Territory of the United States

“ Rhode-Island, Delaware, New-Jersey, and Maryland insisted upon some provision for establishing the western boundaries of the states; and for the recognition of the unsettled western territory, as the property of the Union. ”

“ The comparatively small segment of territory known and officially recognized in 1899 as the United States of America, still retained in 1999 its predominant importance, yet this territory in the twentieth century became only a small fraction of an integral whole. In 1899, compared with its neighbors, the United States of America appeared like a whale by the side of little fishes,—a large loaf compared with which its neighbor-nations in Central and South America resembled little biscuits,—half baked at that. ”

“ The United States, under the present Constitution, cannot acquire territory to be held as a colony, to be governed at its will and pleasure. But it may acquire and may govern it as a Territory until it has a population which, in the judgment of Congress, entitles it to be admitted as a State of the Union. ”

“ The United States have continued gradually and steadily to expand through acquisitions of territory, which, how much soever some of them may have been questioned, are now universally seen and admitted to have been wise in policy, just in character, and a great element in the advancement of our country, and with it of the human race, in freedom, in prosperity, and in happiness. ”

“ Since then new territory has been acquired of vast extent, comprising within it many rivers, particularly the Mississippi, the navigation of which to the ocean was of the highest importance to the original States. Over this territory our population has expanded in every direction, and new States have been established almost equal in number to those which formed the first bond of our Union. ”

“ There are two United States to-day, and we cannot neglect either of them with safety. There is Continental United States, the familiar old stretch of territory from ocean to ocean and from gulf to northern Alaska. ”

“ DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS CHAPTER I EUROPE FINDS AMERICA %1. Nations that have owned our Soil.%—Before the United States became a nation, six European powers owned, or claimed to own, various portions of the territory now contained within its boundary. England claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Spain once held Florida, Texas, California, and all the territory south and west of Colorado. France in days gone by ruled the Mississippi valley. Holland once owned New Jersey, Delaware, and the valley of the Hudson in New York, and claimed as far eastward as the Connecticut river. ”

“ Though the colonies had a common origin, and owed a common allegiance, and the inhabitants of each were British subjects, they had no direct political connexion with each other. Each was independent of all the others; each, in a limited sense, was sovereign within its own territory. There was neither alliance nor confederacy between them. The assembly of one province could not make laws for another; nor confer privileges, which were to be enjoyed or exercised in another, farther than they could be in any independent foreign state. ”

“ Nothing more important in territorial extension, unless it be the purchase of the territory of Louisiana and the control of the Mississippi River, has ever occurred in our national history. [Great cheering.] We touch two oceans, and on both we have built commonwealths and great cities, thus securing in that territory individuality and association which give us an assurance of perpetual peace. [Cheers.] No great conflict of arms can ever take place on American soil if we are true to ourselves and have forever determined that no civil conflict shall again rend our country. ”

“ In all these years that the boundary question had been unsettled at both ends of the line across the continent, the United States had been growing in importance and strength, and were better able to insist upon terms than at the commencement of the controversy. Realizing this fact, Great Britain, while maintaining friendly relations, was sensitive to, and dissatisfied with, the attitude assumed by our plenipotentiaries regarding our pretensions on the Pacific Coast, avoiding a final issue, and depending upon some happy chance to secure the coveted prize of the Oregon territory. ”

“ Canada was the Territory kept in view. Much, sir, said Mr. M., as the United States wanted the southern country, and great as is the convenience of possessing it, I never would have consented to have taken it to have kept them in Territorial government forever. I do not want provinces. I am extremely sorry, sir, that whenever this subject is agitated, we are met by the objection that these people are of French descent. I have before expressed my opinion on this subject, and it is needless to repeat it; but if gentlemen wish them to become our brethren in reality, make them our equals ”

“ Cessions by Foreign Powers. In the treaty of September 3, 1783, with Great Britain the western limits of the United States were declared to be the Mississippi River to the thirty-first parallel. On April 30, 1803, by treaty with France, the ‘Province of Louisiana’ was acquired. ”

“ These numbers include all vessels of war, whether in commission, building, or in ordinary.
The United States possess no colonies; but they have a sea-coast of more than three thousand miles, with numerous bays, estuaries, and navigable rivers, which expose our most populous cities to maritime attacks. The northern land frontier is two thousand miles in extent, and in the west our territory borders upon the British and Mexican possessions for many thousand miles more. ”

“ The history of our country has examples of the acquisition of foreign territory,-examples of what relation such territory bears to the United States,-authorities, executive, legislative, and judicial, as to what was wise in statesmanship, as well as what was legal and constitutional, in withholding or extending our laws to such territory ”

“ The Federalists maintained that the central government, representing the States in union, might, if it pleased, as a consequence of its inherent sovereignty, hold the rest of America in its possession and govern it as England governed Jamaica or as Spain was governing Louisiana, but without the consent of the States could not admit such new territory into the Union. ”