"Self-Culture" Magazine for Jan., 1896 by kind permission of the
publishers The Werner Co., Akron, O.

No surer or more lasting cause conduced to the political, financial,
and national development of this country, no unforeseen or long-sought
measure received more universal approbation and revealed to all its
great importance, than did the Louisiana purchase. Its acquisition marks
a political revolution,--a bloodless and tearless revolution. It gave
incomputable energy to the centralization of our Government. By removing
the danger of foreign interference and relieving the burden of arming
against hostile forces, it opened a field for the spread and growth of
American institutions. It enlarged the field of freedom's action to work
out the task of civilization on a basis of substantial and inspiring
magnitude. It extended the jurisdiction of the United States to take in
the mighty Mississippi. It gave an impetus to exploration and adventure,
to investment and enterprise, and fed the infantile nation with a
security born of greatness.

The expeditions of La Salle furnished the basis of the original French
claims to the vast region called by France in the New World Louisiana.
Settlement was begun in 1699. French explorers secured the St. Lawrence
and Mississippi rivers, the two main entrances to the heart of America.
They sought to connect Canada and Louisiana by a chain of armed towns
and fortified posts, which were sparsely though gradually erected. In
1722 New Orleans was made the capital of the French possessions in
the Southwest. France hoped to build in this colony a kingdom rich and
lucrative, and this hope the early conditions, the stretch of fertile
and easily traversable country, stimulated. The French and Indian wars
came on. The English forces, aided by American colonists of English
descent, captured the French forts, destroyed their towns, and took
dominion of their territory. The Seven Years' War, ending in America in
the capture of Quebec by the immortal Wolfe, completed the downfall
of French-America. The treaty of Paris ceded to Spain the territory of
Louisiana.

The Government at Madrid now assumed control of the region; settlers
became more numerous, the planting of sugar was begun, the province
flourished. While Spain in 1782-83 occupied both sides of the
Mississippi from 31 north latitude to its mouth, the United States and
Great Britian declared in the Treaty of Paris that the navigation of
that ri