8385. TERRITORY, Annexation of Canada.—
That Bonaparte would give us the
Floridas to withhold intercourse with the residue
of the [Spanish] colonies cannot be
doubted. But that is no price; because they
are ours in the first moment of the first war;
and until a war they are of no particular
necessity to us. But, although with difficulty,
he will consent to our receiving Cuba into
our Union, to prevent our aid to Mexico and
the other provinces. That would be a price,
and I would immediately erect a column on
the southernmost limit of Cuba and inscribe
on it a ne plus ultra as to us in that direction.
We should then have only to include the
north in our Confederacy, which would be, of
course, in the first war, and we should have
such an empire for liberty as she has never
surveyed since the creation; and I am persuaded
no Constitution was ever before so
well calculated as ours for extensive empire
and self-government.—
To President Madison. Washington ed. v, 444.
(M.
April. 1809)
See Canada.
