US President, Andrew Jackson, speech to Congress, 1830:

What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion?

Heard this on Simon Schama's excellent first programme about the limits of US infinity - available online for a little while.