of government.

If these transactions give me no uneasiness, I feel very differently
at another piece of intelligence, to wit, the possibility that the
navigation of the Mississippi may be abandoned to Spain. I never had any
interest westward of the Allegany; and I never will have any. But I
have had great opportunities of knowing the character of the people
who inhabit that country; and I will venture to say, that the act which
abandons the navigation of the Mississippi, is an act of separation
between the eastern and western country. It is a relinquishment of five
parts out of eight of the territory of the United States; an abandonment
of the fairest subject for the payment of our public debts, and the
chaining those debts on our own necks, _in perpetuum_. I have the utmost
confidence in the honest intentions of those who concur in this measure;
but I lament their want of acquaintance with the character and physical
advantages of the people, who, right or wrong, will suppose their
interests sacrificed on this occasion to the contrary interests of that
part of the confederacy in possession of present power. If they declare
themselves a separate people, we are incapable of a single effort to
retain them. Our citizens can never be induced, either as militia or as
soldiers, to go there to cut the throats of their own brothers and sons,
or rather, to be themselves the subjects, instead of the perpetrators,
of the parricide. Nor would that country quit the cost of being retained
against the will of its inhabitants, could it be done. But it cannot be
done. They are able already to rescue the navigation of the Mississippi
out of the hands of Spain, and to add New Orleans to their own,
territory. They will be joined by the inhabitants of Louisiana. This
will bring on a war between them and Spain; and that will produce the
question with us, whether it will not be worth our while to become
parties with them in the war, in order to re-unite them with us, and
thus correct our error. And were I to permit my forebodings to go one
step further, I should predict, that the inhabitants of the United
States would force their rulers to take the affirmative of that
question. I wish I may be mistaken in all these opinions.

We have for some time expected, that the Chevalier de la Luzerne would
obtain a promotion in the diplomatic line, by being appointed to some
of the courts where this country keeps an ambassador. But none of the
vacanci