compre-
 bend that the purchase included a
 valley compared with which no valley
 of the old world is worth mentioning.
 oIlh Ile Iatne!S were intelligent men
 and brave and true men. but their
 horizons were narrow, their visions
 limited
 That was but 100 years ago. Many of the grandchildren Cf that old race
 are still living. but how marvellous the
 change.
 That valley supplies half Of Europe
 with food now; it supplies the mills Of
 the old world with textiles: the gold and silver ard lead of Montana. Wv oming, half of Colorado, the Dakotas.
 Missouri and Iowa, all from that pur- chase, make q mighty factor in the worlds commerce and finances-it is an empire stretching out blessings to all the world, making a home now for twice as many people as at the time Of the purchase inhabited the whole re- public, and still it has but just begun it's expansion.
 The lesson behind the history is that the wisest cannot see as far into the future and that often fate will have its way despite mems protests.
 Our land has been consecrated to lib- erty, and with the conservation was a declaration for the equal rights of men under the law, and we were to have a fair trial and space enough on