The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1861-01-25
BIDDEFORD, MAINE, FRIDAY ]

continues until even the greatest empi
crumll 3 into many parts. Each confeder
ton that shall ultimately arise out OF q
ruin of the Union, will have necessity for
many treaties as we now have, and will II
cur liabilities for war rs often as We now d
by breaking them. II is the multiplicatic
oftreaties and the want ofconlederatio whic
makes war the normal condition Of soclet
in Western Europe and in Spanish Amcrici
Ii Is union, that, notwithstanding our worl
wide intercourse, makes peace the habit
the American people.
| will not descend 80 low as to ask whetht
new coniederacies would be able or willln
10 bear the grieyous expence OF maintainin
the diplomatic relations which cannot b
dispensed with except by withdrawing irol
foreign commerce.
Our Federal Government is better able
avoid giving just causes Of war than severa
confederacics, because it can conform tn
action of all the states 10 compacts. l
can have only one construction, and onl
one tribunal to pronounce that construction
of every treaty. Local and Temporary inter
ests and passions, or personal cupidity an
ambition can drive small confederacies o
states more easily than great republic in
to indiscreet violation of treaties.
The United States being great and for
midable power, can always secure favorable
and satisfactory treaties. Indeed, ever,
treaty we have. was voluntarily made. Smal
coniedcracies OF states must take such treat
les as they can get, and give whichever treat
les are exacted. A humiliating. or even al
unsatisfactory treaty is chronic cause o
foreign war.
The chapter of wars resulting from un'
justif,ble causes would, in case OF division
ampliiy itself in proportion to the numbe,
of new conicdcracics and their irritability
Our disputes with Great Britain about Ore
gon. the boundary of Maine, the patriot in
surrection in Canada, and the Island OF Sar
Juan; the border strifes between Texas an,
Mexico, the incursions Of the late VIM. Wal
ker into Mexico and Central America al
these were cases in which war was prevented
only by the imperturbability Of the Fedora
Government.
This government not only gives fcwcI
causes OF war, whether just or unjust thar
smaller cOniederacies would; but it always
has a greater ability to accommodate then
by the exercise OF mere coolnesS and courage
the use of more various and more libera
means, and the display, # 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 intercourse
with New Granada, Paraguay, and San Juan
dc Nicaragua.
Mr.. President, no one will dispute our
forefather's maxim, that the common safety
OF all is the safety of each of the States.
W lille they remain united, the Federal Gov.
ernment combines all the materials
and all the forces of the several
states organizes their defences on one gen.
cral principle /; harmonizes and assimilates
them with one system watches for them
with single eye, which il turns in all direc-
tions, and moves all agents under the con-
troll OF one executive hand. A nation no
constituted is safe against assault or even in
suit.
War produces always speedy exhaustion
of money and severe strain upon credit. The
treasures and credits OF small coniederacies
would often prove inadequate. Those Of the
union are always ample,
Ihave thus far kept out ofyiew the relations
which must arise between the cOnicdeacies
themselves. They would be small and in
considerable nations bordering on each Other
and therefore, according to all political phil
osophy, natural enemies. In addition to
the many treaties which each must make
with foreign powers, and the causes Of wal
which they would give by violating them
each of the conlcdcucies must also maintain
treaties with all the Others, and 50 be liable
to give them frequent offence. They woult
necessarily have different interests. resulting
from their establishment OF different policies
of revenue, of mining, manufactures, and ma
yigation, Of immigration, and perhaps the
slave trade. Each would stipulate with for
eign nations for advantages peculiar to itsel
and injurious to its rivals.
If, indeed, il were necessary that the Unior
should be broken up, it would be in the las
degree important that the new coniederacie'
TO be formed, should be Us nearly rs possible
equal in strength and power, that mutua
fear and mutual respect might inspire then
with caution against mutual offence. Blu
such equality could not long be maintained
one coniederacy would rise in the scale ol
political importance. and the Others woul(
view il thencciorward with envy and appre
hension. Jealousies would bring on fre
Quent and retaliatory wars and all thes'
wars, from the peculiar circumstances OF th'
coniederacies would have the nature anc
character of civil war. Dissolution, therefore
is for the people of this country, perpctua
civil war. To mitigate il, and obtain oeca
sional rest, what else could they accept bu
the system of adjusting the balance of powel
which has obtained in EurOpe, in which th'
few strong nations dictate the very terrn
on which all the Others shall be content e
live. When tins hateful system should TAI
ut lust, foreign nations would intervene, nov
in favor of one and then in aid OF another
and thus our country, having expelled al
European powers from the continent, woul'
relapse into an aggregated form of its colonia
experience. and, like Italy, Turkey, and In
dia and China, become the theatre ot trans
atlantic Intervention and rapacity.
II. however, we grant to the new conied
mong each other, and with foreign states
still there is too much reason to believe tina
not one OF them could long maintain repub
Ii, an form of government. Universal SUI
irage and the absence Of standing arm.
are essential to the republican system. Tn
world has yet to see single self-sustaininI
state Of that kind or even any confederation o
such states except our own. Canada leans
ON great Britain not unwillingly, and Switz
erland is guaranteed by interested monarch
ial states. Our own experiment has thu
far BEN successful bea Use. by the contin
ual addition Of new states, the influence o
each OF the members of the Union is con
stantly restrained and reduced. No one, o
course, can foretell the way and manner o
travel but but history indicates with un
erring certainty, the end which the seyera
eoniederacics would reach. Licentiousnes
would render life intolerable; and the,
they would sooner or later purchase tran
guilty and domestic safety by the surrende
q