AMBITIOUS SCHEMES OF THE UNITED STATES.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 721, 12 March 1853, Page 3

AMBITIOUS SCHEMES OF THE UNITED STATES.

(From the “ Times.”} It has ever been the delight of historians and philosophers to trace and work out an analogy between the peculiarities of climate and scenery and the character and disposition of nations. There is something singularly wild and extreme in the physical phenomena of the American continent. The mountains literally pierce the clouds, and pour down from their snow-capped summits rivers that sweep their uncontrollable course for thousands of miles, and bear with them, as trophies of their might, trees of a girth and growth unknown to the European observer. The seasons are as strongly marked. A summer of raging and almost intolerable heat is succeeded by a winter of little less than Arctic severity. All things there tend to represent the course of nature as the result of a series of violent and uncontrollable impulses, and to conceal those silent and unvarying laws which regulate alike the fall of a drop of rain and the course of the mighty Father of Waters, There never probably was, since the beginning of the world, an instance of such solid, sudden, and dazzling prosperity as has been achieved within the last fifty years by the United States of America. By peaceful industry and bold but well weighed enterprise they have advanced to a degree of material wellbeing which, to those who only know the world from books, must appear almost incredible. They have but to persevere in the same course, and’there is no limit to the triumphs that lie before them. They have still a boundless territory to occupy and improve, in the possession of which they arc without a neighbour, and a mission of civilization and consolidation to execute as noble as ever devolved upon the sons of men. But the previous triumphs of their industry and enterprise have been so rapid and portentous that they would seem to have a tendency to turn aside the nation from its steady onward course, and to enlist in it more brilliant but far less certain schemes of aggrandisement. A nation of hard-headed traders and speculators struggling day by day with praiseworthy perseverance and intensity for the possession of the “almighty dollar,” this people, so shrewd and calculating in its private transactions, becomes, when it touches on public affairs, wild and extravagant, boundless in its aspirations and insatiable in its cupidity. It possesses a will as uncontrollable as the powers of nature which surround it, and spurns the’control of law to which these mighty agencies so humbly submit themselves.

There are at present two courses of policy open to tho United States —the policy of commerce and the polic} r of conquest. It is open to them to throw down commercial restrictions, to stimulate the spirit of traffic, to give up aspirations of military glory, and found a power like that of their mother country, relying rather on arts then arms; or they may substitute the military for the commercial spirit, seek to establish within themselves a world of their own, and to enlarge a territory already too vast for unity by the forcible annexation of lands too weak to resist the onset of the mighty confederation.. Never had a people good or evil set so fairly before them, and never was the choice more doubtful .and momentous.

It is now just a year since the piratical expedition to Cuba, resulting in the sanguinary execution of fifty American citizens ami the ignominous death of the “ unprincipled adventurer” by whom the descent was planned. We had hoped that this severe lesson, a single reverse amid so much prosperity and progress, would have taught the United States the Folly and wickedness of such unwarrantable enterprises, and finally decided the balance in favour of the policy of justice and moderation. There is much reason to fear we were mistaken. A sort of “guild” or “order” has been formed in the South, consisting, we suppose we must say, not of unprincipled adventurers but of many of the most “ worthy and influential merchants, lawyers, and politicians of the country.” The object is the extension of American influence over the Western hemisphere and the islands of the Atlantic and Pacific. The first booty on which they have cast their eyes is Cu ia and from that island they propose to sweep away every vestige of Spanish authority before two suns have risen and set on the invaders. Enlightened public opinion in the United States, it is said, will sanction this measure, seeing that there are many reasons why Americans require the possession of the island. In the first place they wish to substitute for the iron rule of Spam the’republican system of government; next, they anticipate assistance from the discontented Creoles—a fallacious hope, if we may judge by the experience of Lopez. Thirdly, they see in the acquisition of this island a guarantee for the permanency of the institution of slavery. Fourthly,

such a conquest would extend t!ioir commerce. Fifthly, the rich and luxurious covet th'sgemof the Antilles as an agreeable and accessible retreat from the severities of a New York winter, and long to exchange the frozen breezes of the North for enchanting visions of orange trees and sherry cobbler. The sum and substance of all those reasons is that, without pretending a shadow of right to this possession of the Crown of Spain, the Americans desire it, and therefore will have it. Whatever the Americans can take belongs to them according to this new school of ethics ; and come peace or come war, they will not permit the intervention of any European Power between them and any friendly ally whom they are determined to plunder. It is no little question that is raised by these avowed intentions—nothing less than whether one of the first-rate Powers of the world shall declare itself exempt from the provisions of the law of nations, shall deny the existence of any right except that of the stronger, and claim to set no hounds to its aggressions except the limits assigned by its boundless cupiditv and lust of dominion. Shall there arise in the middle of the nineteenth century a piratical State, bound by no laws, recognising no rights, and avowedly basing its policy on principles which in the case oi individuals this very same society would visit with the Penitentiary or the gibbet \ There was a time when, intoxicated like the United States with its enormous prosperity, ancient Athens laid down for itself the same rule of conduct, and boldly professed that while justice might claims between equals, the stronger had a right to impose everything to which the weaker might be compelled to submit. After a few years the vicissitudes of events placed this arrogant State in the very position it had described, and rendered it dependent on the contemptuous clemency of a conqueror for that very existence to which, upon its own principles, it had lost all right when it became unable to defend it. Suppose we were to apply a similar reason to the island of Madeira. Nothing would be easier than to take it from the feeble Power to whom it belongs. It is not too well governed by tire Portuguese, it is a commanding commercial position, and its climate is regarded as a specific for the national disease of Consumption. We have, therefore, many reasons to desire it. Why, then, do we not make it our own ? For two reasons, which our American friends will do well to consider. \Ve will not violate the principles of eternal justice, tarnish the lustre of our arms, and disgrace our character for fairness and moderation, by wresting bis property from our ally because he is unable to keep it. And if we wish to do this we dare not. We dread the retribution which follows on such acts, and have learnt that, sooner or later, the force of public opinion will put down any power which claims to emancipate itself from the control of conscience, and the practice ot justice. *\V e commend these considerations in no unfriendly spirit to our friends across the Atlantic, and trust that they will see, on calmer reflection, that in this case, as in all others, their duty is identical with their interest, and that enlightened public opinion in the States, instead of supporting “ worthy and influential” men who foriu themselves into secret societies for the purposes of piracy and bucaniering, will declare that such objects are unworthy, ami that their promoters ought not to be influential.

Among the various fields of broad political speculation, there"is none more suggestive than that discoverable in the future destinies of America. We use the term as importing not simply the thirty-three United States, hut the entire western world—the two enormous continents of North and South. Of Europe Napoleon once remarked, that in half a century’s time it would be either Republican or Cossack, and we can now at least conjecture which of these two it will not be. But how is the fate of America to be delineated or conceived ? In their present political condition these immense territories resemble those of Europe in the days of Charlemange. They are imperfectly stocked, by a motley population, including barbarous tribes, degenerate races, rising communities, and powerful States. From north to south, and east to west, everything appeare in process only of formation, incomplete and we* except the boundary between the British colonies and the Union —and perhaps, there is no great necessity for making Oven this reserve—wc shall find no frontier, demarcation, or limit likely to be stable between the Polar Sea and Cape Horn. It is as uncertain which or- what will be the States of the American continent .as it was what would he the kingdoms of Europe ten centuries ago. English, French, Russians, Spaniards, and Portuguese have each their representatives in the field ; but beside these there is a composite community more powerful than all. If the reader will glance at a map of America he will observe that the two continents appear fairly and intelligibly partitioned among greater and smaller States ; but the truth is, that few of these formations or divisions give any promse of durability. Next to the United States lies the famous country of Mexico, one of the noblest territories in the world, and so vast that, before its recent losses, its extent was more than five times that of the Spanish peninsula. To this day it comprises immense provinces, abounding in mineral and vegetable wealth, x'ich in historical traditions, and possessing advantages from geographical situation which are second to none. Hut Mexico, at the present moment, exists in little hut a name. It cannot construct, organize, or maintain any constitution or government. It cannot discharge any of the functions of a State or provide for any political necessities, domestic or foreign. Its substantial anarchy is only mitigated by the spareness and indolence of its population. * It has no frontiers, except on the map ; the very Indians invade it at all points, with impunity*; and an enemy more formidable than the Indians is waiting for the inevitable consummation which it would be wholly superfluous to precipitate. To Mexico succeeds a chaos of republics, resembling it in origin, prospects, and position, and stretching from the passes of the Isthmus almost to Cape Horn. The very names ot these States are only known to European readers as those of repudiating debtors. Their wars, though conducted with the ferocity of cannibals, and almost deserving a record from their very barbarity, survive scarcely in the memory ot their own genciation. To enumerate the constituent provinces of “Columbia” would seem a gratuitous piece ot pedantry, and it would read like a mockery if we expatiated upon the demarcations, politics, relations, or prospects of Peru, Bolivia, Oh.li, La Plata, and Banda Oriental and Paraguay. Iho most assiduous student of current history recoils from the murders, massacres, and revolutions of people whose whole energies appear concentrated on homicide, and whose seem scarcely more comprehensible than those of the Polynesian islanders. For such communities no permanence can be reasonably anticipated, and it would not be easy, indeed, to say in what respect the cutthroats of Buenos Ayres surpass the native savage of Patagonia. The eastern half of the southern continent is absorbed in the enormous empire of Brazil—a state which has at least a legitimate dynasty, an ancient title, a settled government, and a respectable population. By its righteous and liberal treatment, too, of the colored races. It has neutralized the worst element of political evil, and the sincerity which it is now evincing in the abolition of the slave trade is evidence both of sound policy and administrative power. But there is little energy in the Brazilian character. They are clearly not a conquering, scarcely, perhaps an enduring race, and they are almost lost in the boundless expanse of territories nominally their own. We see, therefore, in America three great divisions - those of British America, America by excellence, and Brazil. The second of these,even after acquisitions which within ten years have doubted its extent is still not so large as either of the other

| two, and yet this extraordinary State already j aims at universal dominion,and stretches its views I of conquests over two continents and as many oceans. We need ha at no trouble, we arc sure, to bespeak the notice of the reader for the letter of our American correspondent, which we published today. An “ order” has been instituted in the Union, under the name of the “ Lone Star,” for the avowed purpose of extending the “ power, influence, and commerce of the United States over the Western hemisphere and the islands of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.” The highly figurative language in which the objects of the society have been described in its public ceremonies is likely to excite more ridicule than interest, and some allowance must, doubtless, be made for the exaggeration of which all transatlantic reports are found to partake. We believe, however, that the league thus described does in reality symbolize a ruling sentiment of the Union ; that it is not unlikely tos upply organization to resources which wanted’little else, and that the sketch given by our correspondent of its probable operations is not overcolored. So mighty, indeed, are the actual strides of the United* States towards dominion, that they can hardly he exceeded even by the visions of this extraordinary society. Though Texas and California arc scarcely yet cemented to the political fabric of the Union, we have seen the first step taken to the absorption of Mexico. But this week our intelligence from Washington announced that in dealing with Mexican territory at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Congress would not condescend to any negotiation with the Mexican Government; and while a new and more formidable attempt upon Cuba is almost openly matured, a design upon the Sandwich Islands is advertised with scarcely a semblance of reserve. Napoleon did not deal with Europe more freely than the United States propose dealing with America ; and the very nation which, in the case of the Lobos islets, exclaims againsts the unreasonableness of Peru in pretending to territory thirty-five miles from its coasts, not content with hovering over the islands of the Caribbean, is pushing its own pretensions across the broad Pacific, and endeavouring to extend its jurisdiction to a distance of a thousand leagues. Whether or not the Union possesses stability enough in itself to carry it through these gigantic schemes of aggrandizement may be a question of doubt; but it is not to be denied that the disorganization of the American continent is such ns almost to invite the attempts of a conquering power. The States, too, though not yet preponderating in territorial dominion have a population immensely exceeding that of the other communities on the two continents, even in numerical strength, and incomparably superior in energy and intelligence. Hitherto, by an unparalleled destiny, they have absorbed all immigrants, of whatever race, without any perceptible modification of their political unity, and the desire of preserving the Confederation entire does really appear to have prevailed for the time over all other passions. If this feeling should still predominate, it is difficult to put any limits to the possibilities of the future; but it seems not a little singular that visions of such unscrupulous conquest should be entertained at a moment when the disruption of the original fabric has been seriously threatened, and is still matter of public declamation.

AM E K I C A N Exi’ASSlO X. (From the “ Polynesian.")

The following is a part of the speech delivered before the Vermont Agricultural Society in September, 18-52, by Hon. William H. Seward, U. S. Senator from New York.

Let me urge this duty of self-improvement by consideration of the nature of the great national crisis through which we arc passing. One word describes it—Expansion. Expansion within our borders, to people and organize not less than forty States, each as great and populous as those which now constitute the Union —Expansion beyond our borders to bring in State more numerous thans one dare to conjecture. Do you question the existence of this crisis ! Recollect then, how soon you have become familiar with the yet new States of Wisconsin, lowa, Florida, Texas and California ; and how fast the territorial form of government, only preliminary to that of new States, is extended under names before unknown, in Minesota, Oregon, New Mexico, Utah and Nebraska, Do you doubt the tendency of expansion beyond your present borders! Only sixty years ago, all our settlements clustered between Cape Ann and St. Mary’s river, on the Atlantic coast. Where are they now! On the east and north, they overhang the Bay of Fundy and Lake Superior; southward, they stretch away quite around the Peninsula of Florida to the banks of the Rio Grande; on the west, their setting sun extinguishes his fires in the waters of the Pacific. By purchase and conquest, the boundaries of the Republic have been made to advance equally with the gigantic but voluntary expansion of population. And are we now content! Not at all. On every side there are signs of the chaffing of the people against the rigid and unyielding froi tier. \Vhat do these controversies with the maritime British North American Provinces about the fisheries, and with the inland Provinces about restraints on trade, indicate hut discontent! What these ill-suppressed and desperate expeditions from Louisiana and I lorida against Cuba, hut covetousness of the sugarplantations and coffee-grounds of that beautiful Island! What this ominous diplomatic controversy with Mexico, about a route for a railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but a further dismemberment, if not a complete absorption, of that prematurely declining Republic! And lastly what these explorations and expeditions about Japan and the Sandwich Islands, hut the necessity of naval stations in the Pacific ocean ! Mark, also, that nearly all these coveted countries, not only have the principles of American Republicanism worked out practically institutions substantially similar to our own, hut there are already organized in the native populations, parties strong enough when seconded by efforts on our part, to deliver them into our hands. How significant indeed are the facts that Great Britain has practically relinquished government in the province adjacent to us, to tlieir inhabitants, and that simultaneously with the fixed society in Australia, indications of the rise of a Republic appear! It is happily true that these desires for immediate annexation of adjacent region are local, and in some measure what we call sectional, and so counteractandbalance each other; and that the expanding forces are iilso further modified by conservative apprehensions widely prevailing in the country. Nevertheless, these are on!} 7 checks—not absolute restraints. All such restraints have ultimately given way heretofore, and must do so sooner or later hereafter. Nor may it be believed that any American colony, planted beyond our borders will contentedly remain without, or will, with the national consent, be left to remain independent of the Republic. Experience has taught us that wherever the American people go, they will draw the American government over them; wherever an American colony establishes itself, there, an American people will extend the Constitutional roof over them. Indeed there is nothing new in all these movements neither those within nor those across the national borders. Expan ion and incorporation were laws impressed on the American people two hundred years ago; and they yield to those laws now just as they have hitherto done, because they have arisen out of circumstances above national control, and are inevitable. Let me mot, however, be misunderstood. I advocate no hcadlond progress, counsel no precipitant movement, much less any involving war, violence or injustice. I would not seize with haste and force the fruit which ripening in time, will fall of itself into our hands, But I know nevertheless that the stars will come ont ?

even if the moon delay her rising. I have shown you then that a Continent is to be peopled, and even distant islands to be colonized by us.

The Accumulation of large Estates.—'Nothing exhibits the folly and weakness of human nature more conspicuously, than a morbid desire for gain ; a desire only increasing in intensity as the points of acquisition fixed by the accumulator at different periods as the limit of his wishes, are successively obtained. How often does the rich man determine to take his ease in the enjoyment of what he possesses, when his fortune lias reached a certain sum. Vain hope! spirit of avarice is unsated in his bosom, giving him no rest. The increasing fide of successful acquisition rolls along, bearing him upon its bosom ; the hoarded gold accumulates in his coffers; he exei’cises over the soil a wider and wider sway, but* his desires outrun his fortune.—His heart grows more and callous to the calls of humanity; the one idea absorbs bis whole being, and robs him of every other enjoyment,—And for what end! To benefit bis fellow men by an enlightened application of bis wealth*—How' seldom is a tithe of this hoarded treasure expended to bless mankind. If a dormant conscience, aw’akened at the last, or a desire for a name among posterity, induces him. to set apart the avails of a life for any public object, how often does it happen that the whole or a large portion of the property is lost in illjudged investments by dishonest or in litigation with disappointed heirs-at-laiT. Doea he wish to build up a name and family on tho strength of the. goiden accumulation i That very means, above all others, will hasten the downfall of any family, and bring them with increased velocity, to the bottom of fortune’s wheel. The abolition of entailment, and the unfettering of estates cause property to pass from family to family and from band to hand, dissipating its unnatural accumulations, like the shifting sands. Fortunate is it for the American people that it is so ; for ho who would pride himself upon his wealth is compelled to feel the instability of his position. The aristocracy of wealth is ephemei’al as the morning mist. The shopkeeper or the artisan of the present generation is the progenitor of the millionaire of the next—if the step from respectability to aristocracy is not even shorter. The aristocracy of to-day often furnishes to the next genex-ation its bar-room loungers and its most dissipated and useless citizens. Thethoughtful study of human nature and human vicissitudes inculcatesbumility, charity, and mutual sympathy and respect.

Hunt’s (American) Merchant’s Magazine gives a volume of good advice to young men with the most business-like brevity. Here it is : “ Keep good company or none. Never be idle. If your hands cannot be usefully employed, attend to the cultivation of your mind. Always speak the truth. Make few promises. Live up to your engagements. Keep j T our own secrets if you have any. When you speak to a person look him in the face. Good conversation are the very sinews of virtue. Your character cannot be essentially injured except by your own acts. If any one speaks evil of you, let your life be so that none will believe him. Drink no kind of intoxicating liquors. Ever live, misfortunes excepted, within your income. When you retire to bed, think over what you have been doing* day. Make no haste to be rich if you would prosper. Small and steady gains give competency with tranquility of mind. Never play at any kind of game of chance. Avoid temptation, through fear you may not withstand it. Never* run in debt, unless you sec a good way to get out again. Never borrow if you can possibly avoid it.' •’ Do not marry until you are able to support a wife. t Never speak evil of any one. ..Bo just before you are generous. Keep yourself innocent - if you would be happy. Save when you arc youqg to spend when you are old. Head over the abffve maxims, at least once a week, and adopt the maxims and examples of mercantile morality inculcated and exhibited, from time to time, in the pages'of this journal, and success will crown your efforts m the battle of life.

Wc are glad to sec tliat the faculty of Harvard College have conferred the honorary • degree of A.M. upon Freeman Hunt, Esq., the founder of this magazine, and its editor ’ for the thirteen years it has existed. Such a compliment front our oldest University to the self-made^ graduate of the printing office is a compliment, which nothing but merit could win.

Something for the Girls.— “ Men who are worth having, want women for their wives. A bundle of gewgaws, bound with a string of flats and quavers, sprinkled with cologne, and set in a carmine saucer —'this is no help for a man who expects to raise a family of boys on veritable bread and meat. The piano and the crotchet hook are good in their places; and so are ribbons,frills and tinsel, but you cannot make a dinner of the former, nor a bed blanket of the latter. And awful as the idea may seem to you, both dinner and bed blanket are necessary to domestic happiness. Fife has its realities as well as fancies ; but you make it all a matter of decoration, remembering the tassels and curtains, but forgetting the bedstead. Suppose a young man of good sense, and of course good prospects, to be looking for a wife —-what chance have you to be chosen? You may chap him or trap him, or catch him, but how much better to make it an object for him to catch you. Bender yourself worthy of catching, and you will need -no shrewd mothers or managing brothers to help you to find g market,”

Characteristic Anecdote of Talleyrand,*** Talleyrand, the illustrious diplomatist, one day found himself between Madame dc Stael and Madame Bcc.xmier, both intimate friends, both celebrities “ You say charming things to us both, but which do you prefer?” said Madame do Stael, suddenly. Madame, such a question is a veritable ambush. Take care < f the penal code”— “ Prince, no subterfuge here J Which do you pre-fer-—my friend or myself? Come, speak, is it the brunnette or the blonde?” “It will be her who wi 1 deign to honor me with a look.” “ W hit, still diplomatic! Well, I will put the qu stion hi another form. Suppose, while sailing on the Seine this evening, the boat should upset, and we should be in danger of drowning, which one would you help ?” “ Both at once, or the one that was in the greatest danger.” “But, Monseigneur, __ be. frank for once in your life! Suppose tne peril be equally imminent ?” “ Well, I would give my ritrht hand to you Baroness, and the left hand to Madame Kccamier.” “But if you could save only c n —only one —do you understand?” “ Oh, Madgme, you who know so many things I suppose canswim,” replied Talleyrand. Extraordinary Discovery. Perpetual Light. —A most curious and interesting discovery has just been made at Langres, I ranee, which we have no doubt will cause a searching scientific inquiry as to the material and properties of the perpetually .burning lamps, said to have been in use by the ancients. Workmen were recently excavating for a foundation for a new building in a debris, evidently the remains of a G dic-Boman. erection, when they came to the roof of an underground sort of cave, which time had rendered almost of metalic hardness. An opening wps how-, ever when one of the workmen, instantly exclaimed that there was a light at the bottom of the cavern. The parties present entered, when they found a bronze sepulchral lamp of remarka- r hie workmanship, suspended’from; the roof by chains of the same metah ' It was entirely filled with a combustible substance, which did not appear to have diminished, although the probability is the combustion has been going on for ages.— This discovery will, we trust, throw some light on a question which has caused so many disputes among learned antiquaries, although it is stated that one was discovered at Viterbo in 1540, from, which, however no fresh information was aftorded on the subject,