George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

To the objection, that England could supply only the seacoast, that the inhabitants of the interior must manufacture for themselves, Franklin evoked from futurity the splendid vision of wide navigation on the great rivers and inland seas of America. Even the poor Indian on Lake Superior was already able to pay for wares furnished from French and English factories; and would not industrious farmers, hereafter settled in those countries, be better able to pay for what should be brought them?

‘The trade to the West India Islands,’ he continued, ‘is undoubtedly a valuable one; but it has long been at a stand. The trade to our northern colonies is not only greater, but yearly increasing with the increase of people; and even in a greater proportion, as the people increase in wealth. That their growth may render them dangerous I have not the least conception. We have already fourteen separate governments on the maritime coast of the continent; and shall probably have as many more behind them on the inland side. Their jealousy of each other is so great, they have never been able to effect a union among themselves, nor even to agree in requesting the mother country to establish it for them. If they could not agree to unite for their defence against the French and Indians, who were perpetually harassing their settlements, burning their villages, and murdering their people, is there any danger of their uniting against their own nation, which they all love much more than they love one another?

Such a union is impossible, without the most

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