Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1907-07-06


gain.
$50 little did Livingston know what
he was doing" writes Dr. Hale. "that
In the letter In which he announced 10
President Jefferson Napoleon's amaz-
ing offer and his own conclusion or the
great purchase he says, I have told
them that we should not send an emi'
grant across the Mississippi In loo
vears'" So little did the government
know of the region 1t had purchaseu
that President Jefferson, O snort tune
efter Louisiana had been ceded to our
government, had to send out the clark
and Lewis expedition to find out what
kind of n region 1t was and whether
the people could live there at all. Anu
one of the chief reasons, wrote Dr. |
Hale why the New England states OPP |
nosed the Louisiana purchase was be-
cause their own population was so
meager and they were afraid that this
now 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
to show Is that the great west, which
came into our possession during the
| earlier part of the last century, was hol
only undesired land, but that Goo
forced It upon an unwilling people III
order TO work out the destiny WHICH
he had for 1t to do. The American
neonle AZ q nation have had greatness
thrust upon them. While God was
lovinq the foundation Of this future
| greatness in its great landed terrific
ries the American people, from Presl-
| don't Jefferson down, were ALMOST
unanimous in their vehement protest
The Guidance Of Providence.
If 1t were not for the fact that be-
lieve the Lord God Of the hosts OF
Moses and Joshua is guiding this ma
tion would say that the acquisition
Of our great territories was nothlhg
but n long series of haphazard luck
The way we became possessed OF Lou
isiana was as undersigned and unsought
as is our present possession or the
philippines. When the Spanlsh-Amer.
ican war broke out, most people hau
never heard of the Philippine Islands
} Admiral Dewey, with his heet, was
ordered from Chinese harbors. Wnere
; could he 60 except to Manila! Iheh
after we took Manila, we were III thc
) nosition of Abraham Lincoln's huntei
holding on to the tall or ruhilins
hoor He was afraid to hold on aho
: equally afraid to let go. Most or uS
, todov do not want the Phillpplnes
9 THE American army officers and navy
= officers do not want them. But now
$ oor wa unload the burdenf God has
r thrust them Oh us, and for the presen
: we must keep them. SO God In tn
Il hacinning of the last century tnrus
d the great Louisiana territory upon US
r our forefathers did not want the land
n and yet they were afraid to reruse =
0 such was the condition of the Amerl
i can people during the occupancy OF tn
81 White Hcise by President fhonia
l. Jefferson.
Rut with their wonderful backgroun
e. of unlimited, unexplored land, aDou
l. which the people knew but little an
IS cored less, DR.. Hale introduces u
g 70 two men who were so to aid III IN
IS national development as to render I'LL
Is oreot heritage of territory nations
e necessity. These two American patr
d OTIS were not warriors. Neither ma
,d ovor unsheathed a sword. They wei
n not wizards of the pen, Ike Washih'
" ton Irving or like James Fenimoi
,eI C,oonor who did for the Indian WI
IN wan what the romantic Slr ai''
ad Scott did for the Scottish moors. lnt
ot wore not silver tongued orators, III
or Harrison Gray Otis or Pinckney or W.
he liam Writ They were simple mecha
st les and inventors They We're hump
b. men. but they were social reVoiu'io
rd tets THE name of the one hero WI
he pobert Fulton, that Of the other
ed whitney. They each presented prlC
re- less Gift. One gave to America u
ir. stoomboat the other the cotton u
With those two gifts these two ge
I'll fuses revolutlonized the map Oh |
lit new world.
ngl Refore these two men came up
1T .,o ccene the history of the Amerlc
om neople was mainly the history OF ma
ISL different localities. Each localry' to
or oreot extent, existed independently
,rk evorv other locality. The men TOT
1atl most mart dressed in homespun. L
to men dorned their children's sto'
The ings. wove their own garments d
the made their own rag carpets. No IN
zen co,ild make money off the communlt
an IN other parts Of the land. because
nd cost Of transportation would eat UP
nov tho nroits "The reader or too
one hardly remembers" writes Dr' I'D
the "that there were times when inc III
ion kat cost of q bushel of corn was sp
SO. 1 whom II had to be carried forty NIL
day AS late as 1880 I heard the jest WI
has ridiculed an emigrant from Mas
,uld chusetts by saying that he LETT
ism home a year before to go west VIII
still ing Of molasses to use In trade
alth that he returned at the end OF the y
ad- NJ adventure, having made enough
the bargaining to pay him for the il
lich When the man Of one state had
hen carry his goods to another state
ent. wagon and horse, the cost OF transl
fed tatIon obliterated all the profit,
lths thus communities in the beginning
. of the last century lived almost entil
only independent of each other.
Fulton's Invention.
Rut one day Robert Fulton lifted
state magic wand. Then the "chu-chu-c
that II the steamboat was heard. Then
) IA Mississippi and the Ohio and the
Iates son and all the great rivers Oh
first country became blackened with SIN
ling- Then the emigrants of tie east
Drac- west Then the merchandise ana
mt toodstuffs were carried from one
l IL. laAf