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ital of Spain. The settlement, which is without the limits of the United 
States, in the Spanish dominions, is conducted by Colonel Morgan under 
the patronage of the Spanish King.” 
New Madrid, Morse thought, was to become a great empo¬ 
rium of trade unless the free navigation of the Mississippi 
should be opened to the United States, and this, he thought, 
would not occur without a rupture with Spain. 
Some had thought that all settlers beyond the Mississippi 
would be lost to the United States. Morse discusses this at 
some length, and concludes with a paragraph which we quote 
entire: 
“We cannot but anticipate the period as not far distant when the 
American Empire will comprehend millions of souls west of the Missis¬ 
sippi. Judging upon probable grounds, the Mississippi was never de¬ 
signed as the western boundary of the American empire. The God of 
Nature never intended that some of the best parts of his earth should be 
inhabited by the subjects of a monarch 4,000 miles from them. And may 
we not venture to predict that, when the rights of mankind shall be more 
fully known, and the knowledge of them is fast increasing both in Europe 
and America, the power of European potentates will be confined to Europe, 
and their present American dominions become, like the United States, 
free, sovereign, and independent empires.” 
These sentiments have ever taken deep root in the United 
States. When President Monroe, more than a quarter of a 
century later, wrote the State paper that has forever linked 
his name with the sentiment, “ America for the Americans,” 
he did not create or express new or strange doctrines, but 
simply gave expression to an abiding conviction of the 
American people. 
Such in brief is a word picture of the geography of the 
United States at the beginning. Let us now go forward a 
generation, to about 1820, and note the changes. Our second 
and, let it be hoped, last war with Great Britain is over. By 
the first war political independence was won, by the second 
commercial freedom. Our ships might now go where and 
when they would, freed from hateful and hated search by 
any foreign power. Freedom from dependence on foreign 
manufactures had taken root and was making vigorous growth. 
