[All doubt as to the powers of the Federal Executive was, however, removed by its efforts in the Civil War, and those powers were largely extended.]] The only safeguard which the American Union, with all the relative perfection of its laws, possesses against the dissolution which would be produced by a great war, lies in its probable exemption from that calamity.

Placed in the centre of an immense continent, which offers a boundless field for human industry, the Union is almost as much insulated from the world as if its frontiers were girt by the ocean.
Canada contains only a million of inhabitants, and its population is divided into two inimical nations.

The rigor of the climate limits the extension of its territory, and shuts up its ports during the six months of winter.

From Canada to the Gulf of Mexico a few savage tribes are to be met with, which retire, perishing in their retreat, before six thousand soldiers.

To the South, the Union has a point of contact with the empire of Mexico; and it is thence that serious hostilities may one day be expected to arise.