The English Press on the Breaking
Republic.
The mails by the
Canadian bring us the comments of the
English press on the election of
Lincoln.
We give the following extracts:
[from the London Review.]
‘
If the
Southern States once succeeded in constituting a separate Federation, it is surely clear that every question now pending between themselves and the
North would become at once an international question.--Every point now at issue in the domestic forum of Congress would come under the cognizance of the
general society of nations.
What sort of division of the unsettled territory now belonging to the
United States would ever be agreed upon between the
Northern and Southern Federations, nobody can pretend even to conceive; and this is the very difficulty which seems to show that the severance could never be effected without bloodshed.
It is plain, however, that every attempt of the
Southern States to expand beyond the territory absolutely secured to them would be resisted,
not simply by their Northern neighbors, but by the whole strength of European civilization. The more reckless spirits of the
South are pushing on their quarrel in the belief that, if they were once disembarrassed of the
Union, they could rend province after province from
Mexico, and fill each successive acquisition with their slaves.
But
Europe would have a word in the matter.
It is simply the incorporation of the
North with the
South which prevents
European statesmen from treating the annexations of the
United States as avowed extensions of the area of slavery.
They cannot now upbraid a Confederacy, of which more than half the members have no slaves, with conquering and annexing merely in the interest of cotton and negroes, but there would be no scruple about taxing the Southern Federation with designs which it would be at no pains to conceal.
Nor is there, we take it, the slightest doubt that the free States would rather assist than impede the efforts of
European diplomacy.--The
Monroe doctrine would be destroyed by the very fact of a separation, and a Northern Union, once divided from the
South, would not be long in making the discouragement of slavery the cardinal principle of its foreign policy.
In short, the measure of the dangers of separation is the advantage now derived from disunion.
Slavery is sufficiently unpopular in the world for a mere slaveholding Commonwealth to run no small risk of becoming the victim of a general crusade.
But the actual connection of the
Southern States with the
North has the effect of masking their exclusive devotion to a hated system.
The
Constitution of the United States, as experience has abundantly shown, can often be so managed as to promote the objects of the slave owners, and whenever advantage is gained in this way; it is gained without incurring danger, and almost without attracting attention.
’
[from the London Post, Nov. 23]
‘
To all appearance, American institutions are about to be tried by a severer test than has ever yet been applied to them, and we need hardly say that a civil war between the
North and the
South would at the present time prove highly injurious to the cause of political freedom throughout the world.
We trust that American statesmen of all politics will use their utmost efforts to prevent so great a calamity.
Much will depend upon the attitude assumed by the
President elect; much will depend upon the policy and conduct of the present administration.
The government of
President Buchanan has been characterized throughout by moderation and good sense; it remains to be seen whether it is equal to the task of maintaining the national institutions and the majesty of the law against the dangers which now threaten them.
It is easy to perceive that at a period of unexampled popular excitement a single false step might prove fatal to the public peace, if not to the very existence of the
Union.
But we have much faith in that love of political order which is inherent in the Anglo-
Saxon race; and, calling to mind that this is not the first occasion on which the dissolution of the
Union has been violently threatened, we trust that the new
President, when the time for his entering office arrives, will be able to proceed to
Washington without those four hundred thousand Wide Awakes at his back, who, it is said, are ready, if need be, to accompany him to the
Capital.
’
[from the London Chronicle, Nov. 20.]
‘
What will be the consequences of
Mr. Lincoln's election to the Presidency of the
United States?
We may dismiss without much hesitation the exaggerations of Northern demagogues or Southern alarmists.
A few fanatics at the
North have expressed sympathy with
John Brown, and speak flippantly of the servile war that would have ensued from even his temporary success.
Others, more prominent men of the Republican party, speak vaguely of slavery being "doomed," and seem to anticipate that slaveholders will be coerced into surrender by the gradual closing in around them of free-soil States.
These, however, are but the wicked or wanton dreams of men who know nothing of the
South, and still less of the
Constitution of the United States; who forget that there were States before there was a Union, and that each State, for all purposes of internal government, is a sovereign and independent State--as independent of its neighbors as
Prussia or
Bavaria is of the others in the German confederation.
They also forget that neither the character nor speeches of
Mr. Lincoln show anything like designs hostile to the rights of the
Southern States, and that even
Mr. Seward--the
John Bright of the party, more eloquent and outspoken than statesmanlike or wise — has refrained from anything like threats of positive aggression, legislatorial or executive, on the rights of the
South.
’
[from the London news, Nov. 20.]
‘
The cry of secession has been useful for party purposes; but the course which it involves will not suit Southern interests.
The great slaveholders know very well that it is no part of the policy of the Republican party to violate that part of the
Constitution which forbids every State to interfere with the internal concerns of any other State.
The present victory merely signifies that in the wide spreading "Territories" of the republic, not yet sufficiently peopled to be formed into States, slavery shall have no legal existence, and consequently that they shall not grow up into slave States.
The South, notwithstanding, will acquiesce in this decision.
They dare not go out of the
Union with their slaves, for they have nowhere to go to. They are a great deal safer in the friendship and alliance of the
North, whose bayonets would be as readily forthcoming to suppress a servile insurrection as to prevent a dissolution of the confederation.
Long before next March, when
Mr. Lincoln removes to the
White House, we shall find that all parties have adjusted themselves to their new relations, and are preparing for a harmless campaign with the old wordy weapons.
’
[from the London Times, Nov. 19.]
‘
We do not, as we have said, believe the catastrophe of Disunion to be imminent, and we are disposed to attribute to the institution of slavery a vitality which, as it seems, its warmest advocates do not believe it to possess; still we cannot conceal from ourselves that the recent vote of the
American people is fraught with many momentous consequences.
Heretofore, when a President has been elected he has been supported at least by a minority in every State of the
Union.
But in the present instance there is a considerable number of States in which not a single vote was cast for the successful candidate.
’
[from the London Herald, Nov. 20.]
‘
The only cloud on this bright horizon is the threatened secession of the
Southern States.
Should this be attempted the struggle cannot last long, for the free
North will to a man support the new
President, and the army and navy of the
Republic will be launched against the seceders.
The South will be driven back into the
Union, if need be, at the point of the bayonet.
Such a conflict, however, would be most disastrous in its consequences to
Great Britain, and, whether it take place or not, the ill feeling in the slave districts is now so great that the ordinary operations of agriculture and trade must suffer.
May-be we shall shortly have to look to other sources for our cotton and other Southern produce, and it is to be hoped her Majesty's government, in view of the precarious condition of American affairs, will devote its immediate attention to our much neglected West Indian and other colonies, so as to enable our planters to supply the deficiency.
’
