208 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



On the South, Spain shut us up on the side of the 

 Gulf of Mexico. 



It was impossible in this state of things that the 

 United States could attain the development to which, 

 in other respects, they had the right to aspire, by rea- 

 son of the fertility of their soil, their numerous rivers, 

 and their commanding position in the temperate zone 

 of America. 



But the cession of Louisiana to the United States 

 by the voluntary act of France, — the most splendid 

 concession ever made by one nation to another, — pro- 

 duced a revolution in the condition of America. We 

 thus acquired territory of indefinite limits westward, 

 with such limits on the south as the pretensions of 

 Spain would allow, and with limits north only where 

 superior claim of right on the part of Great Britain 

 intervened, namely, the parallel of forty-nine degrees 

 established between France and Great Britain by the 

 Treaty of Utrecht. 



President Jeiferson lost no time in' asserting the 

 rights of the United States in the interior of the 

 Union, and at the same time acquiring knowledge of 

 the country by means of the celebrated expedition of 

 Lewis and Clark. Theretofore the only knowledge 

 we possessed of the great chain of the Eocky Mount- 

 ains, and of the country or even the name of the coun- 

 try of Oregon beyond, was founded on the narration 

 of Jonathan Carver, or other information derived 

 from the Indians. 



We were thus enabled to comprehend the relation 

 of Louisiana to the shores of the Pacific, and to see 



