years under that convention, we do not choose to negotiate any
longer in this way. We choose to take possession of our own, and
then, if we have to settle what is our own, or whether any portion
belongs to you, we may negotiate. _We might negotiate after taking
possession. That was the military way of doing business. It was the
way in which Frederick II. of Prussia had negotiated with the
Emperor of Austria for Silesia._ [Here Mr A. gave an account of the
interview of Frederick the Great with the Austrian minister, and of
the fact of Frederick having sent his troops to take possession of
that province the very day that he had sent his minister to Vienna
to negotiate for it.] Then we should have our elbows clear, and
could do as we pleased. It did not follow as a necessary
consequence that we should take possession; but he hoped it would
follow as a consequence, and a very immediate one. But whether we
give the notice or not, it did not necessarily draw after it
hostility or war. If Great Britain chose to take it as an
indication of hostility, and then to commence hostilities, why, we
had been told that there would be but one heart in this country;
and God Almighty grant that it might be so! If this war come--which
God forbid! and of which, by the way, he had no apprehension
whatever--he hoped the whole country would go into it with one
heart and one mighty hand; and, if that were done, he presumed the
question between us and Great Britain would not last long, neither
Oregon, nor any country north of this latitude would long remain to
Great Britain. Strong as was his moral aversion to war, modern war
and military establishments, then, if he should have the breath of
life at the time when the war commences, he hoped he should be able
and willing to go as far in any sacrifices necessary to make the
war successful, as any member of that house. He could say no more."
This profligate drivel is uttered by the Nestor of the commonwealth, an
infirm old man, with one foot in the grave. In order, however, to make
the course pursued by this gentleman and the next speaker intelligible
to the English reader, we may explain that, by the annexation of Texas,
the Southern States have a majority of votes in Congress; the Northern
States are therefore indifferent about war for Oregon, and the
abolitionists among them frantic for it, in order that their domestic
balance of power may be restored. Mr Giddings, a _Whig_ representative
from Ohio, and a red-hot abolitionist, indulges in the following most
wicked and treasonable remarks:--
"This policy of adding territory to our original government is the
offspring of the south. They have forced it upon the northern
democracy. Their objects and ends are now answered. Texas is
admitted. They have now attained their object, and now require the
party to face about--to stop short, and leave the power of the
nation in their hands. _They now see before them the black
regiments of the West India islands landed on their shores. They
now call to mind the declarations of British statesmen, that a war
with the United States will be a war of emancipation. They now see
before them servile insurrections which torment their imaginations;
murder, rapine, and bloodshed, now dance before their affrighted
visions. Well, sir, I say to them, this is your policy, not mine.
You have prepared the cup, and I will press it to your lips till
the very dregs shall be drained. Let no one misunderstand me. Let
no one say I desire a slave insurrection; but, sir, I doubt not
that hundreds of thousands of honest and patriotic hearts will
laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh. No, sir;
should a servile insurrection take place, should massacre and blood
mark the footsteps of those who have for ages been oppressed--my
prayer to God shall be that justice--stern, unalterable
justice--may be awarded to the master and the slave!" ... "A war
with England in the present state of the two nations must
inevitably place in our possession the Canadas, Nova Scotia, and
New Brunswick. Six states will be added to the northern portion of
the union, to restore the balance of power to the Free States.... I
demand of you not to leave the nation in its present state of
subjugation to the south. I will vote to give you the means of
doing so," &c._
We hold up the ferocious cant of this mock philanthropist to the scorn
of all good men, whether in Europe or America. So, because "the domestic
institution" of his happy land is not to the taste of this Giddings,
thousands of white men are to imbrue their hands in each other's blood,
and England, the great champion of the negro race, at her own expense,
is to be driven by force of arms out of Oregon. It is consoling,
however, to find at last by their own confession, that there is a weak
place--and a very weak one too--in "the area of freedom."
Besides the acquisition of Canada, which is put down on all hands as a
"gone 'coon," other brilliant results are to ensue from the possession
of Oregon. Mr Ingersoll, (_Whig_,) "a drab-coloured man" from
Pennsylvania--"flattered himself that two years would not elapse before
the Chinese and Japanese--sober, industrious, and excellent
people--would be attracted there to settle. It was only a short voyage
across the Pacific Ocean. Millions of those starving workmen who, in
point of sobriety, industry, and capacity, were among the best in the
world--workmen from every isle in the Pacific--men able to outwork the
English, would flock there."
In the same fine strain of prophecy, Mr Darragh, another "_drab_" of the
_Democratic_ school, observes--
"He was one of those who believed that there were men now here, who
might yet live to see a continuous railroad extending from the
mouth of the Columbia to the Atlantic. The country would soon be
filled with a dense population, and would eventually control the
China trade, and affect the whole commerce of the Pacific. He
trusted in God there would be a beginning of this end. He trusted
that this government would say to the despotisms of Europe--Stay on
your own side of the water, and do not attempt to intermeddle with
the balance of power on this continent. He believed it to be the
design of God that our free institutions, or institutions like
ours, should eventually cover this whole continent--a consummation
which could not but affect every part of the world, and the
prospect of which ought to fill with joy the heart of every
philanthropic man!"
But it won't till you've paid your debts, O Darragh!
Mr Baker, (_Whig_,) another _insolvent_ from Illinois, is very rich and
rapacious--
"He (Mr B.) went for the whole of Oregon; for every grain of sand
that sparkled in her moonlight, and every pebble on its wave-worn
strand. It was ours--all ours; ours by treaty, ours by
discovery.... There was such a thing as destiny for this American
race--a destiny that would yet appear upon the great chart of
human history. It was already fulfilling, and that was a reason why
we could now refuse to Great Britain that which we had offered her
in 1818 and 1824. Reasons existed now in our condition, which did
not exist then. Who at that time could have divined that our
boundary was to be extended to the Rio del Norte, if not to
Zacatecas, to Potosi, to California? No, we had a destiny, and Mr
B. felt it." ... "Cuba was the tongue which God had placed in the
Gulf of Mexico to dictate commercial law to all who sought the
Carribbean Sea. And England was not to be allowed to take Cuba or
hold Oregon, _because we, the people of the United States, had
spread, were spreading, and intend to spread, and should spread,
and go on to spread_!" ... "Mr Speaker, if from this claim an echo
shall come back, it may not come from Oregon, but it will come from
the Canadas. Sir, it will be 'the last echo of a host o'erthrown.'
The British power will be swept from this continent for ever, and
though she may, 'like the sultan sun, struggle upon the fiery verge
of heaven,' she must yield at last to the impulses of freedom, and
to the touch of that destiny which shall crush her power in the
western hemisphere!"
This may be considered bad to beat; yet, in our opinion, a choice spirit
from Missouri, SIMS by name, does it--
"It is so common on this floor, for inexperienced members to make
apologies for their embarrassment, that I will not offer any for
mine. I find some difficulty in getting along with all the
questions that may be raised by the north or by the south, and by
lawyers, and by metaphysicians, and learned doctors who abound
here, that I shall be slow in getting along. I hope, therefore,
that gentlemen will keep cool, and suffer me to get through." ...
Certainly, Sims--there is no false modesty, you will observe, in this
good Sims. He thus defines his position.
"I wish it to be distinctly understood what banner I fight under.
_It is for Oregon, all or none, now or never!_ Not only _I myself_,
but all my own people whom I represent, will stand up to this
motto. Around that will we rally, and for it will we fight, _till
the British lion shall trail in the dust. The lion has cowered
before us before. Talk of whipping this nation?_ Though not, sir,
brought up in the tented field, nor accustomed to make war an
exercise, and do not so much thirst for martial renown as to desire
to witness such a war, yet I cannot fear it, nor doubt its
success."
A touching episode in the life of Sims!--
"When I was a boy, sir--a small boy--in 1815, I was with my father
in church where he was offering his prayers to the Almighty, and it
was then that the news of the victory of New Orleans was brought to
the spot. _I never felt so happy, sir, as at that moment._ At that
moment my love of country commenced, and from that hour it has
increased more and more every year; and I shall be ever ready to
peril every thing in my power for the good of my country. Still, _I
am for the whole of Oregon, and for nothing else but the whole, and
in defence of it I will willingly see every river, from its
mountain source to the ocean, reddened with the blood of the
contest. Talk about this country being whipped! The thing is
impossible! Why did not Great Britain whip us long ago, if she
could?_" * * * * * * "I shall lose as much as any one in a war--_I
do not mean in property_--but I have a wife and children, and I
love them with all the heart and soul that I possess. No one can
love his family more than I do mine unless a stronger intellect may
give him more strength of affection; and my family will be exposed
to the merciless savages, who will as ever become the allies of
Great Britain in any war. But still, sir, my people on the frontier
will press on to the mouth of the Columbia, and fight for Oregon.
_I am not sure but I will go myself._"
The feelings of the female Sims, and all the little Simses, on reading
that last sentence! We shudder to think of it. Sims, however, has made
up his mind that the exploit is no great matter after all.
"It was said that the route to Oregon was impracticable, and that
it was beset with dangerous enemies, and that we could not send
troops over to Oregon, nor provisions to feed them. _Now, sir, we
of Missouri can fit out ten thousand waggon-loads of provisions for
Oregon, and ten thousand waggon-boys to drive them, who, with their
waggon-whips, will beat and drive off all the British and Indians
that they find in their way._"
The peroration of this harangue is, perhaps, the funniest part of it
all, but want of space compels us to omit it. We let Sims drop with
great reluctance, and pass over several minor luminaries who are quite
unworthy to follow in his wake. Now, ladies and gentlemen, we are about
to introduce to you Mr Kennedy, a _Democratic_ representative from
Indiana--a _very insolvent_ Western state, and a celebrated "British or
any other lion" tamer.
"Sir, (says Mr K.,) when the British lion, or any other lion, lies
down in our path, we will not travel round the world in blood and
fire, but will make him leave that lair." * * * *
After this mysterious announcement, he enquires--
"Shall we pause in our career, or retrace our steps, because the
British lion has chosen to place himself in our path? Has our blood
already become so pale, that we should tremble at the roar of the
king of beasts? We will not go out of our way to seek a conflict
with him; but if he cross our path, and refuses to move at a
peaceful command, _he will run his nose on the talons of the
American eagle, and his blood will spout as from a harpooned whale.
The spectators who look on the struggle may prepare to hear a
crash, as if the very ribs of nature had broke!_" ...
Once more into the lion--or lioness--for it does not appear exactly
which this time!
"We are one people and one country, and have one interest and one
destiny, which, if we live up to, _though it may not free us to
follow the British lion round the world in blood and slaver_, will
end in _her_ expulsion from this continent, which _he_ rests not
upon but to pollute!"
Mr Kennedy's solicitude for the rising generation is very touching--
"Where shall we find room for all our people, unless we have
Oregon? What shall we do with all those little white-headed boys
and girls--God bless them!--that cover the Mississippi valley, as
the flowers cover the western prairies?"
In order to show the truly awful and more than Chinese populousness of
this ancient State of Indiana, which was admitted into the Union so long
ago as 1816, we may observe that its superficial extent is thirty-six
thousand square miles, or twenty-three millions and forty thousand
acres. The population in 1840, black and white all told, amounted to the
astounding number of six hundred and eighty-five thousand eight hundred
and sixty-six, or about one-third of that of London! The adjoining
states of Illinois and Missouri are still less densely peopled.
Mr Kennedy's opinions touching the British government--
"Cannibal-like, it fed one part of its subjects upon the other. She
drinks the blood and sweat, and tears the sinews of its labouring
millions to feed a miserable aristocracy. England is now seen
standing in the twilight of her glory; but a sharp vision may see
written upon her walls, the warning that Daniel interpreted for the
Babylonish king--'Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin!'"
We cannot help the confusion of genders. It's so writ down in the
_Globe_, as are all our quotations--_verbatim_. Here comes a fine "death
or glory" blast--
"Why is it that, after all, we should so dread the shock of war? We
all have to die, whether in our beds or in the battle-field. _Who
of you all, when roused by the clangour of Gabriel's trump, would
not rather appear in all the bloom of youth, bearing upon your
front the scar of the death-wound received in defence of your
country's right, than with the wrinkled front of dishonoured age?_"
Hoorra!--Only one more quotation from Kennedy, and that because it
permits us to take a last fond look at Sims, who re-appears, for a
moment, like a meteor on the scene of his past glories!
"Was it not a burning, blistering, withering shame that the cross
of St George should be found _floating_ on American _soil_?" [Here
Mr L. H. SIMS exclaimed, "Yes, and it will blister on our foreheads
like the mark of Cain!"]
Mr Hamlin, a Democratic representative from Maine, one of the pattern
New England states, is not far behind his Western brethren--
"Their progress was as certain as destiny. He could not be mistaken
in the idea, that our flag was destined to shed its lustre over
every hill and plain on the Pacific slope, and on every stream that
mingles with the Pacific. What would monarchical institutions
do--what would tyrants do--in this age of improvement--_this age of
steam and lightning? The still small voice in our legislative
halls_ and seminaries of learning, would soon be re-echoed in
distant lands. Should we fold our arms and refuse, under all these
circumstances, to discharge our duty? No; let us march steadily up
to this duty, and discharge it like men;
'And the gun of our nation's natal day
At the rise and set of sun,
Shall boom from the far north-east away
To the vales of Oregon.
And ships on the seashore luff and tack,
And send the peal of triumph back.'"
Mr Stanton, a Democratic representative from the slave state of
Tennessee--Polk's own--observes, that war about Oregon
"Would be another crime of fearful magnitude added to that already
mountainous mass of fraud and havoc by which England has heretofore
extended her power, and by which she now maintains it. _Did some
gentlemen say that her crimes were represented by a vast pyramid of
human skulls? I say, sir, rather by a huge pyramid of human hearts,
living, yet bleeding in agony, as they are torn from the reeking
bosoms of the toiling, fighting millions._"
Peace, this person observes, is rather nearer his heart than any thing
else, but
"If she must depart, if she is destined to take her sad flight from
earth to heaven again, then welcome the black tempest of war.
Welcome its terrors, its privations, its wounds, its deaths! We
will sternly bare our bosoms to its deadliest shock, and trust in
God for the result."
After all this, our readers will be little surprised to find that a Mr
Gordon, from the rich and partially civilized state of New York, whose
commercial relations with us are of such magnitude and importance, makes
an ass of himself with the best of them.
"The next war with Great Britain will expel her from this
continent. Though a peace-loving people, we are, when aroused in
defensive warfare, the most warlike race ever clad in armour. Let
war come, if it will come, boldly and firmly will we meet its
shock, and roll back its wave on the fast anchored isle of Britain,
and dash its furious flood over those who raised the storm, but
could not direct its course. In a just war, as this would be on our
part, the sound of the clarion would be the sweetest music that
could greet our ears!... _I abhor and detest the British
Government._ Would to God that the British people, the Irish, the
Scotch, the Welsh, and the English, would rise up in rebellion,
sponge out the national debt, confiscate the land, and sell it in
small parcels among the people. _Never in the world will they reach
the promised land of equal rights, except through a red sea of
blood._ Let Great Britain declare war, and I fervently hope that
the British people, at least the Irish, will seize the occasion to
rise and assert their independence.... I again repeat, that _I
abhor that government; I abhor that purse-proud and pampered
aristocracy, with its bloated pension-list, which for centuries
past has wrung its being from the toil, the sweat, and the blood of
that people._"
Mr Bunkerhoff, from Ohio, and his people--
"Would a great deal rather fight Great Britain than some other
powers, for _we do not love her_. We hear much said about the ties
of our common language, our common origin, and our common
recollections, binding us together. But I say, _we do not love
Great Britain at all; at least my people do not, and I do not_. A
common language! It has been made the vehicle of an incessant
torrent of abuse and misrepresentation of our men, our manners, and
our institutions, and even our women--it might be vulgar to
designate our plebeian girls as _ladies_--have not escaped it; and
all this is popular, and encouraged in high places."
Mr Chipman, from Michigan, thus whistles Yankee-doodle, with the usual
thorough-base accompaniment of self-conceit:--
"Reflecting that from three millions we had increased to twenty
millions, we could not resist the conclusion, that Yankee
enterprise and vigour--he used the term Yankee in reference to the
whole country--were destined to spread our possessions and
institutions over the whole country. Could any act of the
government prevent this? He must be allowed to say, that wherever
the Yankee slept for a night, there he would rule. What part of
the globe had not been a witness of their moral power, and to the
light reflected from their free institutions?" * * * *
Your Yankee proper can no more "get along" without his spice of cant,
than without his chew of tobacco and his nasal twang. What follows,
however, took even us by surprise:--
"Should we crouch to the British lion, because we had been thus
prosperous? He remembered the time when education, the pride of the
northern Whigs, was made the means of opposition to the democracy.
He recollected the long agony that it cost him to relieve his mind
from federal thraldom. EDUCATION WAS AN INSTRUMENT TO RIDICULE AND
PUT DOWN DEMOCRACY."
What Mr Chipman would do--_if_--
"I appeal to high Heaven, that if a British fleet were anchored off
here, in the Potomac, and demanded of us one inch of territory, or
one pebble that was smoothed by the Pacific wave into a child's
toy, upon penalty of an instant bombardment, I would say fire." * *
* * "Now he (Mr C.) lived on the frontier. He remembered when
Detroit was sacked. Then we had a Hull in Michigan; but now, thank
God, we had a Lewis Cass, who would protect the border if war
should come, which, in his opinion, would not come. There were
millions on the lake frontier who would, in case of war, rush over
into Canada--the vulnerable point that was exposed to us. _He would
pledge himself, that, upon a contract with the government, Michigan
alone would take Canada in ninety days; and, if that would not do,
they would give it up, and take it in ninety days again._ The
Government of the United States had only to give the frontier
people leave to take Canada."
Though Michigan has the benefit of this hero's councils, he is at the
pains to inform us that Vermont, a New England state, claims his birth,
parentage, and education--a fact which we gladly record on the enduring
page of Maga for the benefit of the future compiler of the Chipman
annals. He closes an oration, scarcely, if at all, inferior to that of
Sims, with a melodious tribute to the land of his nativity.
"If Great Britain went to war for Oregon, how long would it be
before her starving millions would rise in infuriated masses, and
overwhelm their bloated aristocracy! He would say, then, if war
should come--
'Hurrah for Vermont! for the land which we till
Will have some to defend her from valley and hill;
Leave the harvest to rot on the field where it grows,
And the reaping of wheat for the reaping of foes.
'Come Mexico, England! come tyrant, come knave,
If you rule o'er our land, ye shall rule o'er our grave!
Our vow is recorded--our banner unfurl'd,
_In the name of Vermont, we defy all the world!_'"
_Magnifique--superbe--pretty well!_ Would not the world like to know
something of the resources of this unknown anthropophagous state which
throws down the gauntlet so boldly? Well, in this very year of grace,
the population of Vermont amounts to no less than 300,000 souls of all
ages, sexes, and colours! She pays her governor the incredible sum of
L150 a-year. Her exports in 1840 amounted to L60,000. Every thing about
her is on the same homoeopathic scale, except her heroes!
We have by no means exhausted our file, but our patience is expended,
and so we fear is that of our readers. We write this in the city of New
York, in the first week of February, and the debate is still proceeding
in a tone, if possible, still more outrageous and absurd. The most
astounding feature of the whole is, that the "collective wisdom" of any
country professing to be civilized, can come together day after day and
listen to such trash, without censure--without even the poor penalty of
a sneer.
The Americans complain that they have been grievously misrepresented by
the British press. Mrs Trollope, Mr Dickens, and other authors, are no
doubt very graphic and clever in their way; but in order to do this
people full justice, they must be allowed to represent themselves. A
man must go amongst them fully to realize how hopeless and deplorable a
state of things is that phase of society which halts betwixt barbarism
and civilization, and is curiously deficient in the virtues of both. If
he wishes to form a low idea of his species, let him spend a week or two
at Washington; let him go amongst the little leaders of party in that
preposterous capital, watch their little tricks, the rapacity with which
they clutch the meanest spoils and wonder how political profligacy grows
fat upon diet so meagre and uninviting. He will come away with a
conviction, already indorsed by the more respectable portion of the
American community, that their government is the most corrupt under the
sun; but he will not, with them, lay the flattering notion to his soul,
that the people of whom such men are the chosen representatives and
guides, are likely to contribute much to the aggregate of human
happiness, freedom, and civilization.