I confess I look to this duplication of area for the extending of government so free and economical as ours, as a great achievement to the mass of happiness which is to ensue.

favorable to the immediate interests of our Western citizens, so auspicious to the peace & security of the nation in general, which adds to our country territories so extensive & fertile, & to our citizens new brethren to partake of the blessings of freedom & self-government

The acquisition of Louisiana … by giving the exclusive navigation of the Missisipi, it avoids the burthens & sufferings of a war, which conflicting interests on that river would inevitably have produced, at no distant period. it opens too a fertile region for the future establishment of their...

to promote this disposition to exchange lands which they have to spare & we want, for necessaries, which we have to spare & they want, we shall push our trading houses and be glad to see the good & influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these...

a crisis the most important the US. have ever met since their independance

the steady character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor

in every country where man is free to think & to speak, differences of opinion will arise from difference of perception, & the imperfection of reason. but these differences, when permitted, as in this happy country, to purify themselves by free discussion, are but as passing clouds...

nothing in Europe can counterbalance the freedom, the simplicity, the friendship & the domestic felicity we enjoy in America.

I sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here. the pleasure of the trip will be less than you expect, but the utility greater. it will make you adore your own country, it’s soil, it’s climate, it’s equality, liberty, laws, people & manners. my god! how little do my countrymen know...