The policy of France with regard to the War.
The New Orleans
Bee (on the
French side) takes up this subject and handles it with great ability.
There are two main arguments on which Government and people alike found their sympathy for the
United States. One is the hobby of Prince Napoleon, and amounts to this:
France being the natural enemy of
Great Britain, it is necessary to support the
United States as a counterpoise to the
English naval supremacy.
The other is the notion that it is necessary to maintain friendly relations with the
United States in order to supply the deficiencies in grain, in bad crop years, from the
Western States.
The
Bee dismisses the first of these arguments as uncivilized and unchristian, and deals with the second in the following terrors:
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"With regard to the commercial view of the subject, it is easy to show that
France has a far deeper stake in the well-being of the
North than in that of the
South.
The South has
always consumed more imported articles than the
North, though the greater part of the importation has heretofore reached her through New York.
At present, however, the
South has abolished custom-house duties while the
North has a highly protective tariff, and it is, therefore, certain that the consumption of French products will greatly increase at the
South and decline at the
North."
"With respect to Western cereals, it is only accidentally, in bad crop years, that range uses them, as she uses those of Lower
Russia, which did not binder her from making war on
Russia in 1854.
It will be quite as necessary for the
United States to sell their grain as it will be for
Europe to buy it, and they will hardly carry their hatred to the extent of forbidding its importation.
If the grain in question cannot be exported through New York, it can be exported through New Orleans.--Granting the very improbable hypothesis of a war with
France, that war would be very short, and, consequently, the interruption of commercial relations only temporary."
"The special products of the
South, cotton and tobacco, are articles of regular and constant consumption.
Tobacco yields the
Government an annual and important revenue; cotton forms the basis of an industry around which revolves a vast number of other industries.
Now, the present war, terminate as it may, cannot diminish the growth of cereals at the
North, while the subjugation of the
South would annihilate for a long series of years all the products cultivated by slave labor.
The social cataclysm which would follow the final overthrow of the
South would consequently produce a convulsion in
France which would be felt for many years.
As concerns its commercial interests, then, it is important for
France that the
South should preserve an independent existence, and thus far we believe the
Imperial Government is sufficiently enlightened.
Let us examine the marine argument."
"Although we do not partake of the Anglophobia with which certain
French Senators seem to be afflicted, we are willing to admit that before the division of the
Union it was politic to conciliate the
Washington Government.
But it belonged neither to
France, nor to any other
European power, to prevent secession, and the result of non-intervention has been to render re- union forever impossible.
The re-establishment of the
Union by conquest is a chimera, and our reasoning must be based upon the existence of two nation is instead of one.
In view of the maritime forts at present existing, it must be admitted that the
United States have the advantage; but it should be considered whether this advantage is not momentary, and whether, in the very nature of things, the
Confederate marine is not bound, hereafter, to be the larger. "
"It may be laid down as a general rule, that the maritime strength of a nation
depends upon the extent of its coasts, and the importance of its commerce.
Now, the
Confederate States have three thousand miles of coast from the
Chesapeake to the
Rio Grande; that is to say, four times as much as the
United States.
They will therefore be compelled to increase their merchant marine rapidly, and their war marine in proportion.
Two branches of commerce — the whale fishery and cotton have given the commerce of the
United States those gigantic proportions which are the admiration of the world.
The latter article (cotton) will be taken from the Yankee ships, and will be given to the Power that shall first learn how to profile by the opportunity, until the
South shall have a marine of her own."
"The strength of a nation's navy depends upon the size and importance of its mercantile marine, for it is recruited from this last.
A Government which aspires to rival the first maritime power in the world on the ocean, ought first of all to secure the prosperity of its mercantile marine as far as I can. Now
France, which retains but few of its colonies sees her commercial marine decaying by means of the
American, and her little brags every where giving way to the
Yankee three-masters.
Out of the 500,000 bales of cotton annually landed on the quays of Havre, not one-tenth comes but of vessels under the
French flag.
Is not, then, the present a favorable opportunity to secure for French maritime commerce an important branch of transportation, and to give a new impulse to the business of shipbuilding in the yards of
Normandy?
To secure for French vessels, which shall bear to the ports of the
South articles of French manufacture, advantages which will guarantee a return freight, is assuredly on object which ought to engage the attention of
Napoleon's Government, and that object can be obtained by simply recognizing the
Government of the
Confederate States."
"A volume might be written to the changes which may be produced in the maritime affairs of the world by the secession of the
Confederates States.
The splendor of the imperial
city of New York, which boasts that its port is the greatest in the world, after
Calcutta, would soon decline if the flag of the
United States were excluded from the cotton ports, and its immense commerce would be distributed among the cotton ports and the ports of such countries in
Europe as first had the good sense to take advantage of the opportunity."
"If
France desire to rival
England, she ought to accept the elements of power which the
South are offering her, instead of counting upon the proclamation support of
Lincoln's turned Government.
For the time present, as well as to the future, she fine far more to gain from the triumph than from the overthrow of the
South."
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