Central American Affairs
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CENTRAL AMERICAN AFFAIRS.
The last number of Blackwood’s Magazine,1 (republished by Messrs. L. Scott & Co.,2 54 Gold st., N.Y.,) contains a paper entitled, “Notes on the Isthmus of Panama,” embodying a large amount of valuable information, obtained by the writer during a recent tour in Central America.
In Panama, the writer states, the ordinary relative positions of whites and blacks are reversed. The Judge and most of the principal authorities of the place are black, and they mete out less justice to a white man than the worst specimen of a slave–owner would to one of their own brethren. Political parties in Panama and indeed in the whole State are divided into the whites and blacks, and the present Governor of the town is a nominee of the latter.
After further describing this state of society and its evils, the writer makes a defence of filibusterism which his fellows of the British press may read with benefit:
The question of the abstract morality of filibusterism has long since resolved itself into a question of the civilization of the coveted territory, and its powers of resistance in case of invasion. The inhabitants of New Zealand were so savage and impotent that it was considered legitimate to appropriate their country. Are the inhabitants of New Grenada so much superior in civilsation, and capacity for self-defence, as to render such an appropriation an act of political dishonesty, according to the conventional standard? The impartial observer, visiting New Grenada under the regime of the blacks, will scarcely give it a sufficiently high character in either respect to save it from the aggressive tendencies of government or individuals.
The writer disbelieves in any desire, either on the part of the United States or England, to acquire territory in Central America; but thinks the interest of each requires the control of a transit route. The English government he advises to purchase the Panama Railway, and the United States to confine themselves to the Honduras, Tehuantepec or the Nicaraguan routes, either of which will be better for American purposes than that of Panama.
The author believes, and gives his reasons at length for the opinion, that a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, across the isthmus at its narrowest point, is perfectly practicable—and that a depression exists in the Cordilleras through which the waters of the two oceans do now communicate. This information he professes to have gleaned from the Darien Indians, who are accustomed to transport canoes across at the point referred to.
The Magazine contains, besides the article above sketched, Part 6 of Bulwer Lytton’s3 “What will you do with it?” No. 3 of “Scenes in Clerical Life,” and papers on “Military Education,” “Cambria and Cottonopolis,” “A few words from the Khyber,” and “The Company’s Raj.”
Notes:
1. Blackwood's Magazine, or Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, was a monthly magazine created by William Blackwood in 1817. Though it was published in Scotland it quickly attracted a wide readership in Great Britain and the U.S., especially for its fiction offerings. For more information, see David Finkelstein, The House of Blackwood: Author-Publisher Relations in the Victorian Age? (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002). [back]
2. Leonard Scott & Co. was a New York publishing company created by Leonard Scott (1810–1895) that focused on reprinting British magazines. [back]
3. Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873), was an English writer and politician. His novel The Caxtons: A Family Picture (1849) was a breakout hit at the time. Whitman once accused Lytton of plagiarizing a book titled Zicci, stating it was the exact same as the novel Zanoni. Both novels, however, were written by Lytton. Whitman described the controversy in a number of Aurora editorials. See "The Great Bamboozle!—A Plot Discovered!" (March 28, 1842), and "More Humbug" (April 4, 1842). [back]