dence of a united people. Over every acre of
its soil must forever float the banner of the Union, and all its waters,
as they roll on together to the Gulf, proclaim that what 'God has joined
together, man shall never put asunder.' The nation's life-blood courses
this vast arterial system, and to sever it is death. No line of latitude
or longitude shall ever separate the mouth from the centre or sources
of the Mississippi. All the waters of the imperial river, from their
mountain springs and crystal fountains, shall ever flow in commingling
currents to the Gulf, uniting evermore in one undivided whole, the
blessed homes of a free and happy people. The Ohio and Missouri, the Red
River and the Arkansas, shall never be dissevered from the Mississippi.
Pittsburgh and Louisville, Cincinnati and St. Louis, shall never be
separated from New-Orleans, or mark the capitals of disunited and
discordant States. That glorious free-trade between all the States (the
great cause of our marvelous progress) shall in time, notwithstanding
the present suicidal folly of England, go on in its circuit among
accordant peoples throughout the globe, the precursor of that era of
universal and unrestricted commerce, whose sceptre is peace, and whose
reign the fusion and fraternity of nations, as foretold by the holy
prophets in the Scriptures of truth.

This great valley, one mighty plain, without an intervening mountain,
contains, west of the Mississippi, seven States and Territories of an
area sufficient for thirteen more of the size of New-York. East of the
Mississippi, it embraces all the remaining States except New-England,
New-Jersey, Delaware, South-Carolina, and Florida. New-York is connected
with the great valley by the Alleghany River; and Maryland by the
Castleman's River and the Youghiogany, and Alabama, North-Carolina, and
Georgia, by the Tennessee and its tributaries. Nearly one half the area
of Pennsylvania and Virginia is within its limits. Michigan is united
with it by the Wisconsin River, and Texas by the Red River; whilst Ohio,
Indiana, and Kentucky, Wisconsin, Illinois, Tennessee, and Mississippi,
Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Louisiana, and Arkansas own almost
exclusively its sway.

And who will dare erect the feeble barriers designed to seclude the
great valley and its products from either ocean, the Lakes, or the Gulf,
or persuade her to hold these essential rights and interests by the
wretched tenure of the will of any