Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1863-03-05

the immense domain abandoned by Nap0-
leon. Without counting the slaveholdipg
population which seeks to destroy the Un-
ion, there are ten millions of free men be.
tween Pittsburgh and Fort Union, who
claim the course aud mouth oftbe Missis.
sippi 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 eccupaDcy--a right conse-
Grated by labor and cultivation--a right de-
rived from solemn contract, and better
still, from nature and from God. Aud 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 it, to.morrow, Nortnnudy4ik rebellion,
should claim as her owa Rouensand Havre2
And yet, what is the course Of the Seine
compared to that Of the Mississippi, which
extends two thousand, two hundred and
fifty miles, and receives as tributaries all the
waters of the West2 To possess New Or
leans is to command a valley which com
prises two thirds of the United States. -
I'VE will neutralize the river" they say
We all know what such promises are worth.
We have seen what Russia did with the
mouth Of the Danube. The Crimean war
was necessary that Germany might regain
the free use of her great river. If to- NOR
row a 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 can not be otherwise in America from
the day when the Mississippi, for hundreds
of leagues, shall flow between two slave
holding 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 to
the West, and to condemn thus the Yam
KEGS of New England to ruinous isolation
The Confederates use the Mississippi as a
bait by which they hope to reconstruct,
to themselves-that is to say, in
the interests of slavery-the Union which
they have broken up through fear ofliberty
We see, then, what to think-of the pre-
tended tyranny of the North; what truth
there is in the assertion that she wishes to
oppress and subugate the South On the
contrary, the North ouly defends herself
In maintaining the Union, it i, her right, it
is her existence that she would have.
Thus tar | have spoken in the name OF
the material interests only-legitimate in
terests, and which, founded on solemn ii.
ties, constitute q sacred riaht; but, il we
examine the moral and polis&3 interestso
q superior order. We shall see still more
clearly that the North can not yield without
self destruction.
The United States are Republic, the
freest, aud, at the same time, the mildest
and happiest government that the world has
ever seen. In what consists this prosper
ity of the Americans? They are alone in an
immense territory; they have never been
obliged to concentrate power and weaken
liberty for The purpose Of resisting the am-
bition and jealousy Of their nsighbors. In
the United States there was no standing
army, no great wsr-nsvy The immense
sums spent by us to avoid or maintain war,
were used by tho Americans to establish
schools-in giving to every citizen, rich or
poor, that education, that instruction which
constitutes the moral grandeur & true riches
of people. Their foreign policy was con-
tanned in one single maxim--never TO in
termeddle in the political quarrels of Europe,
on the sole condition that Europe would
never Interfere in their atfairs,. and would
respect the liberty of the seasf~
Thanks to these wise principles, bequeath-
ed to them by Washington in his iinmor-
tai Farewell Address, the United States
have enjoyed for eighty years peace un'
disturbed but once, in 1912, when they
were obliged to withstand England and
maintain the rights of neutrals. For the
last seventy years we have spent billions to
maintain eur liberty or our preponderance
in Europe The United States have en-
ployed their billions in ameliorations of al
kinds. This is the SECRET Of their prodigi
GUS success: their isolation has made theil
prosperity. -
Suppose now, that this separation should
be accomplished, and that the new Confed
eracy should comprise all the slave States
the North loses at once her power and he
institutions. The Republic is stabbed Il
the heart. There would be in America two
rival nations. always on the eve Of conflict
Peace would by no means extinguish enmi
ties. Il would not obliterste the memorie
of past greatness nor Of the Union destroy
ed. i Hft
The South victorious would be doubles
no less friend of slavery, no less in Low,
with dominion, than in former times. Tn,
enemies of slavery, now masters of thei
own policy. would not surely be made NOR,
moderate by separation. What would tn,
Southern Confederacy he to the North? A
foreign power established in America, Will
a frontier fifteen hundred miles-a from
tier open on all sides, and, consequently, al
ways threatening or threatened This pow
or, hostile by reason Of its vicinity, and still
more 80 on account of its institutions, woul,
possess some of the most important portion
Of the New World. She would own hal
the sea coasts of the Union she woulC
command the Gulf of Mexico, an inlan,
.ea one. third the size of the Mediterranean
She would be mistress, of the mouths of tn,
Mississippi, and could at her will ruin tn
people Of the West. The remnant Of thu
old Union, then, must always maintain al
attitude of defense toward their rivals. :
Custom house and frontier difficulties, ri
valriss, jcalousies-all the scourges Of ole
Europe-wculd at once oYerThelm Amer
ica. 1t would be necessary to establish
custom houses over five hundred leagues, t.
construct and arm forts along this immens,
frontier, support large standing army ant
navy-theyJnust renounco the old Consti
tution-weaken municipal independence,
and concentrate power. Adieu then to tn
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