Louisiana Territory

“ France ceded to the United States the Louisiana Territory. The extent of the territory thus conveyed was left uncertain, the description in the Treaty referring only to a previous treaty by which France had acquired the territory from Spain, which in turn described the area only as 'the colony or province of Louisiana.' [69] It was asserted by some that the territory acquired did not stop at the Sabine River the present boundary between the States of Louisiana and Texas-but extended westward to the Rio Grande so as to include Texas. ”

“ And how can it be said that there was no Providence in the unexpected unyielding and successful fight for continued freedom on the part of the negroes of Santo Domingo, or in the fatal pestilence that vied with bloody warfare in the destruction of the army of subjugation, or in the fever of war and aggression which heated the blood of Bonaparte, all combining to turn him away from the occupation of the Louisiana Territory? ”

“ When the Spanish denied the Americans free access to the Gulf, a situation arose which might have led to war, but resulted instead in the purchase of Louisiana from the French by the United States in 1803, Spain having relinquished the region to France in 1800. Louisiana then embraced all the present State of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota west of the Mississippi, the Dakotas, Nebraska, most of Kansas and Indian Territory, and all of Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains. ”

“ If you think the emancipation of this Territory to be a necessary measure because of the physical and of the political situation of this country, because of its remoteness from the seat of the Federal Government, where we are now obliged to apply even for the details of our local administration, because of the confusion into which that administration has been plunged by the successive changes which it has experienced; if you think that emancipation to be a salutary measure, as tending to bind more closely to the interests of the Union a population already known by their loyalty ”

“ The obvious meaning of this article is, that the inhabitants of Louisiana are incorporated, by it, into the Union, upon the same footing that the Territorial Governments are, and, like them, the Territory, when the population is sufficiently numerous, must be admitted as a State, with every right of any other State. ”

“ By the conditions of the acts of 1811 and 1812, under which the state of Louisiana was admitted into the Union, 'the people inhabiting the said territory do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right or title to the waste or unappropriated lands lying within the said territory, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States ”

“ The inhabitants of the Territory of Orleans, become your countrymen by a combination of political events, but as satisfied with the title of citizens of the United States as if they had acquires it from choice, raise up to you, through the organ of their Representatives, their respectful remonstrances on the inconveniences which, no doubt against your intentions, have, been the inevitable consequences of the system of government which you have given them. ”

“ We expand by carving the wilderness into Territories, and out of these Territories building new States when once they had received as permanent settlers a sufficient number of our own people. Being a practical nation, we have never tried to force on any section of our new territory an unsuitable form of government merely because it was suitable for another section under different conditions. ”

“ This change reconciled the House, not very cheerfully, to recede, and March 23 the Bill, as it passed the Senate, became law by a vote of fifty-one to forty-five. With the passage of this Act and its twin statute for collecting duties in the ceded territory, the precedent was complete. Louisiana received a government in which its people, who had been solemnly promised all the rights of American citizens, were set apart, not as citizens, but as subjects lower in the political scale than the meanest tribes of Indians, whose right to self-government was never questioned. ”

“ Among the evanescent controversies of that period the most conspicuous was the question of regulation by Congress of the social condition of the future States to be rounded in the territory of Louisiana. ”

“ Confederacies that are called perpetual last only until one of the contending parties finds it is to its interests to break them. It is to prevent the danger to which the colossal power of England subjects us that I would provide such a remedy.' No such vision of the future came to our American statesmen, many of whom bitterly opposed the purchase of the Louisiana Territory. ”

“ The inducements will be so strong that it will be impossible to restrain our citizens from crossing the river. Louisiana must and will become settled, if we hold it, and with the very population that would otherwise occupy part of our present territory. Thus our citizens will be removed to the immense distance of two or three thousand miles from the capital of the Union, where they will scarcely ever feel the rays of the General Government; their affections will become alienated; they will gradually begin to view us as strangers ”

“ And do you hesitate to believe that, once in possession of our independence, it shall not be wrested from us but with our lives? No, legislators, your reason must persuade you that the emancipation of the Territory of Orleans is ardently desired by its inhabitants ”

“ The acquisition of the territory is a credit to the broad and far-sighted statesmanship of the great statesmen to whom it was immediately due, and, above all, to the aggressive and masterful character of the hardy pioneer folk to whose restless energy these statesmen gave expression and direction, whom they followed rather than led. ”

“ Nearly all the lands conveniently situated are occupied; immense swamps cover a great proportion of the remaining part of the country, and such uninhabited lands as are cultivable are chiefly to be found towards the limits of our Territory. Such a situation threatens, therefore, at least, the present generation, never to see the epoch of their emancipation, if your honorable assembly should not yield to the powerful reasons which now make it convenient, or rather necessary. ”

“ It was even contended by some, that, as the western boundary of Louisiana had never been fixed, and, indeed, was entirely unknown—since the Missouri and its tributaries had never been explored—the limits of the newly-acquired territory might be considered as extending to the Pacific; and if one were to consult the old French maps for confirmation of such an opinion, he would find New France, to which Louisiana belonged, extending from ocean to ocean. Yet, a perfectly candid mind would ignore the authority of maps drawn from rumor and imagination, and wish to found an opinion upon facts. ”

“ But although the law which you have established over us can be revoked by the same power that has dictated it, if through respect for ancient institutions, if through attachment for a plan of government which was successively applied to your several territories, you should persist in requiring, as a condition of our incorporation, that our population should amount to sixty thousand free inhabitants, then we might abandon the hope ever to see the change which is the object of our wishes, Our Territory, though vast, cannot admit of any large increase of population. ”

“ Now, in 1903, in the altered conditions, we must meet the changed and changing problems with the spirit shown by the men who in 1803 and in subsequent years, gained, explored, conquered, and settled this vast territory, then a desert, now filled with thriving and populous States.
The old days were great because the men who lived in them had mighty qualities; and we must make the new days great by showing the same qualities. We must insist upon courage and resolution, upon hardihood, tenacity, and fertility in resource; we must insist upon the strong virile virtues ”

“ The lands forming Isle a Pitre have been paying taxes to the state of Louisiana for years. Political and police control and jurisdiction by the parish of St. Bernard officials were exercised over the disputed area, and many instances are given of police control and jurisdiction by Louisiana officials over this general territory. This territory consisted, as heretofore stated, of what was known as the Louisiana marshes, and it is admitted that they have immemorially been known by that name, though some of the witnesses for Mississippi said that they were also known as Grand marshes ”

“ The Louisiana Purchase not only more than doubled our territory by adding a country rich in material resources, but gave us control of the Mississippi river, and made possible the acquisition of the Oregon Territory, the Mexican cessions and the annexation of Texas. ...
"Though much has been done towards the development of this imperial domain, yet we may truly say that we have only seen the beginning of that development. The possibilities for the future are boundless. ”

“ Jefferson, who, however, in the purchase of Louisiana, yielded his scruples on the plea of great expediency. If it be said that the only legitimate object of acquiring territory is to furnish homes for white men, this measure effects that object, for the emigration of colored men leaves additional room for white men remaining or coming here. Mr. Jefferson, however, placed the importance of procuring Louisiana more on political and commercial grounds than on providing room for population. ”

“ Representation in the House of Representatives shall be equal and uniform, and shall be regulated and ascertained by the local population of each of the several parishes of the State. Each parish shall have at least one Representative. No new parish shall be created with a territory less than six hundred and twenty-five square miles, nor with a population less than the full number entitling it to a Representative, nor when the creation of such new parish would leave any other parish without the said extent of territory and amount of population. ”

“ Who, then, had a right to "institute" a republican government for Louisiana? No human beings whatever but the people of Louisiana; not the strangers, not the slaves, but the manhood that knew its rights and dared to maintain them. ”

“ We have examined the legislation of the European states, so as better to appreciate that of Louisiana. No corporation can exist in Louisiana, have a public character, appear in courts of justice, exercise rights as a political body, except by legislative authority ”

“ You are as much bound to uphold the laws of Louisiana in all their extent and in all their parts, as you are to uphold the laws of Pennsylvania or New York, or any other State whose civil policy has not been disturbed. ”

“ The United States, by the constitution, are bound to guarantee to every state in the Union a republican form of government; and the inhabitants of Louisiana are entitled, when a state, to this guarantee. Each state has a right to two senators, and two representatives according to a certain enumeration of population, pointed out in the constitution. The inhabitants of Louisiana, upon their admission into the Union, are also entitled to these privileges. ”

“ Louisiana holds the outlet of that stream through which the life blood of their commerce and industry must forever flow; and we never could admit her right to secede from the Union, and dictate the terms on which we should use the outlet of that stream, whose banks were destined by heaven itself as the residence of a united people. Not only Louisiana, but State by State that borders on the Atlantic or the Gulf, might secede, seclude the West from the ocean, and render them the tributaries of the seaboard States, by laying prohibitory duties on their imports and exports. ”

“ The French of Louisiana, when they were formed into a state, in which they were a majority, were incorporated into a great nation, of which they constituted an extremely small part. The eye of every ambitious man turned naturally to the great centre of federal affairs, and the high prizes of federal ambition. The tone of politics was taken from those by whose hands its highest powers were wielded; the legislation and government of Louisiana were from the first insignificant, compared with the interests involved in the discussions at Washington. ”