There were other objections which seemed far more weighty than those of material inexpediency. The principle of colonization which would be forced upon the United States was regarded as a menace. “Should this principle now be recognized, it may hereafter be quoted as a precedent for measures which will change the condition and nature of the government, an event to be intimately associated with its destruction, or at least with the prostration of that liberty for the protection of which alone we can wish the government to exist.” Although it was shown that the probabilities were that the territory would become an integral part of the United States, yet the champions of the west were undaunted in defending colonization if it should come to that. Again it was the representative from Massachusetts who replied: “Was Great Britain more powerful, wealthy and happy before she began to colonize than now? Notwithstanding all her exhausting wars, all the drain of her colonial emigration, she was never more populous, more wealthy or more powerful than she is at this present day. Colonization does not impair the strength or diminish the wealth of nations. Some now within these walls may in after times cherish delightful recollections of this day when America, almost shrinking from the shadow of coming events, first placed her feet upon untrodden ground, scarcely daring to anticipate the grandeur which awaited her.”[8] Equally great was the fear of entanglements with foreign nations, and particularly war with England because of a violation of the treaty, an objection which, perhaps, weighed most heavily in defeating the bill. Nor was this objection ungrounded considering the newness of the nation and the necessity of a period of peace for knitting together the internal fibres of strength. For this there was, of course, no demonstration, nor could it be opposed by proof, and yet there was courage in the answer: “Arguments founded on what may happen would go equally to prove the futility of establishing a navy which may be captured by an adversary. If a measure is right in itself it is unwise to reject it because its beneficial effects may be defeated by a war.”