The intimate commercial relations existing between this Republic and
the principal maritime and warlike nations of the globe, mainly by
means of the products of slave labor, constitute a necessity for our
onward, uninterrupted progress, as the great agricultural and
commercial almoner of civilization, and cannot be disturbed, except at
the peril of that civilization which they have been so instrumental
and conspicuous to promote. The proposed annihilation of the hand of
labor whose products amount to $250,000,000 per annum, and those
products constituting the articles of prime necessity to civilization,
is a matter which involves other interests than our own; and however
willing monarchists and their minions may be to disrupt our political
system, and destroy this temple of freedom, they will find the genius
of commerce and the genius of liberty will continue to go hand in hand
to uphold the principles of right and justice, which demand that
barbarism shall subserve civilization.