The Washington herald., 1915-08-17
HISTORY BUILDERS.
written Expressly for The Washington HeraldJ
by DIR. f. J. EDWARDS.
Two Critical Periods in Our History

In conversation which I had with
Or. John Bassett Moore. shortly after
he retired from the position so lately
occupied by him as counselor for the
State Department in the first year of
President Wilson's administration. he re-
ferred incidentally TO some uf the queer
condolences associated in point OF time
with our acquisition OF those vast sec
tons of territory which have given us
dominion from the Atlantic TO the Pa
cfc and from the Canadian boundary
to Mexico These condolences DIR.
Moore discovered at the time he was pre-
pa aring his monumental digest OF Ameri-
can arbitrations. and. later, his compile
tion of the digest of international law.
which Wheaton had begun. but died be-
fore he completed. DR. Moore called
nv attention to the fact that there
were two critical dates, one IN the year
1893 and the other in 1876, which idCnti
fed our acquisition of the so-Called Lou
isana territory and also OF the Oregon
territory. and again our acquisition of
California. and the determination of the
long disputed question which involved
the settlement of the northern boundary
OF Oregon.
1t is impossible to quote Mr.. Moore's
precise words but the substance of what
he said is as follows: I'm the spring
of 1903 President Jefferson was notified
by our minister to France. Robert r.
Livingston, and by a special commits
sioncr whom Jefferson sent to France
who afterward became President OF the
United states. James Monroe-that Napo-
leon Bonaparte was willing to sell the
Louisiana territory to the United States
for SIS, ,0H5 00G. Nobody at that time
thought the territory was OF any sre-
cial value. excepting that the sover-
eighty over II would give us New Orleans
and the command of the west bank OF
the Mississippi River to Its source.
Now 1t is curious coincidence. in the
view Of DR.. Moore, that just at that
time Jefferson was persuaded that we,
ought to make secure our claim to SOW
ereignty over the so-callcd Oregon terri
tory. He therefore became confidential
with Congress. exactly as nearly hun
dred years later President Mckinley did.
For Mckinley took the leaders of Con-
gress into his confidence just before the
Spanish war and thereby secured the
largest single appropriation of money
ever granted to any President or any
potentate without describing the purpose
to which the money was to be put.
Congress put into McKinley's hands fif-
ty million dollars. Mckinley may have
had the precedent which jefferson sug-
gested when he thus took Congress into
his confidence. jefferson asked Congress
to make an appropriation which would
enable him to disburse a sum of money
for q purpose which he had in mind.
After Congress voted Jefferson the
money, he caused the expedition which
afterward became traditional. as the
Lewis and Clark expedition, to be organ
lied. The discoveries made by Lewis and
Clark, supplementing the discovery Of
the mouth of the Columbia River by \
Boston sailor named Captain Grey.
clinched the claim Of the United States
to the Oregon territory. Both Of these
movements whereby our sovereignty
over the continental domain was estab-
lished by a strange coincidence are iden-
titled by the year 1903.
Copyright, 1915. BY E J. EdwardA An hshts ~
Tomorrow DR.. Edwards will tell how q
secret was Revealed in Biography"