USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 8
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The Town of Santa Fe was captured by Col. Stephen W. Kearney, and New Mexico was acquired almost without loss of life. By the end of 1846 prac- tically all the territory desired by the administration was held by the United States military forces, though Mexico still remained unconquered. In the spring of 1847 President Polk sent Nicholas P. Trist, a Virginian and chief clerk in the department of state, to Gen. Winfield Scott's headquarters for the purpose of entering into negotiations with the Mexican Government for the restoration of peace. He was instructed, among other things, to demand the cession of Cali- fornia and New Mexico and the recognition of the Rio Grande as the interna- tional boundary. On February 2. 1848, Trist succeeded in negotiating the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (a small place on the outskirts of the City of Mexico), which embodied these features. All the territory held by Mexico north of the Rio Grande was ceded to the United States, Mexico receiving therefor the sum of $15,000,000, and the United States further agreed to assume the pay-
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ment of claims held by her citizens against the Mexican Government, provided the total amount of such claims did not exceed $3,250,000.
That part of Wyoming ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo lies south of the forty-second parallel of north latitude and west of the line of 107° 30' west longitude. It embraces all of Sweetwater County except a strip about eighteen miles wide across the northern part; the southwest corner of Carbon County ( that part lying west of 107º 30') ; all of Uinta County, and a tract thirty-six miles wide across the south end of Lincoln County.
ANNEXATION OF TEXAS
The greater part of Texas was originally included in the Province of Louisi- ana. In 1819 Spain ceded Florida to the United States and received in return all that part of the Louisiana Purchase included within the limits of Texas, which then extended northward to the forty-second parallel. Two years later Moses Austin obtained from the Spanish authorities the privilege of establishing an American colony in Texas. Mexico, by the revolution which separated her from Spain, became independent and succeeded to all the rights of the mother country over Texas. On October 4, 1824, the people of Mexico adopted a Federal Constitution, under which the Mexican Republic was formed, composed of separate states. Texas and Coahuila were united as one of those states and adopted a constitution, after the manner of the states of the American Union.
In 1835 a military revolution broke out in the City of Mexico, which was powerful enough to subvert the federal and state constitutions of the republic and establish Gen. Miguel Barragan as military dictator. At his order the Mexican Congress issued a decree converting the states into mere departments of a central government The Austin colony soon became a "thorn in the side" of the military dictator. Texas revolted, and on March 2, 1836, issued a declara- tion of independence, to the effect that all political connection with Mexico was forever ended, and that "the people of Texas do now constitute a free, sovereign and independent republic." General Santa Anna, who had succeeded to the dictatorship, collected a force and marched into Texas for the purpose of forcing the people back to their allegiance. He was defeated at the battle of San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, and in May, while held as a prisoner by the Texans, was forced to enter into a treaty acknowledging the independence of the Texas Republic, with the Rio Grande as the western boundary.
Previous to this time the United States had made repeated offers to purchase the territory forming the Republic of Texas, but they had all been rejected. The Constitution of Texas was ratified by the people in September, 1836, and Gen. Sam Houston was chosen as president. In the last days of President Tyler's administration the people of Texas made overtures for annexation to the United States and Congress passed an act giving the assent of the Government to the annexation, under certain conditions. On March 10, 1845, the people of Texas voted to accept the provisions of the act and Texas became a part of the United States. It was admitted into the Union as a state on December 29, 1845.
By the annexation of Texas, all that part of Carbon County, Wyoming, lying east of 107° 30' west longitude and south of the forty-second parallel of north latitude, and that part of Albany County south of the forty-second parallel and
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west of 105° 30' west longitude, were annexed to the territory of the United States. Originally the dividing line between the territory of Texas and the Louisiana Purchase was supposed to be the summit of the Laramie Mountains, but in the cession to Spain, by the treaty of 1819, it was fixed at the line of. 105° 30' west longitude, with which boundary it came back into the United States in 1845.
OREGON
The British flag was first carried to the coast of Oregon in 1579, by Sir Francis Drake. Captain Cook, another English adventurer and explorer, landed at and named Nootka Sound (Vancouver Island) in 1778. Upon the voyages of Drake and Cook, Great Britain claimed the country along the coast. This claim was disputed by the Spaniards in 1789, on the grounds of previous dis- covery, but in the end Spain was compelled to yield. In 1793 another expedition under Vancouver explored the coast on behalf of England, adding further strength to her claim.
The American claim to the region began in the winter of 1788-89, when Capt. Robert Gray and a man named Kendrick passed the winter on the Nootka Sound. They had been sent out by some merchants of Boston to investigate the possibilities of the fur trade in the Northwest. Captain Gray made a second trip to the Pacific coast in 1792, when he ascended the Columbia River for several miles. Based upon the discoveries of Gray and Kendrick and the Louisi- ana Purchase (the old Spanish claim), the United States laid claim to the country. After the expedition of Lewis and Clark in 1804-06, this claim was extended to "all the country drained by the Columbia River and its branches." In 1811 the claim of the United States received substantial support by the estab- lishment of Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia, by the Pacific Fur Company.
In 1818 a convention of commissioners appointed by the United States and Great Britain to fix the international boundary, reported in favor of the forty- ninth parallel of latitude from the Lake of the Woods to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, thence southward along the crest of the divide to the old Mexican boundary, and along that boundary to the coast. It was also agreed that the territory west of the Rocky Mountains should be open to both the United States and Canada for ten years, "without prejudice to the claims of either." At the end of the ten years this privilege of joint occupation was extended indefinitely by agreement, by a convention held in London on August 6, 1827. Either government was given the power to abrogate the agreement by giving the other twelve months notice.
In the meantime, by the treaty of 1819, Spain quitclaimed her title to all land north of the forty-second parallel to the United States. In the negotiations with Russia in 1824-25, that nation agreed to establish no settlements on the Pacific coast south of the line of 54º 40' north latitude. During President Tyler's administration the controversy over the boundary was reopened when citizens of the United States began moving into the disputed territory and establishing homesteads. John C. Calhoun, then secretary of state, proposed that the forty- ninth parallel should be the boundary line all the way to the Pacific coast, but to this the English minister (Pakenham) would not consent. The latter suggested
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the forty-ninth parallel to the Columbia River, and then that river to the coast. The agreement with Russia had created the impression in the minds of many of the people of the United States that the line of 54° 40' should be the inter- national boundary, and in the political campaign of 1844 the democratic party adopted as its slogan "Fifty-four forty or fight."
In April, 1846, Congress authorized the President, "at his discretion," to give England notice of the abrogation of the agreement for joint occupation. This was done and it led to another convention for the purpose of establishing an international boundary. On August 5, 1846, President Polk sent a special message to Congress, in which he said: "Herewith I submit a copy of a conven- tion for the settlement and adjustment of the Oregon question, which was con- cluded in this city (Washington) on the 15th of June last between the United States and Her Britannic Majesty. This convention has since been duly ratified by the respective parties and the ratifications were exchanged at London on the 17th day of July, 1846."
By this convention the boundary line between the United States and the British possessions was established as follows: "The forty-ninth parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the middle of the channel which separates Vancouver Island from the continent, and thence southerly through the said channel and the Straits of Juan de Fuca to the Pacific Ocean, both nations to have at all times free navigation of the said channel and Straits of Juan de Fuca."
Thus a controversy of long standing was finally settled and the United States came into the undisputed possession of a large tract of country west of the Con- tinental Divide and north of the old Mexican boundary. Included in this tract is that part of Wyoming constituting more than three-fourths of the northern part of Lincoln county ; the southwestern part of Fremont County (all west of the divide) ; that portion of Sweetwater County lying north of the forty-second parallel and west of the divide; and the southwestern part of the Yellowstone National Park.
NEBRASKA
On May 30, 1854. that historic piece of legislation known as the "Kansas- Nebraska Bill," creating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, was signed by President Franklin Pierce. In section 1 of the bill the boundaries of Ne- braska are thus described: "Beginning at a point on the Missouri River where the fortieth parallel of north latitude crosses the same; thence west on said parallel to the east boundary of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains ; thence on said summit northward to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary of the Territory of Minne- sota ; thence southward on said boundary to the Missouri River; thence down the main channel of said river to the place of beginning."
These boundaries included all that part of Wyoming acquired by the Louisi- ana Purchase, while that portion west of the Rocky Mountains remained attached to the territories of Utah and Oregon. No further changes in boundary lines or conditions affecting the territory occurred until 1861, when Congress estab- lished the
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TERRITORY OF DAKOTA
When first created, this territory extended from the forty-ninth parallel-the international boundary-on the north to the Missouri and Running Water rivers on the south, and from the western boundary of the states of Iowa and Minne- sota on the east to the summit of the Rocky Mountains on the west. It embraced all the present states of North and South Dakota, nearly all of Montana, and all that part of Wyoming east of the Rocky Mountains, except a small tract in the southeast corner, which still belonged to Nebraska. In the country west of the Rocky Mountains no change was made. This arrangement lasted but two years, however, when another redistricting of the United States domain in the Northwest was made by Congress.
IDAHO
On March 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln approved an act establishing the Territory of Idaho. As originally erected, the Territory of Idaho was bounded on the north by the forty-sixth parallel of north latitude; on the east by the twenty-seventh meridian of longitude west from Washington (the present eastern boundary of the State of Wyoming) ; on the south by the forty-second parallel of north latitude ; and on the west by the Territory of Oregon. It there- fore included all that portion of Wyoming lying north of the old Mexican and Texas boundary. South of that line a tract about seventy miles wide and one hundred and eighty-five miles long still belonged to Utah, and the southeast corner (the present County of Laramie and the greater part of the counties of Albany, Carbon, Goshen and Platte) was attached to the Territory of Dakota. Five years later another change was made. The Territory of Wyoming was established by the act of July 25, 1868, with its present boundaries, and in 1890 it was admitted into the Union with all the rights of statehood. (See chapters XI and XII.)
RECAPITULATION
The territory now consituting the State of Wyoming was first claimed by Spain under the grant of the pope in 1493, as part of the "countries inhabited by infidels." That claim was given greater force by the discovery of the Mis- sissippi River by De Soto in 1541, but the wisest of Spain's statesmen and geog- raphers knew not the vast extent of the Mississippi Valley. Hence, while nominally included in the Spanish possessions in America, Wyoming remained untenanted, save for the wild beast and the roving Indian. The Spanish claim to the country east of the Rocky Mountains was superseded in April, 1682, by that of France, based on the expedition of La Salle, who gave the territory the name of Louisiana. This province was ceded by France to Spain in 1762; ceded back to France in 1800; and sold to the United States in 1803. The greater portion of Albany and Carbon counties came to the United States through the annexation of Texas in 1845. The triangular shaped tract west of the Continental Divide and north of the line of forty-two degrees north latitude was acquired by the settlement of the Oregon question in 1846, and the southwestern
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part of the state was ceded to the United States by Mexico at the close of the Mexican war in 1848. During the next twenty years Wyoming was, in whole or in part, under the jurisdiction of Nebraska, Utah, Oregon, Dakota and Idaho. In 1868 it was made an organized territory of the United States, and in 1890 a new star was added to the national constellation representing the sovereign State of Wyoming.
Of all the states of the American Union, none presents as varied a history in the matter of jurisdiction as Wyoming. It is the only state composed of terri- tory acquired from all four of the principal western annexations. Portions of the state were claimed at times by Spain, France and Great Britain, and from the earliest record the land has been one of adventure. The mountain ranges afforded fruitful fields for the hunter, trapper and Indian trader and invited such men as Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, Ashley, Campbell, Sublette, Jim Baker and others, whose names are almost as familiar to the student of pioneer history as the names of Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett and Gen. Sam Houston.
CHAPTER VI
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
LA SALLE'S CLAIM TO THE COUNTRY DRAINED BY THE MISSISSIPPI-CONTROVERSY OVER THE NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER-TREATY OF MADRID-NAPO- I.EON AND TALLEYRAND-SECRET TREATY OF SAN ILDEFONSO-RETROCESSION OF LOUISIANA TO FRANCE-SENTIMENT IN THE UNITED STATES-JEFFERSON'S DIPLOMACY-LIVINGSTON AND MONROE-PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA-FULL TEXT OF THE TREATY OF PARIS-CEREMONY OF TRANSFER-THE TEMPORARY GOVERN- MENT-DIVISION OF THE PROVINCE.
In the preceding chapter has been given some account of Wyoming under different jurisdictions, and the reader may want to understand more fully how the territory now comprising the state came to be the property of the United States. To make this plain, it is necessary to give an account of one of the greatest diplomatic transactions in modern history. It will be remembered that under the claim of La Salle, in 1682, all the region drained by the Mississippi River and its numerous tributaries, which included practically all of Wyoming, became a French possession and remained so for eighty years. At the close of the French and Indian war in 1762 France lost every foot of land she pos- sessed in the New World, Canada and that part of Louisiana lying east of the Mississippi passing into the hands of England, and all her territory west of the Mississippi going to Spain.
By the Treaty of September 3. 1783, which ended the Revolutionary war, the western boundary of the United States was fixed at the Mississippi River, though the mouth of that great stream was wholly within Spanish territory. It was not long until the new American Republic became involved in a controversy with the Spanish officials of Louisiana over the right to free navigation of the Mis- sissippi. The final settlement of this question wielded an unmistakable influence upon the present State of Wyoming. The river constituted the natural outlet for the products of a large part of the United States-a section which was rapidly increasing in wealth, population and political importance-but the Spanish author- ities established posts along the river and every boat descending the stream was compelled to land at these posts and submit to arbitrary revenue duties. This policy was kept up for several years, to the humiliation of the United States trader and a diminution of his profits. Through the influence of Don Manuel Godoy, one of the wisest of the Spanish statesmen of that day, the Treaty of Madrid was concluded on October 27, 1795. one article of which stipulated "That the Mississippi River, from its source to the gulf, for its entire width. shall be free to American trade and commerce, and the people of the United
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States shall be permitted, for three years, to use the Port of New Orleans as a port of deposit, without payment of duty."
About that time the French Revolution brought into prominence two of the most noted characters in European history-Napoleon and Talleyrand. These two celebrated French diplomats and statesmen, feeling deeply the loss of their country's possessions in America, began to dream of rebuilding a colonial empire for France, one feature of which was to regain Louisiana. To that end nego- tiations were opened with the Spanish Government. Don Carlos IV was then king of Spain, but Channing says: "The actual rulers of Spain were Dona Maria Luisa de Parma, his queen, and Don Manuel Godoy, el Principe de la Paz, which title writers of English habitually translate 'Prince of Peace.'"
Godoy well knew he was not liked by Napoleon and Talleyrand, and when they began their overtures for the transfer of Louisiana back to France he re- signed from the Spanish ministry, leaving the king without his most efficient adviser. Godoy and his objections being thus removed, Napoleon and Talleyrand offered in exchange for Louisiana "an Italian kingdom of at least one million in- habitants for the Duke of Parma, prince presumptive, who was at once son-in-law and nephew of the ruling monarchs." The offer was accepted, the State of Tuscany was chosen, and on October 1, 1800, the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso was concluded. So well was the secret guarded that the exchange was not known in the United States until nearly eight months later.
The Treaty of San Ildefonso was confirmed by the Treaty of Madrid, which was concluded on March 21, 1801, and a copy of which was sent to President Jefferson by Rufus King, then the United States minister to England. It reached Mr. Jefferson on May 26, 1801. Upon the receipt of the copy of the treaty, Presi- dent Jefferson wrote to James Monroe: "There is considerable reason to ap- prehend that Spain cedes Louisiana and the Floridas to France. To my mind this policy is very unwise for both France and Spain, and very ominous to us."
In August following Robert R. Livingston went to France as the United States minister to that country. Immediately upon his arrival in Paris he asked Talleyrand, then the French prime minister, if the Province of Louisiana had been retroceded to France. Talleyrand denied that such was the case, and in one sense he was justified in making the denial, as the Treaty of Madrid was not signed by the Spanish king until in October, 1802.
For more than twelve months after President Jefferson received the copy of the Treaty of Madrid sent by Mr. King, his administration was kept in a state of uncertainty regarding the status of Louisiana and the navigation of the Mississippi River. On April 18, 1802, the President wrote a long letter to Mr. Livingston, in Paris, in which he said the American people were anxiously watch- ing France's movements with regard to Louisiana, and set forth the situation as follows: I. The natural feeling of the American people for the French nation was one of friendship. 2. Whatever nation held New Orleans and controlled the lower course of the Mississippi became the natural and habitual enemy of Ameri- can progress, and therefore the enemy of the American people. 3. Spain had shown that she was well disposed toward the United States and as long as she remained in possession of those advantages the citizens of this country would be satisfied with conditions. 4. On the other hand, France possessed an energy
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and restlessness of character which would be the cause of constant friction between that country and the United States. He closed his letter by saying :
"The day that France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low water mark. It seals the union of two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation. * * The first cannon which shall be fired in Europe will be the signal for tearing up any settlement she may have made, and for holding the two continents of America in sequestration for the common purpose of the united British and American nations."
Mr. Jefferson did not desire an alliance with England, but greatly feared that the possession of Louisiana by France might drive the United States to adopt such a course. In November, 1802, news reached Washington that the Spanish authorities at New Orleans had suddenly and unexpectedly withdrawn the right of deposit at that port, as originally conceded by the treaty of Madrid. Imme- diately the country-particularly the new settlements in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys-was ablaze with indignation. The federalists, Jefferson's politi- cal opponents, used all possible means to force the administration into a policy that would give them a political advantage, but their efforts in this direction proved futile. Says Channing: "Never in all his long and varied career did Jefferson's foxlike discretion stand him in better stead. Instead of following public clamor, he calmly formulated a policy and carried it through to a most successful termination."
In his message to the Congress which assembled in December, 1802, the Pres- ident said that the change in the ownership of Louisiana would necessarily make a change in our foreign relations, but did not intimate what the nature of the change was to be. On January 13, 1803, he wrote to Monroe that the federalists were trying to force the United States into war, in order to get into power. About the same time he wrote to Mr. Livingston that if France con- sidered Louisiana indispensable to her interests, she might still be willing to cede to the United States the Island of Orleans, upon which stands the City of New Orleans, and the Floridas. Or, if unwilling to cede the island, she might be in- duced to grant the right of deposit at New Orleans and the free navigation of the Mississippi, as it had been under the Spanish regime, and instructed him to open negotiations to that end.
A few days later, believing that the cession could probably be best accom- plished by sending a man direct from the United States for that purpose, the President selected James Monroe to act as minister plenipotentiary, to co- operate with Mr. Livingston. The Senate promptly confirmed Mr. Monroe's nomination and placed the sum of $2,000,000 at the disposal of him and Mr. Livingston to pay for the island. It may be well to note, in this connection. that the success of Livingston and Monroe in their negotiations was doubtless aided in a great measure by a letter written by M. Pichon, the French minister to the United States, to Talleyrand. In this letter Pichon advised the French prime minister that the people of the United States were thoroughly aroused over the suspension of the right of deposit, and that the President might be forced by public opinion to yield to a British alliance.
War between France and England had just been renewed, and Napoleon, re-
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