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 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. S. S. tM, OE OHIO, 
 
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 ON 
 
 TERRITORIAL EXPANSION. 
 
 •. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY IS, 1S59. 
 
 The House being in Committee of the "Whole on the state of the Union — 
 Mr. COX said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman : I would not have sought the floor when I did, had I not been 
 expecting daily a telegraphic dispatch which would have called me home, and 
 perhaps unfitted me for saying what I wished, in relation to the questions of a 
 foreign nature connected with our territorial expansion. 
 
 There is a logic in history which is as inexorable as fate. A -writer in the 
 time of the flrst Stuart, gave as the number of the kingdoms of Christendom, 
 five-and-twenty. But there was no mention of three of the principal nations, 
 Russia, Austria, and Prussia, in their present condition; nor of twelve other 
 nations out of the twenty now enumerated in Europe; nor of the thirty petty 
 sovereignties now extant in Germany. Within two centuries, the transatlantic 
 continent has changed its territory and rulers beyond all the caprices of fancy ; 
 yet by a law as fixed as that which returns the seasons or rolls the stars. 
 
 The disquieting aspect of cisatlantic politics signifies the consummation of 
 territorial changes on this continent, long predicted, long delayed, but as certain 
 as the logic of history! 
 
 Some of these changes in Europe have been through decay, dissolution, and 
 disintegration. Spain was once the Peru and Mexico of the Old World. The 
 ancestors of the hidalgo were enslaved in the mines of Spain by Rome and Car- 
 thage. But now, Leon, Aragon, Castile, Navarre, Toledo, Galicia, and Granada, 
 once separate kingdoms, have lost their isolated glory, and are only known as 
 the props of the " worm-eaten throne of Spain." The stronger races of Europe 
 have consolidated their power by extending its sphere and absorbing the weaker 
 neighboring nations. England, Ireland, and Scotland, by union, have trans- 
 planted their colonies and multiplied their strength ; and Russia has clasped the 
 half of Europe and Asia in its strong embrace, until, from the furthest West we 
 perceive the conflict of their civilization in the furthest Eastl 
 
 These are but illustrations of a law from which America is not exempt. Not 
 more surely will northern Africa, and indeed the countries whose boundaries 
 are coincident with the Mediterranean, become French; western and north rn 
 Asia become Russian ; and southern and central Asia become English, than this 
 continent become American ! The law which commands this is higher law than 
 congressional enactment. If we do not work with it, it will work in spite of 
 us. This law may be expressed thus : 
 
 TJtat the weaker and disorganized nations must be absorbed by the strong and 
 organized nation. Nationalities of inferior grade must surrender to those of su- 
 perior civilization and polity 1 
 
 Whether the races of this continent be in a tribal condition, as are our Indians ; 
 in a semi-civilized and anarchical condition, as are the Central and South Ameri- 
 
 Printed by Lemuel Towers. 
 

 can and Mexican races, they must obey this law of political gravitation. This 
 law drives them to the greater and more illustrious State for protection, happi- 
 ness, and advancement. Whether the United States go and take them, or they 
 come and ask to be taken, no matter. They must whirl in ; throw off their 
 nebulous and uncertain form, and become crystalized into the higher forms of 
 civilization. 
 
 The largest expression of this law of annexation, is: That no nation has the 
 right to hold soil, virgin and rich, yet unproducing; no nation has a right to 
 hold great isthmean highways, or strong defences, on this continent, without 
 the desire, will, or power, to use them. They ought, and must, inure to the 
 advancement of our commerce. They must become confiscate to the decrees of 
 Providence! 
 
 In carrying out these designs, we have, from time to time, added territory 
 from France, Spain, and Mexico. "We have endeavored to add other territory, 
 which the jealousy of France, Spain, and especially of England, has prevented. 
 It is not my purpose now to rehearse our history in this regard. We may have 
 kept step with our interests and our destiny; but at this juncture, standing on 
 the threshold of this new year, we are only marking time, not moving forward! 
 It is well to inquire whether there is not now upon us, as the assembled expres- 
 sion of this nation, a peculiar duty with respect to this element of our progress. 
 My judgment is, that we are to-day, derelict. We are not up to the enterprise 
 of the nation. If we consider just now the elements of our people, martial, 
 mechanical, intellectual, agricultural, and political, who will doubt but that 
 there are a dozen locomotive Republics already fired up and ready for move- 
 ment ? 
 
 The Executive has done his duty. He has boldly followed out his Ostend 
 ideas. He has urged upon us a duty, which being undone, leaves him power- 
 less, and leaves the national enthusiasm and expansion a prey to adventurous 
 raids and seditious propagandists. Had the Thirty -Fourth Congress aided Presi- 
 dent Pierce in the Black Warrior matter, we should now have representatives 
 from Cuba on this floor ! . 
 
 The President ha3 called our attention to the territory upon our south. Not 
 New Granada — she will come in time. Not Venezuela — she is even yet more 
 vital than New Granada ; but the country north of these, and lying between 
 them and us, must be absorbed. For this absorption we must contend, not so 
 much with the people, whose interests will be enhanced by the absorption, but 
 with Spain, France, and England, who have no interests comparable witli our 
 own. These interests and antagonisms I propose to consider in this order: First, 
 Cuba; second, Central America ; third, Mexico. j 
 
 As to Cuba, the reasons for its acquisition are well understood by the country. 
 The message has succinctly and ably presented them. Its geographigal position 
 gives to the nation which holds it, unless that nation be very weak, a coign of 
 vantage as to which self-preservation forbids us to be indifferent. Our Missis- 
 sippi, foreign, and coast-wise trade, now $250,000,000, and in five years to be 
 500,000,000, are within its compass. While the island is of little use to Spain, 
 save as a source of revenue, it is to us of incalculable advantage. The nature 
 of the colonial office in Cuba — its power to harm us remedilessly, unless we go 
 to Madrid for remedy ; and the final stopping of the slave trade, are reasons 
 r^ed by the President. Our unsettled claims, and the many other difficul- 
 ties growing out of our relations to Spain, demand settlement, but receive none. 
 
 How long shall we continue in this condition ? During the pleasure of Spain ? 
 Is there no redress? Is our every attempt to be construed into a usurpation? 
 What impediments have we to meet ? There is one which has einee Mr. Adams' 
 time, proved insurmountable — Spanish pride. It is well said by an old poet, 
 that — 
 
 " Spain gives us pride, which Spain of all the earth 
 May freely give, nor fear herself a dearth." 
 
 Since then, there has been no curtailment of that pride. True, Spain has now 
 little to be proud of but her recollections. Poor, sensitive, corrupt, she holds 
 to the punctillio of diguity without its substantial energy. If Spain will not 
 
sell Cuba to us, because she feels that she will thereby Bell her honor, we must 
 insist on her changing its policy. She should keep the island aloof from French 
 intervention. She should preserve its independence. 
 
 Above all, Spain should abolish her present infamous tariff. Her export 
 tariff is an anomaly in commerce, and her tariff on imports is still more bar- 
 baric. Her export duty, which is a direct tax on the producer of her sugars 
 and tobacco,* does not 60 much affect us, as the tax which she loads on our flour, 
 pork, beef, and lard. We have tried in vain by diplomacy to unloosen these 
 shackles. Nothing but the sword can cut them off. 
 
 Up to 1809, Spain imposed restrictions on Cuba, by which no trade at all 
 was allowed with any foreign nation. After this, and on the revival of the 
 Spanish merchant-marine, the differential duty on goods imported iu foreign 
 bottoms was enacted. It was intended to crush out the trade with the United 
 States. This continued till 1834, when this Congress passed rataliatory laws. 
 No countervailing acts, however, could move the meanness of Spanish restriction. 
 American flour and other staples for which Cuba must look to a foreign mar- 
 ket, are excluded. Thus a balance of trade, averaging $10,000,000 per year, 
 is kept constantly against us. The duty in Cuba on flour imported from Spain 
 is only $2 50 per barrel ; from the United States, in American or other foreign 
 bottoms, it is $10 81. So that, if flour be worth five dollars in Cincinnati, the 
 cost to the Cuban consumer is sixteen dollars per barrel! This enormous tax on 
 flour prevents it's use in the island, except by the wealthy few — the thirty-five 
 thousand Spaniards. The body of the poor and oppressed Creoles are com- 
 pelled to use the dry and insipid Cassava root as a substitute for bread. This 
 tariff on flour, added to an infamous tonnage-tax, operates as a prohibition on 
 flour. Y\ ith a moderate duty, or if Cuba were annexed, this consumption, as 
 it is estimated by our economists, would be a million of barrels ! It'would be 
 enjoyed by us exclusively — inure to the benefit of the farmers of my State and 
 yours. That is evident from the fact, that no other country could compete with 
 us in that staple; for no other country is so near to Cuba, or so prolific in 
 breadstuffs. 
 
 We exported to Cuba, in 1857, only 45,145 barrels of flour, worth $324,410 ; 
 in 1858, 17,905 barrels, worth $105,009. Of other articles, beef, pork, lard, 
 hams, and bacon, and including flour, we had, in 1857, but Sl,86S,783; in 
 1858, but §1,228,119. Whereas, had a liberal commercial economy, like that 
 of Belgium, Holland, or Great Britain obtained, we should have had, at least, 
 $10,000,000 of produce exported. This would nearly have balanced our trade 
 in sugar and coffee, and on these we have fixed no prohibitive tariff! Thus our 
 commerce is crippled under the blows of this Spanish oppression. Why even 
 the Spanish Crown would be better helped, by a more liberal policy. Such a 
 system in this era of commercial freedom, is a shame to civilization, aud if inter- 
 national law were rightly written, it would, itself, be a cause of honorable war ! 
 
 But I have little hope that Spain will sell Cuba, or that the Cubans under- 
 stand the nature of the blessings which attend annexation. They will not per- 
 ceive that they become, by annexation, coequal with New York and Ohio, in a 
 common league for the common weal. They fear for their church and domes- 
 tic institutions, as if they were any part of Federal concernment. 
 
 I was surprised to meet an impediment raised by a distinguished Senator 
 from Srath Carolina in his Barnwell speech. I trust it is not shared by many 
 southern men. He objects to taking Cuba ; first, because it may involve a war, 
 whose consequences he states to be fearful. He leaves us in doubt as to these 
 consequences. Does he mean the reduction of Cuba to the condition of Hayti ? 
 A terrible consequence. That might follow ; but that is rather an English than 
 a Spanish threat, and hardly capable of execution in a time when Spain and 
 France are reviving the slave trade to cheapen tropical produce. His second 
 objection is more salient I quote it entire: 
 
 " If we had Caba, we could not make more than two or three slave States there, which 
 would not restore the equilibrium of the North and the South ; while, with the African slave 
 trade closed, and her only resort to this continent, she would, besides erushiu<r out our whole 
 sugar culture by her competition, afford in a few years a market for all the slaves in Missouri, 
 Kentucky, and Maryland. She is, notwithstanding the exorbitant taxe9 imposed on her, capa- 
 ble now of apsorbing the annual increase of all the slaves oil this continent, and consumes, it 
 Is said, twenty or thtrty thousand a year by her system of labor. Slaves decrease there large- 
 
ly. In time, under the system practiced, every slave m America m.^al De exierunuaieu in 
 Cuba as were the Indians. However the idle African may procreate in the tropics, it yet re- 
 mains to be proven, and the facts are against the conclusion, that he can, iu those regions, work 
 and thrive. It is said Cuba is to be ' Africanized,' rather than that the United States should 
 take her. That threat, which at one time was somewhat alarming, is no longer any cause of 
 disquietude to the South, after our experience of the Africanizing of St. Domingo and Jamaica. 
 "What have we lost by that? I think we reaped some benefit; and if the slaves of Cuba are 
 turned loose, a great sugar culture would grow up in Louisiaua and Texas, rivalling that of 
 cotton, and diverting from it so much labor that cotton would rarely be below its present 
 price." 
 
 This objection is two-fold. The inter-state slave trade with Cuba, in case 
 of annexation, he thinks, would make several free States, by the demand and 
 consumption of negroes ; and even if it would not, Cuba would not give the 
 South the preponderance in the Union ; and secondly, sugar he thinks, would be 
 cheap to the whole Union ; while a few thousand sugar planters, who just 
 thrive on the bounty they now get, would be ruined. As to the argument 
 about Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland, becoming free through Cuban annex- 
 ation, I leave that to the members from those States. As to the sugar, I say, 
 that an argument of that kind addressed to a free-trade people by a free trader, 
 should go far to weaken the morale of his great and frank speech, as it does the 
 economy of his politics. To the people of my State, such an argument will 
 quicken their ambition to acquire Cuba ; not alone because of the millions to be 
 gained by an increase of our exports thither, which are taxed prohibitively ; 
 but because we pay a tax on Cuban sugar, which is harsh, protective, and in- 
 defensible, in any epoch of a depressed exchequer. In 1857, there were, in all, 
 of sugar and molasses, imported from Cuba into the United States, $40,093,46(5 
 worth. The tariff on these sugars was $12,02S,039 80. Ohio paid one-tenth 
 of this, or about twelve hundred thousand dollars, which is equal to her im- 
 mense school tax, and nearly half a million more than she pays for her State 
 government, and nearly one-half of the expenses of all her counties. By our 
 tariff of 1857, we reduced the tax on sugar six per cent, and the panic reduced 
 the importation enormously. During the year ending June 30, 1S5S, our su- 
 gars from Cuba amounted to only $18,020,022, giving a revenue of $4,48S,S05 28, 
 at twenty-four per cent, ad valorem. 
 
 Since 1847, when Mr. Polk proposed annexation, this nation must have paid 
 over sixty millions sugar tax! Ohio has paid of that sum $5,000,000. My dis- 
 trict has paid one-twentieth part of $6,000,000, or $300,000; an annual tax of 
 $30,000 — all for what? That one of the prime necessaries of life should be 
 fostered into premature growth, to aid a few sugar planters in the South ! If 
 •Cuba cannot be annexed, to break this servility, by which the many are made 
 tributary to the few, then we must remodel our Democracy and economy. My 
 State Legislature, in 1854, passed a resolution, at my solicitation, requesting 
 Congress to abate this tax. There is no reason for its existence. 
 
 "But," it is said, "we must protect Texas and Louisiana in their few sugar 
 plantations! If Cuba comes in, away goes the tax!" Every man, woman, and 
 child, iii my State, will say: "Away with it! Welcome Cuba and free sugarl" 
 " But," says the Senator, "if Cuba be Africanized and kept out, it will keep up 
 ;the price of sugar, and a great growth will spring up, rivaling cotton." What 
 rthen ? Ecstacy 1 " Negroes will be in demand. Cotton, too, will be kept 
 "high I" What an argument for a Senator of all the United States, every one of 
 whose interests are his own! The Union is a cotton-pod! [Laughter.] ItB 
 growth dependent on the growth of the cane! If, by this logic, Cuba is to be 
 kept out, let us know it. Already the republican mouth grows juicy at the 
 prospect with Cuba in the Union! [Laughter.] It matters not if sugar be 
 made by slaves. That little delicacy of Exeter-Ball sentimentality is becoming 
 obsolete. Even our Quakers are willing to drink cheap damnation in their 
 coffee-cups, and eat it on their buckwheats! 
 
 My most distinguished constituent, the Governor of my State, and a candidate 
 for the Presidency, will soon outvie your southern Hotspurs in the race of an- 
 nexation, if thus you dress your laggard logic. In a speech at a Yankee festival 
 in my city, where the Pilgrims were praised for many a virtue which they had 
 not and 'their intolerable intolerance was glossed over by the fervor of the 
 hour Governor Chase is reported to have advocated the policy of " leaving to 
 
every one the absolute control of all matters of domestic concernment," and an 
 " indefinite expansion of empire." If this does not include Cuba, I will ask his 
 friends opposite, to say what is excluded by his concluding remark, that as the 
 last result of the enlarging empire both of American Government and American 
 principles, he summons "the parliament of man to sit on the destinies of th& 
 world?" 
 
 I did not dream that I should ever have to welcome the Ohio aspirant for the 
 White House into the support of its present occupant. I did not dream last fall 
 that I should represent him so nearly. I warn gentlemen of the South to observe 
 these signs, and prevent this grand larceny of Democratic thunder, by consid- 
 ering the proposition which some gentleman last session called national grand 
 larceny 1 Call it by what name you will, I am ready to answer the call of the 
 President, if for nothing else, for thejbenefit of our $250,000,000 of yearly trade, 
 which must pass under the range of Cuban cannon. I am ready to vote for the 
 bill of the gentleman of North Carolina, [Mr. Branch,] looking to the ; urchase 
 of Cuba; and I am not very particular as to the amount of money with which 
 to fill the blank in his bill. In case of our failure to purchase by honorable 
 negotiation, I would favor its seizure in case of foreign war, or of a European 
 intervention. 
 
 As to Central America, I do not desire to enter so fully into our relations with 
 this region. That has been ably done by my friend from Virginia, [Mr. Jenkins.] 
 We know well the impediment existing in the way of our acquisition there. 
 The Claytou-Bulwer treaty — the diplomatic blunder of the century — stands as 
 a huge gorgon in our path. The policy of its abrogation is conceded ; but "how 
 not to do it," seems to have been the practice. The present Executive in his 
 message of December 8, 1857, bewailed this condition of things. He inherited, 
 as did President Pierce, this treaty of peace, which has proved a treaty of 
 offense. England and the United States have been quarreling over its con- 
 struction, when its destruction was the most pacific course that could Lave been 
 adopted. Collateral treaties may be made which will prevent the cons -quench 
 of an abrupt abrogation of this treaty. Diplomacy is now, we are told, work- 
 ing to this end. 
 
 But there is in the American mind a chronic distrust of England. It is well 
 grouuded in her laxity of faith. When her interests can be subserved, she 
 breaks any compact; and only adheres to it when demanded by her interests. 
 Whether "the treaties to be made with Honduras, Costa Pica, and Nicaragua, 
 throttle this bantling of Bulwer, whether we are to lose still more by British 
 dilatory diplomacy, remains to be seen. One thing is remarkable, that we have 
 not advanced since 1849, when Nicaragua, in the Hiess-Selva treaty, proposed 
 to "confer onus the exclusive right" of an interoeeanic canal, or highway. 
 Had that treaty been confirmed, we might have had to-day forts an 1 free eitie3 
 along its route and at its termini, with full right to protect Nicaragua by all 
 the strength of our Navy and Army. A year later, and that wily diplomatist 
 Bulwer— v. ho, for hi-; tact, is sent to the Bosphorous to teach Russia her role 
 in the East — comes forward with his projd. Our Government nibble »yly at 
 his bait; but, like a foolish fish, at last leaps for the fly, is barbed, and hauled 
 in to flounder for the amusement of the world. Would that Mr. Cla] ton had 
 weighed the meaning of Smelfungus's philosophy : "It is always tim to cut 
 your throat; but if your throat is once cut, there are certain difficulties in the 
 way of reconsidering your determination." From that time till now, ■.have 
 been following Mrs. Chick's advice to Dombey, "making an effort" to get rid 
 of this incubus. 
 
 Cramptonand Webster tried in 1852 to unravel the web. Then •".lister 
 and Molina tried it, with the aid of Costa Rica. Then Wheeler and 
 anting fi ,■ STiearagua, made an effort, which our Government failed to accept. 
 Then Clarendon and. Herran, for Honduras, sought to untie the knot; and this 
 led the way ;<> the Oass-Trisarri treaty in the fall of 1857, which began ' 
 Then, a fair treat le, allowing us the protectorate of the transit ; but 
 
 through foreign influence it was so modified by Nicaragua as to be unacceptable 
 to onr Government Now, Sir Gore Ouseley, having ceased to b ■ 
 
myth here, has gone to the South, -where, we trust, something may be clone to 
 cancel that part of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty by which "we agreed with Eng- 
 land to cut our throats, by never "occupying, fortifying, or colonizing, or as- 
 suming, or exercising any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito 
 coast, "or any part of Central America." We trust that such an agreement may 
 be made to this end; but my reading of history is vain, if we do not find 
 thrown about this abrogation some clog which the American people will not 
 bear. 
 
 The truth is, that we have slept so long, and dreamed so transportingly of our 
 destiny over these regions, that meanwhile Japan and China are opened ; Fra- 
 zer's river becomes an Eldorado; and English and French navies, quitting the 
 attempt on Cronstadt, and tiring of the red storm of the Euxine, display their 
 guns on this continent. Their entente cordiale, as Clarendon said it would be, 
 is extended to this hemisphere ; and here we have them ! They are, by their 
 presence, if not by their diplomacy, ignoring the far-famed doctrine of Mr. 
 Monroe, which had, when first given, as general a meaning and as practical a 
 use, as it ought now to have a specific application. His doctrine was, that the 
 American continents by the free and independent condition which they have 
 assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future 
 colonization or influence by any European Power. 
 
 Let controversy contend as to the meaning of this doctrine. I know that 
 when Yucatan was about to be taken by England, and when English arms were 
 furnished her for an independency of Mexico, which would have been a depen- 
 dency on England, Mr. Calhoun then tried, in an able speeh, to limit the appli- 
 cation of that doctrine to the surroundings out of which it grew, namely, to 
 the intervention of the holy alliance to recover the revolted American States 
 for Spain, and the Russian occupation on our northwest. But the declaration 
 has a larger meaning. It has become settled policy. In 1823, Mr. Jefferson 
 tersely laid it down thus: 
 
 " Oar first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of 
 Europe ; our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle wiih cisatlantic affairs." 
 
 Yet this doctrine is 6neered at, as if Monroe's ghost were invoked to do a kind 
 of constable's duty, to warn all foreign intruders from this continent. So far 
 as emigration is concerned, this continent is open as day ; but no flag, no policy, 
 no institution, no colonies, no protectorates of Europe, can exist here, without 
 endangering the peace, infringing the rights, or disturbing the order and pro- 
 spective interests of this continent. Whatever may have been the occasion of 
 the Monroe declaration, its cause is a3 eternal as liberty, and its consequences 
 will be as progressive as our nation. I care not for its traditionary emphasis. 
 Democrats, at least, can afford to let that go. Is it sound doctrine for the pre- 
 sent? If so, it ought to be the enthusiastic sentiment and genius of this Gov- 
 ernment. If so, let it be no more the jeer of Europe, the swagger of America, 
 but a fact as much a part of our historic life as the Declaration of Independence, 
 which was its procreant source. That doctrine is the law of self-preservation. 
 General Cass, in his recent letter, has given it proper direction. That doctrine 
 was intended to guard this continent against the incursion of any alliances, 
 "holy" or unholy. It looked to that law which I have laid down, by which 
 the interests and honor of this hemisphere were to be guarded by none but 
 ourselves. We do not want to be foreclosed against its occupation, fortification, 
 and annexation. In the present feeling of this country, no treaty can be made 
 and made to stand, if it does not break down all protectorates of England and 
 all interference of France. The Senate of the United States dare not confirm 
 such a treaty. The present Executive will not present it. The present Secre- 
 tary of State will not sanction it. 
 
 Does England want Honduras, Yuoatan, the Belize ? What are they to her ? 
 Nothing; except as she can use them to block up the progress of this nation. 
 Does she want free passage over the Central American States? That she can 
 have under our auspices and with safety! What does she with the Valorous 
 and the Leopard in the Carribean sea? Why do her officers spy for arms in the 
 American steamer Washington? Is it only fillibusters she is after ? I do dia- 
 
trust her. If she seems to acquiesce in our view for a time, may we not attri- 
 bute it to that popular will which compels her aristocracy to more prudence in 
 reference to America ? She pretended to settle all in the Clayton-Bui wer treaty ; 
 yet that treaty was a delusion and a snare. While that treaty was yet warm, 
 England drives the Nicaraguan forces out of San Juan del Norte ; then she 
 pirates that entrepot from an independent State ; anoints a hybrid savage as a 
 kins; gives to a few Jamaica negroes, dressed like the Georgia major without 
 his spurs, the constabulary baton, and builds a congeries of negro huts which 
 she nicknames after the Earl Grey. She performs the same office for»Honduras, 
 by what Clarendon called the "spontaneous settlement" of the Bay Island*; 
 and then claims from us good faith in keeping the compact which she breaks ! 
 Along comes Sir Gore Ouseley to maintain the delusion, in spite of Lord Napier, 
 who goes home. What more ? She approves of the Cass-Yrissari treaty by 
 fomenting difficulties in the way of its ratification. She pretends to Mr. Dallas, 
 through Malmsbury, that Belly is a French adventurer for whotn she has no 
 > sympathy ; yet, in acts, gives to him French and English protection, through 
 the alliance. It is not safe to trust her. Her treaties are ropes of sand. Her 
 international law is too elastic for use by any but herself. Her designs are 
 steeped in fraud ; and all complications with her are dangerous and entangling. 
 Thank God! we have a Secretary of State whose life is marked with signal 
 ability in anticipating, demonstrating, and frustrating her designs. This nation 
 will sustain him in his declaration that — 
 
 " The establishment of a political protectorate by any one of the Powers of Europe over anv 
 of the independent States of this continent, or, in other words, the introduction of a scheme of 
 policy which would carry with it a right to interfere in their concerns, is a measure to which 
 the United States have long since avowed their opposition, and which, should the attempt be 
 made, they will resist by all the means in their power." 
 
 Behind this rock the present Administration are intrenched. There is no 
 feeling in this country worth calling patriotism, which does not stand squarely 
 up to°this high and strong position! Why should not this Congress, by some 
 definite action, stand bv the popular sense and the Government ? 1 am ready 
 either to give the moral force of a resolution such as that now referred to the 
 Committee of the Whole, to abrogate the Clayton-Bulwer treaty ; or I am ready 
 to go further, and to clothe the President with extraordinary powers, and to 
 give him means, or the authority to procure means, by which his recommenda- 
 tions may be acted on and acted out. 
 
 But it may be said, why so much risk of war with the combined powers of 
 Europe; why so much anxiety for the Isthmus or Central American route? 
 Not because we are in danger of being cut off from its dominion. That will 
 come, if these Central American States remain independent of European con- 
 straint. Not because.it is the only feasible mode of transit for the great orien- 
 tal trade between the'oceans; for in time there will be rapid and safe transits 
 on our own soil. Not so much because we ought to have and hold the hundred 
 and fifty millions of trade with these Spanish American tropical lands, instead 
 of but ten millions which we now have. But nature never made so narrow an 
 obstacle; one so easily severed, and on which such great commercial and eco- 
 nomical results depended, as that at Darien or Nicaragua. She buried moun- 
 tains and valleys beneath the wave, to narrow that neck, and thus expand the 
 bounds of interchange, and encircle the earth with a white zone of argosies. 
 
 If New Granada shall be ours— as it should be, within a twelvemonth, unless 
 the Congress of Bogota show more honesty and wisdom in settling the claims 
 of our Panama sufferers, than is likely; if New Granada would follow the ad- 
 vice of Gonzales, her attorney general, and enhance her interests by applying 
 for admission to our Uuion; and if Venezuela would follow the wise inclina- 
 tions of her patriot chief, General Paez, whose exile here has mad.' him love 
 the land of his home the more for the prospect of uniting its fortunes with 
 ours; then, indeed, these Central American States, now the football of 
 European diplomacy, must either come to us, or be powdered into noth- 
 ingness between the industrial movements of the surrounding States. Once 
 let the agriculture of Venezuela be smiled upon by a protecting Govern- 
 ment, and her magnificent ports would soon 'fill with the keels of her 
 
8 
 
 elder commerce. Let northern energy blend with her undirected labor, 
 and the gold mines of Upata would gleam with their olden treasures. Let 
 Panama break from her vassalage to her irresponsible rulers, and that 
 mart of the golden age of Spain and her viceroys will teem with a wealth 
 which no buccaneers in a thousand caravels can bear away. These accom- 
 plished, and the intermediate States of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Salvador, Hon- 
 duras, and Guatemela, will follow, as surely as the sheaf of the summer follows 
 the seed of the spring. The trade of all tropical America would then fall to_ us 
 naturally "by our proximity, and by the variety of our productions with which 
 to barter. These tropical wastes ought to give us coffee, indigo, and cocoa, 
 which are failing in India, as well as the cabinet woods, so much in demand. 
 In return they will take our flour, pork, machinery, fabrics, and a thousand 
 other articles which they need, and which every State of this Union produces. 
 Our trade, which now counts its hundreds, will then count its millions. 
 
 If this Congress has optic nerve enough to look a few years ahead, it will at 
 least, start a policy that will secure all the isthmian highways which are so 
 indispensable to our development and power. Its first duty is to repel every 
 attempt of the remotest influence, come from what quarter it may, which may 
 impede this procession of events or arrest our inevitable and legitimate aggran- 
 dizement. "No nation with one harbor, much less a nation with a coast bestrewn 
 with harbors like ours, can be long prosperous within, that does not prosper 
 and grow without. When a State, which is commercial by situation, forgets 
 the work of outbuilding its empire, it looses its inner vitality. The day that 
 marks its failure to meet every rising opportunity of advancement abroad, 
 marks its sure decline at home. As with the individual, so with the State ; if 
 its ambition be dead and its hopes of expansion smoulder, its dissolution is 
 speedy and sure. "While its intellectual and physical energies are tense and 
 grasp a large range; its internal and foreign empire will become consummate 
 because it has the everlasting law of growth! 
 
 We have illustrated that law with reference to our southern neighbor, Mexico. 
 The effete and wasted portions of Mexico, being one half of her area, lying 
 next to us, became nutriment to our stalwart strength. The very dirt of the 
 ground became assimilated with our energy, and lo ! from our Mexican pur- 
 chases, $10,000,000 of gold per year are sucked into every conduit of American 
 life, to enhance its happiness, and give added comfort to its homes. It was 
 once objected, that the soil of California, New Mexico, and Arizona, was poor; 
 a land of sand and centipedes; that there was no homogeneity in the people. 
 
 True, she has six million Indians, with Spaniards in plenty and pride, and of 
 mixed people not a few. But are they worse than the Indians of our own soil? 
 On the contrary, they are far better. They are tractable, stout, and laborious. 
 Spain managed them with but a handfull of soldiers for three hundred years. 
 She managed them, too, under every provocation to revolt. Had an American 
 protectorate been the sequence of Scott's occupation, a few months of protec- 
 tion would have given their industry its reward and peace its blessing. Then, 
 too, we should have no apprehension to disturb our present relations with 
 Mexico. 
 
 To these relations I propose to call the attention of the House. In the dis- 
 cussion, I need only remark, historically, that on the discovery of this continent 
 there was but one nation in North, and one in South America, which seemed 
 to be possessed of any civilized advancement. Peru, under the Incas, whose 
 white robes betokened the almost divine simplicity of the people; and Mexico 
 with a society that was Arcadian in its simplicity, and a polity wonderful in its 
 complications. The State, the priesthood, the cultivators of the soil, the rulers, 
 and the ruled of Mexico, lived in peace under a lovelier sky than that of Na- 
 ples, and a richer soil than th'at of ancient Latium. Let it be remembered that 
 this prosperity and contentment were not alone the result of good laws, but of 
 good land; of good manners, but of good mines. There was, in the Aztec 
 tongue, no language of cupidity, though gold roofed the temple and jasper built 
 the altar. 
 
 I need not repeat that this isolated case of civilization on this northern con- 
 tinent was mostly the result of the unparalleled climate and soil. That climate 
 

 
 and soil remain. Three hundred years of misrule have not impaired the salu- 
 brity of the one, nor detracted from the wealth of the othen _ 
 
 The Spanish rule at length was thrown off for a Republic like ours. The 
 inborn strength to throw it off, after so long a trial, showed a spirit of freedom 
 which received its plaudits from this nation at the time. In February, 1821, at 
 Ieualn, Mexico declared her independence. On the 4th of October, 1824, she 
 adopted her constitution. England was first to recognize this progress, and as 
 usual, for her profit. The lower clergy and the masses, consisting of Indians, 
 were its creators and beneficiaries. The upper clergy never sympathized with 
 this severance from Europe ; and until the revolution of Ayutla, contaminated 
 by Comonfort^ they never became a power in politics. His policy torn Ilea their 
 estates. They struck back. Hislaw of desamortizacion confiscated § 8,000,000 
 of their property, which passed to private individuals. They struck back, even 
 at this compromise confiscation. Commonfort reeled under their blow ; ^reeled 
 from the Puros to the Moderados ; and from the Moderados to the Church 
 and its conservative defenders, into whose arms he and his anti-Church policy 
 fell ! We need not wonder at these changes, when we remember that a mag- 
 nificent and organized hierarchy held $300,000,000 of property ; with a revenue 
 of $20,000,000, being $5,000,000 more than the best annual Government revenue. 
 
 Mr. Cushing said, at Richmond, that these party names of Liberal, Constitu- 
 tional, Pure, Moderate, Central, and Federal, so often appearing in oar Mexican 
 news, "were but the watchwords of contending factions, efficient alike only to 
 waste their common country." Hardly true ; for it must be remembered that 
 in Mexico, as in all nations, there will be parties founded on interest or .hope, 
 conservative or radical, with intervening moderate shades. There is in Mexico, 
 well-defined, a Central, Federal, or Conservative party, under whose rally men 
 of wealth and of the Church, and of improgressive temperament naturally 
 gather. This party would centralize power in the federal Government, and 
 thereby become aggressive in the States. It would lean towards a strong 
 
 fovernment; and hence its eye is ever on tradition and Spain. It would to-day 
 ail Spain or France as its master to attain its end. Santa Anna, Zuloaga, and 
 Robles have been its executive representatives. Miramon assumes tae same- 
 position just now. The natural antagonists of this party are the Puros, the 
 Moderados, Constitutionalists, Democrats, or call them what you will. Federal 
 restraiut to them is irksome; Europe and kingcraft hateful; and the Church 
 despotic and avaricious. In the language of Mr. Gadsden to Alvarez, in June 
 1855 "thev would limit the central power to that alone which i r; and 
 
 thus 'they should seek, like the United States, to grow without ani ISi into 
 strength and prosperity." Their aspiration is for a republic like our o\\ a. They 
 heed and deserve our symyathy. Juarez is their Executive— a pure Indian, 
 whose descent is from Montezuma. Degollada is their general, and Mata, their 
 minister, seeking recognition here. This party have a majority oi the States 
 and nine-tenths of the people of Mexico with them. They have the revenues. 
 They hold the ports. Their President is dejure and de facto Executive. A lit- 
 tle more patience, Mr. Forsyth, and you would have recognized ■■! not 
 (as you did) otherwise! I>e jure; for, by the constitution of Mexic , adopted 
 by an extraordinary congress, at the Capitol, February 5, 1857, it was provided, 
 by section seventy-nine, that — 
 
 « In temporary default of a President of the Republic, and in the vacancy be* »re the instal- 
 lation of the newly-elected President, the president of the supreme court oi justice shall eater 
 apon the exercise of the functions of President." 
 
 And, article thirty-two : 
 
 "If f-ora whatever reason, the election of President shall not have been made and pub- 
 lished by December 1st, upon which the change is to take place, or if the newlyelected is not 
 able to enter promptly upon the exercise of his functions, the term ot thepr lident 
 
 shall nevertheless cease, ami the supreme executive power shall bo deposited act interim in 
 the president of the supreme court of justice." 
 
 When, therefore, on the 11th of January, 1858, General Comonfort vacated 
 the Presidency, the Constitution devolved the office upon Benita Juarez, the 
 president of the supreme court of justice. De facto ; for he holds the held, 
 and has the money and the masses. The federal army, it is true, was not at 
 
10 
 
 his command. Felix Zitloaga was illegally named Dictator by a clique at the 
 capital, January 22, 1858 ; and having the army, and holding the capital, Jau- 
 rez transferred "the administration to Vera Cruz. There was no such officer 
 known as Dictator, and Zuloaga has paid the penalty of usurpation by deposi- 
 tion. There can be but one executive, and Robles, who assumed Zuloaga's 
 place, was not that officer. The constitution under which Juarez acts is the 
 only organic law, and that does not recognize the junta which elected Miramon, 
 to whom Robles yielded his fasces. 
 
 This constitution is the rallying cry of the Liberals ; to its defence the nation 
 is com*iitted ; by it alone is order possible. To sustain its upholders is clearly 
 the duty, as it is the interest and desire of the United States. President Buch- 
 anan has well considered these facts. In the success of the constitutional party 
 he places all his hopes of redress for the innumerable outrages to our citizens. 
 If this party fail, and there "being abundant cause for a resort to hostilities 
 against the Government now holding possession of the capital," I am ready, 
 for one, to vote for any system of reprisal or to grant the Executive the neces- 
 sary power to take possession of any portion of Mexico, as a pledge for the 
 settlement of our claims. 
 
 I say that I am ready to vote for such reprisal or occupation. But I have 
 considered these parties in Mexico with the view of qualifying this declaration. 
 I believe that it would be best, at once, to recognize the Juarez constitutional 
 government, by the most solemn assurances of sympathy and protection. The 
 late news makes this step imminently urgent. This can be done ; first, by the 
 prompt recognition of Mata, who is here seeking such recognition ; second, by 
 the sending of a naval force to the Gulf, where we are unrepresented. This 
 force should be accompanied by a commissioner to treat with the Juarez gov- 
 ernment'; to counteract the influence of the allied fleets now aiding Miramon 
 and Robles, and threatening Juarez; and with the latter to cement an alliance, 
 and to obtain such a settlement of our claims and difficulties as will comport 
 with our interest and honor. I have the surest authority for saying that such 
 on arrangement would give us, not only a firm union with Mexico, not only 
 postal and extradition and right of way treaties, not only a foothold in the 
 northern Mexican States, which can be made permanent without .war; but it 
 would foil every attempt of the European alliance to control the affairs of Mex- 
 ico. It would crush the Robles-Miramon government, elevate and organize the 
 democratic American sentiment, and give us an alliance of peace, which is the 
 precursor of a magnificent commerce! 
 
 If, however, we seize Sonora and Chihuahua, without an understanding with 
 the constitutional Government, what will be the result? Poor and miserable 
 as is the condition of Mexico, she would likely declare war. Such a declaration 
 would come from the Robles-Miramon faction. It would draw to that faction 
 the strength of the nation. It would, perhaps, crush Juarez and his party, and 
 leave us no better off than if we had pursued a more politic and pacific course. 
 
 Again, if we delay to recognize the constitutional Government, it will soon 
 be in power at the capital as it is in the provinces. It can then say to us, " Oh, 
 yes ; you would not help us in our extremity, when your advantage should 
 have prompted you, and your sympathy would have been of service. We can 
 get along without your aid now. Touch not a foot of our soil, on the penalty 
 of an endless difficulty." 
 
 "Wisdom, interest, the law of American progress, and the predominance of 
 our Union ou this continent, all urge the course I have indicated. Juarez waits 
 our action. Shall we miss the golden opportunity? 
 
 If we fail in our efforts with him, then I am willing at ouce to take Sonora 
 and Chihuahua, whichever party succeeds. 
 
 I believe that the list of American claims and cruelties, which has even pro- 
 vokod the English press to wonder at our forbearance, is warrant enough for 
 such possession. There are even yet higher ground for such seizure. The 
 French Minister, De Gabriac, rules in the Miramon councils. A French fleet 
 rides before Sacrificios. The French admiral was very ready to back Spain in 
 her demands. To break this French power is our imperative duty. If it be 
 notrbroken, our line of extension southward to Central America will be broken 
 irrevocably. 
 
11 
 
 Such is the condition of parties in Mexico. I need not discuss it farther. 
 The contest now is between the democratic element aud the conservative ele- 
 ment. The latter has its eye ever on Europe, and averse to the United States. 
 Its rule has proved the most distracting and disastrous ever yet known in the 
 annals of the South American Republics, where the earthquake and the revo- 
 lution alike awake the same sad cry of anguish, and receive the same defiant, 
 destructive answer. 
 
 I need not have pictured this land of beauty and order as it was once, to 
 heighten the contrast of its present condition. After thirty-eight years of de- 
 bilitating spasms, we find, to-day, the spectacle of Mexico helpless, bleeding, 
 dying; the Turkey of the western world ; and capable of no effort even of re- 
 sistance to the Spanish fleet, much less to the French or English. Rapacity, 
 crime, chaos, craft, license, aud brutality ; indolence only active to wrong; and 
 industry quickened only for vice; laws made for their infraction, and order to 
 be contemned. Mountain cries unto valley for relief; and from hacienda to 
 city goes up the agony of despair. This is unhappy Mexico, in whose fate no 
 nation ever cau have the interest we have till such a nation conquer us. Who 
 shall intervene? 
 
 Were it only the natives who suffered, we might stand aloof, and say, "they 
 have made their bed; let them lie in it." But even this would be culpable in- 
 difference. Good neighborhood does not thus do its office. The artisans of 
 the city of Mexico are out of employment, and hungering for food. Let this 
 one fact speak volumes ! In the three pawnbroking establishments of the city, 
 called Monts de Piedad, the last year, there were 68,000 borrowers out of a 
 population of 185,000; $912,000 were loaned, and $869,000 paid for its use. 
 With an army of 11,700 men, of which 5,800 are officers, and a debt of 
 §120,000,000, and an expenditure by two Governments ; with but one eighth 
 qf her arable soil cultivated, and her mines unworked, or, if worked the trea- 
 sures at the mercy of the red guerilleros who infest every avenue of intercourse ; 
 with every one of her twenty-two States and six Territories parading an array 
 of contending forces and ambitious guerilla chiefs; Garza aud Vidaurri con- 
 ferring in the North to move down and check the Federalists of the interior; 
 PesquTera about to move on Mazatlan; Alatriste on the plains of Apam; Cam- 
 auon, from Metamoras de Izucar, waiting to beseige Puebla ; Blanco in Michoa- 
 can; Iturbide in the Bahia; Marquez repulsed from the Puente Calderon, 
 around which gather the combating forces under Miramon, Piocha, and Degolla 
 da; Mejia defeated by the liberal forces under Pueblita and Huerta; the en- 
 virons of the capitol swarming with the Liberal soldiery; this was the picture 
 of a few days ago! 
 
 The scene changes. The Federal chief Echeagaray betrays Zuloaga, and in 
 collusion with llobles, makes the latter chief. Echeagaray in turn is imprisoned 
 at Puebla; is about to be shot; when, lo! an insurrection in the eity of Mexico 
 saves him, and Zuoloaga rushes to the English flag for protection. In this compli- 
 cation, a junta is called to settle the difficulty; and who should be chosen but 
 Miramon, a dashing young general, flushed with his successes over the Liberals, 
 and who moves toward the city under the fluttering pennons of his calvary. 
 Meanwhile, young Alvarez and Villava lead their speckled Pintos down on the 
 warm lowlands for pillage ; while Juarez, dignified and statesmanlike, holds 
 his rule in Vera Cruz, the commercial metropolis. Mexican conducta go down 
 to the sea under the French flag, to get his revenues, to help one party by rob- 
 bing the other; while the fleets of the three great nations of Europe gather on 
 her coasts, and beg, from their gaping gun-mouths, the results of spent plunder! 
 It is as if Dives should besiege Lazarus with a bowie knife And revolver, and bid 
 him disgorge the furtive crumb, as indemnity for the past and security for the 
 future!" Fifty generals and a nation of seven millions, not knowing what may 
 be their fate! The Agiotistas hold the money and oppress with it. The gene- 
 rals murder and pillage in gross, and the bandits in detail. Indians never be- 
 fore in arms rush to them for self-preservation. Foreigners, ever at the mercy 
 of these fickle fictions, find no protection in their flagB, and no hope hut in pas- 
 sive submission to forced loans and open robbery. This is the spectacle of mu- 
 tilated Mexico to-day. To-morrow it may be worse ! 
 
, 12 
 
 I repeat it, who shall intervene ? Some one must. Our interest is paramount 
 Why^ this interest? Not only our proximity to Mexico ; uot alone the number 
 of our citizens domiciliated in the country; but a common interest in the de- 
 velopment, the retouching, as it -were, into its primeval color and grace, of that 
 elder beauty which Spain tarnished aud anarchs have torn to shreds. Our in- 
 terest lies first in Mexico's erect and orderly independency. If that be no 
 longer possible, then that no Power but our own shall guard its weakness and 
 administer its estate. This is the only programme which this nation can tolerate, 
 and by which it dare abide and survive or grow! 
 
 As to our proximity: the reasons on this head for our intervention are well 
 set forth in the President's message, I cannot add to pte force. I therefore 
 quote it: 
 
 " But there is another view of our relations with Mexico, arising from the unhappy condition 
 of affairs along our southwestern frontier, which demands immediate aclion. In that remote 
 region, where there are but few white inhabitants, large bands of hostile and predatory Indians 
 roam promiscuously over the Mexican States of Chihuahua and Sonora, and our adjoining 
 Territories. The local governments of these States are perfectly helpless, and are kept in a 
 state of constant alarm by the Indians. They have not the power, if they possessed the will, 
 even to restrain lawless Mexicans from passing the border and committing depredations on 
 our remote settlers. A state of anarchy and violence prevails throughout that distant frontier. 
 The laws are a dead letter, and life and property wholly insecure. For this reason the settle- 
 ment of Arizona is arrested, whilst it is of great importance that a chain of inhabitants should 
 extend along its southern border, sufficient for their own protection, and that of the United 
 States mail passing in and from California. "Well-founded apprehensions are now entertained 
 that the Indians and wandering Mexicans, equally lawless, may break up the important stage 
 and postal communication recently established between our Atlantic and Pacific possessions. 
 This passes very near to the Mexican boundary throughout the whole length of Arizona. I 
 can imagine no possible remedy for these evils, and no mode of restoring law and order on . 
 that remote and unsettled frontier, but for the Government of the United states to assume a 
 temporarv protectorate over the northern portions of Chihuahua and Sonora, and to establish 
 military posts within the same ; and this I earnestly recommend to Congress. This protection 
 may be withdrawn' as soon as local governments shall be established in these Mexican States, 
 capable of performing their duties to the United States, restraining the lawless, and preserving 
 peace along the border." 
 
 A temporary protectorate will effectually, if not nominally, give us these 
 States of Sonora and Chihuahua. They are very sparsely populated, there be- 
 ing about three hundred thousand persons to their two hundred and twenty- 
 three thousand seven hundred and ten square miles. These lands are repre- 
 sented as delightful in climale and rich in resources, agricultural and mineral. 
 They have been described as the land of the blessed in Oriental story. Summer 
 and winter, table land and valley, are nearer akin than in most places in the 
 world. Silver is in their streams, — in lodes with crests elevated above the 
 ground. Spain demonstrated their riches ; but the nomadic Apaehes swept 
 over this Eldorado, and left but a memory ' of its treasures which American en- 
 terprise is already vitalizing into a reality. 
 
 Is it objected by southern gentlemen that these States must become free, and 
 not slave States ? I hope not. You have been claiming your constitutional 
 rights. Where is there a word about the equilibrium of the States in that in- 
 strument? Under it you have equality of right, and no right of equality in the 
 number of States. This equality is not of arithmetic, but of political ethics. 
 The moment you claim equilibrium of States, that moment your honor is com- 
 promised aud your loyalty to the Constitution is questioned. 
 
 Do vou say, " We will' favor this protectorate if Tamanulipas and New Leon 
 are included)" Very well ; try that. I will vote for it, or vote to include any 
 other State where you think you can raise coffee and sugar, and can outvie 
 with the North in the race of colonization and power. I will gladly vote for a 
 protectorate over an independent federation of States north of the Sierra 
 Madre. 
 
 Mr. MILLSON. I want to know under what authority the gentleman from 
 Ohio represents southern gentlemen as desiring all these Mexican States? 
 
 Mr. COX. I have not so represented them. I say, southern gentlemen may. 
 perhaps, not exactly wish to take Sonora and Chihuahua, lest they might be- 
 come free States, and not slave States. It was a suggestion made to me by a 
 southern member, and I said to him, " Come along ; we will put in Tamau- 
 lipas and New Leon. We will link them hand in hand." For myself, I am 
 
13 
 
 willing to give protection to northern Mexico; if not for annexation, for a free 
 trade which will be of mutual advantage, and will be a practical absorption. 
 It will at least prepare these States for admission. Let Monterey be the nucleus 
 of Zacatecas, San Luis, Queretero, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, New Leon, Chihuahua, 
 and Sonora — all the States between the Bio Bravo and the Gulf of California ; 
 all natural allies in the interests of the United States. Let them cluster in upon 
 our ensign — not star by star, but in a galax}-. By that you do at once what 
 will in time be done by the natural laws of development. Besides, you raise 
 our present feeble trade of seven millions to twenty-eight, which Great Britain 
 enjoys. You can thus enhance every inch of soil, and every shining particle of 
 ore, in these regions. 
 
 Mr. GIDDIXGS. Will my colleague allow me to put a question to him? 
 
 Mr. COX. No, sir; I have not time. We will meet and talk the matter 
 over after my friend shall be made Governor. I do not wish to get out of the 
 line of my argument. 
 
 By this programme we shall have, in time, with all of Mexico, a practical an- 
 nexation, which will allow free trade and safe intercourae, to our mutual ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 As to the question of protecting our citizens already in Mexico, and demand- 
 ing reparation for wrongs done them, this should be a capital cause of inter- 
 vention in Mexican matters. Senator Mason's bill is rightly predicated on this 
 cause. If Spain could make the liberals pay for the murder and spoliation cf 
 Spanish subjects at San Yincente, Chiconcuaque, Durango, and elsewhere, in 
 Comoufort's time, why are we asleep over the rights of our citizens ? I have 
 before me a list of these claims, but a very imperfect one. Each claim is a 
 casus belli. Here are some dozen cases of illegal seizure of American property. 
 I saw it noticed that some eleven millions were already calculated at our State 
 Department. We have grievances beyond money. The sentences in relation 
 to illegal marriages is a wrong to those without the established church, and de- 
 grades to crime the holy relations of parentage and wedlock; the infamous sur- 
 veillance of the post office over American letters, refusing to deliver even the 
 United States consular correspondence unless it were first inspected by Mexican 
 authorities; and worse still, the rude, cruel, and brutal arrest and imprison- 
 ment of Chaplin, Stocker; Ainsi, and Garcia, are enough to make the Haynaus 
 of Austria pale beside the imbruted and unbridled scoundrelism of Mexican 
 officers. The story of Ainsi, seized on American so 1, sixteen months in the 
 prisons of Sonora, wearing the barra de grillas ; and that sad, saddest of all 
 stories, the massacre of his brother-in-law, Crabbe, and his confederates, whose 
 characters have been blackened to rob their murder of its heinousness; these 
 should move the very stones to sympathy. 
 
 In this matter the United States have* but one duty. These sufferers were 
 our citizens. Wherever that character of citizenship is to be found, the indi- 
 vidual bearing it, is clothed with the nationality of the Union. Whoever the 
 man may be, whether native-born, naturalized, or semi-naturalized, he can 
 claim the protection of this Government. It may respond to that claim with- 
 out being obliged to explain its conduct to any foreign Power; "for it is its 
 duty to make its nationality respected by other nations and respectable in every 
 quarter of the globe." This doctrine was illustrated in the Koszta case. What 
 difference is there between a dungeon in Guayrnas, where Ainsi lay in chains, 
 and the Austrian brig Iluzzar, which held the body or the Hungarian} 
 
 The outrages upon our citizens are not confined to Mexico. In every Span- 
 ish American State they are common. In Peru, in Paraguay, in New Gran- 
 ada, in Cuba, in Costa-Rica, in all places where the slanders of t lie Madrid 
 press against the "peddling traders of the North" enter, we have to meet per- 
 secution, imprisonment, illegal seizure of property and person and an unwink- 
 ing espionage; and that, too, under taunts more galling, because we know how 
 easy it would be to punish such outrages. We should examine the list of 
 claims on Spanish-American States to appreciate the divine forbearance of our 
 inactivity. A settlement with Mexico would be a general settlement with 
 Spanish America. 
 
 This duty of intervention becomes at once imperative and dignified, when we 
 
14 
 
 remember that, by such an act, -we do not only protect our citizens, but we 
 save Mexico. We not only save her from Spain, France, and England, but from 
 herself. This is no conquest of Cortez. It is the salvation of a people whose 
 interests will be bettered by our aid. Without such aid, the fairest part of this 
 continent will be a ruin — only the worse because, like the Parthenon, its frag- 
 ments will remain to show the beauty and richness of its former condition. 
 
 In conclusion, the policy I have indicated with respect to this continent, and 
 the application of which to Cuba, Central America, and Mexico, will be of such 
 benefit to them, will enable us to conform to that law of growth by which 
 alone we have become great, and by which alone we shall become greater. 
 This is the policy of other nations, and they have met obstacles to accomplish 
 it. We shall accomplish it, but we shall have them as our obstacles. England 
 has swept with her power from the Shannon to the Indus. She is content, and 
 so are we, to see her greatness repeated in the offspring of her loins. Yet she 
 daily calls our attempts to expand by the rudest terms. France has twice 
 threatened Europe with continental conquest, aud now organizes the Arabs of 
 Northern Africa, the granary of the Roman world, for her march upon Egypt 
 and her domination of the Mediterranean. Russia, the great land animal, is 
 piercing Asia at every vulnerable point with her lances, and is pressing for an 
 empire of which there is no adequate prophecy in the Scriptures. Even Spain 
 joins her arms and her priesthood with France, and is waging against Cochin 
 China, a war which her journals call the civilizing spirit of the age, impelling 
 the force of Europe to break down the barriers which divide that race from 
 humanity. 
 
 Yet all of these nations, except Russia, which has ever been kind and tolerant 
 toward us, are this day in league to prevent the stretch of our influence over 
 our continent. England, holding half of North America, is jealous of our 
 growth, and Would choke us at the isthmian neck. France woidd crush out the 
 sympathies of the white republic of St. Domingo for the United States, by her 
 Chevalier Reyband, charge at Hayti ; and she used that burlesque of emperors 
 and that ape of manhood, Soulouque, to Africanize the island, to overthrow 
 Santa Ann3, and to break down the Cazenau treaty for a free port and steam 
 depot, and for advantages to our citizens in the mines, sugar lands, and mahog- 
 any forests of that island! France again appears in the Sandwich Islands; at 
 the Isthmus, with M. Belly; and at last in Mexico, aiding the Spaniards, and in 
 sympathy with the Spaniards of Cuba, to foil us in every attempt to adjust our 
 national relations with that country. Every steamer brings us a lecture from 
 Exeter Hall on our slave propagandist fillibusterism. And may we not go for 
 its commentary to Copenhagen, to Ionia, to Gibraltar, to Malta, to the Cape of 
 Good Hope, to the Rod Sea, to Jamaica, to New Zealand, to China, and to the 
 sheiks of all India. Why, the British regime in India was a system of torture 
 more exquisite than regal or spiritual tyranny ever before devised. The Sepoys 
 vainly tried to copy its atrocities. 
 
 Were we left alone, we might be content tp let France alone. No American 
 would whisper a " nay " to her making the Mediterranean a French lake. Her 
 genius and vivacity can make its waves glow with the light of other days. 
 That sea on which navigation had its birth — the maritime world of Greece, 
 Carthage, Rome, Tyre, Sidon, Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Venice, and Genoa — the 
 sea of Homer and "David, Jonah and St. Paul, Ulysses and Neptune ; washing 
 the base-of Ararat and Olympus ; with a world's history on its bosom, and 
 whole nations in its bed ; the American can well say, let its guard be the gallant 
 sons of France! He could say it without envy, and with heartiness, if France 
 would keep her navies out of the Gulf of Mexico and the harbor of San Juan. 
 We have made no remonstrance against England on her ceaseless round of 
 empire — bloody, cruel, and rapacious as it has been — subsidizing the riches of 
 Asia to her commerce and her greed. We know the law by which these power- 
 ful white races move. It will "be irresistible. France, England, and Russia, are 
 tending to a common focus at the Isthmus of Suez, as France, England, and the 
 United States are at Darien. Starting from opposite points, extra-European 
 conquest converges here! Eugland 6eeks passage across Egypt or Syria, for 
 
15 
 
 India and Australia, and pounces on Perira at the mouth of the Red Sea — as 
 she did on Gibraltar and San Juan. France, marching her army of Algeria, 
 presses toward the prize to realize the great Napoleon's dream oi Egypt, and 
 urges her canal at Suez as she is striving to do at Nicaragua. Russia, seini- 
 o-riental, marches through Western Asia and Persia down upon the confines of 
 English power and French ambition, and finds her rivals in the field. What 
 fine reproaches they can hurl at each other and at us, for the lust oi' dominion, 
 when they gather at this focus of theformer civilization! What shocks of con- 
 tending torces will there and then be encountered 1 Let them come and strive. 
 Let Russia push its caravans across the steppes of Tartary until the trade of 
 Kiaehta and Irkantsh rival Canton and Shanghai. Let France divorce Asia 
 from Africa by marrying the Red sea to the Mediterranean at Suez. Let Eng- 
 land work its iron way to India from Beyrout to the Euphrates. Let the steam 
 engine labor for the millions of Asia under any engineer; but let America alone 
 in her armies of occupation to open the Isthmus, and control the steam and 
 commerce center of our own hemisphere. 
 
 No change of dynasty, or of form of government, can check this ultimate 
 condition of European expansion and collision. Such a change may affect the 
 relations of these countries to ourselves. The illiberal policy of France to this 
 country niay return to plague its inventor, the usurper of France. 
 
 I have never heard his hated name since the 2d of December, that I could 
 repress the prayer, which now 1 pray with something of a Red Republican fer- 
 vor, that France may have barricades on the Boulevards ; the throne in llames, 
 as that of Louis Philippe in the Place du Carousel ; the dynasty he seeks to 
 perpetuate cut off, or flying from the rage of a Red Republic ; more citizens and 
 less soldiers, and both fraternizing to the music of the Marseillaise; exile3 re- 
 turning from their homes in pestilential swamps, amidst gay and festive wel- 
 come ; prisons breaking ; the press free ; the Palais Justice open, and the tri- 
 color of a new Republic flashing from every part of France and topmost on the 
 Hotel de Yille, made sacred by the heroic eloquence of Lamartine. This would 
 be a fit retribution from God for crimes and perjuries ; and not at all unfit as ' 
 the reward of an intermeddling policy with the republican interests of the New 
 World! 
 
 Let us be decided ! These European Powers cannot, and do not, have peace. 
 The bugles of truce sounded at the conference of Paris. Heralds proclaimed 
 peace in every capital. But the war harness is not off. It is burnished anew, 
 and tha weapons within reach! England, trembling at the one huudred thousand 
 soldiers across the channel, and the naval wonders at Cherbourg, commences to 
 build coast defences. Russia acquires Villa Franca, and stirs insurrection in 
 Ionia against England. Mazzini issues his rescript to the secret socielies and 
 Republicans of Italy to be ready and one as the thought of Italy and 
 The coin of "Emanuel, the King of Italy," is circulated through the* peninsula. 
 An actress moves the people of Venice to insurrection by a recitative which 
 reminds them of their patriotism. Austria arms, and Piedmont proposes to 
 repel. France sends more troops to Rome. Austria growls. France obtains 
 from the Swiss a strong strategic post, and Austria growls agaiu. Naples in- 
 sults Napoleon to please Austria, England writes bitterly against Naples, and 
 does not spare the prosecutor of Montalembert. England shakes with a new 
 reform movement — John Bright striving to Americanize her by popular sover- 
 eignty. Turkey is unsettled in Europe and in Asia. Russia moves on, immense 
 and great — the envy of all. A lighted match may flash this magazine into a 
 terrific blaze, whose thunder will make all Europe quake. The" alliances of 
 to-day, in Europe, for her own balance of power, may be dissolved by a popular 
 breath to-morrow. As a consequence, they, cannot be relied on to pursue us to 
 any fatal end. 
 
 Already England has pushed this alliance with France to its snapping point. 
 The English ] leople will not permit their aristocracy to carry it so far as to 
 make it an offence to the people of this commercial nation. Not but that the 
 English Government would like to aid France in checking our career; but trade 
 is powerful for peace, and peace with us means cotton in England Let Eng- 
 gland find cotton elsewhere, and our southern friends may be assured that her 
 
1fi UBRORV OF.CONGRKS 
 
 :i 
 
 intercourse -with us -will be no longer peaceful, 
 themselves either, that cotton is their peculiar at 
 every appliance to reach central China? To clot IPBWW*™ ib,1 ™ i ( qq""-m2 4 
 millions of Chinese ? No. They are thus clotl: 011 » yo JW -, 
 which is the stupendous growth of their own gi — # ~c"uai valley, estimated 
 now to produce more than double the cotton raised in all our southern Statea 
 put toe-ether. This vallev being England's, Manchester and Stockport can snap 
 their finders at Charleston and Mobile, and English audacity will begin a new- 
 career of rapacity and insolence towards us. Her jealousy of us is intus et 
 in cute. 
 
 Our re1i.ar.ee must be on our own strength and growth. If we cannot enact 
 the Monroe doctrine into international law, we can create and consecrate it as a 
 national sentiment. Let it be the national genius. Let it be the power of 
 Aladdin's lamp. You remember the story. The old lamp from its friction 
 evoked from the cave a mighty spirit; awed by its terrors, the poor youth only 
 ventured at first to employ its powers in familliar affairs ; but gradually accus- 
 tome 1 to its presence, he employed it to construct palaces, to amass treasures, 
 to baffle armies, to triumph over foes, to wield the elements of air, light and 
 heat, until, at the close of the story, the poor youth becomes the sovereign of a 
 peaceful empire assured to his remote posterity ! 
 
 This story, Mr. Speaker, is the type of our political genius. By it we have 
 fortified ourselves in our domestic interests. Our domestic and territorial policy 
 is fixed under its guidance. It is the instrument of that progress which must 
 keep pace with steam and telegraph, until we are assured of an empire with 
 which kingcraft dare not meddle; or meddling, find it a power to baffle its 
 force of arms, and its fraud of diplomacy. We have become a Colossus on this 
 continent, with a strength and stride that will and must be heeded. "With our 
 domestic policy as to local governments established, we can go on and Ameri- 
 canize this continent, and make it what Providence intended it should become, 
 by a perpetual growth and an unsevered Union — the paragon in history, for 
 order, harmony^ happiness, and power! 
 
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