EXTENSION OF TERRITORY. 261 



be fifteen, or sixteen, and then Louisiana- and Florida 

 were taken in, and then 'twas said the Union would go 

 down, sure. 'Twas said by the pretended prophets, 

 that Florida was Spanish, and Louisiana was French, 

 and both were Catholic, and that there would be a dis- 

 turbance right off. But the Union didn't go down, and 

 there wasn't any disturbance. The fifteen or sixteen 

 States went on increasin' to twenty, and then twenty- 

 five, and so on till Texas came in, and then there was a 

 talk about the cob-house goin' down agin. But it stood 

 up stronger than ever. The United States took a great 

 slice from Mexico, and divided it into territories, and 

 a State, and them thirteen States, have come to be 

 thirty-one, and in two or three years will be thirty- 

 five, and there hain't been any disturbance among 

 7 em yet, and there's no signs of there bein' any. There 

 ain r t a joint weakened, nor any screw loosened that I 

 can see, anywhere. Everthing moves on, juet as 

 smooth and regular, as it did sixty years ago, when 

 there wasn't but thirteen States, and four or five mill- 

 ions of people all told. Now, Squire, if them thirteen 

 States could grow to be thirty-one, and double the ter- 

 ritory they had at the beginning, without bein' weak 

 ened by it, I don't see why the thirty-one can't grow 



