4846. LOUISIANA, Mississippi navigation secured.—
The acquisition of New Orleans
would of itself have been a great thing,
as it would have ensured to our western
brethren the means of exporting their produce;
but that of Louisiana is inappreciable,
because, giving us the sole dominion of the
Mississippi, it excludes those bickerings with
foreign powers, which we know of a certainty
would have put us at war with France immediately;
and it secures to us the course
of a peaceful nation.—
To John Dickinson.
Ford ed., viii, 261.
(M.
Aug. 1803)