April 12, 1861;
The New York Herald
The New York Herald
Arizona has seceded, gone out, left the United and joined the Confederate States. Arizona! Where is Arizona? It is the Gadsden country, the territory acquired by the Gadsden treaty, and for which the United States paid, if we are not mistaken, ten million dollars to Mexico. Arizona, as yet, is of very little account. Its general character is that of a desert, and its white population is limited to a few hundreds in a few villages. But as this unorganized Territory extends to the head of the Gulf of California, and as its mountains and valleys are known to be rich in silver and gold, it has very great expectations of one day being a second edition of California, particularly with the annexation of Sonora and Lower California, which will include that gulf, six or seven hundred miles long, the peninsula, and, on the Pacific, a corresponding line of sea coast.
This prospective annexation and command of the Pacific Ocean is, no doubt, at the bottom of this Arizona secession movement. New Mexico proper lies between Arizona and Texas; so that to make the secession line complete across the continent, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of California, New Mexico must secede; and she will probably be the next to go.
Then, if they can hold their ground, the Confederate States, occupying the north side of our Mexican boundary all the way through to the Gulf of California, will have secured the monopoly of any further acquisition of Mexican soil. This is the game which, we suspect, the appointment of Hon. Tom Corwin as Mr. Lincoln’s Minister to Mexico is designed to block. And thus the reader will perceive that this secession of Arizona, though a small affair of itself, comprehends a grand programme of expansion on the part of the Confederate States, which the government of the United States is moving to defeat. To this end it is probable that the troops which arrived here yesterday from Texas will soon be shipped back there again. General Scott’s long head in military matters is in this work, and we hope he may live to see the end of it, and the reign of peace once more.