The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-03-28

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the Government of Louis Philippe in 1874, il i:
not to be wondered At that, after the great ter
ritorial acquisitions Of the United States lust
named, the Emperor of the French should enter
tain the views disclosed in his letter to General
forey. 1t may seem presumptlous in an Amer-
ican to call in question the sounduess OF any
view of French policy, in which Louis Napoleon
and Louis Philippe CONCUR I must however.
think that n. Theirs, in his great speech of the
Goth Of January, 1s46, saw more accurately that
the true interests Of France lay in maintaining.
not this newly-imagined equilibrium in America.
but the well>recognized and all.important eoui-
librium Of the great maritime and commercial
powers of the world-England, France aud the
United States. The preservation-rather the
creation-ot that equilibrium is, in truth the
"tradsionary policy" of France, as it is the true
interest of every continental power of Europe
Russia, whose immense territorial and military
resources place her in Importance on level with
the great maritime powers, saw this, when in the
remarkable letter of Prince Gortschakoff of the
10th July, 1861, she pronounced the American
Union an Essential element of the universal DO
liticsl equilibrium" Napoleon I, saw it, when
he offered US Louisiana, in 1908. The Govern
ment OF Louis XVI, saw it, when it sent its ar
mies and nayies to aid us in establishing our
independence; and Of all the errors in policy,
which 1t Is now in the power of the Government
OF france to commit, none can be imagined more
ominous OF disastrous consequences to her, than
one which should lead her 20 aid in breaking
down the United States, as a leading maritime
power. Regarding them as the great extra Eu-
ropean counterbalance to the supremacy of the
seas which England still claims, and which has
at times borne SO heavily on France. it would be
just as wise in the latter power to strip the plates
from her iron>clad ships, and tolay up their bulks
to rot at Brest or TouloD, as to assist in break
ing up the North American Union into rival
and tragmentary powers, exhausting each other
by eternal border wars, ard compelled in that
way to abdicate their position as great mari
time State For this reason, France, in her
prompt recognition of the so-called Confederate
States as belligerents, and in the hopes which
she has allowed them to form Of an early recog-
milton as an independent Governments, has sacri-
hced her true traditionary policy to momentary
pressue on her commerce, and has committed an
error, of which, if persisted in she will feel all
the gravity in the first European war;
But the error committed by England, In pur-
suing the same course toward the seeding
States, is not less manifest and grave than it is
in the case Of France. The idea of an euuiibri.
um between the great powers of the earth
implies by any philosophical or practical concep
ton of it, equal and reciprocal advantages. It
is not a combination of the rest of the powers
to keep down one, which they may think formd.
able to all the others; it is en- equitable balance
between all, for the safety of each and the pre-
servaton of the peace Of the world The ruling
classes Of England have accordingly made great
mistake in thinking that it is, in any respect,
for their interest to substitute a discordant
group of warning States for the powerful and
prosperous Union, whose commerce has been q
thousand-fold more valuable to her than the ut.
most stretch of Colonial taxation; which has
received and fed the starving surplus of her
population; and which, with systematic abne-
CATION of interference in foreign politics, asks
nothing-never asked anythlng-but justice of
her or any other Europeon power. So numer-
GUS and intimate are the ties that unite us, go
closely interviewer our interests that it is Just as
much for the welfare of England as of ourselves,
that the States of the Union should live in har
mony and peace with each other, Mr. D'Israeli
says that we are destined TO break up into an
America of armies, of diplomacy, of turbulence
and wars. Will that state of things promote
the expectation OF corn or cotton to England, or
the importation to America of their equivalents
in British fabrics? No. When the Alabama
sailed from Liverpool to plunder, burn and sink
the lswful commerce of the United States, she
sailed on an errand just as injurious to England
as to US The illicit traffic with which, in de-
6ance of the Queens proclamation, the cupid-
ty Of her merchants is feeding the Confederacy,
though protected, as far as the law of nations
permits, by her government with as much jeal-
oasy as the most meritorious branch OF her
commerce, is, in its tendency and eject, as
prejudicial to her as to the United States. This,
it is true, England does not now see. But how
long can she, however much disposed to do so,
shut her eyes on the passing events in Mexico?-
say that Texas should establish her indepen-
dence under the auspices of France, but that
France should possess heraelf of Mexico, If that
is indeed the policy disclosed in the letter to
General Forey? That letter states in substance
that it is not for the interest of France that the
United States should absorb the Spanish Ameri.
can States and threaten the Antilles We quite
agree in that opinion, and never wish to gain
another square inch Of territory north or south
If 1t comes to US through the paths of peace, by
the voluntary cession of the governments, and
with the unforced consent Of the peoples, there
is an expansive virtue in the Constitution of the
United States adequate to iss adoption and in
into tie Union.
But no patriotic American statesman desires
the extension of our territory in whatsoever
direction by any other iDstrumentalisy. But
how does England read the letter to General
Forey? Is it for her interest that France
should complete the conquest of Mexico, and
If not her sovereignty, at least her
suzerainete over that magnificent region?-
Will ''the Antilles" be safer with the French
at Vera. Cruz than they are now? France
and Spain may not always be at peace; they
are at present far from being Of one mind as to
this newly inaugurated Mexican policy
Should Mexico be reorganized under the aus
pices Of France, will Cuba be in no danger of
falling more completely under her influence
than England may wish? France it lately re-
ported, has lately bombarded Acapulco; how
will the control Of that port, with the e1cep-
ton of San Francisco the best on the western
coast Of America affect the commercial inter-
ests Of England in the Pacific
These questions are ofno secondary interest
to England, as E power that claims to stand at
the head Of maratime States, and whose colo
NAL possessions encircle the globe. Not one
Of these questions would have been raised had
not the United States, as member of the in
ternational family been paralyzed for the time