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to the Red river; thence westward along that river to the 100th degree of longitude west from London; thence north to the Arkansas river; thence along its southern bank to the 42nd degree of latitude; and thence west along that parallel of latitude, to the South sea.

The northern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase was, at the time of the making of the treaty, admitted to be the source of the Mississippi. It had been assumed by the treaty of 1783 that this source was northwest of the Lake of the Woods and beyond the 49th degree of north latitude, and Pickering, in a memoir to Jefferson, intended that the boundary west from the Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi should be on that parallel. In 1818 a convention of Great Britain, recognizing the fact that the "most northwestern point" of the Lake of the Woods might be distant from the 49th parallel, provided that the line from that point should be due north or south, as was required, until it struck that parallel, and thence westward on that parallel to the crest of the Rocky or Stony mountains. This line was subsequently agreed upon in the Webster-Ashburton treaty of 1842. There has been considerable controversy as to the northwestern limits of the Louisiana Purchase, as to whether or not any part of the territory west of the Rocky mountains was included in the treaty of cession.

Marbois, in his History of Louisiana, published twenty-six years after the treaty by which the United States acquired Louisiana, says: "The shores of the western ocean were certainly not included in the cession; but the United States are already established there." He further states that the boundaries were uncertain, and that in his conference with Napoleon he spoke to him of the obscurity of that article of the treaty, and the inconvenience of a stipulation so uncertain, to which Napoleon replied, "If an obscurity did not already exist, it would perhaps be good policy to put one there."*

The map which accompanied this work of Marbois, in its original publication in Paris, showed the territory extending from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean, as the "Acquisition of the United States by the treaty and by its results." This

*Marbois' History of Louisiana, p. 286.

would seem to imply that the whole territory, in the mind of Marbois, was not acquired by the treaty. General Stoddard, who took possession of Upper Louisiana in March, 1804, takes substantially the same view. In giving the boundaries of the territory, he says that it is bounded "south on the Gulf of Mexico; west, partly on the Rio Bravo, and partly on the Mexican mountains; north and northwest, partly on the Shining mountains [Rocky mountains], and partly on Canada [New France]; east on the Mississippi from its source to the thirtyfirst degree; thence extending east on the line of demarkation to the Rio Perdido; thence down that river to the Gulf of Mexico."*

The French apparently never actually claimed as far as the Pacific, but many authorities have held that the right of contiguous territory would give to the United States the entire country west of the Rocky mountains. Whatever may have been the boundaries of the territory ceded to us by France, it was all comprised and included under the name of Louisiana.

The history in brief of the transfers of the territory so named is as follows: that La Salle, under a royal commission from Louis XIV, discovered the mouth of the Mississippi in 1682; that in the name of that sovereign he claimed the river and all its tributaries and all the country watered by those streams, under the name of Louisiana; that the country was explored and occupied from the mouth of the Mississippi to its source; that on the 14th of September, 1712, Louis XIV granted this territory to Crozat, declaring that the edicts, ordinances, and customs of Paris should be observed; that afterwards, the assignee of Crozat surrendered the country back to the king; that on the 3d of November, 1762, France ceded to Spain all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi river, and all east of that stream and south of the 31st degree of north latitude, including thus the province of New Orleans; that in 1800 Spain retroceded the same country to France, by the treaty of St. Ildefonso, except as the territory may have been changed by the treaties made by Spain; and that on the 30th day of April, 1803, this same territory was ceded to the United States, and is known in our history as the Louisiana Purchase.

Stoddard's Sketches of Louisiana, 1812, p. 148.

TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENTS.

Not only was the area which now comprises the State of Minnesota partially embraced in the Northwest Territory ceded to the United States by Virginia in 1783, but that part was subsequently included successively in the territories of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The other and larger part of Minnesota, west of the Mississippi, was in like manner successively a part of the territories of Louisiana, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

On December 20th, 1783, the legislature of Virginia passed an act to authorize the delegates of that state in Congress to convey to the United States all the rights of that commonwealth to the territory northwest of the Ohio river. This act empowered the representatives of that state in Congress, by proper deed or instrument in writing, to convey and make over to the United States for the benefit of said states, all right, title, and claim, as well of soil as jurisdiction, which the State of Virginia had to the territory or tract of country, within the limits of the Virginia charter, which was situated northwest of the Ohio river. The conditions of cession were that the territory so ceded should be laid out and formed into states of suitable extent and territory; that the states so formed should be distinct republican states, and admitted members of the Union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and independence as the other states; and that the necessary expenses incurred by Virginia in subduing the British possession or in acquiring any part of the territory so ceded should be fully reimbursed by the United States, and that these expenses should be arranged by three commissioners. The deed of cession thus provided for was made on the 1st day of March, 1784, by Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Monroe, the delegates then in Congress from Virginia.

After Congress decided to divide the Northwest Territory into not more than five nor less than three states, as proposed in article five of the Ordinance of 1787, the State of Virginia ratified such action of Congress in 1788 by a special act. This was to avoid any difference of interpretation that might arise from the size of the new states as provided by the original act of cession passed by Virginia in 1784.

Pursuant to an act of Congress approved April 30th, 1802, the people of the eastern division of the territory northwest of the Ohio river, under the name of the State of Ohio, were permitted to form a constitution for state government.

The remaining portion of the Northwest Territory had been constituted a separate territory on May 7th, 1800, and was known as Indiana Territory. On February 3rd, 1809, Indiana Territory was divided into two separate governments, and all of that territory which lay west of the Wabash river and a direct line drawn from the Wabash river and Post Vincennes due north, with all other territory lying between the United States and Canada, constituted a separate territory called Illinois.

By an act of Congress passed January 11th, 1805, all that part of Indiana Territory which lay north of a line drawn. east from the southern bend or extremity of lake Michigan until it should intersect lake Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of lake Michigan to its northwest extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States, was, for the purpose of government, constituted a separate territory, called Michigan.*

When the territorial government of Wisconsin was formed by an act of Congress approved April 20th, 1836, it included the whole of the present State of Minnesota.†

The boundaries of Michigan as established by this act were necessarily changed by the acts of Congress approved April 9th, 1816, June 18th, 1818, June 28th, 1834, and April 20th, 1836. The act of 1818 extended the territory westward to the Mississippi river, and the act of 1834 added the territory between the Mississippi river on the east and the Missouri and White Earth rivers on the west. Michigan territory then extended from Lakes Erie and Huron westward to the Missouri river, and from the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, northward to the British dominions.

The Territory of Wisconsin was bounded as follows: On the east, by a line drawn from the northeast corner of the State of Illinois, through the middle of lake Michigan, to a point in the middle of said lake and opposite the main channel of Green Bay, and through said channel and Green Bay, to the mouth of the Menomonie river; thence through the middle of the main channel of said river, to that head of said river nearest to the Lake of the Desert; thence in a direct line to the middle of said lake; thence through the middle of the main channel of the Montreal river, to its mouth; thence with a direct line across Lake Superior, to where the territorial line of the United States last touches said lake northwest; thence on the north, with the said terriorial line, to the White Earth river; on the west, by a line from the said boundary line following down the middle of the main channel of White Earth river, to the Missouri river, and down the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river to a point due west from the northwest corner of the State of Missouri; and on the south, from said point, due east to the northwest corner of the State of Missouri; and thence with the boundaries of the States of Missouri and Illinois, as already fixed by acts of Congress.

By an act of Congress approved March 26th, 1804, the territory acquired by the Louisiana Purchase was divided into the territories of Louisiana and Orleans. In the original act the former was designated as the "District" of Louisiana; but a supplementary act of Congress approved March 3rd, 1805, names it the Territory of Louisiana. By an act of Congress approved June 4th, 1812, its name was changed to the Territory of Missouri.

In 1834, Congress passed an act relative to certain parts of the Louisiana Purchase, as follows: "Be it enacted, etc., That all that part of the territory of the United States bounded on the east by the Mississippi river, on the south by the State of Missouri, and a line drawn due west from the northwest corner of said state to the Missouri river; on the southwest and west by the Missouri river and the White Earth river, falling into the same; and on the north by the northern boundary of the United States, shall be, and hereby is, for the purpose of temporary government, attached to, and made a part of, the Territory of Michigan, and the inhabitants therein shall be entitled to the same privileges and immunities, and be subject to the same laws, rules, and regulations, in all respects, as the other citizens of Michigan territory." This was the first special provision made for the government of that portion of the Territory of Missouri not included within the boundaries of the State of Missouri, which had been defined by the act of Congress approved March 6th, 1820.

When the territory of Wisconsin was formed, as before noted, in 1836, it included this part of the Louisiana Purchase. Again, after two years more, when the territorial government of Iowa was formed by an act of Congress approved June 12th, 1838, its boundaries included the same part of the present state of Minnesota, west of the Mississippi, which during the preceding four years had been thus successively under the jurisdiction of Michigan and Wisconsin. The act of Congress forming Iowa declares that "all that part of the present territory of Wisconsin which lies west of the Mississippi river, and west of a line drawn due north from the headwaters or source of the Mississippi to the territorial line, shall, for the purposes of temporary government, be and constitute a separate territorial government by the name of Iowa."

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