326 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



Seneca foretold that Ultima Thule would no longer 

 mark the boundaries of the world. Now, the railway 

 runs to Jerusalem ; we have found the mouth of the Niger 

 and the source of the Nile. Before many years a child 

 may be put on the train at Chicago in charge of the con- 

 ductor to be landed at Buenos Ayres; Khartoum and 

 Albert Nyanza will be dinner stations on the Cairo and 

 Cape Town Railway; the world, after all, is growing 

 smaller. 



THE COST OF OUE TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS 



It is interesting at this day to note the cost of the 

 various territorial purchases which up to the time of the 

 Spanish war have been added to our national domain. 

 Our last purchase I will not discuss at this time, for it is 

 too early to count the cost and value of Porto Rico and 

 the Philippines. We paid for Louisiana only three and 

 three-tenths cents an acre, the best investment ever made 

 by any nation since the dawn of history. 



To Spain we gave for Florida 17.1 cents an acre; to 

 Mexico, 4.5 for the first purchase, and then 34.3 for the 

 Gadsden Purchase in southern Arizona, the highest priced 

 of all our acquisitions. Georgia sold her territorial 

 rights for 10.1 cents an acre. The most doubtful ex- 

 pansion of all was when William Henry Seward made the 

 purchase of the icebergs of Alaska at 1.19 cents an acre. 



Mr. Seward said that his reputation in history would 

 mainly rest on this act of statesmanship, and for many 

 years his expected honor remained in cold storage in that 

 inhospitable land. But time has vindicated the wisdom of 

 Mr. Seward, and Alaska is no longer the least prized of 

 our possessions. 



But of all additions to our republic none have been 

 freighted with such great possibilities for the good of the 

 nation as the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana. 



