The Spanish American Republics

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THE SPANISH AMERICAN REPUBLICS.

The foreign policy of our government will be one of the principal issues of the next Presidential contest, and it becomes the people of the United States to pause a moment, and reflect upon the issues that will be presented to them in one of the most exciting contests that this country will ever witness.

No one will dispute that we have as much Territory as we can cleverly govern, and it becomes us to closely investigate our position abroad, before we attempt the acquisition of any Territory belonging to any of the Central or South American republics. There cannot be the least doubt but that there are a certain class of statesmen in this country who are determined to agitate and have annexed to the United States, the so-called republics of Venezuela, New Grenada, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Nicaragua. These governments are at the present time in the hands of a lawless band of men who have thrown over the people the filthy mantle of Shylock: not contented with their pound of flesh, they trample under their feet the sacred guarantees of the constitution which was given to them by the patriot Bolivar.¹

The example of Mexico is before us. We are told that the day is not far distant when we must either extend a protectorate over her or allow England and France to do so. Are we to take Mexico, with all her loathsomeness, and introduce her into the brotherhood of states? And with her Venezuela, New Grenada, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Nicaragua—Republics that have so far fallen in the eyes of the world that their envoys cannot be trusted to enter into a diplomatic negotiationnegociaton​ with a civilized power?

The Slavery question has shaken this government to its very centre; it has caused the most deadly and bitter feeling between the North and the South. The dissolution of this great confederacy has stared us in the face, time and again, and we have been saved only by the conservative men of the country. The future is before us, and with the future comes the manifest destiny of our country as well as that of Central and South America. No one will deny that our rapid progress has astonished all of Europe, and that the tyrants are watching our system of government with the greatest anxiety—hoping that the time is not far distant when we shall become so corrupt that the government of 1776 will be nothing more than a matter of history. Are the people of this country willing to receive the representatives of the Spanish American Republics into their halls of Congress, with all their vices, which have taken root and grown rank with the loathsome influences fostered by their corrupt governments? Are we willing to take the population of Central America, uneducated as they are, and unfit to judge for themselves of the true principles of our government? Are we willing to receive this vast concourse of people into our brotherhood, whose lives are spent in upsetting and building up a system of government which has become so corrupt and so weak and imbecile in its character, that it is impossible for it to stand from one year to another?

The noble old Castilian, who has kept the blood of his family pure and undefiled, looks on with wonder and amazement, and contrasts his position at the present time with what it was under old Spain. He looks back to the days when the government, although severe in its character, gave tone to the people whom it governed; when the commerce of the world sought the Spanish Main for the rich products which yielded untold wealth to her merchants and those who cultivated the soil. He looks upon the six distinct races of people who govern the so-called republics as unworthy of his confidence, and smiles as he contemplates the ruin which these six different races are bringing upon themselves, hoping that the war of caste which rages fiercely, creating revolution after revolution, will at last annihilate the loathsome set who ruined a government founded by their fathers. Our own people do not seem to know that this is the population that we must take with the Central American States—or annihilate them.

We do not think that we are prepared to annex the Central American republics to this confederacy. It is better for us to gain character enough abroad to protect our citizens who are lying in their loathsome prisons. To elevate the character of our own government above the reproach which is continually heaped upon it abroad—to teach these weak and imbecile powers that they must not trifle with our ambassadors, our citizens and our commerce. We want a foreign policy which shall cause the name of an American to be respected to the ends of the earth. Let us imitate the example of England, chastise these republics into obedience. First teach them to respect us, and when they are so far civilized and educated as to have learned what the first principles of a republican form of government are, it will be time enough to think of annexation. Until that time they should be treated only as barbarous powers.

We commenced this article upon the Foreign policy of our government, as being one of the principal issues of the contest of 1860. The time has come when we must adopt a legitimate Foreign policy—a Foreign policy which will give protection to our citizens abroad. We must make ourselves feared and respected. And we must send representatives to Congress, who will cast their votes for such a Foreign policy as will rescue the American name from disgrace.

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