Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 73, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1904 — THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION IN BRIEF [ARTICLE]

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION IN BRIEF

Idea was born In 1898. It commemorates the centennial of Louisiana purchase from France, 180*?. U. S. purchased that strip of territory, Gulf of Mexico td Canada, and from Mississippi river to crest of the Rocky Mountains. The Mississippi valley .belonged to France by right of discovery and exploration. Ixmishmn--wws- ceded to Spain, secret treaty 1762, and 37 years later returned to France at the demand of Napoleon Bonaparte, Oct. 1, 1800. President Thomas Jefferson purchased Ixiiiisiana territory, outlined above, of Napoleon for $15,000,000, who used the funds for equipment of his armies. Tlie treaty was signed at Paris April 30, 1803. Louisiana territory embraced 1,000,000 square miles. In 1898, following an editorial in a St. Louis paper that the greatest centennial event of the age should be celebrated in a fitting manner, Gov. Stevens of Missouri called a delegation from the States now constituting the Louisiana territory at St. Louis, Jan. 10. 1899. Ninety-th rec delegates voted unanimously to hold an exposition, international in its_ scope, in St. Louis. The U. S. government wns invited to assist, nnd it was settled to spend $15,000,009 in completing the exposition, the amount of the original purchase. The government paid onc-tliird, St. Louis onethird and the balance was raised.by public subscription. _ JTrces were felled, -bills were levetc4, tlie course, of the river. De Peres, changed. Aug. 20, 1901, President William McKinley issued a proclamation inviting the world to participate in the mammoth exposition. The grounds cover 1.240 acres, an area two miles long and one mile.wide, nearly twice as much ns the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago. The main exhibit palaces at St. Louis have under roof 128 acres. When the time arrived for tlie completion of tlie exposition it was found necessary to postpone it another year. Nations were asking for more space for their exhibits ami tlie affair had been multiplied in its proportions until at tlie time of its completion now, it lias cost about SS6.IXX).(XX), and is tlie largest exposition ever given on earth.