384 THE FRENCH BLOOD IN AMERICA 



enter into possession of it. It is an interesting fact that 

 he was doubtless influenced in his decision by Marbois, 

 one of the two commissioners whom he appointed to treat 

 with the American representatives. Marbois had an 

 American wife, and he radically favoured the sale ; while 

 Talleyrand as vigorously opposed it. 

 The Greatest By this purcliase, the most stupendous land transfer in 

 History^ ^ '" history, the United States was placed in position subse- 

 quently to acquire the Spanish region, and thus to gain 

 its present territorial proportions. There are now four- 

 teen populous and prosperous states of the Union com- 

 prised within this section, which includes a large part of 

 the world's granary. Jefferson did buy a wilderness, but 

 it has been made to blossom as the rose. Prosperous and 

 populous cities and towns exist where in 1803 nature and 

 the savage held sway, and the "wilderness" contains 

 nearly one-fifth of the 80,000,000 of our people. There 

 are three times as many people in the Louisiana Purchase 

 now as there were in the whole United States when the 

 sale was completed, and the centre of population as of po- 

 litical and industrial power is fast moving towards the 

 Mississippi. The state of Missouri alone has more peo- 

 ple than the thirteen colonies had when they won their 

 independence. St. Louis, a single city, has more inhab- 

 itants to-day than New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and 

 all other cities of the country put together in 1800. Then 

 think of such centres of wealth, industry and cultm^e as 

 Denver, Omaha, St. Paul and Minneapolis, Sioux City, 

 Kansas City, with the host of smaller but not less pro- 

 gressive cities and towns. 

 The Field Such has been the field opened up to commerce and in- 



dustry. Under the homestead laws a vast number of 

 immigrants swept into this region, in addition to the 

 thousands attracted from the eastern section. When we 

 realize that other nations have fui-nished us witli 22,000,- 

 000 of their people since 1820, and 16,000,000 of these 

 since 18G2, the yeai' in which President Lincoln signed 



