The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-01

St. Louis. Aprii 3o.-At the dedication exercises of the Louisiana Purchase Ex- position. President Roosevelt today spoke as follows:
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
 At the outset of my address let me re- call to the minds of my hearers that the soil upon which we stand. before it was ours, was successively the possession of two mighty empires, Spain and France, heroism in the early annals of the New World. No history of the Western country can be written without paying heed to the wonderful part played therein in the early days of the soldiers. mission aries explorers and traders, who did thein work for the honor of the proud banners of France and Castile. While the settlers Dutch. German and Scandinavian origin who were associated with them, were still citnging close to the Eastern seaboard; the pioneers of Spain and of France had penetrated deep into the hitherto unknown wilderness of the West and had wandered lar and wide within the boundaries of what is now our mighty country. The very cities themselves-St. Louis New Orleans, Santa Fe, New Mexico--bear witness by their titles to the nationalities Of their founders. It was not until the Revolution had begun that the English speaking settlers pushed west across the Alieshenies and not until d century ago that they entered in to possess the land upon which we now stand.
  crate the hundredth anniversary of the event which more than any other after the foundation of the government and always excepting it's preservation, deter mined the character of our national life determined that we should be a great ex- banding nation instead of relatively a small and stationary one.
 Of course 1t was not with the Louisi- ana Purchase that our career of expan- nion began. In the middle of the Revo- lufionary War the Illinois region, includ- sng the present States of Illinois and In- diana, was added to our domain by force of arms. as sequel to the adventurous expedition of George Rogers Clarke and his frontier riflemen. Later the treaties of Jay and Pinckney materially extended our real boundaries to the West. But none of these events was of so striking character as to fix the popular imagi- nation The old thirteen colonies had al- ways claimed that their rights stretched westward to the Mississippi and vague land unreal though these claims were #lntiI made good by conquest, settlement >pd diplomacy, they still served to give
 Af impression that the earliest west 2Axd movements of our peopde were little more than the filling in of already exist Gng national boundaries.
 Foreign Powers Territory.
 But there could be no illusion about khe acquisition of the vast territory be- gond the Mississippi, stretching west ward to the Pacific. which in that day was known as Louisiana. This immense region was auTnltteuly the territory or a foreign power. of a European kingdom. None of our people had ever laid claim to foot of it. Its acquisition could in no sense be treated as rounding out any existing claims. When we acquired it we made evident once for all that con Bciously and of set purpose we had en- parked on career of expansion. that we had taken our place among those daring and hardy sons who risk much with the hope and desire of winning high po- Bition among the great powers of the earth As is so often the case in nature. the law of development of living orgarI ism showed itself in irs actual workings to be-wi6er than the wisdom of the wis est.
 This work of expansion was by far the greatest work of our people during the years that intervened between the adoption of the Constitution and the other questions of real moment and im- portaI1ce, and there were many which at the time eened such to those engaged in