Reward and his Projects.
When Lord North's Ministry, after having tried for three years to subdue the colonies of
America, and losing a large army in the attempt, learned that
France was undoubtedly on the point of forming an alliance, offensive and defensive, with them, they sent Commissioners to make proposals, such as the colonies would have accepted with pleasure in the beginning of the strife.
But it was too late.
The
Declaration of Independence had already been adopted — the alliance with
France had already been secured — the colonies would not think of going back into vassalage, and were determined that the blood they had shed should not be in vain.
So they gave a short answer to every proposal of conciliation.
They would accept nothing but unconditional independence, and they would make no treaty separate from
France.
Of all newspapers on this continent the New York
Herald is the least reliable.
It is not only utterly unscrupulous, but it indulges constantly in a strain of gasconade so supremely ludicrous that we are always at a loss to know whether its are meant for just or earnest.
We place but in the reliance, therefore, on what it says with regard to
Seward's plan for pacifying — that is, for subjugating these
Confederate States.
But suppose he seriously entertains such notions, it is evident that he is but repeating the history of the first Revolution, and that he is induced to attempt conciliation by the same motive that prompted Lord North--namely, the fear of foreign intervention.
Let us, then, see what he proposes.
In the first place, the
Territories are to remain free.
The great object for which the
South so long contended in the Congress of the United States is to be put beyond their reach forever by a single dash of the
Secretary's pen. In the second place,
Missouri is to be a free State.
The scoundrels who have robbed her citizens of their slave property are to triumph in their ruin, and they are to receive no indemnification whatever, but to be told that
Missouri "has chosen to be a free State." a palpable lie, and a lie which nobody better knows to be such than
Seward himself.
In the third place, after the other slave States have been scoured from one end to the other by
Lincoln's hordes of Abolitionists, after half a million of slaves have been stolen from them, the masters are to retain all those in their possession at the end of the war. Wonderful liberality, to be sure.
Let it be understood, however, that he is thus liberal only because he thinks slavery "has received a blow from which it cannot recover"--that is to say, because having accomplished all he aimed at nothing more was to be gained by concession.
In a word,
Seward, fancying that because the
Yankee army was not destroyed at
Gettysburg he is master of the country, proceeds to treat it as though it were already subjugated forgetting how often he has heretofore exposed himself to the ridicule of the world by foretelling the entire suppression of the rebellion in ninety days. He and
Lincoln are anxious to "settle up" the present quarrel, and they offer to a people who have half a million of men under arms terms of absolute submission.
We do not believe
Seward is such a fool as all this amounts to, notwithstanding his predictions with regard to this war. We believe that he has no idea of proposing any such terms, that they are concoctions of the
Herald correspondent, and that they are written to order, most possibly in the very office of the
Herald itself.
A proper idea he has of "the proper measures" to settle the controversy, the
South to give up her arms and submit to the conqueror!
What worse can she do after she has really been conquered!
The inducements held out to us to submit to this ignominious treaty are truly very enticing.
It seems that if we continue obstinate Yankee commerce will be ruined by the combined navies of
France and
England, and we owe so much to
Yankee Doodle that we will submit to anything rather than witness that catastrophe.
The
Yankees, it seems too, want to conquer
Mexico and
Canada, and re-establish the
Monroe Doctrine, as it is foolishly called, which has been unceremoniously trampled in the mire by the Emperor Napoleon.
And we are supposed to love the
Yankees so dearly that we will jump at the chance to help them out in their ambitious schemes!
If the
Herald man is merely making a fool of himself, for the amusement of his readers, we can understand all this.
But if he be in earnest, then we say he cannot make a fool of himself, inasmuch as nature has already done that job for him. We help
Yankee Doodle to fight
France and
England!
Why, it would be the delight of nearly every soul in the Southern Confederacy to see all Yankeedom turned into a howling wilderness — to see every mother's son of them massacred, or sold into slavery — to see
Boston and New York (like
Tyre of old) turned into little villages, where the fishermen dried their nets.
Notwithstanding, however, we are not disposed to place any confidence in anything the
Herald or its correspondents may say, we deem it certain that
England and
France will never allow the
Union to be reconstructed.--In that event
England cannot fail to foresee the downfall of her maritime supremacy, and
France the extinction of all hope of ever obtaining a permanent foothold in
Mexico.
As long as we fought on equal terms
England was anxious to see the strife continue; but she is not anxious to see us overwhelmed, as she will be induced by the enormous lies of the
Yankee newspapers to believe we are about to be.
Napoleon has long been desirous to recognize the
Confederacy, and now that he has planted the tricolor in
Mexico, he will no longer be withheld by
England.
These considerations and nothing that the
Herald and its correspondents say, induce us to believe that we shall shortly be recognized, at least by
France.