"The denouement has been happy: and I confess I look to this duplication of area for the extending a government so free and economical as ours, as a great achievement to the mass of happiness which is to ensue. Whether we remain in one confederacy, or form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I believe not very important to the happiness of either part. Those of the western confederacy will be as much our children and descendants as those of the eastern, and I feel myself as much identified with that country, in future time, as with this: and did I now foresee a separation at some future day, yet I should feel the duty and the desire to promote the western interests as zealously as the eastern, doing all the good for both portions of our future family which should fall within my power."—Thomas Jefferson, from Letter IX.—To Doctor Priestley, January 29, 1804 Jefferson's attitude regarding expansion contradicts issues that would engulf parts of new territories as a result of

conflicts between slave and free states
immediate applications for statehood
threats of succession from the new territory
Northern border disputes with England