Page:Reflections, on the Cession of Louisiana to the United States.pdf/3



THE cession of Louisiana to the United States is an event, of which the most sanguine speculative politician could scarcely have ventured to indulge a hope: When the treaty of peace in 1763, left the French nation in possession of that part, only, of its former territory in North America, it became an object with the Spanish government to possess it; probably, not from the expectation of any immediate profit to be drawn from it, but rather with a view to retain it as a barrier against the growing power of the British colonies; by interposing between them and her Mexican dominions, either the natural obstacles of a vast uncultivated wilderness, or a line of military posts, whenever the occasion might require it. This we may suppose to be one of the principal inducements to Spain to obtain it; which she did by treaty with France about the time of the conclusion of the peace, or not very long after.

So long as Louisiana appertained to Spain, whose pacific and unenterprising character promised to make her a quiet neighbour; and whose weakness and valuable possessions on the western coast of North America might be considered as a perpetual guarantee of the same line of conduct on her part; the acquisition of that immense country was by no means a desirable object to the United States, who are already possessed of more than ten times as much land as they have hands to cultivate.