At present the boundary line between the British dominions and the States runs along the river St. Croix, thence along the high lands bordering upon New England till it meets the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, and afterwards along the said parallel until it strikes the River St. Lawrence, or Cataragui, or Iroquois. Now the dominions south of the St. Lawrence are evidently not separated from the United States by any bold determinate boundary line; I therefore suppose that they may, in some manner, be connected with them; but the country to the northward, bounded on the north by Hudson’s Bay, on the east by the ocean, on the south and west by the St. Lawrence, and that vast chain of lakes which extends to the westward, is separated from the United States by one of the most remarkable boundary lines that is to be found on the face of the globe between any two countries on the same continent; and from being bounded in such a remarkable manner, and thus detached as it were by nature from the other parts of the continent, it appears to me that it is calculated for forming a distinct separate state, or distinct union of states, from the present American federal states; that is, supposing, with the revolutions of time, that this arm of the British empire should be some time or other lopped off. I confess it appears strange to me, that any person should suppose, after looking attentively over a map of North America, that the British dominions, so extensive and so unconnected with them, could ever become joined in a political union with the present federal states on the continent. There is more reason to imagine that the Floridas, and the Spanish possessions to the east of the Mississippi, will be united therewith; for as the rivers which flow through the Spanish dominions are the only channels whereby the people of some of the western states can convey the produce of their own country to the ocean with convenience, it is natural to suppose that the people of these states will be anxious to gain possession of these rivers, for which purpose they must possess themselves of the country through which they pass. But there are certain bounds, beyond which a representative government cannot extend, and the ocean on the east and south, the St. Lawrence and the lakes on the north, and the Mississippi on the west, certainly appear to set bounds to the jurisdiction of the government of the United States, if indeed it can extend even so far.