The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-03 00:00:00

could not, however, go on ruling without extend-
ing, because the North, through its prosperity and
wealth, was extending its territories and peopling
them with free emigrants from Europe. No emi-
grants ever thought of going to the South, and they
were not wanted; but to counterbalance the North
they must have fresh States, and, as they could not
get free emigrants, they must have black emigrants
to people them. To maintain their position they
must have a predominance ; to have that predomi-
nance, they must have fresh States they must peo-
ple them, which they could only do by re-opening
the slave trade. They were right in saying that if
they admitted the republican platform, limiting
slavery, they might as well give it up at once.
They treated this avowal of principles as downright
abolition. They, therefore, now sought to vindicate
slavery, and Mr. Stephens, the vice-president of the
Southern Confederacy, had declared that its foun-
dations were laid—that its corner-stone rested on
—the great truth that slavery—subordination to
the superior race—was the negro's natural condi-
tion ; that the confederacy was founded on these
principles, and that this stone which was rejected
by the first builders, had, in their new edifice, be-
come the chief stone of the corner. (Laughter.) Yet
in the face of such a speech, a respectable periodical
like the Saturday Review could state that slavery
had nothing to do with this contest. Such was not
the opinion in the South, nor was it the opinion in
the North. All parties at the last Presidential elec-
tion looked at it as a question of slavery. The
Union party, who started Mr. Bell as President
and Mr. Everett as Vice-President, put them for-
ward purely upon the principle of preserving the
Union, and declared that the only question which
agitated the American people, and lay at the foun-
dation of all their party divisions, was slavery. All
the attempts made after the election to prevent a
rupture, recognised this fact, and it was a mere
afterthought to put forward protection as the issue
upon which they had split. South Carolina, said to
be the most opposed to protection, gave its vote for
protection before the separation, and there was not
one word about free trade in its ordinance of seces-
sion. The people in America did not believe that
this was a question of free trade and protection, and
it was only done to blind England. (Hear.) In
consequence of the position taken by the North the
slaveholders found that they could no longer
rule the majority, and they determined, there-
fore, to establish a confederacy of their own, in order
that they might perpetuate and extend slavery by
taking possession of new territories, and renewing
the slave trade. Mr. Brown, the colleague of
Jefferson Davis, had openly declared that he wanted
Cuba, Tamaulipas, Potosi, and one or two other
Mexican States, for the planting and spreading of
slavery ; and Mr. Stevens had also avowed that
slavery must be extended and perpetuated ; upon
which a Southern editor added---" A cordon of free
states must never surround the God-given ieetlti..-
tion of slavery." It was the fashion now not to
avow this slave policy, and Mr. Tancey, one of the
Southern Commissioners to England, had stated
that they did not wish to revive the slave trade, but
that same gentleman, a year or two ago, in one of
his speeches, asked—" What became of au equality
when the law was passed that said, ' You of the
South shall not import negroes from Africa, though
you of the North may import jackasses from
Malta ?' " (Laughter.) They must not rely too
much upon the credulity of Englishmen. But how
were the South to succeed in establishing a slave-
holding commonwealth, reaching far South and
west ? They would never have thought of succeed-
ing if it were not that slaveholding made men brag-
garts—it so accustomed them to tyranuise over
others and to shut themselves out from the opinion
beyond them, that they imagined they could carry
everything before them. They relied for success
upon the love of money in the North, upon their
democratic allies in the North, and upon England
and Europe as the great consumers of their pro-
duce. Mr, Wigfall bad said, "Cotton is king, and
waves her sceptre not only over thirty-three States,
but over the Island of Great Britain ;" and the Go-
vernor of Georgia, in his message to his Legisla-
ture, had gone so far as to say that the new slave
power could by means of its control over the ex-
port of cotton, compel the British Government to a
treater by which Canada should no longer be a har-
bour of fugitive slaves. (Laughter.) For a short
time it seemed as if the South was to succeed; the
North was staggered and surprised ; they could not
believe that so terrible a convulsion was coming
upon them, and if they recognised the
South, England could not do otherwise. Terrible,
therefore, as was the war, he rejoiced at the time,
and he rejoiced still that there was such an upris-
ing of the people in the North on the attack on Fort
Sumter. If the South had ever indulged the dream
of establishing a great slave State on the dissolu-
tion of the Union, that dream was then gone. (Cheers.)
No doubt they were surprised at the sudden change
which followed the attack upon Fort Sumter. He
was not so himself. There was a great deal of what
the Americans called "bunkum," and the North
imagined that the talk was merely the old cry of
" Wolf!" and it was not until the first shot was fired
that they became really conscious that the States of
the South were in revolt. (Cheers.) He had him-
self long wondered how the men of the North had
submitted to the insult and outrage committed upon
their representatives, but there was a deep love of
the Union, a patriotic feeling, throughout the Free
States. They loved their country, they took a
pride in it, as a great and glorious commonwealth,
they felt its immense advantage in affording protec-
tion to the varioas States in their commercial enter-
prise with each other, and in the fact that they were
not obliged to maintain large standing armies,
which would be the case as soon as they became
separate States. They were determined to main-
tain the Union at almost all cost, and they were
prepared to make great sacrifices for that object.
The South, however, in their pride, declared that
they would not longer submit to the ruling of the
majority, and it was then that all parties in the
North—Democratic as well as Republican—became
united on the great issue before them. There was
a great difference in manner and feeling in the
South and the North. De Tocqueville said :
" The American of the South is haughty, prompt,
irascible, violent, ardent in desire, impatient of
obstacles, but easy to discourage if he does not
triumph at the first blow. On the contrary, the
man of the North is patient, thoughtful, tolerant,
slow to act, and persevering in his designs." So
that they (the audience) saw the result they
found in this war was that the South were fight-
ing for the perpetuation and extension of slavery;
they could not get it in the Union, so they deter-
mined to get it out of the Union. On the other
hand, the North were fighting for the restoration of
the Union, and for the power to treat the question
of slavery as originally intended by the Constitu-
tion. Therefore, the South appeared to be in the
fight very much more pro-slavery than the North
anti-slavery; but he should show the audience, he
thought, that the North were really fighting as
much against slavery as the South were fighting for
it. For, if the South succeeded, they would establish
a powerful commonwealth, such as he had described.
If they failed, slavery would receive a blow from,
which it could not recover. So that inasmuch as
the attempt to limit slavery had been the reason
why the slaveowners had revolted, inasmuch as the
existence of slavery had been the reason why the
political differences had been created into a war,
inasmuch as the existence of slavery, he believed,
depended upon the result of the war, he acknow-
ledged
he wished success to the North as long as
the war lasted, and ho wished no success to the
South, because he loved freedom and hated slavery.
(Applause.) But why did the war last ? Why did
not the men of the North let the South go ? Why
did not they make peace and have a free Union

---
without being in partnership with slavery any
longer ? Before they blamed the men of the North
for not doing that they must put themselves in their

position. If he were there he should doubt whether
he did not owe a duty to four millions of black

eitizens down in the South. He should doubt
whether he ought to let the Union be dissolved
without a struggle to free those men. But putting
that aside, the great reason why the Northern men
did not say, " We will have a free Union, and make
peace on these terms," was that they doubted the
possibility of a free Union, and doubted still more