The stars on our flag, recording the number of the States united, have already been more than doubled; and I hopefully look forward to the day when the constellation shall become a galaxy covering the stripes, which record the original number of our political family, and shall shed over the nations of the earth the light of regeneration to mankind.  It has sometimes been said to he our manifest destiny that we should possess the whole of this continent.  Whether it shall ever all be part of the United States is doubtful, and may never be desirable; but that in some form or other, it should come under the protectorate or control of the United States, is a result which seems to me, in the remote future, certain.  It waits as the consequence upon intellectual vigor, upon physical energy, upon the capacity to govern, and can only be defeated by a suicidal madness, of which it does not belong to the occasion to treat.

I would not be understood to advocate what is called fillibustering.  Our country has never obtained territory except fairly, honorably and peaceably.  We have conquered territory, but have asserted no title as the right of conquest, returning to Mexico all except the part she agreed to sell and for which we paid a liberal price.  England having fillibustered around the world, has reproached us for aggrandizement, and we point to history and invite a comparison.  There is no stain upon our escutcheon, no smoke upon our garments, and thus may they remain pure forever!  The acquisitions of which I spoke, the protectorate which was contemplated, were such as the necessities of the future should demand, and the good of others as much as our own require, and this step by step, faster or slower, will, I believe, finally embrace the continent of America and its adjacent islands.

I am not among those who desire to incorporate into our Union, countries densely populated with a different race.  Deserts, ’tis the province of our people to subdue.  A mere handful of inhabitants, such as existed in Louisiana, are soon enveloped in the tide of immigration; of this character of acquisition I have no fear; but the mingling of races is a different thing.  I have looked with interest and pleasure upon the crosses of your cattle and horses, and saw in it the evidence of improvement.  Let your Messengers, your Morgans, your Drews, and your Eatons be mingled with each other and with new inportations; so with your Durhams, Devons, Ayreshires and your Jerseys.  The limit to these experiments will be where experience shows deterioration.  There is one cross which it is to be hoped you will avoid:  ’tis that which your Puritan fathers would not adopt or even entertain.  They kept pure the Caucasian blood which flowed in their veins, and therein is the cause of your present high civilization, your progress, your dignity and your strength.  We are one, let us remain unmixed.  In our neighbors of Southern and Central America we have a sufficient warning; and may it never be our ill-fortune to learn by experience the lessons taught by their example.