1905.] THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. 255 



extent of territory ever accomplished by peaceful means, should 

 not be passed over without proper explanation. In England, 

 George the Third was passing through his long reign of sixty 

 years. He was surrounded by men and events of surpassing 

 ability and importance. Four of the greatest debaters of the 

 world were discussing political economy and social and con- 

 stitutional questions, Chatham, Burke, Fox, and Sheridan. 

 Many of the progressive ideas of the age had been given voice 

 in poetry, of which Coleridge, Byron, Wadsworth, and Sir 

 Walter Scott were the chief exponents. Their writings were 

 arresting the attention of the literary world. Chemistry and 

 the steam engine were revolutionizing the methods of man. 

 Great reforms had taken a sudden impulse. Among them the 

 most important was the abolishment of capital punishment for 

 minor offenses. Great reforms in the legislative departments 

 of government had been accomplished. In India, Warren 

 Hastings was accomplishing the consolidation of British rule, 

 and the wealth of the Indies was pouring into England, the 

 story of which could hardly be exaggerated in the tales of the 

 Arabian Nights. Hastings, at the same time, was in the midst 

 of those events which led up to those charges which were made 

 against him later, resulting in that famous trial covering a 

 period of nine years. In France, Napoleon had been swept into- 

 power on the waves of the French revolution. He had become 

 the dominant power in France, and during those years of which 

 we speak he was practically dictating the policy of Europe. 

 He had become First Consul. In America, Thomas Jefferson,, 

 that great author of the Declaration of Independence, occupied 

 the presidential chair. He was surrounded by such men as 

 Livingstone and Monroe, the latter afterwards becoming Presi- 

 dent. Such were the events, and such were the men in and 

 preceding the period when the Louisiana purchase was ac- 

 complished. Like all great events this transfer had its origin 

 in a very small beginning. While the French owned in fee 

 the land in and about New Orleans, the Spanish authorities 

 were still dominant, and they had become so irritating to the 

 navigators of the Mississippi River that it occurred to Presi- 

 dent Jefferson to see if some negotiations could not be entered 

 into whereby relief might be obtained. He, therefore, pro- 

 jected the idea of the purchase of the city and island of New 

 Orleans, and immediately sent Livingstone to France, through 



