To reconcile even the narrow minded calculators of the world to the propriety of our interposing in behalf of the South American governments, should their independence be threatened by the tyrants of Europe, we will throw generosity for a moment out of view, we will remind them of the profitable commercial intercourse we now hold with these widely emancipated countries, whose independence we have already acknowledged, and we will ask them to reflect how infinitely less profitable that intercourse would be, if these countries were again reduced to the restricted and degraded condition of Spanish colonies? It is said that England has actually solicited our aid in resisting any attempt of the continental monarchs against South America. Some of our politicians are disposed to doubt her sincerity in so doing; but we cannot see for what reason. What earthly motive could induce her to invite us into an alliance which she wished not to form; and to which, if formed, she resolved not to adhere? We firmly believe that England is serious in any overtures she may have made to our government in behalf of South American independence. Our chief reason for this belief, is, that her commerce shares equally with ours the benefits of that independence, and to the interests of her commerce she is ever anxiously awake. The suggestions of generosity might not be sufficient to rouse her; but to the calls of interest she will not be inattentive. But whatever may be her motive for going to war, we believe, that to war she will go, unless the kings of France and Spain conciliate her by concessions, which their late successes, we are persuaded, have rendered them too haughty to make. If she should, in this case, enlist her powerful aid in defence of the rights of man, whatever may have been her past offences against this country, they should be magnanimously forgiven, and her efforts against the avowed oppressors of the civilized world honestly and unreservedly supported with all our strength.

Such a coalition in such a cause, would form a glorious era in the annals of nations. It would excite an enthusiasm in the minds of men that would impart to liberal principles an impetus, before which the autocracy of the Holy Alliance would be compelled to bow, and permit mankind to establish for themselves more just and rational systems of government.

However much, appearances may, at present, afford grounds to hope for such a stand to be made by Britain and the United States, still that hope may be fallacious. Should it unfortunately be so, we see no other that remains for the cause of liberty in Spain; and with respect to South American independence, its resources are far beyond what we can suppose them to be, if, unaided, it shall be able successfully to resist the united force of Ferdinand and Louis. Adieu then to liberty in the East, and independence in the South, if neither England nor the United States can, at this momentous crisis, be induced to move in their defence.

There is in the President's late message, a new and noble principle of international policy, the originating of which will confer immortal honour on Mr. Monroe's administration. We allude to the demand made upon the nations of Europe, that they shall no longer look on any portion of the American continent as an object of colonization. This is the first time that this half of the world has spoken in such a bold tone of independent equality, to the other. It is in every respect a sublime annunciation. It will startle the statesmen of Europe, and will be entitled to mark an era in the affairs of men. The Declaration of 1776, bold and important as it was, was only the voice of one nation protesting against the domination of another; but this is the voice of one world disclaiming the unjust pretensions of another to the right of seizing upon its territory, or for the future establishing any new jurisdiction within it.

Ever since America became known to the nations of Europe, the latter have, hitherto, considered such of its soil as might happen to be unappropriated by some of themselves, a fair object of seizure to any of their adventurers that chose to make the attempt. This principle was acted on without obstruction, until scarcely a single province of the two vast continents of our hemisphere, escaped the iron grasp of European avarice and ambition. The nations of the old world having thus distributed the best portions of both our continents amongst themselves, in their treatment of them, took care to show that they were effectually their lords paramount. On principles the most despotic, and frequently the most tyrannic, they enacted for them laws, and regu

lations, and made them, with all their inhabitants, objects of exchange and traffic, as if they were only so many bales of merchandise.

The colonies of Britain, at length, so far as respected themselves, extinguished these pretensions of the old world. Many of the colonies of the other powers have of late, followed their example with success-but an acknowledgment of the integrity of the whole hemisphere was never before demanded. Europe will be astounded to hear it. She will, perhaps, for sometime refuse to comply; but it comes to her at a period, and from a source, which will convince her, that it carries with it something more weighty than mere words; and she will not be able to conceal from herself that her long maintained supremacy over the new world is no more.

It is true, that Mr. Monroe's proposition does not go so far as to extinguish such European authority as is already established and peaceably exercised over certain portions of this continent. This would be improperly interfering with an order of things which our government has already sanctioned by treaties; and the discontinuance of which there are, at present, no justifiable grounds for urging. The British provinces alone, are in this condition; and their inhabitants manifest no desire to change it. They have a right to please themselves as to the authority to which they will submit; and our government is too well aware of that right, and respects it too sincerely to infringe it. Neither is it to be supposed that, by the proposition on which we are commenting, does Mr. Monroe intend to deprive the powers of Europe of the right to wage war with any of the powers of America, and to conquer them, if they can, in the same manner as they would those of any other part of the world. It goes only the length, and considering the past relations between the two hemispheres, a great length it is, to protect the unappropriated districts of the new world from being considered the prescriptive property of the old. Perhaps the views of Mr. Monroe are only to defeat the pretensions of Russia, to our North-Western coast. But whatever may be the views that suggested the measure, it is one which, when considered in connexion with the annals of mankind, assumes a most important and imposing aspect to the

imagination. It is the voice by which a young and thriving world proclaims to harsh and selfish guardians that it has arrived at majority, and is resolved for the future to manage its own

concerns.

The President's message, independently of the splendid feature which has elicited these remarks, is one of the most cheering documents of the kind that ever appeared in this country. It shows, that as a nation, our condition is prosperous; our external defences encreasing daily in strength, our population in number, and our revenue in amount. We are now not only at peace with all the world, but in a condition to render the most powerful nations desirous of our friendship. It is not yet half a century since we took our place among the nations, and now we are making proposals for the amendment of international law. The custom of privateering has been long reprobated by all enlightened and generous men, as an unjust and grievous infringement on the rights of individuals, who are thus made to suffer for the conduct of governments, over which they possess no controul. Every humane mind must, therefore, feel grateful to our President for the efforts he is making for its abolition. A league among the great powers of the civilized world, for such a purpose, might indeed be justly termed the "Holy Alliance." Whatever measure tends to lessen the miseries of mankind, during the disastrous period when nations are arrayed against each other, must be holy and pleasing in the sight of heaven; and since the abolition of the slave trade, none so evidently conducive to this end as the one in question, has been suggested.

We must also give Mr. Monroe credit for the manner in which he speaks of the Greeks. That brave and persecuted people, whose late heroic actions show them to be worthy of the illustrious race from which they sprung, struggling as they now are, in the most noble cause that can rouse patriots to arms, could not fail to excite the sympathy and good wishes of the chief magistrate of a republic like this, which, through all its departments, breathes the purest and most wholesome spirit of freedom that ever animated a nation. We rejoice that our President did not neglect to express that sympathy; but we still more heartily VOL. I.-No. 1.

12

rejoice that it has met with such a cordial response from the people.

Indeed, the most predominant feeling, at present exhibited in this country, seems to be sympathy for the Greeks. It is the fashionable impulse of the day, and it is truly gratifying to see fashion for once ranged on the side of generosity, virtue, and truth. To the fair sex, whose peculiar province it should still be, to impose laws upon fashion, are we indebted for the first expression of that laudable enthusiasm on this subject which now warms our hearts. The Greek cross, erected by the ladies of New York, and the reward they presented for the most appropriate wreath wherewith to crown it, gave the first impulse to the feelings which have since become so widely diffused amongst us. A philanthropic gentleman of our own city, by the liberality of his donation to the New York Greek fund, set the next animating example of zeal in this glorious cause. He has already been imitated by several generous individuals, and we hope that the present tone of feeling will not die away, until a sum be raised, worthy of our present prosperity and reputation, as a republican people, to bestow on such a cause.

This manifestation of popular feeling will naturally have a salutary effect on the proceedings of congress, in respect to Mr. Webster's motion; and we have no doubt, that, before the lapse of many months, the United States will have an accredited agent resident among the Greeks. We feel proud that our country was the first to acknowledge the independence of the South American provinces, but we should feel still more proud if she should be the first to acknowledge the independence of Greece.

As to domestic concerns, the question of highest importance that occupies our attention at the present crisis, is-Who, among all our citizens, is the best entitled to become our Chief Magistrate? This is a question, which, for the greater part of the current year, will claim the most serious consideration from every freeman within the wide bounds of our twenty-four states; for each of them possesses the power of producing an effect on its decision. It is a glorious, an animating spectacle to witness a people preparing, as we now are, to exercise the highest function of sovereignty they can possess, the election of a chief ruler, by