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146 1788.

  "Another convention is formed in Kentucky, for the purpose of adopting measures in relation to the navigation of the Mississippi, which had been prohibited to the citizens of the United States by the Spanish government.  A petition is presented to congress and a redress of grievances demanded.  Whilst the subject of the Mississippi navigation was agitated, the Spanish, English, and French, in their turns, employed every artifice in their power, even resorting to bribes as well as persuasions, to induce the people of Kentucky & Ohio to abandon the confederation of the States & place themselves under their protection & patronage.  But, notwithstanding the privations imposed upon them for want of sufficient authority in the United States, to secure to them the free navigation of the Mississippi, almost the only outlet for their surplus produce, the people of the West still adhered to the Union, and the efforts of foreign emissaries were rendered completely abortive."  Longs Ch: 96.