Alexandria daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1803-1808, 1803-10-05
(C0acl,lded.i)


that the whole oft might be cultivated by
1yhite people, it would still be worse than
useless to the United States, SO far as
should relate to its occupationbv actualset-
Elements; because they urgently need,
within their domestic territory, manifold
more labourers than they now have. When
labourers are scarcer and more precious
than gold; when the whole, except very
small proportion, OF the United States, now
lies uncultivated and waste; when hun
dreds ofmillions of acres of wilderness be-
long to the governments of.the Union and
of the particular states, and hundreds of
millions more are owned as private Proper
ty, when large part of the nation are al
ready SO thinly dispersed, that, from the
impractibi,ity of supporting schools and
other institutions necessary TO civil society,
their children will grow up aeni-SavageS-
under these circumstances, what can be
more absurd and ruinous than to u"re-drag9
population SO as to, extend it into a foreign
country: With strict propriety do l call
Louisiana ,f9reign country: it lies be-
yond the vast body of waters which i'll We
ry lately has been consideredas the ultimate
limits of the United States. Whyoverleap
this boundary? Why transgress the ordi-
nation of nature, which has seemingly said,
8" Hitherto shall We come, and no further?"
Why pass the Mississippi, inquest Of land,
leaving behind more wastelands than would
cover several Of the smaller kingdoms of
Europe? Why aim to extend, to Mexico
and the Southern ocean, a population, the
whole of which would not fillthe single state
of New-York Such a measure might en-
rich spectators, but would inevitably ims
poyerish and weaken the nation. To COM
pare great things with small, what would be
thought of farmer, who owning home
stead of the full extent of square-mile,
partly cultivated, but mostly a forest, and
having only five persons upon it, should run
himself deeply in debt fora tract OF new
land, at the distance of several hundred
miles, and send on one or two of his do
mestcs to settle and cultivate it? The In
stances are nearly parallel; the inferenccs
are obvious.
It may be argued that Louisiana VIII be
made a lucrative object of Irrational specula-
ton, by selling it to land-companies for
more than its original cost. But there are
two considerations, which seem to invali-
date this argument. Firstly, Louisiana
having been owned alternately by the gov
ernments Of France and Spain, during
whole century, it scarcely admits of doubt
that much and some Of the best of It's soil
has already been bestowed on some OF the
favorites Of those two courts; nor is it pre-
sumeable that the purchase of the right Of
jurisdiction would cancel the antecedent
right Of individuals to the soil. The natives
also are numerous, and are the proper own
ers of the lands, which they inhabit: they
must either be driven of by force, or their
claims distinguished BY purchases. l3ut,
secondly, supposing the United States
should purchase nearly the whole soil, and
should sell it to specuiating-companies for
more than the purchase money; these COM
panies, urged on by their private interests,
would exhaust every species Of intrigue to
draw money and population from the East
and from the Atlantic to the West; and
the baneful consequences to the Eastern
and Middle State, which have been men
toned, would, in some degree, inevitably
follow.
Itmay be further urged, on-the opposite
side, that Louisiana, tho not wanted for the
purpose of cultivation nozv, will be wanted
by posterity. Let us spend amoment in
examining this point. One century, at
least, will pass away before the present ter
ritory of the United States will be so full
as to render it necessary to cross the Mis-
slssippi in quest of lands. Now it must be
well known, that, in the purchase of new
lands or any other property, that is for some
time to lie dead, the compound interest of