of America was toward mastery of the whole of North America. Yes, and
there was Oregon. If the Louisiana Purchase of 1804 did not include
Oregon, what of the Lewis and Clark expedition; what of the founding of
Astoria by Mr. Astor of New York, on the shores of the Columbia River;
what of the restoration of Astoria to the United States in 1818 after it
had been forcibly seized by Great Britain in the War of 1812? Douglas
looked forward to the day when Great Britain would not have an inch of
land from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Pole, and from the Atlantic to
the Pacific. All of this vast territory should be the abiding place of
liberty forever. Homestead laws should be passed with reference to it,
and settlers invited to reduce it to cultivation. It should be tilled by
millions of husbandmen, the most intelligent and progressive of the
world. It should be crossed by railroads and canals. Already there were
the Mohawk and Hudson railroad, the Boston and Albany, and the Baltimore
and Ohio. Illinois should have railroads and canals; the rivers and
harbors should be improved. Lake Michigan should be connected with the
Mississippi River by a canal joining Lake Michigan with the Illinois
River.

What was it all about? National wealth as a foundation for education,
power, the supremacy of the white stocks having the greatest vitality.

Zoe was waiting upon the table, occasionally sitting down to take a
bite. Douglas neither saw her nor was he oblivious of her. He talked
ahead, referring now to the slavery question. He believed the North
should leave the South alone. He had seen the reformer, the
intermeddler, in his native lair in Vermont. Who had brought into this
remote and peaceful town that copy of Garrison's _Liberator_? He was a
half-cracked busybody. People who had no business of their own made the
business of other people their business. He would put all such drivelers