Imperial statement

Jet, July 14, 2003

* IMPERIAL STATEMENT: No, that's not Napoleon on the floor of the Louisiana Senate, just state Sen. Kip Holden of Baton Rouge making the motion to end the 2003 legislative session in Baton Rouge. Holden dressed up as the French emperor to celebrate the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1803, Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon negotiated the United States' purchase of Louisiana from France. The more than 800,000 square miles of land eventually became part of 15 states--Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Colorado and Montana.

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