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[ 26 ] great western railroad from the Mississippi to the Columbia river; and if the above mentioned country should be attached to the United States, we may in less than ten years see such a project realized.

This boundary line would at the same time allow an easy defence; proper military stations at the Rio Grande and near the gulf of California, would secure the terminating points of that line; some fortifications erected in the mountain passes of the Sierra Madre, where but one main road connects the State of Chihuahua with the South of Mexico, would prevent invasions from that direction, and some smaller forts in the interior would be sufficient to check and control the wild Indians.