Page:Reflections, on the Cession of Louisiana to the United States.pdf/25

 used as occasion shall require, without fear of the consequences.

Such an exchange, if it can be effected, of which I presume there can be little doubt, will strengthen and cement our union beyond any other event of which I am able to form an idea. Our whole country, except the ports on the Atlantic, and at the mouth of the Mississippi, will consist of an extensive and numerous agricultural people, detached from all the other civilized nations of the globe, forming one general and powerful confederacy of republican states, nursed in the lap of liberty, sprung from one common stock, cherishing the same fraternal sentiments towards each other, and the same devotion to their common country, liberty and happiness. The demon of discord is the only enemy from whose effects or malignity the United States could have just cause of apprehension; and he might be chained for centuries, beyond the Mississippi, if the policy which is here recommended be adopted.

Of the same nature, though of less practicable aspect, is another Utopian idea, which I presume to suggest to the genuine friends of freedom, yet, I confess, without any sanguine hope, that it will receive countenance. The southern parts of Louisiana bordering upon the gulph of Mexico lie under a climate mere favourable for the African constitution than any part of the United States. Thither, if under the auspices of a divine Providence, the great work of the abolition of slavery should be accomplished in Virginia, or other southern states, we may colonize those unhappy people, whom our ancestors have brought in chains from their native country, and we continue to hold in bondage. Would to God, that I could flatter myself that this Was not a mere visionary project!—Thither, at least, it may be adviseable to entice those to remove who have already, or may hereafter obtain their freedom, through the benevolence of their