Contribution to territorial greatness.
Our countrymen feel a proper pride in this broad land, covered by forty-four contiguous sovereign States,—every State a nation,— shorelining the two greatest oceans of the globe, capped by lakes that have the magnitude of seas, and pedestled on a gulf that duplicates the Mediterranean of the old world.
We say to our sister Nations, behold the land where popular government is sacredly templed and its principles are bravely guarded.
See the landed estate of a free American people which provides home and happiness for its seventy millions, with room to spare for four-fold more!
Now, in view of the political truth that in the century at hand no nation, however free, can be truly great without having jurisdiction over expansive and expanding territory, it is pertinent for all
Americans to enquire into the history of a policy which within a century gave a growth to our country from thirteen States to nearly fifty, and from a fringe of settlements to the present vast enlargements of eminent domain.
Will not a fraternal acknowledgement be won from our countrymen of every section when their memory is refreshed concerning the contributions to this territorial greatness made by that South which sought once to divide the estate and now in honor and contentment remains integral, harmonious and happy in the unsevered possession of the entire magnificent area?
I trust it will.
I believe that even while they pronounce our attempt at secession a mistake, they will frankly say to the
South, ‘Your policy of territorial aggrandizement on this continent was right.’
Let us see in a sheer summary how much this country is indebted
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to the
South for actual land.
We commence with the fact that in the beginning the
Southern Colonies brought into the common property largely the greatest landed wealth.
Take the munificent grant of your own
Virginia by its cession of territory to which jurists said and say it had a valid title; look at the gift made by
Maryland,
North Carolina's donation of
Tennessee, and
Georgia's cession from the
Chattahoochee to the
Mississippi; then examine that outlying range of northwestern territory won and held by the backwoods' boys, from
Virginia and
Kentucky, of which a northern first-rank historian frankly says, ‘All our territory lying beyond
the Alleghanies north and south was first won for us by Southwesterners fighting for their land.’
Survey also the regal possessions of the
French, then called
Louisiana, broadening out from the delta of the
Mississippi along the right bank of that mighty river, in shape like an eagle's wing whose tip touched the
British possessions on the north line of the present
Dakotas, and covering ground nearly one-third the
United States!
That imperial region was seized in peace from
Napoleon by the statesmanship of Southern men against the resentment of
Great Britain and over the protesting fears of our timid countrymen who opposed the aggrandizement of our nation by territorial extension.
Next came the acquisition of
Florida from
Spain, by which the same Southern policy secured that inviting realm of beauty, where the gentle climate invites the shivering Northerners to flee the wrath to come and revel in the luscious lures of orange groves.
Will they not, while breathing the balm of Indian river and
Tampa's strand—will they not bless the valor of
Andrew Jackson and the acquisitive statesmanship of his Southern compeers which delivered this glorious peninsula from the oppression of
Spain and committed it to the keeping of the American Union?
And next in order, great
Texas won by annexation and consequent
Mexican war, followed by victory, peace and purchase, that brought us for a trifle in money the ownership of
New Mexico, the garden fields of all the Californias and a Pacific shore line whose harbors now open to the trade of the Orient.
Everybody knows that this magnificent gain was the result of the
South's aggressive policy and occurred through the administration of a Southern
President.
Last comes
Arizona, known in the annals of acquisition as the Gadsden purchase, achieved, as is conceded, by the skill of the
South Carolina Senator, who by special mission contrived the trade.
Now, take your map of these
United States and territories.
Survey with all your American pride the broad domain of the American Union in the best portion of the
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earth: then draw a line along the northern boundary of
Maryland and due west toward the
Mississippi river, then northward to the
Canada line, then along our northern limits to the
Pacific Ocean, and from thence down the
Pacific coast to the southern part of
California, where you will turn eastward to the mouth of the
Rio Grande and follow the islands of the
Gulf around the
Florida keys, and still on in the course of the
Gulf stream sweep up the
Atlantic shores by
Georgia, the Carolinas,
Virginia and
Maryland, to the beginning point!
Look, my countrymen, at that wondrous
imperium in imperio, containing two-thirds of the nation's land, one-half its population, and destined to be the home of two hundred millions of free people—that land came into the
Union by the munificence of
Maryland,
Virginia, the Carolinas and
Georgia; it was won from the crowns of
England,
Spain,
France and
Mexico by the blood of the brave, or bought by the taxes of the people; it was all brought into the family of the free and sovereign States of this American Republic through a consistent, persistent, far-seeing Southern policy!
But lest this historical statement shall seem to be a sectional boast, I bid you as patriots to cast your eyes proudly upon your country's territorial greatness and see it as it begins to appear in the eyes of the nations.
Reflect on the common achievements of your countrymen in war and peace, and then nobly stand in your place with all States and people in the
Union to repeat the words of the
President: ‘We have built a magnificent fabric of popular government whose grand proportions are seen throughout the world.’
