Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and the largest
portion of Minnesota, Wyoming, and Colorado. They now form the central
section of the United States, and are the homes of millions and the
sources of countless wealth.

It is possible here to notice but briefly the vast and permanent
political and economical consequences to the United States of this
purchase. The party which performed this service came into power as the
maintainer of voluntary union. The soul of the strict construction party
was Thomas Jefferson. Inclined to French ideas, he had been for several
years previous to the founding of our Constitution imbibing their
extreme doctrines. No sooner did he return than he discerned, with the
keen glance of genius, what passed Hamilton and Adams unobserved, the
key to the popular fancy. He knew precisely where the strength of
the Federalists lay, and by what means alone that strength could be
overpowered.

Coming into office as the champion of "State-rights and strict
construction," it was beyond his power to give theoretical affirmance to
this transcendent act of his agents. His own words reveal his anomalous
situation: "The Constitution has made no provision for our holding
foreign territory, still less for incorporating foreign nations into our
Union. The executive, in seizing the fugitive occurrence which so
much advances the good of their country, have done an act beyond the
Constitution. The Legislature, in casting behind metaphysical subtleties
and risking themselves like faithful servants, must ratify and pay
for it, and throw themselves on their country for doing for them
unauthorized what we know they would have done for themselves had they
been in a position to do it." "Doing for them unauthorized what we know
they would have done for themselves" was the policy of the Federalists,