Jenks' Portland Gazette. And Maine Advertiser

Louisiana.—The purchase of this vast wilderness is not so generally well received as the President's tools and flatterers endeavored to make it. The people seem desirous to pause, inquire and reflect on the subject, before they approve or condemn—without having it forced upon them as the master stroke of human wisdom. From the late remarks we have thus far seen, we deem it a bad speculation. But as it will soon meet the decision of Congress, we will then give our readers an opportunity to avail themselves of the arguments on both sides the question.

Fifteen Millions of Dollars for Louisiana!—This is a bargain that does not meet with unqualified approbation in the public papers. When the people seriously contemplate the payment of this great sum, they begin to think they do not stand much in need of that vast country, with all its Indians. They find, by looking at the map of the United States in its present limits, that they have millions and millions of acres of unsettled land, more than they will populate for centuries; and that the purchase of more, can only have the effect to sink the value of what they now possess. What, we are in need of (the free navigation of the Mississippi, and a convenient place of deposit, for the benefit of our western brethren) we did own, by solemn treaty with Spain. That nation, with whom we have now a long unsettled account for the depredations of their gun boats on our commerce in the straits, and the imprisonment and slaughter of our countrymen, dared (for, alas! our Washington was no more) to deprive us of the latter; and rather than claim our right, we suffer ourselves to pay tribute to the amount of Fifteen Millions of Dollars! Perhaps, indeed, our Senate may still preserve us from this humiliation—they may still refuse the tribute, and demand our right—and should the government do this, with proper spirit, neither France nor Spain could withhold it from us.—Solem Gas.

The country of Louisiana costs us fifteen millions of dollars, in the first instance, to France.—But before we have a clear title to it, we must pay the Indians for it also, besides, probably, maintaining wars with them into the bargain. To preserve what we buy, we must establish a government in the country; and we must build forts, and raise troops to support that government. The fifteen millions of dollars, we apprehend, is the cheapest part of the bargain; as it is well known the defence and government of our Western Territory have been the heaviest bill of expense to us of any one article since the establishment of the Federal Constitution; and there can scarcely be a hope that the people of that country, when it shall contain a people capable of government, will not set up for independence, and form a separate nation. But before that time many a land jobber may have made his fortune by Louisiana speculations.—Ibid.