THE 



National Geographic Magazine 



Vol. IX ' SEPTEMBER, 1898 No. 9 



THE GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES* 



By W J McGee, 



Vice-President of the National Geographic Society 



With the annexation of Hawaii an end came to America's 

 longest period of inactivity in territorial expansion. During 

 this period of thirty-one years— nearly an average generation — 

 the great fact of almost unparalleled expansion in earlier decades 

 has been half forgotten. 



Beginning with an area of 827,844 square miles and a marine 

 coast line of full 1,500 miles, the nation concentrated energy on 

 internal affairs for twenty-three years ; then, in 1803, the Lou- 

 isiana purchase was consummated and Oregon territory was 

 acquired, adding 1,171,931 square miles to the national domain 

 and 1,000 linear miles to the coast line ; so that at a single bound 

 the territory was more than -doubled and the coast line nearly 

 doubled, while an outlet was gained on the Pacific. The mate- 

 rial expansion was quickly reflected in a widening of intellectual 

 horizon among the people, who were thereby confronted by new 

 problems ; for, under republican organization, national problems 

 are problems of the people rather than of leaders only. The 

 immediate result was renewed intellectual and industrial activity 

 and the implanting of a trait which has since become national, 

 i. e., enterprise; the more remote effects included development 

 of interior commerce, the application of steam to inland naviga- 

 tion, the founding of a foreign carrying trade, and the real open- 

 ing of that career of invention and manufacture which has given 

 character to the American people. 



* An address delivered at the Joint Session of the National Geographic Society and 

 the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston, August 25, 1898. 

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