The Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1852-1853, 1853-01-12

aS country tnat al TINS
any difficult and delicate
lRa i~n.ercourse are upon us,
az us, that we have at the head
-poFtant committee q gentleman so
-sssIculated 70 discharge bis duties salts.
iaetoriiy 10 the Senate and 50 honUrably to
the country. and disposed equally to avoid
rashness and pusilanimity, We cannot dis
guise from ourselves that there never was
4 period IN our history fraught with more
mOmentons subjects connected with our rela-
ions with the other powers of the earth, and
liable % present themselves from hour to
hour for practical consideration. We have
heard q great deal about our manifest
destiny, and the term has been equally as
sailed By reproaeh and by ridicule. Now,
Sir, il by that phrase il is meant, as | sup
pose j. is, thai the great characteristic feat
ures of the age are to produce an influence,
= decisive one, upon our course, and policy,
then / believe, we have a manifest desti-
nv" from which w cannot escape, and it is
a destiny by which We shall advance in all
the elements of knowledge and prosperity,
intellectually and materially. As to fixed
immobility, we may talk about it as We would
about an antediluyian speculation but while
we stop to talk, the world of progress is
aoying on, and We must redouble our pace
to oyertake it. We cannot isolate ourselves
from the other nations Of the earth, and we
have rights and interests connected with
them which demand uur constant and often
our jealous attention. Mr.. Canning said
truly and emphatealIy, 1--WE must keep on
ef.a I.a "A roIt,oa1 Inn,rloI-o - WLu,~-o
cheek is struck, in national affairs, if we turn
the other we shall soon have neither check,
nor head, nor body, to enable us to repeat
the movement. And it was in this spirit |
desired, last year, when the occasion called
for il, to repudiate, by a solemn public act,
an Interpolation made in the law of nations
by the Emperor of Russia striking at the
very root of national freedom and indepen-
dence. But it was opposed and defeated
and | see that the President, in his recent
annual Message, recalls some of the adverse
views then presented, and expresses his APP
probation of them. Sir, | regret the course,
because | have a high personal regard fol-
the President, and approve much he has
done but | must be permitted to say that
the action proposed by myself and others
upon this matter, was no more calculated To
produce war than the exercise of any other
unquestionable national right. | think the
charge does injustice to those with whom |
acted. We all disclaimed the remotest in
tention of provoking war, and maintained,
both by reason and authority, that the ex.
PRECISION of a national opinion upon a great
question of public right, was as much the
prerogative of a republic as of a monarchy,
and that such a proceeding gave no cause Of
offence no more than the enunciation OF
great principles in our Declaration of indie.
pendence, but that it put the dissent on re-
cord, leaving the government proclaiming il
uncommitted by the declaration, and free tc
adopt its own course at any time thereafter
J know of no public man, no private one,
indeed, who dreamed of accompanying OIL
following the declaration with actual hostili.
ties. But We were frightened, if not out OF
proprlety, at least out of our true duty and
dignity. The wonderful disc nverr was made
lgton and Jefferson had warned
tnger of "entangling alliances
proceeding would be an cen
.ance," and was therefore to b.
atrlotic horror. Who we were
alliance with, by declaring {
public law, no one has told us
" = Y a discovery which is to reward
some future historian. However, the objec
WAS gained. We were h%umbugged, or We
lumbugged ourselves. But we shall come
to it yet, for this is an age of progress, and
already see that it has told upon this qucs.
ton, for that very respectable body, the
Wing Convention of New York, has pro
nounced its adhesion to the true doctrine, il
the following resolution, every word of which
heartily approve.
"3d. AS to foreign policy:-Peace ever
more SO far as is consistent with the due as
seftion OF our rights, a careful avoidance o
all eatangling alliances with foreign powers
but a solemn protest against any deliberate
defiance Of the laws of nations for the fur
therance Of the interest of despotism, and
generous and active sympathy with, anC
moral support to, all oppressed nations ant
races struggling TO assert or retain their lib
critics."
And we shall not only come up to thi
good work of participation in the public la'
of the world, but we shall also adopt tn
policy advocated by Mr.. Monroe and MI
Polk: that no European nation shall be per
mitted to ~colonize hereafter any part Of thi
continent. Not tomaintain existing colonies
as the English papers im~pudently and false
~ asserted, and as many timid persons i
this country made themselves believe, fo
both OF those statesmen expressly exclude
such a pretension, leaving untouched exisl
ing rights, but they sought To prevent tn
subjugation to a colonial State OF any Of tn
new governments, which had assumed an
established their independence. But v
were also twice frightened out Of this mea,
ure. We could not get on the line of poll
ical knowledge. But raw-head and blood
bones will not be scarc-crows for u.s.
Manifest destiny" is doing its part, and v
hall ere long be found warm and eficiel
oorIers OF those two great articles of p
faith peculiarly ours by position ar
IONS, The foundation Of this clai
pom peculiar considerations, which a
is just than they are forcible. III
If nations is not a rigid. infiexible cod
it accommodates itself to the varyir
tssions Of the world, and history is fill'
Is of this power Of adaptation
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