Delaware State journal and statesman. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1855-1870, 1863-03-17

TO recover its independence, like Lombardy |
lt distinct race that wishes no longer to COB
tinue an oppressive alliance No, they are ouil
munlties Of planters established by Americal
hands, on the territories of the Union, who re-
volt without any other reason than their owl
ambition. Let US take q map Of the United
states. II We except Virginia, the two Caro-
linas and Georgia, which were originally Eng
lish colonies, all the rest Of the South is setlc
upon lands bought and paid for by the Unior
That is to say the North has borne the greatest
part of the expense Louisiana was sold to tie
United States in 1910, by the fret consul, IN
htteen millions Of dollars Florida was pur-
chased of Spain III 1904, for about five millions
The Mexican war, with its cost of billion Of
money and its cruel lossest wrl necessary 10
secure Texns. In short, of all the rich terri
tories that border the Mississippi aud the Mi;
souri, from their source to their mouth, there is
not one inch but has been paid for by tue Upion,
and therefore belongs TO it. It is the Union thut
has driven out or indemnifed the Indians. 1t is
the Union that has built all the forts the docks,
the lighthouses and harbors. 1t is the Union
that made all these desert places of value, and
rendered colonization possible. Northern ms
well as Southern men cleared and planted these
lands, and transformed into hOurishing States
these sterile solitudes Can old Europe, where
unity is everywhere the result of conquest show
us title to property so sacred as this? A
country more entirely the common work of a
whole people? And now, shall minority be
permitted to appropriate q territory which be-
longs to all, and to choose for themselves the
hest part of it Can a minority be permitted
to destroy the Union and to imperil it's first bene
factors, without whom, indeed, it could not ex-
ist To soy that this revolt is not impious, is
to say th0t caprice constitutes right
" 1t is not, however, political reason only,
which opposes the separation. Its geography,
The situation of the different portions, obligcs
the United States to form one nation. Strabo,
contemplating the vast country we now call
France, said, with the foresight of genius, that
beholding the nature of the territory and the
courses of the streams, it was evident that the
forests of Gaul, then thnly inhabited, would be-
come the home Of great people Mature had
prepared our territory to become the theatre Of
great civilization. This is no less true of
America. She is, in truth, only double valley
with an impercephble head-level and two great
water courses, the Mississippi and the st. Law
renee. No high mountains which separate and
isolate peoples; no natural barriers like the
Alps and Pyrenees. The West cannot live with
out the Mississippi-to possess the mouth of the
river is for the farmers of the West question of
life and death.
=" The United States have felt this ON the
hioN HHeh tuo OnlO huu MISSISSIPPI were Stlll
only streams lost in the great forests of the
Southwest-when the first planters were but q
handful of men scattered over the wilderness,
the Americans knew already that New Orleans
was the key Of the whole country. They would
not leave 1t in possession Of Spain or France.
Napoleon understood this He held in his hands
the future greatne ls of the United States. It
did not displease him to cede to America this
vast territory, with the intention, ho said, of
giving to England maritime rival which sooner
or later would humble the pride of our enemy.
lie might have dispossessed himself merely of the
left bank Of the river, aud thus haye satisfied
the United States, who at that time asked no
more; but he did more land hero think he was
very wrong), he renounced, with O stroke of the
pen, country as vast as half of Europe, and
gave up our last right to the beautiful river we
had ourselves discovered. Very soon sixty years
will have elapsed since this cession The states
now call,d Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa,
Minnesota, Kansas, Oregon, the territories Of
Nebraska, Dacotah, Jefferson, and Washington,
which will soon become States, have been estab-
lished On the immense domain abandoned by
Napoleon. Without counting the save.hOlding
population, which seeks to destroy the Union,
there are ten millions Of freemen between Pitts.
burg and Fort Union, who claim the course and
mouth of the Mississippi as having been ceded
TO them by France. 1t is from us that they hold
their title and their possession. They have the
right Of sixty years oocupaGoy--a tight cOnse-
Grated by labor and cultvation-a right derived
from a solemn contract, and, better still, from
nature aud from God, And for defending this
right, we reproach them. They are usurpers
and tyrants, because they will not put themselves
at the mercy of an ambitious minority. What
should We say if tomorrow, Normandy, in re-
bellion, should claim as her own Rouen aud
xVh Ia fha oR fba
Seine compared to that of the Mississippi, which
extends two thousand two hundred and fifty
miles, and receiWs as tributaries all the waters
of the West? To possess New Orleans is to
command valley which oomprists two-thirds of
the United States. We will neutrahze the
river" they say. We all know what such pro-
misses are worth. We have seen what Russia
did with the mouth Of the Danube. The Cri-
mean war was necessary that Germany might re-
gain the free use Of her great river If to-
morrow new war should break out between
Austria and Russia, we may be sure that the
possession OF the Danube would be the stake of
the contest
" 1t cannot be otherwise in America from the
day. when the Mississippi, for hundreds Of
leagues, shall flow between two slaveholdiug
shores. Already the effect of the war has been
to stop the expectation of wheat and corn, the
riches Of the West.
"In 1861 it became necessary to burn the
useless crops, to the great injury Of Europe,
who is the gamer by these exports. The south
understands so thoroughly the strength of her
position, that her ambition is to separate the
valley of the Mississippi from the Eastern States,
TO unite herself with the West, and to condemn
thus the Yankees of New England to ruinous
isolation. The Coufederates use Mississippi as
a bait by which they hope to reconstruct, profit
ably to themselves-that is to say, in the INTER