its
sovereignty. Here is a new danger for free America and for Europe. The
South has no commercial marine, nor with slavery ever will have; England
will at once seize the monopoly of cotton, and will furnish capital and
vessels to the South. In two words, the triumph of the South is the
reinstatement of England on the continent, whence the policy of Louis
XVI and Napoleon has driven her; it is enfeebled neutrality; it is
France plunged anew into all the questions concerning the liberty of the
seas, which have already cost her two centuries of struggles and
suffering. In defending its own rights, the American Union assured the
independence of the ocean. The Union once destroyed, the English will
again resume their preponderance, peace will be exiled from the world,
and a policy will return which has only benefited our rivals.

This is what Napoleon felt; this is what is forgotten to-day. It would
seem that history is but a collection of frivolous tales, good enough,
perhaps, to amuse children; it would seem that no one wishes to
understand the lessons of the past. If the experience of our fathers
were not lost on our ignorance, we would see that, while fighting for
her independence, while upholding her national unity, the North is
defending our cause as well as her own. All our prayers should be for
our old and faithful friends. The weakness of the United States will be
our weakness, and on the first quarrel with England, we will too late
regret having abandoned a policy that for forty years has been our
security.

In writing these pages, I do not expect to convert those persons who
have in their hearts an innate love of slavery; _I_ write for those
honest souls who allow themselves to be captivated by the grand visions
of national independence which are continually shown to them in order to
dazzle and mislead. The South has never been menaced, and at this late
hour can return to the Union even with her slaves [the reader will
remember that this article was published in December, 1862], and is only
required not to destroy the national unity, and not to ruin political
liberty. It cannot be repeated too often that the North is not an
aggressor--it only defends what every true citizen will defend--the
national compact, the integrity of the country. It is very sad that it
should have found so little sympathy in Europe, and, above all, in
France. It counted on us, its hopes were in us; we have forsaken it, as
if those sacr