wit, the possibility that the
navigation of the Mississippi may be abandoned to Spain. I never had
any interest westward of the Alleghany; and I never will have any. But
I have had great opportunities of knowing the character of the people
who inhabit that country; and I will venture to say, that the act which
abandons the navigation of the Mississippi is an act of separation
between the eastern and western country. It is a relinquishment of five
parts out of eight, of the territory of the United States; an
abandonment of the fairest subject for the payment of our public debts,
and the chaining those debts on our own necks, _in perpetuum_. I have
the utmost confidence in the honest intentions of those who concur in
this measure; but I lament their want of acquaintance with the
character and physical advantages of the people, who, right or wrong,
will suppose their interest sacrificed on this occasion, to the
contrary interests of that part of the confederacy in possession of
present power. If they declare themselves a separate people, we are
incapable of a single effort to retain them. Our citizens can never be
induced, either as militia or as soldiers, to go there to cut the
throats of their own brothers and sons, or rather, to be themselves the
subjects, instead of the perpetrators of the parricide. Nor would that
country quit the cost of being retained against the will of its
inhabitants, could it be done. But it cannot be done. They are able
already to rescue the navigation of the Mississippi out of the hands of
Spain, and to add New Orleans to their own territory. They will be
joined by the inhabitants of Louisiana. This will bring on a war
between them and Spain; and that will produce the question with us,
whether it will not be worth our while to become parties with them in
the war, in order to re-unite them with us, and thus correct our error?
And were I to permit my forebodings to go one step further, I should
predict that the inhabitants of the United States would force their
rulers to take the affirmative of that question. I wish I may be
mistaken in all these opinions.

We have, for some time, expected that the Chevalier de La Luzerne would
obtain a promotion in the diplomatic line, by being appointed to some
of the courts where this country keeps an ambassador. But none of the
vacancies taking place, which had been counted on, I think the present
disposition is, to require his return to his station in Ameri