Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/235

Rh extension to the south and west both desirable and attainable; while extension to the north was absolutely blocked. The result had been expansion in the only possible direction, but in a direction which aroused the fears of the Northeastern section.

New England was at that time powerless in the councils of the nation. The rights of this section depended solely on the protection afforded by the Constitution, and on the forbearance and justice of the party in power. To those who have felt the emotions which throb in the hearts of all people of Anglo-Saxon-Norman blood, the excitement in New England from 1803 to 1816 occasions no surprise. The people of each section in turn have been restive under like conditions. In 1820 the people of New England had reflected soberly. They had become convinced that the ruling sections entertained no purpose of invading their liberties, or injuring their interests. The policy of expansion, indeed, threatened to confirm the temporary control of the party which they still considered the &quot;Southern party,&quot; but an examination of the map pointed out the road to the future recovery of their lost political prestige. Since expansion could not be resisted, they yielded the contest, and turned attention to the organization and assimilation of the territory acquired. Even at that early day they recognized the disadvantage under which the South would be placed by its institution of slavery in the race for settling and controlling the northern portion of the new country, and they entered on the work of acquiring political control of the coming States with a forecast of the future. In this work they displayed a persistence and resolution equal to that shown by the South in the acquisition, and an energy more intense. Even before the treaty with Spain had been concluded in 1821, this purpose had been clearly outlined.

In this stage of affairs, the course of President Monroe in shaping the Spanish cessions, was peculiarly accept-