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 BOUGHT WITH THE JNCOME OF THE 
 
 FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE BEaUEST OF 
 
 LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY 1868-1883 
 1905 
 
 ^■■■3^'S.s'.^.^. \3\ 171)l 
 
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 ;' RIGHTS liD THE GHBAi QISTIOI 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED AT WHIPPY SWAMP, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 FOUETH OF JULY, 1855. 
 
 BY OEN. LEWIS M. AYER. 
 
 Published by tbe People to wbom it was Delivered. 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 E415.7 .A97 
 
 Southern rights and the Cuban question 
 
 3 1924 032 764 866 
 
 olin 
 
 CHARLESTOJJT: 
 
 PRIlTTEDf BY A. J. BITEKE, 40 BROAD STREET, 
 
 1856. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032764866 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 Fellcw Citizens: 
 
 With mueb pleasure, I embrace tlje opportunity your kind and flattering, 
 invitation affords me, of participating, with a people so highly distinguished 
 for patriotio zeal, in the celebration of this anniversary of American Inde- 
 pendence. ' , 
 
 "We are all suGSciently familiar with the circumstances which attended, 
 and the consequences which immediately followed, the promulgation of the 
 great Declaration of 17*76. Let us consider to-day, how, we' may best 
 perpetua,te the spirit and imitate the example of its illustrious authors, and 
 how best we may secure the prolonged enjoyment of the rare and rich, 
 but, to us, now. threatened and imperiled blessings which followed from 
 that immortal act. . , ■• 
 
 We cannot too severely reprobate the custom of confounding together, 
 in the celebrations of this day, the Declaration of Independence, and the 
 formation of the Federal Constitution, which took place eleven years later. 
 The two acts, though performed in a great measure by the same men, and 
 with the same patriotic intention, are, nevertheless, as widely different in 
 their characters as they were distinct in timej^place, and circumstance. It 
 is greatly to be' feared, that in blending together those two acts in the 
 annual Jiomage and applause intended to be paid only to the first, we have 
 grossly confounded and confused, in the popular mind, all distinctive ideas 
 of Kberty and government. In other words, we have unwillingly begotten 
 the absurd impression, that our liberty is attributable to, and dependent 
 on, the union of the States, and the particular form of goyerijment under 
 which that union now exists. This fatally false notion has, in mj humble 
 judgment, contributed largely to the subversion of State sovereignty, and 
 laid down a train of erroneous sentiments and ideas, \(;hich must, in the 
 end, blast the bright promise of Republicanism in America. 
 
 The Declaration was an act of daring courag'e ; and genuine courage can 
 never fail to command respect and admiration. It was an impressive evi- 
 dence of a sublime reliance on the power of Truth, and the justice of a 
 
virtuous cause, and such trust is man's highest attribute arid guaranty of 
 happiness. It denounced oppression, defied tyranny, and dared to do what 
 safety and self-respect denaanded should be (ione. "We do well then to 
 commemorate the deed. ■ Its bold authors were true to themselves and to 
 their country, and God blessed their eflForts in the triumph of their cause. 
 We may thence learn from whence to anticipate success, and ground our 
 hopes of relief in similar circumstances. 
 
 The act of Union was but a mere business transaction. - It was nothing, 
 more than a contract, bargain and agreement entered into by the several 
 independent States, as a means more effectually; as they erroneously- 
 thought, of securing and protecting that liberty and independence which 
 they had but recently declared, redeemed and vindicated. If it failed in 
 that, it failed in every purpose of its creation, and its continuance must 
 necessarily prove useless, if not mischievous. 
 
 We are very generally agreed in this State, that it has proved to. ns the 
 source of unnumbered ills — a full-charged Pandora's box. Yet, mafly 
 who admit this, continue, from habit and wrong-directed sentiment, to 
 look on it as in some way or other, ftiey.cannot exactly tell how, invested 
 with many mysterious virtues to "counterbalance its manifold evils, and 
 oppressions. Now, this is'clearly attributable to the impressions created 
 by the mere.magioof a name — the simple power of a ypord. Tlfe changes 
 have been so long, loud, and lavishly rung on the "Glorious Union," 
 that, notwithstanding the clearest deductions of reason, and the most paP 
 pable proofs of experience and observation, many find it difficult to regard 
 it in its true light of deformity. But unless we do break the spell of this 
 fetal enchantment, the time is near at hand, when our arch deceivers may 
 justly address to us the words with wl^ich the Veiled Prophet of Kho- 
 rassan taunted his doomed and deluded followers: — 
 
 "Te would be dupes and victims, and ye are." 
 
 The Government of the Union undoubtedly came from the hands of 
 its patriotic founders just and pure; but too much complicated with com- 
 promises of adverse interests and conflicting prejudices to' nemain so, 
 unless Washington, himself, could have lived forever to administer it. 
 It was too purely artificial to withstand the selfish passions, wicked preju- 
 dices, and lustful appetites for ruthless rule, of the degenerate and fana- 
 tical brood who have succeeeded to the, control of its powers, and who 
 have extracted from "its page sublime," a creed of lust, ,and hate, and 
 crime. ^ ' ■ ' 
 
"E'en as those beea of Trebizond, — 
 JWTiich from the sunniest fldwera that-glad 
 With their pure smUtes the gardens found, 
 Draw venom forth that diives men madl" 
 
 All the -fiurity and broad patriotism which, characterized the head- 
 Bpring and source whence the Federal Government had its rise, cannot 
 redeem or sanctify the foul impurities and base tyranny in which it has 
 settled down, Its course and fate has been like that of a sparkling foun- 
 tain gushing forth from some greeti carpeted slope or flower-enameled 
 vale, and rejoicing, for a brief space,^ in its murmuring music- and limpid 
 light, soon loses forever its^bright waters in muddy streams that spread 
 out into stagnant pools, atfd^exhale damp vapors and disease to poison all 
 , around. ^ ' . ' 
 
 To jump to the co.nclusiott that the progress of these States is attributa- 
 ble to their 'Union K)f Government, is just as shallow and erroneous as the 
 notion adopted by some political efconomists of England, that beca4ise 
 England "Ijad greatly prospered and. progressed under the weight of a 
 great national debt, therefore, the debt was the cause of her prosperity, 
 and consequently a national blessing! Sounder reasoners held that 
 England prospered in spite of her debts; and we'have prospered in spitfi 
 of the difficulties and obstacles thrown in our way by bur Federal Govern- 
 ment. All that we have ever asked of that Government, -i^- to be let 
 ■ alone in the development of our self-sustaining power and progress, and 
 this we have a, right to insist on. For us, above all other people, "the 
 best Government is that which governs least." 
 
 The Federal Government has been worked so as to make one section 
 pay two-thirds of the expenses of the concern, whilst the distribution of 
 Jirofits has steadily been made to the respective parties concerned, in. the 
 inverse ratio of their contributions. To us has been allotted the burdens 
 — to the itfortlr, the bounties of the Government. From I'zgi till 1845, 
 the receipts of revenue at the Custom Houses of the United States 
 amounted to $927,060,097, of which the' Slave Holding States paid.. 
 $7ll,2O0,G0O,''-an(f the Abolition States $215,850,097. In a period o£ 
 four years, from 1833 to, 183'7, according to Ijflr. Woobbuby, the relative 
 expenditures of' the public money to the two sections, w6re,. to the North- 
 ern States $65,000,000; to the South only $32,000,000':. while the latter 
 contributed $90,000,000 to the Treasury, and the former but $17,500,000! 
 The political connection existing between the. two sections has been made 
 a pretext for impertinent intermeddling in our domestic and private affairs. 
 The floor of the Common Coundl-House has been usurped by the North 
 
as the most eligiBle' point from whence to insult, vilify, and degrade the 
 South. And every instrument and agency of the- common Government 
 are now enlisted in the fratricidal object of robbing and ruining us. Yet, 
 we are exhorted to shout hosannas to "<Ae glorious Union." As well 
 tell me, that I owe the same reverence and affectionate ,rega¥d to every 
 huckstering party hack who has sat in the high presidential, place which 
 Washington filled^ as I do to WASHiNflTON himself. We may make 
 Presidents, but we cannot make Washikgtons. We may continue to 
 call the Federal Union by the name he called it, but that cannot make it' 
 the thing he left it— the thing he exhorted us to love and preserve. 
 
 The Union between the American Colonies and the Mother Country, 
 which Washington was mainly instrumental in severing, was by many in 
 his day likewise called a sacred^-a glorious — a happy Union. And there 
 indeed existed, in common between themj glorious recollections, radiant 
 with renown, linked through centuries of proud history. There was 
 Magna Charta, and the trial by Jury, and the Haheas Corpus, and the • 
 Bill of Rights; there was Alfred the Great, and Siipon de Monlfort, and 
 Hampden, and Bacon, and Milton, and ShakspeareJ and there was Agin- 
 court, Cressey, Poictiers, Marston Moor, Blenheim, and Quebec.^ All, the 
 property in common of both' countries, and all words of mighty magic 
 that plumed their pride, and intertwined their lofty hopes. But we are 
 engaged to-day in doing honor to the names and memoriesof those who' 
 had 'the wisdooi, and the manly courage, to brush aside all sickly, simper- 
 ing sentimentality, and fixing their steadfast gaze ob their great substan- 
 tial interests, as their pole^^tar, struck boldly for freedom, though, their 
 stroke inevitably severed forever, their "■gloritxus union" with Great Bri- 
 tain. A fig for such Unions when they murder liberty! . 
 
 Where is the boasted progress of political science? ■ Where tho proud 
 triumph of the divinely-inspired democratic idea, if we are, now, in the 
 middle of the nineteenth century, to substitute, for the long-ago exploded 
 divine right of Kings, an idolatrous worship of Government 'of any kind? * 
 Freemen, Countrymen, Carolinians, renounce the fat^l fallacy! , It is utterly 
 unworthy of men who aspire to be free. Divinity in human government 
 disappeared from earth with the ancient Jewish Theocracy. ^We should 
 make, or unmake, establish, or abolish governments, according as they 
 may, or may not, show their fitness to. promote and preserve the enjoy- 
 ment of those rights which are given us of God. Nor should unreason- 
 able and morbid fears of anarchy taking place, deter us from-the free exer- 
 cise of this right and royal privilege. Anarchy has rarely taken place in 
 political communities, and never long held sway over any. The genius 
 
of inglb-Saxon liberty is eminently, proof against tlfiit lawless spirits 
 The wpi'ld has l^een too much prone, for the last fifty years, to read all 
 history, and to study human character, hy the light of , the awful French 
 Keyolution of 1T93. The bloody excesses of that period, should 'be 
 regarded as ithe: exception, and not the rule of revolution. From the 
 Eoman Siege of Jerusalem to that epoch, nothing similar had ever taken 
 place in civilized communities: and there is not the slightest prbbability 
 of such sanguinary scenes ever Kcumog agum, even, in Jf'rance, as the 
 character of their many subsequent revolutions prove; much.'less are they 
 to be apprehended in the practical, sober-minded, Anglo-Saxon, race. Let 
 us- cease, then',! to contemplate every 4'adical change in political govern- 
 ment -with a -death-head, a guillotine and a Robespierre before our eyes. 
 The quaking fears, for the fundamental polity of the State, with which 
 some of our ernJnent citizens contemplated the assembling of the Conven- 
 tion of the People of South Carolina in 1852, was simply ridiculous and 
 amusing. - ' • ' , , ' ' , . 
 
 There is a gross and palpable contradiction, and glaring incompatibility, 
 between the accepted theory which obtains in this country,' that our peo- 
 ple are capable of self-government, and the constant appeals which are- 
 made to our weak prejudices aiid sublimated sentirnents in favor of antique 
 forms. It is much to be feared' that many among us profess democracy 
 who do not love 'it, and who fear its progress, because they do not com- 
 prehend its, character. Such are readily^ discovered in their awkward 
 attempts to flatter and fool the people, much as one would soothe and 
 caress a fierce- lookipg. bull dog that he feared might bite him. Demo- 
 cracy must be horn, in a man'sssoul, or he can never put hfs implicit trust 
 in the thing; He may ^ for the accomplishment of selfish ends, court "the 
 dear people," whilst he secretly distrusts -atid despises them. Such men 
 have wrought the ruin of every Ilepublic. , They set up some golderi, calf, 
 such, for instance, as a "glorious Federal Government," which, in course of 
 time, they induce the people, by artfully practising on their ignorance, cre- 
 dulity, and superstition, to bow down and worship. Then soon appears 
 some child of chance like Louis Napoleon, or some great soldier of for- -. 
 tune like the first .Napoleon, who easily manages to transfer to his own 
 person, this superstitious reverence which has been begotten in the breasts 
 of the masses. The true democrat eschews all flattery of his fellows, 
 frankly points out their faults, and boldly labors to correct thenar In^ 
 short, he worships only God, and would therefore reverence, raise, and 
 regenerate His image in every man. ' ^ , 
 
 Nothing can be sacred which is not right — nothing glorious whieli ia 
 
KOt good. When we complain, then, of the ills and injupes inflicted m 
 Us by means of the Federal Union, our opponents must show that it is 
 right and good for us to be thus oppressed, and cease to sing, us whining 
 lullabies of the "glorious Union." Glory should be deemed to consist in 
 being freemen, and not in the worship of an empty image. The great 
 act of Washington in dissolving in blood, the accursed union of govern- 
 ment between the American Colonies and Great Britain, should be held 
 up to our admiration and imitation, rather than the Wreck arid refuse of 
 that government which he established fdr our use and protection, but 
 ■which is about to be wrested to our ruin. Let' but this star of reason 
 dawn upon our political firmament— let but its brilliant beams pierce the 
 murcky clouds of political transcendentalism which blinds our hearts, 
 obscures our vision, and threatens our existence, and soon would the aspi- 
 ring shout for a Southern Confederacy wake the welkiii. with its gladr 
 some note. 
 
 Many, I know, are dazzled by tbe glare and glitter — the .pomp and cir- 
 cumstance of a wide-spread, powerful Confederacy. They overlook the 
 impending danger to personal freedom and domestic peace, in the impo- 
 sing' show of external strength. Such men remind one of a foolish fop, 
 who would sacrifice his whole patrimony and living, to flaunt one day in 
 costly trinkets and showy equipage, with the certain prospect before him 
 of dragging out the whole of his after life in penury and Want. 
 
 What, though the star-spangled banner should proiidly wave on every 
 shore, and ride triumphant upon each crested billow of every ocean! 
 Would there be aught in that, calculated to insure us domestic peace,, 
 tranquility, add happiness, in our desecrated" and disconsolate hom^es? 
 Does the British Lion, which they bear as their badge of nationality, secure 
 happiness and prosperity to desolate Jamaica — to the hundred and fifty . 
 millions of serfs of British India-^to starving Ireland, with, her ^ight mil- 
 lions of people, and but thirty thousand voters? No, my countrymen! it 
 is a silly and a senseless notion, that great extent of territory confers social 
 happiifess, or political liberty. Who would not rather be a citizen of one 
 of the free Cantons of happy little Switzerland this day,' than.a subject of 
 immense Eussial ' ■ * 
 
 But why, it may be inquired, address such arguments to rnen who have 
 already, lately and unanimously, expressed their full faith in theiii, and 
 promptly indicated their readiness to demo^trate their- faith by their 
 works? Simply because we would keep your bright vestal light burning, 
 and fan its generous flame into a general conflagration.' We stand like 
 men, who, in the waste of a wide prairie, should see the wildfire circling 
 
them all around, leaping, rushing, careering along upon the deep dry-grasS,, 
 and ever and anon caugfit up on the arms of a sweeping -whirlwind, and 
 lifted- until its red flames lick the very clouds. The fiery elements of fana- 
 ticism now cast their baleful glare along the face of th^ whole Northern' 
 sky, and. threaten,- at every moment, to s*eep down upon iis. We must- 
 set fire against fire, or he overwhelmed. , , 
 
 In 1851, mi^ny .cif.n^ thought the time had dome to cut loose from our 
 corfnQction wjththecorr.gpt, and /ear/wZiy corrupting, Federal' concern. 
 A large majority of our brethren tbpught otherwise. The Slave-holding 
 States, it was thought, were not then ready. They had not sufficiently 
 shaken oS old party ties, and' a lingering hope yet loitered in their love 
 of peace and quietude. The.South, submitted, ancl we were conipelled to 
 ground our arms, and deter our cherished hopes. 
 
 Wa feared' not but,lhat our cup of grievances would speedily be filled' 
 to overflowing; but we feared thatisubmission, (hateful wordl) might damp 
 our ardour, dull the keen point of wripride and demoralize our patriot- 
 ism, as "hope deferred maketh the heart sickV' , We. sincerely hope that, 
 time may, not prove those forebodings to' have be'en too well founded. 
 But let^'come, what may come," it is surely 'our duty now to .strive with 
 our brethren, faithfully, zealously, earnestly to prevent, if possible, such 
 results taking place. Co-operation is hoped for by some, it is therefore 
 _ the patriirtic duty of us all to labor for it, honestly'and actively, until we 
 shall see, 
 
 "WHat 'reinfQroement we may gain from hope; 
 If not, what resolutio'n from despair." 
 
 'Wie have, doubtless, all learned some lesson from that unfortiinate coq- 
 trovefsy, whjch then agitated and divided us in South Carohria. We can 
 now look back, and see how we moved too cautiously and tardily in»the 
 beginning. When the use of, the Fort on Sullivan's Island was refused. 
 Us for celebrating the anniversary of the battle of Fort Moultrie, as had 
 been customary before, then was the .timfe we Secessionists should have 
 struck. One drop of blood shed in the good cause .that day, would, long 
 ere ^this, have "redeemed, regeneaftted, and diseuthralled" the South. 
 And as we, oursejyes, were too tardy on that occasion, we must not too 
 severely censure our brethren for tardiness- afterwards. We mu^t labor- 
 to be united at home. We must eschew all crimination and ,re-crimina- 
 ti(5n..' We must renounce, in« good faith, the party divisions and the party 
 names of that day, and once lOore become all Carolinians, all Southern- 
 ers, if we would hope ever to succeed in achieving Southern Independ- 
 ence. No man should be, doubted, djfetrubted, or rejecteds but he who 
 2 
 
10 
 
 maybe detected in tlie idolatrous < worsliip ■ of tlie "Gloriovs B'nionJ^ 
 But let e'-'ery puch one be marked as a treaftlietous' ally and dfliigerous 
 spy. He is joined to liis idol,, and must perish with it. For be assured^ 
 that through evil and throiigh good report;,- through peac'e> or through 
 war; through glory or through shame, our motto,, still the same, is: Tais- 
 Union' must be dissolved! And if ever chance or fortutie again oflfers 
 a favorable opportunity of applying oijr dimmed, but unextinguished, and 
 unextinguishable torch' of Secession to its rotten combustibles, the flames, 
 of freedom shall rise upon its ruins to light i)ack the laiid to the lost path 
 "of State-rights Republicanism. Theday is past, and fdrever ffone, wheri 
 the preservation of the Union can be rendered, compatible with Southern 
 safety: A dominant majority of the North rijes the Govei'nment; and 
 that, of itself, is' sufficient' cause for us to renounce it, evten if it had never- 
 yet lifted a finger to harm us. We are capable of governing ourselves; 
 and* that, of itself, is s-ufEcient reasoMfor us tp'do so. W.e might just as. 
 * reasonably and as safely be governea*T)y England, or any ,ather civilized 
 nation, as hj the Northern States' of this Confederacy," the genius of Vii^ose 
 civilization differs so entirely from our own. 
 
 We are often taunted and stigmatized by the Union-loving, conserva- 
 tive trjramerS of our country, with being as radical disorganizers, and as 
 fanatical in our politicg,as, are our Northern enemies. Do not Jet the 
 charge .deceive, or the taunt shake you. There is this wide and'vital dis- 
 tinction between the twoextrenfieSj which stand as antipodes to each other. 
 We seeknot to meddle with the affairs of others.. . We stand, and have 
 ever stood,- on the defensive: they malte the wilful' onslaught on oiir rights 
 and liberties.^ If we successfully repel them,, our resistance must, neces- 
 sarily, be as firm and resolute as their attacks, are fierce and violent. We 
 must stand with eyes flasting fierce defiance, and our bayonets firmly- 
 planted, as,' did the English square against the tremendous charges *of -the 
 French cavalry at Vv''aterloo, if we would hope to win the' Waterloo of our 
 liberty. Feeble defences cannot successfully resist violent attacks; they 
 only serve to aggravate the rage of the victor. Better by far, bend down 
 at once into tame submission, like thl pliant reed that, bends before the 
 sweep of the>ind-st6rra, if we do not mean to-tneet it with aibrce equal 
 to its own. The counsel of moderation is but the counsel of submission. 
 Should we harken to such, advice in our extreme pqril, our conduct Would 
 be as weak and pusillanimous, as would be" the coiitee of a white:livered 
 surgeon, who continued to apply simple lotions to the gangrene woimd of 
 a patient, after it was clear .to his judgment that nothing short cff the 
 ■vigorous use of the amputating knife could save life. 
 
■ Unfair compromises baye drawn out tLe lingering existence of ttis 
 Ticlsety Union some 'years, and 4ts lifeless cffrcaseifiaay Cpiptin'ue, to be, in 
 the same manner, galvanized into action' for some time longer; but b& 
 •assured, the koife of Secession must at last end its mortal throes, by 
 severing cords which bind together two people, , who can no sooner .cor- 
 dially coalesce intOja homogeneous nation, than can the pdwers' of light 
 and darkness be combined. The North and the South have' no more busi- 
 ne.s5 undei" one government, than had the Colonieat ^nd England. In. thiS' 
 case, as.inthat, '^separation 'would be mutually beneficial. The^cri^ech- 
 , owl cry of peace, peace, when there is no peace, is but the siren^ song to 
 sing us to 'destruction. Then let the awakening shout of tte^wotiJd-he 
 redeemed re-echo it from our mountain.heights back to the sea-board, that 
 This UNfoNMUsTBE dissolved'. ,,'The day of its dissolutioa must come. 
 It may; come very soon; it may be delayed some time; but it must, come. 
 The decree is as fixed as fate, as inevitable as deaji., 
 
 In the jnean time, ^e may not stand, idl^. The present apathy of the 
 South is truly discouraging. /Ihere'is work enough to einploy every wil- 
 ling hand. To rally and reform a panic-stricken and. dispirited host is no 
 easy rnatter. Qur leaders, sword in hand^ miist face the furious fire, and 
 then will our broken columns rally and.rush tp the rescue. Yes, our poli- 
 ticians must be_ req^uired to lay aside their ifs,. their doubts, their ambigu- 
 ities, qualifications, and evasions, so artfally concealed under loud denunci-. 
 ations of the North, and, the mere policy and practices of the FedecahGo- 
 vernment. They must be held to the principle of disunion per se, and 
 required to strike, out every peg by which they might hope, in the event 
 of our failure, to hang, hereafter, their selfish hopes of reconciliation, and 
 iiidividual preferment with that government. They mustibe reqtiired to 
 draw the sword -and (hrow away the. sdabb^rd. They piust curse the' 
 Union,. if they would live in our .confidence. ' Observe closely, and you 
 will perceive that but precious few of them hai^e had the patriotic courage , 
 .and boldnete to do so.> .They ever leave some loophole by which they 
 may creep back into federal favor. Revoltitionists must be madb of 
 "sterner stuff" ' , , 
 
 Much, very much, may also well be done yet,, in enlightening the minds, 
 as wtllas in resuscitating the courage of thousands throughout our own 
 State and the Soiith. Herein let co-operation at once begin its active 
 labors. Tbe full mli'its of the questions in issue between the North and 
 the South, have never yet been clearly apprehended by many among us. 
 It is a false, /atal, and^shallow notion to suppos^, as it is muc^ torbe feared 
 maily do, that the only Southern right and Interest jeoparded by .the Abo:, 
 
12 
 
 lition Crusade, waging against uS, is the interest andjrere rights of pro- 
 perty of those who own slaves. Life,' liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and 
 the Existence of Southern civilizatiob, all, all hang upon the issue. Every 
 man's all, be that little or be it much— be it simple liberty- and naked hope, 
 or be it liberty and property combined — &\\ that endears him to his home, 
 and makes life desirable, stands tire hazard of this die.. 
 
 The power, progress, and happiness of every political cominunity, de- 
 pends on its industrial systems — on the fitness and adaptation of those 
 systems to the due development of its physical, moral, and intellectual ' 
 resources. The virtue and ■^propriety of our peculiar system has been 
 ■ amply justified in our unparalleled progress., I say unparalleled:, for the 
 statistics of the country show the average wealth of. the Southern people 
 to be greater than that of any other people. We have not the mammoth 
 individual fortunes which are frequently met with at the North, but then . 
 we have no paupers. Our wealth is happily more equally distributed.-* So, 
 too, may it ever be, God has blessed our labors, and smiled on our insti-. 
 tutions. We must cherish and defend them, or;we shall surely perish 
 with them. In public morals, the 'statistics -.pf th6 gaols ,' and' penitenti- 
 aries of the two sections, place the South in enviable contrast to her ene- 
 mies and traduoers. Her rank in all the highest and broades;!; fields, of' 
 intellectual exertion, has ever been. in the van of the fiatip^ns. A South- ' 
 erner's pen wrote the Declaration of Independence, and a Southerner's 
 sword established' it in victory., ISTor from Jefferson ^nd Washington, 
 down- to Jackson and Calhoun, chas the -South failed to occupy tl^e first 
 rank in either the Senate or the Gamp. These fteflecitiDHs should not 
 teach us to be arrogant, but to cherish and appreciate our peculiar insti- 
 tutions. And they should inspire us with confidence in our latent resour- 
 ces. There are profound principles of human happiness and national 
 power implanted by the hand of God in the institution of domestic sla-i 
 very as it exists here, which td beknown, seen, and comprehended, requil-e 
 to. be closely observed, sought after, and studied, in their systematic mani- 
 festations. I Truth, in all her wide and deep relations, yields never but to 
 patient and protracted research. , Like the teeming bosonl of our mother 
 earth, which man must dig up diligently, if he would draw from it abun- 
 dant harvests. 
 
 The progress of the Abolition mania, sinceits first introduction into the 
 British Parliament by William Wilberforce in llsf,, has not been sterile 
 of results tending powerfully to strengthen and uphold the truth and jus- 
 tice of our cause. The trophies of eternal "Truth, in. this ease, are thick- 
 f''""^ fti^nn- its whole course in thfe shape of blighted hopes, erroneous 
 
13 
 
 Calculations, false predictions,, and to the unfoftunate objects of the sbort- 
 sightgd and fatal philantliropyvruinon^ and distressing results. 
 
 .,■. "ButjFaitli, fanatic faith, once wedded fast, 
 "To some d^r falsehood, huga it to the last." 
 
 Abolition has long since ceased," in this country, ^tp be simply a philan- 
 thropic impulse. J Fostered by the lust of power, and a mean spirit of 
 rivalry, it has been forced on us as a sectional political issue. The North 
 being debkrred of the institution by the, inflexible laws of her. physical 
 natui'e, and perceiving that the power and progress of the- South mainly 
 rests on it, "bends h^.rconoentrated efforts to its destruction, that she may, 
 through, the instrumentality of the common. govern (nentj subjugate, hum- 
 ble,, and rule over us. We would, therefore, effectually remove the induce- 
 ment to 'their wicked intermeddling with our institutions, as well as their 
 chief means of doing sQ|.by "abolishing- that governtnent. Why should 
 w« hesitate, wiien it is evidently to do that, or to do worse? A brief and 
 hasty glancg at Abolition, as it has been cotisnramated and wo'rked out to 
 its dire results in, the British West Jndia'Islands, will suffice to give lis a 
 
 , pretty,, correct idea of what we may anticipate from it here, if i^ is suffered 
 to progress, much further. ',''> 
 
 The testimony of John ]5igelow, (himself an Abolitionist of New- York, 
 and a man of talents,) on his visit to Jamaica, and personal observations; 
 there, after seventeen years of negro-freedom had produced their legiti- 
 mate results, in that Island, is, that; "Shipping has deserte4' her (Jamai- 
 ca's) ports; her magnificent plantations of sugar and coflfee'are rurtnihgto 
 weeds; her private dwellings are falling to decay; the comforts and luxu- 
 ries which belong to industrial prosperity have been cut off, one by -one, 
 fj»ra her inhabitants;, and the day, I think," says he, "is a;t hand, when" 
 there will be none left to represent the wealth, intelHgence, and hospita- 
 lity, forw,hich the Jamaica Planter was once so distinguished."^ 
 
 From, an official return of the exports from this Island, it ajipears that 
 on .comparing the aggregate exports of the years 1846, '47, and '48, with 
 the three years 183.0, '31, and '32, which preceded the emancipation, the 
 aggregate diminution of sugar exported arriounted to 166, 783 hogsheads, 
 of, rum 52,455 puncheons, of molasses ,1,083 casks, of ginger, 2,802,188 
 lbs., of pimento 1,6.28;532 lbs., and of coffee 38,973,097 pounds. By 
 
 - this report, it appears that during the la^t three years, the Island has 
 -exported less than half the sugar, rum, or ginger,; less than one-third 'the 
 coffee; less than jone- tenth the molasses; and nearly two millions of pounds' 
 less of pimentb, than during th^ three -years which preceded the Emanej- 
 pation: Act. Lands which once commanded from twenty tQ fifty dollars 
 
14 
 
 per acre, can now bareadily bought for from fifty cents to a dollar. . Nor 
 caa the misfdrtufles of Jamaieabe attributed to any local causes. The;, 
 other British West India Islands have all been visited by the same prostra- 
 ting influences, and all consider themselves ruined and .helpless. -, 
 . By returns recently made to the British House of Commons, lit appears. 
 ■ that, comparing the imports from British Guiana, Jamaica, and Tiinidad, 
 during the years 1831 to 1838, with the years 1844 to 1848, the produc- 
 tion of sugar has fallen off 3,130,000 cwt., molasses 506,133 cwt., rum 
 3,324,627 gallons, coffee 62,'661,350 lbs., and the production of cotton 
 has entirely ceased. , 
 
 In the despatch of "the Grovernor of Jarnaica, dated 31st December, 
 1851, it is stated, that "the finances of the Colonyhave gone, and are still 
 going on from bad to\ worse. The expenditure of the Island, in the face 
 of increased taxatioj, is annually exceeding tlie revenue by an ayerage;,of 
 £45,000." , 
 
 In .the. address presented hy the people of Berbice to the Governor, on 
 the occasion of his visiting that Island in the fa)l of 1849, thisJangHage 
 occurs: — "In every direction, your Excellency will only encounter, impove- 
 .rished proprietors; ,you will find the introduction of intelligent European 
 servants discontinued; the peasantry jelapsirig with astonishing and most 
 alarming rapidity into a state of greater barbarism than, at any former-' 
 period; and innumerable fine, buildings and costly machinery falling' 
 %pidly into dilapidation and decay, and approachable only by water com- 
 munication, the roads and thoroughfares being quite impassable." 
 
 This is the picture we now behold of Islands, which once presented the 
 appearance of a vast continuity of smiling gardens. The burning sirocco 
 of a most deadly fanaticism has passed over them all, and sco.rcKed them' 
 to cinders. Bigelow admits that, so far from emancipa.tion having bet- 
 tered the -condition of the slaves thfemselves, they, are relapsing into the 
 darkest idolatry, and in the interior of the Island they already worship 
 Stones and serpents! The meii pass their lives in gross brutalities, or 
 drowzy laziness, and compel their wives and children to till the scanty 
 pepper and pumkin patch. This, truly, is amelioration with a vengeance! 
 God deliver our beloved country from such a fate! 
 
 It is especially to be observed, that the evils of emancipation must ever 
 fall heaviest on the poorer white people-inhabiting the, country where this 
 wicked policy is perpetrated. Lands immediately cease to be worth any 
 thing. The wealthier people always have some oilier property which may 
 be somewhere turned into money, and thus ful-nish thepi the means of 
 flying the ruined, country, and beginning life elsewhere. The poor man 
 
15 
 
 wlib lives by cultivating his laiid with his own hands, arid' the assistance 
 of his childien, is'at oiic^ chained .down forever to the soil he owns. 
 Lands having IpstAall marketable value, het:annot sell, and thereby raise 
 the means of removing, with the rich, to another country, where he may 
 . havefof his friends and associates' free white men. If he flies, he must 
 go as a beggar — if he remains on' his land, he must have free negroes to 
 rule over him, and despoil him of h1s«hard earnings. For we all know - 
 they will not work, unless compelled, so Jong as they can find any thing 
 to steal. , It would be infinitely worse in this respect here, than it, is in 
 the. West, Indies, from the fact that a tropical climate there, enables a pror 
 lific soil to furnish wild fruits in such abundance all the year round, as to 
 'be almost sufficient, of theraselvesj to support life. The greater the neces-, 
 sity to' labor for sustenance, and the sharper the, struggle for life, the more 
 rapacious and- cruel would be the lawless, heathenish black ' -vagabonds, 
 who would rule 'by the mere brute force of numbers. 
 
 Seven-tenths of'the, whole police -force of Jamaica, amounting to about 
 eight hundred men, are il-egroes. Tlifey furnish nine-tenths of the officers ' 
 of the penitentiary, and about half the members of the Legislature. And 
 this, this, my countrymen! is the State, of things which the Northern 
 .Slates are moving heaven and earthj and the deep depths of hell iiself, to • 
 bringdown upon us. Free negroes for our police .officers, and Legisla- 
 tors! Grreat God! v/ho can endure the thought! You look around on 
 'your thriving, happy, noble country, and you feel that such a state of 
 things can never be produced here. But remember that Jamaica, only 
 twenty years' ago, was as happy, proud, and prospereiis, as we are to-day. 
 The same hissing serpent of fanaticism that now glares his green eyes and 
 licks, his forked, fiery tongue at- us, entered'their bl'oorrjing garden, and his 
 blighting trail is over them all. Now there is not 
 
 "A rose of the wild^rneasnleft on its stalk, 
 
 To tell where their garden had been." 
 
 Bat the wrathful warnings of outraged Truth in thi's matfer, are, by the 
 pseudo-philanthropists of the world, utterly disregarded, ignored, or perti- 
 naciously evaded, '^he fierce and -uncompromising spirit of Abolition, 
 rules rampant in every political party North of Mason and Dixon's line. 
 The recent splut'ter and split in the Enow Nothing party at Philadelphia, 
 places the truth of this assertion beyond all further doubt or cay-iL'- The 
 claims of reasph, justice, and patriotism, backed by the tempting prize of 
 seventy or eighty millions of dollars annually, have failed to obtain a 
 recognition of tb^'rights of the South. Who can, after this, be so weak 
 and blind — so utterly infatuated, as to entertain the faintest hope of ob- 
 
taining, justice at the hands of our Northern masters,. under our pfesefiS 
 system of government? The whole North is completely abolitiojiized,, 
 and their insolent- and audaffious -programme is already publislied and 
 flung in our faces. According to Henry Wilson, the United States Sena- 
 tor of Massachusetts, and the Rev. 'J'heodore Parker, it is — ^I'st, To repeal 
 the FuEfitive Slave Law. 2d, To abolish Slavery in the District of Coluro- 
 bia. 3d, To organize the North against the admissioh of Kansas into ' 
 the- Union as a Slave-holJing State. 4th, -To dafry this issue into the 
 approaching Presidential election, oth. To repeal the Act of 1807 under.- 
 which the Slave Trade between, States'is carried on. And,6th, To abolish' 
 all laws making any distinction among individuals on account of color! - ■ 
 
 Now, every Slave-holding State- is solemnly pledged to resist these, or 
 any one of these measures^ "even to the dis»olution of the Union." Will 
 their pledges be redeemed? We hope they will; but we cannot help fear- 
 ing they inay not. The faet.is clear, that the (South ha,s no,t yetrecovered 
 from the shameful stampede of 1851. The late gallantry of Missouriin 
 the cause of Kansas, may, and I believe will, greatly tend to rally us to 
 the rescue — to a decisive resistance. Georgia leads, let.the whole South 
 follow. , ' ,, .i' 
 
 )But in the high-spirited and admirable Resolutions very recently-adopted 
 by the Convention of the Democratic Party of the State of Georgia, we 
 ■were grieved to see one favoring the acquisition of the Island of Cuba. 
 It marred the beEutiful contour of all the rest of their' proud platform. 
 For it is just such an ignis-fatuus, as is admii-ably calculated- to lead the 
 South into the fens and bogs of consolidation, by: causing the postpone- 
 ment of her own vital interests, to the wicked work of national conqi4est.Si 
 The bitterest enemy of the South could not concoct a more infernal con- 
 trivance to delude and ruin her. The insults and dfepredations commit- 
 ted by the Cuban authorities on Yankee ships navigStirig thcGulf Stream, 
 need not. cpncern us. We have our hands full of; bur own aflfairs, if we 
 would but earnestly address ourselves to the respue of Southern honox, 
 and the restoration of Sotthernrights., If the interference with the Ame- 
 rican marine trading to the Gulf ports, and transporting our Southerji 
 produce to Europe and the North, should ever be carried to a pitch of 
 serious interruption by the Spanish authorities, it could not injure us to 
 any very considerable degree; because we part with the ownership, gene- 
 rally, ot our produce, on our Own wharves; and the balance of the com- 
 mercial world stand ready, and are amply provided with the means of 
 transporting our raw materials to every quarter of the globe, where there 
 is a market for them. Our true pohcy, then, is certainly to maintain 
 
friendJy relations with all foreign • powers, and leave the ilorthern States 
 to take care of, and defend their own commerce. It is due to eternal Jus- 
 tice to renaeniber, too, that it is the unlawful interference of our people, 
 that causes Spain to' resort to the policy she has lately adopted towards 
 American vessels. We have nobody to blame but ourselves for this course"- 
 of 'harsh vigilance and espionage on the' part of Spain. 
 
 A graver error .could not, in my judgment, be cohimitted by us, thafl 
 to suffer ourselves' to be "wheedled into the notion that the Cuban ques- 
 tion, in any of its relations or consequences, pecuHarly interests the South. 
 The North has ever bgen dexterous in using our paws to scratch her own 
 hot chestnuts out of ' the fire. We conquered large territories from Mex- 
 ico, but the North took them all to, herself. We may how be seduced 
 into the Quixotic' enterprise of conquering Cuba; but be assured, the 
 iforth will rea'p the only benefit of it; for but fevir'Slaveholders, compara-' 
 tively, could, under any circumstances, emigrate there, where lands ara 
 dear, while they can command as rich cotton lands at mere noliiinal prices 
 in our sparsely settled Southw*tern States. The enterprising Yankees 
 would crowd into Cuba for its commercial and mamjfacturing advantages; 
 and they would, should it be acquired, control, and shape its policy to the 
 exclusion of Slavery. 
 
 Our true policy, as forcibly^ pointed out by the Hon. Mr. Boyce, in his 
 admirable speech on this subject'in the last Congress, is not so much to 
 extend the area of African Slavery under our own Government, even if 
 we could do so, as to interest,- and to keep interested, as many other G-ov- 
 ernments as possible in the maintenance of that institution. In this view 
 of the case, it is manifest that Spain and Brazil are the natural allies of 
 •the South, and shbuld be so regarded and recognized by us. Our wicked 
 fillibustering cours'e, has ahenated frpni us the confidence and co-operation 
 of those Governments, in the defence an-d maintenance of our common 
 caused. It is this very policy on our part, which has forced Spain to throw 
 herself ■ for protection on the arms of England and France; and it is clear 
 th^t she will sacrifice Cuba, by abolishing Slavery there, before she will 
 suffer us to take it from her. We should- retrace our steps as rapidly as 
 possible. "Our State Governments should, so far, as they are able, reverse 
 this policy, and check this propensity of our people; and they could do 
 much towards it, by conjoint" action. We, of the South, should extend to 
 Spaih, in every possible way, the pipe of peace, and the olive branch of 
 friendship. We should discourage and denounce filKbustering, and labor 
 to convince Spain that our efforts shall, in future, be solely directed to the 
 strengthening and upholding of the Slavery Institutionj by all law'ful and 
 3 
 
18 
 
 Tegititijate means, among all people where it exists, or may be introduced. 
 Our fathers, in, the infancy of ibe institution among uS, regarded it as a 
 necessary evil. We have proved it to be'both a political', and social bles- 
 sing to master and man. If we^vfould successfully- defend and propagate 
 this principle, we ' must take our stand boldly upon it against a run-inad 
 , world in arms: — 
 
 , "Truth crushed to earth, will rise again, 
 The eternal years of God are her's; 
 But error, wounded, writhes- in pain, 
 And dies amid her worshippers." , 
 
 Even if the acquisition of Cuba was an object of proper, delsire to us^ 
 which we hold it is not,'never has been, and never- can be, whilst we our- 
 selves are, under the dominion of an Abolition government; yet, it would- 
 be the worst policy in the world for the South to pursue just now, whilst 
 she is struggling, or at least shouH be, for her own independence. The 
 
 seizure of Cuba would, it is admitted, involve us in .war with one ormore 
 foreign powetg. A foreign war would immediately and powerfully tend 
 to divert us from- the achievement of Southern independence, while it 
 would necessarily strengthen and augment the power and' patronage of 
 the Federal Goterament; and thus facilitate the atrocious task it has assum- 
 ed, of forging and fitting fetters upon theHlimbs of the South. Set the 
 gallant spirits of the chivalric South agoijng in another John Gilpin race 
 after the glory of the Ifational Flag, and she will come out of the chase 
 so besotted with natidnality — so completely bogged in the 'rank and fetid 
 slougb of consolidation, that'the hand of political resurrection will never'' 
 be able to reach' her. This, her enemies, the consolidationists, .well know, 
 and. they therefore spur her to the wild pursuit. ' /. . ' 
 
 ' , Nothing more palpably shows the great^ advantages of territorial- com-/ 
 pactness in States, such as the, Slave-holding States no>v have, than the 
 present conflict w;Jiich Russia is maintaining against the Allied Powers of 
 Western Europe. She had no vulnerable points, in the shape of distant 
 colonies and sea-girt islands, through which they; could cripple her; and 
 they can but waste, and fret, and dash themselves to pie'ces against the 
 impregnable battlements of Sebastopol, as the foaming billows o? the mad 
 ocean break up and sink away in harmless bowlings upon the ey6rksting 
 rocks. 
 
 It would cost us more men and more money, not to speak of the com- 
 plete shipwreck of our public virtue and moral influence, to take and 
 hold CJpba twelve months, than it vjtould to establish the ^undisputed and 
 Bndistutbed existence of our Southern, Confederacy forever. But the vain 
 
19 
 
 imaginations of men tempt them to destruction- and the salvation of the 
 ■ South has ib'eeome too tame and trifling an affair to fill the aflFections, 
 requite, the hopes; and occupy the minds of her fast , men. Prominent 
 Secessionists appear to 'have lost sight 'of their first^Iovo. The "manifest 
 destiny" idea has siezed on their, imaginations, led captive their hearts, 
 and bowed them to the infatuated worship of the restless God, Terminvis. 
 The pr.urient desire, for territorial exteiisiop, has depraved the moral sense 
 and clouded, thelsagacity oj many of: our true men. Thov qov that our 
 destiny is , onwards, 'and they are eager to forestall ti e every 
 
 ., territory and its inhabitafits,. that may lie^ in the- c "fated" 
 
 extension. ' So" thought, of old, ; Alexander the Great,' when his mad am- 
 bition led him to the conquest of .the East; but his annexations died' 
 with' him in his early .blighted manhood. So taught irnperial Rome, while 
 she pursued her receding Terminus oyer an area, of 1,600,000 ' square 
 miles, locating him, at la^tj in the farthest East, and erecting his polluted 
 altars among the then barbarian tribeS'of the extreme We'st, But retri- 
 butive justice brought back the presumptuotis Roman god_ on the spears* 
 of the Gaul, the -Goth, and Hun, and pinned him down forever in, his ' 
 ancient home 'on the banks of the Tiber. Russia, and Austria, and Priis- ' 
 sia, coveted room for extension, and they partitioned Poland;' and'novi', in 
 all probability, it is through this veiy outraged Poland, that England and 
 Framje,' foiled in their other attempts, will eventually shake loose and beat 
 back the'fraud'fixed termini of those three powers. Napoleon Buohar 
 parte,, too, was not content with redeeining' Franfce, and making her "the 
 gem and wonder of earth," but pursued the phantom star that allured 
 him to conquest, until its rays were lost in the flames of Moscow, and its 
 magic power forever eclipsed, dissolved, and buried in the deep snows of 
 the North. 
 
 "Thou shalt not steal: thoit shalt not covet auy thing that is thy neigh- 
 -bour's:" is a difine law which nd^nation of people have ever, or can ever 
 violate with impunity. Let us not Tje deceived and beguiled into crime 
 and folly by the' loud and reiterated, but utterly ■ unsustained assertion, 
 that the acquisition of Cuba can add one iota to the support of 'domestic,' 
 Slavery among us, or that the Africanization of that .Island could raateri- : 
 ally' injure us., ■ We deplore the AfricariissatioTi of Haytiand Jamaica; but 
 its results in those islands haye tend^drtp benefit, rather than to injure usw 
 We .have them, as fearful exaipples to warn us from the same poHcy; arid 
 the destruction of the sugar, cotton, and tobacco productions there, have 
 grea,tly extended the cultivation, and,,eiifcipced the value of those stapled 
 
20 
 
 here. It could not be otherwise in the. case of, Cuba. Then we say to 
 the South, soil not your fair fame wiih the plague-spot of this dishonest 
 deed. Like the "damned spot" on the bloody hapds of Lady MacbetV, 
 it will not "out." . • , ' 
 
 In 1829, there were biit 691 sugar' plantations in Louisiana, producing 
 81,000 hogsheads, of 1000 lbs. each.- By. the census returns of 1850, it 
 appears that there are in .that State now, 1,558 sugar plantations, besides 
 658 in Florida, and l65 in Texas— making .together, 2,681 plantations; 
 which (by the same authority) embrace 400,000 acres of cultivated lapdi 
 In 1831, the Fnited States exported culy^225.,899 worth of sugar. Ac- 
 cording to returns made to the British Parliament in 1 854^ it appears th^t 
 within that year, there were 61,606 cwt. of sugar imported into that king- 
 dom alone, from the United States, The total value of the sugar crop oi 
 "thie country for 1850, is put dov^n in the census of that year at $14,091,- 
 521. In the United Siates, 400,0,00 ' acres of land are in cultivation in 
 tobacco, and the toba'cco crop of 1850 was estimated to lie worth, $13,- 
 982,686.' Now 'bear in miiid that Jamaica, and the other British "W^esi 
 India Islands, were Africanized in 1833, and you have at once the expla- 
 nation of this vast and sudden increase of -the, cultivation of sugar in, thfe 
 country since 1880. Americanize Cuba, and annex it to this country, to 
 pursue.the course of prosperity and happiness fondly dreatrlt of by its 
 chanSpions here, and it is obvious that you Would thereby, at once'para- 
 lyze and exterrninate the great and growing sugar and tobacct) interests 
 of this country. For there the sugar-cane is never killedby frosts, but 
 blooms, matures, and ratoons without replanting for five dr six; years con- 
 secutively. And there the average production is about 4,000 lbs. per* 
 arpent; whilst in Louisiana; (under vastly superior skill in cultivation 'and.^. 
 in manufacture!,) it is only about 1,000 lbs. per arpent. Make Cuba a 
 free and prosperous State of this Union, with her Slavery institution intact,:' 
 and you at once force out of their present occupation the 800,000 acres 
 of rich lands now employed in the production of sugar and tobacco, and, 
 the 500,000 slaves engaged on those laYids in the cultivation of those sta- 
 ples. The sugar, lands, and slaves, would revert to the cultivation of cotr : 
 ton; thus adding vastly and suddenly to the already overproduction of 
 that leading staple of the South. We who cultivate, in cotton,, the thiri 
 lands of South Carolina, and Oeorgia, would he driven from, the business, 
 whilst the Slave-owners and tobacco-growers of Kentucky and Virginia, 
 derived of their occupation by the superior quality and superabundant 
 yield qf Cuban iobAcco, would be ready for the emancipation of their :^ 
 
21 
 
 then uselesf slaves. Or, rathef, they would first sell pflf to Cuba, (where 
 upwards of 20,000 Afficah 'slaves are now pnually imported, in spite of 
 'all the existing difficulties in the way,) as New- York,. and the. other Abo-, 
 lition States of tbe North, sold out to us, preparatory to their emancipa- 
 tion Acts. Under our laws declaring the African slave ti'ade piracy, the 
 :United States (Jbverninent '.would eflfectually suppress th§it'' trade, and, a . 
 wide fifeld would, in consequence, be opened in Cuba for the reception of 
 the slaves of.themow tobaCco'growing.^tatesi relieving those States spee- 
 dily of all interest in the "peculiar in^titutidn," and of all difficulty in they" 
 way of prompt emancipation. Are you ready to give iip Virginia, Kea-. 
 tucky, and perhaps .Tennessee, too, for Cuba? Would that strengthen , 
 Slavery ijj the South! ,* 
 
 It is, of fcourSe, on the presumption that annexation would develope the 
 immense natural/esources, and promote the general prosperity of Cuba, 
 that her American champions advocate it. If she is to remain in her pre- 
 sent cramped and crippled State, or if her Slavery institution is to be abo- 
 lished, theri. no.one, I presuttie, wants her. I believe the latter would be,, 
 ■the result of any, demonstration on bur part to sieze her by force. To 
 get it other than by force and fiilibustering is now admitted to be out of 
 the question. On this point, then, I adopt the language and idea of an 
 eloquent writer in De" Bow's ]?eview for Nov; 1854, where he says that; 
 '■The first gun» fired by an' American ship of war on the coast of that 
 Island, would be the signal for the sacrifice of all property of the Creoles; 
 arid all this accomplished by a simple decree, which, it is a^., well known 
 at Washington as here, the Captain-General is authorized, at his discre- 
 tion, to promulgate. The United States, taking the Island after the pro- 
 mulgation of such a decree, would hold but a worthless wreck. A crown 
 robbed of its jewels, would be all that they would gain by such unfortu- 
 nate aolion." But if we got" it otherwise, and it prospered, then I have 
 already indicated the disastrous effects its prosperity would inevitably have 
 on us and ours. Under the present arrangement of things, the cultiva- 
 tion of sugar'will doubtless extend rapidly over the richest lands of Lou- 
 isiana, Texas, and Florida, for it can be profitably grown on suitable land ■ 
 up to latitude 31° 30'. 
 
 Great fear^ are sometimes expressed of having a free negro Colony so 
 near us as Cuba would be. Africanized. 124 miles of the deep sea'rolls 
 between Point Hicacos, the most Northerly of that Island, and Cape 
 Sable, the most Southerly of East Florida. Whilst the possession of 
 Cuba would at once place us within 42 miles of the free negro Island of 
 
22 
 
 Hayti, and 75 miles of Jamaica. Instead, then, oi, reauy learing the 
 neighborhood of a free negro Colony, it rather looks as if our fiUibustefS;; 
 were eager to run into ^uch propinquity. 
 
 But it is said Cuba is the key df the Gulf of Mexico, and a strong ma- 
 ritime power in possession ^of it, could easily command the commef'ce of 
 the great jilississip.pi Valley- Now it^strikes me, that the keys of Florida 
 could be made to lock and unlock the Gulf of Mexico with as gi%at facir, 
 lity, as could' the opposite points of Cuba. And sure I am, that if, with 
 the whole line of coast which we have stretched along the Gulf from the 
 mouth of the Rio Grande to the Southern point of Florida, embracing 
 many spacious bays, and harbors, and wealthy cities, with a vast and pow- 
 erful b&ck-country attached, we could not supercede any European Power, 
 thousands of miles off, whrch might perch upon Cuba, in the cbntrolof 
 the Gulf trade, we certainly could not do so under any^circumstances. It 
 is manifest, my countrymen, that all such arguments are only employed, 
 in this case, to seduce you into the wicted conquest of your, weak neigh- 
 bor's possessions. But forget not that the greatest strength of a nation, 
 as of an individual, is an upright and honest cqurse of conduct, and the 
 blessing of God which such a course only insures. 
 
 All the great statesmen of America who have, in past times, expressed, 
 a desire for the annexation of Cuba to the United States,' have done so 
 under the impulse of Unionisjn. As John Quincy Adams expressed it: 
 under the "conviction that the annexation of Guha to our Federal' Bepub- ^ 
 lie will be indispensable to thi continuance and integrity of. the Union 
 itself."' Now we should want it, least of 'all, for such a purpose asi.that. 
 And Messrs. Buchanan, Mason, and Soule,' in their Ostend .'letter, depre- 
 cate especially the Africanization of Cuba, lest "the flames extend to our 
 own neighboring shores, seriously to endanger, or actually to consume the 
 fair fa.bric of our Union." God send uS any flame that shall consume 
 the fabric of this hateful, vampire Union, that fans us to ignominious 
 repose, whilst it sucks our life-blood! We, my countrymen, are compelled 
 by the stern necessity of self preservation, |p view this question from the 
 opposite point to that on which the great men of the past stood, when 
 they considered it. We are planted upon dis-Mmon ground; and froqj ^ 
 this high point, if we are wise, we will survey the world around. An In- 
 dependent Confederacy of these Slave-holding States might be enabled to 
 shape the destinies of, not only Cuba, but the whole West India Archipe- 
 lago; but not until we are masters of our own fortunes, can we do auffht 
 good for ourselves, or others. 
 
23 
 
 , If we arein earnest, then, iii ourpjtofiiSsions of desire to unite the Sout6 
 in the defence of her rights,,a^d th^ acquisition of he? Independence, for 
 God's sake, an'd for the sate of our dear country, let us hehd every effort 
 to that end! Let us concentrate every force and faculty on that one 'Pita 1 
 point! Let the, ignorant be instructed, let the timid be encouraged, Ii't 
 the tardy be quickened, and let the false and fickle be condemned! And 
 first of all, as the sine-qua-non, involving all theseends, let the Oobaii 
 curse be exorcised fronj the councils of the South! 
 

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