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.

Victories of Mixed Nature.

In yet other cases the action is more mixed. Statesmen and diplomats
have some share in shaping the conditions under which a country is
finally taken; in the eye of history they often usurp much more than
their proper share; but in reality they are able to bring matters to a
conclusion only because adventurous settlers, in defiance or disregard
of governmental action, have pressed forward into the longed-for land.
In such cases the function of the diplomats is one of some importance,
because they lay down the conditions under which the land is taken; but
the vital question as to whether the land shall be taken at all, upon no
matter what terms, is answered not by the diplomats, but by the people
themselves.

It was in this way that the Northwest was won from the British, and the
boundaries of the Southwest established by treaty with the Spaniards.
Adams, Jay, and Pinckney deserve much credit for the way they conducted
their several negotiations; but there would have been nothing for them
to negotiate about had not the settlers already thronged into the
disputed territories or strenuously pressed forward against their
boundaries.

Louisiana Really Acquired by the Western Settlers.

So it was with the acquisition of Louisiana. Jefferson, Livingston, and
their fellow-statesmen and diplomats concluded the treaty which
determined the manner in which it came into our possession; but they did
not really have much to do with fixing the terms even of this treaty;
and the part which they played in the acquisition of Louisiana in no way
resembles, even remotely, the part which was played by Seward, for
instance, in acquiring Alaska. If it had not been for Seward, and the
political leaders who thought as he did, Alaska might never have been
acquired at all; but the Americans would have won Louisiana in any
event, even if the treaty of Livingston and Monroe had not been signed.
The real history of the acquisition must tell of the great westward
movement begun in 1769, and not merely of the feeble diplomacy of
Jefferson's administration. In 1802 American settlers were already
clustered here and there