The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1861-01-24

question, therefore, is for us now to de.
} eide, while laying aside all pique, pas
) sion and prejudices, whether it condu.
ces more to the interest to the people
of this country, for the general purpose
of peace and war, commerce, inland
: and foreign, postal communications at
home and abroad, the care and dispo-
sition of the public domain, coloniza.
ton, the organization and admission OF
new States, and generally the enlarge
ment of empire, to continue one nation
under our present Constitution, than ii
; would be to divide themselves into
= separate confederacies or States. Our
J country remains now as it was in 1887,
: composed not of detached and distant
territories, but of one whole we'll con-
} uected and fertile region, lying within
the temperate zone, with climates and
! soils hardly more various than those OF
} France and Italy. This slight diversi-
J ty quickens and amplifes manufactures
and commerce. Our rivers and valleys,
as improved by art, furnish us system
of hi ghways unequalled in the world.
The different forms of labor, if slave
ry were not perverted to purposes of
political ambition, need not constitute
an element of strife in the Confederacy.
Notwithstanding recent vehement ex-
pressions and manifestations of intol.
erance in some quarters, produced by
intense partisan excitement, we are, in
fact, homogeneous people, chiefly OF
one stock, with aecesssions well assim.
ilated. We have particularly only one
: language, one religion, one system OF
Government, and manners and customs
J. common to all. Why, then, shall we
! not remain henceforth, as hitherto, one
people.
, The first object of every human socie.
: ty is safety or security, for which, il
: need be, they will and they must sacri
J fee every other. This security is. Of
, two kinds; one, exemption from foreign
aggressions and influence the other,
exemption from domestic tyranny and
sedition. Foreign wars come from
: either violations of treaties or domestic
; violence.
The Union has thus far proved itseli
an almost perfect shield against such
wars. The United States, continually
enlarging their diplomatic acquaintan
ce, have now treaties with France, the
: Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden
: Prussia, Spain, Russia, Denmark, Mex
leo, Brazil, Austria, Turkey, Chill
Siam, Muscat, Venezuela, Peru, Greece
Sardinia, Ecuador, Hanover, Portugal
New Grenada, Hesse- Cassel, Wurtem
: burg, China, Bavaria, Saxony, Nassau
: Switzerland, Mecklenberg, Schwerin
Guatemala, the Hawaiian Islands, Sar
Salvador, Borneo, Costa Rica, Bremen
the Argentine Confederation, Loo
Choo, Japan, Brunswick, Persia, Ba
den, Belgium and Paraguay.
5 Nevertheless, the United States with
3 in their entire existence under the Fed
f eral Constitution, have had fragrant
= wars with only four States, two o
which were insignificant powers, on the
coast of Barbary, and bave had direct
: hostilities amounting to reprisals will
: only two or three more, and they arr
now at peace with the whole world.
, If the Union should be divided into
! only two confederacies, each of then
would need to make as many treatie.
t as we have now, and of course, wOulc
e be liable to give as many causes fol
war as we now do. But we know
f from the sad experience of other ma
4 tions, that disintegration, once begun
: inevitably continues until even the
+. greatest empire crumbles into many
s parts. Each confederation that shall
ultimately arise out of the ruin of the
e Union, will have necessity for as many
treaties as we now have, and will incul
: liabilities for war as often as we now
e do by breaking them. 1t is the multi
: plication of treaties and the want o.
: confederation that makes war the nor
Y NAL condition Of society in Western
l Europe and in Spanish America.
q 1t is Union that, Notwithstanding oul
: world wide intercourse, makes peace
: the habit of the American people.
d will descend so low as to ask whether
/. new confederacies w. uld be able Of
: willing to bear the grievous expense o
t maintaining the diplomatic relations
!, which cannot be dispensed with ex
: cept by withdrawing from foreign com
: merce. Our Federal Government i.
: better able to avoid giving just cause
Y for war than several confederacies, be
e cause it can conform the action of al
f the States to compacts. 1t can have
e only one construction, and only ONT
tribunal to produce the construction
: of every treaty. Local and temporary
! interests and passions, or personal Gu
: pidity and ambition, can drive small
J, confederacies or States, more easil,
e than great Republic, into indiscree
: violations Of treaties. The United
J, States being great and formidabl,
s power, can always secure favorable ant
2 satisfactory treaties. Indeed every
: treaty we have was voluntarily made
e Small confederacies or States, mus
e take such treaties as they can get, ant
p give whatever treaties are exacted.
0 A humiliating or even unsatisfactor,
f treaty is chronic cause of foreigI
s war. The chapter of wars resulting
i from unjusti6able causes, would, in cas-
n of division, amplify itself in proportion
r to the number of new confederacies ant
i their irritability.
Our disputes with Great Britain