The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-04-11
a HISTORIC Centenary.

March "a. 1911. which saw John
Jacob Astor's brigantine TonQuin enter
the Columbia river, was a great date
mark in American history. Around the
fur trading post which his men estab-
lished near the mouth of that stream,
close to the present Astoria, was built
the first American settlement seen on
the Pacific. Reinforcing our title gain
ed in 1892 by discovery OF the river
and in 1905 by exploration of it from
its southern sources to its mouth, the
Aston and subsequent settlements gave
US our claim to all the territory be-
tween the southern line of California
and the southern boundary of British
Columbia. All of this region came to
US through the treaty of 1916 with
England, that country having fur trad
ing posts at many points in it previous
to the latter date, and claiming juris-
diction over all of it.
The Astor settlement of a century
ago turned the thoughts of the Ameri-
can people toward the Pacific, and the
dispute with England as to the title to
Oregon made us all the more eager to
annex Texas, which came to US in De-
cember, 1845, half year before the
treaty with England by which she sur
rendered her claims to the Oregon
country which comprised not only the
present state of that name. but also
Washington and Idaho and parts of
Wyoming and Montana. The dispute
with Mexico regarding the western
boundary of Texas brought on the war
through which, by conquest and pur-
chase we gained New Mexico and CAL
ifornia by the treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo in 1S48. Ten DAYS before that
treaty was signed the gold discovery
was made in California. which sent
90, 600 people to that locality in the
next two years. Months passed after
the signing of the treaty, however, be-
fore the world heard about the geld
lind k.s ass,s.szs
Thus IN the three years beginning in
1S45, when Texas was annexed. our
boundaries were pushed westward
from the Sabine river to the Rio
Grand and from the Rocky Mountains
to the Pacific. All these acquisitions
of territory took place during the adj
ministration Of James x. Polk Well
might that president exclaim, as he did
jubilantIy in his last message to con-
gress, that of 1S4S: "The territories re-
Gently acquired and over which our ex-
elusive jurisdiction and dominion have
been extended constitute country
more than half as large as all that
which was held by the United States
before their acquisition. The Missis-
sippf, so lately the frontier of our
country (previous to the Louisiana
Purchase of 1909. is now only its
center"
And the chain of influences which
hastened, If 1t did not actually bring,
the acquisition of all that vast empire,
from the States of Washington and
Idaho down to Texas. New Mexico,
Arizona, and California, inclusive, may
be said to have been started by the
planting of Astors little colony at
the mouth of the Columbia in 1911.
That settlement and it's kindred col
onies on the borders Of the Pacific
compelled the American people to
s'think continentally." The region
population of 9,5OO.000 IL 1910. Thus
the city of Astoria figures in one of the
most picturesque episodes in the annals
of American expansion. - LESLIE
Weekly.