ANNEXATION SATIATED.
POLITICAL cant is nowhere more dominant than in the United States of America. Wanting truly great men to embody great convictions and lead the people, the Republic furnishes none but =en who endeavour to achieve a kind of inverted greatness, seeking popular power by following and flattering the prejudices of the people. Wanting a central organization, the Republic has no unity of existence or action, and therefore none of policy : it comprises several parties each with its policy ; and whichever party can obtain power for the day, its policy becomes the national policy. In this way, the national policy is "annexation "—con- quest by trickery instead of force. The New York Herald enun- ciates this national policy, of which Texas exhibits the first overt act. It announces the departure of "enterprising young adven-
turers to California or the Northern States of Mexico, with views similar to those that animated the early settlers of Texas," "who brought about the revolution and conflict in that state which have ultimately produced the annexation of that territory to the United States."
"IL is generally well known that the movement in Texas which has led to its present annexation originated in the city of New York, probably ten or twelve years ago, with some of the same persons who are now the leading men in that country. The success of the revolution and annexation of Texas seems to point out the new way—the novel method by which stable and efficient Republican Go- vernments can be extended over this continent, proceeding as it does from the central republic of the world, the United States. An expedition, therefore, start- ing from New York, collecting materials all over the country, to go into the Northern States of Mexico or California, for the purpose of annexing them to this country, of establishing a Republican Government, and securing peace, will meet with the sanction, we have no doubt, of all good citizens. The expedition to which we now allude will take some time for preparation; but we have no doubt that in less than one year we shall see crowds crossing the Rio Grande to the Northern States of Mexico, and passing through the great gap of the Rocky Mountains towards California; and that we shall have a second, third, and fourth edition of the Texan revolution over again, and at each turn a new extension of the borders of the Union."
A more discreet journal having hinted at morality and the danger of arousing indignation in England, the Herald condemns such "pacific and conciliatory" weakness, and declares that by the annexation policy "the patriotic impulses of the United States have been awakened to fresh and greatly augmented vigour and enthusiasm of action "—
" A wider horizon and a more comprehensive aim have been given to the patriotism of the people; the minds of men have been awakened to a clearer con- viction of the destiny of this great nation offreemen. No longer bounded by those limits which Nature had, in the eye of those of little faith that made up the last generation, assigned to the dominion of Republicanism on this continent, the pioneers of Anglo-Saxon civilization and Anglo-Saxon free institutions now seek distant territories, stretching even to the shores of the Pacific; and the arms of the Republic, it is clear to all men of sober discernment, must soon embrace the whole hemisphere, from the icy wilderness of the North to the most prolffw regions of the smiling and prolific South. " * * A new tem in the history of Republicanism on this continent has commenced. The spirit of revolution and change is at work: but a mightier influence pervades the masses of the _people. A desire to extend the territorial dominion of the Republic has become the pre- dominant passion of the people and the time. It is human nature. Nothing can check it."
"The whole hemisphere"!--what, Northern Europe and Asia, as well as America? "All good citizens" must be content with America ; and, truly, they seem in a fair way to annex Mexico ; Russia has thought it necessary to show her teeth ; it will be politic in Great Britain to treat Canada well; and as to the extreme South, if Mexico be absorbed, what is to stop the "enterprising young adventurers" from entering Central America, Brazil, Peru, and Chili? Not their own scruples. One can imagine difficulties in realizing the dream : the French, mindful of Louisiana, hate the thought of being yoked to the Union ; and perhaps the brave Canadians, led by swell-informed gentry, invigorated by a strong infusion of English blood, may not so quietly suffer the Annexe?, to play the cuckoo as the Mexicans have done. In Central Ame- rica, the Spanish race has been more practised in perpetual war than the Mexicans ; the Negroes of the West Indies, French and English, might occasion some trouble and commotion, even within the Union ; an English navy is not likely to be extinct; Portuguese Brazil has wealth and energy.
But suppose the dream accomplished. What countries would not have to bewail their subjugation Must the French Canadians be Americanized, or Lynched ? Must American Spain and Por- tugal forego their hereditary honours ? Must every nation in Europe deplore kindred subjugated, or more mercifully ex- terminated ? Say that all this were done ; that the whole Ameri- can continent were possessed by the "good citizens," from Boothia to Terra del Fuego—a territory gained in the spirit of " annexa- tion" ; and that the whole seabord of the Atlantic and Pacific were peopled by the great Lynchers of international law : what safety then for the commerce of the world? what hope for Africa, with her foe set down before her? what safety for the commerce even of the mercantile States in the present Union? Alack the Lynch-
ers of the Mexican Gulf or the river Amazons would feel little compunction in " annexing " the argosies of the North to their own property ; for geographical remoteness and change of cir- cumstance would not fail to influence the relations of the good citizens. Possibly, if the Annexers became strong enough, they might be the Great Central Union ; some enterprising" -loafers." might set out from Mexico and Buenos Ayres to colonize Virga-, nia and New York ; and the game of annexation might be re- torted on the Great Union. Such a dream is as striking, and as instructive, as that of the politician who vaunts the approach of the third and fourth Texan wars.
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