Page:Reflections, on the Cession of Louisiana to the United States.pdf/14

 the warlike nations of the earth by an ocean near a thousand leagues in breadth. Never since the commencement of the annals of mankind did any civilized nation possess so advantageous a position. Never was there a people who had their happiness so much in their own power. Far removed be the day, when in speaking of them it may be said,

The advantages of these barriers, respectively, are incalculable. The object, or pretended object of almost all the wars which have distracted Europe for more than a century, has been the securing effective barriers for some, against the power, ambition, and encroachments of others. For this purpose, not only the most bloody wars have been waged, but peaceful and extensive dominions have been subjugated and divided between their more war-like neighbours, without the shadow of excuse, except the pretence of preserving the balance of power between themselves; or some other pretext equally frivolous and unjustifiable. When I think of these things, I am almost led to break out into strains of rapture and enthusiasm, which might seem inconsistent with the calm and dispassionate view that I have proposed to take of the subject before me.

Intimately connected with this view of the subject, is the fifth benefit which we may hope will be secured to the United States by the acquisition of Louisiana; which is, the preservation of the Union, among the present states, for a period far beyond that which it would probably have lasted if Louisiana had been retained and settled by France. For it is not improbable had a flourishing colony been established there, that means would have been adopted to seduce the people of the western states into an opinion that a more advantageous alliance, or confederacy could be formed with the possessors of that country, than with the United States. That a similarity of situation in respect to their