32D CONG.....2D SESS. spair of the future. Let no one fear that his country will not, sooner or later, come up to her proper work, without presumption, but without hesitation. Our progress is from day to day, but the steps which mark our career before the world are the decennial periods, when the "numbering of the people" discloses results surprising even to ourselves, and almost incredible to the other nations of Christendom. Eight of these I have lived to see, and the gigantic strides they mark indicate a future which is almost appalling to the imagination. If this magnificent destiny, even now so gratifying to national pride, but in prospect so boundless in its power for evil or for good, brings with it causes of gratulation for every true American, it brings also grave responsibilities, which cannot be evaded, and ought not to be neglected. It is thus we have a mission to fulfill, in the example we may offer, and in all just efforts to promote the extension of freedom, the advancement of knowledge, and the establishment of all the great principles on which public and private prosperity depends. In looking back upon our progress from infancy to maturity, it is obvious that we have submitted to much that was unjust and contumelious, because we had not strength to resist, as we should now do, pretensions not less remarkable for their injustice than for the presumption and pertinacity with which they were urged. We had true patriots in those days of weakness to guide and counsel us, and well did they fulfill their trust. But we had to bear much, because we could forbear when we could not avert or avenge. Colonization in North America-Mr. Butler. a declaration denying to the Emperor of Russia, the authority he had assumed, to act the part of universal legislator, and to impress his own will upon the code of the public law of mankind, prostrating with his pen, preparatory to prostrating with his sword, all the barriers that protect the political rights of nations. Well, we shrunk also from this high duty. We got alarmed at the shadow of something I do not know precisely what, whether Russian ukases, or "entangling alliances"-and left the Czar to pass his own law, and to enforce it too. And hereafter, when the occasion comes,and it will come, for power, like the daughters of the horse-leech, always cries Give! Give!-he will be able to quote his own precedent, submitted to in both hemispheres, and seek to regulate the whole subject of international communication, and of national rights by a ukase, as he regulates the lives and fortunes of the sixty millions of people who call him lord and master. In brief time we shall abjure all this, as well our own subservience, as his presumption, and assume our place in the great legislative council of nations. We have evidently reached one of those epochs in the career of nations to which the historian of their decline and fall looks back, in his searching investigation, into the causes of their fate. Our duties are plain, noble indeed, and our position invites us to fulfill them, firmly and fearlessly. The progress and improvement in all the great branches of human industry, and especially in those which relate to the intercommunication of nations, and to the benefit that each may derive from all by the interchange, as well of knowledge as of material products, have brought the human family more closely into contact than at any former period, and have opened interests which, if not new, have become much more powerful in their extent and operation, and which give some degree of unity to the public feeling of the world. We cannot withdraw from this great association. We cannot isolate ourselves from the common sentiment of the age, nor ought we to do so, if we could. Our place is assigned to us by events almost beyond our control, and as we fill it, worthily or unworthily, the judgment of the future will pronounce us the inheritors of the spirit, as we have been of the labors and sacrifices, of the men of the Revolution, or craven descendants, false to their principles, as to our own honor. I am well aware, Mr. President, that such views expose a man to a great deal of obloquy in this country. I have experienced all that, in common with many others. But neither the advent, nor the apprehension of it, has deterred me at much earlier periods of life, and certainly will not deter me now, when that life is fast drawing to a close, from the expression of an earnest hope that the American name and fame will be maintained by the American people with the brightness of true glory, undiminished by the neglect of a single deed, or the commission of a single deed, which national honor may require we should do, or leave undone. But old things have passed away, and with the power has come the determination of the American people to protect their interests and their honor wherever and whenever and however these may be assailed. Why, sir, it is difficult even for this generation to believe, and to the next it would appear perfectly incredible, unless established by the irrefragable evidence of public records, that for twenty years we seriously argued with England, in labored diplomatic notes, whether her naval officers had a right to enter and search our vessels, wherever these might be met on the ocean, and to take thence, at their mere will, any person they might find, and consign him to that worst of slavery, the slavery of unlimited service on board a hostile ship to fight against his own country. Well, sir, we have exhausted that argument, and shall supply its place by other means. We have got far beyond discussion, and the first man impressed from an American vessel by a British officer, whose act is recognized by his Government, will be the signal of war. Nor shall we ever again discuss the legality of Berlin and Milan decrees, and all the other schemes of rapacity by which neutral property was stolen during the terrible contests arising out of the French Revolution -schemes which were defended, in elaborate State papers, upon a highwayman's plea, that he robs you because you have been, or will be robbed, by some one else. All this, too, is with the things that have been. And think you, sir, that the time will ever return when a third of the territorial extent of one of the States of this Union will be ceded upon such pretexts as those which dismem-lated from our party vocabulary into old-fashioned bered the State of Maine? Never, in my opinion, was there a public claim urged upon grounds so utterly indefensible as that; but we yielded, and now let us make the best of it, and acquiring resolution as we acquire strength, let us do just what is right-and demand it from others. That is our true policy, and as it is right that we should exercise the same authority as the other Powers of the world, our coequals only in position, in the declaration of great principles of international law, the true sentiment of self-respect will teach us, ere long, to maintain its inviolability when threatened with dangerous innovations, hostile to the freedom and independence of nations, by the same solemn and authoritative procedure as that which announces its peril. If we choose that our Chief Magistrate should wear a hat, and not a crown, we desire it to be understood that we are just as jealous of our rights and honor, and have just as much of both, as the gaudiest monarch of them all. We committed a great error, not a fatal onethat it would be difficult to do in our condition of elasticity when, last session, we refused to pass | There are men, American citizens even, who cannot appreciate sentiments like these who disbelieve in their existence, and who deride and denounce all those who avow them as demagogues that is the term-and which, when truly transEnglish, means all who differ in great measures from these standards of faith, and advocate them, even though they are acceptable to the people-a fatal error, indeed, in a country like this. I saw the other day a specimen of this exclusive patriotism, which rails at all it does not accept, in a Buffalo paper, the Commercial Advertiser, which, from its near relation to the present Administration, I should have thought would have tried to elevate itself above this tone of affected moderation, but of real subserviency, and which deprecates all these efforts to resist European encroachment, talks of the ghost of the Monroe doctrine, and of palpable absurdities introduced into the Senate with owl-like wisdom, and in a spirit of demagogism, and of the equality of the rights of European monarchs with the United States upon this continent, and much more of the same sort, little suited to the banks of the Niagara, but which would find its proper home upon the banks of the Thames, as would he who cherishes and utters such antiAmerican sentiments. But time will bring its cure for this Anglo mania, and when the patient SENATE. once recovers, he wonders how he ever caught the disorder. I have seen a great deal of this political perversity, this unpatriotic predisposition which prompts many men always to take part against their country, whatever be the position in which she is placed. I do not recollect a single controversy in which we have been involved with a foreign Power, since I have been on the stage of action, when the whole sentiment of the country was united in the cause of the country. I doubt if there is another people on the face of the globe whose history presents so many instances of this want of true national pride, patriotism rather, as our own. Whether it results from any peculiar political idiosyncracy I know not; or whether our party feelings are so strong that we are blinded by them, and led, in their vehemence, to think that all is wrong our opponents do; or it may be, at any rate, so far as England is concerned, that some of the old colonial leaven remains, which leavens much of the lump. Be it one or the other, or whatever else, the deplorable consequence is certain, and the sentiment of Decatur, not less noble than just, " Our country right or wrong," which, being truly understood, felt rather, means, that when embarked in a controversy with a foreign nation, it becomes every true citizen, after the course of his country has been decided by the constitutional authority, to submit to that decision and to support her cause, and not the cause of her foes; this noble sentiment finds many who repudiate it; many who possess the character without possessing the feelings of American citizens. Mr. President, I trust our imperial neighbor on the other side of the Pacific, the mighty brother of the sun and moon, will set up no Chinese claims to our new possessions upon that ocean; for if he should, they might create much embarrassment, as I fear there would not be found wanting those among us ready to vouch for the validity of the claim, and to impugn our title because it is ours. But, returning from this digression, if it can be called one, more immediately to the subject, I would observe that conservatism and progress, as they are called, designate principles, positions rather, which are useful in their moderate, but injurious in their extreme application. Like all other antagonistic elements, which work together, and well and wisely, in the worlds of mind and matter, these also may usefully coöperate, without counteracting each other. It may be that we may run too fast; but we have not yet committed that error, nor do I believe we shall. When we do, then it will be time enough to announce the danger and to propose the remedy. In the mean time, we desire that we may be left free in our career, rightfully free, unimpeded by tortuous European policy or project of aggrandizement upon this continent. And every American who participates in this sentiment, will be ready to proclaim it, as these resolutions do, and abide by it, in safety and in dangers. We do not intend to be circumscribed in our expansion, nor do we intend to have this hemisphere ruled by maxims suited neither to its position nor to its interests, and divided into political communities, dependencies of European monarchies, or under their influence, and, therefore, liable to be involved in every war breaking out in the Old World, and thus extending its dangers and its difficulties to the New, and by which means we should be exposed, in all time to come, to have our lines of communication with our Pacific coast interrupted, our commerce cut in two, as Lord George Bentinck said, and war entailed upon us, agreeably to the moral code of Blackwood, that impersonation of English Tory feeling, as a "blessing to mankind," together with all the other vexatious annoyances which such a state of things could not fail to bring with it. If this is not to be our destiny, we must be progressive, till the great objects are accomplished, and then just as conservative as may be necessary to maintain our high position in the world, our free institutions, and all those elements of individual and national prosperity which God has given to us, and which, I trust, man will never be able to take away. This will be the truly American union of progress and conservatism. Mr. BUTLER. Mr. President, I do not rise to go into any general discussion of this joint resolution; I rise rather to make some explanations in regard 32D CONG.....2D SESS. Colonization in North America—Messrs. Butler and Cass. to a doctrine which has often been brought into review before the Senate; I mean the Monroe doctrine. Many very important doctrines have been discussed within the scope of this debate, and I assure the honorable Senator from Michigan that I fully sympathize with him in many of his patriotic sentiments; I might concur with him in many of his abstract opinions; and I do not know that I dissent from his doctrines in the main. But he has taken a very enlarged view of very grave subjects, because I have no doubt he has deliberated upon them, and in the maturity of his own intellect he has brought them forward as worthy of public attention. Before I undertake to make the explanation which I have been induced to make by the suggestion of friends this morning-for I assure you I had no idea when I came into the Senate to-day of taking any part in this debate, or of saying a word upon any of the subjects which might be brought into it-I must undertake to say, that many of the subjects referred to (and in fact I do not know what has not been brought forward; the whole encyclopedia of our foreign relations has been fully presented, and I have no doubt verv ably presented) have nothing to do with the Monroe doctrine. That was not the way that Mr. Monroe regarded questions of this kind. He and his Cabinet were practical statesmen, more practical statesmen than dialectic politicians. danger in the United States backing out. I shall No, sir, after the valley of the Mississippi shall SENATE. "than as manifestations of an unfriendly disposi- Mr. BUTLER. Let what I have sent to the desk be read. The Secretary read from the speech of Mr. Calhoun, as follows: "The Senator justified the course proposed by Mr. Monroe in 1823 and in 1824. The case was not analogous. I do not remember whether the injunction of secresy was removed. A friend said last evening it had been. However, I presume, after so great a lapse of time, it will not be considered any violation of confidence to state briefly the question which led to the declaration. We all remember the Holly Alliance to overthrow Bonaparte. England refused to join it, although she acted with it. In the process of time the Holy Alliance contemplated au interference with the affairs of South America, in order to restore the dominion of Spain over her revolted provinces. Our Gov. ernment received an intimation from Mr. Canning, who was then at the head of the British Ministry-a man of extraordinary sagacity and talent-stating at the same time that if the American Government would back the British Government, she would discountenance such interference. And this general declaration had reference to a specific case, and stopped there. Mr. Monroe was a wise man, and had no design of burdening the country with a task it could not perform. He knew there was a broader declaration made by the gentleman then Secretary of State; but, as far as my knowledge extends, it was never brought forward for Cabinet deliberation. It has been a long time since, and I will not be positive. I have no doubt that the gentleman to whom reference has been made is entitled to the paternity. I say so, because out of this grew the Panama convention, although it was not legitimately an offspring. But if this declaration was right, the Panama convention was no bad conception, and the propriety of our sending a Minister could hardly be resisted." Mr. BUTLER. On the Yucatan question, too, Mr. CASS. Will the honorable Senator, be- Mr. Calhoun, in connection with the same subfore it is read, permit me to make one explana-ject, delivered his views, and so did the honorable tion? I have sent for Mr. Rush's account of his Senator from Michigan. Mr. Calhoun's remarks embassy, which I have not before me. That will are thus reported in the Congressional Globe: explain the whole matter. The whole thing was discussed in Mr. Calhoun's day. Sir, the Monroe doctrine, as I understand it, was asserted upon a real issue-an issue involving very deeply the interest, and the honor, and the future character of American institutions. Now, allow me to present that issue as I understand it, and as it was presented in remarks of Mr. Calhoun, to which I shall refer presently, upon this subject. As I understand, from conversations with Mr. Calhoun, and from his remarks, as well as those of others, the allies, after the overthrow of Bonaparte, entered into what is known as the Holy Alliance. Having combined for many objects, they felt their strength, and I have no doubt, in the arrogance of their policy, were perfectly willing to bring within the scope of it all that they could. Among other things, they were disposed to restore the Spanish dominion to the South American States. In other words, sir, offended at the spirit of revolution, and at the progress of republican institutions, they were disposed to crush these young Republics in their growth, and to substitute in their place the doctrines of legitimacy and absolutism. Castlereagh, who represented the British Cabinet on that occasion, finding that these doctrines were not altogether agreeable to the genius or spirit or taste of even British statesmen, wrote to Mr. Canning, who was then Premier, I suppose giving him, by a secret message, what had been proposed in this convention of the Holy Alliance. It was then that Mr. Canning wrote to the Cabinet of Mr. Monroe, and said, We are involved in this alliance, and we want a pretext, not to retreat, but to hold ourselves aloof from a committal which may bring us into collision with you, and which, in our opinion, is against the policy of the world. Therefore, if the United States, or the Cabinet of the United States, will take strong ground, make a strong assertion that they will not suffer Spanish dominion to be restored to these American States, we will at once say to the continental sovereigns, we have nothing to do with that subject, because, although we are willing to go to some extent with you to restore the harmony and peace of Europe, we are not wil-independence, was fully approved in England; ling to take a step which will embroil us in a collision and war with the United States of America. That was the real occasion; that was the Monroe doctrine. The Monroe doctrine had reference to an actual state of things, and an issue upon which the institutions and policy of the country were deeply involved. And, sir, the Monroe doctrine was asserted at the time to vindicate a principle. As I understand our forefathers, they were a people of performance and not very long advertisements. And I have observed that these long advertisements are generally followed by very short performances. When there is a real issue presented, involving the United States in a war with Great Britain, anything affecting our continent or our policy, I will say to the Senator from New Hampshire, [Mr. HALE,]-and I concur with the Senator from Michigan, (Mr. Cass,]-there is no There are two principles, the honorable Senator will observe, which are laid down in Mr. Rush's work. Mr. Rush was invited by European-statesmen, to form a Congress to regulate South American matters. He declined very properly. There was then an intimation that a declaration like that about the Spanish-American Colonies, would be acceptable to England. But Mr. Monroe, you will observe, went much further than that. He did not stop there. You will see, by the account of Mr. Rush's embassy, which I will have here in two or three minutes, that Mr. Monroe's doctrine, which had respect to the South American States which had assumed and maintained their but they received with disapproval the doctrine It will be seen, on reference to Mr. Rush's ac- "Mr. Calhoun rose, and referred to the ground on which the message of the President of the United States had placed the proposition now before the Senate, to prevent Yucatan from becoming a colony of a foreign Power, and to prevent also the devastation of the country, and the destruction of the white inhabitants. He had placed our proposed interference on the ground of Mr. Monroe's declaration. Against all these points, against the message, and the report of the Committee on Foreign Relations, he had, after deep reflection, made up his mind to record his vote. "He went on to show that the declaration of Mr. Monroe was published in opposition to the designs of the Allied Powers, called the Holy Alliance; and contended that the case of Yucatan could not be brought within the range of that declaration. He stated what was the conduct of the Holy Alliance, and what were their designs, and the alarm taken by England at the innovating principles laid down by them. He adverted to the information given by Mr. Rusk, and the manner in which the Cabinet acted on it. The schemes and the existence of the Holy Alliance had entirely disappeared; and if a final blow had been necessary, it was given by the recent revolutions in Europe. A more especial declaration with regard to Spain was then agreed on, and Yucatan cannot be comprehended in it." Now, I would refer the honorable Senator from Michigan to his own remarks on the same subject. I shall not read them, or comment on them, because I might not understand them; but if I did understand those remarks, I thought that he in that debate distinctly concurred with Mr. Calhoun. I will hand them to the honorable Senator. I will not read them. Mr. CASS. There is not one word in them which is not in conformity with what I have said to-day. Mr. BUTLER. I dare say. Mr. CASS. I do not allude to the honorable Senator now, when I say that I defy the world to find one word of them different from what I have said to-day. 32D CONG.....2D SESS. Colonization in North America-Messrs. Butler and Hale, Mr. BUTLER. I made no imputation of the kind. I was only saying, in connection with my explanation of Mr. Calhoun's views, that the honorable gentleman seemed to concur, at least to the extent that Mr. Calhoun went in his idea of the Monroe doctrine. Mr. CASS. You will observe, Mr. President, that I stated at the time that I thought the subject had almost passed from Mr. Calhoun's memory. He himself stated that his recollection was indistinct. I have, however, looked at the evidence; I have looked at Mr. Rush's statement; I have looked at his own account of his mission, and I will have it here in a few minutes. It will supersede the necessity of any controversy between the honorable gentleman and myself. Mr. BUTLER. I rose merely to make this explanation, and to state what I understand Mr. Calhoun, who was a member of Mr. Monroe's Cabinet, to lay down as the position then taken; which was, that Mr. Monroe did not intend, in advance, to say what he would or would not do, or what American policy might not require the American Government to do, on this or that occasion. Mr. Calhoun, on the Yucatan question, said that if Great Britain should take possession of that country, we would not be authorized, on the Monroe doctrine, to interfere. Now, I agree with the Senator from Michigan, that if Great Britain, or any other European Power, were to make such an obvious demonstration as to show that she designed to take possession of any of these islands, with a view to arrest the progress of American institutions, or to make war upon them, that might be a practical question upon which I would give a responsible judgment. I am no further responsible for my judg ment, as a public man, than I can see the real juncture of affairs upon which it might be invoked. an amendment to this resolution, I intended at Mr. CASS. Will the honorable Senator allow Mr. HALE. I have but little to say, and I shall soon be through. Mr. CASS. I will wait till you have finished. On the 5th of March, 1770, several citizens of Both the honorable Senator from Michigan and As to the declaration which was made by Mr. Rush, he said that a much wider declaration had been proposed to the Cabinet; that Mr. Monroe, seeing that it was too wide a declaration, and might be delusive and too general for him to maintain, took what the honorable Senator and others might regard, perhaps, as a narrower view of the subject than he should have done-but a safer, and, in my view, a wiser one. He took the actual issue before the country, and met it in a way to make it practicable. He told the European Powers, that if they undertook to restore Spanish authority, and to take possession of any portion of the American continent in such a way as to in-mark, will see that it was not. It was in refervolve our interests-and I put that as the true test -if our interests were thus involved, it would be the duty of our Government to enforce the Monroe doctrine. But what will be the real occasion, I am not permitted to say; for I think it is a very unwise course to advertise to the world what we will do in this or that contingency, when it may never happen. I have no doubt that the general doctrines will be maintained, to some extent, but how far we may, or may not, by making these declarations, bring upon ourselves the very evils which we profess to try to avoid, I will not undertake to say. ence exactly to what the Senator from South Car- I regret that so distinguished a parliamentarian If the United States should be engaged in a war for Cuba, for Honduras, or any portion of the continent worthy of our possession, I am not afraid that Great Britain will take undue advantage of her position and assail us. I have no hesitation in saying that in such a case as that, the gentle-by man's doctrine is all right; but my great objection has been on this occasion to our proclaiming in advance, when there certainly is not any necessity for it, doctrines which we ought to maintain, perhaps, without admonishing the world as to them. I have gone very far beyond what I intended, and I have not been able to do justice to myself, or to the honorable Senator from Michigan, who has studied this subject. I have supposed that on some future occasion, I would go rather more fully into these topics. I have undertaken to say what was Mr. Calhoun's opinion, and I have declared to the Senate that it was the opinion of English statesmen at the time, that the Monroe doctrine applied to a definite and certain state of things; and that it was not enlarged, notwithstanding the effort to make it more general. I think, therefore, I have acquitted myself so far as to make the explanation. Mr. HALE. Mr. President, as I introduced the Chair, I understood to be upon an amendment which I had the honor to propose. That amendment was not that we should tell Spain that she should not sell Cuba. Why, sir, Spain has told us that she will not sell it, and what good will it do for us to say that she shall not? Spain says she will not, and she has given the best evidence in the world that she is sincere in the determination that she will not sell it, because she has refused a pretty liberal price which we offered her for it; and I think in that she has made her act vindicate her words. She says she will not sell it. We offered her $100,000,000 for it. She says she will not take it. And now you propose to fortify your position, by announcing to the world that she shall not sell it to anybody else. The honorable Senator thinks that we ought to repeat these declarations, because the peculiar circumstances of Cuba are such, that it commands the Gulf of Mexico and the outlet of the Mississippi river; that it is in a commanding position to obstruct our com SENATE. merce and navigation which goes into the Gulf of Mexico, and seeks the mouth of the Mississippi river. Well, sir, I suppose that this country is not so low, that its patriotism is not of that doubtful character, nor its bravery of that spurious kind, that will take a position before a weak nation which it will not assume before a strong one. I use the words "weak" and "strong" comparatively, because I look upon Great Britain as a much stronger nation than Spain. I ask if the local position of Canada, in any aspect in which you may view it, whether in relation to the interests of peace or war, is not a thousand fold of more consequence than Cuba? During the exciting political canvass of 1848I am speaking historically now-the candidate of the great Democratic party of the nation, which has now swept the country, did not go to bed a single night when he was not within the reach of British shells, which might have been fired into his dwelling from the British possessions across the river. Mr. CASS. I slept very comfortably, though. Mr. HALE. Yes, sir. He slept very comfortably; and I suppose there were two consoling reflections which led him to do so. One was that he was safe in all contingenciesMr. CASS. Of the election, and from the other. Mr. HALE. Yes, sir, I have no doubt. Safe from an election, and from the British bomb. With these convictions, I do not wonder that he slept well. Canada, or the British possessions in North America, extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. They border on our inland lakes, and the commerce that finds its way to the Atlantic ocean over those lakes, and through the New York canals, taking the whole of it, I think would be found equal at least to half of our foreign com Mr. HALE. The commerce of these lakes, the internal commerce that is carried on them, and through the canals, side by side with Great Britain, and liable to interruption, liable to be destroyed at any moment, exceeds, I am told by several Senators around me, to whose superior wisdom I always bow with great deference, all our foreign commerce. Now, while we are looking with such anxious eyes at Cuba; while we are speculating upon the possible and remote contingencies of how that portion of our commerce which finds its way to the Gulf of Mexico and the mouth of the Mississippi river, is to be affected by the acquisition of the Island of Cuba, I ask gentlemen that live on the northern coast-I ask those gentlemen that are liable to be waked up any night by the sound of British cannon on British shores-if it is not worth while for us to turn our attention to our northern borders, and see how the naval and military resources of Canada, in case we have a collision with the British Government, may affect the position, the safety, and the prosperity of that vast community which borders these lakes and the waters that lie between us and Canada. Would it not be as well to intimate to Great Britain that she shall not sell Canada? It may be said she has no idea of doing so. I do not know that, though. She has never been offered $100,000,000 for Canada; and it will be time enough, I think, to sit down in safety and security under the impression that she will for no consideration part with Canada when she has refused $100,000,000 for it. At least, would it not be well, while serving a notice on all the world of what we mean and what we intend, to pick out somebody who, in such an event, will be very likely to be our antagonist? I have not time to go into the details and statistics of these measures, showing what the intimate and exact state of our commercial relations with those people is; but it is very great and vast; and I think while we are declaring to Spain what we will, and what we will not submit to, in relation to Cuba, we ought at least to look north a little. I ask the citizens of New York, of Pennsylvania, of Ohio, of Indiana, of Illinois, of Wisconsin, and of all the States bordering on the lakes-———— A SENATOR. And Michigan. Mr. HALE. Yes, sir; and Michigan. I had liked to have forgotten Michigan. [Laughter.] I ask, is it not time to appeal to the citizens of all those States, and ask them if it is not worth while to turn a little of that watchful vigilance, which has been so freely extended South, to the North? The honorable Senator from Michigan is in favor of extension and annexation. So am I, sir; but I am in favor of having a little extension northward. It is a very remarkable fact in our history, whenever we have made a treaty relating to our northern boundary, you always cut off, and when we negotiate a treaty relative to our southern borders, we have taken on. That may be accidental. Probably it is entirely so. [Laughter.] But, sir, there is one thing that may be said of it, it is a remarkable coincidence. Now let me come to this Monroe doctrine. Is it a good one? Mr. CASS. Will the honorable Senator allow me now to read the paragraph to which I referred from Mr. Rush's book? He says: "But although no joint movement took place, my dispatches had distinctly put before our Government the intentions of England; with which, in the main, our policy harmonized; and President Monroe, in his opening message to Congress, which followed almost immediately afterwards, in December, 1823, put forth the two following declarations: "1. That it was impossible for the allied Powers to extend their political system to any part of America without endangering our peace and happiness; and equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold such interposition with indifference.'' "2. Whilst alluding to discussions between the United States and Russia, then commenced with a view to arranging the respective claims of the two nations on the northwest coast of America, the President also declared that the occasion had been judged proper for asserting, as a 'principle, in which the right and interests of the United 'States were involved, that the American continent, by the 'free and independent condition which they had assumed and maintained, were henceforth not to be considered as 'subjects for future colonization by any European Power.' "The first of these declarations was probably expected by England, and was well received. Everybody saw at once that it referred to the hostile plans of the allied Powers against the late Spanish Provinces. "The second declaration was unexpected and not acquiesced in, as accounts I am yet to give of negotiations with the British Government will make known." That, I think, settles the question. Mr. HALE. I was saying that it was a remarkable fact, that in all our negotiations about territory, whenever we had negotiations about territory on the North, we gave up; whenever it was about territory on the South, we took all. And I will make another remark: in this continual looking at the military aspects of these questions, why did you sell out a part of the State of Maine? What did Great Britain want with it? Did she want to colonize it? She stated she only wanted a military road; she only wanted the means of annoying this country in time of war, whenever there was a conflict between the two nations. And we, I suppose, in the exercise of that Christian meekness which becomes a Christian people, sold out our territory on this side of the St. Lawrence, to which every department of this Government was pledged that it was ours; and it was so palpably ours that we could not negotiate it away, but we sold it to Great Britian, who, at the time she bought it of us, told us she wanted it for a road between her provinces on the Atlantic and Canada. If there ever was a time to maintain the Monroe doctrine, I think that was a good one. But that is not the whole of the history of the negotiation in reference to the North. The North is a large country, although it does not make much noise on this floor. How was it on the Oregon question? Our title to that, I suppose, nobody will deny, unless he means to deny the Polk and Monroe doctrine. Our title to that was "clear and indisputable." What did we do in that case? We gave Great Britain three hundred thousand square miles of our indisputable territory, for the very purpose of colonizing it. Now, according to the doctrines which have been proclaimed this morning, if Mexico, or any other country on earth which had possession of this country, had undertaken to sell three hundred thousand square miles of territory on this continent, and Great Britain had bought it, it would have been a cause of war on the part of the United States against the country that had bought it. We did not sell it. We are clear of that offense. We only gave it to her. Once more in regard to the islands that lie off ? the coast. What did we do in regard to them That is the history of the negotiations of this Mr. HALE. Yes, sir; Jamaica. Sir, the imagination can hardly conceive of what this country would be-what an era of internal commerce, and of progress, and of prosperity, would open upon this continent, if the Canadas, bordering the lakes upon the north, were united to this Union. Why, sir, it would lessen, in time of war, the necessity of our preparation full one half, if those lakes and that country belonged to us, instead of belonging to Great Britain. Why not make some timely effort? Why not utter some word of warning? Why not give some notice in regard to this country, where we have a real, vital interest-where the danger is not remote and contingent, but where it is close at hand, and where we have felt it once? In a war with Great Britain we have felt something of the evils of the contiguity of Canada to the United States. It is in this view that I want to call the attention of the Senate, and the country, and the people, to our relations with Canada as well as Cuba. Why, sir, are we going off the continent? Why are we going abroad? Why are we going to the islands of the sea, when here at our doors, in our very midst, there is a country that possesses the means of annoying us infinitely more than Cuba ever can? I will not put myself in a position by which I may be subjected to the suspicion of intimating that it is because Great Britain has more means and ability to defend her possessions than Spain has. No, sir, it must be something else. We are not so much bully and braggart that we will presume upon the weakness of a nation, to tell her that she shall not do a thing, when we dare not tell another nation that is stronger than her, that she may not do a like thing which would injure us infinitely more. SENATE. is the reason why my remarks are always so practical. go. Mr. CASS. Powers of nature could no further Mr. HALE. But, sir, there was one remark which fell from the honorable Senator which pained me. All the rest I was gratified at. He says there is no people on the globe that evinces such a want of patriotism as the people of the United States. Mr. CASS. I beg the Senator's pardon. I said there was no country where there were so many persons, unfortunately, wanting it. Mr. HALE. Then it amounts to this-that no country in the world has so many who evince a want of patriotism as in this country. I confess I do not see the difference between that and what I stated as the position of the honorable Senator; but he does, and I therefore will give him the full credit of it; but I think that in cooler moments, when the impulses of warm blood shall have subsided, and the reflection of maturity comes to that Senator, [laughter,] he will regret that remark, because it is an imputation on the motives of our fellow-citizens, in which I think he ought not to indulge. This is a country where freedom of opinion is tolerated to a very alarming extent, as some gentlemen think. It is a country where the freedom of opinion finds a vent in freedom of words to a very remarkable extent, as we have had an illustration to-day; and I would not be astonished, if in this country of free thought, and free speech, there should, at times, be sentiments uttered not at all accordant to the opinions of the majority as to what patriotism may require; but, sir, I think that a decent degree of candor and charity will induce all to do credit to those who differ from us; and if they do not think as we do, we may, at least, with charity, if we cannot with candor, believe, that although they do not see as we do, they are yet none the less friends of our country, true, just, and patriotic. Both the honorable Senator from South Carolina and the honorable Senator from Michigan, have referred to a remark which I made in relation to this country backing out. I wish to say something in reference to that. Whenever the emergency does come that calls upon the people of this country to throw aside the pursuits of peace, and go out rendering themselves, it may be the victims for their country's good-whenever the defense of our firesides and our homes shall call for the true-hearted and the brave, they will be ready to go out and to die in their country's behalf. My word for it, you will not always find the most self-denying patriot amongst those who have made the loudest professions; but in the quiet retirement of life-in the shades of privacy-you will find the true hearts that have never given utterance to noisy sentiments-men who have not speculated nor acted upon the course of political events which has had so important an interest upon the destiny of their country, and therefore have not been heard to utter sentiments of what Mr. President, the honorable Senator from was, or what was not becoming the country—you Michigan says we have reached an epoch in our will find from them many and many a man come country. Sir, I have heard of epochs before. Let forward, who will, by eloquent action, put to sime tell him an anecdote on that subject. I hap-lence the declamation of those whose hot-headed pened once to be present at a small party of gentlemen in the city of Boston, and there was a very sagacious old gentleman present. It was about the time of the removal of the deposits by General Jackson. A young man was in the company, who was full of indignation at it. He denounced it as an act at war with every principle of government, and one likely to overthrow it. The old gentleman rather threw cold water upon the thing, But, sir," said the young man, bristling up, "I consider this the very crisis of our experiment." Why," said the old man, "I have been living in crises all my life." [Laughter.] Well, sir, that is just the way with this country. We have been living in epochs. I think we may be denominated the people of epochs. They come upon us every day and every hour. The epoch of today will be succeeded by the epoch of to-morrow, and one will make about as much impression as the other. 66 counsels have plunged the country into what may be an unnecessary war. I think that will be the history. Sir, I have but very little to say for myself. I do not know but that when the emergency may come, as Falstaff said, on another occasion, I shall be found to be little better than a coward; I will not say that I shall not, but I will say this, that if I should, I would be an unfit representative of the people that sent me here. The little State that I have the honor in part to represent-for a little while-although it is not large, and although its people are not wealthy, nor numerous, I believe it is generally admitted, has acted well her part in the great drama of the country's history. I believe that amongst the patriotic men that have maintained our rights in the field, or vindicated them upon the floor of the Senate, while at least the Senator from Michigan has a place in the memory of the people, New Hampshire may not be ashamed of her history. And, sir, I will tell the honorable Senator, that in all convulsions and trials of war to which the country has been subjected, I believe of the "Old Thirteen" she is the only State whose soil was never impressed by the footsteps of an 32D CONG.....2D Sess. Colonization in North America-Mr. Hale. enemy, although she runs from the Atlantic ocean throne of Omnipotence, and asking that one more to Canada. It may be that the country was too experiment might be tried; and then, when the fullpoor to attack; I do not say that it was not, but I ness of time had come, there was revealed to the claim the fact of history. Let it go for what it is eye of sense this new continent; and the pilgrims worth. I think, however, considering the char- of patriotism and piety came over here, that they acter of the soil and the people, that those who might lay anew the foundations of the great Temwould make the attempt would find it a bad bar-ple of Liberty, and build upon its foundation a gain to undertake to invade it. superstructure wide enough for the oppressed of all nations to enter in and be at rest. Now, I have a single word more to say-and when I say " word," I use the term in a Pick- Sir, this is the experiment which we are to try, wickian sense, the sense in which it is generally and this is the experiment which we are to perfect. used in the Senate-a meaning which I believe a Our fathers were aware of the great trust that was distinguished friend of ours, no longer here, and committed to their hands; and when they cut loose whose absence I regret, gave to the term "word." from the country which had sent them here-sent I refer to the honorable Senator from Missis-them here, not by its fostering care, but by its sippi, (Mr. Foote.) I have a word to say about the destiny of the country, in reference to which so much has been said. The honorable Senator from Michigan qualified it, and said he would not speak about "manifest destiny;" but he went on to say that we do not want to be circumscribed; that we want room; that there is hardly room enough for us in this narrow space between the Atlantic on the one side and the Pacific on the other, with the Gulf of Mexico for a wash-basin. He thought these were rather circumscribed limits for such a progressive people as we are. Sir, I dissent from those sentiments. I do not think that our progress should be in getting more territory until we have improved what we have got. And I do not think our desire should be to get more people until we have educated, and refined, and improved those whom we have already, and until we have given homes to those, all those, who are homeless, from the vast and immense territory which we now possess. We do not want any more territory; our business and our mission is at home, and it is to improve upon our advantages; it is to advance, to elevate, and ameliorate the condition of mankind. It is to show to the despots of the Old World, by the practical results which are to follow from the experiment which we are making, that the institutions under which we live are those which are most eminently calculated to advance the highest interests of man, and subserve the great purposes of social and civilized society. It is by the arts of peace, by the multiplication of the means of internal communication, by railroads and canals, by commerce, by education, by the general diffusion of information, and by all the means which are abundant, and which wealth and power give us, of doing what we can to demonstrate to the world, that so far as the great purposes of the Creator may be understood in the creation of man, and placing him on this globe to work out the great experiment of human probation, that here are embodied, and here are concentrated the most favorable circumstances for that experiment which the world has ever seen. While I am up, let me entreat gentlemen, let me entreat Senators, to consider the position in which we are placed. I will take up the remark of the honorable Senator from Michigan, and say with him, we do live in an epoch, a most remarkable one, but it is an epoch that goes back far beyond the mere exciting interests of the day. It goes back to the time when that great principle was first enunciated, that governments were instituted among men by their consent, and for their good. That is the epoch in which we live; that is the experiment which we are trying. Sir, the history of the world up to the time of this experiment shows, that the efforts that man had before made for the amelioration of his condition and the elevation of his character had signally failed. It is true, there were not wanting revolutions. There were not wanting times when the people, borne down by oppressions too intolerable to be endured, had risen up in the energy of despair, and thrown off the yoke of the master who oppressed them, but it was only that another tyrant might come in his place. That was the history of the world up to the time of our experiment; and it would seem, if it be not too irreverent to undertake to scan the councils of Omnipotence, that the Almighty had become tired of the successive attempts which men had made to govern themselves, to submit themselves to the mild sway of popular institutions deriving their force and their support from their own consent. But we may imagine the Genius of Liberty pleading before the oppression-they proclaimed certain great fundamental and eternal principles as the basis of their action in all time to come; and these are eloquently and forcibly embodied in the Declaration of Independence. But our fathers pledged everything they had. They pledged life, fortune, and honor to the maintenance of the principles which they then avowed and put forth. Sir, that pledge is binding upon us. We are in the possession and enjoyment of the privileges which they obtained; and the part that we have to perform is, to see that those principles characterize our action and policy, and are carried out to a full development and perfection. That, I look upon as the mission of this country. That, I look upon as the destiny of this country, if it is true-true to its principles, and true to the purposes of a beneficent Providence, in planting us here. If we forget this; if we are led away and dazzled by the halo of military renown; if our judgments are warped by the graspings of covetousness which will never be satisfied as long as anybody else owns land contiguous to us, then-I have been accused of prophesying-it needs no prophet, it needs no other prophecy than that which the light of experience gives us, to foretell us that we shall fail, utterly fail, and we shall go the way of the republics that have preceded us. Some gentlemen think we have built our fortress so strong that it cannot be shaken; that we have established ourselves upon a foundation so strong that we cannot be moved. Sir, how old are we? Not a hundred years yet. How old was the Roman Republic when it was overthrown? I think more than six hundred years. When we have lived half that time; when the wisdom of our institutions and the character of our citizens have been tested by an experience one half as long as that to which the Roman Republic was subjected, it will be time enough for us to erect our trophies, and set up our monuments, and say that we have succeeded; that the great experiment has been tried, the great question solved, and the truth settled, that man is capable of selfgovernment. Mr. President, I am not one of those whose hearts are full of forebodings of evil; and the honorable Senator cannot, when I undertake to say what I believe will be the result of things, retort upon me the failure of the prophecies of disaster that occurred in regard to the war of 1812. I tell the Senator that I was but six years old at that time; and therefore whatever reproaches there may be against those that prophesied evil then, I was not one of them. However much he may think I have followed in their footsteps now, I did not begin so early as that. No, sir; my heart is not despairing. I believe that a glorious future is before this country. I believe that a high and glorious destiny awaits her. I believe that the only thing that can defeat her of the glorious destiny which lies waiting for her to grasp, is her own unfaithfulness to the principles upon which our institutions are founded. Those principles are not those of conquest; they are not those of rapine. We are not to be the knights-errant of the world, to go abroad over the continents of the earth and the islands of the sea, proclaiming the gospel of our liberty, and fulminating the penalty of our sword against those who will not be baptized into our faith. That is not our destiny; but our destiny is at home. Our destiny is on our own continent, on our own shores. It is to improve, to elevate, to advance-in what? In territory? No, sir; we have got enough of it. In military renown? No, sir; we have got enough of that. Is any man, woman, or child, within the hearing of my voice, disturbed with one single fear that SENATE. we cannot maintain successfully everything which is our right, against any and all the Powers of the earth? I believe not. I desire to call the attention of the Senate to another fact before I leave this subject, and that is the one alluded to by the honorable Senator from Florida [Mr. MALLORY] the other day. Why do you want to repeat this declaration? If you really mean what you say; if you mean that no Power of Europe shall colonize any part of the American continent, or the islands adjacent thereto, there is a fact, "a fixed fact," of which we are notified by the proclamation of the British authorities, which will put you to the test. Great Britain has-you do not want any inquiry about it-established a colony of the "Bay of Islands." If the declaration of Mr. Monroe has the broad meaning which the honorable Senator from Michigan gives to it, there is no occasion for repeating it over again. The time has come for acting; the fact has transpired; the issue is before you. Great Britain is here on the continent; she has colonized the "Bay of Islands;" she has instituted a Government there; and, sir, she has done that, not only in violation of the Monroe doctrine, but, if I understood the honorable Senator from Michigan, in violation of her solemn treaty obligations. Then, here is a case. We need not make any profession of what is right for a free and independent nation to do; for the resolution says that "it will leave us free to adopt such measures as any independent nation may justly adopt in defense of its rights and honor." If the resolution has that meaning, the case is before you-the time has come. If you mean what you have said, this is the time, not for resolution but for action; and you should satisfy yourselves with no vague declarations that you will do what an independent nation is free to do, when, if that means, what it has been contended it does mean, it has been violated, the Monroe doctrine trampled under foot, the faith of a treaty violated, and Great Britain, in the face of all this, has established a colony upon this continent. For these reasons I am opposed to passing this joint resolution, unless you include Canada in it. If you will put that in—and, sir, I will not object if anybody else should add to the resolution an amendment notifying all the other Governments of the earth which own any islands about our continent. I do not pretend to be so good a geographer as some gentlemen. I would be willing to have it amended as broadly as that, and let it be a general notice to all the kings and potentates of the earth, that we have money enough to buy them out of this continent, and that we will not allow them to sell to anybody else. I am willing, I say, if patriotism requires such a wide margin as that, to go that far; but I am not willing to pick out Spain from all the rest, and give her the notice alone. What has Spain done? Why is she to be talked to in this manner? Is it because she has got a rich island, and we think she will not defend it with such zeal and ability as Great Britain would defend her possessions? I say, I am not willing to be invidious in making a selection of Spain, when there are so many nations around us and all about as. Spain is an old ally of ours, as old as the Revolution. She furnished us aid in that great struggle in which our liberties were secured, and from the time of the treaty of peace of 1783, down to the present time, the amicable relations which existed between this country and Spain, have never been disturbed. Why, then, turn round to our old friend? Why turn round to her who was a friend when we wanted a friend? Why speak to that nation which has faithfully performed all her treaty obligations, that nation which was the first to welcome us into the great family of nations, and lend us her treasure to aid us in the conflict, and has maintained a firm and inviolable friendship ever since? Why, at this time, begin to speak to her in this threatening, this insolent manner, this tone of superiority, and tell her that she shall not do as she pleases with her own island, when Great Britain, with whom we have crossed arms twice, who has neglected to perform her treaty stipulations with us, is situated, in reference to us, in a position that enables her to annoy us to a vastly greater degree than Spain? Sir, I am opposed to the resolution; I am decidedly opposed to it, unless it is made general; and when it is made general, if the wisdom of the Senate thinks |