The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-20
SHALL WE HAVE WAR WITH FRANCE,

This is becoming o grave question,
and the thoughtful men of the country
are becoming grave upon the subject.
The encroachments of the French in
Mexico have already been noticed in
Congress, and indeed denounced in
terms SO heated that it is reported that
the French Minister has taken offence.
The New York Evening Post, while it
does not want war with France, de-
mands that our government shall speak
plainly to the Emperor and convince.
him that he must s'get out of Mexico"
and that to send more troops thither,
instead Of withdrawing those he now
has there, is the sure way to lhOstilities.
If we were ain hot haste for war;" we
should advise different policy alto.
gether; we should then be quite
satisfied with the conduct of Ma
poleon, and with the policy which
has been pursued towards him by our
government. II is plain to every
thoughtful man that a war with
France is much more probable now
than it was six or even three months
ago: Bowling and scraping to the EN-
peror, and trying to juggle him out of
Mexico without his or anybody else's
knowledge, has brought us thus far on
the way, and if the same course is con-
tinued we shall certainly drift into
war, which we are anxious OIL every
account to avoid 1--WE would by no
means give Louis Napoleon the iden
that he can do as he pleases in Mexico"
says the Times. But that is precisely
the idea or impression he has got-and
he could obtain it only from our attitude
towards him and his Mexican enter
prise. He has done as he pleased in
Mexico; he continues to do so; he is
even now sending more troops thither.
His agent, an Austrian duke, not con-
tent with making legitimate war, or
ders the assassination of the MeXi-
can prisoners who fell into the hands
of the French troops; not satisfied with
overturning the republic, he sets up
slavery as the fit accompaniment of inn
perialism. The truth is, says the Post,
Napoleon has done and is doing just
what he pleases in Mexico. We desire
our Government to check him, to warn
him, to tell him that he must stop, that
he has no business there, that he must
go back; and that if he does not he will
get into trouble. five say to Napoleon
plainly that he must get out of Mexico,
lie will go. But while we talk around
the subject, he, who is shrewd, unscrup-
ulous, and without a particle of honor or
honesty, whitehead us and insult us to our
faces-just as he SNOW doing. While Mr..
Seward is writing dispatches Napoleon
is sending shipload after shipload of
troops to Vera Cruz-just as, while Bu-
chanan and others were writing des-
patches and negotiating in 1S6OlGl,
Beauregard was industriously setting up
Notifications against Fort Sumter.
The Post has good reason to believe
that the highest military authority i'm
the land wished to march twenty thou
sand men across the Rio Grand, and into
Matamoros, five months ago-not be-
cause he wanted war, but because his
military genius and experience taught
him that this was probably the best and
perhaps the only way to prevent war.
Had he been ordered to do so, every for
eign soldier would by this time have
left Mexico, and we should not be threat
-ened, as We are, with foreign war. This
Is plain talk. 59dfl0 Ham b.as
81 ltif 49, bgge
The Judiciary Committee of the