increase of capital. Superior wealth is all the advantage which England has over the Union, and she is fast losing that advantage. The only way in which she can check this tendency, is by promoting sectional jealousies, in the view to cause a political dissolution of the Union.

its ships, goods, produce and traffic-would at once be excluded. The rigor of that English exclusive system which before drove the independent northern states into a union with the South, would apply with ten-fold force; and while the South has now become necessary to every country of Europe, the North has nothing to offer-being, in fact, a rival to each and all in manufactures. The

Every year the progress of affairs makes the North less necessary to the South, and makes the latter more necessary to England and western Europe. The face of affairs is entirely changed since General Pinckney, in convention, assented to the proposition, giving Congress the right to pass laws regulating commerce by a simple majority, on the ground that it was a boon granted to the North, in consideration of the necessity which the weak South had for their strong northern neighbors. The cotton trade then scarcely existed, but the material has now been spun into a web which binds the commercial world to southern interests. The North now has far more need of the South to cherish her commercial and manufacturing interests, than when the merchants of Boston, headed by John Hancock, petitioned Congress to the following effect:

"Impressed with these ideas, your petitioners beg leave to request of the very august body which they now have the honor to address, that the numerous impositions of the British on the trade and exports of these states may be forthwith contravened by similar expedients on our part; else, may it please your excellency and honors, the commerce of this country, and, of consequence, its wealth, power, and perhaps the Union itself, may become victims to the artifice of a nation, whose arms have been in vain exert ed to accomplish the ruin of America."

The South is now, with its institutions and capabilities, possessed of that on which half

The

half of our glorious Union, on terms agreed upon by those immortal men who separated from England, because they would no longer suffer the continuance of the African slavetrade; but, in its independent position, the South holds the welfare of other nations almost entirely within its keeping. The capital and laboring abilities of England are such as to afford the South an outlet for its staple, should it exclude all other customers. result of such a movement, would be to force other countries to draw their goods from England only. On the other hand, the manufac turing progress of the North is such, that in a few years she may absorb the whole of the southern staple, and place herself at the head of the manufacturing interest for the supply of the world. To the South, it is comparatively of small importance, whether England or the North obtains this mastery. Between the North and England, it is a mortal duel; and yet, in the crisis of this struggle, there are to be found persons at the North so destitute of all moral and political acuteness as to attack, in violation of the sacred pledge of the Constitution, those institutions which it guaranties, and which are so necessary to the interests of humanity.

The continued harmony of the United States, permitting the industry of each section to furnish materials for the enterprise of the others, the reciprocity of benefits and unin terrupted interchange of mutual productions, facilitated by continually increasing means of intercourse and accumulation of capital, are laying the foundation for an empire, of which the world's history not only affords no example, but the magnitude of which the wildest dream of the most imaginative of the

the West and South ;* and the North the St. Croix, the St. Lawrence, etc. rivers, and the lakes, separated from the Canadas.

The territory embraced within these lines was all that the original thirteen states occupied or claimed, and it was secured to them forever in the same treaty which secured their independence.

It will be not without interest to mark in a hurried manner the progress and extension of settlements and government in these original states, since from them as a starting point the most interesting contrasts may afterward be made. These states were the great pioneers of the Union, and out of them and such additional acquisitions of territory as they have been enabled to make from foreign powers, have been created a great body politic which has amazed the world by its extent and power.

Virginia.-The year 1607 witnessed the first permanent settlement of any English colony throughout all this vast and then howling region. Under a patent from King James, one hundred emigrants, in April of this year, landed in the vicinities of James River and set about the construction of the town which adopts the name. In 1612, the Virginia company received an additional grant of territory, which included the Bermudas and all the islands within three hundred leagues of the coast.

Massachusetts. In 1620, the Mayflower, so celebrated in history for the daring band of spirits who were assembled in her cabin, landed in the proximity of Cape Cod, and, after "solemn prayer and thanksgiving," forty-one in number, excluding women and children, signed an instrument of government. The contract with the names of its subscribers is now preserved in Morton's "New-England Memorial."

A patent was signed the same year, which was the basis of all subsequent ones in this region, granting to the Duke of Lennox and his associates, the right of planting, ruling, ordering and governing New-England in America. The grant included all territories between the latitudes 40 and 48° north from ocean to ocean.

In 1620 was granted to John Mason the territory about the river Pascatagua and now comprised within the state of New-Hampshire. This territory was included within Massachusetts until 1680, when it was formed into a separate government, much, it is said, against the will of the inhabitants. The next question of boundary between the two governments was setted in 1740 by the Lords of Council in England.

The original patent for Connecticut was signed in 1631, and two years afterward the

* See Treaty in 2 Holmes's An., 529. Belknap's New-Hampshire.

| first house was erected there by some adventurers from Plymouth, in defiance of the menaces of a Dutch fort upon the Connecticut River.*

John Clark and others, eighteen in number, disgusted with religious differences in Massachusetts, purchased a small island from the natives, which afterward came to be known as Rhode Island. The fertility of the soil and the pleasantness of the climate soon attracted many people to their settlement.

In 1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman, in the service of the Dutch, following the track of the Cabots a century before, landed on Manhattan Island. Fifty-five years after, the Dutch colony which had made a settlement here formally surrendered to an English fleet under Nicolls, and the name of New Amsterdam, in honor of the brother of the king, yielded to that of New-York.

The Duke of York conveyed, in 1664, a part of the patent granted him by Charles II. to Lord Berkely and Sir George Carteret, under the title of New-Jersey-the family of the latter being from the Isle of Jersey. In ignorance of this, Gov. Nicolls, of NewYork, granted, in the same year, a patent for the same tract-and under it the territory became a resort for reputable farmers and families from New-England and Long Island.

In 1640 a purchase was made on behalf of New-Haven, from the Indians, of certain territory on both sides of the river and bay of Delaware, for the purpose of trade and "extension of the Gospel." Fifty families were immediately settled. The Dutch, of New Netherlands, at first opposed this measure as an encroachment, burnt the trading house that had been erected and seized upon the goods.

Lord Baltimore, received from King Charles, 1632, a title to the province of Maryland, named in honor of Henrietta Maria his queen. Two years after, Calvert, with a colony of two hundred Roman Catholics, arrived in the territory and fixed a settlement.

In 1662, the Earl of Clarendon and others, received a grant of the immense territory lying to the southward of Virginia, between the 31 and 36° latitude, which in honor of the queen was called Carolina. The first colony under the charter came over in 1667 or 1668.

William Penn, the celebrated “Quaker King," was constituted by the charter of Charles II, absolute proprietor of the province of Pennsylvania. He immediately proceeded to dispose of shares, and a colony at once came over and settled above the confluence of the Schuylkill and the Delaware.t

The parliament of England having purchased the proprietory of government of Car

Trumbull's Connecticut, 13. Proud, 170-196.

olina, divided, in 1729, the territory into two distinct and separate governments, known afterward as North and South Carolina.*

To the southward of these colonies a large territory remained still unsettled, which caused some uneasiness in England, lest the Spanish, from the neighboring province of Florida, or the French from the Mississippi, in the desire of more easy communication with their West India possessions, should seize upon and appropriate it. A great movement of philanthropy was also at work at the same time in England. A double purpose of patriotism and philanthropy it was thought would be subserved by settling this region, viz.: "to obtain possession of an extensive tract of country, to strengthen the province of Carolina, to rescue numerous people in Great Britain and Ireland from the miseries of poverty, to open an asylum for persecuted and oppressed Protestants in different parts of Europe, and to attempt the conversion and civilization of the natives." The government was vested in trustees. In 1733, Oglethorpe reached the limits of Georgia, so called in compliment to the king, with one hundred and sixteen persons intended for a settlement.

Thus in a period of one hundred and twenty-four years from the landing on James River to the enterprise of Oglethorpe, was effected the planting and colonization of those thirteen original commonwealths, which were destined in so short a period to shake off the foreign dominion which was asserted and maintained over them, by a series of unparalleled victories over the troops of one of the proudest and most potent empires in the world, establish for ever their right of independence and place among the nations of the earth.

The territory held within the jurisdiction of these thirteen states, after the Revolution, embraced vast, uninhabited and almost unexplored regions, stretching far beyond the mountains and lakes and the outermost limits of civilization and government. Each of the states holding such territory succeeded of course to all the rights of empire and sovereignty over it as fully and effectually as these rights had existed in the hands of the English king himself. There was nothing in the union of the colonies for whatever purpose to impair that right. Pending the adoption of the articles of confederation however, when it was of the last importance that the states should present an undivided front against the common enemy, Maryland refused her adhesion to the "articles," unless an amendment were made appropriating the uncultivated and unpatented lands in the

western part of the Union as a common fund to defray the expenses of the war.*

We then discover at how early a period it was perceived, that if any one government, consolidated or federal, succeeded that of Great Britain throughout her American possessions, this government was the only proper repository of all rights to unoccupied territories, either then existing in the hands of its members or to be acquired by future treaty regulations with the Indians or with foreign powers.

It is certain that New-York, soon after the proposition of Maryland, admitted the importance of the principle, and led the way in ceding her territories to the Union by the acts of her legislature in 1779 and 1780 and the final transfer of 1781. She was followed in 1784 by Virginia, in 1785 by Massachusetts, 1786 by Connecticut, and in 1787 by South Carolina. North Carolina and Georgia made similar concessions.

On the adoption of the federal constitution in 1789, the right of Congress over all this territory was distinctly specified in the third section of the fourth article: "Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulation respecting, the territory and other property belonging to the United States.”+

Two years before the institution of the present constitutional government, 1887, Congress passed an "ordinance for the gov ernment of the territory north-west of the river Ohio," which had been relinquished by the states of Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New-York.

As early as 1769, Daniel Boone had plunged into the wilderness west of Virginia and begun the settlement of what was afterward known as the district of Kentucky. In 1790, having fulfilled the requisite conditions, this district applied for admission into the Union, and was received as an independent state the following year, constituting the first of the new class of states in which the Union is divided, subsequent in origin to the Revolution, and the constitution.

A few days afterward, Vermont, embracing the territory which had been included in the New-Hampshire grant, but which had declared itself independent, by the name of New-Connecticut, alias Vermont, and settled its disputes with New-York claiming once a jurisdiction within its borders, petitioned for admission into the Union and was received as another independent state.

The jurisdiction of North Carolina having been extended over the district of Tennessee during the Revolution, emigration flocked in

* Kent, i., 210. Journals of Congress, vii. Congress, by acts of 1780, called for these cessions by the States.-Kent, i., 259.

As to the new states' power over their lands.

Kent, i., 259.

that direction, and by 1796 the materiel existed for a state, which was formally admitted into the Union.

Ohio, included within the North-West Territory, which had been penetrated by Col. Clarke and the Virginians in 1779 and which begun to be settled in 1788, became one of the American states in 1802, and settled its constitution.

These states were all carved out of the original territories to which our country succeeded by the treaty of peace in 1784, and the possession of which was guaranteed and defined by that treaty.

About this period began a new era in the progress of America, the importance and influences of which cannot be held in too serious a light. From the opening of the Revolution, or for about twenty-six years, the states had been content to grow and extend within the limits assigned by the mother country. These limits were vast enough for the proudest empire. It was impossible, however, that a people who had possessed themselves of this much could remain satisfied whilst fertile and still more extensive regions surrounded them upon every hand, claimed and sparsely populated by nations entertaining little if any sympathies with them. The restless enterprise too and acquisitiveness which are inherent in all republics, were not likely to operate with a diminished force here. It is, perhaps, too early to determine whether this desire of extensive territory, which, dating from the early part of the present century, has been growing every year more intense with our countrymen, will be, in the event, for the advantage or detriment of the republic. Guided and restrained by high moral considerations and political wisdom, it has hitherto, as we believe, so far as the results have been manifested, been subservient to the true interest of the country. There is a mean, however, which can easily be transcended, and perhaps that mean has been already reached. Territory may be purchased at too dear a cost, when it is unnecessary, or when, even if necessary, the rights of others must be invaded and protracted wars undertaken. Will past moderation content our government in the future; or will it, emboldened and stimulated by success, aim for new accretions of sovereignty each year, from newly acquired soil, in the mere wantonness of dominion? We confess that, from the spirit extensively manifested, and the doctrines promulgated in high quarters, in regard to the wonderful elasticity and expansiveness of our Union, and its capacity for indefinite extension, some apprehensions may arise in this particular. It is not difficult to predict where such a state of things would end. Peace is the mission of republicanism, and this is inconsistent with such a spirit. Ter

ritorial aggrandizement cannot long be conducted by any one nation without provoking uneasiness and animosities upon the part of others. War is almost a natural concomi tant; and with continued wars come the dangers of military despotism, growing out of the extraordinary adulation and deference everywhere accorded to a successful general.

But supposing peace were rigorously preserved, and neighboring states, impressed with the beauties of our system, were to become solicitous of merging a portion of their sovereignty, and of sharing a part of our greatness; ought it not to be our principle, in the liberal spirit, as it is said of freedom, like that of Christianity, to receive them into the fold, like younger brothers in manhood and republicanism? I know that there is something attractive in this manner of presenting the case, and that ardent and enthusiastic natures are prone to be hurried away with it. But there are higher considerations than those of mere feeling. Have we not duties toward ourselves higher than those which relate to the world at large? Our own salvation should be the first and the last consideration. Mere territory and mere numerical force is nothing to a nation. We may degrade, by continued annexations, the anglo-Saxon element, which has been the moving influence of the republic in all its history, by introducing to the full and unrestricted rights and privileges of republicanism and liberty, races and people who not only have not been tutored in these institutions for several hundred years as we have, but in reality have been plunged in the lowest depths of ignorance, bigotry and political slavery. Such repeated accessions can only pave the way for the ruin of the republic.

Though our federated system be beautiful and an improvement upon any of the previous forms of free goverments, yet we cannot but think the limits of safe extension, though ever so well guarded, are not as wide as many imagine. The remote states will cease to have their proper influence, and such will come to be the diversity of interests almost irreconcilable, that almost any uniform legislation will become unequal. The boundaries of state and federal powers cannot be so well observed where the number of states becomes very great. The doctrines of states' rights too, which have been reserved to them by the constitution, are much more in danger of perishing when there are many than a few states. These doctrines are much more strictly held by the original thirteen states than by any of the new ones; and the reason is, that the one class consider themselves the creators and the others the offspring of the constitution. The extension of federation naturally leads to consolidation, after a certain point is passed.