Resurrecting the First American West

Extract of a letter dated Fayette in Kentucky May 3. 1787 Although we are not infrequently visited by the savages; yet and altho our separation is become a serious matter as it seems to be drawing nigh; yet the public mind seems most attracted to our commercial prospects, of which the navigation of the Mississippi is our main hope. - I agree with you that the treaty with Spain, might have a happy tendency to turn our thoughts to manufactures, and back and in some degree compensate for the loss of trade. But then have you attentively considered that our country is and will be for a long time in want of hands, that bulky articles most be our first exports, and that if those articles be on hand and or cannot find a proper market, the value of our fine lands, will sink, and we gradually descend to misery and contempt, as much so as if our property lay in the dominion of an Italian prince or a Turkish Bashaw.