That’s one reason why it’s hard to remember the U.S. founders’ hesitations about westward expansion. Surely, we think, they must have seen how stunted, how unfinished their little stub of a country was. There’s something satisfying about following the story to its end, like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The Louisiana Purchase, click, East and West Florida, click click, Texas, click, Oregon, click, the war with Mexico, click, and the Gadsden Purchase, a sliver of land on the Mexican border that filled out the familiar logo-map profile of the United States. Click. Picture complete, destiny
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