re
also to be traced to their sources, and those which empty into the
lakes to be followed to their mouths. "These things being done, and an
accurate map of the whole presented to the public, he was persuaded
that reason would dictate what was right and proper." For the
execution of this latter part of his plan he had also much reliance on
congress; and in addition to the general advantages to be drawn from
the measure, he laboured, in his letters to the members of that body,
to establish the opinion, that the surveys he recommended would add to
the revenue, by enhancing the value of the lands offered for sale.
"Nature," he said, "had made such an ample display of her bounties in
those regions, that the more the country was explored, the more it
would rise in estimation."

The assent and co-operation of Maryland being indispensable to the
improvement of the Potomac, he was equally earnest in his endeavours
to impress a conviction of its superior advantages on those
individuals who possessed most influence in that state. In doing so,
he detailed the measures which would unquestionably be adopted by New
York and Pennsylvania, for acquiring the monopoly of the western
commerce, and the difficulty which would be found in diverting it from
the channel it had once taken. "I am not," he added, "for discouraging
the exertions of any state to draw the commerce of the western country
to its sea-ports. The more communications we open to it, the closer we
bind that rising world (for indeed it may be so called) to our
interests, and the greater strength shall we acquire by it. Those to
whom nature affords the best communication, will, if they are wise,
enjoy the greatest share of the trade. All I would be understood to
mean, therefore, is, that the gifts of Providence may not be
neglected."

But the light in which this subject would be viewed with most
interest, and which gave to it most importance, was its political
influence on the union. "I need not remark to you, sir," said he in
his letter to the governor of Virginia, "that the flanks and rear of
the United States are possessed by other powers,--and formidable ones
too: need I press the necessity of applying the cement of
interest to bind all parts of the union together by indissoluble
bonds,--especially of binding that part of it which lies immediately
west of us, to the middle states. For what ties, let me ask, should we
have upon those people, how entirely unconnected wit