The Portland daily press., 1865-03-09

with dangerous pulse or life. It started the
whirligig of revolution, and no matter where
the impeling influence came from, from the
heads OF the aristocracy, the imperial minis
Try, or the hand Of majesty itself. who shall
say with what dizzy velocity it might spin ana
at what dangerous points it might stop. Let
well enough alone. r.rrrs
2. 1t was not spontaneous pohucai oeVei-
opment.- It did not originate with the PEG
pie. 1t did not come to satisfy any want. or
cure any evil, or crafty any aspiration the
people had ever felt When these provincial
gentlemen have studied the workings OF popu-
lar institutions as long as we have, they will
learn better methods. .aaa{
Suppose Secretary Seward should invite
conference of the Governors and three leading
members Of Congress from each of the States
and this sell Reconstructed body should mature
and finish to its minutest details some compli-
Gated piece of legislation, notwithstanding all
the established institutions of all the states,
and submit nothing but the question, of its rat
iication, yes or no, to the popular vote. If
every feature Of the scheme were an improve
ment would not each State make haste to vote
it down, if for no other reason, to rebuke the
impudence Of such pragmatic interference
with their peculiar business? Six years. rath-
or than six months we're needeifor this infex-
lille system of Confederation to be hammered
upon the anvil of public discussion, that it
might become flexible to the feelings and in
terests of remote and unhomogenous commu-
mites. ~ ~ -
8. Nations are not pieces Of mechanism,
which conferences OF statesmen and diploma
fists can construct; they are vital organism
which must gro,p. The first essential to the
life of nation, as L the life of man, is that it
must be born. A nation cannot be born with
out the pangs of parturition. Our eight years,
struggle with the British crown for independ-
ence were the birth pangs of our national life.
What sufferings, what trials, what expressions
have bound together Canada and Nova Scotia
in a common national sentiment?
4. The British American Association Of
ST. John published thirteen arguments for
Confederation, 1.-The eighth was as follows:
s1t secures and perpetuates the friendship of the
Imperial Government, and the Mother Lana. O
measure stamped with their approval and guaran-
| teedby them, Unjust command their warmest sympa-
thes and support" f 4sf
This might even be a reason why many
people would vote against this measure. They
would suspect that it was not an aspiration of
the colonies, but not very motheriy intima-
ton on the part of the "Mother land" that the
Colonial dependency, we'll out of its non age,
ought to begin to cut its o,on fodder. They
might even feel that the Imperial Government
had decorously limited: We want your trade,
we want the aggrandizement which sovereign
ty over your territory gives, but really the ex-
the cost and risk of defending you against,
not your enemies, but ours, is beginning to be
Il little burdensome. III
The 10th argument Of the Association is
this: 4aAS 8
at secures the Provinces against ABSORPTION into
the American Union;s as State with population
interest and linked with Great Britain, one of the
mightest nations of the EARTH will have destiny of
its own, and a strength sufficient to command re-
spect." s.
This was the terror held up to the national
antipathy. Unite under scheme of govern
ment, which preserves the monarchical and
aristocratic principle, or that INSCRIPTIONS
Republic with Its ma,o filled with the half di-
gested remains of feeble French and Spanish
colonies, and the limbs of sickly republics it
has snapped off will sacdlloao you.
Well, either the people did not believe that
the American Union in its present distressed
state had much of an appetite for Swallowing
or else they did not very seriouly object to
being swallowed, for they rejected the securi-
ty offered them against absorption most en-
! phaiically. Probably the number of friends
of annexation to the United States is not very
large, but it is certain that the feeling towards
us is much more friendly than last year. II
we succeed they always knew we should be
| good .felto,us, and now they see that we are
going to succeed. The repeal of the Recipro-
city Treaty does not exasperate them. They
see that its repeal is necessity of our situation
Like men of sense they begin to look about
them to see who are going to buy their COM
modities after our tariff shuts them out of our
ports Many people see no resource for the
Provinces but annexation; and it was openly
proclaimed during the election, by many in
fluential voters. We prefer union with the
States with which we have lucrative trade
and easy INSTRUMENTATION to union with
Canada, with which we have neither trade
nor communication, nor common interests
DIT E - t.,
| Tr 3 n N