( 13 )
tion against hostilities from the sea, should any attempt from that quarter be meditated, which is now rendered altogether improbable. And in this point of view, as it respects the United States in general, this important acquisition may be regarded as the most momentous object which has been atchieved on the part of the United States since the final establishment of their independence by the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, with the single exception of the adoption of the present constitution of the United States. For now the United States are, as it were, insulated from the rest of the world. Divided from Canada by extensive lakes, or a bold and rapid river, which we are precluded by treaty, from navigating, no causes of misunderstanding are likely to arise from that quarter; nor can any danger be apprehended from the weak and barren province of Nova Scotia. Past experience has shewn us the value of our barrier on that side of the United States: The Floridas, whilst they remain in the possession of Spain, will, from their weak, and uncultivated state, always be a barrier to us in the opposite quarter of the Union: Louisiana now affords us a barrier (instead of a frontier,) of one thousand miles on the west, extending completely from Canada to the Floridas.[1] Our eastern frontier is the only part of the United States which will now remain exposed to the immediate attacks of foreign nations; and on that side, it is our happiness to be divided from
- ↑ If Great Britain in the courſe of the preſent, or any future war with France, ſhould have obtained the poſſeſſion of Louiſiana, the United States would have been encompaſſed by that power, entirely, except on the ſide of Florida, and the Atlantic. Had ſhe been diſpoſed to render the acquiſition formidable, to us, it was in her power to have injured us more than France. The ſimilarity of manners, of laws, and of language would have aided all her projects againſt us, and we never could have hoped for the poſſeſſion of Louiſiana, unleſs by the events of a war which would have coſt ten times the purchaſe money.
