omentous to us--the ceremony in which France delivered
Louisiana into the keeping of the United States.

On August 20, 1901, by a proclamation of the President, "in the name of
the Government and of the people of the United States, all the nations
of the earth" were invited "to take part in the commemoration of the
purchase of the Louisiana Territory, an event of great interest to the
United States and of abiding effect on their development, by appointing
representatives and sending such exhibits to the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition as would most fitly and fully illustrate their resources,
their industries, and their progress in civilization." This invitation
was sent through the Department of State of the United States to the
chief magistrates of all civilized governments, from nearly all of whom
official acceptances were received in reply.

It has become a matter of history that ground was broken for the site of
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition December 20, 1901, that day being the
anniversary of the one on which the jurisdiction over the Louisiana
Territory passed from France to the United States in 1803. The
dedication exercises were held on the afternoon of April, 30, 1903, and
were designed to commemorate not only the one hundredth anniversary of
the signing of the treaty by Livingston, Monroe, and Marbois,
transferring the territory from France to the United States, but also to
dedicate in a formal manner the grounds and palaces of the exposition
then rapidly advancing toward completion, though not to be opened before
the following spring.

The exercises were participated in by representatives from nearly all
civilized nations, and the presence on April 30, 1903, of the President
of the United States, ex-President Cleveland, the Joint Committee of
Congress, the ambassadors and ministers of twenty-six foreign
governments, the governors and representatives of more than forty States
and Territories, conferred upon it the official indorsement of the
nations of the world, and added the weight and dignity which the
sanction of governments alone could give.

When the treaty of cession was concluded in 1803 President Jefferson
represented less than 6,000,000 people and there were but 50,000 white
settlers in the Louisiana Territory. President Roosevelt in 1903
represented 80,000,000 people, the Purchase contained 15,000,000
inhabitants, and the 865,000 square miles which it comprised had been
geographically divided