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10 NEW TRACKS IN NOETH AMEEICA, 



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abuses. It is, in fact, far better to follow tbe natural 

 tendency towards centralization, and to place the seat of 

 Government, whether it be that of a state or nation, in the 

 most convenient and central of its great commercial towns, 

 where energy, talent, and wealth are of necessity to be found ; 

 for in such a centre the Government is assuredly most 

 secure. 



Where then shall the Federal capital be placed, seeing that | 

 Washington is neither a commercial, agricultural, nor geogra- 

 phical centre? Prom the reasons I have named, it seems 

 more than probable that the final answer will be at St. Louis. 

 Although two-thii'ds of the territory of the United States lie 

 to the west of the Mississippi, yet this region, taken as a 

 whole, can never support so great a population as the remain- 

 ing eastern third ; it has no navigable rivers of any importance, 

 and will never produce an inland city which can rival, in any 

 respect, the commercial capital of the Mississippi valley. 



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