Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Louisiana Purchase and Preceding Spanish Intrigues for Dismemberment of the Union
The first individual to see the evils which might ow from a dependence upon this outlet to the ocean by the people living west of the Alleghanies, was Washington himself. He had carefully noted the ow of the rivers beyond the Alleghanies, and the portages between them and the rivers owing down their eastern slope, at the time of his first visit into that region before the Revolution, and was only hindered from forming a company to unite them by an artificial channel, by the cc currence of the Revolution itself. The year after peace was declared he again visited the country bordering the upper waters of the Ohio, and at this time regarded the improvement not only of immense importance in its commercial aspect to the States of Maryland and Virginia, but as one of the neces sities of the general government. He had noticed, says Washington Irving, that the anks and rear of the United States were possessed by foreign and formidable powers, who might lure the Western people into a trade and alliance with them. The Western States, he observed, stood as it were on a pivot, so that the touch of a feather might turn them any way. They had looked down the Mississippi and been tempted in that direction by the facilities of sending everything down the stream, whereas they had no means of coming to the At lantic sea-board but by long land transportation and rugged roads. The jealous and untoward disposition of the Spaniard, it was true, almost barred the use of the Mississippi; but they might change their policy and' invite trade in that direction. The retention by the British Government, also, of the posts of Detroit, Niagara, and Oswego, tho-ugh contrary to the spirit of the treaty, shut up the channel of trade in that quarter.
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