[AU] At Kingston, (U. C.) the site of Fort Frontenac, I found the remains of a wall built by La Salle, or one of his successors, in the barrack yard of one of the English regiments.
[AV] The valley of the Mississippi contained, exclusive of Indians,
In 1762 about 100,000 inhabitants, In 1790 150,000 In 1800 580,000 In 1810 1,365,000 In 1820 2,625,000 In 1830 4,232,000
The Indians, now mostly removed to the west of the Mississippi, number only about 300,000 souls.
You must have been astonished in France at the President's Message; here the sharp and reckless tone of a portion of the press had prepared the public mind for some energetic demonstration; but the Message has exceeded the hopes of those who wished to assume an attitude of defiance in regard to France, and the fears of those who dreaded some imprudent step. Had such a paper come from any former President,--from Washington to John Quincy Adams,--it would have been looked upon as an expression of the sentiments of a majority of the American people. Neither of them would have been willing thus to commit the United States, without being sure that the national will really required it. Their rule of action would have been to let themselves be pushed on by the nation, rather than to draw it after them, or to go beyond it; and this, in fact, is more conformable to notions of self-government. They would have had the question profoundly discussed by the cabinet, not only orally, but in writing, as Washington did at the time of the establishment of the first bank in 1791. They would have consulted individually some of the leading statesmen of the country of all parties and all interests. They would have listened patiently to the representations of those upon whom the heavy burden of war would have most directly fallen, the merchants of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, New Orleans, and other large ports; and finally, after having weighed all objections, measured all difficulties, if they had been convinced that the interest and honour of their country absolutely required the appeal to the last argument, they would have reluctantly addressed the challenge to their oldest ally and friend, to the firmest stay of liberty and improvement in the Old World.