E13I 
 E1X 
 
SPEECH 
 
 I 
 
 HON. LEMUEL P. EVANS, 
 
 TEXAS, 
 
 I 
 
 FOREIGN POLICY OF TI1E UNITED STATES, 
 
 r>*LrvEBT.ri is teb 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 ON THE 24TH OF JULY, 1856. 
 
 WASHINGTON - : 
 
 AMERICAN OROAN, PRINT. 
 
 Ia56. 
 
 
 * M 
 
T— 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 HON. LEMUEL D. EVANS, 
 
 TEXAS, 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 FOREIGN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 ON THE 24TH OF JULY, 1856. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. 0. 
 
 September, 1856, 
 
 American Organ, Print. 
 
 
 * » 
 

FORE] Gfl POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 \ 
 
 The House being in the Committee of the Whole 
 on the stale of the Union — 
 
 Mr. EVANS said : 
 
 Mr. Chairman : I am fully aware that it may be 
 deemed, by some, both improper and presumptu- 
 ous, in a new member of this House, to dissent 
 from the opinions or dispute the policy of older, 
 wiser, and more experienced statesmen, and espe- 
 cially if these wield the powers and wear the 
 dignities of administrative functions, or occupy 
 the position of guiding lights, and exponents of 
 great and influential parties. Nevertheless, my 
 own reason and conscience aTke compel me to 
 differ with certain distinguished leaders and mas- 
 ters of political authority ; and the same interior 
 and earnest monitors of the mind prompt me to 
 the expression of that disagreement with all the 
 intellectual force which 1 may be able to command; 
 but yet in the teims and spirit of a just, impartial, 
 and courteous criticism. And, although a sense of 
 public duty constrains me to present several facts 
 which may prove unpleasant to the feelings of 
 others, I can well assure them, one and all, that I 
 am actuated by no unworthy motives of unkind- 
 ness, or the wish to inflict unnecessary pain. 
 
 The session is now rapidly drawing to a close, 
 when all its acts will be fixed forever in the an- 
 nals of the irrevocable past. But, before the day 
 of final adjournment, I desire to record my dissat- 
 isfaction with the poverty of the results which 
 have been effected by all its profuse expenditures 
 of time, talents, and energy. There lies around 
 us, in unsightly confusion, a vast arrearage of ne- 
 glected affairs, both foreign and domestic, which, 
 as a debt of honor to our own dignity and of re- 
 spect to our own constituents, should at least have 
 been subjected to the complaisance of a discus- 
 sion. 
 
 The whole country is aggrieved and disgraced 
 by the utter inefficiency of our only nominal Navy, 
 so strangely disproportionate to the grandeur and 
 greatness of our mercantile marine. But still no 
 well-digested plan has been suggested, no vigorous 
 movement has been made for its reorganization or 
 improvement. Our coast defences are notoriously 
 and even shamefully inadequate. We have no 
 sufficient and systematic scheme of protection for 
 our immense frontier, infested as it is by roving 
 and ruthless bands of hostile savages. But wor-e 
 than all, we have no safe or suitable lines of com- 
 munication between the heart and centre of the 
 Republic, aDd those remote, yet imperial posses- 
 
 sions that stretch far away through so many db- 
 grees of latitude along the shores of the Pacific 
 ocean ; and at this very hour, all the treasures and 
 trade of California are held by us as tenants at .-of- 
 ferance by the mere mercy of that great maritime 
 Power who arrogantly and truly boasts, " that she 
 can, at her own pleasure, cut in twain the inter- 
 state commerce of the Union!" And with that 
 same mighty Power, the most sagacious and politic 
 in the world, we have issues, both old and new, 
 of the utmost importance, and of the most com- 
 plicated character, which demand immediate atten- 
 tion, and speedy adjustment. There are delicate 
 questions connected with Central America, wivh 
 Cuba, with Hayti, and others, growing out of dif- 
 ferent interpretations of public and international 
 law, which, at any the most unexpected moment, 
 and while we remain destitute of all prudent 
 preparation for so desperate a conflict, may in- 
 volve us in the horrors of a war with the greatest 
 maritime power on the globe. 
 
 It is not my design or desire to enumerate the 
 wrongs which we have suffered at the hands of 
 England, for the purpose of exciting national pre- 
 judices, or to widen the unnatural breach betwoen 
 the people of the United States and their brethren 
 of the British Islands, bound together, as they are^ 
 by such numerous and endearing ties of interest, 
 as well as affection. I would not, if I could, pro- 
 voke a quarrel with that other and older branch 
 of the great Anglo-Saxon stock, from whom we 
 derive our blood, our language, and our religion ; 
 and to whom all the rest of mankind, and the glo- 
 rious cause of liberty, law, and progressive ciTifi- 
 zation, stand so very largely and permanently in- 
 debted on the broad ledger of the world's history. 
 I desire only, in a calm and philosophic spirit, to 
 state those grievances which a wise and prudent 
 policy should endeavor, by vigorous, but if possi- 
 ble, by pacific means, to redress, and thus prevent 
 the occasion and all necessity for the dire appeal 
 to the umpirage of arms — an event that every in- 
 telligent mind must regard as a most terrible 
 calamity to both countries, and to the human spe- 
 cies. 
 
 But it does no: follow as a logical sequence, that 
 the assei ".ion and maintenance of our independent 
 cmd sovi reign rights and interests as a great na- 
 tion, or that the fulfilment of our exalted and 
 wonderful destiny, will tend to disastrous collisions 
 with any other Power. On the contrary, a firm, 
 I just, and fearless policy towards foreign Gover»- 
 ! ments, claiming every privilege to which we are 
 
 
fairly entitled, and resenting evea the appearance 
 of a wrong, is the surest of all methods to secure 
 the blessings of a prosperous ai:d permanent peace. 
 It is with nations as with individuals. As a gen- 
 eral rule, their rights will &nlv be respected when 
 they unite the will with the ability to defend them. 
 There are some timorous statesmen, who seem in- 
 clined to patient and uncomplaining submission un- 
 der any aggravation or amount of injury, from their 
 morbid and imaginary horror at the dangers of 
 war. These sensitive and over-cautious politicians 
 misapprehend the real character and tendencies of 
 the age. They utterly forget and ignore the great 
 fact, that there are far mightier agencies at work 
 in this modern world of ours, than any fleets 
 which ever swept the ocean, or than any armies 
 that can thunder on the land. The day has pa--' sd, 
 never to return, when masses of mere muscle, or 
 bundles of brute force could crush the hopes and 
 sway the destinies of mankind. Nations now con- 
 tend lor supremacy with weapons of a totally dif- 
 ferent description, and of inconceivably greater 
 power. They solve the problems which time and 
 changing circumstances raise between them, by 
 the subtleties of diplomacy, the energies of the 
 intellect, the measureless strength of public opin- 
 ion, the weight of irresistible argument, and the 
 world-wide potencies of an all-embracing com- 
 merce. They struggle, not with naked nerves, 
 or with fire and steel, but with moral and spiritual 
 arms, with sciences, arts, civilization, and with all 
 the noble impulses and institutions that spring up 
 from the teeming bosom of Christian society. And 
 what people can be compared to ours in any of 
 these particulars? In one element of material 
 wealth alone, we possess a magical and almost 
 fabulous power to control all the enlightened com- 
 munities of the earth. We need not fear any or 
 all of the coalesced potentates of Europe, while 
 cotton, the world-king, is our agent and ally in 
 every capital on the globe. In short, our geo- 
 graphical position, and the immensity of our re- 
 sources, long ago justified us in assuming a far 
 higher station among the great Governments of 
 Christendom, than we have yet had the boldness 
 to demand. 
 
 But unfortunately, a weak and wavering policy, 
 sometimes timid and truckling, and then again at 
 inopportune seasons audacious and insolent, has 
 well-nigh rendered us contemptible oven to the 
 petty powers of Spanish America, while the royal 
 courts and crowned heads of the other hemisphere 
 treat our noisy assertion of the Monroe doctrine 
 as "mere bluster and bravado." 
 
 Acting under this erroneous impression, for 
 which she saw too many apparent reasons in the 
 singular conduct of the Administration, England 
 adopted her unjust and unwarrantable interpreta- 
 tion of the Clay ton-Iiulwer treaty, urging our utter 
 exclusion from every square foot of soil in Central 
 America, while she claimed the right of holding 
 the strongest and most important military and 
 commercial positions. The bare statement of 
 such a construction, as the Bubstance of a com- 
 pact betwei q equal and indepi 
 ib sufficient to expose its absurdity; for no Gov- 
 ernment mperior- 
 ■ uce to any given matter 
 cf dispute, even after the terrors of the most furi- 
 
 ous war, when victory and conquest had decided 
 the question. The very supposition is preposter- 
 ous and self-contradictory, and must be viewed 
 in that light by every intelligent Englishman — 
 that any free nation, in a state of peaee, and unin- 
 fluenced by overwhelming fears, should volunta- 
 rily form a solemn treaty, in which all the gain 
 and glory were to be on the other side, and all the 
 loss on their own ! The assumption is repelled 
 by all history and by the unchanging laws of hu- 
 man nature, that either masses of men or individ- 
 uals will relinquish important powers and privi- 
 leges without some appearance of an adequate, or 
 at least appreciable, consideration. But in the 
 case supposed by the British interpretation, there 
 is not even the semblance or shadow of recipro- 
 city. It stands alone in the annals of diplomacy 
 a3 a solitary instance of suicidal generosity on the 
 one part, and of insolent, unparalleled cupidity and 
 presumption on the other. 
 
 This, however, was only the inception of a sys- 
 tematic series of open and covert aggressions. 
 England did not long remain satisfied with the 
 perpetration of that verbal outrage. The ink was 
 scarcely dry on the parchment by which the com- 
 pact had been ratified, when she violently wrested 
 from the impotent State of Honduras the whole of 
 the Roatan Islands — that interesting group which 
 covers the fine route to California, as surveyed by 
 the skill of Squiers. These she now possesses as 
 colonial instruments to bar a future highway for 
 our trade and travel to the waters of the Pacific 
 ocean. But although this act of wanton usurpa- 
 tion was done in 1850, or half a dozen years ago, 
 yet up to the present hour the Government of the 
 United States has not succeeded in obtaining either 
 redress, or even explanation for the injury. 
 
 Again; that outrage was duplicated at San Juan; 
 for, no sooner had American enterprise and capi- 
 tal opened through the forests of Nicaragua a new 
 and speedy transit to the enchanting laud of gold 
 — the American State of California — than the 
 grasping hand of England hastened to seize the 
 northern gate of this great American highway, by 
 plundering Nicaragua as she had previously plun- 
 dered Honduras ; and all this, too, in a time 
 of profound peace. And, defiant of both reason 
 and remonstrance, she still holds these actually 
 conquered positions as a double menace over 
 American commerce. 
 
 But, notwithstanding such manifest encroach- 
 ments on American rights, and notorious infrac- 
 tions of national faith, solemnly plighted by the 
 clearest stipulations of a formal treaty, we have 
 not yet, after the lapse of six years of the most 
 patient and submissive endurance, mustered the 
 necessary resolution to perform one positive or 
 practical deed in defence of the famous Monroe 
 doctrine. It is true, there have been some eloquent 
 speeches on the subject, with a beautiful display 
 of diplomatic notes; but no energetic measures, 
 no similitude of results, nothing, in fact, which by 
 any possibility could effect a favorable adjustment 
 of the questions in controversy. 
 I will not now discuss the curious drama of tbe 
 ment quarrel, in which our Government, at 
 [early in the right, managed its diplomacy 
 with so much perverse ingenuity as to be. at the 
 last, as clearly in the wrong, and only failed to 
 
involve two great countries, connected by innu 
 inerable ties of affection and interest, in the 
 flames of a destroying; strife, from the friendly 
 feelings and extraordinary intelligence of their 
 respective commercial classes, and the generous 
 forbearance, in this instance at least, of the Brit- 
 ish ministry. Had Mr. Crampton been dismissed 
 immediately on the discovery of his offence, all 
 the world would have approved the act, and there 
 the matter must have euded. But to procrasti- 
 nate and delay the deed until the English Govern- 
 ment had offered the most ample and honorable 
 amends that ever one independent Power ten- 
 dered to another, and then to refuse and even 
 spurn the apology, had the aspect of a useless and 
 gratuitous insult, which, it is to be feared, will be 
 atoned for in the future by the concession of much 
 more momentous points. 
 
 Neither will I dwell upon the inexplicable fact, 
 that England would not permit us to accept the 
 Sandwich Islands, that beautiful group of emerald 
 gardens planted, as it were, by the kind hand_ of 
 Providence on the tranquil bosom of the Pacific 
 ocean, as havens of refuge and refreshment for 
 our Asiatic trade, although they were twice offer- 
 ed to the Federal Government by the only power 
 pretending to any authority, or competent to treat 
 on the subject. Why such an invaluable political 
 boon was not received with corresponding eager- 
 ness and joy, our rulers have not condescended to 
 explain ; and I will for the moment respect the 
 mysterious veil which they have so carefully thrown 
 around the secrets of the Cabinet. 
 
 But there lies another diplomatic mystery nearer 
 home, almost at our very doors, which I have no 
 intention to respect, or leave in political darkness. 
 When the prowess of the Dominican people had 
 redeemed Eastern Hayti from the horrors of an- 
 archy, under African misrule, the first foreign 
 movement of the new and liberated community 
 was an humble and earnest supplication to the 
 United States for the recognition of their inde- 
 pendence. The Island of Hayti, as it is well 
 known, forms the key to the Caribbean Sea, as 
 •Cuba does to the Gulf of Mexico;' and hence, 
 every consideration of interest, combined with 
 the nighest motives of justice, sympathy, and hu- 
 manity, all called upon us to cultivate the kindest 
 and most intimate relations with the young repub- 
 lic ; for there is not another free, white, or truly 
 American Government in the entire circle of the 
 West India group. That is the only liberal or 
 friendly Power who overlooks the path of our 
 Central American transits. All the rest, save the 
 negro despotism of Hayti, are European colonies, 
 the property of nations the most inimical to 
 American prosperity and progress. It was, there- 
 fore, a self-evident and solemn political duty on 
 our part to defend and foster this lovely but soli- 
 tary oasis of constitutional liberty in the dreary, 
 surrounding desert of African and European dom- 
 ination. It was immediately after their emancipa- 
 tion in 1844, that the Dominican people made 
 their earliest appeal for friendship and moral assist- 
 ance to " the great model and mother of American 
 Republics," as in the language of intense and affec- 
 tionate admiration they styled the United States; 
 and it is difficult even to imagine the reasons why 
 their request was so long denied or disregarded. 
 
 Mr. Fillmore's administration attempted some 
 slight advances in that direction, but the emissa- 
 ries of European courts, and the advocates of ne- 
 gro ascendency, opposed the measure with such 
 vehement denunciation as caused it to be aban- 
 doned. 
 
 After a brief interval, the attention of President 
 Pierce was called to the singular condition of the 
 brave and suffering Dominicans. For ten years, 
 they had struggled against incessant African in- 
 vasions, and gallantly maintained their freedom 
 in spite of negro numbers and the cunning of 
 European intrigues. Such a spectacle could not 
 fail to excite the sympathy of the new Adminis- 
 tration, then in perfect accordance with popular 
 opinion and will, and pledged alike to the cause 
 of justice and generosity, as well as to a large and 
 enlightened system of American policy, by the 
 sonorous sentences of the inaugural. As a con- 
 sequence, General William Cazneau, a man favor- 
 ably known in the military and civil aunals of 
 Texas, was directed to proceed to Eastern Hayti, 
 in the character of a special agent, for the purpose 
 of inquiring into the political state of its people, 
 and their ability to sustain a national existence. 
 After a careful investigation, he returned to Wash- 
 ington in April, 1854, and submitted an affirma- 
 tive report. In the following June, he was com- 
 missioned to negotiate a treaty with the Dominican 
 Government, and the frigate Columbia carried him 
 to St. Domingo, where he arrived in July of the 
 same year. Both himself and his propositions 
 were most cordially greeted by President Santana, 
 and the business proceeded harmoniously, not- 
 withstanding the opposition of the European con- 
 suls and their efforts with the blacks to defeat its 
 consummation. 
 
 Very soon, however, the British consul informed 
 the Dominican President, that his Government 
 protested against, and would firmly oppose, any 
 agreement which would open new harbors to 
 American commerce, or give a coal depot to the 
 United States within the territories of the island; 
 and menacing remonstrances of a still more inso- 
 lent character were urged upon the fears of the 
 members of Congress, at that time in session. 
 But more ominous and outrageous still, the arro- 
 gant English official could point to a significant 
 warrant for his threats in the presence of a pow- 
 erful squadron in the port. The agents of France 
 also concurred to the fullest extent in this scheme 
 to prevent the ratification of the treaty between 
 two sovereign and independent countries ; and in- 
 fluenced by this double duress, the Dominican 
 President was compelled to recede. Indeed he 
 could no longer be considered a free functionary, 
 but the mere instrument and slave of the Europe- 
 an courts. 
 
 General Cazneau protested, in the most spirited 
 manner, against this foreign dictatioa and unau- 
 thorized interference to frustrate negotiations be- 
 twixt two American powers, and urged as an un- 
 answerable objection the principle of the Monroe 
 doctrine.- But, unfortunately, he was not sus- 
 tained by the vigorous ac:ion of an Administra- 
 tion that assumed the reins of Government as the 
 open and avowed champion of that noble and ne- 
 cessary policy. No one will pretend to deny, that 
 the interposition of England and France to break 
 
 
a perfectly legitimate compact — a treaty of 
 ity and commerce, with do unusual or novel 
 mlations — was a plain and almost unprece- 
 ited infringement of the law of nation?, and a 
 ;ct attack upon our sovereignty and independ- 
 e. Nevertheless, up to the present moment, 
 a single energetic measure has been instituted 
 seek redress. No excuse, apology, or sem- 
 nce of explanation has been offered. Our rude 
 lulsion from the key of the Caribbean sea re- 
 ins in the same category of subdued, silent, 
 1 shameful submission, with the British seizure 
 he strong gates of our Honduras and Nicara- 
 i routes to California and Oregon. 
 Jut we have another, and a far more aggravated, 
 se of complaint against England, and one of 
 ch longer standing. I allude to her secret, 
 ister, and persevering policy in reference to 
 Da. The briefest glance at the map and marine 
 rts is sufficient to prove, even by ocular dem- 
 tration, the natural and eternal connection of 
 t beautiful island — the royal and radiant gem 
 the Antilles — with the development and desti- 
 3 of our own progress and civilization through- 
 all the ages of coming time. It is seen to lie 
 s a lovely infant by the side of a lovelier mother, 
 :ping, as it were, in the very embraces of the 
 ion. It almost kisses our shores. It flourishes 
 the shadow of our trees. The echoes of the 
 rning gun that booms over the blue-tinted 
 ,ers from the castle of the Spanish despot, vex 
 I agitate the free aroma of flowers which every 
 itle breeze wafts from the Cape of Florida. It 
 he single key to the great oceanic gate of the 
 y liquid highway from the Atlantic cities to the 
 uth of the Mississippi river — that ever-flowing 
 I fresh-watered Mediterranean of America, the 
 gnificent mother of so many States. And thus 
 3 capable of being used, at any moment, as an 
 urmountable barrier against the necessary tran- 
 i of the two principal divisions of the Union. It 
 ads now as a perpetual menace — a check upon 
 • natural expansion, a danger to our interests, 
 1 perhaps to our very existence — a rankling 
 irn in our side, even in time of peace. It is 
 jossible, then, to estimate how perilous it must 
 ive in the case of war — with the incalculable 
 jngth of its natural positions increased by all 
 : skill of engineering art — with its numerous 
 1 capacious harbors, the best in the world, in 
 b of which alone a thousand ships of the line 
 ?ht ride at ease, without anchor or cable, defi- 
 t and fearless of the tropical tempests. 
 Iheee facts, and a variety of others equally im- 
 rtant and applicable, which I shall not, at pres- 
 t, pause to enumerate, as being too generally 
 own to require special mention, fully. justify the 
 ion that, for the United States, the pos- 
 ision of Cuba is a great national i 
 :anr.ot go as far as some do — is the famous Os- 
 )d conference, for instance. I cannot affirm 
 it, for us, under all conceivable circumsti 
 j annexation of Cuba is a p .skive necessity. It 
 certain! 'table, and from many 
 
 gent reasons. It is ours by the gift of God and 
 ture, by contiguity ana 1 collocation, and by the 
 sarest sanctions of the law of nations, because it 
 dangerous to our pea e and safety while in other 
 ads than our own. All this I concede and be- 
 
 lieve; but necessity implies more that, this — 
 we must have it, and cannot even exist as an in- 
 dependent people without it. And this no one 
 regards as true in any other than a rhetorical 
 sense, ad captandum mobility, in which, indeed,:': 
 is always employed. For we have existed, and 
 flourished, too, beyond all precedent in the his- 
 tory of the world, without the conjunction of that 
 charming island. There is one contingency, how- 
 ever, in which the possession of Cuba might be 
 almost, or perhaps quite, a national necessity ; and 
 in which we would be justified in seizing it by 
 force, on the principle of precaution for self-preser- 
 vation. I allude to the case of a rational probability 
 of its transfer to any one of the leading European 
 Powers. On that supposition, the danger to the 
 United States would be so imminent as to require 
 an immediate resort to arms for its prevention, at 
 every cost and at all hazards. And I propose to 
 show in the sequel, that the probability stated is 
 neither remote nor imaginary, but a very near and 
 menacing reality. Nevertheless, until it becomes 
 present, palpable, and, as it were, overwhelming, 
 I would not have the country plunged into the 
 fiery vortex of war; because, as I think, we hav e 
 as effectual, yet pacific, means to avert the calam- 
 ity. 
 
 It is urged by the European diplomatists, and 
 re-echoed in this hemisphere, that we can offer no 
 sufficient argument for the acquisition of Cuba; 
 that, as the visible key to the Gulf of Mexico rs 
 held by the impotent and unwarlike Government 
 of Spain, with no naval force to shut that ocean 
 gate, therefore, we have nothing to fear, either 
 in peace or war. 
 
 This objectijn would be entirely relevant, and 
 indeed decisive, if the assumption were true, as 
 stated. But I deny the facts in general, and in 
 every particular. I deny that the Spanish is the 
 real power predominant on the island. Far other- 
 wise. I stand prepared to show, to convince the 
 most skeptical, that Cuba is as much under the 
 control of Great Britain as her impregnable capital 
 of Lower Canada. I assert and can demonstrate, 
 that by a long series of i. sidious approaches, 
 England has, at last, got the beautiful queen ol 
 the Antilles by the throat, and that the ruthless 
 gripe will newr be relinquished, at least volunta- 
 rily, until her bleeding victim lies writhing and 
 dying in the dust suffocated by a million negro 
 hands! I affirm that this is a principle of English 
 policy as fixed and immovable as the polar star,, 
 and that she has stealthily but steadily pursued it 
 for more than the quarter of a century. 
 
 Interrogate the facts. As early a^ 1817, Great 
 Britain effected a treaty with Spain for the osten- 
 sible purpose of suppressing the slave trade, the 
 stipulations to be enforced from the year ! v _ 
 It does not become me, nor is it suited to my 
 to question the motives which primarily dic- 
 tated the measure. They may have been suffi- 
 ciently pure and praiseworthy at first; but what- 
 ever generous sparks of philanthropy may ! 
 warmed or illumined the birth of the political 
 b&ntling, the liberal fire has long ago been smoth- 
 ered out by diplomatic craft and schemes of self- 
 iggrandizement. By the compact to which I 
 have alluded, England and Spain established the 
 "mixed commission," as it was called, in which 
 
both Powers were equally represented, and which 
 possessed the high authority to determine,, with- 
 out appeal, what negroes had been introduced 
 
 Cuba in violation of the treaty, and conse- 
 quently, what blacks were entitled to their free- 
 dom. Prima f ink, this provision did not appear 
 unjust, irrational, or in any degree dangerous. 
 But mark the sequel. The negroes pronounced 
 lice were cot to ^e restored to the enjoyment of 
 their natural liberty, not returned to their native 
 land on the shores of Africa. On the contraay, 
 they were doomed by this very same mixed com- 
 mission, to the worst, the most cruel species of 
 slavery ever invented or ever imagined, under the 
 mild and merciful name of apprenticeship. When- 
 ever a human cargo was captured in the vicinity 
 of the island, or discovered after being landed, 
 they were turned over to the Captain-General to 
 be articled out for a term of years, under the 
 transparent pretext of undergoing a pupilage and 
 preparation for the final state of freedom, but in 
 reality for the purpose of coiling an infrangible 
 chain around the bosom of Cuba — to bind her 
 hand and foot in helpless, hopeless subjection to 
 the domination of England. 
 
 Was not this a splendid scheme of philan- 
 thropy, so pure in theory, so politic in fact? 
 What critic could be so cruel as to find fault with 
 a plan of abolition at once so generous, so philo- 
 sophic, so prudent, which provided a system of 
 culture and education for freedom before it was 
 to be realized ? All very well ; but better than 
 all, it proved a most profitable speculation. It 
 put money in the pockets of the projectors. For 
 ever}' negro apprenticed out by the Captain-Gen- 
 eral, that disinterested and philanthropic func- 
 tionary received a golden gratuity of from fifty to 
 one hundred dollars, as a premium on the con- 
 tract. Thus high was the privilege of wardship 
 over the savages of Africa estimated by their 
 Creole and European guardians. Nor need any 
 one be surprised at the magnitude of this bonus, 
 nor at the liberality of the masters who paid it, 
 nor yet at the enormous annual revenue derived 
 from that source by the Spanish Governors; be- 
 cause the apprenticeship, as all the parties con- 
 cerned well knew, was virtually an agreement for 
 life. The only nominal emancipados and their 
 children melted away, and became undistinguish- 
 ably lost in the great mass of the servile popula- 
 tion. Not one in ten thousand ever again heard 
 another faint or far-off whisper of the word "lib- 
 erty." 
 
 But why, it may be asked, should the Govern- 
 ment of England sanction such a system of wanton 
 wickedness and unblushing hypocrisy ? Can any 
 one entertain the shadow of a doubt as to the so 
 obvious reason ? This device of organized impe- 
 rial outrage and wrong gave her that irresistible 
 weight, and terrible political supremacy, which 
 she now possesses over the island. By virtue of 
 the treaty, she claims the legal protectorate of 
 half a million apprentices, all baibarous blacks, 
 on whose complete emancipation she can insist 
 at any moment which may suit her caprice or 
 convenience. Tnis is the fiery sword which she 
 holds suspended, in terrorem, over impotent and 
 cringing Spain, as well as over the appalled and 
 shuddering Creoles. 
 
 Under such circumstances, it ci matter 
 
 of surprise that the scheme, instead of repress- 
 ing, tended to stimulate and enlarge the activities 
 of the traffic in slaves, since it interested all parties 
 in the extension and continuance of that accursed 
 commerce. It cheapened the price of negroes for 
 the Cuban masters ; it filled to plethora the coffers 
 of the Captain-General ; and, more than all, it 
 favored the policy of England to absolute ascend- 
 ency on the island. Wc have seen the rationale 
 — now behold the result. England to-day, or any 
 day when she chooses, possesses the power to 
 speak one word mightier than magic, to roll back 
 the wheels of our destiny, to arrest the velocity 
 of our progress — nay, to shake on their deepest 
 foundations the strongest and most enduring 
 pillars of our Republic : and that word, more 
 dreadful than war, pestilence, or famine, is the 
 Africanization of Cuba ! Such is the end ; and 
 can any intelligent mind, having traced the means 
 by which it has been accomplished, doubt for an 
 instant that it accords with her intention, and is 
 the ripe fruit of her sleepless sagacity ? I would 
 not censure unjustly, or with too much severity, 
 the conduct or character of any Government, 
 abroad or at home. I deem nations entitled to 
 the courtesies of civil speech, and the amenity 
 and moderation of an impartial judgment on their 
 actions, as much as individuals; but I cannot 
 forbear stating it as my humble, yet deliberate, 
 opinion, that the insidious course of English ag- 
 gression, in reference to Cuba, has no parallel 
 either on the pages of Roman perfidy, or in the 
 darker annals of Punic faith. 
 
 Nor can it be pretended, by way of apology, 
 with the least show of plausibility, that England 
 has managed and manoeuvred to gain this impreg- 
 nable vantage ground * ith no design to its ultimate 
 practical use. On the contrary, it seems to be her 
 unwavering purpose to employ it on the first suit- 
 able occasion, and without stint or mercy. Sha 
 has even taken the initiatory steps, whenever aa 
 opportunity appeared to offer. It is notorious thss 
 the Captain General, Pezuela, was in the very 
 act of yielding to her urgent solicitations, when 
 the tempest of popular indignation burst forth 
 among the Cuban Creoles, inaugurating the brief 
 and sudden revolution which led to the banish- 
 ment of the lamented Lopez. The signs and 
 proofs of this conspiracy against civilization and 
 in favor of bloody and brutal barbarism were both 
 numerous and cogent. In submissive obedience 
 to the mandates of his imperial ally and master, 
 the complaisant governor repealed the laws forbid- 
 ding intermarriage betwixt the free aud servile 
 races. Disgusting blacks and insolent half-breeds 
 were received with distinguished eclat and cor- 
 diality at the official levees of the vice-royal palace. 
 And the lowest slaves, in hasty anticipation of the 
 promised equality to be consummated under the 
 new regime of amalgamation, began to exercise 
 the insulting privilege of bowing to the most beau- 
 tiful white ladies in the streets, and of paying their 
 respects even in the boudoir. Comment on such 
 gross and unnatural indecencies is as nee>; 
 it would be offensive and cruel. 
 
 Nor were these the only or the most malignant 
 indications of the English intrigue. The rigoroir 
 and despotic censorship that controls the Cuba;. 
 
 
8 
 
 press exceeds anything known or recorded under 
 the mental tyranny of the dark ages. Not a line 
 or paragraph, not so much as an advertisement 
 /or the sale of a horse at public auction, can find 
 a place in the journals without first passing through 
 the fiery ordeal of a jealous criticism, and obtain- 
 ing the approval of the Government. When, 
 therefore, every newspaper in the island opened a 
 discussion on the topic of slavery, and endeavored 
 to surpass each other in eulogizing the benefits of 
 1 free labor; when floods of pamphkt3 were poured 
 around the country, instituting highly-colored 
 comparisons betwixt the relative prosperity of 
 Kentucky and Ohio, much in the same style of 
 argument as we hear the point exhibited on this 
 floor ; then the whole Creole population took the 
 alarm, fully conscious that their doom had been 
 pronounced, and determined, if possible, to pre- 
 vent the execution by the overthrow of the pro- 
 consular despotism under which they had so long 
 writhed and suffered. Their organization, with 
 that view, embraced every native patriot in Cuba. 
 But, although they received the warmest sympa- 
 thy and some partial aid from the citizens of the 
 United States, the American Administration threw 
 its weight on the side of the tyrants, in direct op- 
 position to the ardent wishes and dearest interests 
 of our own people ; and the heroic enterprise of 
 Lopez miscarried. The glittering gem of the An- 
 tilles, which had so nearly been snatched away 
 forever from the quivering crown of Spain, was 
 restored to its place, though covered with blood 
 and bitter tears. 
 
 Nevertheless, the effort had not proved alto- 
 gether vain and unavailing. It terrified the Span- 
 ish Government, and suspended, for a time, the 
 intrigues of England. What might have been pre- 
 dicted before was now self-evident : the physical 
 and moral impossibility of Africanizing Cuba, 
 without the utter extermination of all its white 
 inhabitants; for this is the true and tremendous 
 alternative wherever the two races exist together 
 i n any considerable numbers. Nature has sepa- 
 rated them by lines so deeply marked and strongly 
 colored as to render every idea of practical equal- 
 ity between them the wildest of all conceivable 
 political delusions. Reason revolts, the heart 
 shudders, the inmost soul sickens at the bare con- 
 ception. 
 
 Things remained in statu quo until the election 
 of General Pierce, when the people of Cuba, in 
 common with the friends of human freedom 
 throughout the world, hailed that auspicious 
 event as the bright dawning of a new and glo- 
 rious day in the annals of progress and liberal 
 opinions. Nor was this feeling of jubilant and 
 general joy discouraged, or in any degree 
 tised by the splendid promises of that eloquent 
 inaugural, which created a whirlwind of enthu- 
 siasm, such as never before hailed the inspiring 
 ■words of any, even the most popular and power- 
 ful President. Indeed, there seemed to be ample 
 cause for such universal, hopeful, triumphant 
 gratulation. For everywhere, but more especi- 
 ally in the southern States, the question of Cuban 
 liberation had formed one of the chief and strong- 
 est issues in the canvass. I myself did battle 
 almost exclusively on that high and fortified 
 ground in the department of Texas. And now, 
 
 when tho victo:y had been gain d, and the new 
 Administration came into power amidst the blaze 
 ; of a sun-burst of glowing, unprecedented popu- 
 larity, its first official declaration appeared to jus- 
 tify all the wishes and expectations of the great 
 progressive party whose influence and suffrages 
 had given it the ascendency. 
 
 Immediately, as if by enchantment, the revo- 
 lutionary clubs were reorganized all over the 
 Island of Cuba, the movement including all 
 ; Creole population. They collected money in al- 
 most fabulous profusion, and dispatched it to 
 I their leaders and allies in the United States. A 
 | systematic plan of action was devised that could 
 [ not possibly have failed of entire success, had 
 it not been for the extraordinary and unaccount- 
 able conduct of that very Power on (which the 
 patriots most confidently relied. I mean our own 
 Government. They counted with certainty, as 
 they and all the world besides thought they had 
 ' a right to count, upon the sympathy and 
 approval, or, at least, upon the neutrality of the 
 Administration at Washington ; and acting under 
 this fatal delusion, their Junta from New York 
 hastened to pay their respects at the Federal city. 
 They were received with the greatest kindness 
 and courtesy, and greeted with encouraging cor- 
 i diality by the President. But it was Secretary 
 ' Marcy who tendered them the warmest welcome,. 
 : and signified a virtual confirmation of their high- 
 ' est hopes, 'to him they made the frank and full 
 revelation of their plan for the redemption of 
 ; their native land. And now mark well the reply 
 ! of the politic premier — the answer which will yet 
 , be inscribed on the records of history — " The 
 people want Cuba, and the Administration, as the 
 servants of the people, must carry out their 
 j wishes'." 
 
 Deceived by this apparently plain and unequiv- 
 ocal official sanction, the exultant and enthusiastic- 
 1 Creoles unwisely dismissed their usual prudence, 
 : and disclosed all the mir.utc, even the m< 
 1 operandi of their schemes, retaining only some 
 personal facts which might dangerously implicate 
 individuals. But of these, too, there is reason to 
 believe the American Government resolved to ob- 
 tain possession. A short time afterwards, a mys- 
 terious emissary appeared in the Island of Cuba, 
 : claiming to be a commissioner of the United States, 
 I and authorized to confer with the chiefs of the 
 revolutionary party. In that definite character. 
 j thi3 extraordinary agent was introduced to the 
 J principal and central club at ITavana, and by the 
 | American consul of the port. No one doubted — 
 indeed, the most scrupulous or skeptical couKl 
 ' not well doubt that he was accredited as stated ; 
 j and as a natural consequence he mastered every 
 I remaining secret of the organization, of a personal 
 I as well as of a political nature. The fortunes of 
 I Cuba — nay, the very liberties and lives of its 
 brave defenders, were completely at his mercy, 
 and, perhaps, that of the Administration. 
 
 The emissary having accomplished his purpose, 
 whatever that might be, and whether good or evil, 
 disappeared from the island, returning, as it may 
 fairly be supposed, to his master at Wasbiugton. 
 At all events, instantly, and as unexpectedly, a 
 wonderful change came over the spirit of Mr. 
 Marcy's political dream. His Cuban sympathy 
 
•exhaled away like morning dews before the sun- 
 beam. The Junta, were coolly informed that noth- 
 ing could be done, or even tolerated, in favor of 
 their policy. One member of the Cabinet object- 
 ed, that they had not chosen the proper man to 
 lead the movement. Pompous •proclamations thun- 
 dered against the piratical filibusters, who had 
 proved themselves BO very piratical by the election 
 of General Pieree; while swift-sailing frigates and 
 steamers of war were dispatched in all haste, to 
 intercept any ill-starred expedition which might 
 depart from our ports to alarm the castles, or dis- 
 turb the luxurious ease and quiet of the proconsu- 
 lar tyrant. 
 
 However, had the denouement of the singular 
 drama ended here, its perfidy might, by a great 
 stretch of clemency, have been excused, or, per- 
 chance; pardoned. But, alas! simultaneously 
 with the apostacy of the Administration, and the 
 magical metamorphosis of its placid, approving 
 smiles for the most ominous frowns of anger and 
 aversion, an unexampled tragedy of blood and 
 terror was opened on the stage of Cuba. All the 
 plans of the revolutionary organization were com- 
 municated to the delighted ears of the Captain- 
 General. Even a list of names containing those 
 of all the leading and most illustrious patriots was 
 laid on his table. As an inevitable result, the 
 discovery thoroughly aroused the fury of the wild 
 beast. The chiefs of the contemplated enterprise 
 — all who might be considered dangerous to the 
 existing despotism by their wealth, talents, or in- 
 fluence — all whose known opinions or suspected 
 proclivities rendered them in any degree odious to 
 the truculent tyrant and his pitiful tools — all who 
 had friends or relatives engaged in the glorious 
 scheme of popular liberation, were subjected, 
 without delay or discrimination, to the horrors of 
 a ruthless and unrelenting persecution — were 
 robbed, ruined, garoted, and many of them ex- 
 posed to tortures of refined cruelty, and to im- 
 prisonment in perpetuity, a doom worse than the 
 most painful and ignominious death. Nor did the 
 general and crushing blow fall alcne, or spend its 
 infuriate force on the stronger or more resolute 
 sex. The beautiful dark-eyed daughters of Cuba 
 had been ardent enthusiasts in the great cause of 
 independence. They had stripped the golden 
 bracelets from thei" fairy arms — had torn the 
 starry jewels from the wreaths of their raven 
 hair, to purchase weapons and munitions of war 
 for the great work of their country's redemption. 
 And they, too, must suffer the penalty. To-day — 
 oh ! foul blot on the printed page of modern civ- 
 ilization — indelible di-^race and fiery shame to the 
 solemn mockeries of Spanish justice — these lovely 
 heroines, who deserved statues of monumental 
 marble, pure and white as the unsunned snow 
 fresh fallen from its native heaven, and eternal 
 as the hills from which the granite of their glory 
 should be hewed by the hand of some divine art- 
 ist — yes, to day, at this very instant, these angels 
 •of liberty, in the most fascinating forms of bewitch- 
 ing womankind, are clanking their heavy chains 
 in the depth and darkness of Spanish dungeons! 
 And all these atrocious wrongs and outrages re- 
 sulted from treachery as atrocious, and far more 
 criminally revolting. But who* was the traitor? 
 What wretch insinuated himself into Creole confi- 
 
 dence to spy out and sell their secrets — to give 
 the best blood of their fathers and brothers to the 
 garote, and the beauty of their wives and sisters 
 to the keeping of brutal jailers? Shuddering hu- 
 manity asks the question. Shall it remain with- 
 out an answer ? 
 
 For myself, I shall accuse no one. The crime, 
 whoever may have been the perpetrator, stands 
 almost alone and isolated in the annals of human 
 infamy, and seems so stupendous as almost to 
 stagger belief. In surveying the magnitude and 
 superlative meanness of such an offence, one needs 
 guard his most just and generous impulses from 
 undue excitement to the perversion and discolor- 
 ing of his calm, collected reason. I cannot, there- 
 fore, assume the onerous responsibility of the ar- 
 raignment or prosecution of the gigantic political 
 felon. I will not even draw the first count of the 
 indictment. I will only state the fact, and let it 
 pass for what it may be worth, that the Creoles 
 themselves, who have been so terribly aggrieved 
 by the treachery, and who ought, perhaps, to be 
 esteemed the best judges in the case, lay all the 
 guilt an the door of the office appropriated to the 
 high functions of the Secretary of State; and they 
 urge in proof of the grave and aggravateidcharge, 
 the circumstances which I have previously detail- 
 ed, especially the mission of the secret agent 6ent, 
 or said to be sent, from Washington to Havana, 
 and the sudden, unlooked-for, and inexplicable 
 change of tone and spirit in the Federal Cabinet 
 towards the friends of Cuban freedom, that occur- 
 red about that time. They allege, moreover, that 
 no citizen of the island could have made the fata 1 
 revelation to the ears of the Captain-General, as 
 none deserted the patriotic cause, and none was 
 promoted to honor or influence — the rewards 
 which must surely have been accorded to profita- 
 ble perfidy. These cruel accusers go even further, 
 and boldly assert, that from the first, the pretend- 
 ed sympathy of the Secretary was an affected 
 sham and delusion to obtain the possession of their 
 plans, and twrn common informer for the benefit 
 of the Spanish court— in short, that he played the 
 part of a diplomatic Judas to kiss and betray 
 them. 
 
 Such is the nature of the charge. But although 
 the circumstantial evidence tending to support the 
 conclusion, has almost, if not quite, the strength 
 of what lawyers term a natural presumption, the 
 moral treason supposed is so transcendent that I 
 cannot bring myself to give it credit. And yet, 
 j the probability is too strong for utter disbelief. 
 | The mind, therefore, remains in a state of equilib- 
 I rium, suspended in the centre of a logical circle, 
 ' betwixt two presumptions equally violent, and 
 I apparently irresistible. But I am always inclined 
 ! to adopt the most charitable construction of a 
 j criminal case. And I think that the merciful sup- 
 position would be, that the transformation of the 
 Secretary's ideas and intentions in reference to 
 Cuban liberation, was a real metempsychosis — one 
 I of those instantaneous and astonishing oscillations 
 i of policy which have so remarkably distinguished 
 the present Administration. I do not deny that 
 even this hypothesis is burdened with great ob- 
 jections. It still leaves unsolved the sunless mys- 
 tery, the dark riddle of the veiled and monstrous 
 sphinx — the mission of the secret spy, or emissary, 
 
10 
 
 introduced by the American consul to tbe revolu- 
 tionary club at the port of Havana. 
 
 I am, however, less disposed to press this 
 branch of the general accusation, as the Secretary 
 must be pronounced guilty beyond all question on 
 the remainder. He never should have ventured 
 the explicit encouragement of Cuban liberation ; 
 or, having so ventured, he should have kept his 
 pledge in the teeth of every contingency. And it 
 is because he wavered and wandered from the 
 lofty purpose, so dear to every American heart, 
 that the beautiful queen of the Mexican Gulf lies 
 to-day a bleeding and helpless victim, loaded with 
 fetters and trampled in the dust beneath the 
 scornful feet of a feeble despot. 
 
 There has been another and somewhat similar 
 allegation uttered against the same exalted func- 
 tionary in a far different quarter, which seems to 
 confirm, and which, if properly substantiated, 
 would entirely explain, the charge of the Cuban 
 Creoles. It will be remembered that, just before 
 the sitting of the convention which nominated 
 General Pierce, Mr. Marcy arrogated to himself 
 a high degree of credit for having harmonised 
 the rival factions of the New York democracy. 
 It is now said, however, and, so far as I am in- 
 formed, the fact has not been publicly or author- 
 itatively disputed, that he effected the hollow and 
 short-lived coalition by pledging himself solemnly 
 to the Free-soil party, that in the e^eut of his 
 own nomination and election to the presidential 
 honors, or in case he should receive a Cabinet 
 appointment, he would oppose, to the last extrem- 
 ity, every measure for the annexation of Cuba, as 
 well as all efforts for the extension of our ternto 
 ries in a southern direction. I do not vouch for 
 the truth of this statement; but, admitting its 
 verity, it would furnish a key for the solution of 
 his very problematic conduct in the Cuban policy, 
 as well as in the matters pertaining to Central 
 America and San Domingo. At all events, with- 
 out incurring any imputation as to the want of 
 common charity or legislative courtesy, I may be 
 permitted to deprecate and deplore the results of 
 the Secretary's diplomacy. Behold, then, the 
 startling fact, the naked and undeniable reality ! 
 "We assert the political dictum of the Monroe doc- 
 trine. We cherish it as a sacred principle, de- 
 lightful to our feelings, and needful to our safety. 
 Well, so it is — all that, and a great deal more. 
 But here, directly before our doors, within the 
 sweep of our telescopes, if not within the circuit 
 of our natural vision — in Cuba — in clear and tangi- 
 ble violation and open defiance of the Monroe 
 dogma, Great Britain has introduced, under the 
 pretext and cover of the mixed commission, more 
 than half a million of the most dangerous colonists 
 that ever set foot upon continent or island, and 
 there she complacently holds them, as the blind 
 and unreflecting instruments of her will, as a per- 
 petual mcuace and terror to our people. Besides, 
 since the inchoate and ineffectual revolutions, her 
 power has actually become supreme over the 
 Spa:.! linent, over the Captain-General, 
 
 over the cringing Creoles. There is no force 
 of any name or nature left in Cuba to relist her 
 pleasure. Spain looks to British protection I ir 
 the security of the last American jewel in 
 crumbling crown; while the unhappy nativ, 
 
 ' the island, since the rude and treacherous treat- 
 ment which they have experienced at our hands, 
 ! can have neither faith nor hope : a the United 
 ! States. 
 
 For my own part, I do not envy either the na- 
 I tional pride or the patriotism of the man who can 
 i calmly contemplate the'eontingency o: a war with 
 j Great Britain, while Cuba stands in its present 
 condition. The island would instantly, and 
 'facto, be turned into a British possession, as much 
 | so as Jamaica, or the fortress of Gibraltar. We 
 should see, in a moment, what Power had the 
 authority to close the great gate 'of the Mexican 
 Gulf against our commerce and all our commuica- 
 tions. The strong harbor of Havana would be 
 transmuted into a British naval station whence 
 tall admirals, and terrible steamers, the iron- 
 ribbed monsters of the deep, would issue forth to- 
 attack our trade, and to thunder destruction on 
 all our shores. I do not exaggerate or paint, for 
 rhetorical effect, a suppositious or remote prob- 
 ability. I affirm the fact, well knew:, to all the 
 wor d, that for every practical purpose, England 
 wields to-day a far greater power in Cuba than 
 she does in Canada ; because, in the one case, it 
 is exercised over a people thoroughly penetrated 
 with the genius of light, intelliger.ee, and free- 
 dom; but in the other, over an imbecile Govern- 
 ment, and millions of ignorant slaves, savage and 
 brutal blacks, from the wilds of Africa. These, to 
 the enormous number of thirteen hundred thou- 
 sand, are the fondled and favored wardo of Eng- 
 land, while the whites amount to little more than 
 a third of that sum. And those bloody barbari- 
 ans England can arouse and arm whenever she 
 chooses, for the utter extermination of every 
 Creole in the island. It is no marvel, then, il 
 Cuba trembles and writhes in the dust, appalled 
 with horror in the presence of this ghastly phan- 
 tom, or that she stretches forth her beautiful but 
 bleeding hands in the crisis and extremity of her 
 mortal peril, imploring humbly, earnestly, almost 
 madly, for help and succor from the only people 
 on the globe who can avert her doom. Turn not 
 away, (.) ! turn not away, my country, that for- 
 lorn yet lovely mourner from your theshold, but 
 grant her cordially, liberally, and seasonably, that 
 sympathy, and moral, or, if necessary, material 
 assistance, which justice, generosity, and every 
 consideration of humanity and sell alike 
 
 require in the case. 
 
 But there is another region o( the earth of far 
 greater surface than the island of Cuba, and as 
 intimately connected with our welfare — a terri- 
 tory conterminous by an immei s tine with the 
 southwestern limit of the I nion, where the in- 
 trigues and interference of both England and 
 France, though more covert, have been equalk 
 insidious and unwarrantable. It will be under- 
 stood, at once, that I refer to Mexico, that en- 
 chanted land of gorgeous . d jeweled 
 mountains, whose beautiful scenei 
 stirring annals, are alike tinted with the hues of a 
 wild and wondous romance. That vast country, 
 equivalent in extent to the fourth ol Europe,, or 
 nearly two-thirds of the United St) . 3tretc 
 faraway, as it does, through r 
 of north latitude, and touching <■:. -ide r 
 the Titan's bow! " . the o 
 
LI 
 
 the gold* . gulf of California, and the bright 
 waters of the Pacific ocean, is fitted, by reason 
 of countless circumstances, to awaken curiosity, 
 and inspire the deepest interest in American bo- 
 -oms. The variety of its genial climates; the 
 value and, profusion of its natural products; the 
 almost fabulous abundance of its mineral wealth, 
 yielding more silver than the rest of the world 
 besides, and its immediate contiguity to our bor- 
 ders, all combine to identify its prosperity and 
 progress with our own. We could not, even if 
 we would, aft'ect apathy or feel indifference as to 
 the course of it? destiny as an independent Power. 
 And vet, without undue presumption, I may be 
 allowed to say that a singular degree of igno- 
 rance exists in the popular mind in re'ation to 
 Mexican affairs. Even a certain class of politi- 
 cians, whenever the subject is referred to, treat it 
 with scorn, choosing to consider that neighbor- 1 
 ing nation as a society of semi-savages, incapable 
 of sell-government, or indeed of any stable or 
 successful government at all — a people under the 
 everlasting rule of anarchy and revolutions, as 
 inconstant and uncontrollable as the very volca- 
 noes of the burning soil where they have been 
 born. 
 
 Now, I most declare my utter dissent from any 
 such a partial and prejudiced, though plausible, 
 view. I believe the grand mass of the Mexican 
 population to be as docile and tamable under the 
 reign of legitimate authority as any subjects on 
 the globe. Indeed, their main characteristic and 
 fault, as a race, seems to be an excessive facility 
 of submission to every species of domination. To 
 what origin, then, it will be asked, must we attri- 
 bute their endless and sanguinary insurrections? 
 The unfortunate source of all that stride and dis- 
 order, as I apprehend, will be found in the ambi- 
 tion of the monarchical faction, always powerful 
 in Mexico, and in the cunning intrigues of Euro- 
 pean potentates. And the briefest glance at the 
 pages of Mexican history will fully demonstrate 
 the proposition. It must never be forgotten that 
 the original revolution in Mexico was not purely 
 or principally a struggle for political freedom, so 
 much as for independence of race and sovereign 
 nationality. The colonial government, during 
 nearly three centuries of oppression ami misrule, 
 had not tended to infuse among *he people any 
 ideas of civil liberty. All the viceroys, with a 
 single exception, were of Spanish birth. Every 
 post of honor, or of profit, in the gift of the 
 Crown, devolved on Europeans. No path of pre- 
 ferment in the church, the law, or the army, was 
 open for a Mexican, or even for a Spaniard Mexi- 
 can-born. The colonists were strictly forbidden 
 to manufacture any article that the mother coun- 
 try could furnish- — to cultivate the vine or olive, 
 to establish schools, or tefceh even the science of 
 mathematics ; as they were told, in the language 
 of the Spanish Government, by an official decla- 
 ration, " That learning did not become coio 
 The viceregal palace displayed a splendor of 
 riches and ex.ravagance which might have 
 shamed the glittering pageants of imperial courts 
 the revenues being continually supplied by legal- 
 ized plunder. Through this policy arose a privi- 
 leged caste, widely separated from the aboriginal 
 inhabitants, as well as from the Mexican Span- 
 
 iards, in feelings, habits, and permanent intere 
 Nevertheless, there was no attempt at rebellion or 
 revolution tor three hundred years; and the fact 
 affords an unanswerable refutation of the idle 
 theory that the Mexicans are, by nature and con- 
 onal temperament, an ungovernable race. 
 No branch cf the Anglo-Saxon or Celtic families 
 would have endured, for a single month, what 
 they suffered for so many long centuries of tyran- 
 ny and torture. However, it could not be expected 
 that such a system would last forever. But 
 when the revolution did occur, it came, not as 
 might have been naturally anticipated, from the 
 awakened spirit or strong sense of injustice, or 
 from the aroused passions of a crushed and vin- 
 dictive population ; on the contrary, the first 
 flames of insurrection and civil war were kindled 
 by dissensions in the Spanish party itself. The 
 causes which led to the event are well known 
 matters of history. In 1808, the great Napoleon, 
 from the summit of the Pyr enees, hurled an irre- 
 sistible avalanche' of his victorious legions into 
 the heart of Old Spain, sweeping away its effete 
 and impotent dynasty, and setlling the crevr- 
 upon the heal cf his brother Joseph. When the 
 astounding news of their monarch's dethroiement 
 reached the city cf Mexico, the viceroy warmly 
 solicited the aid of the people in support of their 
 ancient and legitimate line of sovereigns; and 
 they as eagerly responded to the flattering appeal 
 with boundless and enthusiastic professions of 
 fidelity and attachment. A feeling of sympathy 
 and kindness grew up between the Government 
 and the Creoles; and as a further means of con- 
 ciliation, a congress was instituted, to be com- 
 posed of deputies from the different provinces. 
 
 But this measure met with vehement opposition 
 from the European Spaniards, as being an in- 
 fringement of their hereditary rights, and a fla- 
 grant derogation from the prerogatives of the 
 Crown. Accordingly, the court of the Avdicncia, 
 the highest tribunal in the country, to defeat the 
 popular project, seized and imprisoned the Viceroy 
 himself, with all his principal friends and adhe- 
 rents; and the Europeans, having organized what 
 they were pleused to term "patriotic associations," 
 indefence of their exclusive and tyrannical privi- 
 leges, everywhere took up arms to put down the 
 Creoles. And that was the cloudy dawn — the 
 first dark day of the Revolution. The violent and 
 arrogant severity of the Audiencia increased the 
 habitual hatred of the natives, so long before en- 
 tertained towards their European masters, until 
 at length the immortal parish priest, Hidalgo, 
 raised the standard of open insurrection in the 
 little town of Dolores. The rumor of the move- 
 ment was received generally with intense satis- 
 faction. The warlike curate, Moreles, rivaled the 
 patriotic devotion of his religious brother; and 
 the flames of rebellion, if such a word might be 
 applied to a nation battling for their natural liber- 
 ties, at once extended to all the provinces. From 
 that date, until 1818, the contest raged wit:: va.i- 
 ous extaordinary changes of fortune, when the 
 revolution appeared to be extinguished, both 
 Hidalgo and Moreles having in the mean time, 
 suffered a barbarous death at the hands of the 
 merciless foe, and their heroic successor, Victoria^ 
 
12 
 
 being then an abandoned and solitary exile in the | Spanish Government, with that perverse and incur- 
 wildest recesses of the mountains. able stupidity by which it has been so long and so 
 
 The country now remained under the galling ! pre-eminently distinguished, spurned the plan of 
 yoke of despotism until 1820, when the constitu- Iguala, and refused the compromise that would 
 tional Government established in Spain, produced have given a son of Spain an American crown, 
 in Mexico a very different effect from what might ; Q ne cannot forbear remarking what incalculable 
 well have been predicted. A more liberal system blessings and benefits the folly of some obstinate 
 of administration and greater freedom of the j or s my nation may unintentionally confer upon 
 electoral franchise were generously granted to the I others. How different must have been the desti- 
 Provinces. But again, as in the former instance, | n j es f these United States, if the policy of the 
 these acts of grace and justice provoked a bitter j Mexican Bourbonists had been adopted by the 
 and clamorous opposition ; and again, the re- j Spanish court ! A European Power, in fraternity 
 sistance and aggression originated with the old | w ; tn all the despots of the Old World, and under 
 Spanish and monarchical faction. Besides, the the special protectorate of England, would have 
 European Spaniards were divided among them- been stationed as a giant sentinel to warn us away 
 selves ; some avowing their preference for the ' f rom the Southwest. There would have been no 
 
 constitution, while others declared in favor of the 
 ancient regime. An attack on the property of the 
 Church alienated the clergy from the new author- 
 ity ; and the Viceroy, Apodaca, being encouraged 
 by the intrigues of the royalists in Europe, al- 
 though he had sworn allegiance to the present 
 
 annexation of the rich cotton fields of Texas, no 
 settlement of Oregon, and no culmination of Cali- 
 fornia's golden star. But what wild, wasting wars, 
 what European interference, and intrigues, what 
 armaments sailing at the mandate of the Holy 
 Alliance, to conquer the :'orce and quench the 
 
 political order, joined in a general conspiracy for i jjght of our dangerous example, might there not 
 
 its overthrow. Iturbide was the persons elected have been ! 
 
 to offer the first open demonstration against the , d of a Bourb 
 
 existing Government and for the restoration of P f Spain, and favoring any 
 
 the former despotism, both in Ohur hand State semblance of despotism sooner* than 
 
 and to that end the \iceroy appointed h.m to governmen t, went over to the party of 
 
 the command of a arge army on the western * w ' ag laimed Em But 
 
 coast. But the agent departed widely from the -. £ f fi £ 
 
 wishes of his principal. Instead of pronouncing] J"**™ an % xt J sive CO nspiracv against him, 
 
 for Spanish absolutism, _ as he had promised he J -^ d his brief authorit £ and in S 1824 the 
 
 put forth a scheme of his own, the famous " plan 
 of Iguala," declaring that Mexico should be an 
 independent nation, its religion Catholic, and the 
 Government a constitutional monarchy ; the crown 
 to be conferred on Ferdinand VII. of Spain, pro- 
 vided he would consent to a personal occupation 
 of the throne. 
 
 Although historical scrutiny has not yet been 
 enabled to fathom the secret motives which influ- 
 enced Iturbide in his splendid project beneath the 
 thick veil thrown so carefully around it, the 
 statesman's eye can perceive the cunning hand 
 of English policy working darkly. However, the 
 Viceroy was speedily deposed ; and so soon as 
 they became satusfied of Iturbide's sincerity in 
 erecting the signal of independence, Guerrero and 
 Victoria, with all the survivors of the original j 
 insurgents, and large detachments of Creole 
 troops, rallied to his standard. This fact proves 
 incontestably that the great object, the sole aim 
 of the Mexican revolutionists was not civil lib- 
 erty — of which they had scarcely any conception — 
 but rather the realization of Mexican nationality, 
 to which they have always been so vehemently 
 devoted. 
 
 A Congress soon assembled, and presented, in 
 the division of opinion among its numbers, three 
 powerful parties. The Bourbonists, adhering to 
 the plan of Iguala; the Republicans desii 
 confederation of free States; and the Iturbidists, 
 who sought the elevation of their favorite 
 cral. Here we see two-thirds of the national dep- 
 uties, fresh from the people, and just as they had 
 emerged from the fiery furnace of the I 
 manifesting a decided preference for tb 
 monarchy. But an event, altogether unezp 
 destroyed the hopes of the Bourbonists. The 
 
 provinces became united in a federal republic. 
 Nevertheless, the old monarchical faction, though 
 grievously wounded, was far from being dead, 
 and two years subsequently it revived to fresh life 
 and activity in a most novel and unprecedented 
 form. The masonic societies then extremely nu- 
 merous in Mexico, separated into two opposing 
 parties, under the titles of the £scoces and Yorki- 
 tws, or the Scotch and the York lodges. The 
 first, of Scottish origin, embraced the large pro- 
 prietors, men of the greatest wealth, aristocratic 
 in opinion, and inclined to the establishment of a 
 powerful government, and especially all the par- 
 tisans of a Bourbon dynasty. The Yorkinos, whose 
 organization had been founded by the New York 
 masons, through the agency of Mr. Poinsett, the 
 envoy of the United States, advocated Democi 
 in opposition to both a central and a royal govern- 
 ment, and urged, as the only means of perma- 
 nently pacifying the country, the forcible expul- 
 sion of all the European Spanish residents. 
 
 Thus early we behold the subtle intrigues of 
 English policy, developed in the bosom of M 
 can politics. ' And it is worthy of particular re- 
 membrance, that the first violent breach of the 
 law, and palpable treason to the Government, pro- 
 oeeded from the Scotch taction, when, in I 
 Don Manuel Montano published at i plaa 
 
 for the insurrectionary reformation of the o 
 tution. Civil war followed, with i , rob- 
 
 '.doodshed too horrible for 
 iption, unt ' desertion 
 
 from iblican part Then, the 
 
 unconquerable spirit, of liberty was kept alive no- 
 
 o, save in 
 the previously paltry and ui 
 
13 
 
 Texas, and there it proved to be invincible and 
 immortal. 
 
 To the succeeding events of public Mexican 
 history I need not allude, as they belong in a 
 manner to the annals of our own country. I will 
 only add one startling fact, which is capable of 
 incontrovertible proofs, that the old European and 
 Bourbon faction is still in as vigorous existence as 
 ever; and that very lately, even since the Amer- 
 ican occupation of the Mexican capital, French 
 intrigues have been busy with that party for the 
 enthronement of a European potentate. The i 
 scheme was briefly this — the marriage of Queen | 
 Christina, of Spain, to prince Napoleon, and the 
 inauguration ot their joint reign over the Mexican 
 people. In historical justice, however, I am com- j 
 polled to state, that Santa Anna strenuously ob- 
 jected to the Bonaparte branch of the project, 
 alleging that, as he himself was the Napoleon of 
 the West, he should be deemed entitled to imitate 
 a Napoleonic example — that he would, therefore, 
 put away his antiquated and withered wife, and i 
 wed the Spanish woman, as his great prototype 
 did her of Austria; and thus he would acquire a 
 legitimate right to don the imperial diadem of 
 Spanish succession in the golden halls of the Mon- 
 tezumas ! All this sounds romantic, or ridiculous, 
 as some my£h of the middle ages; and yet it is a 
 sober and ominous reality. 
 
 The imperfect sketch and epitome of Mexican 
 history which I have exhibited, shows conclu- 
 sively that the anarchy and revolution which have 
 so fearfully afflicted that unhappy country, did 
 not, in any inatance, spring from the great body 
 of the people. The storms of civil war agitated 
 the surface, but never extended to the depths, or 
 touched the centre of society. All of them, with- 
 out exception, began and ended with the Euro- 
 pean or Creole Spaniards ; while the aggression 
 and grievance always came from the faction of 
 monarchy, incited and stimulated by foreign in- 
 fluence, or provoked by the dissatisfaction of the 
 clergy. I do not desire to say anything offensive 
 to any man's conscience, or to intimate anything 
 injurious to any system of worship. I regard the 
 discussion of religious subjects as much out of 
 place in the legislative hall as the profane preach- 
 ing of politics in the pulpit, so strangely in fash- 
 ion of late. Religion is exclusively a matter be- 
 tween man, as an immortal and spiritual being, 
 and the Deity whom he is graciously permitted to 
 adore ; and no tribunal or authotity on the earth 
 has a right to scan or criticise that sacred and un- 
 searchable relation. But when this divine institu- 
 tion, the eldest and most beautiful offspring of 
 Heaven, descends from its dignity, and desecrates 
 its holiness in the pollutions of secular and sinful 
 excitement, it loses its celestial prerogative of ex- 
 emption from impugnment, and becomes fairly 
 amenable to human censure. 
 
 The main objection to the clerical order in Mex- 
 ico is not because it is Catholic, but because it is 
 political, the most powerful and grinding mental 
 despotism that ever was established under the 
 Bun. It has no just claim to the character of 
 catholic at all, or in any rational sense. As early 
 as 1502, the King of Spain was constituted head 
 of the American church, to the entire exclusion 
 
 of all separate spiritual jurisdiction, or even apel- 
 late supremacy, on the part of the Roman pontiff. 
 Under this unnatural and Asiatic system of reli- 
 gious domination, devised to secure the civil 
 tyranny of the Spanish Government, the peopk 
 were subjected to a species of intellectual slavery 
 unparalleled in the annals of the world. Their 
 ignorance, idolatry, and almost brutal superstition, 
 rivalled even the frenzied follies of the most unen- 
 lightened pagan lands. The awful weight of a 
 political despotism pressed every sentiment of 
 freedom into the earth ; while the nerce hand of 
 religious intolerance shut the gates of heaven 
 ugainst all humanity that would not purchase a 
 passage to its glory by gold. Like railroad tick- 
 ets, seats were sold for Paradise, but only to the 
 bigoted and the blind. So that now, for more 
 than three centuries, all power has been concen- 
 trated in the priesthood and in the army. The 
 bell and the drum have been the only symbols of 
 authority. Every insurrection has been proclaim- 
 ed by the chimes of the one, or the roar of the 
 other. No spontaneous movements, no explosive 
 eruptions, as of outbreaking volcanic and central 
 fire, have proceeded from the masses, too deeply 
 buried beneath mountains of cruel and stifling op- 
 pression. 
 
 Well, then, may I claim, on the strength of 
 these facts, a full justification of my previous asser- 
 tion, that the Mexican people are as easily gov- 
 erned as any variety of the human race. The 
 proposition has also been demonstrated on the 
 Rio Grande, in Texas, as well as in New Mexico, 
 since the annexation of those regions to the United 
 States. For in both the places mentioned, al- 
 though nine-tenths of the inhabitants are pure 
 Mexicans, and both are border countries, we yet 
 hear of no anarchy, rebellion, bloodshed, or that 
 climax of social disorder which, in Kansas, has 
 disgraced the American name. But even if the 
 truth were different, if the Mexican character were 
 all that its worst enemies and most malignant re* 
 vilers represent it to be, their deduction from the 
 supposed premises would only appear as a more 
 glaring non secpritur ; since, upon every principle 
 ot humanity and self-interest, the greater would 
 be the necessity of American interposition to ame- 
 liorate the dangerous misrule, and tame the savage 
 instincts, of so near and mischievous a neighbor. 
 
 But what method of teaching should we adopt ? 
 Must we take up arms, and educate the ignorant 
 and indocile population of Mexico at the cannon's 
 mouth, or with the ptint of the bayonet? Or 
 should we send troops of filibusters there, to in- 
 struct them in the philosophy of good manners, 
 with bludgeon, bowie-knife, and revolver ? I ad- 
 vocate no such measures. I do not belong to the 
 political school that puts faith in brute force as a 
 motive power of human civilization. I do no* be- 
 lieve that communities can be dragooned into 
 religion, liberty, or the duties and privileges of 
 self-government. In my opinion, we possess far 
 higher and more efficacious means of interfer 
 for Mexican improvement. As the European 
 court-, by their eternal intrigues, give moral aid 
 and comfort to the faction of monarchy, so - 
 i we foster and cherish* the Liberal and Republican 
 I party. We have the power to encourage 
 consolidate it by treaties, by comnn 
 
i 
 
 course, by kino., efforts and 
 
 euergies of a consummate diplomatic skill. 
 
 Let no one urge, in re:-; ridiculous 
 
 fiction that such a course wonid ter.d to a collision 
 with any great nation of Euro] , No Govern- 
 ment on the globe woukl dream of declaring war 
 on a pretext so absurd. The European ;oten- ( 
 tates assume, without question, the bold pivroga- . 
 tive of defending and preserving the ascendency 
 and equilibrium oi despotic institutions on the soil j 
 of the Old World. And shall we not be per- 
 mitted to exercise the same right for the protec- 
 tion of republican principles in the New ? Are : 
 -we not, as well as they, sovereign and independ- 
 Can we not form alliances, and cement re- 
 lations of friendship with other equally sovereign 
 communities, whenever and wherever we choose ? 
 Indeed, there are many and various ways by 
 which we can insure the success of the Liberal 
 party in Mexico. A splendid opportunity of the 
 sort was unaccountably allowed to escape the , 
 present American Administration, when it paid 
 away into hands, which transferred the money , 
 into the pockets of the treacherous tyrant, Santa 
 Anna, three millions of gold ; and that, too, in 
 it opposition to the just and powerful pro- 
 test of the new and republican Government of 
 Mexico, then in the hour of its greatest need. 
 What folly and delusion was this ! What favor to 
 the faction of monarchy — what ungrateful discour- 
 agement and insult to our own political friends! 
 
 But there remains to be stated one mode of 
 promoting the prosperity of Mexico, and of clasp- 
 ing her to our bosom with arms of iron, durable 
 as the everlasting hills — a pacific mode, to which 
 no^ timorous politician at home, nor any insolent 
 diplomatist abroad, can even conjure up the phan- 
 tom of a plausible objection. Build the southern 
 railroad to California. Run it straight along the 
 great line that separates the two countries. Pass 
 it through the low-lying gap of the giant Cordil- 
 leras, there where the very mountains bow down 
 reverently, and recede, as if in anticipation, for. 
 the iron arches, and the transits of their lightning 
 trains. Can the mightiest mathematical mind cal- 
 culate the beneficial consequences of such a deed 
 to the Mexican people ? Even imagination fails to 
 grasp the grandeur and glory of the destinies that 
 might yet be theirs. The sun, which might behold 
 the last rail fastened at San Francisco, or at the 
 junction of the Gila and Colorado of the West, on 
 the Gulf of California, would witness the first day 
 of Mexican redemption. From the main trunk of 
 that grand highway of America and of the world, 
 metallic arms would stretch out and extend far 
 away in every direction, to the silver mountains of 
 Saltillo, and Chihuahua, and to the golden fields 
 of Sonora, and the most distant South. American 
 capital and enterprise would be invited with the 
 warmest welcome to develop the resources of 
 •'.an commerce, and to perfect the process of 
 : :an civilization; and never more in Me 00 
 would be seen again the insidious intrigues of Eng- 
 land ; while never more would be heard the hate- 
 ful terms of monarchy and the Bourbons. The 
 articulation ot such names would become impossi- 
 ble. It is by measures like these that the enlight- 
 d and Christian Governments of modern ages 
 ought to push their conquests, and achieve their 
 
 triumphs, and not by jealous, vindictive, and ruin- 
 ous wars. If, as declared by the Divine Teacher 
 of humanity, it be more blessed to give than to re- 
 ceive, how infinue must be -the national blessing, 
 when every gift of a generous policy i^ a double 
 benefaction — an equation of profit both to the re- 
 cipients and the donors ! 
 
 There is another and strictly philosophic reason 
 why Mexico should always present a subject of 
 anxious consideration for the wisdom and pru- 
 dence of our most eminent statesmen. I allude 
 to the natural tendency of population to expand 
 in a southern direction. It is sometimes made a 
 matter of complaint, and we have listened to it 
 even on. this floor, that all our acquisitions, or, as 
 they are oppiobriously styled, aggressions, have 
 australized towards the tropics, while no annexa- 
 tions seem inclined to advance us any nearer to 
 the ice ol the Arctic circle. Such objectors must 
 surely have forgotten their readings in history. 
 All nations endowed with even savage liberty, or 
 the power of free locomotion, are, and ever have 
 been, urged towards the summer-lands of the 
 South, by the influence of a law as vigorous and 
 as universal as any passion of the human mind. 
 The tide of emigration is repelled by the frozen 
 snows of the wintry north, by its gloomy fort 
 the howling of its angry winds, and the thick-ribbed 
 ice of its polar lakes. On the contrary, the eye as 
 well as the imagination must always dwell with de- 
 light and enthusiasm on the fragrance, beauty, and 
 emerald verdure of those sunny groves where the 
 golden light lives forever on the grass, and the 
 glory of fruit and dowers never fades from the 
 green of the leaf which no frost withers. Hence 
 all great migrations, when not diverted from their 
 natural course of insuperable obstacles, have 
 flowed, as nearly as might be, in the direction of 
 the equator. Witness the multitudinous swarm- 
 ings of the northern hives of the Tartars into 
 China and Hindostan, of the ancient Scythians into 
 Persia and Greece, and the inroads of the Goths, 
 the Germans, the Huns, into all the provinces of 
 the Roman Empire. Therefore, to ask our politi- 
 cians and people to curb their desires and turn 
 their attention from the orange gardens of Cuba, 
 and the palmy fields of Mexico, to seek relief in 
 the barren forests of Canada, or the black fogs of 
 Newfoundland, is .-imply demanding that they 
 should change the constitution of their nature and 
 reverse the everlasting laws of liberty, and even 
 of animal life. 
 
 I do not suggest or approve any invasive or 
 compulsory advances towards the South. I only 
 state a general fact which all prudent and Bagacious 
 statesmen should remember, apply and control, 
 for the progress of civilization and the greatest 
 good of the Bpecies. This natural tendency to 
 austral expansion I would have regulated by a hu- 
 mane and systematic policy as generous as it 
 should be just. I would direct it to the grand 
 objects of a liberal commerce, and the glorious 
 colonization of ideas and institutions rather than 
 of men ; and I would limit it exclusively to the 
 ! natural right of expatriation. 
 
 In the different topics of foreign policy which 
 I have previously examined, we have traced the 
 uniform opposition of England as our constant 
 antagonist. I must, however, admit a broad dis- 
 
15 
 
 tinction in this respect, between the English peo- j 
 pie and the Government of England.- The former, 
 by principle, feeling, habit, and the strongest mo- 
 tives, of self-interest, are, and, as I trust, ever 
 will continue to be, our firmest friends — nay, our 
 very kinsmen and brothers, by all the most holy 
 ties of blood, religion, literature, and language; 
 and every true patriot and intelligent philanthro- 
 pist, every foe to autocratic rule, intolerance, and 
 political barbarism, must deplore as the greatest, 
 the most irremediable calamity that could befall 
 the human species, a collision betwixt the two 
 branches of the Anglo-Saxon family. It would 
 postpone indefinitely, perchance forever, the pros- 
 pects of universal liberty, and reverse, by the 
 length of a thousand years, the march of progress 
 in the true path of improvement and civilization. 
 The bare spectacle would excite outbursts of dia- 
 bolic laughter, bitter mockeries, and shouts of in- 
 fernal glee, in all the courts of despotism through- 
 out the world. The very bones of spiritual and 
 temporal tyrants in the dust of the dark ages 
 would rattle in their graves for joy ! While clas- 
 sic Greece, beautiful but bowed down Italy, and 
 bleeding Hungary, agonized with her recent 
 wounds, and all the persecuted Democrats of Eu- 
 rope, and every lover of freedom on land and sea, 
 would together weep tears of fiery torture, and 
 veil their eyes from the appalling vision of sorrow 
 and shame! I do not exaggerate. Imagination 
 has no midnight colors dark enough to draw the 
 horrors of the picture ; nor can I entertain a doubt, 
 that such is the general sentiment and opinion of 
 both the English and the American people. 
 
 Unfortunately, the Government of England is 
 deeply imbued with the spirit and views of an ex- 
 clusive and intensely selfish aristocracy — a privi- 
 leged and powerful class, the most jealously wedded 
 to antiquated forms and obsolete policy, and, at the 
 same time, the most pertinacious and unyielding 
 to novel influences, of any now on the earth, or of 
 which history has preserved the faintest record. 
 Their prejudices seem to be hereditary, and all 
 their principles, good as well as evil, follow the 
 lawful line of descent, like their titles and estates. 
 This order, at the epoch of the Revolution, con- 
 ceived an idea of political and commercial antago- 
 nism to the United States, which all the lessons of 
 subsequent experience, and even the clearest de- 
 monstrations of a priori reasoning, have not ena- 
 bled them to unlearn. By some strange and un- 
 accountable process of cogitation, imperceptible 
 and intangible to the rules of ordinary logic, they 
 appear to conjecture, or vaguely imagine, that 
 American greatness can be nothing else but an 
 arithmetical subtraction from English glory, and 
 that every gain of ours is a positive loss to them. 
 It is true, this very ridiculous and savage theory 
 was sufficiently cuiTent during the dark and stupid 
 ignorance of the feudal ages, when the aggrandize- 
 ment of one country nev<_-r failed to be considered 
 the disgrac3 and ruin of all the rest ; when de- 
 stroying wars were undertaken for no other pur- 
 pose than the preservation of the balance of trade, 
 as they are now waged to keep stable the equi- 
 poise of power. However, that mistaken and pre- 
 posterous notion, the offspring of national jeal- 
 ousy, has long since been exploded, and by none 
 more effectually than by the English writers them- 
 
 selves. Nevertheless, all in vain do the tat. 
 of commerce, and all the wonderful facts of tin 
 half century, proclaim that American and English 
 prosperity sustain the immutable relation of logi- 
 cally necessary correlatives to each other; in vain 
 do the English laboring and manufacturing cla.-yi ■<, 
 and the wisest of English statesmen, urge and 
 prove the same great and well-nigh self-evident, 
 truth. The English Government remains incura- 
 bly blind, or else perversely shuts its eyes to the 
 light of all history, and even common sense — pre- 
 tending not to see that the extension of American 
 territory increases the area of the English market, 
 and augments incalculably the number of English 
 customers — that the annexation of Cuba, and even 
 of Central America and the whole of Mexico, if 
 such projects were entertained, (as they are not,) 
 would be a virtual commercial annexation to Eng- 
 land herself, and almost or quite as beneficial to 
 her as to us. Yet the aristocratic order in Great 
 Britain still pursue, as steadily as ever, the old, 
 sightless path of their policy in reference to this 
 country, in spite alike of reason, interest, and the 
 tamest remonstrances of the English people. 
 Their plan, from the first, has been to cut us off 
 from the possibility of territorial extension towards 
 the great Southwest — to encircle and hem us in 
 with a strong cordon of military posts and colonial 
 settlements — to vex and stun our ear3 with the 
 music of that mighty drum which it is her imperial 
 boast to roll around the world, beating time for 
 the morning march of the ever- rising sub. 
 
 The English Government was preparing to seize 
 the vast domain of Louisiana, when the quick dis- 
 cernment of Mr. Jefferson, and the consummate 
 sagacity of Napoleon, defeated the scheme by a 
 transfer to the United States. Had she succeeded,, 
 we would have been fenced in at the South, as- 
 well as on the North, by British possessions. It 
 is difficult to realize, either in fact or fancy, ah the 
 consequences of such an event. The Union would 
 have been cruelly compressed as betwixt the 
 forces of the two gigantic arms ; the one urging us 
 away from the great lakes, and the other pushing 
 us from the Gulf of Mexico. There could have 
 been no space or opportunity for expansion. We 
 never should have heard the names of such States 
 as Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, or Louisiana. There- 
 could have been no Territories of Minnesota, Kan- 
 sas, Nebraska, Washington, Utah, or Oregon. 
 For us, all the wide regions of the now rich and 
 populous West, radiant with its brilliant stars, 
 would have been either a dreary desert, 01 inhab- 
 ited by an alien and adverse Power. The effect 
 must have proved equally deplorable and disas- 
 trous on the eastern side of the Alleghany 
 mountains. There would have been no lines of 
 railroad, no lighting wires, to span the gulf of 
 distance, stretching away from the Atlantic sea- 
 board to the forests of Missouri, or even the prai- 
 ries of Illinois. Boston, Philadelphia, and Balti- 
 more, would have been petty and incon f iderable 
 towns, and only New York would have numbered 
 some fifty, or perhaps a hundred thousand pc | 
 
 The brightest pages of our national annals would 
 be blotted out, or rather, would never have been — 
 all our victories on land, lake, or ocean, the con- 
 quests in Mexico, and the ascension of Califor- 
 nia's star. Even our mercantile marine, watched 
 
16 
 
 everywhere by the tvrant of the peas, must have i icy of American repression? Would it not be a 
 crept timidly around our own shores, engaged mortal blow to the most lucrative branch of her 
 chieflv in coast commerce. New Orleans would trade ? Would it not arrest the spring tides of 
 have been a British capital; and the yawning civilization precisely at that point where they roll 
 mouths of British cannon would have commanded ' the fullest, and rise the highest? Does not Eng- 
 Natchez Vicksburg, Memphis, and the debouch- land know that the grand, the tremendous issues 
 tire of every lar^e 'river that empties its waters of the age, and of all the after ages, is made up 
 into the great Mississippi. The height of St. ' and pending between political absolutism and con- 
 Louis would have frowned on Illinois with huge stitutional government? On the one side, behold 
 fortifications as strong in proportion as those of all the coalesced despotisms of Europe, pledged by 
 Quebec or Gibraltar;" and Ohio, Kentucky, Ten- their ideas and interests to quench forever, in 
 nessee, Wisconsin, all our half of the imsiense 
 western valley, that teeming mother of- Si 
 would have possessed no outlet to the highway 
 of the ocean. And from this degrading, destiny of 
 fixed everlasting inferiority, we were rescued by 
 the wisdom and firmness of the same grand mind, 
 to whose Wonderful intuitions and far-casting 
 foresight, we also stand indebted for the Declara- 
 tion c? Independence, and the existence of the true 
 Democratic idea in its purity aud power. 
 
 But again : when the enterprise and prowess of 
 our sons wrested the beautiful province of Texas 
 from the mingled anarchy and despotism of Mexi- 
 can misrule, faithful to her ancient policy of 
 American repression, England immediately 
 meuced her intrigues for the virtual control and 
 
 supremacy over the fortunes of the new State. | States should be a poor, feeble, ineffectual 
 She exerted all the cunning of her diplomacy, [ with no voice or authority amon? i 
 proffered enormous commercial bribes, called in j 
 to aid her the authority of France, and protested ] 
 and implored by turns, against the project of an- 
 nexation. Her purpose, as ever, was to surround 
 and hedge us in, to erect an impassable barrier 
 against the march of American institutions in the 
 direction of Mexico and the Isthmus of Panama. 
 
 Once more, that English policy was met and 
 discomfited, not so much by the genius of Amer- 
 ican statesmen, as by the intuitive sagacity and 
 the indomitable spirit of the American people, in 
 accordance with the prudence and patriotism of 
 the Texan politicians. And now, baffled in all her 
 antecedent schemes for the forcible restrainment 
 of free institutions, like a drowning man, England 
 catches at the straw of Central America. She 
 would seize th it as a bastioned fortification against 
 the progress of American ideas and energies to- 
 wards the regions of the equator; but this attempt 
 must prove as vain as any of the others. Govern- 
 ments, however penetrating or potent they may 
 he, have no strength or cunning to control the 
 laws that determine the great tides of emigration, 
 the geographical distribution of the human species 
 on the earth's surface. By a calm and philosoph- 
 ical contemplation of the past, by a logical com- 
 parison of its unerring indications, by mastering 
 the mathematical ratio of American progression, 
 the clear English mind, if it had not been de- 
 tracted and obscured by obsolete prejudices, might, 
 long ago, have calculated the course of American 
 destiny, with the same certainty of science which 
 notes "the precession of the equinoxes, or predicts 
 future eclipses in the heavens. 
 
 America might, with confidence, appeal to the 
 strong common sense of England herself, and in- 
 quire what she could have gained, what sb 
 ever hope to gain, or what humanity and the great 
 cause of liberal institutions could possibly, in any 
 event, profit by the success of her chimerical pol- 
 
 darkest night, the last ray of regulated liberty ; on 
 the other, we perceive alone the little isle that 
 gems the northern ocean, and the descendants 
 from the same stock in the western hemisphere. 
 The final contest betwixt these irreconcilable op- 
 posites may be delayed by temporary expedients, 
 by truces under the name of treaties, and by hol- 
 low alliances more unnatural and dangerous than 
 a state of open war. But still the day of battle 
 must dawn at last. And where, in that dreadful 
 struggle of nations, can England expect either 
 sympathy or assistance, save from the land inher- 
 iting her blood, her laws, her liberties, and her 
 language ? Could she wish, in the crisis of that 
 hour, the most awfully momentous to humanity 
 which the world has yet witnessed, that the United 
 
 ower, 
 
 the potentates 
 
 of the earth S 
 
 I am aware that a class of British statesmen er- 
 roneously suppose us to be natural and hereditary 
 enemies, rather than friends and admirers of Eng- 
 land ; and they offer, as a proof of the assumption, 
 the general and notorious sympathy of our people 
 for Kussia in the late European war. But, if such 
 were the fact, England can only attribute the ex- 
 istence of the feeling to the previous and jealous 
 conduct of her own Government in reference to 
 American affairs. We remembered with pain the 
 Anglo-French intrigues in Texas. We were ap- 
 prized of her intention to cut off our necessary 
 transits through Central America. We appre- 
 hended her purpose to Africanize Cuba; and, 
 therefore, we saw with boundless astonishment, 
 and no little alarm, the installation of the French 
 alliance. We thought it an unnatural and extra- 
 ordinary political phenomenon, a conjunction of 
 contradictories; and having learned the privilege 
 of free expression from English teachers, we said 
 so. But our surprise and disapprobation were 
 converted into sterner sentiments when Lord 
 Clarendon proclaimed, in Parliament, that the 
 happy accord and good understanding between 
 France aud England extended beyond the eastern 
 policy to all portions of the two hemispheres. 
 We knew, and felt, that this was a menace aimed 
 at us ; aud hence, during all the changes of the 
 conflict which raged in Europe, the people of the 
 United States believed most firmly and sincerely 
 that, in the event of eminent and decisive success 
 on the part of the Western Powers, flushed with 
 victory, and insolent in the pride of its strength, 
 they would turn their combined forces to active 
 intervention in matters of American policy. And, 
 if we were indeed mistaken, the words and actions 
 of the English Government created the delusion. 
 How, then, can Briti:h statesmen wonder that 
 the reverberations of vheir conquering cannon, 
 
17 
 
 from the hills and plains of the distant Crimea, 
 awakened no warm welcome of generous enthusi- 
 asm, but terror and dismay rather, in American 
 'bosoms, when they might expect soor. to be ap- 
 palled by the sound of these same engines of fiery 
 destruction thundering at their own doors? 
 
 The great practical question will, however, 
 doubtless be urged — how shall we remove the 
 obstinate prejudice of the English aristocracy, so 
 long and so unreasonably entertained against the 
 progress of American institutions? In what man- 
 ner shall we act, so as to effect a change in her 
 cherished policy of American repression ? Now, 
 one thing is clear, as a Girting point, beyond all 
 criticism or controversy, that the American peo- 
 ple will never permit, on this continent, the ex- 
 jion of the European plan of interference for 
 the preservation of the balance of power. Ex- 
 plode the Monroe doctrine over and over a thou- 
 sand times, and still our people will never toll 
 European interposition to check their growth, or 
 confine their greatness — never, while they keep 
 even the shadow or semblance of an independent 
 sovereignty. The feeling is as strong and irrever- 
 sible as the ocean tides — as immovable as the 
 American mountains. The principle was embraced 
 e infancy of the Government, and it will not 
 be abandoned in the rigor and fullness cf A 
 
 manhood. To imagine such a possibility is 
 madness. What course, then, must we pursue? 
 Shall we declare war, or adopt measures, the indi- 
 rect tendency of which will lead to hostilities, for 
 the purpose of securing the recognition of this our 
 favorite popular d, . 
 
 As I have sai >re, I, for one, advocate no 
 
 short-sighted or imprudent policy. I belong 
 to the school of politicians who believe that the 
 most energetic and efficient prosecution of 
 as well as all our other national rights, may be 
 conducted by pacific methods, and in a state of 
 profound peace. 1 am a friend of American pro- 
 gress, and therefore do not wi3h to see anything 
 done which might arrest its march or diminish the 
 ratio of it3 cumulative motion. Hence, I am op- 
 posed to war ; for I am well satisfied that a collis- 
 sion with any great European Power would put us 
 back in the path of our unexampled prosperity the 
 distance of a hundred years. But yet I would pre- 
 fer war, with the perilous hazard of all its unknown 
 •chances and contingencies, rather than a tame and 
 servile acquiescence in the limitation which any 
 Government or coalition of Governments, should 
 attempt to impose as the definite and arbitrary 
 boundary of our expansion in thi3 hemisphere; be- 
 cause the precedent of such a submission, ani the 
 existence of so pliable a spirit on our part, instead 
 of delaying, would defeat our destiny fc 
 Nevertheless, I repeat there can be no danger of a 
 war, especially witii England, if we follow the dic- 
 tates of a wise ani systematic policy — if we touch 
 not that tender point, the true inteiests of her 
 people, and content ourselves with the cultivation 
 ■of our own. For she will certainly fight any day, 
 ason and out of season, and against any odds, to 
 •protect her proper glory and greatness, but 
 to deprive us of ours. We possess means of com- 
 bat of the most pacific description, greater 
 •the mightiest armaments of all Europe combined. 
 Every strong stalk of that green rustling corn 
 
 which grows in the prairies of Illinois and 
 consin, is equipollent to any French musket, or the 
 more deadly Minie rifle; and every bale of cotton 
 from the fields of Texas and South Carolina pre- 
 sents a counterpoise for a British paixhan. They 
 may boast of their naval strength; we rejoic 
 one more natural, less costly, and far more com- 
 prehensive. In response to the splendid and 
 menacing pageants of all their Baltic fleets, we can 
 point to the great granaries of the West ; and in 
 opposition to the Sevastopol, which they only half 
 captured by their arms, we can show them a world 
 which we have wholly conquered by the arts of 
 peace. Such are our resources ; and while we em- 
 ploy them justly and discreetly in the defence of 
 our own rights, not to assail the privileges of 
 others, there can be no danger of collision with 
 any foreign country, and nothing to dread if it 
 should occur. 
 
 Especially with respect to England, the plainest 
 principles of common honesty and good sense alike 
 indicate the policy which we ought to pin 
 
 e obvious distinction that feeling, 
 interest, habit, and education have all contributed 
 to draw and deepen betwixt th English people 
 and their aristocratic Government, rendeiing the 
 one • 3 and nl'ie-, and the other, 
 
 from unreas judi< es, inimi • I to our pro- 
 
 gress, we should so conduct our measures as to 
 the former, and then we may safely disre- 
 gard the latter as being utterly impotent without 
 •port of the English ms 
 Now, turning to another branch of the same 
 general subject, in my judgment, and in the opin- 
 ion of the American people, the time has fully 
 come when the policy of the United States can no 
 longer be bounded by the limits of this continent, 
 or by the more insignificant dimensions of Europe, 
 ust be extended as widely as the diffusion of 
 mmercial intercourse, to every region of the 
 □ world. I believe, sir, that the privilege of 
 free and unrestricted trade and travel to all parts 
 of the globe is not only the natural right, but the 
 positive duty of the human race, as the very 
 - and design of Providence for the civiliza- 
 tion of the species, and the only means of their 
 advancement to the highest ultimate perfection. 
 I do not admit, but spurn as an utter and impious 
 absurdity, the old, effete, and barbarous doctrine 
 of intolerable despotism, carried out to its climax 
 of ignorant and stupid folly in the foreign system 
 of the Japanese — that anyone nation can justly 
 cjaim the legal prerogative to exclude another from 
 amicable communication with its subjects, or from 
 illy profitable traffic within its borders. Nor 
 can I recognise the insoleut pretensions of any 
 Power to monopolize the products of a particular 
 on this broad and beautiful earth, the com- 
 mon inheritance of all its children by the will and 
 >m of the univeisal Father. I can see no 
 warrant in the laws of nature and reason for 
 barri:.- On the land, than for shot- 
 
 own the great gates of the ocean. Indeed, 
 ity has demonstrated a different doc- 
 iu the clearest manger, as well by the natu- 
 re instincts implanted 
 
 the motley map of the world, and 
 ngular distribution of nations and races, what 
 
 
IS 
 
 extraordinary spectacle of dismemberment and 
 'eraity is presented in the picture ! You per- 
 ve the great whole of humanity broken up into 
 gments, and scattered afar, apparently «ithout 
 1 or order, round the irregular surface of islands 
 1 continents — separated by lakes, rivers, and 
 asureless seas — sundered by savage mountains, 
 i wastes of desert sand ; but more than all, by 
 ional prejudices — the fierce antipathies of dif- 
 ent religions, governments, and laws. Every- 
 ere you witness hostilities, hatreds, wars, so 
 it you are tempted to doubt the possibility of 
 f fuiure harmony among such elements of end- 
 s discord, and almost despair for the destiny of 
 in. What principle of affinity or coalescence 
 ill bring together these repulsory masses — these 
 posing nations and races — in a permanent and 
 ffitable contact of friendship and peace ? 
 
 Behold the power of social attraction in the 
 irit of commerce ! This alone can draw the 
 ap\e of divided or distant countries towards 
 ffi other, and evolve the beauty of systematic 
 ier, with the precious principle of progressive 
 ivement, out of the deep chaos and wild war 
 lich reign over the adverse communities of the 
 rid. Each geographical locality of' the globe is 
 tiiiguished by some peculiar characteristic of 
 ^etable, mineral, or animal wealth. One pro- 
 ces cotton, or coffee, and another corn. This 
 lis rich in silver; that coast contains pearls, 
 i the rocks of yonder mountain glitter with 
 tins of gold. The torrid land of eternal summer 
 Ids tropical fruits, while the snows of the frozen 
 rth teem with furs and wool. No region, how- 
 sr, is omniferous. But man, the common in- 
 bitant of each, is omnivorous and all necessi- 
 19. His insatiable desires and urgent wants 
 maud whatever can charm the eye, please the 
 late, or gratify the luxurious nerves of the other 
 lses. lie yearns for articles of food, or orna- 
 nts of fashion, that can only come across tke 
 iau or continent, from the antipodal distance 
 the earth's diameter. And here you perceive 
 5 natural and necessary cause, the law of God 
 maelf, which originated commerce. 
 
 Xow look at the consequences. In order to 
 verse remote countries, or to engage in trade 
 th different races, navigation must be invented, 
 iguages, must be studied, and formal or tacit 
 aties of friendship must be cemented betwixt 
 ; inter-communicating people. Very soon the 
 •re friction of habitual contact wears away the 
 le angular asperities of ignorance and national 
 .'judice, and a feeling of sympathy and union 
 pervenes in the pleasant consciousness of re- 
 >r6caJ profit. Thus, in the very fact ol 
 
 which seemed to sever them as widely 
 the poles, has Providence interpolated a pro- 
 ion for the ultimali and concord of 
 :■ bum 
 
 e absolute right, of course 
 
 long all t . .is an 
 
 le corollary, 
 
 , :y in t!i- COi 
 
 ■ of i'i- creatures, wfch the' impossibility of 
 atificati ins of us< I 
 
 d the wants and wishes of the race, the gi 
 - of the greatest number, qj 
 
 recognised as the sole measure of social and polit- 
 ical right and wrong. 
 
 Let me now turn to a country where you will 
 find the most noble and ample field for the appli- 
 cation of these fruitful principles. I allude to the 
 great islands and fairy islets that gem the Eastern 
 Archipelago, enveloped and floating, as it were, 
 in the waters of both the Pacific and Indian 
 oceans, and the luminous sea of China. There 
 lies the ancient land, perhaps the very cradle of 
 the human race, yet now almost utterly unknown 
 and isolated. It is tinged with the colors of clas- 
 sical allusion and covered with the gorgeous mist 
 of romance and imagination, like a sort of elfin 
 paradise or Eden of the waves. It is that other 
 world which the wonderful genius of Alexander 
 the Great wisely wept to behold and conquer, but 
 in vain. Glance at your map. How lovely it 
 looks! — that imperial expanse so justly called 
 Oceanica, for the liquid territories of the globe 
 can present no other such grand pictorial group- 
 ing of islands and island-continents. To realize 
 its full effect, suppose yourself endowed with tele- 
 scopic powers of vision, and take your stand on 
 the summit of the Crystal Mountains in Borneo, 
 the largest of the insular circle. You are sur- 
 rounded everywhere by a magnificent panorama 
 of peninsulas and islands, like magical devices or 
 fairy frostwork of the sea, as if the very waves, 
 agitated by the breath of Heaven, had been sud- 
 denly erystalized into forms of ineil'able beauty. 
 Beneath your feet is Borneo, almost a continent in 
 itself, being nine hundred miles in length and 
 eight hundred in breadth — that is to say, as vast 
 in extent as from Maine to Virginia, and from the 
 Atlantic sea-board to the shores of the great lakes, 
 and with a population of at least four millions of 
 souls. Nor is this broad territory a barren or un- 
 productive domain. It abounds in rice, yams, 
 betel, spices, and all the luxuriant fruits of India. 
 Wild bees fill its forests with wax and honey, and 
 among its crytal caverns the salangane swallow 
 builds its edible nests. Its coasts are rich in pearl 
 and mother-of-pearl, and its mountains sparkle 
 with precious stones. Some idea may be conceiv- 
 ed of its wealth in diamonds from the fact that the 
 petty prince of t Maltan owns a single one worth a 
 million Mid two hundred thousand dollars, while 
 gold is found in quantities that seem absolutely 
 labulous. There, too, the female form develops 
 its most sensual fascinations, and the Indian 
 dancing-girls bewilder even a European eye by the 
 artistic evolutions of their agility and grace. 
 Maivel not at this, for you are in the laud of ever- 
 lasting summer, the far-famed and fiery Orient, 
 where the very sunbeams appear to sow the earth 
 with jewels, as it were a rain of stars. Now look 
 towards the east; beyond Celebes, and a little 
 south of the (laming equator, you discover Papua, 
 or New Guinea, nearly equal to Borneo in super- 
 ficial oteasurement and the number of its in' 
 
 oaring mountains rise above each 
 other, in three successive ranges, until their vol- 
 
 iow; 
 thus combining, in the itude, all s varie- 
 
 Ou 
 
 • of Papua, you behold , that 
 
 of five peninsulas— the smallest of 
 
 which is as large -with three mil- 
 
If- 
 
 lions of people, of the Archipelago. 
 
 There, as in the rest of the georgeous cluster, the 
 green leaf never fades, and flowery and fruit blend 
 their charms around the glowing circle of the sea- 
 sons. Craze, then, towards the west, where Suma- 
 tra sleeps like an island of enchantment on the 
 shining waters. It is as large as all our eastern 
 States, with New York added to them, and con- 
 tains a population of four million Malays. Its out- 
 lines are pictureque in the extreme, being a thou- 
 sand miles in length to only one hundred and sixty 
 in breadth, with the most sublime mountain seen- ; 
 ery, relieved by visioi s of lovely lakes and valleys 
 of indescribable beauty. It is celebrated for its 
 tin, iron, copper, and gold, with all the vegetable ; 
 glory of its oceanic sisters. Turn, next, towards ; 
 the south ; to the coffee-fields and spice-forests of 
 Java. It has about the extent of Cuba, and is 
 peopled by eleven millions of the most docile and 
 industrious race in that part of the eastern hemis- 
 phere. In its splendid groves, palms and cocoa 
 trees tower up to the height of a hundred and 
 fifty feet, and the soil ia of such astonishing fer- 
 tility as to render the labor of tillage almost un- 
 necessary. Sweep again the jeweled circle of the 
 surrounding seas, and you find not less than a 
 hundred other islets, each, on an average, as spa- 
 cious as Delaware. The whole of the Archipelago, 
 with the internal straits, passages, and bays, con- 
 stitute an area as gr&at as that of the United States, 
 with all our vast Territories, and swarms with an 
 active and energetic population of a least twenty-? 
 seven millions of souls, according to the most re- 
 cent and accurate data. 
 
 The soil of these islands being of volcanic ori- 
 gin, and situated under a tropical sun, is wonder- 
 fully fertile. Two. or even three crops of rice, 
 the staple article of food, may be grown in the 
 same year. The little Isle of Bali, which is not 
 more than sixty miles long and forty-five broad, is 
 peopled by nearly a million of inhabitants, and ex- 
 ported, last season, fifty tons of rice to China, and 
 three thousand cattle, of the small buffalo breed, 
 to various Indian ports. The natives of this di- 
 minutive State are as warlike as they are laborious 
 in their habits, and have successfully resisted the 
 cruel encroachments of the Dutch. Of coffee and 
 sugar, the well-known products of Java, the ex- 
 ports, the preceding year, amounted to $85,000,- 
 000 ; pepper, the staple of Sumatra, with camphor, 
 gutta percha, cassia, aloes, and its precious woods, 
 yields a revenue of $15,000,000 annually. Borneo 
 sends abroad the worth of $10,000,000 in gold, 
 diamonds, and other valuable articles. However, 
 as a large portion of the trade in all these islands 
 is/in Chinese, or inter-insular hands, there are no 
 sufficient data to determine its precise valuation. 
 
 The sum total of exports from that segment of 
 the archipelagic circle under the administrative 
 control of the Dutch, and which is about one- 
 third of the whole, has been stated in official re- 
 turns at $45,000,000, and yields to the Govern- 
 ment of Holland a clear income of $9,1 H il >,0< M \ I ; 
 which she is enabled to pay the interest of her 
 enormous national debt. And thus the political 
 power of the Hague is only saved from utter bank- 
 ruptcy and ruin by the coffee of Java, the pepper 
 of Sumatra, the tin of Banca, and the precious 
 spices of the Moluccas. From the rest of the 
 
 Archipelago, as yet unaffected by the approac 
 of European domination, it is supposed that the 
 active traders of China, Muscat, and other coun- 
 tries, who swarm in those placid seas with their 
 junks, prahus, and light feluccas, carry on a com 
 coerce in gums, spices, and edible birds' nests, 
 betel, oil, cocoa-nuts, pearls, gold, and all th 
 licious fruits of India, to an amount not less than 
 |50,000,000. So the trade altogether of Europe- 
 ans and natives will exceed $100,000,000. But 
 yet it must be manifest that scarcely a tenth part 
 of the resources and almost fabulous wealth of 
 those rich islands has been developed. New 
 Guinea, which is nearly four times as large as 
 Java, produces annually but one or two millions, 
 while the latter presents $40,000,0100. Indeed, 
 the greatest jewel of this oceanie diadem is quite u 
 recent discovery, and remains for the most part 
 entirely unknown. Its inexhaustible trea- 
 are buried in its own deep forests, and have not 
 been touched by European hands. 
 
 England, usually so forward in maritime enter- 
 prises, would long ago have grasped the comniet' ■ 
 of these great islands, if she had not been com- 
 pelled by the other Powers, on the pacification of 
 Europe in 1816, to leave them under the nominal 
 jurisdiction of the Dutch. France has been 
 much absorbed in her dynastic revolutions and 
 wars of ambition to prosecute any grand sch 
 of oriental acquisitions. Moreover, as an able 
 writer in the Revue des Deux Mondes has observed : 
 
 " It is the interest of continental Europe to d 
 Holland in her possessions in the Indian ocean, 
 barrier against the encroachments of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race in Australia and India, and now pressing 
 wards from the Pacific borders of America." 
 
 Thus, as that intelligent traveller, Captain Gib- 
 son, has remarked : 
 
 "The Dutch alone have gained a foothold in the 
 East Indian archipelago; but impotent by nature to 
 conquer or destroy the wealth they so much covet. 
 they have done little more than to menace ttie shores 
 of these islands with a shadowy and unsubstantial 
 power." 
 
 The further and full cultivation of this prolific 
 field is held in reserve by Providence for the 
 genius of Americans. The American character 
 has already found an access to the oriental confi- 
 dence, which has never been accorded to Euro- 
 pean intercourse. Our commercial policy, aiming 
 rather to enrich than to ruin, is well calculated to 
 : insure this result. England will fail to convince 
 the most credulous people of Asia, that her friend- 
 | ship seeks not the spoils of their industry while 
 I all India lies prostrate and bleeding at her feet. 
 ; Holland has evinced still more ruthless barbarity 
 ! in her dealings with the natives of the archipelago. 
 But America alone can proudly point out to the 
 Fast a brilliant example of the beauty of her prin- 
 ciples and generous raoderatiou of her power, il 
 the enlightenment and regeneration of th< E 
 with Islands ; while the fact seems still more 
 Striking, from its remarkable contrast with the 
 wretched condition of the military* possessions of 
 i both F.ngland and France at the Marquesas and 
 Society groups. Nevertheless, our enterprising 
 sons have not yet dared to venture within the 
 charmed circle of Dutch exclusion. They have 
 en to travel where they had a perfec 
 
20 
 
 ight to trade — among the beautiful islands of that 
 ree Indian ocean. The merchant of Boston or 
 5alem, proceeding through the Straits of Sunda 
 )r Malacca, on his way to China, is not. allowed 
 and penetrate the bays and harbors of 
 bat gorgeous group inviting hi? attention, without 
 soming in collision with the maritime police of the 
 Netherlands, which incessantly watches those 
 leas, and with no more foundation in natural right 
 )r national law than Danish toll or Algerine trib- 
 lte. Our traders entertain the common opinion 
 )f the who'e country, that whatever outrage they 
 night suffer must be submitted to in silence, with- 
 >ut the hope of redress from their own Govern- 
 nent, or only after so long delay and so much im- 
 portunity and expense a3 would render the cost 
 )f reparation equivalent to the original wrong. 
 
 There is a pointed instance of this fact now 
 inder the consideration of the Committee on 
 foreign Affairs. Captain Walter M. Gibson, an 
 imerican traveller of great genius, intelligence, 
 md intrepidity, five years ago set sail in his own 
 vessel to explore the Islands of the Indian seas, 
 »nd pioneer a way for American commerce. In 
 ;he exercise of his undoubted right, he proceeded 
 ;o visit the interior of Sumatra, and entered into 
 imicable relations with the native &nd independ- 
 ent chieftains, for the purpose of securing import- 
 int commercial advantages to his country. His 
 sntire career presents the unusual spectacle of 
 ivarm love for enlightened adventure, tempered 
 ay a philosophic spirit, and the most genial hu- 
 nanity in ardent sympathy with the species under 
 ivhatever conditions of custom, rel'gion, or race. 
 Ee remembered that the leading maritime nations 
 Df Europe had tried their skill in the East on the 
 principles of terror and subjugation, without the 
 ittainment of any distinguished or honorable suc- 
 cess, and he desired to see what could be effected 
 by the American policy of friendship, affinity, and 
 soothing assimilation. And Captain Gibson's ex- 
 perience opens a luminous and enlarged vista into 
 the future of our relations with that lovely quarter 
 af the world, which looks almost like a dream of 
 E^lory of the strangest enchantment. We are now 
 enabled to realize why it was that the Dutch Gov- 
 ernment exerted all its strength and cunning to 
 ulose the eyes of civilized Powers from these scenes 
 of oriental magnificence and wonderful wealth. 
 And we can Bee, besides, what a grand mistake 
 they committed in transforming the mere curious 
 traveller into a martyr for native independence, 
 thus conferring upon an American, who never 
 thought of such a distinction, an extraordinary in- 
 fluence over a people, who are now led to beiiere 
 that, in some manner, his fate was blend. 
 their own. 
 
 And from the gloomy prison of WYltevreden 
 
 g for the 
 oppressed Malay a 
 
 lisjudge 
 
 awaken permanent 
 
 I 
 
 talaj 
 
 1 
 
 the Arabs, and mingled with them by intermar- 
 riage until they have become separated from their 
 original stock, and form a distinct nationality. In 
 their physical appearance, they are lithe and nerv- 
 ous, with eyes full of fire, brilliancy, and passion- 
 ate enthusiasm. Their prowess amounts to des- 
 peration, and all their emotions are lively and 
 impetuous. Nor have they been unknown to 
 history. In the thirteenth century they acted a 
 splendid part on the theatre of Asia, both in war 
 and commerce, founding a great empire in Malac- 
 ca, and conquering or colonizing rnoit of the In- 
 dian islands. But at present their nobility are 
 divided by a barbarous feudal system ; and the in- 
 herent energies of the race have been long re- 
 pressed by the intolerable despotism of the Dutch 
 proconsular regime. 
 
 But before I conclude this subject, let me take- 
 another and wider sweep around the circle of those 
 jeweled sea3. Yonder, far away to the West, are 
 the cinnamon woods of Ceylon — that cradle of the 
 ancient worship of Buddha. In its soil he imbed- 
 ded twenty different kinds of precious stones, such 
 as the ruby, sapphire, and flaming amethyst; while 
 silver and gold glitter almost as plentuous as peb- 
 bles in the beds of its gushing streams ; and every 
 forest is laden with the delicious fruits of the trop- 
 ics. Above it may be seen the grand peninsular 
 of India, like the angle of an acute triangle, thrust 
 far out into the ocean, betwixt the famous bay of 
 Bengal and the Arabian sea. Still nearer your 
 stand-point of Borneo's crystal mountains, in the 
 direction of the northwest, you behold a narrow 
 peninsular more than a thousand miles in length, 
 resembling an immense sword, the sharp end of 
 which almost touches Sumatra. That is Malacca,, 
 the old land of the Malays. 
 
 Now look towards the East, beyond Celebes,, 
 and you discover the resplendent Spice Islands, 
 the clove trees of Amboyna, and the nutmegs of 
 Banda. Everywhere you see the gorgeous group 
 teeming with cocoas and bread fruit, and with all 
 the luxuries of the voluptuous East. The very 
 air is a sweetened ocean of intoxicating perfumes \ 
 and the brilliant birds of Paradise gild the groves 
 with their rainbow plumage. Or, gaze northwards,, 
 far away, at the lovely family of the Philippines, 
 twelve hundred in number, all rich in rice, coffee, 
 gold, silver, and in every flower and fruit of the 
 tropics. 
 
 At every point you may behold the symbols of 
 English, French, Spanish, or Dutch domination ; 
 for all these Powers own ports and possessions in 
 the Indian seas ; but stili nowhere can you dis- 
 cover the starry flag of republican freedom waving 
 2 int winds which blow from these islam! a 
 of the Blest. Why i< this ? How shall we account 
 for so strange an anomaly as this perverse exclu- 
 of American authority and enterpric 
 
 I flower gardens of the Orient? Has 
 
 dity of our English parents, or the 
 
 of our elder brothers in Europe, 
 
 monopolized and divided out the globe, by their 
 
 le of primog no dower 
 
 I child in 
 
 If such be 
 
 ion, the crazy will must be re- 
 
 id. The enl a should he set aside. 
 
 ill and void, as contrary to the Am- 
 
21 
 
 damcntal laws — the higher decrees of Providence. I deed, who can calculate the future riches of that 
 The ■ palates of our people must be allowed to wide and inviting field for the work of the Chris- 
 
 
 taste the nectarine fruits of God that grow on 
 those far-off Indian trees. Our adventurous sons 
 must be suffered to carry the blessings of religion 
 and civilization into the ever-blooming bosom of 
 each lovely island — to render them, one and all, 
 radiant with a splendor sweeter than the sunlight, 
 and brighter than the stars. The modest maidens 
 of America have an equal right with any queens 
 of the other hemisphere to the golden ore of Su- 
 matra, and the flashing diamonds of Borneo, to 
 adorn their native beauty, and gem their bridal 
 hair. 
 
 But it should never be forgotten that every great 
 movement in the march of humanity involves far 
 higher considerations than the sordid gains of 
 commerce — than any mere material advancements 
 or acquisitions, however interesting, permanent, 
 or imposing. Philanthropy and religion alike re- 
 gard the moral and intellectual wants of the spe- 
 cies as inconceivably more important than their 
 physical prosperity. Nor can the systematic de- 
 sign, the plan and purpose of an overruling and a 
 mysterious Providence, be doubted, to elevate and 
 civilize the inferior and savage races of mankind, 
 through the agency and instrumentality of those 
 further promoted in mental polish and social im- 
 provement. I say it, with all the reverence of a 
 firm belief, there can be no other means imagined, 
 without a miracle, for the universal, or even gene- 
 ral, exaltation of human kind. 
 
 Interrogate history. The annals of the world 
 prove, beyond the possibility of a contradiction, 
 that no single people, by their own inherent activ- 
 ity, or self-originated impulses, ever yet inaugura- 
 ted the reign of progress. On the contrary, the 
 first precious seeds of every grand civilization have 
 always been borne from abroad. Rome received 
 her early arts and literature from Greece, as the 
 isles of the Grecian Archipelago had derived even 
 the letters of their alphabet froji Egypt and Phoe- 
 nicia. All the northern European nations — the 
 Gauls, Celts, and Germans — remained in the mid- 
 night of ignorance, superstition, and unmitigated 
 barbarism, until brought into contact, and mingled 
 and melted, as it were, with the elements of Ro- 
 man refinement. And every triumph of Christian- 
 ity on the surface of the globe has been preceded 
 or acccompanied by conquests of a secular charac- 
 
 tian missionary, when the precious grain shall be- 
 come white for the harvest ? How every crystal' 
 mountain, and valley of smiling green, will ring 
 with the chimes of the church bell, and hum with 
 village schools ! One can almost fancy how the 
 very winds, as they whisper through the cinnamon 
 gardens, and the light waves, as they baptize with 
 snowy foam the jeweled rocks of the coral reefs, 
 will murmur songs of redemption ! How the voice 
 of prayer and praise will roll around the circle of 
 those sunny isles, from Cape Comorin to the fair 
 Moluccas, and from the coffee groves of Java to 
 the Tropic of Cancer, until all the regions of the 
 fiery Equator shall catch the music of the echo, 
 and resound with the hymns of heaven! And 
 then, perhaps, shall powers and pictures of civili- 
 zation be developed and realized, in that old world 
 of the Malays, with their burning imaginations and 
 volcanic temperments, more grand and glorioue- 
 than ever dawned on a poet's dream. 
 
 But while touching this magnificent topic, 1 
 must confess my obligation, and thus, in some 
 faint degree, liquidate the large debt which all 
 Christendom owes to an intrepid traveler of our 
 own country. From him and from his writings I 
 obtained the preceding glance into the enchanted 
 circle of oriental insular life. I know not what im- 
 pression the record he has made may have effected 
 in America ; but every American patriot should be 
 truly gratified that its thrilling pictures and noble 
 words have met with a warm, and even enthusias- 
 tic welcome across the great water ; where a lead- 
 ing London journal has paid to our traveler and' 
 author, Captain Walter M. Gibson, a compliment 
 as distinguished as it was well deserved. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, as a just cause of hu- 
 miliation to our naticnal pride, the same American 
 hand, which unmasked to American eyes the splen- 
 dor of that eastern vision, also revealed, 
 the cringing and pitiful policy of our own govern- 
 ment. Without the least shadow ©f justification, 
 or the pretext of an excuse, Captain Gibsoii 
 incarcerated in a Dutch dungeon, by the colonial 
 authorities, where be languished for months, and 
 whence he escaped only with his life, by the brave 
 and generons assistance of a Malay heroine. A:; 
 American citizen, in the peaceful pursuits of com- 
 merce and scientific curiosity, was plundered, im- 
 
 ter, by the inroads of science, of commerce, of the j prisoned, and menaced with death ; and yet, up to 
 arts, or of arms. The unaided missionary, how- j the present moment, the administration has not 
 ever ardent his zeal, may never hope to convert j found the courage to seek the proper redress. — 
 the Pagan world. All the united forces of Chris- , Does any one suppose that, if such an outrage had 
 tian civilization must concur in the labor. been perpetrated against an r, the 
 
 And it is precisely on this ground that I would ' English Government would have thus acquiesced 
 urge the extension of a large and enlightened for- without a murmur? The very idea is simply 
 eign policy to all parts of the earth, and more es- j ridiculous. Then, why Bhould v e Q ai ifefll a spirit 
 pecially to the great Indian archipelago, that won- of more humble submi- 
 derful flower-garden and physical paradise of the '■■ the passive victims of foreign scoi i 
 globe. I would have thrown open an intercourse it is injurious to the 
 to us of the utmost profit, and to them of ever-' Having previously in 
 lasting gain. For the nectar and ambrosia of 
 
 tropical fruits, I would barter the bread i the Powers ol the earth, it remains forme to 
 
 mortal hW; and as a dc ble compensation for all pie more sternly than 1 
 their gems and gold, I would interstar the gorgeous I great practical question as to what coui 
 oriental imagination with the beautiful truths of I be adopted in order to avoid the erro: - 
 our science, and the brilliant, the bound: perience has demonstrated in the past, and to in- 
 
 of our most holy and heavenly religion. And, a brilliant and uninterrupted 
 
-- 
 
 uoal of our ultimate and exal Q the 
 
 tuture. 
 
 In my judgment, natural and abstract right, the 
 law of nations, the light of expediet.cy, and the 
 mo^t urgent m bi -interest, all accord in 
 
 the declaration of two cardinal principles, as the 
 original' and unchangable axioms of American 
 policy. The one is notable and well kr.own, 
 though shamefully misunderstood, as the Monroe 
 doctrine ; and the other, which has hitherto 
 received no accurate or logical definition, or par- 
 ticular and fixed name, I shall take the liberty of 
 terming the natural doctrine of voluntary ■ 
 
 To comprehend fully the thorough import of the 
 former doctrine, it becomes necessary to advert 
 briefly to the causes which first led to its promul- 
 gation ; and, therefore, I must entreat pardon for 
 slightly trespassing on the patience of the House 
 by a cursory reference to some extraordinary facts 
 in the antecedent and cotemporary history of Eu- 
 ropean politics. 
 
 When the unprecedented pow.ii of Napoleon 
 suddenly flashed up from the fiery e;a:?r of the 
 French revolution, like some strange meteor, to 
 appal the nations and render the throne of every 
 tyrant in the Old Woild tr< nsecure, the 
 
 potentates affected by that wonderful phenomenon 
 of popular force naturally conceived a boundless 
 aversion, mingled with mortal awe. at the bare 
 idea of political changes, and especially of such as 
 tended to unsettle the stability of" hereditary gov- 
 ernments. Accordingly, after the final restoration 
 of the Bourbons to the rule of subjugated Frai ee, 
 the great continental Powers of Russia. Pi 
 and Austria, concluded and published a trei 
 Paris, which has generally been called the Holy 
 Alliance. The project originated with the Empe- 
 ror Alexander, of Russia ; and from its devout in- 
 vocations, ami solemn protestations of clemency, 
 justice, and Christianity, it might have been re- 
 garded as the installation of a novel system of re- 
 ligious fanaticism, had not the subsequent conduct 
 of its authors stamped a decisive negative on that 
 hypothesis, proving it to be altogether political. 
 
 This misnamed Holy Alliance was only the in- 
 choate step in a series of sins against the law of 
 nature and of nations — aggressions the most as- 
 tonishing of any recorded in the pages of modern 
 history. In the spring of 1821, these same sove- 
 reigns assembled in Congress at Laybach. and 
 openly proclaimed, as the polar star of their poli- 
 cy, a principle the most dangerous ever taught 
 even in the courts of absolute despotism. They 
 addressed a circular to their foreign ministers, 
 which, among other monstrous absurdities, alleges 
 " that useful and necessary changes in legislation. 
 and in the administration of States, ought only to 
 emanate from the free will and intelligent and well- 
 weighed conviction of tho^e whom God has rem 
 den ile for power. All that deviates 
 
 from this line, necessarily leads to disorder, com- 
 motions, and evils far more insufferable than those 
 which they pretend to remedy." 
 
 It i.- needless to remark how totally incompati- 
 
 -uch a doctiine as this : - with the theory 
 
 of the American Government, o- indeed with the 
 
 principles, and even existence, of any liberal or 
 
 'ated government whatsoever. Nor could 
 
 this .-• of the diademed doc- 
 
 tors of a new international law be interpreted and 
 treated as an abstract declaration, a mere lesson of 
 learned authority for the enlightenment of the I 
 tions, with no view or design to its forcible appp.i- 
 cation in practice. For the same Congress had 
 avowed at Troppau, " that the powers have an u: - 
 doubted right to take a hostile attitude in regard 
 to those States in which the overthrow of the gov- 
 ernment may operate as an example." 
 
 The joint effect of these different proclaim;, 
 was to convince all sensible men that this Holy 
 Alliance had determined on the subjection of the 
 civilized woild to their favorite standard of abso- 
 lute rule. If. however, any* uncertainty as to the 
 object of that stupendous conspiracy against al! 
 free institutions still lingered in any mind, it was 
 dissipated by the Congress of Verona in the autumn. 
 of 1322. At that time Spain was under the con- 
 stitutional government of the Cortez, chosen I 
 unfettered will, and supported by the general ap- 
 probation of the Spanish people themselves. The 
 allied Powers of Russia, Prussia, France, and Aus- 
 tria, proposed to reinstate the tyrai ad, in 
 all his ancient authority ; and notwithstanding the 
 strong dissent and spirited protest of Engl 
 measure was adopted. In the spring of 182 
 
 ay marched into Spain, overturned the 
 popular government, and re-established despotism 
 on its old foundations. Such a violent and mortal 
 stab of the crowned conspirators, aimed at 
 heart of universal liberty, and even at the 
 pendence of nations, could not fail to attract at- 
 tention, and excite alarm in the United States : and 
 the powerful voice of Mr. Webster sounded its 
 trumpet tones, signalizing the imminent dang 
 the Halls of Congress. 
 
 But that was not all. In December of the same 
 as soon as the Spanish king felt completely 
 assured of his absolute throne, he addressed a formal 
 invitation' to his august allies, suggesting a new 
 conference, at Paris, to devise some plan for 
 renovation of rtis fallen authority over the revolted 
 colonies of Spanish America. The proposed as- 
 sembly of sovereigns, however, was defeated by 
 the firm opposition of England, and the decided 
 stand taken by the United States. 
 
 It was precisely at this perilous crisis of B 
 that Mr. Monroe uttered, in a message to Con- 
 gress, hi.- famous doctrine, which has lately pro- 
 voked so much comment and discussion in both 
 hemispheres. In reference to the apprehended 
 European intervention on this continent he said : 
 
 " We owe it to candor, and to the amicable rela- 
 tions existing between the United Suite.- and tl 
 Powers, to declare that we should consider any at- 
 tempt ou their part to extend their system to any 
 portion of this hemisphere, as dangerous to our I 
 and safety. With the existing colonies <>r dependen- 
 cies of any European Power, we hare not interfered, 
 and shall not interfere. But with the Govern] 
 who have declared their independence and maintain- 
 ed it, and whose independence we have, on great con- 
 sideration, and on just principles, acknov 
 eould not view any interposition for the purpose of 
 oppressing mem, or controlling in any other manner 
 their destiny, in any other light than as the mat 
 tationof an unfriendly disp »( I wardstheUn 
 States." 
 
 This memorable message also contained another 
 and kindred declaration equally prude: I 
 
23 
 
 portant, as the complement to the circle of Amer- 
 can policy. It asserted : 
 
 •'In the wars ef the European Powers, in matters 
 relating to themselves, we have never token any part, 
 does it comport with our policy so to do. It is 
 only when our rights are invaded, or seriously ::."- 
 naced. that we resent injuries, or make preparations 
 for defence. With the movements in this hemisphere 
 we are more immediately connected, and by causes 
 which must be obvious to all enlightened and impar- 
 tial observers. The political system of the Allied 
 Powers is essentially different, in this respect, from 
 that of America." 
 
 This doctrine, on its first publication, and in all 
 its parts, met the cordial approval of the whole 
 country, and was hailed with enthusiastic delight 
 by all the friends of liberal institutions throughout 
 the world. Nor did even the English people greet 
 it with less warmth or welcome. The principal 
 minister of the British Government, Mr. Canning, 
 expressed, in the House of Commons, his hearty 
 concurrence in the opinions of the American Pres- 
 ident ; while the great leader of the opposition, 
 Mr. Brougham, avowed in his place, " that no 
 event had ever created more joy, exultation, and 
 gratitude among the freemen in Europe ; and that 
 he felt pride in being connected by blood and lan- 
 guage with the people of the United States." 
 
 Let me next apply the scrutiny of a more search- 
 ing analysis to that Monroe doctrine, which, at 
 first, commended itself to such general and intelli- 
 gent approbation in both hemispheres, but which 
 now is so strangely misunderstood in the one, and 
 so shamefully misrepresented in the other. An 
 impartial examination shows it to involve three 
 fundamental principles — neither more nor less. 
 First: That in the wars of European Powers in 
 -natters relating to themselves, we have no sort of 
 political concern whatsoever. Secondly : That 
 with the existing colonies or dependencies of any 
 European Power, we will not interfere. Thirdly : 
 That the European Powers shall ^ot extend their 
 system to any portion of this hemisphere, nor at- 
 tempt, in any manner, to control the destiny of its 
 jndependentgovernments, under the penalty, what- 
 ever that might be, of being considered and treat- 
 ed as unfriendly to the United States. In short, 
 the declaration publicly, and in the face of the 
 world, protested that we would not intermeddle 
 with matters of exclusively European policy; and 
 that no Power of Europe should interpose in Amer- 
 ican affairs. The latter branch of the doctrine im- 
 plied, as its logical corollary, the utter prohibition 
 of European colonization on the American continent, 
 which, nevertheless, was deemed by the President 
 of suffcient moment to warrant a distinct and pos- 
 itive affirmation. 
 
 And yet the English Government, at the time, 
 I took no exception to the policy as published ; but, 
 on the contrary, fully approved its terms and ob- 
 jects, and by that act, must be adjudged as forever 
 precluded from posterior exception, or agitation of 
 the queetiou. Why should Lord Clarendon be 
 permitted to criticise, now, political maxims \ 
 once commanded the enlightened assent of the il- 
 lustrious and classical Canning, and drew from the 
 eloquent at gl a, then 
 
 be glory of his golden prime, a burning 
 burs$ of sympathy and admiration '■ 
 peal even to any inteilii 
 
 j and inquire, what possible or rational objection can 
 J you urge against this doctrine? Is it not fair, 
 generous, and just, between all the parties having 
 j any interest in the issue ? You prefer and cherish 
 ; a system of government by the hands of hereditary 
 royalty in Europe; while we choose a constitutional 
 | government by the people in America. Very well ; 
 I this can be no ground for enmity or opposition ; 
 let both of us exercise the natural privilege of in- 
 dependent sovereignties, to live under the rule 
 which pleases us the best. But if it be replied 
 that our republican influence or example will 
 prove dangerous to the absolute institutions of 
 Europe, I answer, neither shall that be any cause 
 of controversy or quarrel, so far as we can prevent 
 it ; for your domination on this continent would be 
 still more dangerous and deleterious to our form 
 of government ; and as happily. the whole breadth 
 of tl.e ocean separates our respective territories, 
 we propose, as an additional guarantee of peace 
 and friendship, the safe and equal compromise of 
 the Monroe doctrine. We will not obtrude our 
 influence on the sphere of European politics ; and 
 as a just compensation, you must not interfere 
 with the policy of the free Powers in America. 
 And thus there can arise no occasion or pretext 
 for a collision. Can anything be more reasonable 
 or prudent than such a proposition ? Can aught 
 be imagined more wisely calculated to obviate dis- 
 cord, and insure the perpetuity of amicable rela- 
 tions ? The systems of government that prevail in 
 the two hemispheres are seen to be logical and po- 
 litical contradictories. The dark shadow of abso- 
 lutism, with a single exception, dwells on the one ; 
 while the pure sunlight of republican liberty, though 
 obscured in spots by the fogs of anarchy, beams on 
 the other. Now, it these opposite systems come 
 into near contiguity, or immediate contact, in the 
 same locality, they will necessarily seek to van- 
 quish each other, and in the struggle for superior- 
 ity, war must result ; and to preclude such a pos- 
 sibility, they must be kept apart — divided by the 
 great gulf of distance : let each be confined to its 
 appropriate space. But this is the declaration of 
 Monroe ; and I esteem it as one of the wisest po- 
 litical inventions ever conceived by the intellect ol 
 man. It was the proclamation of independence 
 for all the countries on this continent. And it 
 was the promulgation of an honorable peace, also, 
 with all the governments on the globe. 
 
 This salutary doctrine was net devised, as some 
 erroneously suppose, to lay the foundation tor a 
 series of aggressive schemes against the Territo- 
 ries of our American neighbors. It put forth no 
 kind of pretension of any right to oppress or plun- 
 der them, or to encroach on their boucdar es, or 
 to control their administration, nor yet to inter- 
 fere in any way with their policy, save in their be- 
 half, as friends and protectors, and with their free 
 accord and full consent. It laid o kind 
 
 of supremacy over any American State. It arro- 
 gated no superiority, and proffered no advice. It 
 •r intended as an instrument of :• 
 izement at the expense of others. It com- 
 .s to no wild and wicked project of con- 
 ization. It simply de- 
 clared in I defense of every A: 
 Governm the reign of European Powers 
 led in the W surely 
 
2 4 
 
 d not follow, by any'legitiinate rule of inference, orations designed to involve this country in a 
 at the United States must become oppressors or European war, as the ally and instrument of the 
 rants in their turn. It only left us, as well as all revolutionary faction. While the three principal 
 e other American sovereignties, free and unfet- Powers were engaged in the crisis of the Eastern 
 red from the authority of foreign dictation, to war, the torch of insurrection was to be ki 
 >al with every question of intcr-Americsn policy in Western Europe, and fanned to a general con- 
 : it might be presented, and in the mode which flagration. 
 ir own sense of justice, humanity, and the best' The projectors assumed that Spain would deny 
 
 of the continent might require, under all reparation for the outrages upon American com- 
 ic circumstances of the special case, merce. In that case the United States would in- 
 It is truly strange, that such a discreet and ecu- stantly despatch an armament to sei/.e the Island 
 immate plan of political wisdom as this, should of Cuba, as a material guarantee for the redress 
 
 a so egregiously misapprehended, per- ' demanded. But it was well known that a treatv 
 >rted, slandered, denied, and flagrantly violated, '-listed between the English, French, and Spanish 
 ithout redress, or even apology. It can be no Governments, securing to the latter the possession 
 onder that European potentates treat a doctrine of Cuba ; and, therefore, those Powers would be 
 ith scorn, which has been so long trailed in the compelled to a declaration of hostilities against us 
 
 6ry mire of diplomacy, and so often trampled un 
 er foot with impunity. 
 But the chief outrage against this principle re- 
 
 l>y the terms of their compact on that subject. — 
 This sudden state of war would, of necessity, and 
 all in a moment, interrupt and bar the intercourse 
 lains still to be told.' For — I blush to recount ! of this country with the western shores of Europe: 
 — one of the most notorious infringements of the and our supplies of com and cotton being cut off 
 lonroe doctrine proceeded from our own Govern- \ both from England and France, it was imagined 
 lent, and the fact will be preserved in the annals that the people of both nations would be precipi- 
 sent administration. Ay, the crime was tated into dreadful revolutions. In short, the 
 erpetrated by the very prophets and high-priests plan was nothing less than a tremendous conspir- 
 f the dogm i, e T en by the very men who preached acy against the peace of the world. 
 
 ds of avenging its desecration. In order, however, to induce the entire Cabinet 
 allude to the world-renowned phenomenon of at Washington to acquiesce in the whole scheme, 
 le Ostend conference. it was deemed necessary to procure the assent and 
 
 uts succeed each other with such won-' concurrence of the American ministers at London 
 erful rapidity in the progress of American politi- and Paris ; and hence originated the idea of a 
 al life, as soon to efface the memory of the most conference. Accordingly, those high officials as- 
 nportaut measures, when they have once been sembled at Ostend, accompanied by Mr. Daniel 
 ither executed or abandoned, I may be excused Sickles, Mr. Geoige X. Sanders, and Mr. Piatt, 
 ir bestowing a hasty glance at the extraordinary their suboidinates, all men of violent revolution- 
 uomaly in American administrative policy, which ary tendencies. Mr. Mason, it is said, adopted 
 have previously mentioned. It seems, that the project at once. Mr. Buchanan hesitated, but 
 rhen Mr. Soule received the appointment of Min- 1 finally consented to lead the movement, as is 
 ster to Spain, in conjunction with the President shoTta by his signature being foremost on the 
 e digested his own instructions and arranged a manifesto. It is asserted, and, so far as I know, 
 ystematic scheme for the annexation of Cuba. — it has never been formally contradicted, that Mr. 
 Jut as to how many other members of the Cabinet Sanders, as a stimulus to the expected insurrec- 
 oncurred in the plan, it does not become me to tionary impulse, circulated the.revolutionaiy ad- 
 lazard a conjecture, dresses of Mazzini and Ledru Rollin, through the 
 
 The rationale of the original project was as fol- dispatch of the American legatiop, both in France 
 ows : The American Minister had authority to of- 1 and other European countries. Nevertheless, the 
 er the Spanish Government some hundred millions whole scheme failed from the dis lpprobation of 
 if dollars, as the payment for "the gem of the one man, whose support was essential to its exe- 
 vntilles." He was also directed to demand ample cution. And I make the statement with the 
 md immediate redress for the many aggressions greater pleasure, as a seuse of public duty has 
 igainst American commerce, committed by Span- compelled me to criticise the conduct of that emi- 
 els in the vicinity of Cuba. It must be nent functionary in many other particulars. When 
 :onceded that nothing appeared on the surface of the American Cabinet received the Ostend declar- 
 ,his diplomatic plan which could be pronounced ation, they lacked the courage to carry it out: 
 mfair, or even a point of departure from the line and being urged by the strenuous opposition of 
 )f our safe and settled policy. But beneath the Mr. Marcy to all parts of the measure, they re- 
 brilliant flowers of its verbiage lurked the subtile \ versed the programme of war and revolution which 
 whose poison was to destroy the vitality must, otherwise, have set both hemispheres in 
 Dftbe Monroe doctrine, and cause all Europe to tlamcs, and would, perhaps, before the end, have 
 recoil from the stench of its putrid corpse, as in- covered every country on the globe with blood and 
 deed, too Boon mifest to the senses of ashes. 1 rejoice to say it, as an act of simple jus- 
 
 the civilized world. tice to one whom I cannot, however, regard as a 
 
 -ailed for Europe. He was in no hurry, \ safe political guide, that in my opinion the world 
 the goal of his destination, Btands indebted to the American Secretary of State 
 delayed in London to hold repeated con-, for its fortunate escape from a calamity more ter- 
 sultations with the lied Republican chiefs of the lilde than any it has experienced since the con- 
 revolutionary committee — Mazzini, Ledru Rollta, vulsions of the dark 
 and Kossuth. The four concerted a sy <h > iow, I boldly affirm that the Ostend project, 
 
25 
 
 ah initio, was an open and outrageous infraction i standard of the Monroe creed in both its articles, 
 of one cardinal axiom in our Monroe doctrine. — or rather, in all three ; and we need not despair of 
 It was an unpardonable transgression against the | yet convincing the civilized world, and ev<;n the 
 letter and spirit of that rule which forbids Amen- 1 prejudiced aristocracy of England, not only that the 
 can interference in matters of strictly European j consummation of our " manifest destiny " i 
 policy. There can be no mistake as to this fact. — I separably implicated with the progressive civiliza- 
 He that runs may read it. I will not comment on 1 tion of all humanity, but also that the means na- 
 the singularity of the appointment itself — the turally neeessary to insure it may well accord with 
 
 public mission of a foreigner to a foreign court. — 
 That was doubtless thought expedient by the 
 President to influence foreign suffrages at home. 
 But I do maintain, that the appointment of M. 
 Soule, though a man of brilliant genius, yet a fiery 
 Girondist of the most ultra school, as minister to 
 the court of Spain, so intimately connected with 
 the politics of France, the country of his nativity, 
 was a departure from one great idea in the Monroe 
 declaration, as well as what Louis Napoleon actu- 
 ally considered it — an implied insult to the French 
 Government. Nor can I regard the designation 
 of the inferior officials, Sanders, Sickles, and Piatt, 
 to European posts in any other light. One and 
 all, they are Red Republicans more than Ameri- 
 cans. For, we must not forget that the Democra- 
 cy of Europe is as different from that of America 
 as European despotism itself. It would not be 
 going too far to say, that the Red Republicans of 
 the Old World have no other or higher conception 
 of liberty, than that of the concentrated, undigest- 
 ed, and indigestible will of the numerical majority, 
 without check, or balance, or constitutional regu- 
 lation. Such a system of self government presents 
 as violent a contrast to ours, as even the absolu- 
 tism of the Russian empire. Shadowy and fantas^ 
 tic in theory, and utterly impossible in fact, it 
 bears about the same resemblance to .our philoso- 
 phic and practical plan of Federal authority, which 
 the object of their political worship, the mystic 
 Marianne, a lineal descendent of the infidel " god- 
 dess of reason," does to the pure and beautiful 
 virginity of a modest American maiden. The 
 very appearance of such American incendiaries in 
 the circle cf European courts — the mere mission 
 of men pledged to insurrectionary opinions — of 
 men, who, like George N. Sanders, proclaim at 
 Red Republican meetings in New York, " that 
 they would invent a patent guillotine for cutting 
 off crowned heads by wholesale " — is a virtual in- 
 citement to rebellion and revolution, on the part 
 of the United States, and rationally explains the 
 unfriendly tone of the French press, as well as the 
 jealousy of Louis Napoleon. But the sympathy 
 and association of American ministers with those 
 
 the rules of justice, the principles of international' 
 law, and with pacific relations towards every other 
 people and power on the g obc. 
 
 I must now turn to the other great measure of 
 American po icy, which I suggested at the outset 
 as the natural doctrine of voluntary expatriation. 
 I approach this topic, however, with humility and 
 hesitation, as the trueprirciple has been strangely 
 misapprehended in both hemispheres, and I enter- 
 tain sentiments very different from some of our 
 own most distinguished politicians. Indeed, the 
 doctrine, as I before remarked, has never yet re- 
 ceived either a logical definition, or an appropriate 
 name. In the United States it goes under the 
 vague and various denominations of " individual 
 liberty," " citizen sovereignty," " personal inde- 
 pendence," or "the right of emigration;" while 
 in England it is viewed as synonymous with filli- 
 busterism, foreign aggression, and indefinite an- 
 nexation. Nevertheless, without attempting to 
 fix the ideas of others by a precise, description, I 
 will endeavor to explain my own. By the natural 
 doctrine of expatriation, then, I understand the in- 
 herent and indefeasible privilege and power of 
 every freeman to a universal passage over the sur- 
 face of the globe, both by land and water — She 
 human right of locomotion which God has given 
 in the mere fact of our physical organization — and 
 not to be limited by geographical lines of latitude 
 and longitude, like an island or mountain, nor yet 
 to be fastened and tied down to a particular spot, 
 of earth, like a rock or a tree. 
 
 I am aware that the feudal system — that mon- 
 strous birth of the middle ages — taught an oppo- 
 site political faith ; and that even the law of impe- 
 rial Rome instituted the slavish maxim : " Origine 
 propria ncminem posse voluntate sua eximi m 
 festum est" — that no one can abjure the native 
 allegiance which he owes to the land where he was 
 born. I admit, too, that any number of learned 
 dicta can be quoted in support of the absurdity : 
 but, in contradiction of all such authority, I urge,, 
 as unanswerable disproof, the decrees of nature 
 and of Providenee, and the commands of the Al- 
 mighty himself, to populate and civilize the world. 
 
 wild dreamers of European socialism — Kossuth, ; The distribution of the species ; the migration of 
 Mazzini, and Ledru Rollin — displayed a far more nations and races, and the settlement of every 
 insulting contempt towards the leading Powers of ! country on the earth; the insatiable curiosity of 
 the other hemisphere. All such public acts by the intellect ; the physical necessities of our mate- 
 the authority, or with the connivance, of the I rial frames ; and all the instincts of the human 
 American Government, are so many palpable vio- . heart, — alike confute and condemn the ruie of per- 
 lations of the Monroe policy If we would enforce petual allegiance as a relic of barbarism and brutal 
 one dogma of that peaceful and prudent doctrine, : domination. At all events, the United States 
 we must be careful to observe the other, its logi-j stand committed to a different doctrine, and must, 
 cal correlative, with the most scrupulous accuracy \ therefore, uphold the natural right of expatriation 
 and good faith ; for how can we insist, without j in all its amplitude and force ; for, only by the ex- 
 blushes of shame, that European potentates shall . ercise of that right has the continent itself been 
 not interpose in American affairs, while we stretch j peopled — a right which is recognised in our laws 
 out our hands across the ocean, to fire the de- of naturalization, and which is confirmed by the 
 stroying mines of insurrection which underlie [ regulations of both the Army and the Navy. In 
 their thrones? Let us, then, conform to the true ' truth, the feudal maxim was never anything more 
 
than a vain abstraction, since nent in in the Army or Ifavy, or anywhere wii 
 
 the civilized world ever essayed it- execution in ; Territorial limits of his owr. original Gov.. 
 f. lCt This point, when once stated, seems too e 
 
 aces of for comment : 
 Sple Every free citizen, at his option, quite overlooked on both sides of the com: 
 may renounce all political connection with his own ' for it must be evident, that, without this essentia'. 
 country, and unite himself with the people of any limitation— if a subject might abjure his allegiance 
 Other, who may choose to receive him. But is anywhere, or at any moment— logical conclu- 
 ■r clause of the sentence, which fixes a . sions destructive to all national and legitimate au- 
 lirnitation on the generality of the whole proposi- thority would result. No Government would be 
 . to its logical validity and truth ? j sovereign within its own boundaries, tor the expa- 
 Caniiot i of one nation become the mem- triated class must form an exception. The admi- 
 
 ber of another, without the consent of the new so-j ral might carry away the nation'- fleet, and carry 
 cietv which he desires to enter! I reply, without it, lawfully, into the ports ef the enemy ; while ir. 
 ertainty, that he cannot. And this; the crisis of a conflict on the land in some great 
 follows as an inevitable corollary from every theo- battle, when the very existence of a country de- 
 rv of the social compact, and from the principles ; pended on the issue, the general-in-ehief, or his 
 of sovereignty and national independence. There subordinates, or any number of the soldiery, might 
 can be no axiom better established as a fundamen- suddenly exclaim : " We will stand this storm of 
 tal in universal law, than the prerogative of every | shot and shell, of steel and fire, no longe'- — huzza 
 community to -efuse the privilege ot citizenship to ' lor the right of expatriation !" and then instantly 
 an v and all foreigners, at the discretion of the turn their arms against the banners of their rati, e 
 Government. A contrary doctrine would involve j land ! It follows, also, from the qualification last 
 deductions too ridiculous for exposure by argument. ' mentioned, that the principle of expatriation does 
 Now m a necessary conclusion from the forego- ; not confer any power on the citizen to compro- 
 in<* premises, it mnst be admitted that the sub- j mise the pacific relations of his own Gove 
 jects of one country have no right to force their > or to perform one act of hostility on its soil. w 'iri> 
 institutions on the independent people of any other j out the authority of some command or permissior. 
 nation ; for, if they cannot wrest by violence, from expressed in the forms of law. All such conduct 
 a foreign Goveruni nt, even the minor privilege of is an offence against the independent sovereignty 
 a perfect membership in its society, much less can i of the country, as well as against the public code 
 they arrogate the power of dictation to determine ; of nations, and may and should be punished in tha; 
 it- constitution, or to modifv its laws. And here, i character. 
 
 I must express my utter dissent toto ccelo, from j I am compelled, therefore, though with much 
 the wild opinions of the Red Republicans, whether ! diffidence and the greatest respect, to declare my 
 in Europe or America. I deny altogether that we | disbelief in the doctrines promulgated some time 
 
 are entitled, upon any principles of justice, reason, 
 or expediency, to propagate liberty or Democracy 
 by the sword. I deny this dangerous and revolu- 
 
 ago on this floor by the distinguished member 
 from Mississippi, on the subject of our statute? 
 for the preservation of American neutrality. 
 
 tibnary right to the Government, and to all the | is true, I yield my hearty assent to the first of his 
 people : and I protest against the interpolation of I general premises— that Congress, under the Con- 
 any such fanatical dogma into the natural doctrine ' stitution, has no power to create offences against 
 of voluntary expatriation, which would only render the law of nations, bnt only to define a.;d punish 
 it revolting to the common sense of mankind. j such as were known and recognised at the epoch 
 I concede the fact, and avow it as my cherished of our independence, by the public code of Europe, 
 belief, that the subjects of anv country may join or such as may grow out of treaties legally con- 
 themselves to another nation, 'if the latter be will- ; summated. Thus far we agree. But I dissent al- 
 ine to adopt them ; and that, in such case, they together from his minor proposition, which affirms 
 roav take part in its civil wars, or engage in hos- certain preparations for aggressive hostilities by 
 tilities against foreign Powers, as freely and fully ! the subjects of a neutral sovereign within his owr. 
 as any native Oi" the land to which they may have jurisdiction, and against the territories of a friend- 
 emigrated— but always provided they" shall have ly power, to accord both with a state of neutrality, 
 
 previously renounced their original allegiance, and 
 thus cut off all ties of connection with the Govern- 
 ment of their birth. And men may elect to pur 
 
 and the established rules of the law of nations.— 
 On the contrary, I regard them to be wholly in- 
 compatiable with either ; and I will now proceed 
 
 sue this course from a variety of motives— from to detail my reasons for this judgment, 
 self-interest, or the abstract' love of liberty, or In the first place, I must remark that the sole 
 from the high and holy impulses of a generous authority cited by the gentleman as favonug his 
 philanthropy to aid a suffering people writhing in ! assumptions, was that of Vattel, and this did dot 
 the dust under the iron harrow of tvrants and their seem tome coextensive with his own Iatitudma- 
 armed tools. ' ian position either in length or breadth. How- 
 
 But reason, and even the etymological import ever, let that pass ; for, although the gentleman 
 of the word expatriate, require another and further ; has seen proper to ignore the fact, it is neverthe- 
 qualification of this natural doctrine. To exercise less certain, that the absurd and unsupported die- 
 the right, the citizen must also exert the power.— turn of Vattel on the point under discussion has 
 He must couple the fact with the intention, so as ; been totally discredited and discarded by all re- 
 to place himself literally «r/>a*Wo— that is to say, cent writers, and among the rest, by both Mr. 
 actually 1 jurisdiction, both civil and po- Manning and Chancellor Kent. (See Mannings 
 
 actually 
 
 litical, of his native sovereign 
 
 He is not so while Cora., p. 180.) 
 
27 
 
 Kent broadly asserts, "that it is an essential i might be ready to march or sail; and thus there 
 •-•haracter of neutrality to furnish no aids to one might, and would be, presented the political con- 
 party, "^hich the neutral is not equally ready to] tradietion of war and peace vrithin the same di- 
 furnish to the other." And he quotes, with cor- ' vided State. The adoption of the honorable gen- 
 dial approbation, the rule laid down by Mr. Man- j tleman's policy would be the end of all i 
 uintr, " that foreign levies may not be allowed to If I co Id go as far as he does, I would even Yen- 
 one belligerent, while refused" to his antagonist, ture a step further, and advocate an utter repeal 
 consistently with the duties of neutrality, unless of the law of nations. With a grand flourish ol 
 such an exclusive privilege was granted by treaty ; trumpets, with the flutter of blood-red banners, 
 antecedent to the war." (1 Kent's Com., p. 1 16.) and the firing of cannon, I would install in the 
 Again : The same eminent American author re- highest dignity of a national maxim, on the records 
 affirms the principle in other and stronger terms : , of Congress, the terrible lines of Lucan— 
 " That no use of neutral territory, for the pur- " Mensuraque juris 
 
 poses of war, can be permitted ; and that no prox- Via '.rat." 
 
 imate acts of war are to be allowed to originate in And then I would give the sanguinary sentence a 
 any manner on neutral ground." (1 Kent Com., :f ree translation, and send Soule to publish it around 
 p. 118.) the world : ''American might is the only principle 
 
 The same doctrine was judicially declared in the f American right !" 
 English courts in the leading case of the Twee There is but one outlet by which the gentleman 
 Gcbroeders, and the decision has never been can escape from the conclusion of all the authori- 
 shaken, or even criticised, to the present hour, ties that I have previously quoted, and a hundred 
 (5 Rob. Rep., p. 873;) others which I have not time to mention ; and that 
 
 This rule has also received the highest sanction ; wou ld be, to contend that neutral subjects have the 
 of the American Government. Mr. Jefferson ap- , right to perform acts within a neutral jurisdiction, 
 proved it in his letter to Mr. Tennant of the 15th to prepare hostile enterprises, which the neutral 
 of May, 1793; while the American commissioners sovereign himself could not do. This, however, 
 to .the court of France — Benjamin Franklin, would be too monstrous an absurdity for any logi- 
 Silas Dean, and Arthur Lee— by their circular, ca i r even sane intellest to broach. Besides, as 
 in 1793, to the commanders of American vessels, t he Constitution has wisely conferred on the Na- 
 extended the principle to all captures and acts of. tional Legislature the exclusive power to declare 
 a hostile nature, even " within sight of a neutral W ar, that delegation of authority, ipso facto, op- 
 eoast." erates, by necessity, as a perfect negative against 
 
 In Dewutz vs. Hendricks, 9 Moore's C. R. Rep., the right to originate any hostile enterprise or 
 586, it was held " to be contrary to the law of na- ! movement on the part of either the States or the 
 tions for persons residing in England to enter into people ; and hence such actions might well be pun- 
 engagements to raise money, by way of loan, for i i sne d as offences against Federal sovereignty, and 
 the purpose of supporting the subjects of a foreign ' t he fundamental law of the Constitution, as well as 
 State in arms against a government in friendship crimes against the law of nations. 
 with England, and that no legal right of action at- Finally, to borrow the language of Mr. Webster, 
 tached upon any such contract." And the same then Secretary of State, in his official letter to 
 doctrine was avowed by the Government of the Lord Ashburton of April 21, 1841 : " It is amani- 
 United States, in Mr. Pickering's letter to Messrs. f es t and gross impropriety for individuals to en- 
 Pinkney, Marshall, and Gerry, of March 2, 1798. ga ge in the civil conflicts of other States, and thus 
 Indeed, with the strange and solitary exception i be at war while their Government is at peace; 
 of Vattel, whota Chancellor Kent justly character- , and that the salutary doctrine of non-intervention 
 izes as " a loose writer, and not sufficiently sup- , by one nation with the affairs of others is liable to 
 ported by the authority of precedents " — all the be esseniially impaired, if, while the Government 
 uodern treatises, and the adjudications of every refrains from interference, interference is still ai- 
 enlightened tribunal in Europe and the United lowed to its subjects, individually or in masses." 
 States, alike concur in the maxim, that no prepar- 1 If it, then, be asked, ol what account is my 
 ations for aggressive war, and no proximate acts of natural doctrine of voluntary expatriation, in the 
 hostility against a friendly Power, can be tolerated ; view of the foregoing principles, I reply, that there 
 In neutral territory, in accordance with the law of exists not the tightest incongruity of contradic- 
 nations. And therefore, on that question, the tion betwixt the rules of the two doctrines; be- 
 opinioa of Vattel, as cited by the member from cause, the instant when an individual has consum- 
 Mississippi, is completely superseded and null. — mated bis expatriation by passing beyond the ju- 
 And his minor premise Jailing, the whole super- risdiction of his native sovereign, and by abjuring 
 structure of deduction founded on it topples to the his allegiance, both in fact and iatention, he ceases 
 dust, crushed by its own weignt, ma. — to be a subject of the former Govern m 
 
 In fact, from its self-evident justice, as well as comes free to act on his own respoasibility — to 
 manifest expediency, one might well suppose that unite with what other societies, to enlist in what 
 the rule of equal and impartial neutrality should armies, and to wage whatever wars may comport 
 be considered asan axiom of common sense. For, with his interests, attract his sympathies, or j 
 if persons could be permitted to prepare arma- his fancy; and such is the practical hw of the 
 ments, or digest hostile expeditions on neutral whole civilized world. Englishmen, Irishmen, 
 soil, the Power against which they were intended French, and Germans, marched and (ought with 
 to act must have the corresponding right to eater I our American forces i:i the campaign agains 
 the ports and invade the jurisdiction of the neutral ico, without compromising the neutrality, or 
 sovereign, and destroy them in limine before they ing the peace and honor of their oritpual Govern 
 
28 
 
 ments, to which they owed fidelity no longer. But , published a declaration of war against the new 
 to urge the principle further, and suffer either ! Republic, and precipitated an invasion to extermi- 
 aliens or subjects to make neutral soil the theatre nate all foreigners, although the (lite of her own 
 of preparation for war against any friendly Power, I array was composed of foreign materials — of Eng- 
 by the enlistment of troops, or the contrivance of, lish soldiers carrying English muskets, and French 
 armaments and expeditions, would not be to ad- 1 and Germans, equipped with the deadly Minie ride, 
 vance and improve the modern law of nations, but , forged in the famous arsenals of Europe. The 
 to return backwards to the savage and unsettled, mightiest agency of modern times— the whole Eu- 
 or rather piratical, st ate of the most barbarous and , ropean press — enlisted with unusual warmth in 
 bloody ages, to the epoch of the Crusaders, or the i behalf of Costa Rica, and to put down the repub- 
 days of the Goths and Vandals. licans. But the most unique spectacle of all, was 
 
 Nevertheless, I must also avow, that I am in to behold the Government of the United States 
 favor of one limitation on the present statutes for | taking the same side of tyranny and oppression, 
 the preservation of our neutral relations ; for The authorities of Costa Rica had proclaimed 
 although I' cannot regard those laws as substan- their determination to expel every native of this 
 tantially objectionable in themselves, they yet country from the soil of Central America, and to 
 seem liable to be stretched by construction, by the violate all the rules of civilized warfare, by the re- 
 judiciary, as well as by the Executive, to purposes fusal of quarter, or therisht of capitulation, to per- 
 of the most injurious tendency, and such as never sons born within our jurisdiction. Such a declar- 
 were contemplated at the time of their enactment. ! ation was a direct and atrocious infringement of 
 
 We have all witnessed the actual exercise of the natural doctrine of voluntary expatriation. — 
 this power of perversion in the recent instance of i Nevertheless, the Executive of the United States 
 Nicaragua, and therefore we should anticipate the took no steps to defend its own dignity and honor, 
 possibility of its recurrence. What, sir, were the I or to maintain the interests and privileges of the 
 facts? A division of opinion and sentiment, equiv- j people. It uttered no protest against the barbarism 
 alent to a perpetual condition of civil war, existed of Costa Rica, and evinced no disposition to throw 
 among the people of Nicaragua themselves. One even the weight of its moral influence and exam- 
 faction preferred the rule of despotism pure and ' pie in the trembling scales of justice, freedom, and 
 unadulterated, while tlie other displayed as strong humanity. It would not grant a recognition of 
 an attachment to republican forms. The conse- 1 Nicaraguan independence until compelled to the 
 quence was, eternal anarchy and bloodshed. To measure by an overwhelming force of public opin- 
 end this state of war, the popular party invited J ion, and the political necessities of the impending 
 certain American citizens, and other foreigners, to Cincinnati Convention. It would not accept Col. 
 
 join them, and share their destiny, whether for 
 good or evil. The latter acceded to their request, 
 and the result was, the complete overthrow of the 
 opposite faction. The Democrats of Nicaragua in- 
 stalled a new and constitutional government, with 
 
 Parker H. French as Minister from Nicaragua, and 
 the world can imagine no other pretext for the re- 
 jection than the mere fact that he chanced to be 
 an expatriated American. And yet, with its ha- 
 bitual inconsistency, the same administration could, 
 
 a native president at its head, and appointed an I without scruple or hesitation, accredit the natural- 
 American, who had fully expatriated himself, and j ized foreigner, Soule to the diademed circle of 
 sworn allegiance to the country of his adoption, j European courts. 
 
 commander-in-chief of its military forces. So far, | Had the Executive even paused here, it might, 
 it would appear, that no intelligent statesman in ! perhaps, have been excused on the plea of fear or 
 the world could take exception to any part of the { imbecility. But it must, by instinct and choice, 
 transaction, which stood warranted indeed by kigh become an active ally of Costa Rican piracy and 
 
 precedents in the practice of all nations, and espe 
 cially in our own. 
 
 But the people of the United States, aside from 
 their natural sympathy for free institutions, had 
 an immediate and powerful personal interest in the 
 affairs of Central America, that great turnpike in 
 
 European policy. The American Secretary of 
 State must communicate officially to the English 
 Government the bitter hatred and opposition of 
 his own to the revolutionary drama progressing in 
 Central America ; and, as if not content with that 
 deed of treachery, at once against the American 
 
 the road to California and Oregon. Hence, as ; interests, and the success of liberal institutions, 
 soon as the news of the revolution reached New j the administration misconstrues our neutrality laws 
 Orleans and the Atlantic cities, excited by the ar-lto defeat the natural right of free emigration. Or- 
 dentand general enthusiasm which such gratifying 'ders are dispatched to all the army of tidewaiters 
 information could not fail to arouse, hundreds ofj and attorneys to arrest every movement of Amer- 
 our citizens desired to forsake their native land, i icans in the direction of Nicaragua, lest the re- 
 and seek a fresh field of enterprise — to emulate in publican host might be recruited by expatriation. 
 Nicaragua the glory that had been won by their Our citizens are captured, imprisoned, arraigned 
 
 friends and brothers 
 
 It was then that a most extraordinary and out- 
 rageous conjunction oi adverse influences occurred 
 for the purpose of trampling down the national 
 independence, and crushing on; the life and 
 tics of Nicaragua. Stimulated by the intrigues of 
 European court-. boring State of I 
 
 Rica, without an n hos- 
 
 ii!iti boldly avowed — 
 
 before the Federal tribunals, and harassed by fu- 
 tile prosecutions, utterly without reason, us is 
 demonstrated by the event that they all end in 
 acquittal or abandonment. 
 
 England raised a terrible clamor against the en- 
 listment of Americans under the banner of Nicara- 
 gua, but Baid not a word about the employment of 
 mane by the authority of Costa 
 Kicu The accusation, in every particular, was un- 
 
 the expulsion of all Americans from the country — just as well as preposterous; for among the for- 
 
29 
 
 eiguers beneath the Nicaraguan flag were compa- 
 nies of both Germans and French doing battle be- 
 side the Americans. Nor did any Power complain 
 as to the bad faith or officious interference of the 
 German or French Governments. 
 
 Now, in my judgment, we owe it to our own 
 dignity, to the liberty of our citizens, and to the 
 conservation of peace and friendship with all the 
 governments of the earth, to adopt some effectual 
 method for the prevention, in all futuce time, of 
 any collision or misunderstanding between the 
 administration and the people, similar to that 
 which has so shamefully agitated the country in 
 refereuce to the Nicaraguan contest. And to in- 
 sure such a happy result, I can imagine no other 
 measure, accordant with the Constitution and the 
 rules of the law of nations, than the one which I 
 suggest. Let Congress authoritatively define the 
 principle of voluntary expatriation, and by the 
 same act, declare that no statute in relation to 
 neutrality shall be so construed by the courts, or 
 by the Executive, as to interfere with the full and 
 free exercise of that inalienable right in any case 
 whatsoever falling within the terms and meaning 
 of the definition. That far we may modify our 
 neutrality laws consistently with the practice of 
 all enlightened nations ; but not a step further can 
 we go, without shocking the common sense, and 
 willfully sinning against the intelligence, justice, 
 and humanity of the age. 
 
 This provision would afford the citizen the 
 blessing of his natural and constitutional liberty 
 to travel where he might please, and with arms 
 in his hands, while it would leave the Government 
 ample power to preserve its territory inviolably 
 secure and sacred from the organization of hostile 
 armaments and enterprises within the limits of the 
 national jurisdiction, and to prohibit any portion 
 of the people from usurping the sovereign author- 
 ity to declare war as upon their own responsibility 
 — that baibarous and bloody license sufficient to 
 excite the enmity and horror of all other nations. 
 And if this doctrine, well defined and generally 
 comprehended, had been in force, the American 
 Administration would never have been used as 
 the tame and pliable instrument of European di- 
 plomacy, and the freedom and independence of 
 the popular government in Nicaragua would never 
 have been imperiled as they have been, and are 
 now. 
 
 But although the combination against liberal in- 
 stitutions in Central America seemed truly tre- 
 mendous, in the hour of their extremity and ut- 
 most need Providence raised up in their behalf a 
 hero that proved himself altogether equal to the 
 occasion — a compeer to the most famous historical 
 characters of antiquity. For not even Romulous, 
 who opened an asylum for refugees from all na- 
 tions, in his new city between the two summits of 
 the capitol — inter montium — was superior to the 
 great warrior of Nicaragua infeats of prowess; while 
 the patrician, Numa, though aided by the counsels 
 of his mythic nymph, the divine Egeria, must con- 
 cede tBe palm of praise to the American adven- 
 turer, William Walker, in administrative wisdom. 
 While surrounded by domestic foes and menaced 
 by the frowns of European, and even of American 
 domination, with a few hundred brave men, des- 
 perate in the cause of civil liberty, like himself, he 
 
 has, nevertheless, educed the beautiful spirit of 
 aw and order out of an internal chaos, and, at the 
 same time, hurled back all his external enemies 
 witli proud scorn and sublime defiance. And 
 this man is still BJ a pirate and filibus- 
 
 ter, by the enlightened journals of the Enjj 
 press; and the accusation 'is extended, through 
 and beyond him, at the whole American commu- 
 nity, who arc chargi d with a reckless passion for 
 aggrandizement and aggression, incompatible with 
 the fii st principles of national independence, and 
 dangerous to the peace of the world. 
 
 Now I do not doubt that some of the English 
 alarmists on the topic of American fillibustering 
 honestly believe in the reality of the specter which 
 their own fear or fancy alone has conjured up ; and as 
 a specious proof, they cite the annexation of Texas, 
 and the annals of the Mexican campaigns. However, 
 they forget that the acquisition of Texas was not 
 the final result of a long and laborious scheme of 
 patient policy, conceived by the United States and 
 carried out by the cunning of a system, but was 
 wholly the work of Providence or chance. The 
 English critic may choose whichever point of the 
 dilemma that pleases his taste or prejudice. It is 
 notorious that the original inducements for Amer- 
 ican migration into Texas came from Mexico her- 
 self, in the offer of large donations of land to all 
 actual settlers within that Territory. The Ameri- 
 can Government neither originated the project nor 
 interfered in its execution. Nor did the American 
 emigrants, in their new homes, ever harbor an 
 idea of insurrection against the sovereignty of 
 their adoption, until the social contract under 
 which they had been influenced to enter the coun- 
 try had been annulled, and every free institution 
 with the Federal compact lay prone in the dust, 
 beneath the cruel foot of the dictator, Santa Anna. 
 In such a case, would not all Englishmen have 
 done as they did — rebelled and overturned the 
 power of the tyrant ? They came of too noble a 
 stock to lie down in silent submission under ever- 
 lasting wrong and utter ignominy. They were 
 Americans ; and, having recovered their indepen- 
 dence, nothing could be more natural than their 
 desire to seek communion in the great family of 
 American States. Annexation was the effect — 
 equally as natural, for there never was a Power 
 on the globe that would have turned coldly or dis- 
 dainfully away from an offering so magnificent as 
 all the wealth of those rare Texan cotton fields ; 
 and then the war followed as a necessary conse- 
 quence, not from American aggression, but of 
 Mexican obstinacy and stupidity. Such is the en- 
 tire history of Texan annexation affecting the 
 point under view ; and it furnishes no countenance 
 to the English charge as to unfairness, or any 
 manner of injustice in the transaction. Nor is 
 there the slightest particle of proof, either here or 
 elsewhere, that Americans have that insatiable ap- 
 petite for terrrtorial acquisitions which is attributed 
 to them by their enemies, and more particularly 
 by t'n >se who are themselves so obnoxious to a 
 terrible recrimination. In every light it ill be- 
 comes the tyrant of India, and the oppressor of 
 Ireland^ to bandy epithets about usurpation in 
 America. 
 
 I would submit, however, with perfect assurance 
 to the earnest consideration of every intelligent 
 
30 
 
 naD, whether European or American, that the In this respect the nllibustering aina of England 
 iame rigid abstinence from all interference in the are totally different from ours in America. We 
 nternal concerns of other States, which the law are inspired by the ardent zeal, and it may be, the 
 jf nations enjoins between the superior Powers enthusiastic fanaticism, of the missionary, to spread 1 
 >( the civilized world, cannot in the very nature our opinions and institutions as broadly as possi- 
 )f things be susceptible of a like extensive and ble, to make converts to the cause of civilization 
 exclusive application to the case of the inferior — and regulated government, to raise a uuiversal 
 savage, colored, or mixed — races of either the hymn of liberty that shall ring its music around 
 jasteru or western hemisphere. And I might the globe. On the contrary, the English fillibus- 
 irge, as the unanswerable evidence of this neces- ters have always been actuated by the sordid spirit 
 «ary qualification, that it accords with the practice of commercial monopoly, to erect factories, to ex- 
 jf all the great and enlightened Governments on ■ act tribute, and amass imperial fortunes. I say 
 ;he surface of the globe, whether ancient or mod- this without any prejudice or feelings of unkind- 
 ;rn. What European nation has treated the red \ ness towards England, and, in saying it, only re- 
 :ribes of the American continent as equal and in- affirm the assertion of the greatest English orator 
 lependent, or conceded to them the r claim of and statesman. Humanity shudders pallid with 
 ravage sovereignty over the wilderness? Nor horror on reading Burke's burning condensation of 
 :ould this, indeed, have been admitted, without English Indian history : " They have sold every 
 eaving the forests of the New World to be eter- monarch, prince, and State in India, broken every 
 tally afrightful desert of wild beasts and barbarous , contract, and ruined every prince and State who 
 n en. trusted them."' In short, the distinction between 
 
 But I will adduce another, and, if possible, still ' the American and the English fillibuster is precise- 
 more striking example, as demonstrative proof of ly this : the American expatriates himself, at the 
 the principle which I have indicated. I will point call of oppressed nations, to redeem and save- 
 to a country of immense extent, and almost fabu- ! them ; while the Englishman never goes but for 
 Sous population, to be reckoned only in enormous personal profit, and to secure that he will add new 
 numbers by the hundred million — to Governments and heavier links to the chain which binds his vic- 
 ixed from unknown and indefinite ages, and so tims down in the dust. The one seeks the soil oi 
 (irmly fixed as to appear immovable — to antique ■ a foreign country, as a settler, to improve and 
 sciences, arts, philosophies, literature, and reli- 1 adorn it as an enduring home, to marry, bring up 
 jions— I wdl point to Hindustan, that possessed children, and build school houses and churches ; 
 ill these, and enquire, what European Power — Port- the other sojourns as a trader, or the collector of 
 ugaese, Danish, Dutch, French, or English — ac- • taxes — to gather gold, return to Europe and pur- 
 knowledged the equality or independence of its i chase a peerage. The first is a real emigrant, the 
 native sovereigns, as prescribed by the law. which i pioneer of principles, the colonist of great ideas, 
 governs the more civilized nations? Not one. ' the practical preacher of free institutions ; but the 
 Such is the response of universal history. And second is a true adventurer, wandering abroad in 
 yet these very Hindoos, in all their physical, intel- the search of fortune, and possessing no sympa- 
 lectual, and moral endowments, were not at all thies or sentiments in common with the race around 
 inferior to the mixed races of Spanish-American him, who therefore regard him as a natural enemy,, 
 origin, over whose destiny, in the imaginary hoi- perhaps a robber. 
 
 rors, of future annexation, England wails and I must not, however, be understood by any 
 weeps in such spasmodic agony. And still, ever such contrast, as assigning a general or character- 
 and anon, as she recites her ethical homilies for istic difference between Americans and English- 
 the benefit of lillibustering America, with the flash men, but only as between those who pass into for- 
 of her sword, or the sweep of her pen, by way of eign countries as fillibusters among the natives; 
 parenthesis, she snnexes whole provinces and and tms fact is undoubtedly due to certain pecu- 
 kingdoms to her eastern dominions. Now it is the liar causes in the opposite education and habits ol 
 beautiful Birman empire, which she digests at a the two nations. The Englishman is passionately 
 siugle meal ; next, it is the splendid province of attached to the soil of that English home where 
 Scinde, on both banks of the classic Indus ; while his forefathers have lived and died during dim and 
 to-day it is the flourishing territories of Oude. At distaut centuries, and where he both expects and 
 length the ambitious banner of England, like the desires to rest his own ashes after the end o. r 
 wing of a thunder-cloud, as gloomy and menacing, " life's fitful fever." For him, England holds all 
 
 overshadows the whole of Hindostan, and iloats in 
 triumph on the confines oi' China. Nevertheless, 
 I, for one, will utter no word of complaint against 
 annexations in In- 
 dia, or French nsin Algerine-Africa ; b 
 
 that is good or great; it is his world, and beyond 
 it lies nothing but savage exile. 
 
 But, with the American, all this patriotic preju- 
 dice is utterly reversed. His immediate or very 
 near ancestors were emigrants, and he has a he- 
 
 . to be not only the right, but the roditary instinct for migration. No old legends, 
 
 political and social duty of the powerful and en- no wild tales of hoary romance, cling about the 
 
 lighte , to civilize and christianize the summits «i' his American mountains, or haunt the 
 
 if the world. And this only can be effected solitude of his whispering streams. He has no na- 
 
 by the colonization of ideas, and a liberal interfu- tional predilections or antipathies: how could he 
 
 sion ol • .t 1 object to in Eng- be supposed to have, when the people of every 
 
 Hsh, ai European extension, is not the conntry in Europe meet on terms of entire and 
 
 cut the form; not the act itself, but the end constitutional equality in his neighborhood, and 
 
 proposed by its accomplishment, and the mode of the -very blood in his veins is derived from as many 
 
 ition. He has no preference foi 
 
*>1 
 
 places, but boundless love for ideas and institu- sessod by the great governments of the world ; for 
 tions ; and, in lieu of locality, he adheres to liber- politicians amidst their brilliant dreams of cxten- 
 ty, with all the strength of attraction, and mot" sion and glory on the Lnd must never forget that 
 than the tenacity of steel. He i3 a bosmopi'ite in this globe of ours is terraqueous, and that, by the 
 both principle ^nd feeling, and cares not whither wonderful revolution in the art of navigation oat 
 lie travels, provided, only and always, democracy by the introduction of steam, the ocean has be- 
 attends him. And thus he is constituted, by na- come an element of power far more important than 
 ture and education, by theory and practice, to be it ever was before in any epoch of human history, 
 the minister of freedom throughout the world. — The eifect has been to diminish the lines of distance 
 The method of his mission, and the standard of and to reduce the measurements of space to the 
 his success, may be explained in a single term, but standard of time, so that Europe and Americ 
 of immeasurable significance, and that word is, the ; not now as remote from each other as three Sab- 
 rolonir.ation of ideas; whereas all the European , baths of the solar year. England and the United 
 powers, without anv exception, colonize only for States are not quite two weeks apart. Moreover, 
 commerce. ' the employment of steam will enable hostile arma- 
 
 Great Britain, it is well known, has uniformly j ments to penetrate bays, harbors, inlets, and the 
 discouraged even English emigration to her eastern mouths of rivers, at will, without waiting for fickle 
 possessions ; and in this narrow and jealous policy winds or the favor of the returning tide, as was the 
 consisted the capital mistake, the cruel injustice of . case in bygone ages. At most, as soon as the 
 all her annexations in that quarter of the globe. — smoke of an enemy's chimney can be descried 
 Had she pursued the American plan — had she per- darkening the blue horizon, and ere the neighbor- 
 mittcd a rich diffusion, a purifying baptism of; hood can be aroused, or the militia called out for 
 British blood around the coast of Coromandel, and defence, his cannon may be thundering in the 
 all along the vast valley of the Ganges ; in fine, had ' heart of a great city, or spreading ravage and ruin 
 she Anglicized that great Indian population, in- far inland among the rural villages. No longer 
 eluding its hundreds of millions, the domination of will it be said that fleets are hovering on our 
 her empire, notwithstanding its monopolies and ' coasts. They will precipitate themselves upon 
 oppressions, would have proved the highest bless- \ their prey, as doth the eagle, rapid as the light- 
 ing that India ever knew, and an almost equal, ! ning of heaven, as unexpected and as destroying. 
 
 though incidental benefit to the Whole human fam- 
 ily. Such was the exalted trust committed by 
 Providence to the hands of England in the East ; 
 and I do not despair of seeing her perform it yet, 
 
 And although time and experience have not yet, 
 by practical lessons, fully demonstrated the extent 
 of this extraordinary change, enough has been wit- 
 nessed to prove it one of the very greatest in the 
 
 Otherwise the glorious work will surely be trans- i annals of the species. The Government of Eng- 
 ferred to more vigorous or faithful fiduciary keep- j land, ever shrewd and vigilant, at once perceived 
 ing. i the consequences of the new fact, and proceeded 
 
 If England would only commence in earnest the [ without delay to adapt her pliable policy to the 
 fulfillment of the mighty mission to which she has I revolution of the altered circumstances, for the 
 been called — the civilization of the oriental world, j purpose of insuring the like ascendency which she 
 the expansion and full development of her free and had held under the former system ; while the peo- 
 Christian institutions, and their cultivation in every j pie of the United States have attempted but a fee- 
 part of those wide English dominions on which the ble movement in a similar direction. The result 
 sun of heaven always rises, but never sets ; if she has been as astonishing as it is humiliating to 
 would put away her national jealousies, and dis- j American patriotism and pride. England has, to- 
 card her unfounded fears of American growth and l day, three hundred and fifty war steamers. We 
 greatness, and enter upon the luminous path of a i have but eight. Hers carry fix thousand and fif- 
 loftier competition with the United States— the ri- ■ teen guns. Ours have only eighty-?ix. All the 
 valry of kindly arts, instead of arms, of scientific j cannon in the British navy amount to fifteen thou- 
 discoveries, and the communication of light, intel- 1 sand four hundred and eighty-eight. The Ameri- 
 ligence, and virtue to all the species of man,— how cans can reckon just five hundred and thirty-seven, 
 soon might the world be redeemed from darkness, all told. And yet, we hav • a larger mercantile 
 and saved from the sanguinary sins and pollutions j marine than Great Britain, and therefore mora 
 of war! The two grand branches of the Anglo- need of protection for its interests ; while the im- 
 Saxon stock, the one pressing from the bav of] mensity of our coast line, and the enormous dL-- 
 Bengal, and the other from the golden gulf of Cal- j tance of our voyages, as contrasted « ith hers, ren- 
 ifornia, would meet in some beautiful group ofjder the disproportion in naval power truly as- 
 sunny isles in the Pacific ocean, and together clasp ; tounding. 
 
 their united hands in love and peace around the ( I am aware that the schemes of foreign policy 
 o-lobe. in the two countries are essentially different. Eng- 
 
 In addition to those already treated, there are land relies on force or fear to push her empire and 
 many other matters of policy, and some of the ; extend her trade to all parts of the globe. The 
 highest moment, which I have neither the time ' United States from the first hour of their sovereign 
 nor the precis*: data to discuss as they deserve.— ' exi-tence, have only sought to reap their commer- 
 But I am not willing to close my remarks without cial harvests, and to gatht r the glory of I 
 a brief reference to the [singular condition and in- oesa by the arts of peace. The idea of 
 sufficient strength of the Navy as compared with hostilities, of war for the sake of conquest and ex- 
 the actual requirments of our commerce, with the,ternal domination, has never entered the mind of 
 demands of the national dignitv, and with the rel- , an American Btatesman. And hence our system 
 ntive might of the same strong" arm of power pos- 1 contemplates, not offensive, but defensive operu- 
 
tions alone. We mostly intrust the protection of 
 our shores to the citizen soldiery, and of our trade i 
 upon the high seas to the marine militia, who 
 have, more than once, so amply justified our con-; 
 fidence by their prowess as privateers. Hence it 1 
 cannot be expected that our free and pacific peo- 
 pie will ever consent to burden themselves with 
 excessive taxes for the support of a powerful stand- 
 ing armv or of a strong navy in time of peace. — j 
 Nor would I advise any such project. But I do 
 contend that we should possess a respectable naval ! 
 strength, one adequate to the demands of our ac- \ 
 tual commercial relations, and more especially suf- 
 ficient for the defense of our own coasts. There ] 
 should be navy yards in every principal section of 
 the sea-board for the construction of a class of 
 steamers competent to protect our shoal waters \ 
 both North and South. The works of that charac- i 
 ter at Memphis and the Memphis station, never 
 ahould have been abandoned, as they were. And 
 above all, I would urge the most liberal appropri- 
 ations to scientific men, for the purpose of making 
 experiments as to the best means of securing har- 
 bors from the approach of hostile fleets ; for what 
 would be the expenditure of a few millions of dol- 
 lars compared to the pecuniary loss which might 
 result to the great city of New York alone, by the 
 bombardment of some Baltic fleet? But the sub- 
 ject is largo enougb for a speech, or even a trea- J 
 tise in itself, and I will take leave of it for the j 
 present. I 
 
 In conclusion, to give a brief resume of the po 1- 
 icy which I have endeavored to indicate with such j 
 humble powers as I could command, and with all , 
 the most profound convictions of my reason, and 
 the warmest wishes of my heart: In the first place, j 
 I would esiablish, on such firm ground as never- ] 
 
 more could be criticised or called in question, the 
 Monroe doctrine, in both its correlative dogmas — 
 the one that prohibits American interference uv 
 European politics, and the other which forbids Eu- 
 ropean interference or colonization on the Ameri- 
 can continent. And I would idvocate both as be- 
 ing, not a belligerent or aggressive, but superemi- 
 nently a pacific and friendly policy, and as tending 
 truly to render war not only unnecessary but even 
 impossible. 
 
 Secondly : I would define and fix by the strong- 
 est force of legislative enactment the natural doc- 
 trine of voluntary expatriation, so as to open the 
 largest sphere for the development ofAmerican< 
 ideas, institutions, and enterprise, that could be 
 attained, in accordance with the rules of neutrality 
 and the princip.es of the law of nations. 
 
 Finally : I would urge the execution of this pol- 
 icy in all its parts, in the most peaceful manner, 
 but by the most energetic measures founded on' 
 the strength of our inexhaustible natural resources., 
 and the character of our Government and people — 
 and at the same time, with such national courtesy 
 and consummate respect for the rights, and even. 
 the prejudices of other powers as to satisfy the 
 whole civilized world — nay, the very savage races 
 themselves, of our equity, moderation, and amica- 
 ble motives. And if war should come neverthe- 
 less — if the tyrannies of the other hemisphere 
 should coalesce to put down the authority of our 
 example, to extinguish the last light of republican, 
 liberty starring with innumerable haloes thearchi 
 of the western sky, I would still confide as hope- 
 fully as ever in the high destiny of American civil- 
 ization, trusting alone in the goodness and justice 
 of God, and in the potency and patriotism of the 
 American people. 
 
 CIRCULAR. 
 
 The undersigned, members of the National 
 Execu live Committee of the American Party, 
 have pleasure in announcing to the people, that 
 Satisfactory arrangements for the future main- 
 tenance of the American Organ, as an au- 
 thoritative exponent and advocate of the prin- 
 ciples of the American Party, have been 
 completed. 
 
 Recommencing its labors, under these new 
 auspices, the undersigned cheerfully commend 
 
 the American Organ to the generous con- 
 dence of the American Party, in every sec- 
 tion of the Confederacy, and they hope its 
 columns may command the widest circula- 
 tion. 
 
 HUMPHREY MARSHALL, of Ky. 
 
 SOLOMON G. HAVEN, of N. Y. 
 
 J. MORRISON HARRIS, of Md. 
 
 JACOB BROOM, Penn. 
 Washington City, D. C, May 15th, 1856. 
 
 ' PROSPECTUS OF THE AMERICAN ORGAN. 
 
 The American Organ having been adopted, by the Executive Committee of ihe .4, 
 can members of Congress, as the centra! organ of the American party, the proprietor, with 
 a vic".v to its general and extensive circulation throughout the country, has detei mined, on 
 coisultation with his political friends, to furnish the same to subscribers on tin following 
 reduced terms, to wit : 
 
 Terms of the Daily American Organ. 
 Daily Organ, for one year - - $3 00 | Daily Organ, for six months - $2 00' 
 
 Terms of the Weekly American Organ. 
 
 
 Weekly Organ, for one year, to single 
 subscribers - - - - $1 60 
 
 Weekly Organ, for six months, to single 
 subscribers .... ioo 
 
 Address 
 
 Weekly Organ, for one year, to clubs of 
 eight or more subscribers, i ai ' $1 25 
 
 / Organ, for six month-, o clubs 
 of eight or more subscribers, 76> 
 
 VESPASIAN ELLIS, 
 Washington 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 011 897 765 8 
 
 
 HOLLINGER 
 P H8.5