WILL THE SOUTH DISSOLVE THE UNION? 
 
 BY OEoito].; ^^. weston. 
 
 The Union of the American States was form- 
 ed, and has thus far subsisted, by the free and 
 Toluntary association of the sovereign States of 
 which it is composed. Alienations of feeling, 
 )ocal and individual, have existed at all times, 
 and have sometimes assumed proportions and 
 exhibited symptoms, which have excited serious 
 apprehensions. But all these alienations have 
 hitherto passed successively and harmlessly 
 away, and at no time, during the eighty years of 
 -snr independent national existence, has anj' sin- 
 gle State desired to withdraw from a Confedera- 
 cy, of which the advantage to all its members is 
 go obvious and so signal. 
 
 During the present generation, the most studied 
 and persevering efforts have been made to estab- 
 lish political theories, and excite feelings, hostile 
 **} the continuance of the Union, among the peo- 
 ple of the slave States. These efforts, which a 
 public opinion, perhaps unjust, but certainly ir- 
 teversible, has attributed to the disappointed 
 ambition of Mr. Calhoun, were directed first to 
 the inculcation of the belief that the planting 
 States, under our established system of custom- 
 bouse taxation, contributed a great and onerous 
 •disproportion towards the public burdens, and, 
 subsequently, to the fomenting of angry and 
 heated passions connected with the subject of 
 Slavery. It is not to be denied that these efforts, 
 in which many men of extraordinary ability have 
 enlisted, and which have been persevered in du- 
 ring a quarter of a century, have been, to a cer- 
 tain extent, successful. Their effects, most marked 
 among the friends of Mr. Calhoun, and in the 
 State of which he was so long the pride and 
 favorite and political guide, are painfully visible 
 everywhere throughout the South. But as yet, 
 in every Southern State, the friends of the Union 
 have at all times outnumbered the agitators of 
 disunion ; and they do so at this day, whatever 
 appearances there may be to the contrary. 
 
 In the case of Texas, principally inhabited and 
 wholly controlled by those who had been citi- 
 zens of the Southern States, long and patiently, 
 and at lenglli successfully, pressing for admis- 
 sion into th'3 Union, wc have a decisive and mo^t 
 
 significant proof, that those who are urging the 
 slave States to go out of the Union, have not yet 
 arcomplislicd their work. Notwithstanding the 
 efforts of agitp.tors, the majority of the people of 
 those States do undoubtedly still perceive, as 
 the people of Texas did, that they find in the 
 strength and power of the Union the best guar- 
 antee of protection, and even of existence. 
 
 If tlie discussion in the free States of Slavery, 
 and of propositions for its abolition, is offensive 
 and dangerous to the South, it is abundantly 
 certain that such discussion would lose none of 
 its freedom and none of its acrimony by a dis- 
 solution of the Union. The restraints now re- 
 sulting from the comity due to sister States, would 
 then cease to exist. The South, no longer bar- 
 ing political influence in the free States, would 
 lose the whole body of mercenary supporters, 
 whom it recruits and maintains in them by means 
 of that influence. It requires no great knowledge 
 of the springs of human action, to jicrceive that 
 the same Northern demagogues, who now find 
 it profitable to cater to Slavery, would then vie 
 with each other in inflaming passions hostile to it. 
 Men who betray the rights and interests of their 
 own section of the couiitrj-, in order to earn a 
 slianipful title to bribes lield out by another, are 
 little likely to be restrained by scruples from en- 
 tering upon any course which promises person- 
 al advantage. Thus the South, by di.<sulving 
 the Union, would lose at the North all the sup- 
 ports, good and bad, which it now enjoys there. 
 
 If the South complains, or has reason to com- 
 plain, of the imperfect and obstructed discharge 
 by the free States of their constitutional duty to 
 return fugitive slaves, it is quite certain that a 
 remedy for the evil is not to be sought in a dis- 
 solution of the Union, which would at once ren- 
 der the recapture of fugitive slaves wholly im- 
 possible, and at no long interval destroy the in- 
 stitution of Slavery in the border slave States. 
 Wise men will endure what is unavoidable with 
 patience, and at least will not rush into remedies 
 which are worse than the disease. Undoubted- 
 ly, the condition of j)ublic sentiment in tlie free 
 States renders the pursuit, within their limits, of 
 
e:.-^ 
 
 •li)5& 
 
 f'lgitives from bondage, a thanldess and profit- 
 loss operation. No strijigenoy of law is likely to 
 make it otherwise. The instincts of bnman na- 
 ture, which prompt succor to those who are flee- 
 ing from oppression, cannot be eradicated by 
 legislation. The obstacles which are now in- 
 terposed to the recapture of fugitives from invol- 
 untary service must, iu fine, be submitted to as 
 inevitable. The right itself of recapture falls 
 with the Union ; and this right, however ob- 
 structed in its enforcement, is still worth some- 
 thing in preventing escapes. 
 
 The position of the South is critical. Its fate 
 is bound up in that of an institution which is 
 condemned by the general judgment of civilized 
 nations, and for the overthrow of which are c'om- 
 bined the conscience, the prejudices, the fanati- 
 cism, and the interests, of mankind. Tlius con- 
 centrating upon themselves the hostility, or, if 
 that word is thought better, the malignity, of the 
 world; the Southern States have absolutely no 
 power of aggression, and scarcely any of defence, 
 and, if the protecting shield of the Union was 
 withdrawn, would fall an easy prey to exaspera- 
 ted and accumulated enemies. This is the real 
 condition of the South, and it is truly pitiable 
 and helpless to the last degree. The bravado 
 by which it is attempted to be masked, the threats 
 of dissolving the Union, made by men who hold 
 their property, and even their lives, as they well 
 know, only under the shelter of the Union ; which 
 shall we most admire, the calculating arrogance 
 which prompts them, or the amazing simplicity 
 which is deceived by them ? 
 
 Mr. Calhoun, in his letter of August 12, 1844, 
 to our then .Miuister to France, states the motives 
 of interest pressing upon England, to induce her 
 io desire the overthrow of Negro Slavery in the 
 United States. Let us see what those motives 
 are, and let us see, also, if they are not certain 
 to control other Powers as well as Great Britain. 
 Mr. Calhoan says : 
 
 '•One of the leading: motives of Eiitrland for dosiriu',' 
 i\ [the defeat of llio aiiiiexntion of Ti-xas to .he Uiii eil 
 ;-iaies.] is the hope that, throi:-h her dijilom;iey and iiifla- 
 I'lre, Neg:ro Slavery may I)- aholished there and ulti- 
 (iiU'e ^ y, by cou^^equence, in iiie Unit'jd Stales, and lhrout;h- 
 out the Whole of ihis continent. That its ultimate a!o i- 
 tion li.ioughout the entire continent is an objed ard.'nily 
 lies T .1 liy her. we have •Jecisive proof in the declaration 
 oftli'.- r.arl of Aberdeen, delivered lo this Depar-nieni." 
 
 Mr. Calhoun proceeds to point out, for what 
 reasons, in his judgment, England desired to 
 abolish Slavery on this continent; and he begins 
 by denying that it can be attributed to '^human- 
 ity or philanthropy." " / do not question" he says, 
 " but humanity may have been one of her leading 
 motives for the abolition of the African skive trade, 
 and that it may have had considerable influtmce in 
 abolishing Slavery in her West India possessions ; " 
 but her present movements he ascribes to quite 
 different considerations. Accorditig to Mr. Cal- 
 houn, England has been disappointed in the ex- 
 periment of free labor in her Colonies. He says: 
 
 "Kxperience has ronvinced her of the lallai-y of her 
 calculations. She hasfaiUdin all her objects, Tiio Bhor 
 of lier ueiTroes has proved far less productive, v iiho i af- 
 fording the consolation of havmi; improved their condi- 
 dition. * * * Her tropical products have fallen off to 
 a vast amount. * * * S > disaslrou-; hns been ihe re- 
 Bull, tliut her fixed capital, vested i-i tiopical possissions, 
 
 fstimatod at the value of nea'-ly five hundred niil'lnnji cf 
 dollars, is said lo'siand on the brink of rum. Mm this is 
 not the wurst. WUjIle this costly s'-lienie ha.> hud sncli 
 riihious etfects on the tropical produelions of GreHt Brit- 
 ain, it has given a powerful slimulu-, loilovved by a cor- 
 responding increase of produci-s, to those .countries which 
 have h:id the good sense lo shun her example. There has 
 been vested, it is cstimiiled by them. ii> the production of 
 tropical products,' since TwOs, in fixed capita!, nearly 
 SI. UtlU.liOO.OtK), wholly depend.,-iit on slave labor. In the 
 same period, the value of taeir products has been estima- 
 ted to have, risim from about .$T'.i.tlOU.UUU annually, to near- 
 ly «->aO,UUU.tJOO; while the whole of the fixed capital of 
 Great Britain, vested iiicultivatina: tropical products, both 
 in the Kast and West Indies, is estimated at only about 
 S-<3l).0U(),OU0, and the val ue oi 1 he products annually at about 
 SoO 000.000. To present a still more striking view of the 
 three' articles of tropical pro<iuets, (sugar, coffee, and cot- 
 ton.) the British possessions, including the West and East 
 Indies, and Mauritius, produced in IS42, of sugar, only 
 3.991.771 pounds, while Cuba, Brazil, and the United 
 States, excluding other countries having tropical poss>'s- 
 sions, produced O.OOO.OOO pounds; of coffee, the British 
 possessions produced only 27.393.003, while Cuba ai-id 
 Brazil produced !i01,590,l'i5 pounds; and of cotton, the 
 British possessions, including shipments to China, only 
 1 .7.443.^46 pounds, while the United Stales alone pro- 
 duced 790.479,a7S pounds. * * * This is seen and felt 
 by British statesmen, and has opened their eyes to the 
 ecrors which they have committed. The question now 
 witii them is. How shall it be counteracted? * * * In 
 order to regain her superiority, she not only seeks to re- 
 vive and increase her own capacity to produce tropical 
 p oduclions, but to diminish and destroy the capacity of 
 those who have so lar outstripped her, in consequence o' 
 her error * * * Her main reliance is to cripple or 
 destroy the productions of her successful rivals. There is 
 but one way by which it can be done and that is, abolish- 
 ing African Slavery throughout this continent; and that 
 sVie openly avows to be the constant object of her policy 
 and exertions. It matters Hot how, or from what motive, 
 it may be done; whether it may be by diplomacy, influ 
 ence. or force; by secret or opej' means; and whether 
 the motive be humane or seltish. Without regard to man- 
 ner. m-!ans, or nunive, the thing itsell", should it he ac- 
 complished, would put down all rivalry, and sjive her the 
 uidisiiu'ed su|)remacy in supplying her own wants, and 
 those of the rest of the worlil. * * * The end [of abol- 
 ishing Slavery iu Cuba. Brazil, and the United Stales] 
 would be, that the supeiiority in cultivating the great trop- 
 ical staples would be iraiislerred from tliem to the British 
 tropical possessions. 
 
 '•'I'lif-y are ol vast extent, and those beyond the Cape 
 of Good Hope possessed of an unliiidted amount of labor. 
 * * * It is the successful competition of slave labor 
 which keeps the prices of the great tropical sinples so 
 low as to prevent their cultivation with profit in the pos- 
 sessions of Great Britain, by what she is pleased to call 
 free labor." 
 
 Mr. Calhoun may err in supposing that Eng- 
 land regrets the abolition of Slavery in her West 
 Indian Colonies. He may err in imputing her 
 desire to see Slavery abolished elsewhere, wholly 
 tp motives of policy, unmixed with motives of 
 humanity. But there can be no doubt, either of 
 the matter of fact that England does wish to see 
 Slavery abolished everywhere, or of the import- 
 ance of its universal abolition to the prosperity 
 of interests with which her industrial prosperity 
 is conspicuously identified. At all events, and 
 beyond all peradventure, whether from philan- 
 thropy, or selfishness, or a mixture of both, Great 
 Britain, the first maritime Power in the world, 
 and haviag island possessions in threatening 
 propinquity to the Southern States, is decisively 
 (;pmmitted, and by enduring motives, to the Anti- 
 Slavery cause. The gentlemen of the slave States 
 understand it well, and. for years they have 
 sounded au alarm, neither affected nor ground- 
 less, that England wishes to " Africanize " Cuba, 
 and surround the South with '■'■ a cordon of free 
 I negro communities." It was to defeat this scheme 
 
3 
 
 that, under. Col. Polk's Administration, tlicy of- 
 fV-ri'd one hundred niillioii-^ of dollm-s for the 
 jinrehase of Culm, and more recent)}- insligiUed 
 conferences at Ostend, at \vlii(,h the same [inr- 
 cliase was attempted at a much hipher price. 
 We will consider by and by, in the iiro-rress of 
 this discussion, wlio.se money it was wliicii ha.s 
 lieen oU'ered with sii.'h n princely and uncalcnla- 
 tins muniSci'nce. For the present, 1 refer to it 
 Hilly lis proof of the intensity of slavelioldinjr ap- 
 prcliensions, and of the niugnitnde ot the dan- 
 j.'ers wliidi threaten Slavery. The most fornii- 
 ilable Power on the Globe, with every invitin}^ 
 opporluuity of position, is the known, avowetl, 
 and sworn oncniy of the instiluiioii with which 
 every .Southern interest is indissolubly hound up, 
 and is so also (roin motives and cuiisidcratiyiis 
 which make its hostility lixed, unappeasable, and 
 eternal. 
 
 All the orators and all the writers of the South 
 adopt the views of Mr. Calhoun in reference to 
 English policy. To quote- them all, is equally 
 impracticable and unnecssary, and I only refer 
 now to a speech delivered in Congress, Ajuil 2d, 
 185G, by Gen. Quitman, a Representative of .Mis- 
 6issi[>pi, and the owner of tliree hundred slaves, 
 as the latest and most chiborate expression of 
 these views. After remarking Generally upon 
 " the vccidiar co?idi:ion of many nvijUtorint/ Slalca 
 and Culoiiks, and the injluence wldch their condition 
 inuat exercise up-m our own prospcriti/," Gqo. Quit- 
 man jiioceeds to particularize ( 1st) Mexicjo, which, 
 he says, •* can Le sai'cd onli/ ly the. advancing flood 
 of our interprining ctlizim;^' (2d) Central America, 
 where he says that, at present, ^'■European in- 
 trij'.iesc/ieckoureziension,'' but wliere he Lopes much 
 from " that patriotic band which has lately trans- 
 plunted the principles of Democracy from the United 
 Stales to Nicaragunn soil ; " (od) Cuba; and (-tth) 
 San Dominijo, which '' A7/'a;/ye and yrotvsque pow- 
 er" he says, " under whone stupid sicay that fair 
 island, holding, iciih her commodious jiorts, the same 
 relation to the Caribbean Sea that Cuba- holds to the 
 Gulf of Mexico, is fast rclapsinj into barbarism', is 
 sustained by mighty European injhunces in its attempts 
 to exlenninatc the small ichile Dominican lie}.aiblic 
 which still retains a portion of the island." 
 
 Completing his survey, Gen. Quitman si<jni6- 
 cautly declares — 
 
 ''All the rest of insular America is l-'iirope-^'i or ATri- 
 caii Stuiuliiig her-;. am'Ulg ike sliUr<ineii of Am-ii.-a. I 
 point to the surrouiidin'.; »C"'ii»^. Heliolil it a-; it is, ;uid 
 tlieii look forward a few years, and coiileiiip'aK! w.iat it 
 will lie. What rodeclions docs il lint preseiitl A «'iir d- 
 startliii<; drama i< to be eiiiicled ; aiet are we. Ilie I'U iid 
 ians of our coa'itrys weul, t'.i have no pari in ili-; |>ei- 
 forinance ? Do "■•■ no", kiio w ihit tbe deveVppm ■iii. ihi- 
 greatiie-i-. aiul THK S \ KKTV, even, of our beloved land. 
 are deeply cojiceriied?" 
 
 " Insular America ! " That has a stranpe and 
 unfamiliar sound. It has nothinj^ in common 
 witit the historj- and ideas of tliis people. It was 
 Continental America which resisted Georffo III. 
 It was in the name of the Continental Conprress 
 that Ethan Allen demanded the surren<ler of Ti- 
 Condero<^a. Of nothing is the tradition so fresh, as 
 of the famous Continental money, with which our 
 armies were kept on foot during tiiat great sir«;/;:;le. 
 " Insular America.'' The phr.ise is new, and of 
 alarming and dangerous portent. The idea of 
 
 which it is the c.TprcsBion must Yo mot, and re- 
 sisted and denonnced at the thresliold. Vf our 
 Continental i>o.qsesslon8, we have not even explor- 
 ed the one half. Willi the ))0S8ihlc exception of 
 an occasional resting-place for our commerce in 
 the vast Pacific, wo want no islands. "Insular 
 .•lmcr(C(/'' may exist in geouTaphy, but should nove^ 
 be allowed to form a part of our jxiliticH. 
 
 The cause of Gen. Quitman's alarm is his be- 
 lief, reiterated in a great variety of forms, that 
 (treat Britain is inflexibly intent upon devoting 
 this " Intnlar America" so near and so menacing 
 to the Southern States, to the possession and 
 domination of the hated race of Africans. Gen. 
 Quitman says : 
 
 ■ ."^he h;i8 Ufi-n periiniipioi'fly enpaffcd in prolooiiif.; 
 Spnirsli I) rniiny. [in ('nl<ii.| ond in llie unnalurul ai:d lul* 
 li-Chnsi an ull'-iiipl to c«ia ilJ-li. throii.Kliout llie whole of 
 Insular America, a hHrlj.iroiK liUck empire. Tin' perm 
 of her plot was exliib.t> d in layiinr waste Janinioa, by 
 di-.-iiroynii; llie proper relations betwt-en the whiit' imd 
 black races there. • » * Hrr j)iol is furilier eX|io«ed 
 hy he- iiuriiiU'-'s in San Domiii^'o. • • • Pursuing her 
 schemes with intense punniM<; luul indefntitrable /.eal. she 
 has used lier siroiiif iiiHuence with Spain to brine nlioul 
 ihe ubolilion of Slavery in Cuba. Her inleui is plain. 
 * ♦ • SIf desires to devote ihe American .vrciiipel- 
 ago, the f.Teat inlands of the Caribbean si-a. to the iie'.;ro 
 P'lee. ♦ • • Could this scheme be elfeeled. ihe object 
 ol I'.ii;;!aiid would be al<aiiicd ; our progress in lliul (,u4ii- 
 ter would be foievrr stopped The proleelorate of the 
 black Kmpire. or Stales. ihu<» broufht into existence, 
 would, of course, bo vested in Great Ijriluiii. • • • 
 She will have ihe power to di^lurb, ai her pleasure, Ihe 
 1X7" T-pnue of the ronti^unuf Snius, ^Ql and to s iiniilaie 
 Ihrijuu'lioui our eiitirt: country tlie atritiiiion of that Slavery 
 iiuesiion, wliioli, even now, is so j)regnanl wiih mis- 
 i-hief to 'h" liu'ninny o^'our insiitu'.ioiis. • • ♦ None 
 but the perversely blind can fail to pi-rceive her serpeni- 
 like policy. • ♦ • The ncver-slumbcriiiif vi;.;ila ice of 
 our arre.-'l commercial rival is at work, weavim; iiilric 'tn. 
 nieslie> . anil planainif dangerous combinations to entangle 
 and (I'^lrcy u:- '" 
 
 Ob.serving that Spain, under Engli.=h influence, 
 has invested the Captain General of Cuba with 
 the power, as one extreme means of defence, of 
 ^'■emancipating the slave population," Gen. Qiiitmaa 
 exclaims : " There before us, PREGNANT WITH 
 RUIN, hangs Ihe dark and terrible cloud ! " 
 
 Observing that he had " not time to present the 
 many and conclusive proofs that the policy of Eng- 
 land is such as is aUributed to her," Gen. Quitman 
 quotes the following, from instructions given by 
 Lord Palnrtrston to the British Minister ut .Mad- 
 rid, in 1851 : ■ 
 
 '■ I liiive to instinct your T.ordship lo say to ihc Spanisli 
 .Miiiistor. ihiit the slave- loriii a liinrf portion, pud by no 
 mea'.s an uniinportaiil one, of the people of C'nlia; and 
 that siepi taken to provide for thttr emancipaUon would 
 th'-r-fore. u.« far as the lilaei^ population is cone> rm-d. bt 
 ijtiisr in icii,«o;i willi ihe reooiiiinendalioii maile by ler 
 .M^ijt-siy'f" (loveriirn-^nl. ihat measures tihould be aJopted 
 l<»r eoiitbiitJn^ ihe people of Cuba." 
 
 The policy of England may be denounced as 
 selHsh. It is, however, the dutj- of Governments 
 to consult the interests of the governed ; and when 
 they do so withottt invading the rights of others, 
 tliey deserve praise, and not censure. England 
 need not be ashamed to avow the motives which 
 contr.)! her. Slie can make a clean breast of it, 
 without incurring the condemnation of an impar- 
 tial world. In the compaliiions of production 
 and commerce, whoever makes use of enslaved 
 labor is the natural enemy of all the re.si of man- 
 kimi, and must not comjilcin if he is treated aa 
 su<:li. Uo avails himself of an unfair advantage 
 
The robbery of tlie slave becomes the robbery of 
 the freemtin,with whose hibor the slave is brought 
 into rivalry. The working men of the free States 
 of this Union do not, all of them, as yet, see that 
 this is so, but they are fast learning it; and when 
 the lesson is once learned, it will never be un- 
 learned. The Government of England perceives 
 it, and is acting upon it, and will continue to act 
 upon it. 
 
 So long as the Union of these States subsists. 
 Slavery, as a domestic institution of a portion of 
 the Confederacy, is entitled to that protection 
 from the national power, of which it stands so 
 greatly in need. If the Union is dissolved, the 
 Southern States must protect it as best they 
 may. England is under no obligation to protect 
 it, but is perfectly justified in preventing its ex- 
 tension, by any fair means, if she believes it to 
 be antagonistic to her own policy. While we are 
 governed by our own interests, let us not child- 
 ishly complain because England also is governed 
 by her own interests. Insisting upon our own 
 rights, and pursuing our own policy, let us respect 
 the equal prerogatives of other sovereign nations. 
 
 In his letter of 1844, to our Minister to France, 
 Mr. Calhoun shows an extreme anxiety to estab- 
 lish a distinction between the interests of France 
 and those of England, in reference to the annex- 
 ation of Texas to the United States, and in refer- 
 ence to the whole question of Slavery connected 
 therewith. He says : 
 
 " Previou' information was calculated to make the im- 
 pression that the Govemmeiit of France was prepared to 
 unite wiih Great Britain in a joint proiest against the an- 
 nexation of Texas. * « * The President is happy to 
 infer from your despatch, that the information, so far as it 
 relate^ to France, is in all proliability without foundation. 
 ♦ * * You were rij^ht in making the distinction be- 
 tween lh>^ interests of France and England in reference 
 to Texas. * * * I liold, not only that Fiance can liave 
 no interest in the consummation of this grand scheme, [the 
 abolition of i^lavery,] which England hopes to accomplish 
 through Texas, if she can defeat the annexation; but that 
 her inlerest, and those of all the Continental Powers of 
 Kurope. are directly and deeply opposed to it. * * * * 
 What possible motive can they have to favor her [Eng- 
 land's] cherished policy ? Is it not better for them that 
 they should be supplied with tropicalproducts, in exchange 
 for their Inbor, from the United States, Brazil. Cuba, and 
 this Continent generally, than to be dependent on one 
 great monopolizing Power for their supplies?" 
 
 If the views of Mr. Calhoun produced any 
 effect upon France twelve years ago, it is certain 
 that they produce none now, but that that great 
 Power fully sympathizes with and is actually co- 
 operating with Great Britain, in resisting the 
 spread of Negro Slavery. It is possible, indeed, 
 that the events which have transpired since the 
 date of Mr. Calhoun's letter, may have helped to 
 consolidate this accord between French and 
 English policy. It is since 1844 that Negro Sla- 
 very has been abolished in the French Colonies. 
 It is only recently that Algeria has been looked 
 to as having the capacity to furnish large sup- 
 plies of cotton, sugar, and tobacco ; and Algeria, 
 it must be recollected, is a word of very elastic 
 signification, and means, in truth, just so much 
 <if Northern Africa as France sees fit to occupy. 
 These new events, giving to France an interest 
 to uphold free labor against slave labor in trof)- 
 ical productions, certainly harmonize with, and 
 have probably confirmed and strengthened, the 
 
 personal policy of the present Ruler of France, ia 
 respect to a close connection with England. Al 
 all events, the fact is undoubted, that France 
 and England are heartily united in the system 
 of checking, obstructing, and defeating, wherever 
 they can, the efforts of Slavery in the United 
 States to extend its limits and power. 
 
 General Quitman says t,h;).t the power of Spain 
 in Cuba is maintained, "no< only by the morui 
 wfiuence^ but by the active interference of England 
 AJ^D FRANCE;" of the hated negro domination 
 in St. Domingo, he says; that it is '■'•sustained by 
 mighty EUROPEAN influc72ces ; " and of the whole 
 policy of England, in reference to "the Slavery 
 question," he declares that "FRANCE, SINCE 
 THE ADVENT OF LOUTS NAPOLEON, HAS 
 HEARTILY COINCIDED" in it. In confirma- 
 tion of this view, General Quitman reproduces 
 the following declaration, made in the British 
 Parliament, not long since, by Lord Clarendon, 
 Secretary of Foreign Affairs : 
 
 "I will further add that the union between the two 
 Governments has not been confined to the Eastern ques- 
 tion. The happy accord and good understanding between 
 France and England have been extended beyond the 
 Eastern policy, to the policy affecting all parts of the 
 world ; and I am heartily rejoiced to say that ihere is NO 
 PORTION of the TWO HEMISPHERES, with regard to 
 which the policy of the two countries however heretofore 
 antagonistic, is not now in ENTIRE HARMONY." 
 
 In confirmation of the same view, General 
 Quitman publishes a letter, dated April 25, 1856, 
 from General Cazneau, in which Genei'al Cazneau 
 says : 
 
 "I was commissioned by President Pierce, in Juno, 
 18.51. to negotiate a treaty with the Dominican Republic ; 
 and, after encountering many difficulties, through the in- 
 trigues and false representations of the FRENCH and 
 Eiigli.'h agents — who notoriously make common cause with 
 the negroes of Hayli against the whites — the terms were 
 fully agreed upon * * * * Meantime, an ALLIED 
 squadron had beeir sent for by these agents. * * * * 
 Under the specious title of ",he Mediating Powers,' 
 FRANCE and b.ngland always hold the negroes in read- 
 iness, to be let slip like bloodhounds on the whites, at the 
 east end of Haytt, if they prove at any time refractory to 
 European policy. * * * I cannot severely blame the 
 Dominican Government, with the evidence I had before 
 me that it was under stringent European duress." 
 
 With the two great maritime Powers of Eu- 
 rope thus combined in immovable hostility to 
 Negro Slavery, it matters little what may be the 
 views of the " Continental Poivers" to whom Mr. 
 Calhoun directed a portion of his appeals. They 
 are absolutely powerless in such a controversy. 
 But in truth, with the possible exception of some 
 sympathy which may be imagined to exist be- 
 tween the nobles of Russia and the planters of 
 the South, both subsisting upon the coerced la- 
 bor of others, European opinion is most decided 
 against the institution of Slavery. It is true that 
 the " Continental Powers" have no such interests 
 as England and France have, in the competitioa 
 of free labor with slave labor in tropical produc- 
 tions. It may even be true that they receive 
 some advantage, rather than injury, by the cheap- 
 ening of certain articles of general consumption 
 by slave labor. These considerations apply with 
 ail their force to the Germans, and yet it is quit* 
 notorious that they abhor Slavery. An indus- 
 trious, intelligent, reflecting, and emigrating 
 people, they perceive that the black slave eithe'- 
 j supplants or degrades the white laborer. To ne 
 
part of tlic civilized world, in fino, enn the slnvc- 
 bolder turn fur sympiithy or supjiorl. The in- 
 terests, the tiiornl sense, the religious educiition, 
 tlie prejudices of mnulvind, arc all against liiin. 
 Even if iie may justly complain thai a part of 
 this hostility spriiijjs from envy and malicious 
 fanaticism, or that the cunning aristocracies of 
 England and Europe join in the clamor against 
 a distant evil, with no better intent than to divert 
 attention from their own opjiressions, the fact 
 remains the same, that ujion him and upon his 
 peculiar institution are coticent rated the oppro- 
 brium and detestation of the world. 
 
 The Southern States are acting under the i>re9- 
 sure of two motives ; first, to ward off the perils 
 which immediately menace their existence; and, 
 second, to gratify their lust of power, and assure 
 to themselves security during an indefinite i)e- 
 riod, by enlarging the range and limits of their 
 peculiar institution. The first is a motive of 
 present necessity ; the second is a motive of fore- 
 cast and ambition. 
 
 The world will be at no loss to understand 
 what is meant by " saving Mexico by the advan- 
 cing flood of our enterprising citizens." It means 
 simply the appropriation of Jle.xico, in succes- 
 sive portions along the Gulf, after the manner of 
 Texas, to the uses of slaveliolding. The world 
 will be at no loss to understand the true cause 
 of Southern sympathy with what is called the 
 " redeeming " of Central America. Nobody is 
 simple enough to believe that the gentlemen of 
 South Carolina and Georgia and Mississippi, who 
 have no interest in either commerce or naviga- 
 tion, are at all in earnest when they take uj) the 
 qutstion of transit between the Atlantic and Pa- 
 cific, as a commercial question. They have nei- 
 ther ships, steamers, nor trade. The South has 
 no relations with California, not even, at the pres- 
 ent time, of emigration. That country was long 
 since overstocked with j)oliticians, and the la- 
 boring men of the South are too poor to under- 
 take so distant and expensive a journey. South- 
 ern concern with Central America, as a question 
 of transit, is a pretence too bald and flimsy to 
 impose upon anybody. Doubtless, we have na- 
 tional' interests connected with Central America; 
 but for national interests the South has no eyes. 
 Their politics are all narrow, sectional, and pro- 
 vincial, beginning with the negro, and ending 
 with the negro. They may put forward commer- 
 cial reasons, if they will, for seizing Nicaragua. 
 The world know.- better. The South wants Nic- 
 aragua now, as a point d'apju/i of an attack 
 upon Cuba, and by and by, when the African 
 slave trade can be re-established, as a new thea- 
 tre upon which to compel men who are black, to 
 labor without wages for men who are white. 
 
 Undoubtedly, it is of the first moment to the 
 South, as a matter of self-preservation, to avert 
 the Africani^.ation of Cuba. Undoul)tedly, it will 
 be important to the South, in the progress of 
 time, to secure an outlet along the Gulf of Mexi- I 
 CO for the s^ccumulaiing numbers of their blacks, i 
 rndoulitedly, it would place the institution of 
 SlaveiT in a position not only secure, but com- ; 
 mandir.g, if, possessed of the whole borders of 
 the (julf, and of tL« magnificent islands which j 
 
 divide the Gulf from the Ocean, it was enabled 
 to control the products of the trojiics, an<l dic- 
 tate to the ho[>es and tears of the commerce of 
 the world. Itut by whose arms, by whose treas- 
 ure, by whose potetilial weight in the diplomacy ol 
 nations, is danger to lie averted from, and security 
 and even aggrandizement assured to, an institu- 
 tion condemned by the general judgment of man- 
 kind, and for the overthrow of which the whole 
 world lia.^ cons|)ired? If it be really nece-i^sary 
 to jiay one hundred millions of dollars for Cuba, 
 and if such a purch:»se was po8sil)le, even at such 
 ft jjrice, is it not jdain that a Confederacy of 
 Southern States, with which we are vainly threat- 
 ened, could not command one-tenth of that sum 
 for any purpose, and not one single dollar for 
 su( h a purpose from any money-lenders on the 
 face of the globe? Beyond a question, to even 
 such a call, inonstrous as it is, the credit of the 
 nation, bottomed upon the wealth and numbers 
 of tlie free States, would be found equal. The 
 gentlemen planters of the Carolinas and of the 
 Gulf States may possibly, in some moments of 
 chivalrous exaltation, imagine themselves to be 
 competent to acquire the Queen of the Antilles 
 by force of arms, after dissolving the Union ; but 
 by no extreme of frenzy can they hope to acquire 
 Cuba at the magnificent and even swaggering 
 prices they have offered for it, except by laying 
 hands upon the proceeds of the free labor of the 
 thrifty North. Great Britain and France did not 
 oppose an armed intervention against the slave- 
 holding ap[)roi)riation of Texas. Possibly thej 
 may remain passive, while the incipient steps to 
 a similar apjjropriation are being taken in Cen- 
 tral America. If so, they are restrained, not by 
 any fear of the South, completely vidnerable and 
 thoroughly helpless as it is, but by the powei 
 which the Uniou derives from the po[)ulous and 
 vigorous North. If they fcrbear or j)astpone tho 
 Africanization of Cuba, .t is to avoid giving of- 
 fence to the great Confederacy under whose 
 shadow the South reposes. If impunity is hoped 
 for the buccaneers to be let loose l)y the South- 
 ern proposition to abrogate the neutrality laws, 
 upon what else is such a hojjc based, but upon 
 the respect inspired by our national power? De- 
 prived of the protection of that power, would not 
 the South be only too happy to abandon every 
 project of aggression, if it could thereby secure 
 to itself immunity from invasion ? Would not 
 its high and defiant tones, ba \ved now by the 
 fleets and the bayonets of the North, subside at 
 once to a key the most dulcet and the most 
 amicable, if left to its own resources, or, more 
 correctly, want of resources? If new confer- 
 ences were held at Ostend by the diplomatists of 
 a Southern Confederacy, would they make them- 
 selves ridiculous by offering millions for Cuba 
 without ability to r^iise a dime, and menacing in- 
 vasions without sailors enough to nuin a shal- 
 lop? Certaiidy, these genilemen will still conde- 
 scend to remain in a Union, to the resources of 
 which they contribute so little, but the whole 
 power of which they make available to objects 
 peculiar to themselves. Certainly, these gentle- 
 men will still condescend to spend the money 
 and use the moral and physical power of the six- 
 
6 
 
 teen millions of people in the free States, for the 
 security and aggrandizwr.ent of their own special 
 interests. Indebted to the sheltering wing of the 
 Union for their safety, these gentlemen should, 
 however, cease to afl'uct to complain of it as a 
 burden. Vain alfectatlon ! The sun which goes 
 down upon the Union, goes down upon Slave- 
 ry as an aggressive and expandhig power. From 
 that moment, it can only strugi^'le for life and be- 
 ing and safety, and with the certainty before it 
 of ultimate destruction. Its doom will 1)6 sealed, 
 and no longer ambitiously dictating the policy of 
 a great nation, and no longer wielding treasures 
 not of its own coiitribution, and fleets not of its 
 own raising, it will siiik into an abject suppliant 
 for the commiseration and forberance of man- 
 kind. 
 
 It would be to suppose the gentlemen of the 
 South absolutely demented, to Ijelieve that there 
 is one particle of sincerity in their empty threats 
 of dissolving the Union, or to believe even that 
 they could be driven out of the Union by any 
 imaginable act on the part of the Government. 
 The Union, which is a great and unmixed bless- 
 ing to all its members, esio perpelua! is an abso- 
 lute" necessity to the South. Condemned to 
 '^imbccilifi/" (I quote Mr. Madison's language) 
 by their peculiar institution, they do not conceal 
 it from themselves, and will not conceal it from 
 others, by any amount of theatrical arrogance. 
 Without fleets, wealth, available population, or 
 possible alliances, they must give up the prepos- 
 terous imposture of threatening to dissolve a 
 political connection, without which they could 
 not exist in safety one single hour. Tlie credu- 
 lity of mankind is great, but not inexhaustible. 
 
 No ! The South, or rather the Slavery propa- 
 ganda which controls the South for the time be- 
 ing, meditate no such act of insanity as a disso- 
 lution of the Union. Their purpose is, not to 
 leave the Union, but tp rule it. They are not 
 madmen, as they would have us believe, but 
 cool, wary, and unscrupulous calculators. Men 
 identified with such an interest as theirs, as really 
 weak as it is affectedly arrogant, men with two 
 thousand millions of dollars in slave property, 
 cannot afford to act upon the suggestions of 
 passion. Whoever believes they will, knows 
 uothiug of the springs of human action. Who- 
 ever i)elieves they will, shuts his eyes to the most 
 patent and con=picuous facts. If these South- 
 ern gentlemen ar" mad, they have a method in 
 their madness. They have a policy, and they 
 have just avowed to the whole world what that 
 policy is, in the platform which they have erect- 
 ed at Cincinnati, and upon which they ask the 
 country to elevate Mr. Buchanan to the Presi- 
 dency. 
 
 Whoever wishes to understand Southern pol- 
 icy, should read that platform, in which it is 
 plainly written down. It contains, not threats 
 of dissolving the Union, but the commitment of 
 what was once a great and national par^,y to 
 the ap])ropriation of the entire resources of the 
 Union to the single and local interest of Slavery. 
 It is the speech of General Quitman, from which 
 I have quoted, embodied in resolutions. It is 
 filibu2tcrin£ digested into a code; a.ud not fili- 
 
 bustering for tho spread of Liberty, but for the 
 spread of Slavery. Alfecting to pronounce for 
 "//•«« seas," it recognises only one sea, and that '* 
 is the j^merican Mediterranean, around which 
 cluster the hopes and interests of Slavery. Of 
 the Indies, it can only see the modern, and not 
 the ancient, the West Indies, and no^ the East 
 Indies. It has no eyes for the Pacific (Ocean, 
 none for the Sandwich Islands, none for the vast- 
 commerce yet to be developed with Cliiua, with 
 Japan, with Australia, and with all the regions 
 of the South Sea. Demanding protection to 
 " outlets," it has eyes, only for the Florida Pass 
 and the Caribbean Sea; none for the St. Law- 
 rence, with its magnificent valley of a million 
 square miles. Not only not recommending a 
 railroad across the Continent, but doubting, and 
 halting, and speaking in uncertain tones and with 
 contradictory votes in reference to any species of 
 overland communication, it sees no mode of 
 reaching California, except hj 'isthmus routes," 
 4he protection of which will afford pretexts for 
 buying or seizing Cuba, and for enslaving St. 
 Domingo. It points to expansion in only one 
 direction, and that direction is the Gulf of Mexi- 
 co. Under pretence of controlling the transit 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific in the interest 
 of commerce, at the cost of a war which would 
 annihilate all commerce, it makes the occupation 
 of Nicaragua by the avant courriers of Slavery a 
 canon of Democratic faith. Interpreting lan- 
 guage by "the known views and purposes of 
 those wlio speak, it commits the Democratic 
 party to the»acqaisition af Cuba, and to the re- 
 enslavement of the blacks of St. Domingo. " Cu- 
 ba," says General Quitmajn, " coiamamh the entire 
 trade of the Gulf. It is tile commercial and naval 
 strategetic key of the richest products of the world." 
 
 This is the systematic language of the South, 
 and when they demand "permanent jyrotection for 
 the outlets" of the Gulf, they demand Cuba. St. 
 Domingo, saj-s Gen. Caznean, is one of that 
 '' grand circle of islands ivhich enclose the Oaribbean 
 Sea, and command our isthmus routes to the Pacific." 
 Gen. Cazneau the Texan, like Gen. Quitman the 
 Mississippian, feels a deep interest in commerce. 
 It is an interest most disinterested, and ev€^ way 
 remarkable. It is for the sake of commerce, that 
 tliese gentleman and their associates, speaking in 
 the plattrom erected at Cincinnati, demand that 
 our " ascendency in the Gulf of Mexico " be " in- 
 sured" at all costs and all hazards. This " ascend" 
 ency," in any intelligible sense, and for every 
 legitimate purpose, already exists. If we can rely 
 upon Gen. Jackson as military authority, the 
 ''naval strategetic key" of the Florida Pass is not 
 Havana, but the Dry Tortugas. It is not because 
 the Moro Castle threatens our shipping, but be- 
 cause the possible Africanization of Cuba threat- 
 ens the plantations of Florida and Georgia and 
 the Carolinas, that these gentlemen insist upon 
 "ascendency in the Gulf of Mexico." What is njeant 
 is not " ascendency" in .any sense which is mili- 
 tary or commercial, but the linking of the whole 
 of " insular America," in tho language of Gen. 
 Quitman, to a " common destiny," " common inter- 
 ests," and "similar institutions" — or, in brief, to Ne- 
 gro Slavery. 
 
r 
 
 As tlio wholo energies of the present Afltnin- 
 is'i-.iiii)ii, in olicilieuto to the coininanils of the 
 sluveliolJer^, have bucn directeil to pusliiii^ Slii- 
 vi':y, !it evcu t!io luiziird of civil war, north from 
 the [liinillel of ;:G° 'AO^ to the iiarallel of 41°, 
 80 the same slavehohlers, speiiiving through the 
 Democratic partj', of which they are the masters, 
 now declare that they ^'^ expect from the next Ad- 
 rainixtriilion " that Steps be taken for the protec- 
 tion and extension of Slavery on the comiiient 
 iiiid islands enclosing the Gulf of Mexico, which 
 will certainly involve us in wars with all the 
 ni.iritime Powers of Kurope. This is what these 
 peuilemea " expect from the next Administration," 
 and it is what thoy will obtain from it, if they 
 can constitute it in accordance with their wishes. 
 The North is sometimes deceived in its men; the 
 South, never! The Cincinnati platform is only 
 *.he expression, in a concentrated form, of the 
 rioulo conferences ; and from the first, the real 
 leaders of the South intended to nominate upon 
 that platform the pliant I'ennsylvanian who trav- 
 elled from London to Ostend, in order to give 
 the weight of our first diplomatic i)osition al)road 
 to propositions, to purchase Cuba at any cost of 
 money, or to obtain it at any sacrifice of jieace 
 and national character. The coy and amorous 
 di'lay whicli marks the public adoption of Mr. 
 B.ichinan by these wily leaders, will not conceal 
 tiie secret arrangements made with him long 
 ^iiire, but now for the lirst time announced to the 
 world. 
 
 If these slaveholding States would really exe- 
 cute their daily threats, and dissolve the Union, 
 which they can only do by leaving it, our regret, 
 great and sincere as it ought to be, would not be 
 by any means unalloyed. We should be threat- 
 ened with no more wars for the extension of Shi- 
 
 very, under fho delusive pui.''e of "insiirhy an a.i- 
 cendmci/ in the Gulf of Mexico;" wo Bhould have 
 no hundred millions lo pay for Cuba ; wo could 
 hope, in short, to be permitted to enjoy in jjcace 
 the fruits of our own imiiistry. Leave us, how- 
 ever, they will not; nil-! us they will, if they 
 can ; but tlicy ought not, at one and the samo 
 time, to rule us, and threaten to leave us too. 
 ^Jven the t)ld .Man in the story, who fastened 
 himself upon the back of Sinbud, was more mer- 
 ciful than this. He used Sinbad very hardly, but 
 did not insult him l)y threatening to quit him. 
 
 It is quite time that the true relation between 
 the North and South was considered and discuss- 
 ed with truth and frankness. That relation is 
 really that of the protector and protected. The 
 inherent weakness of the South is sheltered by 
 the power and vigor of the North. The Union 
 is of inestimable advantage to both parties, but 
 absolutely vital to the existence of the South. 
 It is stalile, because bottomed upon the essential 
 and lasting interests of all the members of it. 
 Of those who are now threatening to destroy it, 
 the greater part are political Falstafis, while" the 
 other part are passionate and excited men, who 
 will be safely taken care of by the good sense of 
 the communities in which they live. In a coun- 
 try -where opinion is free, all sorts of opinion-; 
 will be expressed, and among litem, some which 
 are wicked, and some which are silly. Let us 
 not be alarmed by every iille wind wijich blows, 
 but abide calmly in the belief that passion is 
 only elfervescent, and that the intelligent people 
 of this country will continue to be controlled bv 
 their interests, in political transactions upoii 
 which depend the security and value of property, 
 protection from foreign and domestic violence, 
 and the solid assurance of all personal rights. 
 
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