The Washington times., 1903-05-01
Speech Delivered at Dedica-
ton of st. Louis Fair.
LIBERTY FOR CONTINENT
Marked Differences Between Treatment
of Louisiana Purchase and
Roman Methods.

ST. LOUIS, May AT the dedication
of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in
ST Louis yesterday, President Roose-
Welt and ex-President Cleveland were the
principal speakers President Roosevelt
said:
We have met here today to comment
crate the hundredth anniversary of the
event which. more than any other after
the foundation OF the Government, and
always excepting its preservation. de-
termIned the character of our national
Undetermined that we should be a
great expanding nation instead of rela
lively small and stationary one.
'Of course. it was not with the Louis
lana Purchase that our career of expan-
sion began. In the middle of the Rev
dictionary war the Illinois region in
Guiding the present States of Illinois and
Indiana was added to our domain by
force of arms as a sequel to the adven-
turous expedition of George Rogers
Clarke and his frontier rifemen Later
the treaties of Jay and Pinckney materi-
ally extended our real boundaries TO the
west. But none of these events was of
so striking a character as TO fire the
popular imagination.
Claims Made Good
The old thirteen colonies had always
claimed that their rights stretched west
>.nd to the Mississippi, and vague and
unreal though these claims were until
made good by conquest. settlement and
diplomacy. they still served to give the
impression that the earliest westward
movements of our people were little
nc, than the filing in of already-ex-
iat:.sg national boundaries.
L ut there could be no illusion about
the acquisition of the vast territory be-
yond the Mississippi, stretching west
ward TO the Pacific, which in that day
was known as Louisiana. This I'M
mense region was admittedly the terri
tory of a foreign power. of a European
kingdom. None of our people had ever
laid claim TO a foot of il. Its acquisi-
ton could in no sense be treated as
rounding out any existing claims. When
we acquired it we made evident once
for all that consciously and of set pur-
pose We had embarked 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 winning high position among the
great powers of the earth. AS is so
often the case in nature. the law Of
development of a living organism show
ed itself in its actual workings to be
wiser than the wisdom of the wisest
Expansion Before Civil War.
This work of expansion was by far
the greatest work of our people during
the years that interviewed between the
adoption of the Constitution and the
outbreak OF the civil war. There were
sther questions of real moment and i'm
pcrtance, and there were many which
az the time seemed such to those en-
gagged in answering them: but the great
est feat of our forefathers of those gen.
erations was the deed OF the men who.
with pack train or wagon train, On
waters. pushed the frontier ever west
ward across the continent.
Never before had the world seen the
kind of national expansion which gave
our people all that part of the American
continent lying west of the thirteen
original States, the greatest landmark
jn which was the Louisiana Purchase
Our triumph in this process of expan-
sion was indissolubly bound up with the
success of our peculiar kind Of federal
government; and this success has been
so complete that because OF its very
completeness we now sometimes fail to
appreciate not only the alI-importanee
but the tremendous difficulty of the
originally faced.
When our forefathers Joined TO call
into being this nation they undertook a
task for which there was but little en-
coura ging precedent. The development
OF civilization from the earliest period
seemed TO show the truth of two propo-
sitions: In the first place, it had always
proved exceedingly difficult TO secure
both freedom and strength in any gov
eminent; and in the second place. it
had always proved welI-nigh impossible
for nation TO expand without either
breaking up or becoming q centralized
tyranny.
With the success of our efforts TO
combine a strong and efficient national
union, able TO put down disorder at
home and TO maintain our honor and in
terest abroad. l have not now to deal.
This success was signal and aII-impor-
tant, but it by no means unprece-
dented in the same sense that our type
of expansion was unprecedented. The
history OF Rome and of Greece illus
trates very well the two types of expan-
sion which had taken place in ancient
time and which had been universally
accepted as the only possible types up
10 the period when as nation we our
selves began TO take possession of this
continent. The Grecian states performed
remarkable feats of colonization, but
each colony as soon as created became
entirely independent Of the mother state
and fn after years was almost as apt
TO prove its enemy as its friend Local
elf-government. local independence,
was secured, but only by the absolute
sacrifice OF anything resembling national
unity.