be  able  to  show  herself  beyond  Cape  Horn  but  with  the  permis-
sion of  the  English.  The  direct  intercourse  between  the  valley
of  the  Mississippi  and  Asia  would  be  intercepted.  The  fur  trade
of  the  Rocky  Mountains  would  fall  into  the  hands  of  British
subjects,  and  with  it  the  entire  command  of  all  the  Indians,  west
and  north,  to  be  turned  loose  upon  the  frontiers  of  Missouri  and
Arkansas  and  Illinois  and  Michigan  upon  the  first  renewal  of
hostilities  between  the  UnitM  States  and  Great  Britain."

The  condition  of  things  with  their  possibilities  could  not  be
more  forcibly  stated  ;  the  more  so  as  coming  from  a  stiitesman
whose  opinions  had  been  so  radically  altered  from  the  desire  to
fix  our  Western  limits  on  the  Rocky  Mountain  ridge,  to  a  deter-
mination to  accept  nothing  less  than  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.
