The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1853-04-23
Our Foreign Policy.

Our Foreign Policy.
| Young America eXulted greatly few weeks
since at the speech Of Senator Douglas, where
in he said sundry hard things of England and
other foreign nations, avowing that they hated
us and we didn't like them; therefore it might
as well be adopted as our policy to fall to and
whip them, whether they gave us just cause of
offence or not. This was the gist of his speech,
which was so loudly applaudcd from the CALLER
les by the seedylooking patriots who had con-
gregated in and about Washington at the time
The Senator's peroraton was merely rc-hasll-
ing Of Mr.. Folks 'lifty-four forty or fight" and
Senator Aliens efforts some years since to pre-
pare 1.-The hearts of the people for war;
After this etfervesccnce, it is pleasant and
hopeful to take up and peruse the mastery
speech of Edward Everett, delivered few
days subsequent. 1t is encouraging to know
that, although Webster. and Clay, and Calhoun
are gone, we have left in the United States
Senate, Statesmen SO thoroughly competent to
become opponents of the .4mericaa policy as
connected with our foreign relations We care
not what party for the time holds in its hands
the dcstinles OF the country, or how much those
having position and claiming membership in
that party may gas and rant in order to
tickle the ears of groundlings,'' the policy
proclaimed by Mr.. Everett in the following ex-
tract, which embraces the concluding portion
of his great speech, is the policy, and will be
continuously adhered to by every honest and
patriotic Statesman OF our country. 1t may all
be ri ght and proper some time for US to have
Cuba: but let us wait until the fruit is ripe
then it will drop from the tree into our hands.
This same theory will hold good in regard to
all possessions of other nations adjacent. Mr..
Everett alludes to this wise policy briefly, but
most eloquently and forcibly. His entire
speech is model production, and should be
read by every American. There is nothing
old fogyish' about it, and yet nothing which
runs into the opposite extreme. The comments
preceding and at the conclusion of the extract
are by the Baltimore American:
The only full report we have seen of Senator
Everctt's speech of the 2lst ult., in the L. S.
Senate, is contained in the New York Times
and is said to have been revised by the orator
himself. This production strikes our taste
even more than his elaborate State paper on
the Trpartte Treaty. The great body Of the
speech is quiet recital Of historical events.
free FROM all bitterness to the opposition or to
England, and conveyed in the most graceful
language. Fresh from the diplomatic alcoves
of the State Department. Mr.. Everett is full of
their secrets. Yet with all the temptations of
debate, he never bctrayS confidence. Still. it
is evident that the Senator felt it to be his duty
to diyulge enough of his London and Washing
ton experience of British policy to dispel the
childish suspicious upon which certain Senators
expended SO much rhetoric last winter Ac-
cordinglv, his succinct misunderstanding
the p;ratical origin of British Judgments in Cen
trail America, passing thence to the negotia-
tons about Nicaragua and Costa Rica and
closing with review of the colony of the Bay
OF ls!ands--prescntcd complete argument of
the whole controversy in the shape of a lucid
narrative. His candor, experience and recent
employment placed his assertions beyond deni-
al, and Oh course his argument could not be up
set without personal issue of fact, in which
perllous enterprise no one was rash enough to
engage.
The opposition, consequently. was paralyzed:
yet the speakers style was so respectful and SO
just that every opponent felt he was not con-
qucred, but only silenced by the superior in
formation OF a true statesman.
Yet 1t must not be imagined that Mr. Everett
confined himself entirely to that kind of nara
1--WE which would please as we'll in an essay as
IN speech. His eXordium upon personal mat
tiers was full of courtly cloqucnce but his per
Grafton was devoted to the righteous sources of
national gSranai-tment, and upon this superb
theme his spirit kindlcd with fire that must
have burned his patriotic lesson deep in the
hearts of all who heard him:
| IN our views Of the glorious future that
awaits our country" said he Eve are too ant.
perhaps to turn our thoughts to its ecocraphi-
cal extension as the measure and the index of
progress do not deny the correctness of This
IDEA to a certain extent. 1t is necessary to the
information of the highest qualities of national
character, that they should be exhibited mon
grand extensive scale. They cannot be fnrmnd
and exhibited within the bounds of nettv
State. Neither, sir. does this idea of scopranli
ical extension necessarily carry with it tile idea
Of collision with other powers, although it NAV,
perhaps, by natural association, suggest it
But think there need be no fear that SO far as
geographical extension is necessary, We shall
not. in the natural order of things, have as
much OF it and as rapidly, as the best interests
OF the country will require or admit
In the meantime, if we wish a real, solid.
substantial growth a growth which cannot by
possibility bring us into collision with foreign
powers, we shall have it in twenty five years to
our hearts content; not by the geographical
accession of dead acres, not by the purchase of
capa' not by the partition of Mexico, but by the
Ss,ihpie' peaceful increase of our population.
nave you considered, MFR. President. that this
mysterious law of our nature which was pro-
muigated on the sixth day of creation. ere
fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth y