4820. LOUISIANA, Federalist opposition.—[further continued] .
Objections are raising to
the eastward against the vast extent of our
boundaries, and propositions are made to exchange
Louisiana, or a part of it, for the
Floridas. But * * * we shall get the
Floridas without, and I would not give one
inch of the waters of the Mississippi to any
nation, because I see in a light very impor
tant to our peace the exclusive right to its
navigation, and the admission of no nation
into it, but as into the Potomac or Delaware,
with our consent and under our police.—
To John C. Breckenridge. Washington ed. iv, 499.
Ford ed., viii, 243.
(M.
Aug. 1803)
