were negro slaves. The civilized inhabitants were princi-
pally French, or descendants of French, with a few
Spanish, Germans, English, and Americans.

The purchase of this tremendous slice of territory could
not be complete without an approval of the bargain by
the United States Senate. Great opposition to this was
immediately excited by people in various parts of the
Union, especially in New England, where there was a very
bitter feeling against the prime mover in this business,--
Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States.
The scheme was ridiculed by persons who insisted that
the region was not only wild and unexplored, but unin-
habitable and worthless. They derided "The Jefferson
Purchase," as they called it, as a useless piece of extrava-
gance and folly; and, in addition to its being a foolish
bargain, it was urged that President Jefferson had no right,
under the constitution of the United States, to add any
territory to the area of the Republic.

Nevertheless, a majority of the people were in favor of
the purchase, and the bargain was duly approved by the
United States Senate; that body, July 31, 1803, just
three months after the execution of the treaty of cession,
formally ratified the important agreement between the
two governments. The dominion of the United States
was now extended across the entire continent of North
America, reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The
Territory of Oregon was already ours.

This momentous transfer took place one hundred years
ago, when almost nothing was known of the region so
summarily handed from the government of France to the
government of the American Republic. No white man
had ever traversed those trackless plains, or scaled the
frowning ranges of mountains that barred the way across

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