Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/319

306 cratic party, published by authority, and appointed to be read in caucuses and conventions. It may be "said or sung," as follows:—"I believe in the Fugitive Bill; I believe in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill; I believe in the Dred Scott decision; I believe in the Lemmon decision. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen." II. The next measure is to conquer Mexico, Central America, and all the Northern Continent down to the Isthmus; to conquer Cuba, Hayti, Jamaica, all the West India Islands, and establish Slavery there. This conquest of the Islands might seem rather a difficult work — it might require some fighting; but the late Hon. Senator Butler, of South Carolina, was very confident it would be done. You remember how he spoke of those islands in a rambling speech that he once made, which was truth-telling, because drunken. You smile; but if in vino Veritas be good Latin, à fortiori is it good American to say, there is more truth in whisky, which is stronger? In one of his fits of "loose expectoration," that distinguished senator, a representative man, like Bully Brooks, instantial and typical of his State, spoke of "our Southern Islands," meaning Cuba, San Domingo, Jamaica, Trinidad, St. Thomas, and the rest. He called them our islands, not that they were so then, or because he had any personal knowledge that they ever would be; but "being in the spirit" (of Slavery), and the spirit (of whisky) being also in him—imperium in imperio—by this twofold inspiration (of Slavery from without and whisky from within), and from this double consciousness (out of the abundance of the stomach the mouth also speaking), he prophesied (this medium of two spirits), not knowing what he said.

That is the second measure,—to re-annex the West Indies and the Continent.

III. The third measure is to restore the African slave trade. Now and then the South puts forth a feeler, to try the weather; the further South you go the more boldly are the feelers put out. South Carolina and Louisiana seem ready for this measure; and of course the Supreme Court is ready. You must not be surprised if yet another article be added to the Democratic creed, and we hear Mr. Cushing deacon off this new Litany of Despotism, with—"I believe in the African Slave Trade."