Expansion of the United States from Dwarf to Giant.
In 1775, when the British colonies in America struck the first blow
for independence, they were of dwarfish stature as compared with the
present superb dimensions of the United States. Though the war with
France had given them possession of the great Ohio Valley, the settled
portion of the country lay between the Alleghanies and the Atlantic,
and the thirteen confederated States were confined to a narrow strip
along the ocean border of the continent.
But before and during the Revolutionary War pathfinders and pioneers
were at work. Chief among them was the noted hunter Daniel Boone, the
explorer and settler of the "Dark and Bloody Ground" of Kentucky.
Before him daring men had crossed the mountains, and after him came
others, so that by the end of the Revolution the hand of civilization
was firmly laid on the broad forest land of Kentucky and Tennessee. The
rich country north of the Ohio, where the British possessed a number of
forts, was captured for the United States by another daring adventurer,
George Rogers Clark, who led a body of men down the Ohio, took and held
the British forts, and saved the northwest to the struggling States.
The boundaries of the United States in 1800, as established by the
treaty of peace with Great Britain, extended from the Atlantic Ocean
to the Mississippi, and from the Great Lakes on the north to Florida
on the south. Florida, then held by Spain, included a strip of land
extending to the Mississippi River, so that the new republic was cut
off from the Gulf of Mexico by domain belonging to a foreign country.
The area thus acquired by the new nation was over 827,000 square miles.
It was inhabited in 1800 by a population of 5,300,000.
The vast and almost wholly unknown territory west of the Mississippi,
claimed by France, in virtue of her discoveries and settlements on the
great river, until 1763, when it was ceded to Spain, was held by that
country in 1800. This cession gave Spain complete control of the lower
course of the Mississippi, since her province of Florida extended to
the east bank of the stream. And she held it in a manner that proved
deeply annoying to the American settlers in the west, to whom free
navigation of the Mississippi was of great and growing importance.
[=The Settlement of the West=]
These settlers were increasing in numbers with considerable rapidity.
The daring enterprise of Daniel Boone and other fearless pioneers had
opened up the fertile lands of Kentucky and Tennessee. The warlike
boldness of Colonel Clark had gained the northwest territory for the
new nation. Into this new country pioneer settlers poured, over the
mountains and down the Ohio, and by the opening of the century villages
and towns had been built in a hundred places, and farmers were widely
felling the virgin woods and planting their grain in the fertile soil.
Kentucky and Tennessee had already been organized as states, and their
admission was quickly followed by that of Ohio, which entered the Union
in 1803. In the same year an event of the highest importance took
place, the acquisition of the great Louisiana territory by the United
States.
[=Spain Closes the Mississippi to Traffic=]
It has been stated above that the action of Spain gave great annoyance
to the settlers in the country west of the Alleghanies. To these the
natural commercial outlet to the sea was the Mississippi River, and the
free use of this stream was forbidden by Spain, through whose country
ran its lower course. Spain was so determined to retain for herself the
exclusive navigation of the great river that in 1786 the new American
republic withdrew all claim upon it, agreeing to withhold any demand
for navigation of the Mississippi for twenty-five years.
This action proved to be hasty and unwise. The West filled up with
unlooked-for rapidity, and the settlers upon the Mississippi soon began
to insist on free use of its waters, their irritation growing so great
that the United States vainly sought in 1793 to induce Spain to open
the stream to American craft. This purpose was attained, however, in
1795, when a treaty was made which opened the Mississippi to the sea
for a term of three years, with permission for Americans to use New
Orleans as a free port of entry, and place goods there on deposit.
[=France Obtains Louisiana=]
Five years later (1800), by an article in a secret treaty between
Spain and France, the vast province of Louisiana, extending from the
source to the mouth of the Mississippi River, and westward to the Rocky
Mountains, was ceded by Spain to France, from which country Spain had
received it in 1763. Towards the end of 1801 Napoleon Bonaparte, then
at the head of French affairs, sent out a fleet and army ostensibly to
act against San Domingo, but really to take possession of New Orleans.
When the secret of this treaty leaked out, as it soon did, there was
great excitement in the United States, the irritation being increased
by a Spanish order which withdrew the right of deposit of American
merchandise in New Orleans, granted by the treaty of 1795, and failed
to substitute any other place for that city, in accordance with the
terms of the treaty. So strong was the feeling that a Pennsylvania
Senator introduced a resolution into Congress, authorizing President
Jefferson to call out 50,000 militia and occupy New Orleans. But
Congress wisely decided that it would be better and cheaper to buy
it than to fight for it, and in January, 1803, made an appropriation
of $2,000,000 for its purchase. The President thereupon sent James
Monroe to Paris to co-operate with Robert R. Livingston, United States
Minister to France, in the proposed purchase.
[=The Louisiana Purchase=]
Fortunately for the United States a new war between England and
France was then imminent, in the event of which Napoleon felt that
he could not long hold his American acquisition against the powerful
British navy. Not only New Orleans, but the whole of Louisiana, would
probably be lost to him, and just then money for his wars was of more
consequence than wild lands beyond the sea. Therefore, to the surprise
of the American Minister, he was asked to make an offer for the entire
territory. This was on April 11th. On the 12th Monroe reached Paris.
The two commissioners earnestly debated on the offer. They had no
authority to close with such a proposition, but by the time they could
receive fresh instructions from Washington the golden opportunity
might be lost, and Great Britain deprive us of the mighty West. An
ocean telegraph cable would have been to them an invaluable boon. As
it was, there was no time to hesitate, and they decided to close with
the offer, fixing the purchase price at $10,000,000. Napoleon demanded
more, and in the end the price fixed upon was $15,000,000, of which
$3,750,000 was to be paid to American citizens who held claims against
Spain. A treaty to this effect was signed April 30, 1803.
[=How the Purchase Was Received=]
The news fell upon Spain like a thunderbolt. She filed a protest
against the treaty--based, probably, on a secret condition of her
cession of Louisiana to France, to the effect that it should not be
parted with by that country. But Napoleon was not the man to pay any
attention to a protest from a power so weak as Spain, and the matter
was one with which the United States was not concerned. President
Jefferson highly approved of the purchase, and called an extra session
of the Senate for its consideration. It met with some vigorous
opposition in that body, based upon almost absolute ignorance of the
value of the territory involved; but it was ratified in October, 1803,
and Louisiana became ours. The territory thus easily and cheaply
acquired added about 920,000 square miles to the United States, more
than doubling its area. It is now divided up into a large number of
States, and includes much of the most productive agricultural land of
the United States.
[=Ignorance of the Country=]
The members of the Senate who opposed the ratification of the treaty
of purchase were in a measure justified in their doubt. Almost nothing
was known of the country involved, and many idle legends were afloat
concerning it. Hunters and trappers had penetrated its wilds, but the
stories told by them had been transformed out of all semblance of
truth. In order to dispel this ignorance and satisfy these doubts,
the President determined to send an exploring expedition to the far
West, with the purpose of crossing the Rocky Mountains, seeking
the head-waters of the Columbia River, and following that stream
to its mouth. The men chosen to lead this expedition were William
Clark--brother of George Rogers Clark, of Revolutionary fame--and
Merriwether Lewis. Both of these were army officers, and they were well
adapted for the arduous enterprise which they were asked to undertake.
[=The Lewis and Clark Expedition=]
Lewis and Clark left St. Louis in the summer of 1803. They encamped for
the winter on the bank of the Mississippi opposite the mouth of the
Missouri River. The company included nine Kentuckians, who were used to
Indian ways and frontier life, fourteen soldiers, two Canadian boatmen,
an interpreter, a hunter and a negro boatman. Besides these, a corporal
and guard with nine boatmen were engaged to accompany the expedition as
far as the territory of the Mandans.
The party carried with it the usual goods for trading with the
Indians--looking-glasses, beads, trinkets, hatchets, etc., and such
provisions as were necessary for the sustenance of its members. While
the greater part of the command embarked in a fleet of three large
canoes, the hunters and pack-horses followed a parallel route along
the shore. In this way, in the spring of 1804, the ascent of the
Missouri was commenced. In June the country of the Osages was reached,
then the lands occupied by the Ottawa tribes, and finally, in the fall,
the hunting grounds of the Sioux. Here the leaders of the expedition
ordered cabins to be constructed, and camped for the winter among
the Mandans, in latitude 27 degrees 21 minutes north. They found in
that country plenty of game, buffalo and deer being abundant; but the
weather was intensely cold and the expedition was hardly prepared for
the severity of the climate, so that its members suffered greatly.
In April a fresh start was made and the party continued to ascend
the Missouri, reaching the great falls by June. Here they named the
tributary waters and ascended the northernmost, which they called the
Jefferson River, until further navigation was impossible; then Captain
Lewis with three companions left the expedition in camp and started
out on foot toward the mountains, in search of the friendly Shoshone
Indians, from whom he expected assistance in his projected journey
across the mountains.
[=The Head-Waters of the Columbia=]
On the 12th of August he discovered the source of the Jefferson River
in a defile of the Rocky Mountains and crossed the dividing ridge, upon
the other side of which his eyes were gladdened by the discovery of a
small rivulet which flowed toward the west. Here was proof irrefutable
"that the great backbone of earth" had been passed. The intrepid
explorer saw with joy that this little stream danced out toward the
setting sun--toward the Pacific Ocean. Meeting a force of Shoshones
and persuading them to accompany him on his return to the main body of
the expedition, Captain Lewis sought his companions once more. Captain
Clark then went forward to determine their future course, and coming
to the river which his companion had discovered, he named it the Lewis
River.
[=Descending the Columbia=]
A number of Indian horses were procured from their red-skinned friends
and the explorers pushed on to the broad plains of the western
slope. The latter part of their progress in the mountains had been
slow and painful, because of the early fall of snow, but the plains
presented all the charm of early autumn. In October the Kaskaskia
River was reached, and, leaving the horses and whatever baggage could
be dispensed with in charge of the Indians, the command embarked in
canoes and descended to the mouth of the Columbia River, upon the
south bank of which, four hundred miles from their starting point upon
this stream, they passed the second winter. Much of the return journey
was a fight with hostile Indians, and the way proved to be much more
difficult than it had been found while advancing toward the west. Lewis
was wounded before reaching home, by the accidental discharge of a gun
in the hands of one of his force.
Finally, after an absence of two years, the expedition returned to its
starting point, the leaders reaching Washington while Congress was in
session. Grants of land were immediately made to them and to their
subordinates. Captain Lewis was rewarded also with the governorship of
Missouri. Clark was appointed brigadier-general for the territory of
Upper Louisiana, and in 1813 was made governor of Missouri. When this
Territory became a State he was appointed superintendent of Indian
affairs, which office he filled till his death.
[=Spain's Irritating Action=]
The second acquisition of territory by the United States embraced
the peninsula of Florida. The Spanish colony of Florida was divided
into two sections, known as Eastern and Western Florida, the latter
extending from the Appalachicola River to the Mississippi River, and
cutting off the Americans of Florida and Alabama from all access to the
Gulf. Spain set up a customhouse at the mouth of the Alabama River, and
levied heavy duties on goods to or from the country up that stream.
[=Western Florida Occupied=]
The United States was not willing to acknowledge the right of Spain
to this country. It claimed that the Louisiana purchase included the
region east of the Mississippi as far as the Perdido River,--the
present western boundary of Florida--and in 1810 a force was sent
into this country which took possession of it, with the exception
of the city of Mobile. That city was occupied by General Wilkinson,
commander-in-chief of the army, in 1813, leaving to Spain only the
country between the Perdido and the Atlantic Ocean and south of Georgia.
[=General Jackson Invades Eastern Florida=]
Throughout these years the purpose had grown in the southern states
to gain this portion of the Spanish dominion, as well as Western
Florida, for the United States. On January 15 and March 3, 1811,
the United States Congress passed in secret--and its action was not
made known until 1818--acts which authorized the President of the
United States to take "temporary possession" of East Florida. The
commissioners appointed under these acts, Matthews and Mitchell, both
Georgians, stirred up insurrection in the coveted territory, and,
when President Madison refused to sustain them, the state of Georgia
formally pronounced Florida needful to its own peace and welfare, and
practically declared war on its private account. But its expedition
against Florida came to nothing. In 1814, General Andrew Jackson,
then in command of United States forces at Mobile, made a raid into
Pensacola, and drove out a British force which had been placed there.
He afterwards restored the place to the Spanish authorities and
retired. Four years after, during the Seminole war, Jackson, annoyed by
Spanish assistance given to the Indians, again raided Eastern Florida,
captured St. Marks and Pensacola, hung Arbuthnot and Ambruster, two
Englishmen who were suspected of aiding the Seminoles, as "outlaws and
pirates," and again demonstrated the fact that Florida was at the mercy
of the United States.
[=The Purchase of Florida=]
The action of Jackson was unauthorized by the government, and his
hanging the Englishmen without taking the trouble to make sure of their
guilt caused a feeling of hostile irritation in England. But it had by
this time grown quite evident to Spain, both that it could not hold
Florida in peace and that this colony was of very little value to it.
In consequence it agreed to sell the peninsula to the United States
for the sum of $5,000,000, the treaty being signed February 22, 1819.
By this treaty Spain also gave up all claim to the country west of the
Louisiana purchase, extending from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific
Ocean. The purchase of Florida added 59,268 square miles to the United
States, and the way was cleared for the subsequent acquisition of the
Oregon country.
[=Texas Gains Freedom and is Annexed to the United
States=]
The next accession of territory came in 1845, when Texas was added to
the dominion of the United States. This country had, since 1821, been
one of the states of the Mexican Republic. But American frontiersmen,
of the kind calculated to foment trouble, soon made their way across
the borders, increasing in numbers as the years passed on, until Texas
had a considerable population of United States origin. Efforts were
made to purchase this country from Mexico, $1,000,000 being offered in
1827 and $5,000,000 in 1829. These were declined, and in 1833 Texas
adopted a constitution as a state of the Mexican republic. Two years
later Santa Anna, the president of Mexico, was made dictator, and all
state constitutions were abolished. Irritated by this, the American
inhabitants declared the independence of Texas in 1836, and after a
short war, marked by instances of savage cruelty on the part of the
Mexicans, gained freedom for that country. Texas was organized as a
republic, but its people soon applied for annexation to the United
States. This was not granted until 1845. The territory added to this
country by the admission of Texas amounted to 376,133 square miles.
[=The Oregon Country=]
In the following year another large section of territory was added
to the rapidly growing United States. The Louisiana purchase ran
indefinitely westward, but came to be considered as bounded on the
west by the Rocky Mountains, Spain retaining a shadowy claim over the
country west of that range. This exceedingly vague claim was abandoned
in the Florida purchase treaty, and the broad Oregon country was left
without an owner. The United States, indeed, might justly have claimed
ownership on the same plea advanced for new regions elsewhere--namely,
that of discovery and exploration. Captain Grey, in his ship, the
_Columbia_, carried the starry flag to its coast in 1792, and was the
first to enter and sail up its great river, which he named after his
vessel. In 1805 the country was traversed and explored by Lewis and
Clark. In 1811 John Jacob Astor founded the settlement of Astoria at
the mouth of the Columbia, and sent hunters in search of furs through
the back country. And in 1819 the vague right over the country held by
Spain was transferred by treaty to the United States.
These various circumstances would have established a prescriptive right
to the country concerned as against other countries, had any thought
of claiming such a right been entertained. But no man, statesman or
commoner, thought the country worth the value of even a paper claim,
and it was left unconsidered and unthought of until the century was
well advanced. Then, after the Hudson Bay Company had gained control of
Astoria, and had begun to fill the country with fur hunters, a living
sense of the value of this great region came to the mind of one man.
[=Whitman's Ride=]
[=Oregon Is Acquired=]
This was Dr. Marcus Whitman, a missionary physician among the Indians
of the Columbia River region. He discovered that the Hudson Bay Company
was making efforts to bring permanent settlers there, and that it
proposed to claim the country for Great Britain. At once the energetic
doctor set out for Washington, crossing the vast stretch of country
from the Pacific to the Atlantic on horseback and traversing the Rocky
Mountains in the dead of winter. It was a long and terrible journey,
full of perils and hardships, but he accomplished it in safety, and
strongly urged the government at Washington to lay claim to the
country. Even then it was hard to arouse an interest in the statesmen
concerning this far-off territory, so the brave pioneer went among
the people, told them of the beauty of the country and the fertility
of its soil, and on his return, in 1843, took with him an emigrant
train of nearly a thousand persons. This settled the question. The
newcomers formed a government of their own. Others followed, and the
question of ownership was practically settled. In 1845 there were
some 7,000 Americans in Oregon and only a few British. By that time a
stern determination had arisen in the people of this country to retain
Oregon. A claim was made on the whole western region up to the parallel
of 54 degrees 40 minutes, the southern boundary of Russian America,
and the political war-cry of that year was "fifty-four forty or
fight." In 1846 the question was settled by treaty with Great Britain,
the disputed country being divided at the forty-ninth parallel. The
northern portion became British Columbia, the southern Oregon. In this
way it was that the United States spanned the continent and established
its dominion from ocean to ocean. The tract acquired measured about
255,000 square miles. It now constitutes the States of Oregon,
Washington and Idaho.
The United States grew with extraordinary rapidity in the decade with
which we are now concerned, the acquisition of Texas and Florida being
followed in 1848 by another great addition of territory, much larger
than either. This came as the result of the annexation of Texas.
[=War With Mexico and Its Results=]
Mexico had never acknowledged the independence of the "Lone Star
Republic," and was deeply dissatisfied at its acquisition by the United
States, which it looked upon as an unwarranted interference in its
private affairs. The strained relations between the two countries were
made more stringent by a dispute as to the western boundary of Texas,
both countries claiming the strip of land between the Rio Grande and
Nueces Rivers. The result was a war, the description of which must be
left for a later chapter. It will suffice here to say that the American
troops marched steadily to victory, and at the end of the war held two
large districts of northern Mexico, those of New Mexico and California.
The occupation of these Mexican states gave this country a warrant to
claim them as the prizes of victory.
[=California and New Mexico Purchased=]
But there was no disposition shown to despoil the defeated party
without compensation. An agreement was made to pay Mexico $15,000,000
for New Mexico and California, and to assume debts owed by Mexico to
United States citizens amounting to about $3,000,000. The territory
thus acquired was 545,783 square miles in extent. Of its immense value
we need scarce speak. It will suffice to say that it gave the United
States the gold mines of California and the silver mines of Nevada,
together with the still more valuable fertile fields of the California
lowlands. Five years afterwards, to settle a border dispute, another
tract of land, south of New Mexico, 45,535 square miles in extent, was
purchased for the sum of $10,000,000. This is known as the Gadsden
purchase, the treaty being negociated by James Gadsden. Thus in less
than ten years the United States acquired more than 1,220,000 square
miles of territory, increasing its domain by nearly three-fourths.
These new acquisitions carried it across the continent in a broad band,
giving it a coast line on the Pacific nearly equal to that on the
Atlantic, and adding enormously to its mineral and agricultural wealth.
[=The Acquisition of Russian America=]
Still another extensive acquisition remained to be made. Long
before, when the daring pioneers of Russia overran Siberia, parties
of them crossed the narrow Bering Strait and took possession of the
northwestern section of the American continent. This territory, long
known as Russian America, embraced the broad peninsular extension west
of the 141st degree of west longitude, and a narrow strip of land
stretching down the coast as far south as the parallel of 54 degrees
40 minutes. It included also all the coast islands and the Aleutian
Archipelago, with the exception of Copper and Bering Islands on the
Siberian coast. This territory was of little value or advantage to
Russia, and in 1867 that country offered to sell it to the United
States for $7,200,000. The offer was accepted without hesitation, the
result being an addition of 577,000 square miles to our territory.
[=The Wealth of Alaska=]
As regards the value of this acquisition something more remains to
be said. The active Yankee prospectors have found Alaska--as the new
territory was named--far richer than its original owners dreamed of.
It was like the story of California repeated. First were the valuable
fur seals, which haunted certain islands of Bering Sea. Then were
the fur animals of the mainland. To these must be added the wealth
of the rivers, which were found to swarm with salmon and other food
fishes. Next may be named the forests, which cover the coast regions
for hundreds of square miles. Finally, the country proved to be rich
in mineral wealth, and especially in gold. The recently discovered
gold deposits lie principally on the British side of the border, the
Klondike diggings--developed in 1897--being in Canada. But gold has
been mined in Alaska for years, and probably exists on most of the
tributaries of the Yukon River, so that the country may yet prove to be
a second California in its golden treasures.
[=Island Acquisitions=]
The final acquisition of territory by the United States came in
1899, as a result of the Spanish-American War of 1898. The treaty
of peace gave to this country a series of highly fertile tropical
islands, consisting of Porto Rico in the West Indies, and the
Philippine Archipelago in the Asiatic Seas. To these must be added a
temporary protectorate over, and possibly the future ownership of,
the broad and fertile West Indian Island of Cuba. In 1898 there came
by peaceful means another accession of territory, the Hawaiian group
of islands in the Central Pacific. These, with some islands of minor
importance--including Guam, in the Ladrone group, also acquired from
Spain--constitute the recent island accessions of the United States.
Their areas are: Porto Rico, 3,530; Hawaii, 6,564; and the Philippines,
116,000 square miles; making a total of about 126,000 square miles.
As a consequence of those various accessions of territory, the United
States now has an area of, in round numbers, 3,732,000 square miles,
more than four times its area in 1800. As a result of these several
acquisitions this country has grown from one of the smaller nations to
nearly the largest nation in area, on the earth, while its population
has increased from 5,300,000 in 1800 to about 75,000,000 in 1900. Its
few small cities at the beginning of the century have been replaced
by a considerable number of large ones, three of them with more than
1,000,000 inhabitants each, while New York, the largest, is now the
second city in population on the earth.