The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-12-04
MR.. BUCHANAN MUST BE SOUTHERN, DEFI-
ANT, AND UP TO THE osTEND MANIFESTO.
From the New Orleans Delta. Nov. II.

From the New Orleans Delta, Nov. IL.
When the admission of Kansas into the
Union comes to be acted on, the South will
learn the manner in which the late contest was
conducted. She will find, we fear, that non
extension of Slavery was the middle ground on
which the majority of Mr.. Buchanan's support.
ers at the North agreed to stand. She will
find that it will be difficult, if not impossible,
to bring Kansas into this Union as a slave
State. She will find that the day Mr.. Buchanan
signs a bill to that effect, if ever passed, his
party will be dead and buried at the North.
1here is but one Offset to this condition OF
things, and that is to make the South so strong
in her material progress, in her domestic re-
forms, in her social convictions, in her political
attitude, as to keep the North in check by the
only arguments which remain to be used
against Free Soil-fear and interest If Mr..
Buchanan rely upon old exploded expedients
for success if he devote himself to a laborious
do nothing policy, converting the foreign depart
ment especially into immense circumlocu-
ton Office, he will signally fail, and find his
Administration at the end of four years sunk
lower than did ever plummet sound. The
country, too, will be in state of fermenting
stagnation, growing weaker and scklier daily,
from repression of energy and healthy expan.
siveness, and stained all over with political and
social plague spots more hideous than now.
But if Mr.. Buchanan turn his back on those
expedients, if he refuse to abdicate his mission
as President of the United States at this
juncture, and direct the energies of the Gov
eminent where the Ostend letter-the best
document he ever signed-points, to wit, to-
wards the tropics, towards Cuba. Nicaragua,
and Mexico, he will succeed. He will stand
where Pierce did in 1853, only on little
~ &C II
pledge, but it is to be hoped that he will not
bury the platform on which he was elected in
the most mysterious recess of the circumlocu-
ton office, and cover like schoolboy before
the ferule of some second Marcy. He owes
his election to the vote of the South, and to the
defiant attitude of resistance which she was be-
ginning to assume. He should bear that fact
well in mind. He will be a traitor, and insen-
sible to every manly feeling of gratitude, if he
forget it, and disregard the obligations it i'm
plies. Then let him live up to the letter and
spirit of the Ostend letter let him look to our
interests in Cuba, which, by right of geography
and of political necessity, should be ours; let
him fortify Walker in Nicaragua, and forestall
Spanish and French designs upon Mexico let
him place the great Tehuantepec route beyond
the hazard of being lost to us, by securing the
grant of strip of territory across that Isthmus;
let him do these things, and we can laugh to
scorn the subtle policy of Seward, the rhetori-
cal raving of Sumner, and the blatant menaces
of their followers.
Not alone in the South would he find ap-
proval for such a course. The acquisition Of
slave territory, by conquest or annexation,
would find nearly as many supporters, avowed
or silent in Boston, New, York and Philadel-
phia as in New Orleans. There would be
howl from the Abolitionists and free negroes,
of course. But the great issues such policy
would bring up would confront US face to face
with England and France. The opposition
would be borne down by that national spirit
which always sways the national heart when con-
fronted with other nations. The acquisition of
Cuba, in defiance of England and France,
would not split the Union-it woud strength
en- it. The regeneration of Central America,
by Walker, in alliance with the United States
would lead TO the gradual emancipation of the
West indies from the infamous free-negroism
established by the enemies of American Repub-
licanism.