In 1810 the Western frontier of the United States slanted like the roof
of a house from Maine to Louisiana. The center of population was almost
exactly upon the site of the city of Washington.
That mysterious land beyond the Mississippi was even then receiving
more and more of that adventurous population which the statesmen of the
Louisiana Purchase feared would leave the East and never would return.
The fur-traders of St. Louis had found a way to reach the Rockies.
The adventurous West was once more blazing a trail for the commercial
and industrial West to follow. This was the second outward setting of
the tide of West-bound travel. We had used up all our down-stream
transportation, and we had taken over, and were beginning to use, all
the trails that led into the West, all the old French trails, the old
Spanish trails, the trails that led out with the sun. No more war
parties now from the Great Lakes to the Ohio, from the Great Lakes to
Mississippi. This was our country. We held the roads.