he commercial and political value of such a
measure, in giving strength to the union of the states, and promoting
the prosperity of the country, by multiplying the resources of trade.

"I need not remark to you, sir," he said, "that the flanks and rear of
the United States are possessed by other powers, and formidable ones
too; nor how necessary it is to apply the cement of interest to bind all
parts of the Union together by indissoluble bonds, especially that part
of it which lies immediately west of us, with the middle states. For
what ties, let me ask, should we have upon those people? How entirely
unconnected with them shall we be, and what troubles may we not
apprehend, if the Spaniards on their right, and Great Britain on their
left, instead of throwing stumbling-blocks in their way, as they now do,
should hold out lures for their trade and alliance? What, when they get
strength, which will be sooner than most people conceive (from the
emigration of foreigners, who will have no particular predilection
toward us, as well as from the removal of our own citizens), will be
the consequence of their having formed close connections with both or
either of those powers, in a commercial way? It needs not, in my
opinion, the gift of prophecy to foretell.

"The western states (I speak now from my own observation) stand, as it
were, upon a pivot. The touch of a feather would turn them any way. They
have looked down the Mississippi, until the Spaniards, very
impolitically, I think for themselves, threw difficulties in their way;
and they looked that way for no other reason, than because they could
glide gently down the stream, without considering, perhaps, the
difficulties of the voyage back again, and the time necessary to perform
it in; and because they have no other means of coming to us but by long
land transportations and unimproved roads. These causes have hitherto
checked the industry of the present settlers; for, except the demand for
provisions, occasioned by the increase of population, and a little
flour, which the necessities of the Spaniards compel them to buy, they
have no incitements to labor. But smooth the road, and make easy the way
for them, and then see what an influx of articles will be poured upon
us; how amazingly our exports will be increased by them, and how amply
we shall be compensated for any trouble and expense we may encounter to
effect it.

"A combination of circumstances makes the present conjun