4815. LOUISIANA, Defence of.—[further continued].
I propose to the members of Congress in conversation, the enlisting
thirty thousand volunteers, Americans by
birth, to be carried at the public expense, and
settled immediately on a bounty of one hundred
and sixty acres of land each, on the
west side of the Mississippi, on the condition
of giving two years of military service, if
that country should be attacked within seven
years. The defence of the country would
thus be placed on the spot, and the additional
number would entitle the Territory to become
a State, would make the majority
American, and make it an American instead
of a French State. This would not sweeten the
pill to the French; but in making the acquisition
we had some view to our own good
as well as theirs, and I believe the greatest
good of both will be promoted by whatever
will amalgamate us together.—
To John Dickinson. Washington ed. v, 30.
Ford ed., ix, 9.
(W.
1807)
