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25 policy which the Government has been pursuing. Sur- rounded by embarrassments without a parallel in our diplo- matic history, the national honor has been maintained, and our relations with foreign Powers, steadily and almost mi- raculously preserved. The recognition of belligerent rights in the so-called "Confederate States," in violation of international usuage, and the forcible occupation by France of the territory of a sister republic, flagrant as both these acts were admitted to be, and in either case, justifying what publicists might have regarded as a sufficient casus belli, did not necessarily demand immediate action, by any avowed insult to the national honor. In the midst of a gi- gantic struggle, threatening the very existence of free govern- ment, Mr. Seward saw that the time had not yet come to deal with issues, scarcely less vital than those from which we have only just escaped. The re-establishment of peace within our borders, even at some sacrifice of the national pride, in such a crisis, was the first duty of the statesman. It would hardly have been the dictate of common sense or common prudence, to have sought additional and unnecessary complications, in the then perilous condition of our public affairs. In reply to the Holy Alliance, in 1823, Mr. Monroe said,— "We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable rela- tions existing between the United States and these powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this Hemisphere, as dangerous to our peace and safety. "From that period to the present, the public sentiment of the country has proclaimed the doctrine of non-intervention in the affairs of this conti- nent, with a unanimity scarcely admitting of question, in all sections and with every party. With the close of the war, Mr. Seward finds himself triumphantly sustained. Republi- can Government has been forever guaranteed on this conti- nent; our sister States have been again re-united; and the American people are once more in a position to deal with the miserable intrigues, which attempted to throw defiance in the face of an approved National policy, from which we had neither the motive nor the inclination to recede. The power of this Government, now happily re-established, will convey a lesson of timely caution to the advocates of Absolute Gov- ernment wherever to be found. The grandest of military pageants has already startled the world. More than a million of men, represented but proximately the strength of the North, in bringing back the revolted States. A like number of veteran troops, returned to their allegiance, ,stand ready and eager to co-operate in support of the doctrine of non- intervention in the affairs of this continent. A conflict upon tills point, we have no desire to precipitate. Come when it may, Mexico will scarcely receive a shock in regaining her |
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Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly, 1866
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