University of Virginia Library

5290. MISSISSIPPI RIVER NAVIGATION, Congress and.—

The affair of the
Mississippi, by showing that Congress is capable
of hesitating on a question, which proposes a
clear sacrifice of the western to the maritime
States, will with difficulty be obliterated. The
proposition of my going to Madrid to try to
recover there the ground which has been lost
at New York, by the concession of the vote of
seven States, I should think desperate.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. ii, 153. Ford ed., iv, 392.
(P. 1787)