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 later Andrew Ellicott, of the joint commission, erected near the Creole settlement of Chastang's, twenty miles from Mobile, the stone which marked the boundary. The result was a rapid influx of Americans north of the line, and the formation of the Mississippi Territory.

The hoisting of the American flag at Fort St. Stephen began the marvellous development and expansion of the United States. Kentucky and Tennessee became States, and Louisiana was purchased, by which the Union crossed the Mississippi. Finally, during the War of 1812, General James Wilkinson took possession of Mobile on April 15, 1813. This was on the theory, consistently adhered to by our Government, that Mobile was still a part of Louisiana. Whether the theory would have been carried out if Spain had been a strong power at the time is a different question.

So Mobile became American, the seaport of Mississippi Territory, whose extent was much that of the old British province of West Florida. The chief difference was that, as its south line was at 31°, there was no seacoast except about Mobile, and that this was compensated by giving a greater extent to the north. When the territory was divided in two, the