They will restrain within due bounds a
jurisdiction exercised by others, much more rigorously than if exercised
by themselves.
I am uneasy at seeing that the sale of our western lands is not yet
commenced. That valuable fund for the immediate extinction of our debt
will, I fear, be suffered to slip through our fingers. Every day exposes
it to events, which no human foresight can guard against. When we
consider the temper of the people of that country, derived from the
circumstances which surround them, we must suppose their separation
possible, at every moment. If they can be retained till their
governments become settled and wise, they will remain with us always,
and be a precious part of our strength and our virtue. But this 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.
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