4847. LOUISIANA, Mississippi navigation secured.—[continued].
The acquisition of Louisiana,
although more immediately beneficial
to the western States, by securing for their
produce a certain market, not subject to interruptions
by officers over whom we have
no control, yet is also deeply interesting to
the maritime portion of our country, inasmuch
as by giving the exclusive navigation
of the Mississippi, it avoids the burthens and
sufferings of a war, which conflicting interests
on that river would inevitably have produced
at no distant period. It opens, too, a
fertile region for the future establishments in
the progress of that multiplication so rapidly
taking place in all parts.—
R. to A. Tennessee Legislature. Washington ed. viii, 115.
(1803)
