IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) %, ^ fe /- 1.0 I.I 1.25 IIIIM 1.8 U IIIIIL6 J i v] <^ ^1 7 ^a 'A 4 °w Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 L signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour §tra reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 A N E N T THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT. "What is that hath been ? the same thing sliall bo , . LONDON: WILLIAM RIDGWAY, 109, PICCADILLY, W. MARCH. lS(3i. Prion Sixpence. .1 ANENT THE NOIITH AMEJfKJAN CONTINENT. TffiiKE years j.o-,) ., u,,.at IJrpiihlip fluuriHlif.d across the Atlantic, whose citizens ilatt<"rc,l tliciiisclvcs that the iiiiioteeiith century A^•ouI.I witness the anial-uma- tion under one g-overnnient of the divers rams in- hrdjitnio. their continc^nt -from the ivx reo-ions to the Istlnnus of l^nianni. " "" TJn-ee months h.ter a ])rovincial (h-sturbance in the harbour of Cliarleston disi)..]led their dreams of em- pire; yet they mio-Jit as well have believed tliat their descendants would g-overn the tidal How of the ocean, as that their hemisphere would not be su])jected tJ Nature's laws. History teaches that both lloman and Carlovin- g'lan enipn-es Mere dismembered in consequence of the mabdity of their central g-overnments to exercise a beneficial sway over inereashig populations, en- lightened by civilisation, and determined to localize the supreme direction of their affairs. liefore many years have elapsed the North American Continent will l)e occupied !»v a oroup of Commonwealths, every one possessing- its a,itonomv, and capable of defending, its territory ag-ainst home or foreig-n ag'gressors. 4 It would be a putriotic jiolioy on the part of nntive Amfricins, Caiiadiniis^ and Mexicans, to facilitate the formation, in GeooTapliical Divisions, of as many States as the intc^rests of their citizens mipht require ; and, whilst reservino- to eacli its complete independence in reg-ard to political economy, to form one confederation, with uniftrin currency, comnion customs union, postal, telegTajdiic, steam- boat and railroad connnunication, banking* and commercial i^'ivileg-es. The rig'ht to hold property, and to 1)(^ naturalized in the various Divisions, should be secured to natives desirous of chan<»'ini>- their domiciles. There is still time for such friendly arrang'cments between the two sections of th(^ late United States, but the eleventh hour has struck; and, were the present Americans wise in their g-eneration, they would avail themselves of the opportunity, and not run the risk (jf seeino- their Continent divided into as many hostile republics, as is that of South America. The leading' maritime PoAvers of Europe oug*ht to remove whatever obstacles the Americans find in- superable towards the attainment of these objects ; and, to begin with, they should take an active ])art in settling- the questions at issue between the American bellig'erents, a speedy solution to which can alone pi*event the annihilation, for thirty years to come, of their respective sources of prosperity, a r) result na (Iftrimriitn] to tlx? interests of the Old "World as to those of the New. In the United States no one has the eourao-o to ])roclaini openly that the Union ean ne\er he re- stored -that Noi-th and South should sepai-ate into two divisions, and that a third suhdivision, if ve- (juired, should he allowed to take place for the sake of restoring- poaee, In the Confederate States, the Goverinnent, in- stead of using- all the energ'ies of the p.'oplo to de- fend its natural frontiej-s, and to reconquer those portions of its territory invaded hy the Northern army, is strug-g-ling- to maintain a nominal suzerainty over the country to the west of the Mississipj)i, which, for extent and si)arseness of poi)ulation, may be most aptly compared with r)00,000 square miles of Australian plains, where the traveller falls in with one or two shepherd flirms on a forenoon ride. The truth is that the Northern and Southern governments are both striving- to attain an imperial future for their respective sections ; the former for a country peopled by freemen and f)lack serfs, the latter for one inhabited by ^^•hite men and Neo-ro slaves. The lot of the unfortunate Blacks is indeed deserving- of commiseration ; for, under either sys- tem, they are to be employed as " hewers of wood and drawers of water'' to their pale-fiiced country- men, in stEcula sceculorifm. When we emancipated our West Indian Neg-roes the masters were few, the slaves were many! the islands smnll, the ilcots mid s()ldi(,'rv of Euo-jjiiid \voi'(\ nt Imiid, if rcrinircd, to protect tlif l)laok people ill tlicir iif'w l\-:io(|uir('(l rii^-lits, and the rcsnlt \\as a disastrons failnre to the mora) and social intcirsts of all concci'iicd. None of tlios(! conditions e.xist in respect to sLnerv on the North -American continent. IVom Chesapeake Bay, in a, direct line to the confhu'iice of the liio Puercos Avitli the Kio Grande, from the sonth-eastward of that line to the shores of the McAican Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean, the soil is principally ada])te(l for the lahour of the African race alone, w liile \\ ithin these limits is contained an area snfHciently laro-o to employ in its cultivation fifty millions of that class. As the Avhite Jind coloured American races have heretofore increased in relative proportions, we may assume that they will do so in future, and that senseless aholition liOAvls, from A\hicliever side of the ocean they proceed, will not improve the lot of our swarthy fellow creatures, hut rather make their latter condition u orse than their first. At Richmond and Washino-ton, in Tennessee and Virginia, the civil and militai'v authorities are too seriously occui)ied to have leisure or inclination for projecting' any jvlan for the extrication of their de- luded countrviiien out of the slouo-h of ruin and mis(i'}- into which the manceu\res of unscrupulous politicians have ])lunged them, and in which the interests of speculators, stockjobbers, army con- tractors, blockade-runners, and unprincipled adven- s inrovH, fho Pwoopiiio-s of cvm- cVunn, rri\\\\\'i> iluit they sliould roiiKiiii. Xor is it to hv expected tliiil any iiiiliieiitial Ixxly of men, in citliei- ilie l^dernl or ('onfedenite States, will d-)re to advocate the eanse of'])eaeefuI separation, and tlins incur tlie yen- <;vance of despotic (»overinnents, wlio emplov flieii nrnied leo-ions to crush political and military oppi.- nents indiserimiiiateJv. Besides the moral, tluMV ir; a material aspect of the Amerioan question, Avenerahle ex-lVesided of. How, therefore, can the Nortliern pr^\ ent the Southern section of the late United States from supplying' the nations of the Avorld with cotton ? Moreover, the g-reatest consumers of cotton o