“A superabundance of territory, I grant you, but surely not of population,” remarked the Commodore; “were the citizens of the United States condensed into the space allotted to Europeans, you might safely dispense with half the Union at this moment.”

“And what advantages should we then derive from the possession of nearly a whole continent to ourselves?”

“Every advantage that may be reaped consistently with common justice.  What would be thought in Europe, if, for instance to illustrate a point, and assuming these two countries to be in a state of profound peace, Spain, on the principle of might, should push her surplus population into Portugal, compelling the latter kingdom to retire back on herself, and crowd her own subjects into the few provinces that might yet be left to them.”

“I cannot admit the justice of your remark, Commodore,” returned Major Montgomerie, gradually warming into animation; “Both are civilized powers, holding the same rank and filling nearly the same scale among the nations of Europe.  Moreover, there does not exist the same difference in the natural man.  The uneducated negro is, from infancy and long custom, doomed to slavery, wherefore should the copper coloured Indian be more free?  But my argument points not at their subjection.  I would merely show that, incapable of benefitting by the advantages of the soil they inherit, they should learn to yield it with a good grace to those who can.  Their wants are few, and interminable woods yet remain to them, in which their hunting pursuits may be indulged without a fear of interruption.”

“That it will be long,” observed the General, “before, in so vast a continent, they will be without a final resting place, I readily admit; but the hardship consists in this—­that they are driven from particular positions to which their early associations lend a preference.  What was it that stirred into a flame, the fierce hostility of Tecumseh but the determination evinced by your Government to wrest, from the hands of his tribe, their last remaining favorite haunts on the Wabash?”

“This cannot be denied, but it was utterly impossible we could forego the possession of countries bordering so immediately on our settlements.  Had we pushed our colonization further, leaving the tribes of the Wabash in intermediate occupation, we ran the risk of having oar settlers cut off in detail, at the slightest assumed provocation.  Nay, pretexts would have been sought for the purpose, and the result of this would have been the very war into which we were unavoidably led.  The only difference was, that, instead of taking up arms to avenge our slaughtered kinsmen, we anticipated the period that must sooner or later have arrived, by ridding ourselves of the presence of those from whose hostility we had every thing to apprehend.”

“The expediency of these measures,” said the General, “no one, Major, can of course doubt; the only question at issue is their justice, and in making this remark it must be obvious there is no particular allusion to the United States, further than that country serves to illustrate a general principle.  I am merely arguing against the right of a strong power to wrest from a weaker what may be essential to its own interest, without reference to the comfort, or wishes, or convenience of the latter.”