The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-04-21
Hon. Edward Bates' Letter.

by the Hon. Edward Bates, Of Missouri, to a
| committee of old line Wings in New York,
which, it was alleged, had been suppressed
because some of its views did not exactly
harmonic with the purposes of those to
whom it was addressed. But the letter. it
appears, never reached the committee, but
was lost in its transmission through the
mails. A copy has been furnished by
MIR. Bates from his letter book; 1t is dated
in February. In compliance with the desire
of the committee that he would express his
views upon " the signs of the times" he
discusses the leading political questions of
the day
AS TO THE NEGRO QUESTION HE SAYS:
have always thought, and often declared
in speech and in print, that it is pestilent
question, the agitation of which has never
done good to any party, section, or class,
and never can do good, unless it be account
ed good to stir up the angry passions of
men, and exasperate the unreasoning jeal-
ousy of sections, and by these BAD means
foist some unfit men into Office, and keep
some fit men out. 1t is O sensitive question,
into whose dangerous vortex it is quite pos
sible for good men to be drawn unawares.
But when see a man, at the South or the
North, of mature age and some experience
persist in urging the question, after the sor-
rowful experience of the last few years, i
can attribute his conduct to no higher mo-
tive than personal ambition or sectional
prejudice.
UPON THE TARIFF AND INTERNAL IMPROVE
MENT questions, he wisely says, Gas to the
power of the General Government to pro-
tect the persons and properties, and advance
the interests, Of the people, by laying taxes,
raising armies and navies, building forts
and arsenals, lighthouses, moles, and break
waters, surveying the coasts and adjacent
seas, improving rivers, lakes, and harbors,
and making roads, should be very sorry
to doubt the existence Of the power, or the
duty to exercise it, whenever the constituted
authorities have the means in their hands,
and are convinced that its exercise is neces-
sary to protect the country and advance
the prosperity of the people.
In my own opinion, government that
has no power to protect the harb0rs of its
country against winds and waves and human
enemies, nor its rivers against snags, sands,
and rocks, nor to build roads for the trans
portation of its armies and its mails and the
commerce of its people, is poor, impotent
government, and not at all such govern
ment as our fathers thought they had made
when they produced the Constitution which
was greeted by intelligent men everywhere
with admiration and gratitude as govern
ment free for all the ends of legal liberty
and strong enough for all the purposes of ma
tional and individual protection. A free
people, if it be wise, will make good con-
stitution; but constitution, however good
in itself, did never make free people. The
people do not derive their rights from the
government, but the government derives its
powers from the people and those powers
are granted for the main, If not the only,
purpose of protecting the rights of the peO-
pie. Protection, then, if not the sole, is the
chief end of the government
And it is for the governing power to
judge, in every instance, what kind and
what degree of protection is needful-
whether Navy to guard our commerce all
around the world, or an Army to defend the
country against armed invasion from with
out or domestic instruction from within !;
or Tariff to protect our home industry
| dEtluSt TIC ustuRcIUuS vi
| labor and capital
OF the existence of the power and duty OF
the Government to protect People in their
persons, their property, their industry, and
their lOcomotion, have no doubt; but the
time, the mode, and the measure of p-otec-
tion, being always questions of policy and
prudence, must of necessity be left to the
wisdom and patriotism of those whose duty
it is to make laws for the good government
of the country. And with them freely
leave it, as the safest, and indeed the only
constitutional depository of the power.
On the extension of our dominions he is
highly conservative and says;
Without any right or any necessity, it is
hard to tell what We do not claim in all the
continent south of u.s. and the adjacent
islands. Cuba is to he the first fruit of our
grasping enterprise, and that is to be gotten
at all hazards, by peaceful purchase if we
can, by war and conquest if we must. But
Cuba Is only an outpost to the Empire Of
Islands and continental countries that are
to follow. We must not only have Cuba
but all the islands from Cape Florida to the
Spanish Main, so as to surround the Gulf of
Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and make them
our :" mare cfdusuni, ilke the Meulterr6nean,
in old times, when the Roman Emperor
ruled both its shores, from the pillars of
Hercules TO the Hellespont. This claim of
mare nostrdtum implies, OF course, that we
must own the continent that bounds our
sra on the west, rs well as the string of
islands that inclose il on the east-that is,
Mexico, Central America, and all South
America, SO far south at least rs the OrinocO.
| am not one of those who believe that the
United States is not an independent and
safe nation, because Cuba is not part OF it,
On the contrary, believe we are quite ca
pable OF self-defense, even if the "Queen of
the Antilles" were province of England
France, or Russia; and surely, while il re-
mains an appendage of n comparatively
feeble nation, Cuba has much more cause
to fear us than we have to fear Cuba. In
fact, gentlemen, cannot help doubling the
honesty OF the cowardly argument by which
we are urged to rob poor old Spain of this
last remnant of her Western empire, for
C fear that she might use il to rob Us.
!, But suppose we could get, honestly and
peaceably, the whole of the country-con-
| tinantaI and ;pcuIar fro,, tha Dc Ia