The American Question, and How to Settle It. (Sampson Low.) — The
American question is to be settled, in the opinion of the author of this volume, by mediation and territorial adjustment. He agrees with the opinion arrived at by such different routes by Mr. Cairnes and Mr. Spence, that the question of slavery is really at the bottom of the American war. Reconstruction of the Union is, in his view, not only impossible but undesirable, since, even apart from the insurmountable difficulty of slavery, it contains within itself the seeds of inevitable dissolution. The Federal Constitution is not, he thinks, opposed to the secession of individual states. The only possible termination of the war is the perpetual severance of the free from the slave states, and the establishment of both on terms of independent sovereignty. This object is to be attained by mediation, and the time for such mediation has now come. His idea is to divide the North American continent into three distinct and independent sovereignties. The northern boun- dary of the slave states should be that fixed by the Missouri Com- promise, viz., 36 deg. 30 min, north latitude. The northern boundary of the free states should follow the 45th parallel of north latitude, as far as 75 deg. west longitude ; so that the free states would give up
to Canada the northern portion of the State of Maine, and the north-eastern corner of New Hampshire. All above this latter line should belong to Canada, which, with New Brunswick, should be separated from England, and form an independent state. He also proposes that provision should be made for the total extinction of slavery in the year 1900. He appears to think it by no means impos- sible that such an arrangement as this should be accepted by both parties. Our author professes to be neither a Northener nor a South- erner, but simply a steady opponent of slavery ; and his book, though it contains little that is really original, is worth reading.
Previous page
