State of Parties and the Country [pp. 1-53]

State of Parties and the Country.
we should do any fighting in their behalf. When the time re ally requires our interposition, it will be because the necessity
and the cause are entirely our own. T'he Monroe Doctrine,
which constitutes the burden of the speech of Mr. Douglas,
is one which really may be left to itself. England begins to
see the necessity of contracting rather than expanding her
territory. France ought to have learned the same lesson
long before this. Colonies have been of unprofitable use to
both. They could not hold them at a period when monarchy
had a divine prestige in all the nations; and now, with Eu rope trembling with incessantly b)oiling volcanos, they have
no strength to expend abroad, and still less in America, where
they must come in conflict with a power whose resources,
fairly developed, are as great as all of them united. Let
them send what flocks they please to this continent, we shall
wear their firs. They plant for us. WAe shall reap for ourselves. If they have not by this time learned to see and feel
all this, it is only so much the better for us, since we shall the
sooner come to our harvests. Let us not, by fussily fishing
in these shallow waters, muddy them to our own mischief. European intervention in the affairs of America! See
the illustration of this danger, of which our politicians profess such apprehensions. The cunning diplomatic mousers,
with smiles of grace upon their lips, appeal to us to treat in
copartnery touching the affairs of Cuba-let us, good Christians as we are, guarantee that Cuba shall be secure against
invasion. Now, what does this mean? Why, let us bind your
hands, by a solemn vow that you wont seize upon the island.
This is simply all. They do not say, as thirty years ago both of
them would perhaps have insolently done, " hands off, or we
flog you!" Oh! no!'[he times have altered, and we are
to be sworn upon the Christian canons, instead of being
slaughtered by Christian cannonade. We have as little occasion to apprehend from these powers, as we have motive
to trespass upon those of Spain. England and Fiance have
enough to do at home, in the amiable watch which they are
required to maintain upon each oilier. The fleets of England are to be drawn from her remote colonies to maintain
her shores; and the sense of mutual danger will effectually
1853.]
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