The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-12-25

of one hundred thousand and one hundred
and fifty thousand inhabitants, which are
among the largest shipping ports for raw
produce in the world, in the interior of
that country. In one of them l have seen
mile of steamboats, moored side by side,
and yet of those great cities, and that
great commerce, forming part of the re-
sources and strength of North America,
the ruling classes in this country know
nothing. You don't find them in books
at Oxford and Cambridge, where your I'M
dergraduates are obliged to study before
they can pass their examinations
SUCCESS OF THE REBELLION IMPOSSIBLE.
1t is in utter ignorance of these resource
es that the opinion of the ruling classes
in England has been come to. But /,
whom accident, perhaps, more than any
thing else, has made as well acquainted
with the politics and geography of that
country as with my own, have never
believed-and / believe now less than ever
that shall ever live, or that any one
here will live to see two separate nations
within the confines of the present United
States of America. [Cheers.] will tell
you candidly that if it was not for one
cause, l should consider as hopeless and
as useless the attempt to subjugate the
southern states of America, as the parties
do upon whose views l have been com.
menting. 1t is the object for which the
separation has been made that, in my
opinion, renders the success of the seces-
sionists absolutely impossible hear, hear
and if the moral and intelligent popu-
lation of this country had not been sys-
tematically misled upon that question,
they would have been unanimously of that
conviction. [Hear, hear We we're told
in the House Of Commons, by one from
whom it was almost incredible that it
could have come-once the great cham
pion of democracy, once the great advO-
cate of all the rights and principles of the
unsophisticated millions this civil
war originated because the South wished
to establish free trade principles and the
North would not allow it. Laughter
THE FALSE PRETENCEs OF THE REBELS.
I travelled in the United States in 1859,
the year before that fatal shot was fred at
Fort Sumter which has had such terrible
reverbations ever since. l visited Wash
ington during the session of Congress-
Now carry a flag wherever go when
l travel abroad, whether in France, Amer
lea, Austria, or Russia. at once become
the centre of those who have strong con-
victions and purposes with reference to
free-trade principles. Hear, hear While
l was at Washington l was disappointed at
finding there was so little interest felt on
the free-trade question. There was no
party formed, no public agitation, no dis
cussion whatever upon the subject. The
ground, the political field, was wholly oc-
cupied by one question, and that question
was slavery. Hear, hearl l will men
ton an illustrative fact which | have not
seen referred to, and to my mind it is con-
elusive on this subject. In December,
1860, when Congress was sitting, and
when the country was in the agony OF
suspense, fearing this impending rupture,
Congress appointed committee, consist
ing of thirty-three members, being rep
resentative from every State then in the
Union, and that committee sat from De-
cember II, 1860, to January IA, 1861. 1t
was called the Committee of Thirty-three,
and was instructed to inquire into the per-
ilous state of the Union, and to try and
devise some means by which the catas-
trophe of secession could be avertsd. /
have a report of the proceedings of that
committee. I believe there is not another
report in this country; I have reason to
know SO. There are forty pages. have
read every line. The representatives of
the slave States were invited by the rep
resentatives of the free States to state
candidly and frankly what were the terms
which they required in order that they
might continue peaceably in the Union,
and in every page you see their PROPOSE
tons brought forward.
From beginning to end of these forty
pages there is not one syllable said about
tariff or taxation. [Cheels.1 From be-
ginning to end there is not grievance al
legged but that which is connected with the
maintenance of slavery. There are prop
ositions calling upon the North to give
increased security to the maintenance Of
that institution. They are invited to ex-
tend the area of slavery, to make laws by
which fugitive slaves shall be given up
They are pressed to make treaties with
foreign powers by which those powers
should be required to give up slaves. But
from beginning to end no grievance was
alleged but what is connected with slavery
Hear, hear.] 1t is slavery, slavery, slav-
cry, from beginning to end. Hear, hear.
SLAVERY THE CAUSE OF THE WAR
Is it not astonishing, in the face of facts
like these, that any one could have the
temerity, with any regard to decency or
any sense of selt-respect, to get up in the
House of Commons and say that the Sc
cession of the SaatKafy S5ates Ia: Eeea on.
question of free. tiade. .anl, pr:ts et:or?::
[Cheers] This is war to extend and
petpetdate E'iran Slavery. cP!elohgea
applause Il: is: . Nar. not :to. sefsh?
slavery as it was left by our ancestors
a thing to be retained and to be apologized
for. 1t is war to establish slave EN-
pire, where slavery shall be the corner
stone of the social system, where it shall
be defended and justified on scriptural and
astrological grounds. [Cheers l say God
pardon the men who, in this year of grace,
1868, should think that such project as
that could be crowned with success.
[Cheers Now you know why | have
from the first never believed it possible
that the South could succeed, and have
not founded that faith merely ON moral
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