The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-04-30
HUNDREDTH
ANNIVERSARY.
Address of President Roosevelt
at st. Louis
In CommemoratiOn Of the Louis
lana Purchase.
NATIONAL EXPANSION
Is Traced from Its Beginning
to the Present.
JefIerson's Work the Most Not
able Landmark.
NATIONAL EXPANSION

Mr.. President. Ladies and Gentlemens
AT the outset Of my address let me re-
call to the minds of my hearers that
the soil upon which we stand before IL
was ours, was successfully the possess
sion of two mighty empires. Spain ana
France. whose sons made a deathless
record of heroism in the early annals OF
the new world. No history of the vest
ern country can be written without pay
ing heed to the wonderful part played
therein in the early days by the sol
diers. missionaries. explorers, and trad
ers. who did their work for the honor
OF the proud banners of France anu
CASTLE. While the settlers of English
speaking stock, and those Of Dutch,
German, and scandinavian origin who
were associated with them. were still
clinging close to the eastern seaboard,
the pioneers of Spain and of France HAD
penetrated deep into the hitherto un
known wilderness Of the west and haa
wandered far 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 70
the natiOnalities of their founders IC
was not until the revolution had begun
that the Engiish-speakin settlers
pushed west across the Alleghenies, and
=
tered in to possess the land upon winch
we now stand.
We have met here today to commemo.
rate the huudredth anniversary OF the
event which more than any other, attel
the foundation of the government ana
always excepting its preservation, de-
tcrmined the character Of our national
life-determined that we should be a
great expanding nation instead of rela-
lively 4 small and stationary one.
OF course IL was not with the Louis
lana purchase that our career of eEpan-
sion began. In the middle Of the reVo~
lutionary war +-~ Illinois region. includ-
ing the present states Of Illinois and IN
diana. was added to our domain by force
of arms. as a sequel to the adventurou.
expedition of George Rogers Clarke and
his frontier ifemen. Later the treaties
of JAY and Pinckney materially extend
ed our real boundaries to the west But
none of these events was of so striking
a character as to fix the popular mag
ination. The old thirteen colonies had
always claimed that their rights
stretched westward to the Mississippi.
and vague and unreal though these
claims We're until made good by con-
quest settlement, and diplomacy. they
stM served to give the impression that
the earliest westward movements Of
our people We're little more than the
filing in of already existing national
boundaries.
But there could be no illusion about
the acquisition of the vast territory be-
yQhd the Mississippi stretching west
ward to the Pacific which in that day
was known as louisiana This immense
region was admittedly the territory of a
foreign power, of a European kingdom
None of our people had ever laid claim
to foot of ill., 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-
Sciously and of set purpose we had en-
harzed on a career of expansion. that
we had taken our place among those
daring and hardy nations who risk
much with the hope and desire of win
l1ne high position among the great
powers of the earth. AS is so often the
case in nature, the law Of development
of living organism showed itself in it's
actual workings to be wiser than the
wisdom of the wisast
This work of expansion was by far the
greatest work of our people during the
wears that interviewed between the adoD-
ton of the constitution and the out
break Of the civil war There we're
other questions of real moment and i'm
portance. and there We're many which
at the time seemed such to those en-
gagged in answering them: but the
greatest feat of our forefathers of those
generations was the deed of the men
who with pack train or wagon train.
on horseback. ON foot, or by boat upon