so familiar to the majority of readers by the
pen of Washington Irving, that I can only refer to it here. "His
design," says a writer of thirteen years ago, "was to organize and
control the fur trade from the lakes to the Pacific, by establishing
trading posts along the Missouri and Columbia to its mouth. He designed
establishing a central depot and post at the mouth of the Columbia. He
proposed sending regular supply-ships to the Pacific posts around the
Horn. By these, stores were to be sent also to the Russian
establishments. It was part of his plan, if possible, to obtain
possession of one of the Sandwich Islands as a station, for from the
Pacific coast he knew that the Chinese market for his peltries could be
most conveniently reached, and thus the necessity for a long and
circuitous voyage be avoided. Instead of bringing the furs intended for
China to New York, they could be sent from the Pacific. By the
supply-ships, too, the stock of goods suitable for the Indian trade
would be kept up there, and the cargoes purchased with the proceeds of
the furs sold in China brought back to New York. The line of posts
across the continent would become a line of towns; emigration would
follow, and civilization would belt the continent.

"In this grand scheme, Mr. Astor was only anticipating the course of
events which, fifty years later, we are beginning to witness. When he
laid his plans before the Government, Mr. Jefferson, who was then
President, 'considered as a great acquisition,' as he afterward
expressed himself in a letter to Mr. Astor, 'the commencement of a
settlement on the western coast of America, and looked forward with
gratification to the time when its descendants should have spread
themselves through the whole length of that coast, covering it with free
and independent Americans, unconnected with us except by ties of blood
and interest, and enjoying, like us, the rights of self-government.'
Even Jefferson's mind, wide as it was, could not take in the idea of a
national unity embracing both ends of the continent; but not so thought
Astor. The merchant saw farther than the statesman. It was precisely
this political unity which gave him hope and chance of success in his
worldwide schemes. When the Constitution was adopted, the chief source
of apprehension for its permanence with men like Patrick Henry, and
other wise statesmen, was the extent of our territory. The Alleghanies,
it was thought, had put asunder commu