The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-01-14
SOUND VIEWS.

We commend to the reader the following,
from the Philadelphia Ledger, concerning our
existing affairs with Central Affairs:
Misrepresentation of Public Sentiment Con.
corning Walker.-Since the arrest of Walker,
the flibuster, an effort has been made, on the
part of a certain cabal, to represent the entire
Southern section of the Confederacy as furious
withindignation. For this purpose, letter writers
have been procured, to fill the newspapers with
exaggerated statements of the Governments
disapprobation of Com. Paulding's course;
town meetings have been got up at Mobile and
New Orleans; telegraphic dispatches have
been fabricated, asserting that Walker was to
be sent back to Nicaragua in United States
ship. In short, no effort has been spared to
create popular Juror by the usual hackneyed
arts of reckless demagogues.
But, so far, the effort has not been attended
with any great success. New Orleans, or Mo-
bile, which fitted out the flibusters, may be
terribly excited, because "Nicaragua's sove-
reignty has been invaded" by the United States
forces, but the greater portion of the South
seem to regard the matter rather coldy. The
Charleston Standard, which advocated the
reopening of the slave trade, says, Walkers
expedition has demonstrated the difficulty
OF subduing an independent nation, when the
almost universal sentiment of mankind Cd.
poses the enterprise. There are instincts strong
er than the compacts Of nations; and natu-
raj sense of justice, which is more power
full than neutrality laws and until the Ameri.
canization of Nicaragua can be brought about
by some more reputable means than expedi-
tions conducted like those of Gen. Walker, it is
quite as we'll to leave it to attend to its own
affairs"
This is not only sound logic, but good, polti-
cal morality. 1t is not improbable that the ul.
innate destiny Of Central America, as we'll as
of Mexico, is to fall under the control of that
energetic, hardy, laborious race, of which the
people OF the United States, at present, are the
prominent branch. But it does not follow that
expeditions, organized on the rapacious and
freebooting principles of Walker, are to be the
agents to execute this inevitable decree of des-
tiny. Time is working in the great march of
events. Whether Nicaragua passes from under
the dominion of the effete Creoles little soon
er or little later, is of small moment. COM
pared with the dishonor that would attend any
unjustifable Fastening of that event on the part
OF our Government or its citizens. When we
commence career of conquest, we change en-.
tirely the policy which has made this country
the great and prosperous nation it is, and we
commence a career which will eventually end
in our ruin, as it has destroyed MANY of the
strongest Powers which have existed in the world
The Charleston Standard is right. Not only
in point of morals, but in point of fact, an indie
pendent nation cannot be subdued, when the
universal sentiment of mankind opposes the en-.
terprise. The day of Vikings is past. Piracy
is called piracy now, as it ought to be: and we
only regret that it is not always punished as it
should be.