Union, by subjecting us to a foreign legislation, regulated by foreign
interests, would lead to the prostration of our manufactories, general
impoverishment, and ultimate ruin. * * * The danger of our Union does
not lie on the side of persistence in the American system, but on that
of its abandonment. If, as I have supposed and believe, the inhabitants
of all north and east of James River, and all west of the mountains,
including Louisiana, are deeply interested in the preservation of that
system, would they be reconciled to its overthrow? Can it be expected
that two thirds, if not three fourths, of the people of the United
States would consent to the destruction of a policy, believed to be
indispensably necessary to their prosperity? When, too, the sacrifice
is made at the instance of a single interest, which they verily believe
will not be promoted by it? In estimating the degree of peril which may
be incident to two opposite courses of human policy, the statesman would
be short-sighted who should content himself with viewing only the evils,
real or imaginary, which belong to that course which is in practical
operation. He should lift himself up to the contemplation of those
greater and more certain dangers which might inevitably attend the
adoption of the alternative course. What would be the condition of
this Union, if Pennsylvania and New York, those mammoth members of our
Confederacy, were firmly persuaded that their industry was paralyzed,
and their prosperity blighted, by the enforcement of the British
colonial system, under the delusive name of free trade? They are now
tranquil and happy and contented, conscious of their welfare, and
feeling a salutary and rapid circulation of the products of home
manufactures and home industry, throughout all their great arteries.
But let that be checked, let them feel that a foreign system is to
predominate, and the sources of their subsistence and comfort dried up;
let New England and the West, and the Middle States, all feel that they
too are the victims of a mistaken policy, and let these vast portions