log-cabins; and in 1831 the site of Chicago was occupied by a dozen
settlers gathered round Fort Dearborn. But while the cities were thus
slow in starting, the country between them was rapidly filling up, the
Indians giving way step by step as the vanguard of the great march
pressed upon them; here down the Ohio in bullet-proof boats, there
across the mountains on foot or in wagons. A great national road
stretched westward from Cumberland, Maryland, which in time reached the
Mississippi, and over whose broad and solid surface a steady stream of
emigrant wagons poured into the great West. At the same time steamboats
were beginning to run on the Eastern waters, and soon these were
carrying the increasing multitude down the Ohio and the Mississippi into
the vast Western realm. Later came the railroad to complete this phase
of our history, and provide a means of transportation by whose aid
millions could travel with ease where a bare handful had made their way
with peril and hardship of old.

Up to 1803 our national domain was bounded on the west by the
Mississippi, but in that year the vast territory of Louisiana was
purchased from France and the United States was extended to the summit
of the Rocky Mountains, its territory being more than doubled in area.
Here was a mighty domain for future settlement, across which two daring
travelers, Lewis and Clark, journeyed through tribes of Indians never
before heard of, not ending their long route until they had passed down
the broad Columbia to the waters of the Pacific.

From time to time new domains were added to the great republic. In 1819
Florida was purchased from Spain. In 1845 Texas was added to the Union.
In 1846 the Oregon country was made part of the United States. In 1848,
as a result of the Mexican War, an immense tract extending from Texas
to the Pacific was acquired, and the land of gold became part of the
republic. In 1853 another tract was purchased from Mexico, and the
domain of the United States, as it existed at the beginning of the Civil
War, was completed. It constituted a great section of the North American
continent, extending across it from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and
north and south from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a fertile,
well-watered, and prolific land, capable of becoming the nursery of one
of the greatest nations on the earth. Beginning, at the close of the
Revolution, with an area of 827,844 square miles, it now embraced
3,026,48