favorably for the Union.  It is in that sense only that it can become a question with the States, or, rather, with the people who compose them.  As States they can be affected by it only by their relation to each other through the General Government and by its effect on the operations of that Government.  Manifest it is that to any extent to which the General Government can sustain and execute its functions with complete effect will the States—­that is, the people who compose them—­be benefited.  It is only when the expansion shall be carried beyond the faculties of the General Government so as to enfeeble its operations to the injury of the whole that any of the parts can be injured.  The tendency in that stage will be to dismemberment and not to consolidation.  This danger should, therefore, be looked at with profound attention as one of a very serious character.  I will remark here that as the operations of the National Government are of a general nature, the States having complete power for internal and local purposes, the expansion may be carried to very great extent and with perfect safety.  It must be obvious to all that the further the expansion is carried, provided it be not beyond the just limit, the greater will be the freedom of action to both Governments and the more perfect their security, and in all other respects the better the effect will be to the whole American people.  Extent of territory, whether it be great or small, gives to a nation many of its characteristics.  It marks the extent of its resources, of its population, of its physical force.  It marks, in short, the difference between a great and a small power.

To what extent it may be proper to expand our system of government is a question which does not press for a decision at this time.  At the end of the Revolutionary war, in 1783, we had, as we contended and believed, a right to the free navigation of the Mississippi, but it was not until after the expiration of twelve years, in 1795, that that right was acknowledged and enjoyed.  Further difficulties occurred in the bustling of a contentious world when, at the expiration of eight years more, the United States, sustaining the strength and energy of their character, acquired the Province of Louisiana, with the free navigation of the river from its source to the ocean and a liberal boundary on the western side.  To this Florida has since been added, so that we now possess all the territory in which the original States had any interest, or in which the existing States can be said, either in a national or local point of view, to be in any way interested.  A range of States on the western side of the Mississippi, which already is provided for, puts us essentially at ease.  Whether it will be wise to go further will turn on other considerations than those which have dictated the course heretofore pursued.  At whatever point we may stop, whether it be at a single range of States beyond the Mississippi or by taking a greater scope, the advantage of such improvements is deemed of the highest importance.  It is so on the present scale.  The further we go the greater will be the necessity for them.