The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-02-03

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can be industrious in such state of deep soicitud
and constant alarm .......
But, again; Great Britain throws her fleets into
the mouths of your harbors. Your commerce goes
NOT ost except by her permission--and she will, in
certain cases, permit 1t TO go out, but not 70 return
Can you prevent III How BY building steam
ships1 Build them. How viii they 20 out Of New
York; Build, if you please, five hundred vessels,
as il by magic, and how will they 90 out from New
York; Such vessels would have 10 go out separate
y, or probably two abreast; and Great Britain, by
ranging along the coast and forming crescent OF
her fleet, would have them in a eui de sac
| Nor will you have the lakes upon which TO put
your vessels. Why You made treaty with
Great Britain that neither nation should keep
afoat on those waters any armed vessels carrying
more than one gun. While you have slept, she
has been sowing She has cut a canal through
the rapids Of the St. Lawrence, which enables her,
with her steam batteries, to enter the bosom Of On
taro. She has cut another 1.-THE Welland) canal
which gives her to Lake Erie; and that gives
has access to the whole line. What will you dol
Why, say some gentlemen, take Canada. There
is not a gentleman who has spoken who has not add
mitted that Canada will be taken. Now, at the ex-
pense Of being thought, If you please, eccentric,
say that Canada cannot be taken. The position Of
the waters give tbs same security TO Canada that
they give the nation Of Great Britain itself She
throws at once a multitude Of steamships between
her territory and yours, and you never can reach
her. Having command of the lakes, she in
vests the mouth Of every harbor, and thus binders
the egress Of any vessels you may build, or the
blnation Of your lake fleets. Winter, gentlemen
say, will do for us; the water will he hard fro
zen, and we shall then be able to upon the ice
with our troops, and thus find the means of inya-
yaslon. Science, with The multitude Of its inventions
meets you here, too. Professor Hare has suggested
that series of casks Of powder, linked by
secutive line Of many miles IN length, and with the
facility furnished by the electric battery may be 40
la, ..,Atg laA, 81 ~
at any time. Thus, when the approach Of an army
is seen upon the ice, the passage-wsy be inter
rupted. Where, then, are you TO find a vulnerable
point Vulnerable yourselves and yet without the
means of forcing Great Britain into battle, you
will be continually harassed, without the satisfac-
ton Of giving employment TO these gallant spirits
who hope for excitement, but who, after all this
disturbance, alarm, and difficulty, will have neither
the excitement Of the battle nor the gores of VIC
tory.
But where your sailors who, during the last
war, by means Of privateering, inflicted such injury
on the commerce of the enemy | venture TO say
that American privateer would live one month,
after war had been commenced in any sea. What
gave the privateers their efficiency in the last
war; Their admirable construction, and their con-
se1uent facilities for sailing enabled them TO rush on
these heavy and well laden argosies which did not
suspect their approach. When pursued by Brit.
ish feet, cruiser they could spread their broad
canvass upon their light and airy spars, and like
the sea-brd, shoot out Of sight almost in a moment
But now steam-vessels spread over every sea-
cruising at the mouths of your bays and harbors
would capture them as they came out; and even il
they escaped and get abroad for a short Time they
would be to be overtaken. In fact, there il
not single position from which you can assail
Great Britain.
And here | desire to make assertion which
do not believe that any military who has a
reputation to lose will deny. | do not believe that
ifar IF cherac will hat,
by means of an army, can take Oregon from the
British, tell you what you can do--you can ex-
pei the Hudson Bay Company, if Britain comes
not TO their assistance. But l put the question
again and again-"Can you take oregonr There
are gentlemen here who, after having made very
warlike speeches, admit privately that you cannot
take Oregon. How, then, will the second PROPOSE
ton find its consummaton--that is to say, the en-
argement of the area Of freedom' You cannot get
the territory, and, therefore, you cannot extend
your institutions over it. We are then involved in
this absurdity that we go to for an unattaina-
BILE end. Are you not making the experiment OF
extending freedom by the destruction of all that
makes freedom blessing, which leaves to the ind-
vdual the right Of his own pursuit, and the indul-
gence, under salutary regulations of his own will
of remaining where interest invites or duty calls
Are you not, by the very process of war, about to
circumscrbe the energies Of that WILL and restrict tn
the will of another the ideas Of proprety or duty
to exchange the broad Of this free country for
the limits OF camp, or the circumscriptions Of q
beseged town. to prevent the intercourse of FAINT
lies, the social ndulgencies of friends the invest
ments Of property, and the regulation Of ones own
concerns2 In one word, you not about to sub
lect the movements OF the many to the orders
of the few5 And when after the lapse Of many
years, with the loss Of thousands Of your most gal
liant sons, amidst the bereavements Of widows and
the orphanage of the rising generation, you shall
have returned to peace, with your industry disor-
dered, with your credit impaired with your
soldiery unpaid, with the habits of men en-.
tirely changed, think we that all will at once
settle down into the well-ad usted balances Of in
dustrial pursuits' May it not happen that when
the soldiers shall have marched to this capital to
demand their pay, Washington, or the spirit of a
Washington, shall be wanted to check the ardor of
those demands' And may it not happen that some
more aspiring genius willing to exchange the sword
for the sceptre, shall find in this very sodiery the
materials with which to erect his throne of empire
on the PROSTATE liberties of the land We cannot
be expected always to be exempt from the vicissi-
tudes of nations Thus far success has crowned
our efforts to establish and extend the benefits of
freedomi but success is often the rod which God
places in the hands Of a presumpuous nation where
with to chastise itself
But go further. Suppose am wrong and that
there is some distinguished military man who will
undertake to march an army across the steppes or
the deserts, to the Rocky mountains, with all the
heavy artillery, baggage wagons, and munitions OF
be assailed on every side by the Arab warriors of
the plain-the mounted men of the Indian tribes,
under the pay of Great Britain. But suppose that
at last you reach the base of the mountains What
them Do you deem that Frtmont's and other
passes through these rocky barriers, will open to
give peaceful passage to your Every pass will be
brisng with British cannon. Every mountain
top will rattle with British musketry, and the
whole line of these alpine hills will become one vast
Gibraltar What is to Le done'
But it is said you ere to conquer Great Britain by
other means. We are to destroy her manufactures;
and in their frenzy Of starvation, the people of
Great Britain are to overurn the throne and to de-
stroy the princpalities. The argument would be
good if it were borne out by fact. Will our cot
ton find its way 10 England English vessels would
not come isto Charleston, or New Orleans; but
Great Britain would leave these ports sufficiently
open to neutral vessels; or az in the last war, give
passports to Yankee captains, To Charleston and
New Orleans to convey it to St. Thomas neutral
isle-from whence il could be transshipped in Brit
ish vessels to Liverpool or London.
But, say gentlemen, the markets Of this country
would be closed; and, in that event. England, losing
her best customer, will lose the inducement IN work