The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-02
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: DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON s
REV. FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE, Q. ..

ment would be If We had been compelled
to erect frownlng fortresses at Buffalo and
Pittsburg and Cincinnati and Louisville
and Natchez, and custom house officials
had been set to patrol the eastern shores
of the Ohio to keep the goods of our
western country from entering New York
and Philadelphia duty free?
Louisiana Purchase.
We must hurry in the discussion of this
interesting Thanksgiving theme The next
great geographical expansion to which |
would call your attention is the Louisiana
purchase. The indirect cause of this pur-
chase IS almost unknown to the majority
of American citizens. And in order to
give the historical setting to this transact
ton, l shall first introduce to you as
strange and as weird personality as
George Rogers Clark. This man is not a
white man, but full-blooded negro. He
Is not living in France or Spain or in the
emitted States, but in the island of Santo
Domingo And yet this negro, this ex-
slave, named Toussaint fOuverture, whom
Napoleon betrayed by false promises and
brutally starved to death in the French
dungeon of st. JouX, had as much to do
with the Louisiana purchase as Robert
Livingston or Thomas Jefferson, the Pres
ident
Santo Domingo is an island of the West
indies northeast of South America. 1t is
more commonly known as Haiti or the
Island of Mountains In geographical
area it is about the size of South Caro-
Ina. 1t is an island SO beautiful that it
seems as though the goddess Flora had
come there and planted her most beauti-
fdl treasures, and that the Garden of
Eden had lifted itself out of the green
seas to be kissed by the azure of the blue
skies. Here it was in the days of Robes
pierre and Marat and Danton led on by
paI Ia6 int
fOuverture, that the slaves of that island
rose in their might and fought for the
honor of their manhood and womanhood
and won their independence and called
their brave leader, Toussaint rOuverture
their national chief That was in 1901
Under this new regime so great was the
peace and prosperity of the island that
Wendell Phillips said: "A child with a
bag of gold could go from Samona to
Port au Prince without risk. Peace was
in every household. The valleys glowed
with fertility; culture climbed the noun
tains; the commerce of the world was
represented in the harbors." And thank
God. there was no slave anywhere Ev-
cry man, woman and child was free.
Something to Fight About.
The scene again changes. We are now
IN the Tulleries of Paris Napoleon, the
young conqueror, is elected first consul of
of 1902, when war between England and
France was ended The.whole world was
now at peace, and Napoleon had big
army on his hands and nothing to fight.
Then the Little Corporal said to him
sell: Il must have something to fight
! must keep my soldiers employed" So
he looked over the map and said, aha!
l have a solution. Here is Santo Domin-
CO. | will conquer it and again enslave
its negroes" The French soldiers did not
care what they were fighting as long as
they were fighting something, So the
flower of the French army set sail for
this far-on island. lie Clerc, the great
French general the husband of Napole-
on's sister, Pauline Bonaparte, was in
command.
What happened? Toussaint TOuverture
is treacherously betrayed and carried to
France a prisoner, but his leutenants of
war continued his patriotic work These
disciples of the Washington of this south
ern island, aided by the pestience and
disease which fought for them, drove the
French troops step by step until within
a few months siX-seVenths of all the un-
principled French invaders We're dead
The veteran French soldiers, whose tread
like the tramp of Roman legions, struck
the world with terror, were moved down
almost as quickly as the rpened grain
falls before the hiss of the scythe. What
now happened? Napoleon, the great Ma
poleon, the mighty conqueror Napoleon,
who had his dreams of making the rich
territory of Louisiana the brightest star
in his royal diadem, said: IF a few ne
groes in far-off Santo Domingo can de-
stroy my legions, / cannot hold Louisiana
In case of war. l must sell right away"
Once more the scene changes. Europe
was again in arms against the tyrant.
Napoleon must have money, and have it
right away Napoleon cannot hold his
American possessions and still fight his
European foes Thus when Robert Liv-
ingston comes to him and says, "First
consul. will you sell us for two millions
of dollars the land on the east side of
the Mississippi, that we may have en-
trance for our commerce up the Ohio?"
Napoleon answers, For SIS, 200 600 | will
sell you all of louisiana" Thus all of
Indian Territory, all of Kansas and Ne
braska and Iowa and Wyoming and Mon
tana and the Dallotas and most of Colo
, RADIO and Minnesota and all of Washing
ton and Oregon states came to us as the
indirect work of a despsed negro Praise,
If you will, the work of a Robert Living
stont or Jefferson, but today let us not
forget our debt to Toussaint rOuVerture
who was indirectly the means of Ameri-
cas- expansion by the Louisiana purchase
of 1903. Do not from now on tell me that
the negro of the south or of the north
| has no claim to Americas citizenship.
Toussant rOuyerture has forever won for
the negro that token of the gratitude of
our nation.
But. alas, now. with flushed cheek of
humiliation and downcast eyes of shame,
we must recall our national dealings with
the poor, helpless, struggling republic of
Mexico in reference to the Texan annex
alton of 1915 and the Mexican cession of
1S4S, and the more we study this sad ep-
och of our national history the more we
feel that our government not only acted
unjustly, but she acted dishonesty.
Texan Annexation.
In the first place, to understand the
chief cause of this geographical expan-
sion, you must enter the United States
Senate at Washington and stand for q
little while there amid the slavery agita-
lions of the antebelum time of the early
| forties. The north was arraying its con-
gressional forces on the one hand, and
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