January 27, 1861, The New York Herald
The period has manifestly arrived, for our brethren in the British provinces of North America, and especially in Eastern and Western Canada, to be up and stirring, in view of the contagion of revolution which is rapidly spreading over the continent. The mad efforts of fanatics at the North, and the reactionary movement of extremists at the South, have been crowned with success, and the hard, undeniable fact lies before the world, that the two sections of the country will be compelled, hereafter to work out their respective destinies separately. The constitution which was framed to meet the wants of thirteen sparsely settled colonies, is declared to be insufficient of the requirements of thirty three States, with their prodigious background of uninhabited territory, and the exigencies of national economy and growth are believed to involve the necessity of change. The south looks with eager eyes towards Mexico, Central America, Venezuela and Cuba, out of which, with the fifteen existing slaveholding States, to found an empire that shall extend from the Orinoco to Mason and Dixon’s line, have its capital in New Orleans, and in the midst of which the Gulf of Mexico will form an inland sea. It cannot effect these ends, so long as the Union remains as it is. On the other hand, our Sewards, Sumners and Hales, see in the expanse between the great lakes and the Arctic Ocean, materials out of which nature has called for the establishment of scores of free States, which will spring into being and become prosperous and flourishing, so soon as they are regrafted on the tree to which they belong. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that a perceptible leaven of agitation is visible in the British territory and it is the duty as well as for the interest of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, to take a speedy initiative in the movement of separating themselves from the from the mother country, and constituting themselves a part of the Northern United States. The south which has, heretofore opposed the annexation of free territory will have no object in doing so any longer.
It is in the nature of things that the fever which rages in the veins of the American people, should spread before long across our northern boundary, and lead to results there similar to those that have been witnessed here. Loss of respect for the rights of property would appear to be but a corollary of the movement that convulses our Union. Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Virginia and Louisiana, have emulated the example of South Carolina, and laid hands upon the possessions of the federal government, without a thought that their acts may, at some future period, be reprobated. They have broken the links that bind them to the confederation; seized upon Forts Moultrie, Pinckney, Pulaski, Morgan, and the defences of the Balize and Pensacola; plundered United States arsenals; occupied post offices and custom houses, and taken the public money in Sub-Treasuries, as though such acts of violence and confiscating were a part and parcel of the spirit of the age, and perfectly justifiable. Our police, even in the city of New York, in order that the North may not be behind with the South, steal muskets, powder, and other legitimate merchandise, and under the absurd pleas that they are of war, when no condition of war is recognized by the government at Washington, invade ships and steamers, and resort to many other illegal and unjustifiable acts. Such demoralization, South and North, cannot fail to have its effect upon the neighboring subjects of Queen Victoria; and while they may, some of them, deprecate the unscrupulous means that are resorted to by some of us, it is impossible that they should not end by following in our footsteps. The progress of the age, demands that they should throw off a foreign yoke. The spirit that animates Slavonic, Italian and German populations to struggle for national autonomy, is not wanting on the Western continent. Our own Patriots are resolved that Halifax, Quebec, Montreal and Toronto, shall receive the impetus republican institutions alone can give, which is all that is required to make them the rivals of New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, and it behooves the people of the provinces of which those cities are centres to organize at once to effect so desirable an end.
Not many years will elapse before not only the whole of the British possessions of North America, but also the north western portion of the continent owned by Russia, will be included in the great non-slaveholding republic, which will rival in grandeur the empire which will be carved out by the hands of Southern enterprise and energy. The advantages to ourselves and to the world of such an alteration of the map of the continent, are apparent. Canada which has no navy, but a limited commercial fleet, and which is restrained in its developement by want of independence, will become the centre of one of the greatest marine powers on earth. Its population will be quadrupled in thirty years; its manufactories will vie with those of England; and an incalculable impetus will be given to agriculture by intimate relations with our corn growing States. The Canadian people, instead of revolving with a dimmed lustre, around a distant centre, will derive their glory and renown from themselves alone, while they contribute to extend the influence of a might Power, over which they will have a controlling voice, to the remotest bounds of the globe.
It can scarcely be questioned that England, with the teachings of her own greatest statesmen before her; the precepts to guide her which she has given to other nations; and the increased wisdom and enlightenment of the century in which we live, will rejoice in permitting Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick to secede in peace. The loss of the thirteen colonies to the Crown, has done more to augment the national wealth of Great Britain, than any event of the past century. Her trade with the United States, since the peace of 1782, has received an extension, which would have been deemed the wildest hallucination of a crazed brain, had it been then foretold. The loss of this republic as a market, would hurry her into bankruptcy, and be the signal for her political as well as commercial downfall. Every step taken by us in advance is an advantage to the mother country, and what injures us reacts unhealthily there. Equally beneficial for her would prove the loss of Canada. The population of three millions in Canada, will have become, like ours, thirty millions in half a century, and her imports from Great Britain, which, in 1860, amounted to but a fraction over eighteen millions, will be nearer two hundred millions, within the same period. It is, therefore, for the interest of the British government that her North American provinces should become free, and part of the vast republic, which nature decrees shall rule on this continent. Its fortresses and the crown property should be ceded for what they are worth, and the people be permitted to launch, unmolested, into the new sea of enterprise towards which destiny calls them.
Should Great Britain madly persist in the endeavor to retain possession of her provinces by force of arms, we have the memory of two successful wars, under circumstances for more discouraging than any by which the country is surrounded now, to inspire us with knowledge what course we should pursue. With so just a cause, and so grand an end to attain, neither Canada nor the Northern States would shrink from a conflict. It would be forced upon us by suicidal pride, and would inevitably terminate ingloriously to arms, which, excepting when arrayed against us in unnatural and tyrannical strife are every prosperous. The people of the North are bound to the kindred race from which they descend, by a thousand ties; but while desiring her prosperity, our first duty is to guard our won rights and the fruition of our own freedom. Let the Canadian people begin at once therefore to make the arrangements which the time calls for. Her present ties we trust can be sundered amicably, but, in any case, they must be sundered.