Page:Reflections, on the Cession of Louisiana to the United States.pdf/12

 would never have enjoyed any permanent state of tranquility in that quarter: and hostilities there would have led immediately to a general war with that nation. The issue of such contests I must again decline the attempt to calculate, or to foresee: but we may venture to affirm that in no event whatsoever could we hope for the possession of Louisiana upon such advantageous terms as we have obtained it.

Thirdly; we have secured, without the possibility of future annoyance or interruption the free navigation of the river Mississippi; both sides of which we now possess, I presume, from New-Orleans to its mouth; as also all the advantages of an excellent port, and deposit for the imports and exports of the western states.

When we reflect that the depriving us of a place of deposit for our western commodities was thought by our warm politicians, of itself, a sufficient cause of war; and when that object is acquired, without any expence of blood, at a price less than the probable expenditure of one year during a war; we must be satisfied the acquisition of these advantages alone, without regard to the territory of Louisiana, is of immense value to the United States. The perpetual removal of the means of annoyance to the commerce of the western states, can only be estimated by recurrence to the history of those countries, where those means have either been the successful engines of oppression, or the cause of almost incessant wars, between neighbouring nations, for ages.

Fourthly; by this cession we have obtained for the western states and their commerce, a strong and, in effect, an impassable barrier against invasion, or annoyance from the west, or south: since it will now be impossible for any attack to be made upon them from either of those quarters, without first reducing New-Orleans; which from its situation is capable of affording them powerful