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fruitful of consequences, perhaps without a parallel in history. The renewal of war was inevitable, and Napoleon saw that before he could take possession of Louisiana it would be wrested from him by England, who commanded the seas, and he determined at once not merely to deprive her of this magnificent conquest, but to contribute, as far as in him lay, to build up a great rival maritime power in the West. The Government of the United States, not less sagacious, seized the golden moment-a moment such as does not happen twice in a thousand years. Mr. Jefferson perceived that, unless acquired by the United States, Louisiana would in a short time belong to France or England, and with equal wisdom and courage he determined that it should belong to neither, contemplating, however, at that time, only the acquisition of New Orleans and the adjacent territory.

But he was dealing with a man that did nothing by halves. Napoleon knew-and we knew-that to give up the mouth of the river was to give up its course. To the aston

ishment of the American envoys, they were told that he was prepared to treat with them not merely for the isle of New Orleans, but for the whole vast province which bore the name of Louisiana; whose boundaries, then unsettled, have since been carried on the North to the British line, on the West to the Pacific Ocean; a territory half as big as Europe, transferred by a stroke of the pen. Fifty-eight years have elapsed since the acquisition was made. The States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, and Kansas, the territories of Nebraska, Dacotah, Jefferson, and part of Colorado, have been established within its limits, on this side of the Rocky Mountains; the State of Oregon and the Territory of Washington on their western slope; while a tide of population is steadily pouring into the region, destined, in addition to the natural increase, before the close of the century, to double the number of the States and Territories. For the entire region west of the Alleghanies and east of the Rocky Mountains, the Missouri and the Mississippi form the natural outlet to the sea. Without counting the population of the seceding States, there are ten millions of the free citizens of the country, between Pittsburg and Fort Union, who claim the course and the mouth of the Mississippi as belonging to the United States. It is theirs by a transfer of truly imperial origin and magnitude; theirs by a sixty years' undisputed title; theirs by occupation and settlement; theirs by the law of nature and of God. Louisiana, a fragment of

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this colonial empire, detached from its main portion and first organized as a State, undertakes to secede from the Union, and thinks that by so doing she will be allowed by the government and people of the United States to revoke this imperial transfer, to disregard this possession and occupation of sixty years, to repeal this law of nature and of God; and she fondly believes that ten millions of the free people of the Union will allow her and her seceding brethren to open and shut the portals of this mighty region at her pleasure. They may do so, and the swarming millions which throng the course of these noble streams and their tributaries may consent to exchange the charter which they hold from the God of Heaven for a bit of parchment signed at Montgomery or Richmond; but if I may repeat the words which I have lately used on another occasion, it will be when the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, which form the eastern and western walls of the imperial valley, shall sink to the level of the sea, and the Mississippi and the Missouri shall flow back

to their fountains.

Ex. CLXXXVI.—SWORD AND PLOUGH.

CHARLES DAWSON SHANLEY.

THE Sword came down to the red-brown field,

When the Plough to the furrow heaved and keeled;
And it looked so proud in its jingling gear,-

Said the Plough to the Sword, "What brings you here?"

Said the Sword, "Long ago, ere I was born,

They doubled my grandsire up, one morn,

To forge a share for you; and now

They want him back," said the Sword to the Plough.

The red-brown field glowed a deeper red,
As the gleam of war o'er the landscape sped;
The sabres flashed, the cannon roared,

And side by side fought the Plough and the Sword.

!

Ex. CLXXXVII.—THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, IF RECOGNIZED, BECOMES A FOREIGN POWER.

EDWARD EVERETT.

CONSIDER the monstrous nature and reach of the pretensions in which we are expected to acquiesce; which are nothing less than that the United States should allow a foreign power, by surprise, treachery and violence, to possess itself of one half of their territory and all the public property and public establishments contained in it; for if the Southern Confederacy is recognized it becomes a foreign power, established along a curiously dove-tailed frontier of 1,500 miles, commanding some of the most important commercial and military positions and lines of communication for travel and trade; half the sea-coast of the Union; the navigation of the Gulf of Mexico, and, above all, the great arterial inlet into the heart of the continent, through which its very lifeblood pours its imperial tides.

I say we are coolly summoned to surrender all this to a foreign power. Would we surrender it to England, to France, to Spain? Not an inch of it; why, then, to the Southern Confederacy? Would any other government on earth, unless compelled by the direst necessity, make such a surrender? Does not France keep an army of 100,000 men in Algeria to prevent a few wandering tribes of Arabs, a recent conquest, from asserting their independence? Did not England strain her resources to the utmost tension to prevent the native kingdoms of Central India, (civilized states two thousand years ago, while painted chieftains ruled the savage clans of ancient Britain,) from re-establishing their sovereignty? and shall we be expected, without a struggle, to abandon a great integral part of the United States to a foreign power?

Let it be remembered, too, that in granting to the seceding States, jointly and severally, the right to leave the Union, we concede to them the right of resuming, if they please, their former allegiance to England, France and Spain. It rests with them, with any one of them, if the right of se cession is admitted, again to plant a European government side by side with that of the United States on the soil of America; and it is by no means the most improbable upshot of this ill-starred rebellion, if allowed to prosper. Whether they desire it or not, the moment the seceders lose the pro

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283

tection of the United States they hold their independence at the mercy of the powerful governments of Europe. If the navy of the North should withdraw its protection, there is not a Southern State on the Atlantio or the Gulf, which might not be recolonized by Europe in six months after the outbreak of a foreign war.

Such, fellow-citizens, as I contemplate them, are the great issues before the country; nothing less, in a word, than whether the work of our noble fathers of the Revolutionary and Constitutional age shall perish or endure; whether this great experiment in national polity, which binds a family of free Republics in one united government-the most hopeful plan for combining the homebred blessings of a small state with the stability and power of a great empire-shall be treacherously and shamefully stricken down in the moment of its most successful operation, or whether it shall be brave

ly, patriotically, triumphantly maintained. We wage no

war of conquest and subjugation; we aim at nothing but to protect our loyal fellow-citizens, who, against fearful odds, are fighting the battles of the Union in the disaffected States, and to re-establish, not for ourselves alone, but for our deluded fellow countrymen, the mild sway of the Constitution and the laws. The result can not be doubted. Twenty millions of freemen, forgetting their divisions, are rallying as one man in support of the righteous cause-their willing hearts and their strong hands-their fortunes and their lives, are laid upon the altar of the country. We contend for the great inheritance of constitutional freedom transmitted from our Revolutionary fathers. We engage in the struggle forced upon us with sorrow, as against our misguided brethren, but with high heart and faith, as we war for that Union which our Washington commended to our dearest affections. The sympathy of the civilized world is on our side, and will join us in prayers to Heaven for the success of our arms.

Ex. CLXXXVIII.—THE WHOLE STORY TOLD IN RHYME.

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You're kicking up a pretty fuss,
Pray tell me what it's for, sir;
Let me advise-just compromise!
A horrid thing is war, sir.

"I shall want cotton, Jonathan,
Likewise Virginia's weed, sir;
And really, now, I can't allow
This quarrel to proceed, sir."
"Do tell!" said Brother Jonathan;
"Now don't you get excited;
At home I rule-so just keep cool;
You'll see this thing all righted.

"My Southern boys for years have held,
The Presidential rein, sir;
Until to-day, they've held a sway

They never can regain, sir.

And when they can not rule, they kick, And hate with all their might, sir;

For love of Union's second to

Their fondness for State rights, sir.

"We only ask them to obey

The same laws that we do, sir,

Their fathers helped our own to make-
They were good men and true, sir.
We ask no more, we'll take no less,
Though every single drop, sir,
Of Northern blood the land shall flood;
Till then it can not stop, sir.

"I want but justice, bully John,
Respect, and all my due, sir;
And when I have them, Johnny Bull,
You shall have cotton too, sir.
But not till then-that's certain sure;
So take the matter easy;

And when the war is over, John,

I'll do my best to please ye."

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