and variety of articles. All these fields of activity were enlivened by a cheerful spirit of enterprise.
But beyond all this new perspectives of territorial grandeur and national power had opened themselves to the American people, which raised their self-esteem and stimulated their ambition. The United States had ceased to be a mere string of settlements along the seaboard, with a few inland outposts. The “great West” had risen above the horizon as a living reality. The idea of a “boundless empire” belonging to the American people seized upon the popular imagination, and everything connected with the country and its government began to assume a larger aspect. The young democracy felt its sap, and stretched its limbs. By the Louisiana purchase the Mississippi had become from an outer boundary an American inland river from source to mouth, — the ramification of the sea through American territory. The acquisition of the whole of Florida was only a question of time. The immense country beyond the Mississippi was still a vast mystery, but steps were taking to explore that grand national domain. In the message sent to Congress at the opening of the very session during which Henry Clay entered the Senate, President Jefferson announced that “the expedition of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, for exploring the river Missouri, and the best communication from that to the Pacific Ocean, had had all the success which could have been expected,” and that they had “traced the Missouri nearly to
