Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1850-03-30
DIsUNIoN.

The Louisville Journal publishes the following
extract from De TocaUEvILLE, as remarkable
evidence of the sagacity Of that enlightened travel
Ter, and as furnishing plausible solution of the
cause of Southern discomfort, and of the apparent
tendency of the Southern States towards disso-
luton of the Union:
"It is difficult TO imagine durable union of people
which is rich and strong with which is poor and weak
even if il proved that the strength and wealth of the
one are the Of the weakness and poverty Of the
other. But union is still difficult maintain at time
which party losing strength and the other is gaining
it. This rapid and dspopor,onate increase Of certain States
threatens the independence of the Others But if the
powerful States make no effort to bear down upon the
lesser Ones the danger still exists far there almost as much
in the possibility of the act in the act ITSELF The weak
dstrust the justice and Of the strong. The States
which increase less rapidly than the others look upon those
which favored by fortune with envy and suspicion
Hence arise the deep seated uneasness and dened aga
ton which observable in the South, and which form
striking contrast the confidence and prosperity which
common to other parts of the Union.
The inhabitants Of the Southern States are, Of all the
Americans those who interested in the maintenance
of the Union. They would assuredy suermos from being
left themselves, and yet they the only citizens who
threaten to break the tie Of the Union But il easy
perceive that the South which has given four Presidents
the Unon finds that it is losing itsinfuencethat the
bes Of its representatives in Congress diminishing whilst
those of the Northern and Western States increasing.
The South, which speoped by ardent and ascbs beings
becoming and more ated and alarmed The citizens
reflect their present position and past in tuence Wi the
melancholy uneasness Of Vho suspect oppression. If
they discover law of the Union which is not unequvocay
favorable their interests they protest against abuse
Of force and, if their ardent circumstances not listened
they threaten quit association which loads them with
burdens whilst it deprives them of their due profits.
elf the changes have described gradual, that
each generaiorat would have disappear with
the of things under which has lived the danger would
be less the progress society pecipae almost
utionary The citizen may have lived his State
take the lead in the Unon and aerward become poweess
in the Federal Assemblies apd American republic has
been known to grow rapidly man. passing from birth
infancy maturity in the of thirty years. must
be imagined, however, that the States which lose their
preponderance also lose their population their riches
stop put their prosperity, and they go TO increase
more rapidly than any kingdom in Europe But they believe
themselves to be impoverished because their wealth does not
augment rapidly that Of their neghbos; and they
think that their power lost because they suddenly
into collision with power greater than their own. Thus
then are more hurt IN their feelings and passions than in
their interests But this is amply sufficient endanger the
maintenance Of the Union.
ssThus the prosperity Of the United States is the Of
the most serious dangers that threaten hem tends
create in some of the States that excitement which
companies rapid increase of fortune and awaken in others
that feeling of envy, msrus, and regret which usually
attend upon the loss Of it. The Americans contemplate this
extraordinary and hasty progress with exutaion but they
would be wiser to considert with and alarm
Thus [says the Journal this enlightened for
eigner had the sagacity to prefgure, fifteen years
ago. the existing state of things with much truth
fitness almost as if he were now here and describ-
ing what is going on. We are satisfied that "envy,
mstrust, and regret" produced by comparing the
present political inferiority of the South with its
former supremacy, and by contrasting Its slower
growth in wealth and population, when compared
with other sections, have been more the occasion
of the prevailing discomfort than any specific wrong
it has received at the hands of the free States To
treat the disease properly must know its cause,
and hence the necessity that the people of every
section should fully understand the cause Of the
Southern ailment. The statesmen North and est
will feel the importance Of applying nothing but
pallatives and lenitves their Southern brethren
until the present excitement has had time TO wear
off. The statesmen of the South will also see the
necessity Of waving the proposed Nashville Con-
vention, and doing nothing calculated to exasperae
Southern jealousy and ill-will. The fits of spleen
and jealousy which are unavoidable to individuals,
and which often influence the masses, should never
be permitted to operate upon those who aspire to
the character of statesmen, assume the response
BILE station Of leaders of their generation.