think of this.

I shall not be suspected in what I am about to say of free trade--I, who
have always been its declared partisan; I, who sustained it twenty years
ago as candidate in the bosom of one of the electoral colleges of Paris,
and who applauded unreservedly our recent commercial treaty with
England; but man does not live by bread alone, and if ever a school of
commercial liberty should anywhere be found that should carry the
adoration of its principle so far as to sacrifice to it other and
nobler liberties, a school disposed to set the question of cheapness
above that of justice, and to extend a hand to whoever should offer it a
channel of exportation, maledictions enough would not be found for it.
Let England take care; those who have no love for her, take delight in
foretelling that her sympathies will be weighed in the balance with her
interests, and that the protection of the North risks offending her much
more than the slavery of the South. I am convinced that it will amount
to nothing, and that we shall once more see how great is the influence
of Christian sentiment among Englishmen. Should the reverse be true, we
must veil our faces, and give over this vile bargaining, adorned with
the name of free trade, to the full severity of public opinion.

I repeat that it will amount to nothing. Moreover, do not let us
exaggerate either the protective instincts of the North or the free
trade of the South. The new tariff just adopted at Washington (a grave
error, assuredly, which I do not seek to palliate) may be amended in
such a manner as to lose the character of prohibition with which certain
States have sought to invest it. Let us not forget, that by the side of
Pennsylvania, which urges the excessive increase of taxes, the North
counts a considerable number of agricultural States, the interests of
which are very different. Now, these are the States which elected Mr.
Lincoln, and which will henceforth have the most decisive weight on the
destinies of the Union. We may be tranquil, the protective reaction
which has just triumphed in part will not long be victorious. All
liberties cling together: the liberty of commerce will have its day in
the United States.

But if all liberties cling together, all slaveries cling together also,
and cannot be liberal at will, even in commercial matters. The Southern
States plume themselves on being thus liberal, and it is sought to give
them this reputation. However, the fact