securing in some way free access to the sea by way of the Mississippi River. Circumstances favored this negotiation. Bonaparte was at that time in almost daily expectation of a declaration of war by Great Britain, in which case the first act of the latter would be to seize the mouth of the Mississippi, and with it the province of Louisiana. Under these circumstances Bonaparte offered to sell the province to the United States, and the offer was promptly accepted. The consideration was 60,000,000 francs and the assumption by the United States of the "French spoliation claims," which were estimated to amount to $3,750,000.

The treaty of cession, which bears date April 30, 1803, describes the territory only as being the same as ceded by Spain to France by the treaty of San Ildefonso.

From this it appears that the territory sold to the United States comprised that part of the drainage basin of the Mississippi which lies west of the course of the river, with the exception of such parts as were then held by Spain. The want of precise definition of limits in the treaty was not objected to by the American commissioners, as they probably foresaw that this very indefiniteness might prove of service to the United States in future negotiations with other powers. In fact, the claim of the United States to the area now comprised in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho in the negotiations with Great Britain regarding the northwestern boundary, was ostensibly based, not only upon prior occupation and upon purchase from Spain, but also upon the alleged fact that this area formed part of the Louisiana purchase. That this claim was baseless is shown not only by what has been already detailed regarding the limits of the purchase, but also by the direct testimony of the French plenipotentiary, M. Barbé Marbois. Some twenty years after the purchase he published a work upon Louisiana, in which he detailed at some length the negotiations which preceded the purchase, and, referring to this question said: "The shores of the western ocean were certainly not comprised in the cession, but already the United States are established there."

There is also contained in this work a map of the country between the Mississippi and the Pacific, on which the extent of Louisiana to the westward is indicated by a line drawn on the one hundred and tenth meridian, which is not far from the western limit of the drainage basin of the Mississippi in Wyoming and Montana. That part of the country now comprised in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, which, it has been claimed, formed part of the purchase, bears the following legend: "Territories and countries occupied by the United States, following the treaty of cession of Louisiana."

From this it appears that the limits of the Louisiana purchase can no longer be a matter of discussion; but although the United States certainly did not purchase Oregon, as a part of Louisiana, it is no less

certain that that great area west of the Rocky Mountains fell into their hands as a direct consequence of such purchase.

FLORIDA.

The second addition to the territory of the United States consisted of the Floridas, purchased from Spain on February 22, 1819. From the date of the Louisiana purchase in 1803, the territory bounded by the Mississippi River on the west, the Perdido on the east, the parallel of 31° on the north, and the Gulf on the south had been in dispute between the two countries. During this time it had been practically in the possession of the United States. This purchase settled these conflicting claims.

The following is the clause in the treaty with Spain ceding the Flor idas which defines the cession:

ART. 2. His Catholic Majesty cedes to the United States, in full property and sovereignty, all the territories which belong to him, situated to the eastward of the Mississippi, known by the name of East and West Florida, the adjacent islands dependent upon said province, etc.

A further article in this treaty defines the boundary between the United States and the Spanish Possessions in the southwest, as follows: The boundary line between the two countries, west of the Mississippi, shall begin on the Gulph of Mexico, at the mouth of the river Sabine, in the sea, continuing north, along the western bank of that river, to the thirty-second degree of latitude; thence by a line due north to the degree of latitude where it strikes the Rio Roxo of Nachitoches, or Red River; then following the course of the Rio Roxo to the degree of longitude 100 west from London, or about 23 west of Washington; then crossing the said Rio Roxo and running thence, by a line due north, to the River Arkansas; thence, following the course of the southern bank of the Arkansas, to its source in latitude 42 north; and thence by that parallel of latitude to the South Sea, the whole being as laid down in Melish's map of the United States, published at Philadelphia, improved to the 1st of January, 1818. But if the source of the Arkansas River shall be found to fall north or south of latitude 42, then the line shall run from the said source due south or north, as the case may be, till it meets the said parallel of latitude 42, and thence along the said parallel to the South Sea, all the islands in the Sabine and the said Red and Arkansas Rivers, throughout the course thus described, to belong to the United States; but the use of the waters, and the navigation of the Sabine to the sea, and of the said rivers Roxo and Arkansas throughout the extent of the said boundary on their respective banks shall be common to the respective inhabitauts of both nations.

TEXAS.

The next acquisition of territory was that of the Republic of Texas, which was admitted as a State on December 29, 1845. The area which Texas brought into the Union was limited as follows:

All the land lying east of the Rio Grande and embraced within the limits of the Rio Grande on the west and south and the boundary between the United States and Spain under the Florida treaty of 1819, on the east, viz, the Sabine River, thence north to the Red River, thence up the Red River to the one hundredth meridian west of Greenwich, thence due north to the Arkansas River, thence up the Arkansas River to its source and down the Rio Grande.

THE FIRST MEXICAN CESSION.

In 1848 a further addition was made to our territory by the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. This added to the country the area of California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, while the Gadsden purchase, which was effected in 1853, added the remainder of Arizona and another part of New Mexico.

The treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was concluded February 2, 1848, and proclaimed July 4, 1848. The clauses in it defining our acquisition of territory are as follows:

ARTICLE V. The boundary line between the two republics shall commence in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, otherwise called the Rio Bravo del Norte, or opposite the mouth of its deepest branch, if it should have more than one branch emptying into the sea; from thence up the middle of that river, following the deepest channel where it has more than one, to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico; thence westwardly along the whole southern boundary of New Mexico (which runs north of the town called Paso) to its western termination; thence northward along the western line of New Mexico until it intersects the first branch of the river Gila (or if it should not intersect any branch of that river, then to the point on the said line nearest to such branch, and thence in a direct line to the same); thence down the middle of the said branch and of the said river until it empties into the Rio Colorado; thence across the Rio Colorado, following the division line between Upper and Lower California, to the Pacific Ocean.

The southern and western limits of New Mexico, mentioned in this article, are those laid down in the map entitled, "Map of the United Mexican States as organized and defined by various acts of the Congress of said Republic, and constructed according to the best authorities. Revised edition. Published at New York, in 1847, by J. Disturnell;" of which map a copy is added to this treaty, bearing the signatures and seals of the undersigned plenipotentiaries. And, in order to preclude all difficulty in tracing upon the ground the limit separating Upper from Lower California, it is agreed that the said limit shall consist of a straight line drawn from the middle of the Rio Gila, where it unites with the Colorado, to a point on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, distant one marine league due south of the southernmost point of the port of San Diego, according to the plan of said port made in the year 1782, by Don Juan Pautoja, second sailing-master of the Spanish fleet, and published at Madrid in the year 1802, in the atlas to the voyage of the schooners Sutil and Mexicana; of which plan a copy is hereunto added, signed and sealed by the respective plenipotentiaries.

GADSDEN PURCHASE.

Subsequently, on December 30, 1853, a second purchase was made of Mexico, consisting of the strip of land lying south of the Gila River, in New Mexico and Arizona. The boundaries as established by this, known as the Gadsden purchase, were as follows:

ARTICLE I. The Mexican Republic agrees to designate the following as her true limits with the United States for the future: Retaining the same dividing line between the two Californias as already defined and established, according to the fifth article of the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the limits between the two republics shall be as follows: Beginning in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, as provided in the fifth article of the treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo; thence, as defined in the said article, up the middle of that river to the point where the parallel of 31° 47′ north latitude crosses the same; thence due west one

hundred miles; thence south to the parallel of 31° 20′ north latitude; thence along the said parallel of 31° 20′ to the one hundred and eleventh meridian of longitude west of Greenwich; thence in a straight line to a point on the Colorado River twenty English miles below the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers; thence up the middle of the said river Colorado until it intersects the present line between the United States and Mexico.

ALASKA.

There remains but one acquisition of territory to the United States from foreign powers, viz, that of Alaska, purchased from Russia. The treaty of purchase was signed on March 30, 1867, and proclaimed June 20, 1867. The boundaries of the territory are described in the accompanying quotation from the treaty:

Commencing from the southernmost point of the island called Prince of Wales Island, which point lies in the parallel of 54° 40" north latitude, and between the one hundred and thirty-first and one hundred and thirty-third degree of west longitude (meridian of Greenwich), the said line shall ascend to the north along the channel called Portland Channel as far as the point of the continent where it strikes the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude; from this last-mentioned point, the line of demarkation shall follow the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast, as far as the point of intersection of the one hundred and forty-first degree of west longitude (of the same meridian); and, finally, from the said point of intersection, the said meridian line of the one hundred and forty-first degree in its prolongation as far as the Frozen Ocean.

IV. With reference to the line of demarkation laid down in the preceding article, it is understood

1st. That the island called Prince of Wales Island shall belong wholly to Russia, (now, by this cession, to the United States).

2d. That whenever the summit of the mountains which extend in a direction parallel to the coast from the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude to the point of intersection of the one hundred and forty-first degree of west longitude shall prove to be at the distance of more than ten marine leagues from the ocean, the limit between the British possessions and the line of coast which is to belong to Russia, as above mentioned (that is to say, the limit to the possessions ceded by this convention), shall be formed by a line parallel to the winding of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom.

The western limit within which the territories and dominion conveyed are contained passes through a point in Behring's Straits on the parallel of 65° 30′ north latitude, at its intersection by the meridian which passes midway between the islands of Krusenstern or Ignalook, and the island of Ratmanoff, or Noonerbook, and proceeds due north without limitation into the same Frozen Ocean.

The same western limit, beginning at the same initial point, proceeds thence in a course nearly southwest through Behring's Straits and Behring's Sea, so as to pass midway between the northwest point of the island of Saint Lawrence and the southeast point of Cape Choukotski to the meridian of one hundred and seventy-two west longitude, thence from the intersection of that meridian in a southwesterly direction, so as to pass midway between the island of Attore and the Copper Island of the Kormandorski couplet or group, in the North Pacific Ocean, to the meridian of one hundred and ninety-three degrees west longitude, so as to include in the territory conveyed the whole of the Aleutian Islands west of that meridian.

The consideration paid for the Territory of Alaska was $7,200,000, in

gold.

(479)

CHAPTER II.

THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF CHANGES MADE THEREIN.

CESSIONS BY THE STATES.

At the time the Constitution was adopted by the original thirteen States, many of them possessed unoccupied territory, in some cases entirely detached and lying west of the Appalachian Mountains. Thus, Georgia included the territory from its present eastern limits westward to the Mississippi River. North Carolina possessed a narrow strip extending from latitude 35° to 36° 30′, approximately, and running westward to the Mississippi, including besides its own present area that of the present state of Tennessee. In like manner, Virginia possessed what is now Kentucky, while a number of States, as Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, laid claim to areas in what was afterward known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, a region which is now comprised mainly in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. These claims were to a greater or less extent conflicting. In some cases several States claimed authority over the same area, while the boundary lines were in most cases very ill-defined.

The ownership of these western lands by individual States was opposed by those States which did not share in their possession, mainly on the ground that the resources of the General Government, to which all contributed, should not be taxed for the protection and development of this region, while its advantages would inure to the benefit of but a favored few. On this ground several of the States refused to ratify the Constitution until this matter had been settled by the cession of these tracts to the General Government.

Moved by these arguments, as well as by the consideration of the conflicting character of the claims, which must inevitably lead to trouble among the States, Congress passed, on October 30, 1779, the following

act:

Whereas the appropriation of the vacant lands by the several States during the present war will, in the opinion of Congress, be attended with great mischiefs: Therefore,

Resolved, That it be earnestly recommended to the State of Virginia to reconsider their late act of assembly for opening their land office; and that it be recommended to the said State, and all other States similarly circumstanced, to forbear settling or issuing warrants for unappropriated lands, or granting the same during the contin uance of the present war.

24