Such Was My Idea As Expressed Then,
And I Do Not Know That I Have Since Had Much Cause To Change It.
"We will never give it up," one gentleman said to me - and, indeed,
many have said the same - "till the whole territory is again united
from the Bay to the Gulf.
It is impossible that we should allow of
two nationalities within those limits." "And do you think it
possible," I asked, "that you should receive back into your bosom
this people which you now hate with so deep a hatred, and receive
them again into your arms as brothers on equal terms? Is it in
accordance with experience that a conquered people should be so
treated, and that, too, a people whose every habit of life is at
variance with the habits of their presumed conquerors? When you
have flogged them into a return of fraternal affection, are they to
keep their slaves or are they to abolish them?" "No," said my
friend, "it may not be practicable to put those rebellious States
at once on an equality with ourselves. For a time they will
probably be treated as the Territories are now treated." (The
Territories are vast outlying districts belonging to the Union, but
not as yet endowed with State governments or a participation in the
United States Congress.) "For a time they must, perhaps, lose
their full privileges; but the Union will be anxious to readmit
them at the earliest possible period." "And as to the slaves?" I
asked again. "Let them emigrate to Liberia - back to their own
country." I could not say that I thought much of the solution of
the difficulty. It would, I suggested, overtask even the energy of
America to send out an emigration of four million souls, to provide
for their wants in a new and uncultivated country, and to provide,
after that, for the terrible gap made in the labor market of the
Southern States. "The Israelites went back from bondage," said my
friend. But a way was opened for them by a miracle across the sea,
and food was sent to them from heaven, and they had among them a
Moses for a leader, and a Joshua to fight their battles. I could
not but express my fear that the days of such immigrations were
over. This plan of sending back the negroes to Africa did not
reach me only from one or from two mouths, and it was suggested by
men whose opinions respecting their country have weight at home and
are entitled to weight abroad. I mention this merely to show how
insurmountable would be the difficulty of preventing secession, let
which side win that may.
"We will never abandon the right to the mouth of the Mississippi."
That, in all such arguments, is a strong point with men of the
Northern States - perhaps the point to which they all return with
the greatest firmness. It is that on which Mr. Everett insists in
the last paragraph of the oration which he made in New York on the
4th of July, 1861. "The Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers," he
says, "with their hundred tributaries, give to the great central
basin of our continent its character and destiny. The outlet of
this system lies between the States of Tennessee and Missouri, of
Mississippi and Arkansas, and through the State of Louisiana. The
ancient province so called, the proudest monument of the mighty
monarch whose name it bears, passed from the jurisdiction of France
to that of Spain in 1763. Spain coveted it - not that she might
fill it with prosperous colonies and rising States, but that it
might stretch as a broad waste barrier, infested with warlike
tribes, between the Anglo-American power and the silver mines of
Mexico. With the independence of the United States the fear of a
still more dangerous neighbor grew upon Spain; and, in the insane
expectation of checking the progress of the Union westward, she
threatened, and at times attempted, to close the mouth of the
Mississippi on the rapidly-increasing trade of the West. The bare
suggestion of such a policy roused the population upon the banks of
the Ohio, then inconsiderable, as one man. Their confidence in
Washington scarcely restrained them from rushing to the seizure of
New Orleans, when the treaty of San Lorenzo El Real, in 1795,
stipulated for them a precarious right of navigating the noble
river to the sea, with a right of deposit at New Orleans. This
subject was for years the turning-point of the politics of the
West; and it was perfectly well understood that, sooner or later,
she would be content with nothing less than the sovereign control
of the mighty stream from its head-spring to its outlet in the
Gulf. AND THAT IS AS TRUE NOW AS IT WAS THEN."
This is well put. It describes with force the desires, ambition,
and necessities of a great nation, and it tells with historical
truth the story of the success of that nation. It was a great
thing done when the purchase of the whole of Louisiana was
completed by the United States - that cession by France, however,
having been made at the instance of Napoleon, and not in
consequence of any demand made by the States. The district then
called Louisiana included the present State of that name and the
States of Missouri and Arkansas - included also the right to
possess, if not the absolute possession of all that enormous
expanse of country running from thence back to the Pacific: a huge
amount of territory, of which the most fertile portion is watered
by the Mississippi and its vast tributaries. That river and those
tributaries are navigable through the whole center of the American
continent up to Wisconsin and Minnesota. To the United States the
navigation of the Mississippi was, we may say, indispensable; and
to the States, when no longer united, the navigation will be
equally indispensable. But the days are gone when any country such
as Spain was can interfere to stop the highways of the world with
the all but avowed intention of arresting the progress of
civilization.
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