3295. FRIENDSHIP WITH ENGLAND, Advantages.—
Both the United
States and England ought to wish for peace
and cordial friendship; we, because you can
do us more harm than any other nation; and
you, because we can do you more good than
any other. Our growth is now so well established
by regular enumerations through a
course of forty years, and the same grounds
of continuance so likely to endure for a much
longer period, that, speaking in round numbers,
we may safely call ourselves twenty
millions in twenty years, and forty millions
in forty years. Many of the statesmen now
living saw the commencement of the first
term, and many now living will see the end
of the second. It is not then a mere concern
of posterity; a third of those now in life will
see that day. Of what importance, then, to
you must such a nation be, whether as
friends or foes.—
To Sir John Sinclair. Washington ed. vii, 22.
(M.
1816)
