ernment of the United States was solemnly bound | by treaty with Mexico to defend Texas against the Indians, to reclaim them to the territory of the United States, and to inhibit their crossing the frontier. Instead of that, what did the United States do? I intend no reflection upon them, but I intend to vindicate Texas, now a part of the United States, but then a part of Mexico. The United States had solemnly pledged their faith, by treaty, to give protection to the boundary of Mexico; but instead of that, they treated with the Caddoes and acquired their territory, forced them into the boundary of Texas, and paid them in arms, in munitions of war, in powder, in implements of slaughter and massacre, and those Indians drenched our frontier in blood. Weak as we were-pressed upon by Mexico on the one hand, and the wily and sagacious Indian on the other hand, watching his opportunity to maraud upon our frontiers and slaughter our men, butcher our women, massacre our children, and conflagrate the humble hamlets in which they had dwelt in peace, we incurred expenses to keep them off, and for this the United States are responsible, as they are for a hundred other violated pledges in relation to Indians.

again, and continued at par, in spite of all the combinations and machinations of faction, corruption, and treason. When that administration ended, in 1844, the government of Texas had not only accumulated in the treasury $25,000 of par funds in gold and silver, but it had paid all just and unavoidable demands to foreign nations, and to support the Santa Fe and Mier prisoners in Mexico, and to procure their release, not less than $70,000. So that the Texas debt, with the exception of $2,500,000 accrued between the years 1838 and 1841, not a solitary cent accrued in the administration which lasted from the end of 1841 to 1844. It will thus be seen the debt of Texas did not grow out of her necessities, and that the present creditors who come forward here with their demands, and who, according to their saying, helped Texas in her hours of trial and threw their money into the lap, instead of doing that, threw it into the lap of speculators. Not a dollar of it went to Texas which will not only be paid in par funds, but which will also f, trust, be paid with interest, and at a premium. There were bonds issued,-let them be paid to the letter and to the last farthing; but let those who have accumulated these obligations by speculation, and that too of a most enormous character, receive, like Shylock their "pound of flesh," or two pounds if you please, but "not one drop of Christian blood." Sir, if these men were the assignees, or the descendants of Shylock, they would reflect just credit upon his reputation. [Laughter.perhaps But, Mr. President, it is thought that it is immoral in Texas-that it is not a clever thing in her not to pay her debts. Now, I should like to ascertain by what standard of morality we are to arrive at the adjustment of her debts? Is it that standard of morality that pays a man not only what he has given, but a hundred per cent. in addition to that? Or is it the standard it is proposed to establish here, that when a man has given three cents for a dollar he is to get a hundred cents? Is it that rule by which we are to judge of the morality of Texas, and the advantage of her creditors? That would be a very agreeable one to the creditors, but I cannot see that it would be complimentary either to the heart or the head of Texas. I do not think there is anything smart in it. It may be smart for the creditors, but certainly most stupid for Texas. They are for fixing their standard of morality for Texas, and she is for fixing her standard of equity and justice for them; and the United States have no business at all with it one way or the other.

If, however, the United States are bound for the debts of Texas, they are bound for much more than this bill proposes to pay. The independence of Texas was not recognized by Mexico when it was annexed to the United States. The domestic debt of Mexico was then about a hundred millions of dollars. They claimed that Texas should pay a part of it. Propositions were even suggested before annexation, that if Texas would assume her proportion of the national debt of Mexico, the independence of Texas might be acknowledged. If the United States are now bound by the act of annexation for the debts of Texas to the extent that the means taken by the United States would have gone, the debt to the Government of Mexico is a prior one, and the United States are bound to Mexico for a much larger sum than they are bound to these creditors. Would you be willing to go back and settle that amount? Yet it has a priority over the present demand. Mexico never recognized the debts that Texas incurred by her revolution, and if you recognize that you are bound to pay them, you should also pay to Mexico the proper proportion of Texas to the one hundred millions of the domestic debt of Mexico.

It is true, the Government of the United States might justly bear a part of the liabilities incurred on the part of Texas, because a portion of the debt of Texas was entered into for the purpose of defending her frontiers against the Indians. What Indians were these? Were they indigenous to Texas? No, sir. Who were they? The Shawnees, the Kickapoos, the Choctaws, the Anadacoes, the Kechies, Wacoes, Caddoes, and other Indian tribes from the limits of the United Statet, who settled in Mexico, and made war upon Texas. It was therefore necessary for Texas to defend a frontier of six hundred or eight hundred miles against the inroads of these Indians. The Gov

But what is the real history of this matter? When the scaling of the debt of Texas took place, in 1848, there was an almost entire acquiescence on the part of her creditors. Some three or four, or five, were somewhat refractory, and having more sagacity than the others, they concluded that there was some important advantage which they would gain by coming here, and therefore they had recourse to the Government of the United States. They might then have had in view the idea of a reserved $5,000,000 fund out of which they would be enabled to get their demands by appealing to the sympathy of members; by trying to show that they were bankrupted by their liberality in their anxiety to help Texas in the time of her direst need. They thought that if they could represent successfully to the Congress of the United States that they had been munificent and liberal towards Texas, it would entitle them to some extraordinary interposition of the Government of the United States. They came forward after the compromise was proposed, but not until that time. They received a new impulse by the proposal of the compromise. Most of them had acquiesced prior to that time, and we now find that hundreds came in who were not then interested in the debts of Texas. Strangers have come in as participants in the interest and are to be the recipients of its benefits. This is the case, and none will deny that there has been a most extraordinary change. If it had not been that the compromise of 1850 passed, the Texas creditors would nearly all have received their money, or their proportion of it, by this time, and would have been at rest and quiet, each man consoling himself in the advantage of having made a handsome speculation upon his adventure. But it was thought proper that there should be an appeal to the generosity and magnanimity of Texas, and after her to the United States, and that they might make something, and could lose nothing by that course. In that way it is that these claimants have not only multiplied, but they have become more urgent in their pursuit for gain, and are now resolved that nothing will satisfy them but the hundred cents on the dollar, according to the face of the paper.

SENATE.

justly owed. So she will., But if that message is read, let it be remembered that not a word of the extract is recognized until the whole message is produced here upon the floor, and the whole instrument construed together. It was then laid down as a principle that the Government of Texas would equitably redeem every dollar that she owed.

She had evinced a disposition to do it by submitting her public lands to entry at two dollars per acre when her notes were selling at three cents on the dollar; and she had kept them open for years subject to entry at that rate. She has gone further, and says it will be just to redeem money issued at a depreciation at the full value at which it issued from the Treasury with interest thereon. That is the act of Texas. What the refractory conduct of her creditors may do with the feelings of Texas I cannot say. Within a few years a total revolution has taken place in her population. The number of emigrants since annexation, I suppose has more than doubled or quadrupled the previous number of inhabitants. The interest on the money retained in the Treasury here will diminish the necessity of taxation by her. What her people may deem to be politic and expedient hereafter in relation to their debts I know not. I do not encourage repudiation. I hope it never will take place; but if it should, let those be accountable for the result who invoke and provoke their destiny. Let the sin lie at their doors. I hope it will never lie at the door of Texas; but those who have advanced, or who have contracts with her, shall be paid to the last farthing of what they have advanced.

A law was passed by the Legislature of Texas, after annexation to the United States, in 1848, by which it was provided, that any person coming forward and depositing fifty cents at the treasury of Texas, should take a receipt from the treasurer, and for every fifty cents received at the treasury he should be entitled to one acre of land. Certificates to the amount of more than half a million of dollars were deposited under this law, as I was informed, and land drawn, or land warrants issued, to that amount. These gentlemen have gone quietly and located their lands, and now realize several hundred per cent. How are the benefits of this bill to be extended to them? How are they to be recompensed for the losses which they have sustained, according to the plan of this bill? Are they to fall back upon the United States? Are they to become recipients of the benefits proposed in this bill, or, are they to be excluded?

But I am sure that the honorable gentleman who introduced this bill cannot object to the principle of Texas scaling. She is to be the judge of her own matters. She knows very well under what circumstances the debts or liabilities were contracted. She knows their character perfectly; and we find that the honorable gentleman who introduced the bill has not determined to pay according to the face of the paper, or of the demands of the creditors; but he, too, is for scaling the liabilities. He proposes that a certain amount shall be paid, and that, if that does not cover all the liabilities, the creditors shall receive it according to the proportion of their demands, and shall give a receipt in full. Now, Mr. President, as for the morality of the thing, whether one cent or one dollar, one degree or ten degrees of discretion at all changes the standard of morality, I am not prepared to say. I think Texas is the best judge of this matter; so that the United States would incur an additional reproach upon herself, if she were, by this law, to take it out of the hands of Texas to adjust her own affairs. Texas knows what her liabilities are: she knows all the circumstances surrounding them, under which they grew up, under which they dragged along, and by which they were managed. She knows, too, the influences and the means of their acquisition. But she is not acquainted with the means and influences that surround this Capitol, and which grow every day. I know it is perilous, eminently perilous, to oppose an influence so overwhelming as that of the claimants here. I have stood in perilous positions before, but when I felt badly, nobody knew it. I feel well on this occasion, and proud that I have a colleague who has realized all that experience could teach or suf

Personally, to those who are the Texas creditors,

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I have no objection. I,look upon them as I look upon other speculators. I look upon them as I do on men who go into the market every day-men who wish to make, in their estimation, honest gains, and who would not have their consciences smitten if they made one hundred per cent. every day. That would not involve their honor, but it would, in their estimation, sustain the honor of those on whom they make the one hundred per cent. I want no more sympathizers with Texas. I do not want them to appeal in behalf of Texas, to rescue her honor. Her honor, her safety, her existence, her liberty, her independence, were once involved, and I did not see, in her direst need, and when clouds enveloped her in darkness, the face of one of those men who now claim to be her benefactors or her sympathizers. It was not until the last enemy had marked her soil-it was not until our star had risen in the east, and until it was attaining something like its meridian splendor, that the speculators were attracted by the hopes of gain. Then, in that proud day, they were willing to unite their destiny with her; but to grope their way in darkness, to peril their lives in conflict, to confront and grapple with the enemy, not one was there. Let them not talk of Texas' honor, Texas' renown, and Texas' escutcheon cleared. She cleared them herself, sir. It was not a speculation; it was a real transaction; and she will keep it clear. It is her best guardian under the aegis of the Constitution. I desire justice and liberality to all who aided Texas; and no matter how they have acquired their demands, give them an earnest for everything they have, and upon that earnest give them interest, and, if you please, be liberal, but let Texas have the credit of doing justice to her creditors, and let not the United States intervene to save her soiled honor, as it is called. She will take care of that article herself, and she will take care of her money, too, I trust, and make a useful application of it in paying all just demands, but not the demands of Shylocks. Sir, I have done.

COLONIZATION IN NORTH AMERICA.

DEBATE IN THE SENATE, SATURDAY, February 7, 1853.

The Senate having under consideration the resolutions respecting colonization on the North American continent by European Powers, and respecting the Island of Cuba:

Mr. CLEMENS said:

Mr. PRESIDENT: When the Senator from Virginia [Mr. MASON] introduced his resolution in relation to the tripartite convention proposed by England and France, I was confined to a bed of sickness; but I gathered from the reported debates that he had consulted with no one but the Senator

from Michigan [Mr. Cass] and the Secretary of State. Now, sir, I do not deny the individual right of those Senators, under ordinary circumstances, to exclude whom they please from their consultations; but this is not an ordinary occasion, nor are they ordinary men. One [Mr. MASON] is chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, the other [Mr. CASS] has had bestowed upon him the title of Pater Senatus. Whatever they do commits the party to which they are attached, and I think it but fair that those of us who are expected to be bound by their action, should have had some notice in advance of what that action was to be. I think, moreover, that the wishes of the President elect should have been ascertained; that prominent members of his own party should have hesitated before placing him in a position so embarrassing as that in which he now finds himself. If it should turn out, as I sincerely hope it may, that he does not accord with many of the opinions which have been advanced upon this floor, he is placed, in the very outset of his career, in direct opposition to leading members of his party. If, on the other hand, he should concur with them, it would have been more respectful to let him take the first steps, and not to have snatched, with such impatient hands, the wreath, (good or bad,) which his were already extended to grasp. On this, and on other accounts, the resolution of the Senator from Virginia seemed to me impolitic, and those of the Senator from Michigan, which are based upon it, equally indefensible.

Mr. President, there are periods in the history of nations, as of individuals, when one false move must be followed by years of suffering; when the neglect or improper use of the right moment, or the right occasion, infuses a poison into the bodypolitic no remedy can reach. We are approaching such a period, if it is not already upon us. From the line of conduct now to be adopted, much that is good, or much that is evil, will surely ensue. To render all I have to say perfectly intelligible, it will be necessary to enter upon a brief review of the past.

Heretofore the advice of Washington has been respected, and we have succeeded in steering clear of the tangled web of European politics. Besides, the growth of the American Union has been so rapid as to defy the calculations of European statesmanship. The merchant, when he found a rival taking away his most profitable traffic, the manufacturer, as year by year the demand for his productions diminished, the fisherman, when he saw Yankee sails invading the haunts of the great monsters of the deep, all these understood that a new power had sprung into existence, and felt that they were engaged in a rivalry in which European energy and European intelligence were destined to be overshadowed. But kings and cabinet ministers could not comprehend that a few scattered colonies, but a short time since a feeble dependeney on the Crown of Britain, had indeed become a powerful nation. The monarch who looked back upon a line of a hundred sires, could comprehend no stable form of Government save that which was endeared to him alike by interest, and by educational prejudice. If, in his imperial dreams, the vision of America ever rose before his eyes, it was only as a people whose own unbridled passions would drive them into anarchy, whose turbulence and whose dissensions would furnish another reason to the world for committing all government to sceptered hands.

SENATE.

pensed with but for ulterior objects. Let it be conceded that it was intended to intimidate the United States-to give us notice that France and England were watching Cuba, and were determined to resist any efforts upon our part to ac quire its possession. But, sir, while conceding all this, I do not agree with that Senator as to the mode in which it is to be met. I do not think it is the part of wisdom, or sound policy, to permit ourselves to be hurried into intemperate action, because France and England have made a foolish parade of their future purposes.

To redeem a threat from contempt it is neces sary that the party making it should possess the power of carrying it into effect. As long as English statesmen keep their senses, a thousand Cubas could not induce them to declare war against the United States. Withhold the exports of our cot, ton for one year, and their starving millions will be in open rebellion. We have heard not long since, in a time of profound peace, of banners borne by her peasantry with the fearful inscription, "Blood or bread." Who doubts that that cry would be reawakened, and who doubts that blood would furnish the first, the second, and the third course of the banquet to which she would be invited at home? Add to this the certainty of seeing one hundred thousand American bayonets glittering in the sunlight of Canada, and a thousand American vessels cutting up her commerce on every sea, and you have an amount of danger and suffering no nation will willingly brave. A member of this body, not long ago, declared that England had given bond and security to keep the peace towards the United States. Yes, sir, and that security is her life's blood, her very existence; not merely her provinces and dependencies, thoug I fancy she would consider it a poor exchange to secure Cuba to Spain and lose Canada herself; but she has something more at stake, and I regard any threats from that quarter as the veriest gasconade in which any Government ever permitted itself to indulge.

France is in scarcely a better condition. She has recently erected an imperial throne above the crater of a volcano, and he who occupies that seat must watch by day and by night, or an eruption will soon come to bury him and his fortunes beneath a burning flood. Even if the great Emperor himself now held the reins, a war with

to an aggressive war would be the signal of ruin and destruction to the Union. That summons came; a powerful nation was vanquished; and so little were the energies of our people taxed, that at home it would scarcely have been known a war was going on save for the reports of battles and victories which floated upon every gale from the South.

Thus vanished one delusion, and with it the old system of political tactics. It was no longer our weakness, but our strength which became the subject of comment. The aggressive spirit and the grasping ambition of America were portrayed in the darkest colors, and Europe was called upon to interpose some check to the territorial aggrandizement of the great Republic. Wrong in their apathy, they were roused from it only to involve themselves still more deeply in error by their action. From newspaper articles they progressed to diplomatic notes; and now, as we have been informed by the President, France and England have made a formal proposition to the United States, that the three Powers should unite in assuring to the Crown of Spain undisturbed possession of the Island of Cuba, through all coming time.

Now, Mr. President, I am willing to go with the Senator from Michigan, and to say that this proposition meant something. I am willing to say that it did not mean what it imported on its face; that it was known it must be rejected; and the idle form of making the offer would have been dis

an army on our shores would be to devote it to the sword; and the ocean is not an element on which any great portion of French glory has been acquired. I am not unaware that upon paper the naval power of France seems to be immensely superior to ours; but those who so calculate, lose sight of a great truth: guns and vessels do not constitute a navy. If every vessel on our naval register were, to-morrow, burned to the water's edge, France would no more be capable of contending with the United States upon the ocean than the oak of the forest is capable of resisting the thunderbolt of Heaven. It is seamen who make a navy; and wherever they are found vessels will not long be wanting. In this, the main element of success, we are far in advance of every European Power. Our fisheries turn out annually a body of hardy mariners, unequaled for skill, for energy, and for daring. It must be remembered, too, that our tonnage greatly exceeds that of any other Power. And as long as these advantages remain to us, the crumbling dynasties of the Old World may build war-steamers without number; but, whenever a contest comes, the best of them will soon be found sailing under Yankee colors. Vessels-of-war, manned by peasantry, are feeble foes.

Mr. President, I have referred to these things with no view of encouraging a spirit of aggression, but the reverse. The proposition of England and of France has been seized hold of to inflame the popular mind, and I had some apprehensions that the indignation and resentment excited by it might lead to offensive acts which could have but one termination. It is this which I wish to avoid. I wish to show that we can afford to laugh to scorn the implied threat hanging over us, and that this is better policy than yielding to the dictates of a hasty resentment. Cuba will be ours whenever it is right and needful for us to take it. Whenever the might of this Republic is put forth in a just cause there is no human power which can

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resist it. Under such circumstances, we can well afford to wait until the pear has ripened. I have no sympathy with those who are so impatient to grasp the territory of our neighbors; nor do my opinions at all accord with those who tell us, with such a confident and self-satisfied air, that it is time this Government had a foreign policy. I believe we have always had a foreign policy, nay more, the very best that it was possible to adoptthe policy of attending to our own business, without attempting to assume a sort of general guardianship over all mankind.

I said, Mr. President, in the outset, that we were approaching a period of trial and of danger-but that danger does not threaten us from abroad. In that quarter the skies are clear and bright. It is at home that the symptoms of an approaching hurricane are manifest. These symptoms are every where about us and around us. They may be found in the restless and disturbed state of the public mind; in the speeches of dinner orators, dignifying war with the name of "progress," and clothing wholesale robbery with the mantle of patriotism. They might have been seen in the frenzied enthusiasm which followed the footsteps of that sturdy beggar, Louis Kossuth; in the wild and reckless attempts of American citizens to take possession of the Island of Cuba. Sir, I deplore their fate as much as any man can, and condemn as strongly the cruel and barbarous conduct of the Spanish Governor. I but refer to them as evidence of a state of things to which all eyes ought to be directed. And last, sir, though not least, the signs of this danger may be found in the ill-regulated, but fierce and strenuous efforts of "Young America" to bring about a war with anybody or upon any pretext.

All these things indicate that a spirit of change is abroad in the land. I may be told that word is written on every earthly thing. Perhaps it may be so; but justice, honor, mercy, are the children of God, and know no change. In the sublime morality of the Christian's creed we may find a guide for our footsteps which cannot lead to error: "Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you." It is not in the book of revelations that we are taught to covet the goods of our neighbors. It is not there we are encouraged to indulge a lawless spirit of war and conquest. We do not learn from thence the duty of progressing backward from a peaceful age to a period of barbarism, when the strong hand was the only law, and the steel blade the only arbiter of disputed questions.

Sir, I have heard much of this thing called progress. In the eyes of some gentlemen, it covers all defects, and makes atonement for every error. I am not its enemy, but I wish to know exactly what it means, and in what direction I am to progress. If it means that glorious spirit which sweeps abroad upon the wings of peace, shedding life, and light, and happiness, on the land and on the sea; which sends the missionary among the heathen, and gathers the infidel and the unbeliever beneath the Gospel's ample shield, which doubles the productions of earth, and lays bare the treasures of ocean; which plants the church of God in the wilderness of the West, and substitutes the Sabbath bell for the howl of the panther; which carries literature and science to the log-cabin of the pioneer, and connects every part of this wide Republic by links so strong, so close, that the traveler feels every spot he treads is home, and every hand he grasps a brother's hand, if this be the progress which is meant, most gladly do I enlist under its banner.

only without the shadow of a claim, but without even the robber's plea of necessity; to hush the busy hum of commerce; to withdraw the artisan from his workshop, the laborer from his field, the man of science and the man of letters from their high pursuits; to convert the whole land into one vast camp, and impress upon the people the wild and fierce character of the followers of King Clovis.

Sir, I wish to indulge in no exaggerated statements, but let us, in the cant phraseology of the day, "establish a foreign policy." Let us set about convincing the world that we are indeed "a Power upon earth." Let us rob Spain of Cuba, England of Canada, and Mexico of her remaining possessions, and this continent will be too small a theater upon which to enact the bloody drama of American progress! Like the Prophet of the East, who carried the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, American armies will be sent forth to proclaim freedom to the serf; but if he happens to love the land in which he was born, and exhibits some manly attachment to the institutions with which he is familiar, his own ife's blood will saturate the soil, and his wife and children be driven forth as houseless wanderers, in proof of our tender consideration for the rights of humanity. Sir, this is a species of progress with which Satan himself might fall in love.

Mr. President, there are in this connection still other lights in which the question before us may be presented. Look at America as she now is, prosperous in all things, splendid, magnificent, rich in her agriculture, rich in her commerce, rich in arts and sciences, rich in learning, rich in individual freedom, richer still in the proud prerogative of bending the knee to none but the God who made us, and of worshipping even in His temples according to the forms which conscience, not the law, has prescribed. Gaze upon that picture until your soul has drank in all its beauty, all its glory, and then let me paint for you that which is offered as a substitute Look upon a land where war has become a passion, and blood a welcome visitant; where every avenue to genius is closed save that which leads through a field of strife; where the widow and the orphan mingle unavailing tears for the husband and the father; where literature has become a mockery and religion a reproach; upon a people, strong indeed, but terrible in their strength, with the tiger's outward beauty and the tiger's inward fierceness; upon a people correctly described by the poet when he said

"Religion, blushing, veils her sacred fires,
And unawares morality expires;

Nor public flame, nor private, dares to shine,
Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine.
Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos, is restored,
Light dies before thy uncreating word;
Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall,
And universal darkness buries all."

Let no one tell me that these are imaginary dangers. At the commencement of the French Revolution, if any one predicted the excesses to which it gave birth, he would have been regarded as a madman. What security have we against the occurrence of similar scenes? We are human, as they were. Our law of being is the same; and if we once depart from the plain path of prudence and of rectitude, no human wisdom can foresee the result.

The assertion that Cuba commands the Gulf trade is a fallacy, which it requires a very slight

SENATE.

examination to dispel. Tortugas and Key West command the Gulf trade, and not only that, but they command Cuba itself. With those points properly fortified, a hostile fleet in the harbors of Cuba would be powerless for mischief. This fact has long been familiar to English statesmen; and on that account the cession of Florida to the United States was made the subject of excited debate in the Parliament of Britain. Spain was greatly censured for making the cession while she professed to be an ally of England; and the conduct of the Ministry in permitting it to be done was animadverted upon in terms equally severe. Nor are we without authority from our own officers. Commodores Rodgers, Perry, and Tattnall, have all made reports, showing the immense importance of these points, and their absolute command of the Gulf trade. Commodore Porter repeatedly expressed like opinions, based upon practical experience while he was in command of the Mexican fleet. General Totten has submitted to the War Department an elaborate report to the same effect; and Lieutenant Maury, in one of the ablest papers written by him, shows conclusively that no vessel under canvas can leave the Gulf without passing in sight of Tortugas and Key West; and estimates the amount necessary to complete the fortifications at these points at something less than two millions of dollars.

It thus appears that it is the part of economy, as well as of honesty, to fortify our own possessions, and leave our neighbors in undisturbed enjoyment of what belongs to them. It is surely better to appropriate $2,000,000 to complete Forts Taylor and Jefferson, than to expend $100,000,000 in the purchase of Cuba, or uncounted millions in its subjugation and conquest. Nor would the heavy outlay rendered necessary by either mode of annexation cover our whole loss. We derive now from duties upon Cuban imports, an annual revenue of $5,000,000 or $6,000,000. If Cuba be annexed, that revenue ceases entirely. Higher duties must be laid on other articles, and we shall have a renewal of the discontents, bickerings, and dissensions which attended the passage of our earlier tariff laws. I am not in the habit of using arguments addressed to the North or to the South. No argument can be a good one which does not address itself to the whole country; and the statesman whose patriotism is limited by a State line is an unsafe legislator for a great people. But sectional appeals have been made, and I propose to meet them. In no one aspect in which I can look at this question does it present any appearance but that of injury to the South. If Cuba came in as a slave State, it would give us no additional political advantage, no additional political power. The once-cherished dream of southern statesmen of maintaining a balance of power in the Senate of the United States has been completely exploded. The North has already obtained a preponderance, and that preponderance will be increased from year to year. What we have lost can never be regained. For the maintenance of our rights, and the preservation of our privileges, we must look to other sources-to the good sense of the American people, to their deep love for the institutions under which we live, to their innate sense of right and justice, and to the certainty that any serious encroachment must be followed by convulsions which would shake the continent.

Cuba, as a slave State, would not restore the balance of power, and is therefore, politically, of no importance. In a pecuniary point of view, it would be oppressive and burdensome in the extreme. It would bring a powerful rival in direct competition with the most profitable productions of the southern States. Remove the duties now levied upon those articles which come from Cuba, and their culture in the southern States will soon sicken and die. The present tariff upon sugar is highly protective, and its removal would prove a grievous burden; but there is even greater danger to be apprehended from its increased production. Spain has been slumbering for a hundred years. Not long since, I met an intelligent Louisiana planter in Havana, who assured me that he had traversed nearly the whole island; that he found in its fields but one modern plough, and in its mills scarcely a single modern improvement. His opinion was, that if Cuba belonged to the United States its productions would be quadrupled. If that opin

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ion be correct, as I doubt not it is, no one can fail to see the disastrous effect of annexation upon southern agriculture.

Colonization in North America—Mr. Cass.

alive their terrors, no police exercising over them a constant vigilance, and checking every plot in its first inception. In the South, we understand the difficulties and the dangers which arise from this class of population, and most of the southern States have passed laws to exclude them from their limits; but they are already located in Cuba, and the difficulty is to get rid of them.

SENATE.

As long as Cuba remains in the possession of Spain it will be of inestimable advantage to the United States in the event of a war with any foreign Power. The whole commerce of the Gulf States could be poured into its harbors; merchants would be found there ready to purchase, buying in a neutral port, and reshipping in a neutral vessel, they would be safe from the danger of cap-cussion which these resolutions have caused, I do ture, and thus one of the greatest hardships of war would be almost entirely alleviated. Our previous history is pregnant with proof to this effect. During the embargo of Mr. Jefferson, we shipped to Florida, then a Spanish colony, about eight thousand bales of cotton. As soon as the embargo was removed those shipments ceased entirely. 1814, during the war with England, we shipped to Florida about thirteen thousand bales of cotton. In 1816, when the war had ended, not a solitary bale. These figures show how great was the advantage of having a neutral Power upon our bor-commerce might be safely poured in time of war. ders, and how much suffering was avoided which must otherwise have been endured. The vast increase of the Gulf trade renders such an outlet of far more importance now than at any former period, and it is difficult to estimate all the advantages which may flow from it.

In

Let me turn now to a more general view of the subject. Cuba has a population of one million two hundred thousand inhabitants. Of these about six hundred thousand are whites; a little more than two hundred thousand free blacks, and the remainder slaves, most of them of recent im portation. If the Island of Cuba were turned over to us to-morrow without cost, with this heterogeneous population, how is it to be governed? Not one of them has ever exercised the right of suffrage. Not one of them ever for a moment felt the iron-hand of military despotism relaxed. They could not be trusted to govern themselves. The habits and the prejudices of centuries are not to be shaken off in an hour. They would still cherish a deep-seated attachment for the splendor of royalty, and as deep a contempt for the plain republican government which would supplant it. To such a people a constitution and State government after American models would be a curse, leading inevitably to anarchy, constant disturbances, and daily scenes of violence and bloodshed.

Another imposing difficulty is to be found in their established religion. With us that could not continue. The magnificent ceremonies which they have been accustomed to see, surrounded and protected by the full strength of the law, would at once lose that protection; and the cowled priest, whose tithes are now paid to him as a legal right, would find himself dependent upon the charity of his flock, whom therefore he would have every motive to render discontented and turbulent. Who can estimate the effect of this upon an ignorant, bigoted, and superstitious race, speaking a different language, accustomed to different laws, despising our institutions, looking upon us with jealousy and fear? This blow at a religion which has been transmitted to them from century to century would dissipate the last hope of a cordial union between the races, and render it nearly certain that in order to govern Cuba peaceably we first must make it a solitude, and then people it with emigrants from these States.

But, sir, if every other objection to the annexation of Cuba were removed, there would still exist an almost insuperable difficulty in the number of free blacks who swarm about the island. Ignorant and vicious, they would be found ready instruments in any work of mischief. Mingling freely with the slaves, they would be constantly exciting the latter to insurrection and revolt, and thus render the lives of the planters every moment insecure. It may be asked why these evils are not now felt? In some degree they are; but they are felt less sensibly, because, over these as over the rest of her subjects, Spain maintains a sleepless military rule. They can turn in no direction without meeting a company of infantry or a troop of horse; and the certainty with which a heavy punishment follows suspicion even, operates as an effectual check upon their vicious propensities. With us it would be wholly different. There would be no soldiers to overawe them, no military executions to keep li

not recollect to have seen a single tenable reason advanced in favor of the acquisition of Cuba. Its possession is assumed to be of immense advantage; but in what that advantage consists we are wholly uninformed. We are not told how we are to be benefited by throwing away a revenue of five or six millions of dollars annually. We are not told how we are to be benefited by destroying the culture of sugar in the southern States. We are not told how we are to be benefited by changing the character of a neutral harbor into which our

We are not told what advantage we are to derive from incorporating among us a mass of wretched human beings, whites, free blacks, and slaves, unfit to govern themselves, and unwilling to be governed by us.

I

Not one of these things seems to have been considered of sufficient, importance to attract attention. In the eloquent speech of the honorable Senator from Louisiana, [Mr. SOULE,] I was particularly struck with the absence of all this. noticed, also, another significant omission. He did not venture to tell us when or in what way he thought Cuba ought to be acquired. He told us that he was not in favor of its purchase, but there he stopped. I am sure he does not desire that it should come to us as the result of an unprovoked and aggressive war. There is but one other mode in which it can come, and that is by successful revolt of the Cubans themselves. Well, sir, if that be his method, we are pretty nearly agreed. I am willing to compromise on that; for it is tolerably certain that he and I will both be cold in the grave long before that revolution is begun, much less accomplished.

Hereto

The Senator from Florida [Mr. MALLORY] went a bow-shot beyond the Senator from Louisiana, and argued that there was some sort of "overruling necessity" which was about to compel us to snatch this gem from the crown of Spain. I recognize, sir, an overruling Providence, whose law demands that nations should be upright, just, and honest, and deny the existence of any necessity which comes in conflict with that law. fore, "progress" and "manifest destiny "have been considered sufficient to cover all designs upon the property of our neighbors; but these catchwords are nearly two years old, and are therefore approaching the precincts of " fogyism. It was necessary that "Young America" should have a new one; and the Senator from Florida has supplied it-"overruling necessity." I admire his judgment. He could not have selected a more comprehensive phrase. Certain it is that there is no wrong it will not excuse-no outrage it will not

extenuate.

Mr. President, I need not say that I do not intend to vote for these resolutions. The one which announces our purpose not to take possession of Cuba by fraud or violence is certainly, that far, in accordance with my own feelings; but I do not see the necessity of making the declaration. It seems to me to be both undignified and unmanly to be making constant protestations of our honesty. Let us show the world by our acts that we are honest, and leave all such declarations to those whose doubtful character requires some such bolstering. Nor do I think the reaffirmation of the Monroe doctrine would add to its importance. Our policy has long ago been announced to the world, and this restless desire to reiterate it upon all occasions, looks to me somewhat as if we doubted our own resolution, and required a few legislative resolves to keep up our courage.

The Senator from Michigan has expressed considerable surprise at what he terms our shrinking from meeting the questions raised by his resolutions. Sir, there may be other causes than fear which render us reluctant to vote for them. When a boy I read a story of the civil wars of England,

take the trouble to make vows are very certain 'that a time will come when they will need a vow 'to steady their purposes. I never doubted what 'I would do, and I made no vows." ." Sir, there was more danger in one such man than a whole regiment of noisy babblers. Silence is almost invariably the concomitant of determined resolution; and the world will be quite as likely to believe us in earnest, and will respect us as much for refusing to pass, year after year, a series of threatening resolutions.

Mr. President, I find that I am taxing my strength too much, and I must soon close. The pilgrim who, in obedience to a vision oftentimes repeated, seized his staff and set out in search of a land in which he had been promised all the joys of Paradise, after traversing many lands, steadily pursuing his dangerous way through forests, deserts, and jungles, reached at last the only mountain which shut out from his gaze the promised land. Slowly he commenced the ascent; then paused, overcome by contending emotions. If from that mountain top, he should indeed look upon a valley, such as had appeared to him in his dreams, beautiful and glorious, where the flower had lost its thorn, where the sweetest melodies were continually poured into the ear, and the very air was red olent with perfume, how cheaply would it be purchased even by all the toils and dangers he had encountered. But then came the fear that dream had deceived him; that he might find a barren waste of thorns and brambles, desert, cheerless, and inhospitable. Anxious to know the truth, yet dreading to have it revealed, he stood upon the mountain side unable to advance or to recede. Even such emotions, Mr. President, might now well swell the American bosom. We have reached the hillside from whose top the future of America may be viewed. But who can ascend it without a feeling of doubt and terror? Is it to be the America which all of us loved to paint in our boyish daysfree, happy, and prosperous, inculcating by its precepts, and enforcing by its example a deep love of law and order, offering a refuge and asylum to the fugitive from oppression, cultivating with assiduous care the arts of peace, and illustrating all the mild beauties of Christianity? Or is it to be that America which " progress, "manifest destiny," and "overruling necessity," are now seeking to make it, where freedom will be lost amid the clash of arms, and the wail of every good spirit will rise above the crushed and broken hope of man's capacity to govern himself? Sir, it is in our action that the answer must be found. Our country is at stake, and he who loves it as he ought, should pause and ponder long and well before tampering, in any way, with so high and holy a trust.*

Mr. CASS. Mr. President, with the permission of my honorable friend from Georgia, [Mr. DAWSON,] who seems disposed to keep the debtor and creditor side of the speaking accounts of members, I desire to say one word, in the Senatorial acceptation of the term, but it shall be so brief as I trust not to call for reproof even from him.

I received yesterday a letter from Paris, written as late as the 13th of last month, and by one of the most intelligent and patriotic American citizens now in Europe, well fitted to judge of passing events, and also of their objects and tendency. His letter is a very interesting one, fraught with able speculations upon the present condition of Europe, and especially upon the bearing which the strange phases of European politics may have

NOTE.-It appears from an explanation made by Mr. MALLORY, that I misunderstood his remarks. I never saw a corrected report of them. I saw an abstract in one of the papers, in which he was made to dwell with considerable unction upon the certainty that an overruling necessity I did not would compel us to take possession of Cuba. doubt its correctness, and commented on it accordingly. In justice to him, I now make the proper correction. J. C.