The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 6, December 1864: Devoted To Literature And National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 6, December 1864: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
In the great future, whoever commands these routes, especially together
with that of the Isthmus of Suez, which I visited a few months since,
and which Louis Napoleon has nearly completed, will command the commerce
of the world, and, as a consequence, ultimately control the institutions
of the world. Such are the tremendous problems teeming in the brain of
Napoleon the Third, and all, as he believes, depending upon the
destruction of the American Union. I speak of what I know from a
residence now of nearly two years in Europe. Thus it is that Louis
Napoleon intends to bring us within the centrifugal gravitation of the
European balance of power. This wonderful man proposes to extend this
system from the old continents to the new, embracing both, and thus hold
in his grasp the equilibrium--the balance of power of the world. We may
well imagine what that equilibrium will be when Napoleon the Third shall
hold the balance in his hands. Already he has considerable possessions
(insular and continental) in North and South America, and Mexico, under
Maximilian, is substantially a French dependency. He holds Algiers. He
is colonizing Egypt (as I myself saw this year) by his railroads and
canals. He has seized and colonized Cochin China and Annam. He has made
Italy a dependency on the bayonets of Franco. Now then, under these
circumstances, when the blockade shall have terminated, and Jefferson
Davis, who is quite as ambitious and even more talented than Louis
Napoleon, shall hold in his hand more than a billion of dollars' worth
of Southern products ready for immediate shipment, may he not, and will
he not say, through his most able and adroit diplomatic representative
at Paris, 'Recognize the independence of the South, and all these
products shall be shipped for sale in France, and to French
manufacturers,' and thus enable France to crush for the present the
cotton manufacturers of all the rest of the world. It is well known in
Paris that Mr. Slidell is upon terms of the most intimate association
with Louis Napoleon, and has thoroughly convinced him that we cannot
suppress the rebellion. Is it not, then, clear, anxious as Napoleon is
for the success of the South, that he would, in the event of McClellan's
election, at once recognize Southern independence. Indeed, it is the
boast of the Confederate leaders in Europe, since the adoption of the
platform at Chicago, that, upon the election of their candidates,
without waiting four months for the inauguration in March next, Napoleon
will AT ONCE recognize the Confederate government. Indeed, I do not
doubt, from the circumstantial evidence (although I do not know the
fact), that there is already a secret understanding between Jefferson
Davis and Napoleon the Third to recognize the independence of the South
upon the election of the Chicago candidates. Why wait four months, until
the 4th of March next, when the American people, by indorsing the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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