Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/10

iv lifted from many an humble church spire. The territory of New France was fondly believed to be destined to great things.

In 1762, however, by the secret treaty of Fontainebleau ceded all her territory west of the river to Spain, and the Spanish soon entered into possession. The transfer was very distasteful to the French settlers here, but in reality the rule of the Spanish was better than that of the French. The Spanish government undoubtedly dreamed of a great Spanish colonial empire west of the river, and gave much consideration to the task of building it up. Her governors here were instructed to do all in their power to secure settlers, especially those from east of the Mississippi who had had some experience in the life of the pioneer. The Ordinance of 1787 which prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory of the United States, turned a part of the tide of imigration across the river to the Spanish territory where no such restriction was in force. Spain sent to this country some of the ablest of her colonial administrators who gave much thought and effort to the task set them of building up her western possessions.

In 1800, the territory passed again into the control of France, and there were again dreamed the dreams of a new and glorious France in the New World. However it was a time of great stress and storm in France. Napoleon was engaged in his herculean struggle with the English. He needed all the resources of his vast empire to support him in that struggle. The command of the sea was denied to France. Nelson and his fleets cut France off from her oversea dominions. Napoleon saw the inevitable consequence of trying to hold the great territory in America, known as Louisiana. It must fall into the hands of the English. To prevent this, to help build up a rival for England, and to gain money which he needed, he sold the immense territory of Louisiana to the United States for the sum of $15,000,000. And so on a day in 1804 the flag of France was once more hauled down from her American possessions and the banner of the republic took its place.

That transaction marks an epoch not alone in the history of the western territory, but also in the history of the United States. The territory thus acquired from France, contains some of the best and fairest parts of the vast domains of our country. Of course the transfer meant much to Louisiana. The restrictions on trade, on religious freedom, on local self government which France and Spain had imposed on settlers within the territory, were at once removed and there poured into the new possessions a constantly increasing stream of immigration from the older sections of the union. State after state was carved from the new territory. Missouri was admitted to the Union in 1820, taking her place at once among the great states.

The subsequent history of the state is a story of marvellous growth. Its vast resources have been developed, roads and railroads built, cities and towns have everywhere sprung up. the population has multiplied until now there are more than 3,000,000 people within the borders of Missouri alone. He who can close his eye to the present, sweep away all that civilization has brought, and with the imagination call again into existence the country as it appeared to De Soto or La Salle, awake from the grave the savage Indians who were once its sole population, then reclothe the land with its boundless forests and repeople them with the wild animals that once swarmed in countless numbers throughout all this region, fill the air again with the