CHAPTER VI.

THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA; AND BURR’S CONSPIRACY, 1803-1807.

A great and growing race may acquire vast stretches of scantily peopled territory in any one of several ways.  Often the statesman, no less than the soldier, plays an all-important part in winning the new land; nevertheless, it is usually true that the diplomatists who by treaty ratify the acquisition usurp a prominence in history to which they are in no way entitled by the real worth of their labors.

    Ways in which Territorial Expansion may Take Place.

The territory may be gained by the armed forces of the nation, and retained by treaty.  It was in this way that England won the Cape of Good Hope from Holland; it was in this way that the United States won New Mexico.  Such a conquest is due, not to the individual action of members of the winning race, but to the nation as a whole, acting through her soldiers and statesmen.  It was the English Navy which conquered the Cape of Good Hope for England; it was the English diplomats that secured its retention.  So it was the American Army which added New Mexico to the United States; and its retention was due to the will of the politicians who had set that army in motion.  In neither case was there any previous settlement of moment by the conquerors in the conquered territory.  In neither case was there much direct pressure by the people of the conquering races upon the soil which was won for them by their soldiers and statesmen.  The acquisition of the territory must be set down to the credit of these soldiers and statesmen, representing the nation in its collective capacity; though in the case of New Mexico there would of course ultimately have been a direct pressure of rifle-bearing settlers upon the people of the ranches and the mud-walled towns.

    Diplomatic Victories.

In such cases it is the government itself, rather than any individual or aggregate of individuals, which wins the new land for the race.  When it is won without appeal to arms, the credit, which would otherwise be divided between soldiers and statesmen, of course accrues solely to the latter.  Alaska, for instance, was acquired by mere diplomacy.  No American settlers were thronging into Alaska.  The desire to acquire it among the people at large was vague, and was fanned into sluggish activity only by the genius of the far-seeing statesmen who purchased it.  The credit of such an acquisition really does belong to the men who secured the adoption of the treaty by which it was acquired.  The honor of adding Alaska to the national domain belongs to the statesmen who at the time controlled the Washington Government.  They were not figure-heads in the transaction.  They were the vital, moving forces.

    Victories with Which Diplomats Have no Concern.

Just the contrary is true of cases like that of the conquest of Texas.  The Government of the United States had nothing to do with winning Texas for the English-speaking people of North America.  The American frontiersmen won Texas for themselves, unaided either by the statesmen who controlled the politics of the Republic, or by the soldiers who took their orders from Washington.