without serious detriment to the interests and
prosperity of the United States, and without the danger that was
always present of conflicts with the European powers maintaining
governments in contiguous territory. It was a wise policy and a
necessity to acquire these vast regions and add them to this country.
They were acquired and are now held.

"Precisely the same considerations apply to Canada, with greater
force. The commercial conditions have vastly changed within twenty-
four years. Railroads have been built across the continent in our
own country and in Canada. The seaboard is of such a character,
and its geographical situation is such on both oceans, that perfect
freedom as to transportation is absolutely essential, not only to
the prosperity of the two countries, but to the entire commerce of
the world; and as far as the interests of the two people are
concerned, they are divided by a mere imaginary line. They live
next door neighbors to each other, and there should be a perfect
freedom of intercourse between them.

"A denial of that intercourse, or the withholding of it from them,
rests simply and wholly upon the accident that a European power,
one hundred years ago, was able to hold that territory against us;
but her interest has practically passed away and Canada has become
an independent government to all intents and purposes, as much so
as Texas was after she separated herself from Mexico. So that all
the considerations that entered into the acquisition of Florida,
Louisiana, and the Pacific coast and Texas, apply to Canada, greatly
strengthened by the changed condition of commercial relations and
matters of transportation. These intensify not only the propriety,
but the absolute necessity, of both a commercial and a political
union between Canada and the United States."

This was my opinion then, but further reflection convinces me that
the annexation of Canada to the United States presents serious
difficulties, and that the best policy for the other English-speaking
countries is that Canada should constitute an independent republic,
founded upon the model of the United States, with one central
government, and provinces converted into states with limited powers
for local governments. The United States already embraces so vast
a country, divided into forty-four states and four territories,
exclusive of Alaska and the Indian Territory, that any addition to
the number of states would tend to wea