They are grateful for the benefits that have flowed from a life under the enduring institutions framed by the founders of the Republic. They congratulate their brethren on the position our country occupies among the nations of the earth, and felicitate themselves on the part they have performed toward raising it to its present prestige and power. They felt it a patriotic duty to fittingly commemorate the completion of the first century of their connection with the American Republic, and the rounding out of an important epoch in the life of the Republic. In the discharge of that duty this exposition was conceived. The inhabitants of the fourteen States and two Territories comprised within the purchase selected St. Louis as the scene of the celebration. The people of this city, grateful for the honor conferred, promptly accepted it and cheerfully assumed the immense responsibility it entailed. The century just closed, unequaled as it was in every line of progress, furnishes no more striking evidence of the advance of civilization than the development of the Louisiana territory. A celebration in such an age and in such a country, to be fit, should be upon a scale in keeping with the best and the highest, and should be planned upon lines broad enough to take in every people and every clime. A scheme so ambitious in its inception naturally had comparatively few advocates and encountered many antagonists and more doubters. It could not be accomplished without the recognition and the aid of the General Government, which, for a time, it seemed impossible to enlist. It was decided that the amount required to launch an undertaking so comprehensive should be the same as that paid for the empire which Jefferson purchased--$15,000,000. The Congress said to St. Louis, "When you have secured two-thirds of that sum, we will provide the remaining third." The conditions were accepted and fulfilled. After three years of struggle the sinews had been secured--the first step accomplished. Two years have since elapsed. During that period the work has been pushed in every State and Territory and possession of the United States, and in every civilized country on the earth. The disappointments experienced and the obstacles encountered have but served to spur to renewed effort those who, from the inception of the movement, had determined to carry it to a successful consummation.