The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-07-02

Another In|t which fnrcihly struck
mo in br. iInip's autobiography was
the in t'HtH uHnruut of nnoCCupied
land vti@', the United States govern.
mor't - ed which had not then
boou r-;inlrI ;nti which the leading
state 1.eu did not expect to utilize fol,
4 cCni;,ry at least tr come They took
possession If This land not because
they wanted if. but because they were
afraid snntoindy else might want IT,
and then there would he two nations
upon the American shores instead of
one. Not even the prime movers In
the Louisiana purchase had any true
conception of the great nationa! bar
gniu
$50 little did Livingston know what
he was doing" writes Dr. Hale. chat
in the letter I'm which he announced to
President jefferson Napoleun's aluaz-
ing offer and his own conclusion of the
great purchase he says. I have told
them that we should not send an emi
grant across the Mississippi in 100
years SO little did the government
know of the region It had purchased
that President Jefferson. short time
after Louisiana had been coded to our
government. had to send out the Clark
and Lewis expedition to find out what
kind of q region It was and whether
the people could live there at all And
one of the chief reasons. wrote Or,
Hale. why the New England states op-
posed the Louisiana purchase was he
cause their own population was So
ineager and they were afraid that this
new region of the far west might draw
some of their people away and leave
the farms Of the New England valleys
untitled. In other words. what ] wish
10 snow IL that the great west, which
came into our possession during the
earlier part of the last century. was not
only undcsircd land. but that God
forced IT upon an unwilling people In
order to work out the destiny which
he had for 1t to do The American
people as Il nation have had greatness
thrust upon them. While God was
laying the foundation of this future
greatness in its great landed terrific
riea the American people. from presi-
dent jefferson down. were almost
unanimous in their vehement protest
The Guidance of Providence.
If it were not for the fact that be
lievc the Lord God of the hosts Of
Nose; aud Joshua is guiding this ma
ton. | would say that the acquisition
of our great territories was nothing
but long series of hapllazard luck.
The way we became possessed of Lou
isinna was as undersigned and ,insought
as IL our present possession of tue
Philippines When the Spanish Amer
lean war broke out. most people had
never heard of the Philippine Islands.
Admiral Dewey with his fleet. was
ordered from Chinese harbors. Where
could he go except to Manila? Then.
after we took Manila. we were in the
position of Abraham Lincolns hunter
holding on to the tail of n running
bear. He was afraid to hold on and
equally afraid to let go. Most OF us
today do not want the Philippines.
The American army officers and navy
officers do not want them. But how
can we unload the burden? God has
thrust them OH us. and for the present
we must keep them. So God in the
beginning of the last century thrust
the great Louisiana territory upon us
Our forefathers did not want the land,
and yet they were afraid to refuse IT..
Such was the condition Of the AIneli
can people during the occupancy Of the
White House by President Thomas
Jefferson.
But with their wonderful background
of unlimited. unexplored land. about
which the people knew but little and
cared less. DR.. Hale Introduces us
10 two men who were so to aid In tn"
national development as to render this
great heritage Of territory national
necessity. These two American patri
OTIS were not warriors. Neither had
ever unsllea the1 a sword. They were
not wizards of the pen, like Washing
ton Irving or like james Fenimorc
Cooper. who did for the Indian wig
wan what the rom lntic Sir Walter
Scott did for the Scottish moOrs. They
were not silver tongued orators. Ike
Harrison Gray Otis OF fipckney or VII
liam Writ. They were simple meehan-
les and inventors. They were humble
men. but they were social revolution
lists. The name of the one hero was
Robert Fulton, that Of the other Ell
whitney. They eacl presented a price
less gift. One Ct n to America the
steamboat. the OF fr the cotton gin,
With those two s7,ts these two gen
fuses revolutionized the map of the
new world.
Before these two men came upon
the scene the history Of the American
people was mainly the history of many
different localities. Each locality, to a
great extent. existed independently OF
every other locality. The men for the
most part dressed in homespun. The
women darned their children's stock
ings, wOve their own garments anu
made their own rag carpets. No man
could make money off the communities
in other parts of the land. because the
cost OF transportation would eat up all
tho nrnGfs tVrhn rpnIpr nf TODAY