The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1912-05-02
The Centennial of Louisiana.

The Centennial of Louisiana.
From Frank Leslie's Weekly.
Louisiana's admission to statehood on
April 80, 1912, was larger datemark in
American history than is commonly sup
posed. That was the first State carved
out of the Louisiana province which Bona
parte thrust on Jefferson in 1903. 1t was
the first State to be created west of the
Mississippi. 1t was the first, too, to be
established in community whose Ian
guage was other than English, for at the
outset most of the population of the State
of Louisiana spoke French or Spanish, the
tongues of the successive owners of that
region. In another particular the admis-
sion of Louisiana to statehood was dis
tinctive. The debate which it aroused
melted the first threat of secession ever
heard in the American Congress, and the
author of the threat was not Southern
man or Democrat.
am compelled to declare it as my de-
liberate opinion that if this bill passes, the
bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved;
that the States which compose it are free
from their moral obligations; and that as
it will be the right OF all, SO it will be the
duty of some, to prepare definitely for a
SUPPLEMENTARY if they can; forci-
bly, if they must.
These were the words of Josiah Quincy,
a Massachusetts, member of the House Of
Representatives and leader Of the Fed
eralist party, in speech in the House in
opposition to the admission of the proposed
State. In that speech Quincy declared
that Congress had no authority to throw
the rights and liberty of the seventeen
existing States Into hotchpot with the
wild men on the Missouri or with the
mixed, though more respectable, race of
A glo : Hispano- Gallo Americans who
bask on the sands at the mouth of the
Mississippi
In 1912 more States are West of the
Mississippi than were east of it in 1872.
Louisiana, the pioneer State of that
region, has twenty one associates now,
two of them-New Mexico and Arizona
having entered a few weeks ago. The
geographical center Of the country, exclu-
sive of Alaska and our island possessions,
is west of the big river, being in northern
| Kansas. West Of the river, too, is the
center of the production of corn, silver
gold and other commodities. The country
population center is in Indiana, but it is
moving steadily, though slowly, in the
direction of that stream. The present
Speaker of the House-Champ Clark, Of
Missouri-resides west of the Mississippi
as did former speaker, David B. Hen.
derson, of Iowa. There is a possibility
that the country will go to that region fol
its next president, for Speaker Clark leads
in the delegates thus far selected for the
Democratic National Convention.
The Louisiana Historical Society has
been directed by the Legislature of tina
State to arrange for celebration of the
Statehood Centennial, and it has made
April 80, 1912, special holiday. More
fags-the French, the Spanish, the French
again, the United States, the Confederate
and the United States once more-havt
waved over Louisiana than over almos
any other part of the country. The Presi
dent is expected to participate in the cele
bration, and so are representatives of thu
governments of France and Spain, it,
earlier owners. Louisiana is growing
and progressive State. It stands twenty
fourth on the list of the forty eight com
monwealths, and increased thirty per cent
in population in the past ten years, al
compared with twenty-one per cent. TO
the country as a whole. April 80, 1912
will be reminder to Americans that thei
annals carry more color and romance thar
most Of them have assumed.