The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-08

Whether the time is ripe enough or not for
the success of the annexation movement re-
mains to be seen. Up to the breaking out OF
the Southern Rebellion and our great civil
war there was no period, perhaps, for fifty
years back, that the Canadians did not desire
annexation and that they swould not have
voted by q large majority for it, could the |
question have been fairly submitted to them. |
But a change came over them with that war.
They sympathized more with the Southerners |
than with the North. This arose from several |
causes British feeling and influence and the
sentiment of the Government aud people of
England controlled them in great measure.
Then, they did not understand the issue well,
as indeed, very many Americans did not.
Besides, the sympathies of parties not imme-
diately engaged or concerned in such con-.
fict are very apt to be with the weakest side,
and with those who are fighting on the defen-
sive against great odds, independent of the
merits of the question at issue. But the Cana
dians are getting over all that. They see now
the mighty power and future of this republic,
and begin to be desirous again to unite their
destiny with ours. Agreat change has taken
place within the last year or two. 1t will not
take many years to show the colonists that
unless they be annexed they will sink into
insigniicance under the overshadowing power
and prosperity of the United States. Eng
land is shaking them off; she will
not have any longer the expense and
responsibility of governing, protecting,
and leading them as children. She knows
well, too, that in case of any trouble with the
United States Canada would be wrested from
her. She is looking forward to futurs con-
tingencies. and does not want the expense
and trouble of governing colonies on the
American border. AS to independence what
sort of a figure would the British colonies cut
by the side of this great republic if even they
were independent? Politically, commercially,
h taEo
overshadowed. In all probability they would
decline positively as we'll as relatively under
! such circumstances.
The Canadians, no doubt. are thinking of
these things, and are preparing the way for
the destiny that awaits them. Events are
fast ripening to that end. When annexed the
colonists will have no more fear of Fenians,
no more trouble about commercial treaties
and their trade across the border, aud their
country will prosper under the quickening
influence of American enterprise and institu-
tions. England, too, would gain by this
transfer of allegiance, just as she has gained
in her commerce by the independence of
these United States which were also colonies
formerly. The statesmen of that country
begin to realize this fact. If the colonists
move now in earnest the mother country will
not, probably, place any serious obstacles in
the way of annexation, and we may settle the
Alabama, claims and all our difficulties with
the British Government by the transfer of
its possessions in America to us. The destiny
of the United States is to be continental
empire, and the sooner the British colonists
realize that fact the better for themselves and
the better for the world.
| THE REIGN OF SMALL MEN, AND ITS
CONSEQUENCES.
From the n. Y Sun.
Franklin Pierce was q statesman of very
moderate dimensions. One of his New
Hampshire supporters said, in the early
stages of the Presidential campaign of 1852
in reply to an inquiry of Southwestern
Democrat, "We think good deal of Perse
| up here, but when you come to hammer him
out all over the Union, he will be awful
thin"
But Pierce was not so small as to be afraid
to call distinguished men to his councils. He
summoned to his Cabinet four statesmen
either of whom was vastly his superior
ely:-William L. Marcy, James Guthrie,
Jefferson Davis, and Caleb Cushing His
subordinate appointments, too were to a
large extent of the same type, When dis
tracted by the competition for the various
offices in this city, he cut the knot by sending
to the Senate this list-For Collector, Daniel
S. Dickinson; for Naval Officer, Heman j.
Redfeld; for Sub-Treasurer John A. Dix; for
District Attorney, Charles O'Conor. Though
the programme was disarranged by the de-
clension of some of these gentlemen, their
selection showed that the President appre-
ciated the necessity of filing important
places with men of undoubted capacity and
character
General Harrison was feeble President
but he was not ashamed to call around him a
Cabinet so strong that under its shadow he
dwindled into insignificant proportions; and
SO he made Webster Secretary of State,
Ewing Secretary of the Treasury, Badger
Secretary of the Navy, and Crttenden At
torney-General
When, by afortuitous concurrence of cir
cumstances, an inferior man happens to find
himself subjected to the pressure of heavy
responsibilities, which involve the we'll being
of great nation, he can give no higher
proof of his littleness than by persistently
refusing to call to his aid statesmen whose
superior endowments will enable him to
master the exigencies of his position.
Either from ignorance, or caprice, or con-
tempt of public opinion, or extreme narrow
ness of soul, or from all these combined,
General Grant, from the very outset of his
civil career, has seemed to prefer for his con-
fidential advisers a class of men who, with
scarcely an exception, were uninfuential
with their party, and had no hold upon the
country, while his selections for other i'm
portant positions at home and abroad have
been of the same type. He has already made
six changes in his Cabinet. Washburne gave
way to Fish, Stewart to Boutwell,, Borie paled
before Robeson, and Hoar made room for
Akerman. Some of these men were SO OBJ
scure that leading politicians of their own
States had never heard of them, and we'll
informed journalists could not correctly spell
their names while the whole Republican