The great domain, christened Louisiana, was taken over by La Salle in 1682, in the name of France. It remained under French dominion until 1763, when, as a result of French-English wars, France retired from the New World. It seemed inevitable that Louisiana, great unexplored trans-river territory, would fall into English hands. But France ceded Louisiana to Spain, then still a world power. In 1800 Napoleon Bonaparte caused Spain to re-cede Louisiana to France. In 1803 Bonaparte sold Louisiana to the United States. He was about to engage in war with England, and historians generally agree that the sale to United States was made because he recognized the difficulty of defending the remote territory against the English Navy. The British Encyclopedia says the sale was made to keep Louisiana from falling into English hands. Thus it appears, that England was justified in feeling that Louisiana for the second time had been maneuvered from her ownership.

References without number may be given from histories covering that period. The writer has before him James G. Blaine’s “Twenty Years in Congress,” which in Chapter 1 of the first volume (pages 3 to 13) deals comprehensively with the relation of the Louisiana purchase to the early days of the Republic. Some key quotations are here presented: “She (France) in 1763, now gave up Canada and Cape Breton, acknowledged the sovereignty of Great Britain in the original thirteen colonies as extending to the Mississippi, and, by a separate treaty, surrendered Louisiana on the west side of the Mississippi, with New Orleans on the east side, to Spain. She (Spain) continued in possession of Louisiana until the year 1800, when Bonaparte concluded a Treaty ..., by which the entire territory was retroceded to France.”

Again, Mr. Blaine says: “Fearing that in the threatening conflict (1803) England, by her superior Naval force, would deprive him of his newly acquired colonial empire, and greatly enhance her own prestige by securing all the American possessions, which France had owned prior to 1763, Bonaparte, by a dash in diplomacy, as quick and as brilliant as his tactics on the field of battle, placed Louisiana beyond the reach of the British power. In a tone of vehemence and passion he said: ‘I know the full value of Louisiana. A few lines of a treaty have restored it to me, and now I must expect to lose it. The English expect to take possession of it, and it is thus they will begin the war. They have already twenty ships of the line in the Gulf of Mexico. The conquest of Louisiana will be easy. I have not a moment to lose in putting it out of their reach. The English have successively taken from France the Canadas, Cape Breton, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the richest portion of Asia. But they shall not have the Mississippi, which they covet.’”

Again quoting from Blaine: “England’s acquisition of Louisiana would have proved in the highest degree embarrassing, if not disastrous to the Union. No colonial acquisition ever made by her on any continent has been so profitable to her commerce, and so strengthening to her military position, as that of Louisiana would have proved. The fact was clearly seen by Bonaparte when he hastily made the treaty ceding it to the United States.”

Again Blaine: “The conflict of arms (War of 1812) did not occur until nine years after; and it is a curious and not unimportant fact, that the most notable defeat of the British troops in the second war of independence, as the struggle of 1812 has been well named, occurred on the soil of the territory for whose protection the original precaution had been taken by Jefferson.”

The reader will find all of the chapter referred to very interesting as indeed will be any chapter devoted to our sudden acquisition of the immense domain called Louisiana.

The striking sentences quoted above serve to emphasize the fact that it would not have been unnatural for England to have felt resentment at this second maneuvering of a vast territory from her grasp. Some historians have expressed surprise that England did not at once undertake to take Louisiana, the United States notwithstanding. That would have meant armed conflict with America at a time of the war in Europe. Besides, and this is a deduction of the present writer, such a course would have placed upon England the onus before the world of a war of conquest in the western continent. So England waited.

An additional viewpoint is here presented: In the history of the United States of America, by Henry W. Elson, under the caption “Louisiana” (Vol. 2, page 230) appears the following paragraph (page 233): “Actual possession soon placed our title to Louisiana beyond dispute; but strictly speaking, the sale was not legal. Napoleon had agreed to convey to Spain a dukedom on the Arno River, for the son-in-law of the Spanish King, in payment for Louisiana; but the price was never paid. The treaty of Ildefonso also stipulated that France should never cede the territory to any foreign power; but Napoleon disregarded this. In point of fact, France, therefore, did not own Louisiana; and even if she had owned it, the cession, according to the French Constitution, could not be made without the consent of the Chamber of Deputies, and this the First Consul never obtained and never sought. The French people were astonished at this action of their ruler; but he was a master, and they were powerless. Far sadder was the wail from Spain. The Spanish Government protested briefly, pathetically; but its voice was not heard.”

From the above quotation the reader can appreciate England’s attitude, as to the legality of the United States’ title to Louisiana, maintained until January 8, 1815, when the highest law known to nations dissipated that attitude forever.

There are doubtless many today, as we bask in the enjoyment of National security and other national blessings, who do not appreciate the vastness, the importance, of the Louisiana domain, the acquisition of which Dr. Sloane of Princeton says translated our young republic into a world power. According to an early authority the domain comprised 829,987 square miles, and by later authority over a million square miles. In the Louisiana Purchase territory are today comprehended the following states: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming.