Year: 1869

THE COALITION


We presume there is no good reason to doubt
that an understanding has been had between the
Courts of Great Britain, France, and Spain, look
ing to combined resistance to the pretensons and
territorial expansion of the United States. Eng
land seeks immunity from our reClamations for
the destruction Of our Commerce by Confeder-
ate corsairs not only built, equipped, armed,
and manned by her people, but joyfully re-
paired, refitted cOaled, and reinforced with i'm
punity in British ports the wide world over /;
she wishes, moreover, to be guaranteed the pos
session of the Canadas Spain wants to hold on
to Cuba with cruel miser's grasp; while Louis
Napoleon would dearly like to humble the power
under whose quiet, earnest gaze he skunk out of
| Mexico. Haunted by the ghost of the French
Republic which he perfidiOusly destroyed, he
would gladly exhibit himself to Europe in the
consoling attitude of dictator of humiliating
conditions to the foremost Republic still extant.
The seeming interest of Great Britain and Spain
concurring with the rasped sensibilities and
damaged prestige of the French AutOcrat, it
is exceedingly probable that such q coall-
ton should be formed though it may be doubted
that it has yet taken the form of specific
treaty of alliance.


We'll what of itf


1t seems to us that such coalition would
be confession of conscious weakness on the
part of Great Britain as well as Spain. The
weak combine to match the strong. Western
Europe seeks to read us the admonitlon
originally given by her to Russia. She eyinces
her readiness to light the flames of new
Crimean War.


If she had us involved in war, she might do
it; but we are at peace, and (Unless assailed)
will remain so. 1t will hardly do to fall upon
us without q pretext; and this we shall take
care not to afford. Sending in your bill for
damages endured or services rendered does not
Justify violent assault and battery. To kick
the bearer out, and order him never to show
his face again, is the utmost show of resent
ment that consists with decorum


We shall not be attacked unless we afford
further provocation; but we may as well re-
alizo the animuS of the coalition and be on our
guard against its clearer, more decisive ex-
hibition. The pOtentates of Western Europe
do not like us; they do not rejoice in our
manifest increase of power and prestige; they
would like TO give MS "a lick back" if they
had fair and safe opportunity. Let us clearly
comprehend them, and so carry ourselves that
the shafts of their malice will hurtle idly by
or fall harmless at our feet.


The wise counsels embodied by Washington
in his Farewell Address as to the entangle-
ments and complications of European politics
will be freshly recalled by the new alliance
against us. We shall be taught by it to be-
come more and more American in our policy,
our sympathies and our aspirations. Europe
sends us little beside robust, industrious emi-
grants that we might not better do without
little that we are not impoverished by taking.
Let us, then, withdraw ourselves more and
more from any connection with her interests
and her aspirations. IL we build more steam
ships, let us run them TO American ports, and
so build up our mechanical industry at home
and draw larger and larger supplies of raw
staples from our less skillful neighhors in the
West Indies and on the Spanish Main.


The coalition is at once n confession of
weakness and prophecy of defeat. II is felt
at length in Europe that all America north Of
the Isthmus Of Darien gravitates toward us
with a force that cannot long be resisted.
There is not an acre of land between Hudson's
Bay and Nicaragua that would not be sensibly
increased in value by the incorporation of the
country whereof il is part into our Union.
There is no outlying district that would not
confidently expect a speedy increase Of its
population, its industry, and its wealth, if il
were this day annexed TO the United States.
"The stars in their courses" are stronger than
any dynastic coalition, as the future will show.