Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1861-01-23

notwithstanding our worldwide intercourse
! makes peace the habit of the American peo-
pie '' T'1--7.'-l Ere gao fsa ssiiar q
1 viii not descend so low as to ask whe-
ther new Confederacies would be able or
willing to bear the grieEOus expense Of
maintaining the diplomatic relations which
cannot be dispensed with except by with
drawing from foreign commerce a -c...i
: Our Federal Government is better able
4 to avoid giving just. causes of war than
\ several Confederacies, because it can con-
form tAe action of all the States to CON-
, pacts. 1t can have only one construction,
and only one tribunal to prOnouee that
construction, of every treaty. Local and
1 temporary interests and passions, or per-
sOBal cupidity and ambition can drive
small COnfederacies or States more easily
than great Republic, into indiscreet
violations Of treaties. ~
The United States being great and
formidable Power. can always secure favor
able and satisfactory treaties. Indeed.
every treaty We have was voluntarily made,
Small Confederacies or States must take
such treaties as they can get, and give
whatever treaties are exacted. A humili.
atiRg, or even an unsatisfactory treaty, is
a chronic cause of foreign war.
The chapter of wars resulting from un-
I iusti6able causes would. iu case Of division,
amplify itself in proportion to the number
/ of new Confederacies and their irritability.
I Our disputes with Great Britain about
Oregon. and the boundary of Maine. the
patriot insurrection in Canada, and the
Island of San Juan; the border strifes be-
tween Texas and Mexico; the incursions of
the late William Walker into Mexico and
Central America; all these were cases in
which war was prevented only by the
imperturbability of the Federal Govern
ment. .- -. I
This Government not only gives fewer
causes of war whether just or unjust, than
smaller Confederacies would, but it always
has greater ability to accommodate than
by the exercise of more coolness and cour-
age, the use of more. various and more
liberal means and the display, if need be,
of greater force, Every one knows how
placable we ourselves are in controversies
with Great Britain France and Spain; and
yet how exacting we have been in our in
tercOurse with New Granada, Paraguay
and San Juan de Nicaragua -...
Mr.. President, no one will dispute our
forefathers' maxim. that the common safe
ty of all is the safety of each of the States
While they remain united, the Federal
Government combines all the materials
and all the forces of the seveal States;
organizes their defcnees on one general
principle: harmonizes and assimilates them
with one system; watches for them with
single eye, which it turns in all directions,
and moves all agents under the control of
one executive head. A nation so constitut-
ed is safe against assaults or even insult
War produces always speedy exhaus-
tion of money and severe strain upon
credit The treasures and credits of small
Confederacies would often prove inadequate.
Those Of the Union are always ample
l have thus far kept out of view the re-
lations which must arise between the Con- /
federacies themselves. They would be /
small and inconsiderable nations bordering /
on each other, and therefore, according to /
all political philosophy, natural enemies.
In addition to the many treaties which
each must make with foreign Powers, and
the causes of war which they would give
by violating them, each of these Confedera-
cies must also maintain treaties with all the
others, and so be liable to give them fire.
quent offence. They would necessarily
have different interests resulting from their
eff different policies of rev.
enue, of mining, manufactures and naviga-
ton, of immigration, and perhaps the slave
trade. Each would stipulate with foreign
nations for advantages peculiar to itselfand
injurious to its rivals. -'-
If, indeed, it were necessary that the
Union should be broken up, it would be
in the last degree important that the new
Confe leracies to be formed should be as
nearly as pos:ible equal in strength and
power, that mutual fear and mutual res
beet might inspire them with caution agaist
mutual offence. But such equality could
not long be maintained; one Confederacy
would rise in the scale of political impor-
ance, and the others would view it thence
onward with envy and apprehension {
Tealousies would bring on frequent and
etaliatory wars, and all these wars, from !
he peculiar circumstances of the. Confed- ,
racies, would have the nature and char /
cter of civil war. Dissolution, therefore, :
5. for the people Of this country, perpetual !
iYil war. 10 mitigate it and obtain oc-
asional rest, what else could they accept ;
,ut the system of adjusting the balace of
over which has obtained in Europe, in :
Thich the few strong nations dictate the /
ery terms on which all the otheres shall ;
c content to live. When this hateful {
ystem should fail at last. foreign nations :
-onld intervene, now in favor of one and .
hen in aid of another. aud thus our country .
aving expelled all European Powers from d
ne continent, would relapse into an aggre. \
lted form of its colonial experience, and, e
Ike Italy, Turkey, India and China, be-
,me the theatre of transatlantic interven- h
on and rapacity. 10
IfhOwever, we grant to the new confed- t
.acies an exemption from complications t
nong each other, and with foreign States,
i'll there is too much reason to believe that Y
,t one of them could long maintain re- e
lblican form Of government Universal e
Ifrage aud the absence of a stanaing q
my are essential to a republican system. a
be world has yet to see single self sus- L
lining State of that kind, or even any il
moderation of such States, except our Il
Tn. Canada leans on Great Britain not D
Willingly, and Switzerland is guar "
tiled by interested monarchial States "
ar own experience has thus far been sue "
ssful, because by the continual addition h
new States, the influence of each of the is
lembers Of the Union is constantly res V
aimed and reduced. No one, of course, d
= III ~