In the western country it is natural and grounded on honest motives ; in the seaports it proceeds from a desire for war, which increases the mercantile lottery ; among federalists generally, and especially those of Congress, the object is to force us into war if possible, in order to derange our finances ; or, if this cannot be done, to attach the western country to them as to their best friends, and thus get again into power. Remonstrances, memorials, etc., are now circulating through the whole of the western country, and signed by the body of the people. The measures we have been pursuing, being invisible, do not satisfy their minds. Something sensible, therefore, is necessary." This " sensible something " was Monroe's appointment, which " has already silenced the federalists," continued the President. " Congress will no longer be agitated by them ; and the country will become calm as fast as the information extends over it." The better to support Monroe, Madison explained to Pichon, the French minister in Washington, the necessity for the undivided possession of New Orleans, claiming that it had no sort of interest for France, while the United States had no interest in extending its population to the right bank, since such emigration would tend to weaken the state and to slacken the concentration of its forces. " In spite of affinities in manners and languages," said the Secretary of State, " no colony beyond the river could exist under the same government, but would infallibly give birth to a separate state, having in its bosom germs of collision with the east, the easier to develop in proportion to the very affinities between the two empires." This explained the true attitude of Jefferson and Madison. They did not seek territory west of the Mississippi.