cepted; I make no
consideration of the little mercenary electorates in my calculation.
The mercantile part of the other powers are convinced, where their
interest appears so evidently engaged. The political part are sensible
of the importance of enlarging their own naval concerns and force, and
of checking that of Great Britain. The good and wise part, the lovers
of liberty and human happiness, look forward to the establishment of
American freedom and independence as an event, which will secure to
them and their descendants an asylum from the effects and violence of
despotic power, daily gaining ground in every part of Europe. From
those and other considerations, on which I need not be minute,
emigrations from Europe will be prodigious, immediately on the
establishment of American Independency. The consequence of this must
be the rise of the lands already settled, and a demand for new or
uncultivated land; on this demand I conceive a certain fund may now be
fixed. You may smile, and recollect the sale of the bearskin in the
fable, but at the same time you must be sensible that your wants are
real, and if others can be induced to relieve them, it is indifferent
to you whether they have a consideration in hand or in prospect.

I trace the river Ohio from its junction to its head, thence north to
Lake Erie on the south and west of that lake to Fort Detroit, which is
in the latitude of Boston, thence a west course to the Mississippi,
and return to the place of my departure. These three lines of near one
thousand miles each, include an immense territory in a fine climate,
well watered, and by accounts exceedingly fertile; it is not inhabited
by any Europeans of consequence, and the tribes of Indians are
inconsiderable, and will decrease faster than the lands can possibly
be demanded for cultivation. To this I ask your attention as a
resource amply adequate, under proper regulations, for defraying the
whole expense of the war, and the sums necessary to be given the
Indians in purchase of the native right. But to give this land value,
inhabitants are necessary. I therefore propose, in the first place,
that a grant be made of a tract of land at the mouth of the Ohio,
between that and the Mississippi, equal to two hundred miles square,
to a company formed indiscriminately of Europeans and Americans, which
company should form a distinct state, confederated with and under the
general regulations of the United States General of Ame