ed before.

France and Spain might suspect, (and the suspicion would not have been
ill-founded had the cession been treated for in the administration of
John Adams, or when Washington was president, and Alexander Hamilton
president over him,) that we _bought_ Louisiana for the British
government, or with a view of selling it to her; and though such
suspicion had no just ground to stand upon with respect to our present
president, Thomas Jefferson, who is not only not a man of intrigue but
who possesses that honest pride of principle that cannot be intrigued
with, and which keeps intriguers at a distance, the article was
nevertheless necessary as a precaution against future contingencies.
But you, from not knowing the political ground of the article, apply
to yourselves _personally_ and _exclusively_, what had reference to the
_territory_, to prevent its falling into the hands of any foreign
power that might endanger the [establishment of] _Spanish_ dominion in
America, or those of the _French_ in the West India Islands.

You claim, (you say), to be incorporated into the union of the United
States, and your remonstrances on this subject are unjust and without
cause.

You are already _incorporated_ into it as fully and effectually as the
Americans themselves are, who are settled in Louisiana. You enjoy the
same rights, privileges, advantages, and immunities, which they
enjoy; and when Louisiana, or some part of it, shall be erected into a
constitutional State, you also will be citizens equal with them.

You speak in your memorial, as if you were the only people who were
to live in Louisiana, and as if the territory was purchased that
you exclusively might govern it. In both these cases you are greatly
mistaken. The emigrations from the United States into the purchased
territory, and the population arising therefrom, will, in a few years,
exceed you in numbers. It is but twenty-six years since Kentucky
began to be settled, and it already contains more than _double_ your
population.

In a candid view of the case, you ask for what would be injurious to
yourselves to receive, and unjust in us to grant. _Injurious_, because
the settlement of Louisiana will go on much faster under the government
and guardianship of Congress, then if the government of it were
committed to _your_ hands; and consequently, the landed property
you possessed as individuals when the treaty was concluded, or have
purchased since, will increase so