New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-01-03
rTrTs roLTCY o. FoRnTsN NATIONS.

THE POLICY OF FOREIGN NATIONS
The e7ectiess Of Lincoln to the Presidency is |
hailed with satisfaction by the people generally
of the Old World. Like all others not familiar
with the institution of slavery in its practical
workings, they have grieyously misunderstood it,
and have the crudest and most absurd notions con
corning Southern society, derived from the mis-
representations of Northern papers, and the SEN
sational books of Cockney travellers. Understand
ing that Lincoln has been elected upon an anti
slavery platform, the result Of the election is
gratefully accepted by our transatlantic cousins,
and their journals are now making q great ado
over it.
1t has been supposed by some that the Southern
confederacy, when established will be able to
secure the sympathy, alliance, and assistance, If
! needed, of some Of the Great Powers of the Old
| World. In this, we think, they are mistaken.
| That Great Britain, at least, is, as question of
| morals, opposed to African slavery everywhere,
she has already given abundant proof. She will
not engage to project slavery in the Southern
Statesmen should such protection be needed,
which we do not believe--but, on the other hand,
| it is safe to infer that she will do nothing to
destroy it. She will not give national sanction to
slavery, it exists among us, but she will do what
even our own people in the North will not-let
| it alone, as being something with which she has
nothing to do, and for which nobody is responsible
| but the Southern people themselves.
| There are tens of thousands of British subjects
dependent for existence upon the manufacture of
the great staple of Southern production. The
| statesmen of Great Britain know this, and they
know furthermore that cotton can nowhere else be
procured SO cheapiy as from the Southern States
/ of North America. Hence, while their opinion of
slavery in the abstract has not at all changed they
| will do nothing to interfere with the institution or
/ to destroy it. The rejoicings in Great Britain
4 the election of Lincoln are but the outward
pressons Of their opposition 70 slavery on general
| moral principles-that is az. Those who suppose,
Lon the one hand, that Eng&nd will unite with the
North to cripple and crush slavery in the South
or those who think the contrary, that she will
make an alliance with the South to defend, protect
and perpetuate the institution-both make mis-
1 take. Great Britain will do neither. She will do
what if it had been the policy of the North, would
| have preserved the Union in peace and happiness.
She will let slavery alone. She will treat with u.s.
upon commercial and International affairs gener-
| ally as if no such thing African slavery existed
| among us. She will pursue the sensible policy of
declining all interference with the purely domestic
| concerns of a friendly nation.
/ The cdse Of Texas will furnish an Illustration.
Texas, from the time of her declaration of indie.
| pendence to her union with the other States, was
an independent and isolated nation. She had
African slavery. And though she was then weak,
/ compared with her present condition, no other
/ nation attempted TO interfere with or to destroy,
i the institution Of African slavery in her midst.
She had long line of sea coast, and little or no
naval defence. She was not disturbed, nor will
i she be again, when she resumes her sovereignty
and her independence. If the great nations of the
| world declined to interfere with Texas then, they
will decline now. Stillless will they interfere with
is therefore ridiculous argument which the sub
missionists address to US, that il we secede from
the old Union, slavery will be in danger of de-
\ structon from the fact that q the moral sentiment
Il of the whole world as they call it, is against the
institution. That the moral sentiment of the world
i is against will not deny. But the moral senti-
ment of enlightened nations is matter left to in
i diyiduals- not made the basis of Government ae-
ton. If the people of the Northern States of the
Il late Union had kept their moral sentiments about
Il slavery to themselves, they ought to have done
and not pushed the matter into politics, it would
{ have been all the better for them. Great Britain
and France and all the other great powers, in their
national spheres, will have nothing to do with the
4 moral sentiments of their people. They are wise
& enough to know that the best way for Governments
II to get along well is to attend, each one, to its own
i internal domestic affairs, and to let the domestic
4 affairs of others alone.