A significant pamphlet.
--One of those pamphlets which so often precede the consummation of a contemplated measure by the Emperor of the French has lately made its appearance in Paris, and has thrown the correspondent of the London News into a fever of apprehension. The writer is M. Chevalier, well known in literary and political circles as an author of great power. The correspondent has no doubt that the pamphlet is inspired by the Emperor, from the fact that it is in perfect harmony with the "known leanings" of that Monarch. In its general scope it argues that Mexico will be of infinite value to France, and that the expected value is only to be realized by an early recognition and intimate alliance with the Confederate States. The Southern cause is pleaded with so much fervor, and the institution of slavery defended with so much ingenuity, that the correspondent of the News thinks Mr. Slidell himself could not have done it better. At the same time, he thinks Mr. S. would not have urged the overthrow of the Monroe doctrine, (in which, we take it, he is much mistaken,) or made such a preachment about the Latin races. The pamphlet says the present condition of Mexico is the personal work of Napoleon; for while everybody else was considering the expedition as a mere military affair, he had already settled, in his own mind, "the basis of an entirely new policy." The imperial instructions to Gen. Forey contained the following very significant sentence:"In the present state of civilization the prosperity of America is not indifferent to Europe; for it is America which feeds our manufactures and commerce. We are interested in seeing the United States powerful and prosperous; but it is not for our interest that she should get possession of the entire Gulf of Mexico, and from that basis of operations domineer over the Antilles and the South, and become the sole dispensatory of the products of the New World."
France is not only determined to resist the absorption of South by North America, but she will support the Latin races in the Western Hemisphere. Forey's expedition is to be followed by an "army of merchants," and "the recognition of the Confederate States will be the consequence of the intervention."--The fine climate of Mexico, its unrivalled fertility, the variety and exuberance of its productions, are dwelt upon with something very like rapture. Universal suffrage is recommended, on the ground that, in Mexico, the Plebs are the friends of order, while the upper or aristocratic classes are the worst of Anarchists. Emigration on a large scale, under French protection, is also recommended. Whether Maximilian accept or not, emigrants will be protected by French influence.
So far, so well. But there is one idea broached in the pamphlet which we wish to bring prominently before the public. After intimating that the leaders of the revolution would be quite ready to yield its leading principle (slavery) in deference to France, the pamphlet says: ‘"The first power which recognizes the Confederate States will have a right to obtain, in favor of the negroes, much larger concessions than the Federal States would make in case of their restoring the Union by victory."’ It is as well to put a stop to all calculations of this character at once. If Napoleon mean to interfere with the question of slavery in any way whatever, or to ask anything else in consideration of recognition, we can have nothing to do with him. We claim recognition as a right. We are entitled to it from every nation on earth, and we will pay nothing for it. We would, as a gratuity, give France great advantages in trade for a term of years; but we will never submit to have the game of Nice played upon us.
The pamphlet goes, on to say that as soon as France recognizes us all the other States will do the same; the small States first, and finally England — that our force will be quintupled by the adhesion of Austria on Maximilian's account, of Spain on account of Cuba, and lastly it speaks of the French Navy as a powerful argument to dissuade the North from prosecuting the war any farther.
There can be little doubt that this pamphlet is one of the Emperor's feelers. It certainly indicates an early recognition, if we are to judge of people's intention by what they profess to think right.
Whatever may be the issue — whether the pamphlet prove to be the veritable programme of the French Emperor or not — it is certain that the Yankees are very much alarmed. Already they have invented a story that Mr. Slidell has offered Texas as a bribe to France to secure her recognition, as if Mr. Slidell or anybody else had the right to make any such offer, and as if the Emperor does not know that he has no such right. Each State beyond the Mississippi is sovereign and independent — is a nation in itself — and can break off from this Confederacy and form any sort of connexion with France or any other power it may think proper. This is the theory of our Constitution — the very groundwork of our revolution. But neither Mr. Slidell, nor the Confederate Government, nor any other power on earth, save the people of those States, in convention assembled, can transfer them to any other power. For those States themselves, it is proper to say that they evince not the least disposition to separate from us. On the contrary, at the late convention of their Governors, those high officers, representing their opinions and wishes, declared their firm resolution to sink or swim with their sister States on the east of the Mississippi. This Yankee story, therefore, is simply a Yankee lie, and nothing more or less.
