plements of husbandry, articles of convenience, and all that the civilizing process takes off, creates employ for the mechanic, and a profitable occupation for the merchant. To render the illustration familiar, we will cite the example of the Mobile country, long under the colonial dominion of Old Spain, which since its annexation to our government has given to numerous vessels of the Atlantic states a new and extensive activity, animating the industry of our denser population in furnishing the necessary articles of supply, while, at the same time, cargoes are derived from it in return, for which the consumption of Europe presents a certain market. In this carrying trade, the maritime interests of the older states are essentially promoted, for, it is obvious that while labour can be so much more advantageously applied in those new districts, it will not be diverted to ship-building, at least to any extent, and whatever be the cause, no fact is more certain than that the industry and enterprize of the eastern and middle states continue to be principally called upon to provide freight for the crops of the southern planters. This holds true, we believe, equally in the Carolinas and Georgia. In the Mobile country, it will be more decidedly felt, as its powers of production are brought into operation; at present, an active and energetic population must be given to it in order to realize those hopes; and to the conveyance of settlers, with their families, the supply of goods-every description in short of exports, the tonnage employed in the trade will be principally confined. As cultivation becomes increased by the labours of the residents, and the encouragements arising from demand, shipping will be still more extensively engaged in transporting across the ocean the various products in exchange. In this transportation, a nursery for seamen is formed, and employment circulates its beneficial influence through some of the most useful classes of the community. The ship-builder, the rigger, the ship-chandler, the mast-maker, the sail maker, the boat-builder, the provision merchant, and of consequence the farmer, but more especially the mariner, that precious defender of his country, the pilot-all these are maintained in full activity by additional sources of employment. If we examine the composition of the cargoes, we shall find such an infinity of modes operating to enliven the business of the large towns in which they are fitted out, as to afford the most satisfactory assurances of a solid and durable basis to our prosperity. Literature and science will spread with the extension of the American name, and to the seats of intelligence, refinement, and the Arts, resort will ever be had to supply a liberal curiosity with its richest stores. By an interchange of ideas, of commodities, and of good offices, reciprocal wants will be supplied, and a mutual commerce of minds, as of productions, will cement the union of the whole in the strong bonds of general interest-a joint advantage, one and indivisible. Though distant, yet homogeneous, though so situated as to seem divided by space, yet connected by the same governing maxims of federative policy, the members of this great nation will found their attachment on the known provision for their good in the general good of each and all. -thus, with time, it grew To this deep-laid indissoluble state, Where wealth and commerce lift their golden heads; Thomson. In this view of beneficial results are to be included all those countries which transmit their produce by the Ohio, the Missouri, the Mississippi, and their tributary streams. Whoever has investigated the general interests of his country, and watched attentively the increase of its commerce, cannot have failed to remark the vast quantity of freight attracted to the port of New-Orleans, and occupied in conveying the annual wealth of those immense and fertile territories communicating by the navigation of the Mississippi. Prosecuting his views farther, and tracing the extraordinary activity of trade and intercourse on that river since the cession of Louisiana to this government, he will see in this new and necessary vent for their accumulations, an unfailing source of employment to the carrier, and of revenue to the treasury, perpetually augmenting. The increased quantity of our exports will of course extend the amount of imports, on which high duties are collected. Our ruling policy at present is not framed for domestic manufacture, but, in the importation of fabrics from abroad, our ships and seamen are employed, and a profit accrues to those through whose hands the business is conducted. There is another view on which we are disposed to dwell with some complacency, in enumerating the advantages of our new settlements the tendency they must have in keeping down the average prices of provisions. Our population, already equal in some states to the ordinary demand, is progressive, and without some outlet, this increase would have the natural effect of enhancing the value of the necessaries of life, were the extensive wants of Europe in the article of flour to continue, which will be supplied by us only so long as the maximum of our prices are below the minimum of the European, and it follows, that without an expansion of our agricultural territory, the farming population predominating over that which is condensed in towns, this branch of our export, with all its attendant consequences, would cease. It is besides essential to the welfare, the comfort, and happiness of the community that subsistence should be easy, and within the reach of industry to command on moderate terms. Whilst there remain such vast quantities of land still unoccupied in the new districts, and in a state of high fertility, always to be procured at a reasonable price, it is not to be expected that, on the Atlantic border, it will attain any extravagant height. We are aware that the distance from market, and the consequent expense of transportation will prove an obstacle to the transmission of agricultural productions in any very great degree, but, in proportion as new roads and improved water communications are opened, this objection diminishes in force, and we know it to be a fact that, at present, Kentucky produce is a very current article in our stores. It is reserved for some future day, not far distant it is hoped, to witness the realization of those subterranean treasures with which, according to the reports of travellers, some of the new states abound, but, even now, a very considerable freight is derived from the lead mines, and iron and coal will pay for working as inhabitants increase. The land tax, a productive source of revenue, augmenting with every new purchase of individuals, comes in aid of the general purposes of the country, acting as a safe guarantee to public credit, and a sinking fund for the reduction of the national debt. In fact, the combinations of interest and advantage which are interwoven with the connexion subsisting between the various parts of this great whole, are so evident and multiplied, so intimately blended, and promise in their effects so many beneficial consequences to the inhabitants of this highly favoured portion of the globe, that the mind is lost in conjecturing the probable eminence we may attain as a nation, by a judicious use of the united means at our disposal. Farther territories may soon accrue to us. The philanthropist will approve, when the arrangement is desirable not only to us, but to countries which are to be materially benefited by the transfer. The influence of good example, the opinions of thinking men, and the beams of civilization, spreading over those regions will, it is hoped, disperse any lingering delusions of error, and, diffusing just sentiments, prepare the mind to see more clearly the true interests of its nature. Wherever the march of good principles has held its course over this continent, the advantages attending on its progress have been acknowledged and adopted, and indolence, with its concomitant, jealousy, have given way to more profitable views of thinking and acting. Vice is shunned when it is accounted odious, and public opinion when it is just, becomes respected. To the research of the philosopher, these new territories present a field of immeasurable extent. To unfold their latent resources will be an employment worthy at once of his powers and of the utility and value of his pursuits. On these he may erect the structure of an honourable fame, while he contributes to advance the prosperity of his country. Numerous are the political advantages which attend the formation of new settlements. It inspires our countrymen with new activity: it incites the sanguine to useful adventure: it animates the speculative and the ardent to extend their view and realize important schemes: it gives scope to invention, and offers the means of success to ingenuity, beside consolidating our power, acquiring to it an accession of physical force, and increasing that true wealth of states which consists in the produce of the earth. So invigorating to a nation is the parental process of planting and rearing the hopeful scions of its native stock! The assiduity and ardor with which France applied herself to settling those regions extending between her Canadian possessions and the valley of the Mississippi, attest the importance attached to these new springs for traffic, these increasing demands for barter, insinuating themselves into the remotest hunting grounds of the Indian. The distance of her dominions on this continent from the mother country, and the expense, as well as difficulty, of affording them effectual support against hostile aggressions from her formidable rival, led subsequently to their dismemberment, but, while the same motives exist to encourage us to the pursuit of channels which put into effective circulation our active industry, we, by our contiguity and compactness of position, have nothing to apprehend from external attack. Each state in reserve forms an impenetrable depth of country, and each frontier state is a bulwark to its supporters. -alterius sic Altera poscit opem res, et conjurat amice. The immense value of our new possessions appears, not alone from a review of their productions, their great and improvable resources, and their employment for our shipping; the sentiments of other European nations respecting their importance, and above all, the conduct of France, in the various efforts made to retain possession of her American dominions, most clearly evince how highly she estimated their importance. Though deprived of her Canadian territories, yet the anxious wish of possessing a portion of the American continent may be traced in the following extract from a curious memoir, written during the consulship of Buonaparte in 1800, by a very sagacious and profound statesman, M. Talleyrand, which, while it exhibits the beauty and fertility of the country in question, displays the strongest desire for the attainment of the object, at the same time that it shows an extreme anxiety for the removal of every obstacle to its possession; nor does it less clearly lead to an inference as to the true value of the acquisition to us. 'Our nation, 'says M. Talleyrand, referring to Louisiana,' had the vain honour of conferring a name on a portion of the globe not exceeded by any other portion of it, in all the advantages of the climate and soil. It is an immense valley, watered by a deep and beneficent river. This river first acquires importance in the latitude of 45 north. It flows in a devious course about two thousand miles, and enters the bay of Mexico, by many mouths, in latitude 29. In these latitudes is comprised the temperate zone, which has been deemed most favourable to the perfection of the animal and vegetable nature. This advantage is not marred by the chilling and sterilifying influence of lofty mountains, the pestilential fumes of intractable bogs, or the dreary uniformity of sandy plains. Throughout the whole extent, there is not, probably, a snow-capt hill, a moving sand, or a volcanic eminence. This valley is of different breadths. The ridge which bounds it on the east, is in some places nearly a thousand miles from the great middle stream. From this ridge, secondary rivers, of great extent and mag. nificence, flow towards the centre, and the intermediate regions are an uncultivated paradise. On the west, the valley is of similar dimensions, the streams are equally large and useful, and the condition of the surface equally delightful. * So called after Louis XIV. king of France. Ep. 'We must first observe, that, in gaining possession of this territory, we shall not enter on a desert, where the forest must be removed before a shelter can be built; whither we must carry the corn and clothes necessary to present subsistence; and the seed, the tools, and the cattle, which are requisite to raise a future provision. There cannot, in the first place, be imagined a district more favourable to settlement. In addition to a genial climate and soil, there are the utmost facilities of communication and commerce. The whole district is the sloping side of a valley, through which run deep and naviga. ble rivers, which begin their course in the remotest borders, and which all terminate in the central stream. This stream, one of the longest and widest in the world, is remarkably distinguished by its depth. It flows into a gulf which contains a great number of populous islands. Among these islands are numerous passages into the ocean that washes the shores of Europe. Thus, not only every part of the district is easily accessible by means of rivers, but the same channels are ready to convey the products of every quarter to the markets most contiguous and re mote. The Nile flows in a torrid climate through a long and narrow valley. The fertility which its annual inundations produce, extends only two or three leagues on either side of it. The benefits of this fertility are marred by the neighbourhood of scorching sands, over which the gales carry intolerable heat and incurable pestilence, and which harbour a race of savages, whose trade is war and pillage. Does this river bestow riches worthy of the greatest efforts of the nation to gain them, and shall the greater Nile of the western hemisphere be neglected? A Nile whose inundations diffuse the fertility of Egypt twenty leagues from its shores, which occupies a valley wider than from the Duna to the Rhine, which flows among the most beautiful dales, and under the benignest seasons, and which is skirted by a civilized and kindred nation on one side, and on the other by extensive regions, over which the tide of growing population may spread itself without hindrance or danger. The choicest luxuries of Europe are coffee, sugar, and tobacco. The most useful materials of clothing are cotton and silk. All these are either natives of the Mississippi valley, or remarkably congenial to it. The cultivation of these, and the carriage to market, are as obvious and easy as the most ardent politician can desire. The whole extent of the river will be our own, and in the lower and most fertile portion of its course, the banks on both sides will be our indisputable property. 'The friend of the health, longevity, and useful pleasure of the human species, and of the opulence of France, could not devise a better scheme than one which should enable every inhabitant of Europe to consume half a pound of sugar a day, and assign to Frenchmen the growth, the carriage, and the distribution of so much. Now this scheme is no other than the possession of the American Nile. 'I shall pass over, without mentioning, many other articles, such as tobacco, indigo, and the like, for which France and the rest of Europe will supply an unlimited consumption, and hasten to articles which are of more importance, and these are cotton and provisions. * Spanish America. t225,000,000 cwt. the produce of an area, not exceeding that of Guienne, Normandy, and Britanny, are not the twentieth part of the valley of the Mississippi.-TRANSLATOR. |