“Race, religion, language, traditions, are becoming bonds of union, and not the parchment title-deeds of sovereigns. These instincts may be thwarted for the day, but they are too deeply rooted in Nature and in usefulness not to prevail in the end. I look with less interest to these struggles of races to live apart for what they want to undo than for what they will prevent being done in future. _They will warn rulers that henceforth the acquisition of fresh territory by force of arms will only bring embarrassments and civil war_, instead of that increased strength which in ancient times, when people were passed, like flocks of sheep, from one king to another, always accompanied the incorporation of new territorial conquests. “This is the secret of the admitted doctrine, that we shall have no more wars of conquest or ambition. In this respect _you_ are differently situated, having vast tracts of unpeopled territory to tempt that cupidity which, in respect of landed property, always disposes individuals and nations, however rich in acres, to desire more. This brings me to the subject of Canada, to which you refer in your letters. “I agree with you, that _Nature has decided that Canada and the United States must become one, for all purposes of free intercommunication_. Whether they also shall be united in the same federal government must depend upon the two parties to the union. I can assure you that there will be no repetition of the policy of 1776, on our part, to prevent our North American colonies from pursuing their interest in their own way. If the people of Canada are tolerably unanimous in wishing to sever the very slight thread which now binds them to this country, I see no reason why, if good faith and ordinary temper be observed, it should not be done amicably. I think it would be far more likely to be accomplished peaceably, _if the subject of annexation were left as a distinct question_. I am quite sure that _we_ should be gainers, to the amount of about a million sterling annually, if our North American colonists would set up in life for themselves and maintain their own establishments; and I see no reason to doubt that they also might be gainers by being thrown upon their own resources.