Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/118

 then depend, nor do they now depend, upon the Atlantic States, and the immense distance which separates them, will stimulate their inhabitants to the division.

The federal government appears to be insatiable in the acquisition of territory: it has never ceased more and more to extend the limits of the country, and every day to enlarge them with new acquisitions; but it does not reflect, that in the wide extent which it has given, and goes on to give, to the countries of the Republick, it is sowing the seed of its future political dissolution. The Anglo-Americans have heretofore been fortunate, for the Republick has yet experienced none of the torments which are accustomed to spring up in every country, in which a popular government prevails. Their population, scattered over an immense territory, in small cities, (for with the exception of Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, Boston and Charleston, there is not one that deserves even the name of town,) and at insulated points, very distant from each other, there has been no possibility yet of conflicting shocks; but from the moment this population is increased, united, and formed into a large and compact mass, commotions and convulsions will be inevitable. The federal or general government has not sufficient strength to prevent or dispel this crisis, nor to hinder its ominous results. The executive power is