cheapest.

But do the views of the Americans extend no further? Would they be
satisfied if they obtained the Canadas? Most assuredly not. They are
too vast in their ideas--too ambitious in their views. If Canada fell,
Nova Scotia would fall, and they would obtain what they most covet--the
harbour of Halifax. New Brunswick would fall, and they would have then
driven us out of our Continental possessions. Would they stop then?
No; they never would stop until they had driven the English to the other
side of the Atlantic. Newfoundland and its fisheries would be their
next prey; for it, as well as our other possessions, would then be
defenceless. They would not leave us the West-Indies, although useless
to them. Such is their object and their earnest desire--an increase of
territory and power for themselves, and the humiliation of England. The
very eagerness with which the Americans bring up this question on
purpose that they may disavow their wishes, is one of the strongest
proofs of their anxiety to blind us on the subject; but they will never
lose sight of it; and if they thought they had any chance of success,
there is no expense which they would not cheerfully incur, no war into
which they would not enter. Let not the English be deceived by their
asseverations. What I have now asserted is _the fact_. The same spirit
which has actuated them in dispossessing the Indians of territories
which they cannot themselves populate, which prompted the "high-handed
theft" of the Texas from Mexico, will induce them to adopt any pretext,
as soon as they think they have a chance, to seize upon the Canadas and
our other transatlantic possessions.

If what I have stated be correct, and I am convinced of its truth
myself, it will be evident that the Canadas, independent of every other
consideration, become a _most important outpost_ which we must defend
and hold possession of. Let it be remembered that every loss to us, is
an increase to the power of America--an increase to her security and to
her maritime strength; that whatever her assertions may be, she is
deadly hostile to us, from the very circumstance that she considers that
we prevent her aggrandisement and prosperity. America can only rise to
the zenith, which she would attain, by the fall of England, and every
disaster to this country is to her a source of exultation. That there
are many Americans of a contrary opinion I grant; that the city of New
York would pre