And State Papers 349 



a footing of exact and entire equality with those 

 of the Commonwealths whose sons once signed the 

 Declaration of Independence. But this way of look 

 ing at the matter is purely modern, and in its origin 

 purely American. When Washington during his 

 Presidency saw new States come into the Union 

 on a footing of complete equality with the old, every 

 European nation which had colonies still adminis 

 tered them as dependencies, and every other mother- 

 country treated the colonist not as a self-governing 

 equal but as a subject. 



The process which we began has since been fol 

 lowed by all the great peoples who were capable 

 both of expansion and of self-government, and now 

 the world accepts it as the natural process, as the 

 rule; but a century and a quarter ago it was not 

 merely exceptional; it was unknown. 



This, then, is the great historic significance of 

 the movement of continental expansion in which the 

 Louisiana Purchase was the most striking single 

 achievement. It stands out in marked relief even 

 among the feats of a nation of pioneers, a nation 

 whose people have from the beginning been picked 

 out by a process of natural selection from among 

 the most enterprising individuals of the nations of 

 western Europe. The acquisition of the territory 

 is a credit to the broad and far-sighted statesman 

 ship of the great statesmen to whom it was imme 

 diately due, and above all to the aggressive and 

 masterful character of the hardy pioneer folk to 

 whose restless energy these statesmen gave expres- 



