Yet the doctrine only expresses the destiny of the
American people, and which nothing but their own fault can
prevent them from realizing in its own good time. Napoleon will
not succeed in his Mexican policy, and Mexico will add some
fifteen or twenty new States to the American Union as soon as it
is clearly for the interests of all parties that it should be
done, and it can be done by mutual consent, without war or
violence. The Union will fight to maintain the integrity of her
domain and the supremacy of her laws within it, but she can
never, consistently with her principles or her interests, enter
upon a career of war and conquest. Her system is violated,
endangered, not extended, by subjugating her neighbors, for
subjugation and liberty go not together. Annexation, when it
takes place, must be on terms of perfect equality and by the free
act of the state annexed. The Union can admit of no inequality
of rights and franchises between the States of which it is
composed. The Canadian Provinces and the Mexican and Central
American States, when annexed, must be as free as the original
States of the Union, sharing alike in the power and the
protection of the Republic--alike in its authority, its freedom,
its grandeur, and its glory, as one free, independent,
self-governing people. They may gain much, but must lose nothing
by annexation.
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