Page:Reflections, on the Cession of Louisiana to the United States.pdf/15

 with the rest of the world must create a similarity of interests; for the promotion of which by vigorous and united measures, it would be adviseable to separate from the Atlantic states, and form an union with each other, in that quarter. Even at this early day there have not been wanting characters, by whom these ideas of a western confederacy appear to have been cherished. If the proper use be made of our acquisition of Louisiana, such notions will not be revived for centuries; the United States will continue to find their interests the same, however diversified in appearance; they will discover that the moment of separation will commence the never ending period of their misfortunes.

Should these ideas be considered as merely Utopian, (which with a certain class of my readers is not improbable) there yet remain some other benefits which may probably result from the success of this negotiation, which may not be regarded altogether in so fantastical a light: one of these consists,

Sixthly; in having effectually secured ourselves against future rivalship in the sale of our lands on this side the Mississippi. Our western lands now command two dollars per acre, at the lowest. This price they will continue to command, unless, following the example of Virginia, we chuse to throw them away for an hundredth part of that sum. But, if France had settled Louisiana, it is probable that she would have offered her lands there on much lower terms. For having ten or twenty times as much land to dispose of as the United States, she could afford to undersell them, and by these means put a stop to the sale of our western lands, unless we should reduce the price to a level with what lands of equal quality might be had for there. In this competition we must have been entirely defeated, so that our present waste lands would have