The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-02-18
SLAVERY AND FOREIGN RELATIONS.

Mr.. Wilson has submitted in the Senate q
resolution calling upon the President to com.
municate to that body, if not incompatible with
the public interests, copies of the instructions
given to Mr.. Meade, our Minister to Brazil.
It seems that this Virginia gentleman, car.
rying with him abroad the same fanatical devo.
ton to Slavery that has marked his career at
home, has indicated to the Emperor his opin.
ion that that institution being common to both
countries, but exposed to hostile influences
" from without" should form the great bond Of
union between them. We copy his address, as
We find it in the Washington Union:
SIRE: have the honor to present to your
Imperia! Majesty my credentials as Envoy Ex
traordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the
Court of Brazil.
"In accrediting Minister to this Govern.
ment, mine is not thereby merely discharging
courteous duty to the greatest Power of the
South American continent, but is giving ex.
preston to its sincere desire to unite with the
Imperial Government of Brazil in maintaining
policy that shall forever bind the two coun.
tries in bonds of peace and friendship, give ad.
ditional life and energy to an already growing
and prosperous commerce, and finally result in
the permanent wealth, prosperity, and power,
of two great nations, in whose destinies are
wrapped up those Of the two great continents
in which they respectively exist.
"My Government is duly impressed with the
points of resemblance and identity of interest
which should make the ties between the txo
countries indissoluble, and direct the policy
and aspirations of each. An equal extent Of
territory, of gigantic dimensions, gives to each
nation an assurance of future power that lifts
it above the reach of uneasy apprehensions,
and imparts to its position dignity that be
longs only to conscious strength.
Their approximation, in many respects, in
their political, constitutional organization, is
well calculated to engender political and social
sympathies promotive of mutual benefits and
future commercial progress, while an institu.
ton common to both countries, fixed and deep
ly rooted in their soil, with many hostile preju
dices to encounter from without,) does now
establish an affinity between them, and will in
sure, for mutual defence, unity of action and
feeling that will prove invincible in the future.
"The President of the United States, sire, will
at all times be happy to be assured of the
health and happiness of your Majesty and the
imperial family of Brazil"
To which his Majesty the Emperor made
the following reply:
"On receiving the letter by which the Presi.
dent of the United States has accredited you in
the capacity of Envoy Extraordinary and Min.
lister Plenipotentiary to my Government, have
sincerely to thank him for this new proof of
his friendship, and it is highly gratifying to me
to hear the friendly expressions of the senti-
ments inspired by the relations of the United
States with Brazil, which sentiments Brazil
retributes to the same extent; and, aware of
the duties imposed on it by the position it &C.
cupies among the nations of South America, will
continue to employ, as hitherto, it, lawful in.
duence 70. the prosperity of the neighboring
States"
The propriety of Mr.. Wilson's resolution is
manifest. The American People have right to
know whether Richard K. Meade, of Virginia,
who seems to consider himself the representa-.
tive merely of the sectional Interest of Slavery,
speaks by authority: whether the President has
authorized him to propose covertly to the EN-.
peror of Brazil policy which looks to the d.
vision of North and South America between
Brazil and the United States; to suggest to the
Emperor the expediency Of jointly establishing
q balance-of power system in this New World,
in imitation of the old European policy whether
the President gave Richard T. Meade an insight
into the marvellous likeness between the Impe-
perial, central despotism of Brazil, and the Dem.
ocratic, Republican, Federal Government of the
United States, engendering political and social
sympathies:" whether he authorized him to
propose to Brazil an alliance offensive and defen.
sive, on the ground of the existence of Slavery
in one half of this country and in the whole of
that country, for the purpose of rendering it
forever "irrevocable." Clearly, Richard K.
Meade considers Slavery not only National
Institution of the United States, but the Nation
al Institution, to the protection and aggrandize-
ment of which our Foreign Diplomacy is to be
directed. He plainly invites the Emperor of
Brazil to an alliance for the maintenance of
Slavery. Brazil and the United States are the
two great Powers of the New World, the corner
stone Of whose institutions is, Negro Slavery
against which the Civilization of the Age is
warring-let them unite, then, "for mutual
IL O. Al