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Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851

"Oak Openings"

Would to Heaven we
could see the days of Good Queen Bess revived for one session of
Congress at least, and find that more laws were sent back for the
second thoughts of their framers than were approved! Then, indeed,
might the country be brought back to a knowledge of the very
material constitutional facts that the legislature is not commander-
in-chief, does not negotiate or make treaties, and has no right to
do that which it has done so often--appoint to office by act of
Congress.
As a consequence of the little apprehension entertained by the
English of being soon disturbed in their new conquests, le Bourdon
and his friends got out of the Detroit River, and into Lake Erie,
without discovery or molestation. There still remained a long
journey before them. In that day the American side of the shores of
all the Great Lakes was little more than a wilderness. There were
exceptions at particular points, but these were few and far asunder.
The whole coast of Ohio--for Ohio has its coast as well as Bohemia
[Footnote: See Shakespeare--Winter's Tale.]--was mostly in a state
of nature, as was much of those of Pennsylvania and New York, on the
side of the fresh water.


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