The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-06-19

interests Indebted to the sheltering wing of the
Union for their safety, these gentlemen should
however cease to affect to complain of ii as Il
burden. Vain affectationi The sun which goes
down upon the Union, goes down upon Slave
nv as an aggressive and expanding power. From
that moment it can only struggle for life and be-
ing and safety, and with the certainty before it
of ultimate destruction. Its doom will be sealed
and no longer ambitiously debating the policy of
a great nation, and no longer welding treasures
not of its own contribution, and fleets not of its
own raising, it will sink into abject suppliant
for the commseration and forberance of man
kind.
1t would be to suppose the gentlemen of the
South absolutely demented, to believe that there
is one particle of sincerity in their empty threats
of dissolving the Union or to believe even that
they could be driven out of the Union by any
imaginable act on the part of the Government
The Union, which is great and unmxed bless
ing to all its members, este perpetual! is an abso-
lutte necessity to the South Condemned to
"fnbeeilify" Il quote Mr.. Madison's language)
by their peculiar institution they do not conceal
it from themselves, and will not conceal it from
others, by any amount of theatrical arrogance
Without fleets, wealth, available population or
possible alliances, they must give up the prepos-
ferrous imposture Of threatening to dissolve q
political connection, without which they could
| not exist in safety single hour. The credu-
=
No! The South, or rather the Slavery propa-
ganda which controls the South for the time be-
ing, mediate such act of insanity as a disso-
luton of the Union. Their purpose is, not to
| leave the Union, but to rule it. They are not
| madmen, as they would have US believe, but
cool, wary, and INSCRIPTIONS calculators. Men
identified with such an interest as theirs as really
weak as it is affectedly arrogant, men with two
| thousand millions of dollars in slave property,
cannot afford to act upon the suggestions of
passion. Whoever believes they will, knows
nothing of the springs of human action. Who
ever believes they will shuts his eyes to the most
patent and conspicuous facts. If these South
ern gentlemen are mad, they have a method in
| their madness. They have a policy, and they
have just avowed to the whole world what that
policy is, in the platform which they have erect
ed at Cincinnati, and upon which they ask the
country to elevate Mr.. Buchanan TO the Presi-
dency.
Whoever wishes to understand Southern pol
| icy, should read that platform, in which it is
plainly written down. 1t contains not threats
of dissolving the Union, but the commitment of
what was once great and national party to
the appropriation of the entire resources of the
Union to the single and local interest of Slavery
| 1t is the speech of General Qutman from which
! have quoted, embodied in resolutions. 1t is
| fibustering dgested into code; and not fill
clustering for the spread of Liberty, but for the
| spread of Slavery Affecting to pronounce for
"free seas it recognises only sea, and that
| is the American Mediterranean, around which
| cluster the hopes and interests of Slavery. OF
| the Indies, it only see the modern, and not
| the ancient, the West Indies, and not the East
| Indies 1t has no eyes for the Pacific Ocean,
none for the Sandwich Islands, none for the vast
| commerce yet to be developed with China, with
| Japan, with Australia, and with all the regions
of the South Sea. Demanding protection to
II 2 L. r.. Al
and the Caribbean Sea; none for the St. Law
| renee, with its magnificent valley of a million
square miles. Not only not recommending q
| railroad across the Continent, but doubling and
hating, and speaking in uncertain tones and with
contradictory votes in reference to any species of
overland communication, it sees no mode of
reaching California, except by "istLmus routes"
the protection of which will afford pretexts for
| buying Selling Cuba, and for ensaving, ST.
Domingo. 1t points to expansion in only one
direction and that direction is the Gulf of Mexi-
co. Under pretence of controlling the transit
between the Atlantic and Pacific in the interest
of commerce, at the cost of a war which would
annihilate all commerce, it makes the occupation
of Nicaragua by the a0ant courrirs of Slavery
| canon Of Democratic faith. Interpreting Ian
guage by the known views and purposes of
those who speak, it commits the Democratic
party to the acquisition af Cuba, and to the re-
| ensavement of the blacks of st. Domingo. Gu
6a," says General Quitman, " commands The entire
trade Of the Guy. IL rs The commercial and napaL
strategec key Of the richest products Of the rorld"
This is the systematic language of the South,
: and when they demand "permanent protection for
The outlets of the Gulf they demand Cuba. St
Domingo, says Gen. Cazneau, is one of that
grand circle of islands schch enclose The Caribbean
Sea- and command our isthmus routes TO the Pacific"
Gen. Cazneau the Texan, like Gen. Quitman the
Mississippian, feels deep interest in commerce.
1t is an interest most dsinterested and every way
remarkable. 1t is for the sake of commerce. that
these gentleman and their associates, speaking in
the patfrom erected at Cincinnati, demand that
our {" ascendency IN the Gulf of Merico be in
sured" at all costs and all hazards. This ascend
ency," in any Ineligible sense, and for every
legitimate purpose, already exists. If we can rely
upon Gen. Jackson military authority the
"ndpal srategetic Key" of the Florida Pass is not
Havana, but the Dry Tortugas. 1t is not because
the Moro Castle threatens our shipping but be-
cause the possible Afrcanization of Cuba threat
ems the plantations of Florida and Georgia and
the Carolinas, that these gentlemen insist upon
"ascendcncy in The GUY Of 1Nerico" What is meant
is not /" dseendency" in any sense which is mill
| tary or commercial but the linking of the whole
| of "msular america" in the language of Gen.
| Quitman, to common destiny" common inter
ests and similar institutions in brief to Ne
| gro Slavery.
| istration, in obedience to the commands of the
Shareholders, have been directed to pushing Sla-
| very at even the hazard of civil war; north from
| the parallel of 800 3O/ to the parallel of 40,
| so the same shareholders, speaking through the
| Democratic party, of which they the masters,
| now declare that they "e1pect from tie next i'd
miai,tration" that steps be taken for the protec-
| ton and extension of Slavery on the continent
| and islands enclosing the Gulf of Mexico, which
will certainly involve us in wars with all the
maritime Powers of Europe. This is what these
gentlemen "erpect from the nert administration, !"
| and it is what they will obtain from it, if they
can constitute it in accordance with their wishes
| The North is sometimes deceived in its men: the
| South, never The Cincinnati platform is only
| the expression, in a concentrated form, of the
| Soule conferences; and from the first, the real
| leaders of the South intended to nominate upon
that platform the plant Pennsylvania who trav-
| eled from London to Ostend, in order to give
the weight of our first diplomatic position abroad
| to propositions, to purchase Cuba at any cost of
money, or to obtain it at any sacrifice of peace
| and national character. The coy and amorous
| delay which marks the public adoption of Mr.
Buchanan by these willy leaders, will not conceal
the secret arrangements made with him long
| since, but now for the Arst time announced to the
| world,
| If these slaveholding States would really exc
| cute their daily threats and dissolve the Union,
| which they can only do by leaving it, our regret,
| great and sincere it ought to be, would not be
| by any means unaloyed. We should be tareat-
| ened with no more wars for the extension of Sla-
very, under the deusive guiss of insuriag an as
tendency IA the Gulf Of lMerico;;" we should have
hope, in short, to be permitted to enjoy in peace
the fruits of our own industry. Leave US, how
ever, they will not; rule us they will, if they
/ can but they ought not at one and the same