seem to look upon the colonies as outside possessions which she
is at liberty to work for the support and aggrandizement of the home
government.

The hostility of England to the United States during our rebellion was
not so much real as it was apparent. It was the hostility of the
leaders of one political party. I am told that there was no time during
the civil war when they were able to get up in England a demonstration
in favor of secession, while these were constantly being gotten up in
favor of the Union, or, as they called it, in favor of the North. Even
in Manchester, which suffered so fearfully by having the cotton cut off
from her mills, they had a monster demonstration in favor of the North
at the very time when their workmen were almost famishing.

It is possible that the question of a conflict between races may come up
in the future, as did that between freedom and slavery before. The
condition of the colored man within our borders may become a source of
anxiety, to say the least. But he was brought to our shores by
compulsion, and he now should be considered as having as good a right to
remain here as any other class of our citizens. It was looking to a
settlement of this question that led me to urge the annexation of Santo
Domingo during the time I was President of the United States.

Santo Domingo was freely offered to us, not only by the administration,
but by all the people, almost without price. The island is upon our
shores, is very fertile, and is capable of supporting fifteen millions
of people. The products of the soil are so valuable that labor in her
fields would be so compensated as to enable those who wished to go there
to quickly repay the cost of their passage. I took it that the colored
people would go there in great numbers, so as to have independent states
governed by their own race. They would still be States of the Union,
and under the protection of the General Government; but the citizens
would be almost wholly colored.

By the war with Mexico, we had acquired, as we have seen, territory
almost equal in extent to that we already possessed. It was seen that
the volunteers of the Mexican war largely composed the pioneers to
settle up the Pacific coast country. Their numbers, however, were
scarcely sufficient to be a nucleus for the population of the important
points of the territory acquired by that war. After our rebellion, when
so many young men were at liberty to return to