17 the Mississippi, and could at her will ruin the people of the West. The remnant of the old Union must, then, always maintain an attitude of defense towards their rivals. Customhouse and frontier difficulties, rivalries, jealousies—all the scourges of old Europe, would at once overwhelm America. It would be necsssary to establish custom-houses over an extent of five hundred leagues—to construct and arm forts along this immense frontier, support a large standing army and navy. In other words—-they must renounce the old constitution—weaken municipal independence and concentrate power. Adieu then to the old and glorious liberty ! Adieu to those institutions which made America the common country of all those who lacked a breathing place in Europe. The work of Washington would be utterly destroyed, and the.new condition of things would be full of difficulty and of peril. I understand how such a future might rejoice the people who can never pardon America her prosperity and her grandeur. History is full of these deplorable jealouses. But I understand, even still better how a people accustomed to liberty should risk their last man and their last dollar to keep the inheritance of their fathers, and I respect it. What I do not comprehend is, that there should be found in Europe, people, calling themselves liberal, who reproach the North for her courageous resistance, and counsel a shameful abdication. The war is a terrible evil; but from- the war a durable peace may spring. The South may be worn out by an exhausting struggle. The old Union may be again restored— the future may be saved. Bub. what can be the issue of separation, if not wae without end and miseries without number ? The dismemberment of the Union—the rendering asunder of the country, would be a degradation without remedy. A fate so^hameful is to be accepted, only, when one is utterly crushed out and trodden under foot. So far I have argued on the hypothesis that the South would remain an independent power. But unless the West should join the Confederates, re-establishing a Union which should exclude New England, this independence is a. chimera. It might last a few years, but in ten or twenty years, when the West shall have doubled or tripled its free population, what will the Confederacy be—weakened, per force, by servile cultiva
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