7746. SECESSION, Louisiana purchase and.—
Whether we remain in one confederacy,
or form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies,
I believe not very important to
the happiness of either part. [445]
Those of the
Western confederacy will be as much our
children and descendants as those of the
Eastern, and I feel myself as much identified
what that country, in future time, as with this:
and did I now foresee a separation at some
future day, yet I should feel the duty and the
desire to promote the Western interests as
zealously as the Eastern, doing all the good
for both portions of our future family which
should fall within my power.—
To Dr. Joseph Priestley. Washington ed. iv, 525.
Ford ed., viii, 295.
(W.
Jan. 1804)
