[Illustration:  This map shows the extent of the United States in 1853 after we had added the land called the Gadsden Purchase, bought from Mexico; the land is marked on the map, 1853.]

The Revolution ended something over a hundred years ago; if you look on the map in paragraph 187, and compare it with the maps which follow, you will see how we have grown during that time.  Then we had just thirteen states[10] which stretched along the Atlantic, and, with the country west of them, extended as far as the Mississippi River.

Next (1803) we bought the great territory of Louisiana (see map in paragraph 188), which has since been divided into many states; then (1819) we bought Florida (see map in paragraph 218); then (1845) we added Texas (see map in paragraph 230); the next year (1846) we added Oregon territory, since cut up into two great states (see map in paragraph 234); then (1848) we obtained California and New Mexico (see map in paragraph 239).  Five years after that (1853) we bought the land then known as the Gadsden Purchase (see first map in this paragraph); last of all (1867) we bought Alaska (see second map in this paragraph).

[Illustration:  This map shows the territorial growth of the United States from the time of the Revolution to the present day.]

[Illustration:  SCENE ON THE COAST OF ALASKA.]

[Footnote 8:  See maps in this paragraph.  It was called the Gadsden Purchase, because General James Gadsden of South Carolina bought it from Mexico for the United States, in 1853.  It included what is now part of Southern Arizona and N. Mexico.]

[Footnote 9:  Alaska:  see second map in this paragraph.]

[Footnote 10:  Thirteen states:  see footnote 4 in paragraph 102.]

241.  “Brother Jonathan’s"[11] seven steps.—­If you count up these additions, you will see that, beginning with Louisiana in 1803, and ending with Alaska in 1867, they make just seven in all.  There is a story of a giant who was so tall that at one long step he could go more than twenty miles; but “Brother Jonathan” can beat that, for in the seven steps he has taken since the Revolution he has gone over three thousand miles.  He stands now with one foot on the coast of the Atlantic and with the other on that of the Pacific.

[Footnote 11:  “Brother Jonathan”:  a name given in fun to the people of the United States, just as “John Bull” is to the people of England.

One explanation of the origin of the name is this:  General Washington had a very high opinion of the good sense and sound judgment of Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut.  At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, when no one seemed to know where to get a supply of powder, General Washington said to his officers, “We must consult Brother Jonathan on this subject.”  Afterwards when any serious difficulty arose it became a common saying in the army that “We must consult Brother Jonathan,” and in time the name came to stand for the American people.]