SPEECH OP Il'ON. M, S. LATIIAM, OF CALIFORNIA, THE EIGHTS OP NEUTEAES—CUBA. DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JUNE 14, 1854. 1 WASHINGTON: PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 1354. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign https://archive.org/details/speechofhonmslatOOIath SPEECH The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union— Mr. LATHAM said: Mr. Chairman: In the midst of peace and gen¬ eral prosperity, while commerce and agriculture are flourishing, and every species of industry meeting its adequate reward, the apprehensions of the country have been excited, anii our business community startled by various resolutions intro¬ duced into this Houseand the Senate,by gentlemen who seem to have paid especial attention to our foreign relations, and to whose peculiar keeping it would seem an overruling Providence had con¬ fided the destinies of this great Republic! While we have been taught for years past to believe in manifest destiny, while historical events, which we all witnessed, have contributed to cre¬ ate and strengthen that belief, in which the pres¬ ent generation is now regularly educated, we are permitted to behold and admire in this House the instruments through which God’s providence is to work out the problem of peopling and civilizing this great continent! The men who have received this special mission are before us, and their inspi¬ ration is manifest from their high resolve! Anti¬ cipating the future, and strong in the consciousness of the power to be acquired by us within the next two or three decades, they have, in a parliament¬ ary way—the only one left open to their ambition and patriotism—laid down the principles which ought to guide our intercourse with foreign na¬ tions, and the policy which we ought to pursue at this particular crisis. It is not enough for the people of this country to believe in a particular doc¬ trine; they must have faith also in the Apostles. For the present, our new leaders give to their in- irations the form of inquiries. Their modesty— eaven’s choicest gift, the adorning grace of every virtue—will not even permit them to make sugges¬ tions; but they prefer the more unpretending, pop¬ ular, Socratic method of questions and answers, to lead the benighted to understand the things ih^y would teach them. And if the Administration is but half as intelligent and docile as were the pupils of the great practical philosopher of antiquity, it cannot, wLu any show of reason or candor, resist the conclusion they would arrive at. There is but one drawback to this system of instruction, which would otherwise be accompanied by the most beneficial results. There are too many teach¬ ers, and they slightly vary in the doctrines which they seek to inculcate. Each of them seems to have received a special revelation, and each, there¬ fore, is anxious to establish a sect of his own. It is difficult for this House, and the country, to de¬ termine which is the real orthodox teacher, and which the heresiarch that would make us swerve from the true faith. It is this doubt, sir, which hangs, not so much over our destiny as over the men who feel themselves called upon to guide it, that puzzles and perplexes me. 1, too, am a be¬ liever of manifest destiny; but I want that mani¬ festation to be clear and explicit. I am not sat¬ isfied to see the point I wish to arrive at; I want to see the way that leads to it. Let us for a moment., in consideration of this question of the rights op neutrals, and Cuba, cast a glance at the condition of the country, and the prospect of things before us. We are a free, happy, prosperous people; we have from the be¬ ginning of our national existence increase! in wealth, population,and territory; and this so stead¬ ily, without interruption, that not only ourselves but the world believes in our mission. Under the benign influence of our institutions, each State of our Federal galaxy is developing its gigantic re¬ sources, while the energy and enterprise of the whole people is constantly employed in discover¬ ing new sources of wealth and prosperity, and new scope for the exercise of their varied faculties. We have not only added vast possessions to our magnificent domain; but we have cultivated, peo¬ pled, and improved them without diminishing the rapid development of what was already ours by the labor and valor of our ancestors. As a child outgrows its garments, we have out¬ grown our ancient metes and bounds, and are even now daily increasingin wealth and pover. What we are too young to do to-day, we are ripe for to¬ morrow, and will accomplish, without extraordt- 4 nary effort, the day after. We, of all nations of the world, are best able to bide our time. We have a continent before us, and the future is ours without dispute. The boy ten years of age may not be equal to the man of forty; but ten years hence the youth will be an over-match for the man of fifty, and twenty years hence, the man of thirty will meet with but a feeble resistance from the sexagenarian. We are in that condition, sir, in the family of nations, and can afford to let the years roll on which bring its nearer to our full manhood, and all other nations whom we are now emulating to old age and decrepitude. All we re¬ quire is to nurse our health, and to commit no excesses, that we may not be doomed to prema¬ ture old age. Now, under these circumstances, it appears to me that we are not bound to divulge to the world what we mean to do hereafter, if the world has rot sagacity enough to know it, nor is it prudent in us to indulge in threats and boasts of our forth¬ coming strength. We need not now weaken our internal organization and cohesion, by developing one set of faculties at the expense of others, or by giving a particular direction to some of our already sufficiently developed national propensities. The harmonious growth of body and mind, of physical and mental faculties, is what we ought to aim at, and, with a view to that object, we ought to avoid exposing ourselves to all those influences at home or abroad, which would give our national develop¬ ments a one-sided direction, and instill into us desires and passions which can only be gratified at the expense of our better moral nature. And, above all things ought we to avoid those sophisms which blunt our perceptions of right and wrong, and lend to vice itself the color of reason and justice. Sir, if we were not as a nation easily moved by passion, if, in the gratification of our desires, we were not easily betrayed into the sacrifice of our own convictions, partisan leaders would have no power over the people, and heads of cliques would find it difficult to deceive them about their own dearest interests. But unfortunately for the peace and progress of our country we have too many men among us, whose prurient ambition will stop at nothing, and whose “ longing after immortality” can only be satisfied by seeing their names in public print. They must be connected with some startling proposition, with some novel and striking theory that shall wake up the drowsiest audience and fill with surprise and expectation the most unsus¬ pecting portion of the public. It is to achieve such results that men in high places must tax their ingenuity, and if their inventive faculties are not equal to a new creation, they must dress up some old theory to suit the taste and fashion of the day. The condition of the Old World furnishes an inexhaustible theme for exhibiting their ver¬ satility of talent and the indefinite expansiveness of their patriotism. There never was a chance of going down to posterity at so cheap a rate. There are those whose love of glory looks to the tented field for a theater of action, “seeking the bubble reputation, even at the cannon’s mouth;” but the way to arrive at honor and distinction in this House, is “ through the native hue of reso¬ lutions, not “ sickbed over with the pale cast of thought.” These resolutions are now crowding upon us, and must be followed by action—no , matter what may be the consequence. Two seta of resolutions in regard to our foreign relations, pending the present European struggle, have en¬ grossed the attention of this body: one set refer- I ring to our rights (they say nothing of our obliga¬ tions) as neutrals, the other setting forth our | claims, established to our entire satisfaction, on Cuba. I shall speak of them in order. As regards the rights of neutrals, there are, I think, few thinking and reflecting people in this country, certainly no commanders and mates of vessels, who have not a pretty reasonable and just conception of them. The theme has become so familiar to all of us, and has been so often, so ably, and so fully discussed in Congress, and in the leading journals of the day, that any further elab¬ oration of the subject, while destitute of novelty, cannot but prove a severe trial to our patience. The “rights of neutrals” have become household words with the American people, and there is no danger that, at this hour, when every event that transpires has a special reference to them, they are likely to escape our memory. But, Mr. Chairman, we are told by the gentle¬ man from Connecticut, [Mr. Ingersoll,] that we must act , that we must assert our rights in Con¬ gress and elsewhere, that We must let England and the world know where we stand as a nation in regard to them. Allow me to say, sir, that no nation in the world has given better evidence than our own, of its perfect understanding of the rights of neutrals, and that no other nation has im¬ pressed England or France more thoroughly of its knowledge in that respect. Russia and the other northern Powers have on more than one occasion | maintained an armed neutrality, but no other na- I tion has punished the infringement on the rights : of neutrals, by an open declaration of war. Other j nations may have threatened war, in case their rights as neutrals were invaded—we have waged it. As our forefathers have revolted, not so much, perhaps, against actual oppression as against the principles laid down by Great Britain, for the government of her North American Colo¬ nies; because those principles contained the germ of oppression—taxation without representation— so have the United States drawn the sword to sustain the rights of neutrals, the maintenance of which, at that period, was far less a matter of policy than of national honor. We are the only nation recorded in history which, in this respect, has been guided by principle, only, and which has had the courage and the will to act upon it, regardless of all consequences. Neither have we done these things merely in times past, and since relaxed in the practice. Our declarations and our acts are fresh m the memory of our con¬ temporaries as they are in our own. Happily for the United States, we need not, to illustrate our public men, go back to past centuries or fab¬ ulous ages. The heroes of the Revolution, and of the last war with England, have not all passed from the stage, and are at furthest but the fathers and grandfathers of the present generation. Their words and warnings are yet living things in the hearts of their children and grandchildren; while no act has been committed on our part to im¬ pair the force of their example, or the respect m which it is held by other nations. We are not yet the degenerate offsprings of valorous sires; our heroic age is not yet past, and we have not 5 yet dwindled down from great actors on the his¬ torical stage, to great talkers, and writers, and recapitulators of traditionary virtues. We are still what we profess to be, and what we have always been, in a moral point of view, and the world gives us credit for it. We have acted up to our professions, and the world knows it. We have carried out the principles laid down by our fore¬ fathers, and the world has applauded us. We have no occasion to say to England, or France, or any other Power, “ this you must not do ”—“ this we will resent,” &c. England, and France, and other nations have reason to know that we will not sub¬ mit patiently to any national wrong, that we are ever ready to avenge an insult offered to our national flag. The spirit of our people will not brook it, no party in power can suffer a stain on our national honor. Why, then, reaffirm what no¬ body doubts? Why, give color to the suspicion that we have relaxed in the severity of our char¬ acter as Americans, and now require a stimulus to bring us up to the mark of former days? Why iead any to suppose that ice doubt whether Eng¬ land and France believe us still the same we were in 1812? i have no fear, sir, that we have sunk in the estimation of the world, or that any power on earth doubts our determination or ability to main¬ tain our rights. If we went to war for the rights of neutrals, when we w’ere but a nation of twelve millions of people, we will not assuredly shun it, should similar provocations be offered, when our numbers have more than doubled, and our re¬ sources more than quintupled. This sort of cal¬ culation England can make for herself, and her statesmen being of the calculating order, are sure to ponder on it. They have seen nothing in the Mexican war that looks like degeneracy, nothing in the Koszta affair which warrants the suspicion tiiatour Government is not prompt in maintaining its honor and dignity, in whatever quarter of the globe they may be assailed. Have we not, in 1842, single handed, resisted the Quintuple treaty, then about to be concluded and ready for the signature of the representatives of the five great Powers of Europe? Was not the firm attitude of our Minister in Paris, General Cass, alone sufficient to break up that conspiracy against our flag and commerce in the form of an ex parte agieement to the right of search? This happened during: a period of profound peace be¬ tween all European nations, just after a reconcilia¬ tion between England and France on the subject of the Egyptian question and the bombardment of St. Jean d’Acre. The United States acted on this occasion as became her dignity, and the other nations deferred to it. Here was an alliance be¬ tween England, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria—the European pentarchy who have regu¬ lated the affairs of that continent since 1815, to the exclusion of all the minor Powers, who were not even permitted to sign the peace of Paris; and yet the United States, acting on the principle which had guided her conduct from the day of her na¬ tional independence, prevailed against the coali¬ tion. She would not allow Great Britain to con¬ stitute herself high constable of the ocean* She insisted that every nation joining England in this unjust and unheard of enterprise was damaging her own maritime independence, and committing an outrage on the neutral flag of America. And what did France and, subsequently, all the other continental Powers of Europe do ? Did they doubt that the United States was in earnest? Did Eng¬ land suppose that the protest of the American Minister in Paris was a mere matter of form ? Cer¬ tainly not. France and the other continental Powers refused to ratify the Quintuple treaty, and there the matter dropped, to be subsequently made a subject of negotiation between the Government of the United States and that of England. This, as 1 have just remarked, was done in the midst of a profound European peace, and the per¬ fect entente cordiale between England, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, without a threat ! being used on either side, and without a resolution or debate on the subject in Congress. The civil¬ ized world knew where we stood, and there was no necessity of reaffirming our positions by a par¬ liamentary act. England surrendered her preten¬ sions, and our national honor was vindicated without having recourse to congressional elo¬ quence. Let us now look to the present condition of Europe. England and France, to be sure, are &1- ! lies, impelled to alliance by a common interest, and a sense of common danger; but that interest and that alliance not extending beyond the East¬ ern question. They are at war with the gigantic power of Russia; England defending her empire in India, and France her dependencies in Africa, threatened by the march of Russia on Constanti¬ nople. They have succeeded in checking the na¬ val power of Russia, but they have not destroyed { it. They may impede her progress on land, and ; succeed in driving her out of the Principalities; but Russia will still remain a colossal Power which cannot easily be attacked at home, and whose rapid strides in civilization and strength cannot be permanently arrested; and on whichever side vic- j tory may incline, the peace that will follow will be a hollow one. The causes which led to the war, the manner in which it was conducted, and the mode of its conclusion, will long be remem- jj bered, and form a fruitful theme of diplomatic in¬ trigue and national animosity. There need be no fear on our part that the five great Powers of Eu¬ rope will ever again, as a unit array themselves against the commercial prosperity—1 had almost said supremaaj —of the United States. There is i no danger of such another crusade against our in- j terest and honor as that which was so success¬ fully put down by the persevering efforts of \i sin¬ gle man. Nor is it likely that a partial effort will be made by Great Britain and France, or by j; either of these Powers, alone to attempt anything jj similar to it, as long as our Ministers abroad and the Administration at home are doing their duty. Sir, if this war between England, France, and 1 Turkey on the one side, and Russia on the other, ! continues for any length of time, good sense will dictate such a policy on the part of the belligerents toward the United States as is not likely to lead to a serious misunderstanding between us and either one or all of them. In a great struggle like this, all parties to it must exhaust their strength, and all must, in consequence, lose power; though one or the other may, as a reward of its endur¬ ance, and the price of its valor, acquire a few exhausted and depopulated provinces. It is nut a child’s play for the allied Powers to attack I Russia, a country occupying a sixth part of all 6 the land on this globe, and whose area is nearly three times as large as that of all Europe. The Russian possessions in Europe alone occupy one half of that continent; and her army, tried in a contest against the greatest captain of all ages, is vigorous, well appointed, disciplined, and devoted to the will and fortune of a single man—the Em¬ peror. The Russian army is subsisted^half the expense of an English or French army,composed of equal numbers and arms, and it is far more easily recruited than the English. To these advantages Russia yet joins the religious enthusiasm of her ! people, and the singleness of direction, resulting j from her autocratic form of government, which is particularly favorable to military operations. The allied Powers, on the other hand, are possessed of mighty energies. One of them, France, is by bet- great mobility, her facility of organization, and her progress in the exact sciences, at the head of all military nations of the earth; while the other, having dotted the globe with her maritime posses¬ sions, and subjected empires to her commerce, I must still be considered at the head of the naval i ones. Botn have filled the measure of historical renown; both have a glorious and chivalrous past, and its memory preserved in a thousand legends, living in the hearts of the people; each are at the I head of great industrial developments; and both are able to bring the highest degree of civilization to bear on the gigantic struggle to which we, I trust, will remain neutral and passive spectators. Such a war as this is not likely to be of short duration, nor is it probable that the nations placed between the mighty combatants will be able to remain inactive while such scenes as those the news of which are startling even to us, at a dis¬ tance from the theater of war, are passing along Ij their frontiers and shores. I, for one, do not believe that Prussia and Austria will be able to preserve their desired neutrality, even for the purpose of offering their mediation after a great and decisive battle. All Europe is about to be convulsed, and it will be a long time before any European Power will again seriously contemplate to circumscribe our progress and arrest our grow¬ ing power. The war in Europe, commenced for territorial 1 aggrandizement, may, long before its termination, become one of principle. The armies, marshaled in the field to do battle for the politics of Cabinets, may destroy each other, or become reduced and exhausted in the progress of the campaign; and the people, no longer restrained by bayonets, may once more venture to assert the rights of self-gov¬ ernment. Kings, Queens, Sultans, and Emperors may figure during the first act of the great drama about to be performed on the historical stage; but the people may occupy the place near the foot¬ lights in the fifth act, and group the armies and trophies of war in the back ground. While these mutations are possible, perhaps probable, we, the only nation which, by wisdom and prudence, and justice to all, can preserve its neutrality, need not, by congressional resolutions or presidential dec¬ larations, stipulate the conditions on which we consent to remain neutral in this fearful combat. We have no new conditions to offer; no new terms to propose. What we ask is the observance of the law of nations, nothin? more. It would, no jj doubt, be gratifying to some European Powers to !j involve us in their war; but it will be the part of Jj sound statesmanship to keep us out of it. We have no desire to participate in its expenses and vicissitudes, and no business to abandon the ad¬ vantages of neutrals to share the burdens of the belligerents. But suppose we had fixed the conditions on which we are willing to remain neutral during the present war in Europe, and that England and France, and all other European Powers, were ready to submit to them, what would we gain by it^ All conditions between nations are from their very nature reciprocal; and a young people like our¬ selves, increasing daily in wealth and power, need not, at the beginning of a war which threatens to be a long and tedious one, and which may change the map of Europe, and the condition of all the old continent, bind ourselves down to a particu¬ lar line of conduct, not obligatory upon us under the law of nations. The belligerents may change their policy and tactics; nations now acting in concert with others, may form new combinations, and become arrayed against each other on the battle-field; old alliances may be severed, and new ones formed; dynasties may disappear, and be re¬ placed by others; revolutions may change the ex¬ isting forms of government; during all which, we, having ourselves great interests to guard on this, our own American continent, must do nothing, either by treaty stipulations or otherwise, that shall prevent us from remaining masters of our fate. The true, dignified, and prudent course for the United States to pursue, is not to demand of Eng¬ land, (of France we need not demand it, since she has demanded it herself, and is with us on this great question,) in a blustering way, by high- sounding—I had almost said martial resolutions— introduced into this or the other House, that respect be paid to what ire consider national law, but to obtain from other Powers, and especially from England, a recognition of that law as a mat¬ ter of abstract justice, and as a means of protect¬ ing the commerce and shipping of all neutral nations. We alone cannot make national !aw r . We may make demands on other Powers which we deem just, and are ready to enforce by the Army and Navy of the Republic; but we cannot make laws for the guidance of other nations with¬ out the consent of those who are to be governed by them. Hence we must negotiate and obtain the consent of all, or the principal ones among them, to our proposition. Now, I put the question to this House: i3 it proper to begin these negotia¬ tions by an act or a resolution of Congress? Have we any reason to suppose that the matter is neglected or forgotten by the Administration, and that a resolution is necessary, in the nature of a genfle hint, to make the Secretary of State attend to his duty? If so, we have evidence before us that it is merely a work of supererogation. Copies of the correspondence which has passed between this Government and foreign Govern¬ ments, upon the subject of the rights of neutrals, and the rights claimed by belligerents, in the war now pending in Europe, have but recently been submitted by the President to this House. It has been read and printed, and furnishes ample proof that the ship of State, in this respect, is on the right track, and that the Secretary of State under¬ stands his duty, and does it. I will read Governor Marcy's letter, dated April 28, 1854, in reply to a communication addressed to him by the Ministers from England and France on the subject. The Secretary of State says: Department of State, ) Washington, April 28,1853. ] The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has had the honor to receive the note of Mr. Crampton, her Britannic Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, of the 2lst instant, accompanied by the declaration of her Majesty the Queen of the United king¬ dom of Great Britain and Ireland, in regard to the rule which will for the present be observed towards those Pow¬ ers with which she is at peace, in the existing war with Russia. The undersigned has submitted those communications to the President, and received his direction to express to her Majesty’s Government his satisfaction that the principle that free ships make free goods, which the United States have so long and so strenuously con'ended for as a neutral right, and in which some of the leading Powers of Europe have concurred, is to have a qualified sanction bv the prac¬ tical observance of it in the present war by both Great Brit¬ ain and France—two of the most powerful nations of Eu¬ rope. Notwithstanding the sincere gratification which her Ma¬ jesty’s declaration has eiven to the President, it would have been enhanced if the rule alluded to had been an¬ nounced as one which would be observed not only in the present, hut in evpry future war in which Great Britain shall be a party. The unconditional sanction of this rule by the British and French Governments, together with the practical observance of it in the present war, would cause it to be henceforth recosnized throughout the civilized world as a general principle of international law. This Government, from its very commencement, has labored for its recognition as a neutral richt. It has incorporated it in many of its treaties with foreign Powers. France, Russia, Prussia, and other nations, have, in various ways, fully concurred with the United States in regarding it as a sound and salutary principle, in all respects proper to be incorpo¬ rated into the law of nations. * The same consideration which has induced her Britan¬ nic Majesty, in concurrence with the Empeior of the French, to present it as a concession in the present war. the desire “ to preserve the commerce of neutrals from all unnecessary obstruction,” will, it is presumed, have equal weight with the belligerents in any future war, and satisfy them that the claims of the principal maritime Powers, while neutral, to have it recognized as a rule of interna¬ tional law, are well founded, and should be no longer con¬ tested. To settle the principle that free ships make free goods, except articles contraband of war, and to prevent it front being called again in question from any quarter, or under any circumstances, the United States are desirous to unite with other Powers in a declaration that it shall be observed by each, hereafter, as a rule of international law. The exemption of the property of neutrals, not contra¬ band, from seizure and confiscation when ladpn on board an enemy’s vessel, is a right now generally recognized by the law of nations. The President is pleased to perceive, from the declaration of her Britannic Majesty, that the course to be pursued by her cruisers mill not bring it into question in the present war. The undersigned is directed by the President to state to her Majesty’s Minister to this Government that the United States, while claiming the full enjoyment of their rights as a neutral Power, will observe the strictest neutrality towards each and all the belligerents. The laws of this country im¬ pose severe restrictions, not only upon its own citizens, but upon all persons who may be residents within any of the Territories of the United States, against equipping priva teers, receiving commission®, or enlisting men therein, for the purpose of taking a part in any foreign war. It is not j apprehended that there will be any attempt to violate the laws; but should the just expectation of the President be disappointed, he will not fail in his duty to use all the power | with which he is invested to enforce obedience to them. Considerations of interest and the obligations of duty alike give assurance that the citizens of the United States will in no way compmmit the neutrality of their country by par¬ ticipating in the contest in which the principal Powers of Europe are now unhappily engaged. The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to renew, &c. VV. L. MARCY. Now, it appears to me that this letter contains all that can now be prudently said in regard to this subject. England is made to know that we are not satisfied with a “qualified” sanction of what we consider sound international law, by a practical observance of it in the present war; but that we shall do all in our power to procure “ its recognition as a rule of international law” for all subsequent wars. We have already incorporated the principle in some of our commercial treaties with the smaller maritime Powers, and we also know that France and Russia are with us in this great question of “humanity, civilization, and justice.” This is all very satisfactory, while, at the same time, it is gratifying to know that the Secretary of State, in pressing the general recog- ! nition of the rights of neutrals, nowand forever, has not forgotten the obligation of neutrals, and that, in that respect, his letter is far more com¬ plete than the resolutions on the subject introduced ! into Congress. Let us continue, through our ministers and diplomatic agents abroad, and through representa¬ tions made by our Secretary of State to the min¬ isters and representatives of foreign Powers here in Washington, to press this important subject on the consideration of all maritime Powers. They have an equal interest wjth ourselves to stand up for the rights of neutrals; for though they may not have the same extended commerce and navi¬ gation, they are less able than ourselves to protect what share they have of them, and fewer and less efficient means to make reprisals. All this must necessarily be left to negotiation; but it becomes us to take the lead in the matter, and it appears, from the correspondence just alluded to, that we have not been altogether unsuccessful. I will here quote, from that same published correspond¬ ence, an order of council which still further pre¬ scribes the manner in which the conduct of the British cruisers in regard to neutral vessels is to be regulated during the present war. At the Court of Windsor, the 15 th day of April, 1854. Present, the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty jn council. Whereas, her Majesty was graciously pleased, on the ! 28th day of March last, to issue her royal declaration in the ; following terms: “ Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, having been compelled to take up arms in support of an ally, is desirous of rendering the war as little onerous as possible to the Powers with whom she remains at peace. “To preserve the commerce of neutrals from all unne- ! cessary obstruction, her Majesty is willing, for the present, to waive a part of the belligerent rights appertaining to her by the law of nations. “ It is impossible for her Majesty to forego the exercise of her right of seizing articles contraband of war, and of pre¬ venting neutrals from bearing the enemy’s dispatches, and she must maintain the right of a belligerent to prevent neutrals from breaking any effective blockade which may be established with an adequate force against the enemy’s forts, harbors, or coasts. “ But her Majesty will waive the right of seizing ene¬ mies’ property laden on board a neutral vessel, unless it be contraband of war. “ It is not her Majesty’s intention to claim the confisca¬ tion of neutral property, not being contraband of war, found on board enemies’ ships; and her Majesty further declares that, being anxious to lessen as much as possible the evil* l of war, and to restrict its operations to the regularly organ- [ ized forces of the country, it is not her present intention to issue letters of marque for the commissioning of priva¬ teers.” Now, it is this day ordered, by and with the advice of her privy council, that all vessels under a neutral or friendly flag, being neutral or friendly property, shall be permitted to import into any port or place in her Majesty's dominions all goods and merchandise whatsoever , to whomsoever the same may belong; and to export from any port or place to her Majesty's dominions to any port, not blockaded, any cargo or goods not being contraband of war , or not requir ing a special permission, to whomsoever the same may be¬ long. And her Majesty is further pleased, by and with the ad¬ vice of her privy council, to order, and it is hereby further ordered, that, save and except only as aforesaid, all the subjects of her Majesty and the subjects or citizens of any neutral or friendly State shall and may, during and not- withstanding the present hostilities with Russia, freely trade with all ports and places, wheresoever situate, which shall not be in a state of blockade, save and except that no British vessel shall, under any cii cumstances whatsoever, either un¬ der or by virtue of this order or otherwise, be permitted or empowered to enter or communicate with any port or place which shall belong to, or be in the possession or occupation of, her Majesty’s enemies. And the right honorable the lords commissioners of her Majesty’s treasury, the lords commissioners of the admi¬ ralty, the lord warden of the cinque ports, and her Majesty’s principal secretary of State for war and the colonies, are to give the necessary directions herein as to them may re¬ spectively appertain. C. C. GREVILLE. This, I take it, is tolerably satisfactory for the present, and exhibits no failure on our part to excite the British Government to action. Let us continue our watchfulness and our adhesion to a fixed principle. Let us take advantage of every favorable opportunity which presents itself, and of the successive changes that the war itself may produce, to urge our claims, and those of all other maritime Powers; and it will soon be the part of wisdom, as it is eminently that of justice, for England to yield to the enlightened opinion of the world, by recognizing as a permanent, interna¬ tional law, what she declares will be her rule of action during the present European war. But there is yet another species of resolutions, introduced into this and the other House, refer¬ ring not so much to our rights, as to the privileges of neutrals, as they and their followers understand them. They squint toward our throwing off the responsibility of neutrals, without assuming any definite responsibility for such an act. We have resolutions, introduced into the other House, con¬ templating the temporary suspension of our neu¬ trality laws, and others in this House, if not of a similar character, at least contemplating similar results. These resolutions refer to matters and things in the Gulf of Mexico, and particularly to Cuba. I admit, sir, that our relations with Spain, growing out of that island, are of an extremely delicate nature; that the fate of that island, its misgovernment, its proximity to our shores, and the particular institutions established upon it, are of vast importance to the peace and security of this country; and that the utmost vigilance in regard to it is not only demanded by prudence, but an act of imperative duty on the part of our Government. The Island of Cuba commands, in a measure, the Gulf of Mexico. in case of a maritime war, in which the United States may be engaged, its possession by the enemy might become a source of infinite annoyance to us, crippling our shipping, threatening the great emporium of our southern commerce, and expos¬ ing our whole southern coast, from the Capes of Florida to the mouth of the Rio Grande, to the enemy’s cruisers. The geographical position of Cuba is such that we cannot, without a total dis¬ regard of our own safety, permit it to pass into the hands of any first class Power; nay, that it would be extremely imprudent to allow it to pass even into the hands of a Power of the second rank, possessed of energy and capacity for expansion. We know what Holland has done with the island of Java, and we have no idea of allowing any European nation to colonize Cuba after the man¬ ner of the Dutch. We cannot allow any nation but Spain to hold the island; and it is, perhaps, fortunate for our youthful advancement that Spain is a descending Power. Spain is not capable of developing the vast resources of Cuba, nor has she the ability and strength to take advantage, iiu a military point of view, of its geographical posi¬ tion. Spanish power has everywhere been driven, even from this continent, by her own feeble, half- breed colonists. It was bought and sold by the jl French, and expelled, at the point of the bayonet, from its last foot-hold on the territory now occu¬ pied by the United States. It was obliged to seek M refuge in the islands of the West Indies, whither Mexico and the South American States, for the want of competent naval forces, could not pursue it, and where it has vegetated ever since, more in- jl debted for its security to the tolerance of other Powers, than to any inherent strength and cohe¬ sion of her own. Spanish power in the Gulf of Mexico has only had a nominal existence. It cannot grow and ex- pand while the mother country is declining in in¬ fluence and power, and while the United States are constantly increasing in territory and popula¬ tion. Cuba is a mere Spanish farm, badly worked by tenants for its lazy and thriftless proprietors. It must, in due time, come under the hammer, and there is no party which can afford to pay as i high a price for it as ourselves. In case of sale, we shall certainly be the most liberal purchaser, and pay enough for it to discharge all the mort¬ gages and every other species of claim upon the estate. At the same time we cannot allo-w it to pass from its present proprietors into other hands. We certainly cannot allow any one else to bid for it; and, in case of accident or death of the present holder, would feel ourselves called upon to adminis¬ ter upon the estate. But we have no desire to take forcible possession of it, by expelling the present owner, as long as we can live in peace with him; in other words, so long as we can preserve neigh¬ borly relations with him without inconvenience and injury to our property. Let Spain make the most of the island—let her derive as large a revenue from it as she pleases, and let her dispose of that revenue as she pleases, we have no right or dispo¬ sition to meddle with it; but if she choose to lay it waste, because she thinks we desire its acquisi¬ tion, or makes a nuisance of it to spite us, then let us give her warning that we will not submit to so barbarous a course, and that, in case she persists in it, we will forcibly enter upon the farm and abate the nuisance. In doing this in a quiet, orderly, direct way, without noise or bluster, we shall preserve our own self-respect, and be justified in the eyes of the civilized world. Having gone thus far, I would state that the pos¬ session of Cuba is desirable. It would make of the Gulf of Mexico almost a mare clausum, protect the mouths of our western rivers, and add to the security of property of all the gulf States, while it would increase our wealth, our agricultural pro¬ ducts, our shipping and commerce. 1 am further willing to admit that it would add to our political • equilibrium at home; that it would quiet the fears and apprehensions of the minority, and thereby abate the sectional jealousies which threaten to become the bane of our Confederacy. It would 9 l| so increase our internal commerce, and so augment j the intercourse between citizens and business men i of different States, that it would not only stimulate production, but promote good feeling and establish friendly relations between people now animated by sectional animosities. It would give to our coasting trade an impetus which would immensely add to our tonnage, while it would cheapen the production of the great staples necessary to life; thereby adding to the comfort and well-being of our laboring classes, and increasing the rewards of their industry. In a national point of view, the possession of Cuba would easily add to our exports and imports; while, at the same time, it would give assurance to the world that our mis¬ sion is peace and labor, which the people of all nations are invited to share w'ith us, while, at the same time, we are ever ready, under liberal com¬ mercial laws, to exchange our products for those of other countries. You will judge from these remarks, Mr. Chairman, that 1 am a Cuban an¬ nexationist —sub modo. But, sir, it is not only the geographical position and productiveness of the island, but the manner of its acquisition, which will determine its value to us nowand hereafter. If the island is purchased, and comes to us peaceably, it will be a blessing to us, and form in due time one (perhaps more) of j the richest and most prosperous States of the ; j Union. The population of the island will in a few years be doubled, perhaps tripled, and its staples jj quintupled. 'We shall have sugar and tobacco, perhaps coffee, for exports, and all other products | desirable for our own use. Havana will become a great world-emporium of commerce, commer¬ cial towns will spring up all over the island, and our new coasting trade would afford new scope for enterprise and become a new school for the education and discipline of our hardy mariners. If, on the contrary, the island is conquered from Spain in an unjust war, or a war waged on slight and insufficient provocation, then we may expect, from the ferocity which has signalized all Spanish wars—especially when they partook of the nature of revolution—that Spain will seek to destroy the value of the island by a violent change in its social j institutions, which may destroy its productive¬ ness. Spain will act the desperado, and be re¬ venged for her loss. Unable to defend the island against a superior force, she may, resolve as a last resort, to emancipate the African slaves to punish the disloyalty of the Creoles, who would annex the island to the United States, and render the ac¬ quisition to us a source of vexation and trouble. And although England and France might not pub¬ licly approve of such an act, yet it would clearly meet the views of those Governments, which for the last ten years have sought by every possible means to circumscribe our power on this conti¬ nent. Official England and France might even advise such a course, though they might be pru¬ dent enough not to avow it. If the Government of Spain were resolved on so inhuman and suicidal a course, it would, indeed, entail no small calamity on us. If the seven hun¬ dred thousand slaves on the island of Cuba are once emancipated, then, we are warned by recent proceedings, the people of this country will be divided as regards the proper course to be pursued by our Government; and the domestic troubles that may ensue will in no small degree harass j, and perplex our foreign relations, perhaps our plans of operation. Fanaticism, in all ages, has been the bane of humanity; and we need not cherish the delusive hope that the world will ever wholly be governed by reason and justice. If Spain alone, or aided, directly or indirectly, by England or France, should succeed in abolishing slavery in the island of Cuba, and we should ac¬ quire it subsequent to that act, it will require a considerable military force to protect the lives of the white inhabitants, and a large expenditure of blood and treasure to reinstate them in their pos¬ sessions. Then will arise the question whether the reintroduction of slavery into Cuba can be ef¬ fected without giving rise to one of those terrible sectional struggles which experience has taught us to avoid, if it is possible to do so without abandon¬ ing principles essential to the maintenance cf the Constitution and the Union. The experience of the past warrants, indeed, the conclusion that the national men would triumph over all obstacles, and that our mission as a people would be ful¬ filled; but the practical question for a statesman is, whether the same result might not have been obtained in a manner much more direct, and far less expensive, and without renewing the sectional agitation of questions threatening our domestic peace and the prosperity of our institutions. Mr. Chairman, I can imagine the case in which, even with all these fearful contingencies attached to it, I would still advocate the annexation of Cuba; but I would certainly try other means more congenial with the feelings of the American people to attain the same object. 1 would not resort to force till all peaceable means are exhausted, and then I should only have recourse to force after being fully prepared to do so, and without leaving to Spain or any other Power the faintest hope of a protracted struggle. Success should not only be probable, it should be certain; and that not only in the end, but at the very outset. It is not my business here to enter into details to show that, in the present state of our Army and Navy, it would be rash, to use no stronger term, to ex¬ pose our martial reputation to the chances and casualties of a war with a second-rate power; that it would be fatal to the prestige we have acquired during the brief period of our national existence, if obliged to declare war against Spain, for the possession of the Island of Cuba, our military and naval operations against the island were to meet with a check, and our forces were to be re¬ pulsed. With the laurels of the Mexican war yet fresh on our brow, the smallest temporary success of Spain would spread a gloom over the land, from the effects of which no subsequent suc¬ cess, however brilliantand complete, could entirely save us. The very fact, that we might be obliged to employ all our disposable means to coerce Spain into a recognition of an unavoidable conclusion would be fatal to our national dignity, while it would lend a certain dignity, bordering on heroism, to her protracted resistance. What if this giant Confederacy, the ocean-bound Republic of the nineteenth century, were to be for months engaged in subduing the island? What if England or France; or any Power, profiting by this delay, were to offer its mediation; in other words,’pre¬ sume to impertinently interfere in this quarrel? Sir, when we strike a blow for Cuba, it must be but one, and when it is struck, Cuba must be 10 irretrievably ours; it must be an “accomplished fact,” and, as such, invite no interference on the part of other nations. This cannot be done by noisy and wordy diplomacy, or by resolutions in Congress which give the world warning of our intentions, our hopes, and prospects, and the pith and substance of our foreign policy. Nor can it be accomplished by long and formidable discussions in this or the other House, by an attitude of defiance assumed by members or Sen¬ ators, or by a display of patriotic eloquence whose thunder it is perhaps calculated shall shake the foundation of Moro Castle. These speeches may do a great deal of harm; but they can do no good. They do harm by revealing our position to those who are opposed to us, and by exciting our own people to acts of lawless violence, de¬ structive to themselves, and disreputable to us as a nation. Sir, the power to make war is one of the highest attributes of sovereignty, which can¬ not be usurped by any body of men within the State; it belongs to the collective power of the Government, and a usurpation of it, even by a sovereign State of this Union, would be a revolu¬ tion and an act of treason to the Confederacy. Prom these remarks you may infer, sir, that, though a “ Cuban annexationist” sub modo, I am opposed to fillibusterism in toto. England pursued a different course in India, which she conquered, not by resolutions in Par¬ liament, but by hard fighting, silent diplomacy, skillful management, and, alas ! but too often by bribery and treachery. But not a single province was added to the British Empire in Asia by par¬ liamentary heroism; though there were, at all times, naval and military officers enough in the British Parliament to have furnished an apology for such an act. For upwards of sixty years England meditated an attack on China, but pa¬ tiently waited for a fit occasion to do so. One administration bequeathed its resolve to another, until an opportunity presented itself to strike the first blow with effect. This done, she did not immediately turn her fleet and her army toward Japan, and compel that country to open her ports at once to British commerce. She left that wisely to the United States, and, in the mean time forti¬ fied and established herself at Hong Kong. She courted no diplomatic failure, and waited for the return of appetite before setting out for a fresh conquest. The President of the United States, by the Con¬ stitution, has the initiative in all matters belong¬ ing to our foreign relations, and it is necessary that it should be so. It is he who selects his Cab¬ inet ministers, and who appoints our diplomatic agents abroad. Foreign ministers and diplomatic agents confer with him and the Secretary of State on all matters concerning their respective Govern¬ ments, and there is no other way of making prop¬ ositions to foreign Governments, or of receiving propositions from them except through the me¬ dium of the President of the United States and the agents and ministers of his choice. Resolutions may be introduced into Congress for the purpose of attacking or defendingthe Ad¬ ministration, or with a view to stimulate public opinion, by a sort of rhetorical fillibusterism, as 1 have already remarked; but it cannot coerce the Administration into the adoption of a course which it deems unwise or inexpedient at a par¬ I I I ticular time. As a general rule, these resolu¬ tions can only embarrass negotiations, and ren¬ der the position of our diplomatic agents abroad more difficult than before. They seldom leave sufficient margin for their discretion, and render diplomacy either entirely impossible or superflu¬ ous; while, at the same time, they accomplish nothing. Supposing the President and his Cabi¬ net, from all the information at their command, judge that the time for action has not yet arrived, what, then, can possibly be the effect of a reso¬ lution introduced into this House, urging him to act, except to establish an antagonism between the Administration and Congress, that exposes our weakness to foreign powers, arid our wantof harmony to the opposition at home? But sup¬ pose the resolutions conform to the views and ob¬ jects of the Administration, what good can they do it? In what respect will they render its acts more prompt, steady, and effective? Sir, these resolutions are not intended to affect parties abroad; they are intended to influence parties at home, and must necessarily fail of every other object. If some distinguished statesman, known and respect¬ ed at home and abroad—a man of wide-spread reputation for ability and experience—were to in¬ troduce them, they might have some weight with European statesmen, carrying with them the as¬ sent and approbation of the American people; but if it were to appear, or be suspected, that these resolutions were introduced merely to afford mem¬ bers an opportunity of talking about our foreign affairs to Buncombe, then it is clear that no at¬ tention would be paid to them abroad, and that they could only lessen the dignity and importance which would otherwise attach to propositions made to foreign Powers, in the regular diplomatic way, by the responsible agents of the Govern¬ ment. Congress cannot compel the Executive to make war, if the latter is un willingto do it; nor can it compel him to make peace, except by refusing the supplies for the Army and Navy. When Congress shall judge that the President has done wrong, or that he neglects his duty to the coun¬ try, then the Constitution prescribes the mode of impeaching him. I know no other official act by which Congress may interfere with the foreign policy of the Administration. This House is not even invested with the ratifying power, bestowed, from wise considerations, on the Senate; it merely cooperates with the other branches of the Gov¬ ernment in the execution of treaties which it hag no power to originate. It is necessary for th® preservation of our institutions that the powers vested in the different branches of our Govern¬ ment should be kept separate and distinct, and that neither branch should assume the duties and responsibilities of the other. That is the only way which they are sure to move in harmony with each other, and yet preserve that mutual in¬ dependence of each other which is of the essence of republican government, and insures the greatest amount of efficiency. But it is said, Mr. Chairman, that we are im¬ pelled to these things by “ manifest destiny,” and I more than half believe it. I believe there are men who, watching the current of popular opinion, are willing to be borne along by its waves, and called “ leaders while there are others who have not the courage to resist it, even if the current were to carry them ovei a precipice. 11 These men, whoever they may be, and whatever station they may occupy, can lay no claims to statesmanship; they are mere jobbers and jour¬ neymen politicians. Men of great mind and character impress their thoughts on the age in which they live; but our political jobbers bear the imprint of the popular passion of the hour, and follow the age in whatever folly may be upper¬ most at the time. Sir, destiny is nothing but the final result of all the tendencies of our moral and physical system; it is the effect of the laws of na¬ ture, whose operations, whenever they are most beneficent, are silent and secret, not boisterous and noisy, by fits and starts. Sir, we have, no doubt, a proud mission to ful¬ fill; but it does not merely consist in the acquisi¬ tion of territory, and in the extension of power. Our calling is a far nobler one. We must cultivate, fertilize, regenerate the regions which become subject to our rule. It is not merely power, but our institutions and laws, and our higher civiliza¬ tion which we are bound, in the course of time, to carry to the most remote part of this continent and to its neighboring islands. Unless we can regenerate and Americanize what we acquire or annex, we shall not improve on former conquer¬ ors, but only add another page to the long cata¬ logue of national crime in the world’s history. Now, it appears to me that our Federal institutions are admirably calculated to promote the gradual process of assimilation, and to render that homo¬ geneous for all practical purposes of government, which, from its foreign origin and other local onuses, would forever remain separateand distinct, and, on that account incapable of producing great results. Our true expansive power consists in this power of assimilation. We do not conquer and coerce; we attract, assimilate, reorganize. The former is never accomplished without con¬ suming power, and thereby producing w aste; the latter is a natural process, combining elements for a new and higher purpose, and adding to the strength of all by giving them unity of direction. There are three great nations in the history of the world who, thus far, have had the greatest in¬ fluence on the destiny of mankind. They are the Homans, the English, and the Americans. The genius of Greece was only permitted to theorize and speculate; the Romans, who came afterthem, were the first to cultivate practical statesmanship, and establish real power. But the expansion of Rome was based on her military prowess, and acknowledged no reciprocal duties of humanity between the conquerors and theconquered. The defenselessness of the vanquished and the virtus militaris of the Roman citizen constituted all her claims to dominion and government. Rome ruled the world, but her sway extended no further than the march of her eagled legions. Rome plundered the world, and devastated empires to enrich her people, yet, after all, enriched but a few families. Rome ruled by the sword alone; the greatest Ro¬ man public writer, Cicero, acknowledged no bind¬ ing obligations between nations in the form of public law. With such a people at the head of the progressive movement, the world could only be d ivided between masters and slaves. England added a vast industrial influence to her march of martial power. She conquered and colo¬ nized both, and planted, wherever a homogeneous population admitted of it, the seed of self-govern¬ ment through representative forms. Rome had the power to constrain; England added to it the faculty to reconstruct. In this consists, indeed, as Edmund Burke justly remarked, the “ undying glory of England. ” W heresoever a people speak¬ ing the English tongue have gone to settle, con¬ stitutional forms of government have sprung up, which, in due course of time, must ripen into re¬ publicanism. Our own developments, our own Republic, is the proud paragon of all of them, and our destiny may yet be to unite them all, or most of them, into one common brotherhood of nations. England may have established these colonies for a selfish purpose; but the genius of the colonists has turned their creation to a good account. They now accomplish a mission of their own, and have an ever-eloquent example set to their virtue, in the glorious achievement of our own national inde¬ pendence. If it has not been followed ere this, it is because England relaxed in her pretensions. It is not that these colonies have not yet made sufficient prog¬ ress, but that the British Government has re¬ ceded from its absolute supremacy over their domestic and foreign affairs. It has allowed them, as far as it can be done without detriment to Eng¬ land, to manage their own business; but it can¬ not, in any event, allow the colonists to participate in the direction of public affairs of the mother country, and, without this boon, all the colonies of England, great and small, are naught but sat- ! ellites, controlled in their motion by the prepon¬ derating influence of the ruling planet. They may regulate matters which immediately concern themselves, but they have no influence, and no voice in the British Parliament, which governs England, with whose destiny their own is still linked as with a chain of iron. The British colonists being not represented in the British Parliament, have no voice for peace or war, and no share in any measure which involves the honor and welfare of the mother country, and through it, their own. An Irishman, holding a seat in the British Parliament may, on the other hand, have a voice in the management of the af¬ fairs of the world; but he is powerless in his own country , and cannot procure for it even that species of self-gbvernment, which is enjoyed by the peo¬ ple of Canada or Nova Scotia, simply because they are further removed from England. The various degrees of political power, conceded by the English crown to its subjects in Europe, Amer¬ ica, Asia, Africa, and New Holland, aims at noth- ing'but the wealth, power, and grandeur of Great Britain, so far as is compatible with the manage¬ ment of the colonies; and though the policy is wiser, and in many respects more humane,conse¬ quently more enduring, than that pursued by Rome toward the people subject to her military sway, yet it leads to the same result and struggles for the same object—the increased wealth and power of a single nation at the expense of all the rest, and the endowment of a few ancestral families at home, with fortunes and honors bought with the > misery and domestic slavery of the musses. The third power which appeared on this globe, marking a distinct progress and filling the minds ! of men, from its infancy, with anxious hopes and expectations, is the United States or America. Born at an advanced stage in the his¬ tory of the world, and conceived of strong and healthy parents, our confederacy of States gave, even at its birth, assurance of its future greatness. Like Hercules, we killed two serpents in our cradle, placed there by the ignorance of the world, not by the malice of a jealous goddess. We destroyed the worldly power of the established church by banishing it from the political arena, and reaied in its place the temple of religious tolerance; and we expelled royalty as a useless and expensive political institution. But in assuming the supreme direction of our own affairs, we committed no in¬ justice to others. We did not infringe on the rights of the church or the clergy, in religious matters; and in suppressing royalty, applied merely to our own use, what was already our own. With the Declaration of Independence of the United States, a new great historical era was ush¬ ered into the world, not only for individual free¬ dom, but of liberal political association , insuring and guarantying that freedom. It is the peculiar mode of associating men for the exercise of power which constitutes American freedom and signalizes its superiority over all other Governments; and the distribution of power, under this new association, formed by our ancestors on the rubbish of the old association of church and State, marks as dis¬ tinct a progress in the art of government as the Revolution itself manifested in men’s ideas. True to the doctrine of the Revolution, that all Govern¬ ments derive their just power from the consent of the governed, the framers of our Constitution had a care to interest all equally in its maintenance, and to let all share proportionally in its power. Not only were the different Colonies who had achieved their independence, united into a repre¬ sentative Confederacy, but individually elevated into sovereign and independent States; delegating to the Federal Government no other powers than those named in the Constitution. While all share in the power of the Federal Government through their representatives in Congress, each has su¬ preme control over the administration of its own affairs, and enjoys, within its own limits, the privileges and immunities of sovereignty. Herein consists the immeasurable superiority of our Con¬ federacy of States, over any system of govern¬ ment as yet recorded in history, and its adaptation to indefinite expansion without loss of power. We have, in less than a century, tripled the num¬ ber of States composing our Federal Union, with¬ out suffering the least perturbation in our political system; and our population has increased from three to twenty-five millions, without complicat¬ ing the system, or meeting with the least difficulty in the application of the principles which were laid down by our forefathers with so much vigor and simplicity. Nor is this all. We have, during that brief period, received among us so large a portion of foreign immigrants that their number exceeds alone our whole population during the revolu¬ tionary war, and would in itself suffice to add a dozen States to our Confederacy. The monthly arrivals of immigrants from foreign countries average now fifty thousand for the single port of New York, and not less than a million in all the ports of the United States, per annum. All these men, and women, and children, or most of them, come here with the crudest political and social notions, with habits and customs not un- I I frequently repugnant to our own, and speaking languages which, until they become familiar with our idiom, prevent them from communicating freely with our people. Yet in a few years we absorb this whole vast accretion to our strength. The immigrants have become assimilated with us in laborand enterprise, in customs and manners, in thoughtand language, and in political ideas. W hat other people than our ov\ n, what other Govern¬ ment than ours, could thus invite all the political, social, and religious heretics of the world to come and sojourn among them, without fear of being ultimately contaminated and overwhelmed? This power of absorbing and assimilating foreign ele¬ ments is the strongest proof of our historical mission; or, if gentlemen would rather have it, our “manifest destiny;” for it affords the strongest evidence of the superior energy of our people, and the practical advantages of our polit¬ ical institutions. We absorb to elevate; we rule by bestowing on the governed a share of political power. Sir, we are destined to expand by assim¬ ilation, and by elevating those who have been misgoverned and oppressed to the rank of free¬ men; and if we have the power to do that with millions of Europeans who flock to our shores; if our example is constantly working revolutions and changes in the political and social condition of the Old World, why should we not possess the same faculty here, when less powerful States, and more misgoverned people are eager to share the blessings of our institutions and laws? Rome, and the people of Romanic origin, French, Span¬ iards, Portuguese, have never colonized; they merely planted or transplanted power; the people of England cultivated and improved, but held, and still hold, their colonies in subjection; the Ameri¬ cans alone, for the first time in the history of the world, elevate and regenerate those over whom they extend their sway. We conquer that we may raise the conquered to an equality with our¬ selves; we annex to assimilate others with us in a higher scale of humanity. These faculties and purposes of ours constitute our patent right to extend our power and influence over the constituent; it is our mission to instill new life into the feeble and misgoverned people grown on the dcbris of Spanish power in America, and of the colonies still subjected to the withering influence of her rule; but we must not expect to fulfill it in an age, or in a century. We must not be tempted to absorb faster than we can assim¬ ilate; and avoid convulsions, when the same object may be attained by the attractive force of our in¬ stitutions, and the decomposing process now going on among our neighbors. Time, which is against them, operates in our favor; ami there is no stride that any European Power can take, and no com¬ bination that any of those Powers can form, capa¬ ble of thwarting our destiny. This country is destined to support a larger population than all Europe—a population of happy, thinking, self-re¬ lying men; not a mixture of beggars and princes. And it will, despite the heterogeneous elements which contribute to it, be a population full of na¬ tional, American sentiments, energetic, free, mar¬ tial; whose friendship and good will will be an object of solicitude with the different nations of Europe. The present war in Europe will excite a bitterness of feeling, and beget new national jealousies, which will continue long after the con- 13 elusion of peace, and be an effectual bar to all joint operations against our growing power. England, France, and Spain may yet sojourn in different parts of America. We are at home in it, and shall arrange our household as we please. But while I have full faith in the mission of our | country; while I have no apprehension of any! successful interference of any European Power, or any combination of them, in the affairs of this continent; while 1 believe, if I may indulge in the expression, in the invincibility of the United States, 1 yet wish that, in our conduct as a great nation, we avoid everything like provocation to the weaker Powers. Let our mission be accom¬ plished by as few collisions with our neighbors as possible. Let the world be convinced of our mis¬ sion as we are, and let the world see that that mission is compatible with public justice. There is nothing so disastrous to the rising for¬ tune of an industrious man as the anticipation of his income. It begets looseness of expenditure, and a reckless speculation to meet it, which inter¬ feres with the profits of his regular business, and frequently involves him in embarrassment and ruin. The same may be said of nations, espe¬ cially of industrious nations like our own. Sir, our people are preeminently a business people. We live, it would appear, to work, to amass wealth, and to prepare a better state for our chil¬ dren than we enjoy ourselves. This we call prog¬ ress, and it deserves the name. We are the first agricultural and planting people on the globe; we are the rivals of England in commerce and navi¬ gation; and we are rapidly becoming a great man¬ ufacturing people. The acquisition of territory is valuable to us only as far as it affords us addi¬ tional scope for enterprise and labor. If we over¬ produce, over-trade, over-speculate, the undue expansion is rapidly followed by a contraction destructive to public and private interests. A gradual expansion and expenditure, predicated on actual income, would be preferable to these oscil¬ lations in our march of progress. The extension of our territory, while easily accomplished underour political and social system, may yet be connected with serious derangements in our financial, commercial, and industrial relations, especially if the extension, to be rendered prac¬ ticable, requires the application of force. It then behooves us to calculate the cost of the acquisi¬ tion, and its prospective value, compared with the i immediate sacrifice which it would require at our hands. We may, in the language of Franklin, “ pay too dear for the whistle,” and we may not get the whistle at all, when, by waiting a little while, we might get it cheap or for nothing. Let us not be too impatient to realize the future, or j too prodigal of the means of shaping it to our ends. We have a great example before us, which is not without its lesson to the United States. There is the colossal power of Russia, growing and ex¬ panding like ourselves, increasing in population and wealth, and advancing in civilization and com¬ merce. She has expanded westward and south¬ ward as we have, and she has, in this respect, fulfilled a grand mission. Her march could not well be arrested till she had reached Constantino¬ ple, and established her power in the Mediterra- 1 nean. All this was foreseen by the rest of the world, yet no one interposed. Russia, in 1829, advanced within fifty miles of Constantinople without meeting with a solemn protest from either England or France; but wisely contented herself with the peace of Adrianople. She saw that Con¬ stantinople was gravitating toward her, and that the time must come when she would have it almost without a blow. But at last Russia became impatient to administer, in the language of her Emperor, on “ the estate of a dying man,” and what is the consequence ? A war, the end of which no one can foretell, and which, during its eventful progress, may destroy her commerce, her indus¬ try, and the financial resources of the empire, with¬ out bringing her any nearer to the coveted pos¬ session of Constantinople than she was before. She may recuperate, renew the combat, and suc¬ ceed; but, in the mean time, she will have retro¬ graded in wealth and commerce, in the arts of peace, in short, in everything that could have made her acquisition a blessing to herself and the civilized world. 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