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might be successfully rivalled by others more conveniently situated for an intercourse with the productive, and consuming parts of the United States. Nor does it require the spirit of prophecy to foresee that a rage for acquiring lands in Louisiana, and migrating thither to settle, if encouraged, must at no very distant period weaken and reduce the population in the Atlantic states, and not improbably all that lie eastward of the Mississippi. The consequences of such a seduction must prove ultimately fatal to the United States: for we may boldly pronounce, that, “the confederacy can never be permanently extended beyond the Mississippi; nor preserved among its present members, whenever Louisiana shall become a populous country.” Whenever that event takes place the constellation of the present United States will probably set for ever.
Must we then never dispose of this immense quantity of valuable lands, which we have purchased at such a price? No:—Never, as long as the United States have lands to dispose of and settle on this side of the Mississippi; nor until we have a population more than equal to the cultivation of all our lands, to the best advantage.[1] For until that period shall arrive there cannot be as much labour employed within the United States as may be advantageously employed therein; and so long as there is room for advantageous employment at home, it cannot be our interest to send abroad those who are necessary to the cultivation, improvement, and strengthening of our own country. That colonies are always expensive to the parent state in their first settlement, and that as soon as they acquire strength enough to help themselves they are unwilling to continue in subjection, our
- ↑ It is poſſible that there may be places on the banks of the weſtern ſide of the river, that may be more favourable for veſſels to ſtop at than any that can be found on the eaſtern ſide. My objections would not go to the excluſion of ſettlements at ſuch places, provided they were limited to that object.
