America would yet be found in the valley of Mexico; that the glories of the Aztec capital would be renewed, and that it would become ultimately the capital of the United States of America. But I have corrected that view, and I now believe that the ultimate, last seat of power on this continent will be found somewhere within a radius not very far from the spot where I stand, at the head of navigation on the Mississippi river. I had never, until now, occupied that place whence I could take in and grasp the whole grand panorama of the continent, for the happiness of whose present people, and future millions, it is the duty of the American statesman to labour.”

In this remarkable speech, Mr. Seward embodied the ideas, hopes, and ambitions of the American people. He adopted their motto

"No pent-up Utica contracts our powers,

But the whole boundless continent is ours."

Canada, and Mexico, the British possessions, and Central America, all help to form the empire of his aspirations, and for which he sought a fitting capital. He examined Quebec and Mexico with an impartial consideration, and chose the centre of the continent as the site of the future capital of the omnipotent and omnivorous Republic.

Up to the War of Secession there had been an insuperable obstacle to the annexation of the British Provinces, supposing that they could be conquered. The South would never, of late years, have consented to such a preponderance of Northern and Free States. Only by adding a Southern State for each Northern one could her co-operation have been secured. This obstacle no longer exists. With the conquest of the South, and her subjugation under the political rule of negroes and "carpet baggers," the North is left free to carry out her dreams by annexation or conquest.

To the American, England was a tyrant, which America, after a long struggle, had overcome. England, full of rage and

jealousy, began again to insult and outrage America, which led to a second war, in which America was also victorious. England still hinders American progress, by keeping her grasp upon large neighbouring territories. Americans believe that England dreads their growing power, and is envious of their prosperity. They detest and hate England accordingly. They have "licked" her twice, and can "lick" her again. I cannot remember the time when the idea of a war with England was not popular in America. I never, except for a brief period, heard a threat of war with any other power. France was our earliest friend. We like Russia, perhaps, still better. In the Crimean war, although France was the ally of England, we gave our sympathies to the great northern power. We hoped the allies would be driven out of the Crimea; or, if they met with any success, we wished the French to have all the glory. And it is quite true that the great body of Americans, at least in the Northern States, have always sympathized in every indication of rebellion against the British Government, in Canada, in Ireland, in India.

This was the feeling of America when I was born, and it is to a considerable extent the feeling to-day of, at least, the Northern half of it. The South does not border on Canada— it was not the scene of so many conflicts in either war, and there is not in the South a great mass of Irish citizens whose votes carry elections, and who participate in, though they by no means originate, the anti-English feeling in the Northern States of America. The course taken by the British Government in the civil war of Secession, and the evident sympathy with the rebel States of not only the aristocracy, and the press, but the great mass of the English people, has not diminished hatred to England.

I do not mention these facts to revive hard and hateful feelings on either side. Nations of the same race, language, civilisation, and religion ought to be friends; but we see them

often the bitterest and most relentless of foes. I lament the fact—but why seek to hide what will not be hidden?

That there are great numbers of Americans who have a real love and genuine reverence for the great country of their ancestry is not less true, and I wish to be understood as making all needful exceptions. Our history, beyond two centuries, is English; most of our literature is English; the education and religious laws and institutions of America, have come chiefly from England. American hatred of England is a political tradition, like English hatred to France. Englishmen can remember when Frenchmen were considered their natural enemies. They have come to be friends and allies. If some abstract ideal of a Political England is hated in America, Englishmen are not. An English author, speaker, actor, artist, has as cordial a recognition in America as any one could desire. Americans who reside for any time in England, whatever their prejudices may have been, soon come to love the country and the people with a great and earnest love—the love of blood and race, a common ancestry and a common mother land.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

SECESSION AND THE WAR.

I HAVE been, as the reader may have observed, an ardent politician of the Democratic party of American politics-the constitutional-state's rights party which is, though not so called, the really Conservative party. That party has elected nine Presidents out of thirteen, four of whom were re-elected. In fact, after the days of John Adams, the anti-Democratic party, though it elected two Presidents, Gen. Harrison and Gen. Taylor, both of whom died soon after their respective inaugurations,

can scarcely be said to have been in power at all, until the great division of the Democratic party in 1860 enabled Mr. Lincoln, with a minority of votes-lacking more than a million of a popular majority-to be constitutionally elected.

This long and uninterrupted control of the government had drawn into the ranks of the Democratic party great numbers who cared more for the honours and gains of office than for the principles of Democracy. Office-seeking and office-holding had become the business of thousands-hundreds of thousands. Disgust at the corruptions of politicians drove the best men out of the field of politics, and it was, in some places, scarcely reputable to become a candidate for any official position.

When the Democratic party divided, and one convention nominated Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, for the Presidency, and the other Mr. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, there was no longer any hope of the peaceful preservation of the Union. Mr. Lincoln was nominated at Chicago by a sectional-a Northern party on a Northern platform. This nomination was a declaration of war against the South. It was certain that Mr. Lincoln would not have the vote of a single Southern State. The only chance was that two or three Northern States would be able to give a majority to one or the other Democratic candidate, and so defeat Mr. Lincoln and save the Union for four years longer.

James Buchanan was President—an old Democratic politician, experienced in the Senate, in the Cabinet, and in diplomacy. He was not a great man, but an able, prudent, and safe Though a Northern man, he had no sympathy with any Northern sectional party. He wished to preserve the Union, but he did not believe the Federal Government had a right to make war upon any State for that purpose.

one.

Mr. Lincoln was elected in November, 1860. The Southern States had declared that they would secede from the Union in such an event; not that they cared personally for Mr. Lincoln,

but because he would be elected upon a "platform" or system of policy which, if carried out, as they had a right to believe it would be, would destroy their rights and security in the Union. The war which had been waged against the South in pulpit and press, in state legislatures and in Congress, in underground railways and John Brown raids, in a thousand forms of insult, injury, and outrage, culminated in the election of Abraham Lincoln and the triumph of the Black Republican party in the Northern States. The South could remain in the Union with all its vexations and annoyances as long as the Democratic party in the North was strong enough and united enough to stand by the rights of sovereign States. When that party became demoralised and divided, and the South had no hope of justice in the Union, no honourable course was left but to retire from the Federation.

Caleb Cushing, a Massachusetts Yankee, who has been nominated by President Grant as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and, on his rejection by the Senate, appointed Minister to Spain, was the President of the Charleston Democratic Convention of 1860. Speaking of the Republican party, he said.

"Opposed to us are those who labour to overthrow the Constitution, under the false and insidious pretence of supporting it; those who are aiming to produce in this country a permanent sectional conspiracy-a traitorous sectional conspiracy of one half the States of the Union against the other half; those who, impelled by the stupid and half-insane spirit of faction and fanaticism, would hurry our land on to revolution and civil war; those, the banded enemies of the Constitution, it is the part, the high and noble part of the Democratic party of the Union, to withstand, to strike down, and conquer"

But they failed to do it; and when they failed, there came secession and war. Half-a-million of lives might have been