"At one time, in imagination, he located the 'ultimate capitol' of the United States in the 'valley of Mexico' where 'the glories of the Aztec capital would be renewed.' And even when he 'corrected this view,' possibly from a growing distrust of the advantages to be gained from absorption of the restless and unruly Latin-American republics, [William Henry Seward] still placed the 'future and ultimate central seat of power' in such a quarter — 'at the head of navigation on the Mississippi River and on the great Mediterranean Lakes' — as to indicate his belief that the Stars and Stripes would one day wave over the entire continent from the frozen Arctic to the tropical Caribbean."

📜 Henry Addington Bruce, The Romance of American Expansion, 1909
🎨 The Battle of New Orleans (Detail), Eugene Louis Lami, 1839