The State guard., 1848-10-03
Annexation of Cuba.
We have long looked 10 tbe acc1

ment, as subject of tremendous i'm
 portance. We had prepared an article
 some weeks since, for publication, but a:
 we find the following in that able Jour.
 nal, the Mobile Register, we publish them
 instead of our own:
 The acquisition of the island of Cuba
 has long been. favorite measure with
 many ofour enlighten sd statesman. Its sit
 uation is such as to render it of inestmable
 value to the United States. By for the
 largest and most fertile ofthe West indies it's products are those for which there is a
 constant and universal demand in our
 country, and upon the regular supply o
 which depends much of our comfort and
 prosperity. Its area is as great as that o
 some of the largest States of our Union,
 being over forty thousand square miles,
 nearly the whole of which is highly fer.
 tile and easy of cultivation. All the rich
 est commodities of the tropics are pro-
 duced in the greatest luxuriance, and it
 furnishes tobaco, sugar, molasess, coffee,
 and fruits of the finest qualities and flavor,
 to the rest of world. Notwithstanding the
 restrictive system of the mother country,
 Spain, in its government, it is valuable and extensive market for many ofthe pro- duction of the United States. Manufac- lures ofevey kind, breadstuffs, pork, ba- con, cattle and timber have long been car ried there by Yankee enterprise, and have made profitable returns to our country.
 Apart from these intrinsic advantages, the island of Cuba is of immense impor- tance to the United States, from it's posi- tion and relation to our commerce and maritime defences. It is the key of the Gulf of Mexico, and commands the entire intercourse between it's waters and the Atlantic ocean. Such is the regular course ofthe winds and currents, that there is no other exit from our American Medi- terranean, than by the Florida Pass, which is completely commanded by Cuba. The United States have never been able to erect on their possessions bordering on the gulf stream, such Notifications as would secure the safe transit of their vessels, nor will they ever be able to adequately pro- tect them without owning the vast "islann imminent" extending along the South. In case of a naval war, it would be perfectly within the power of any nation owning Cuba, to shut up onr trade in the Gulf to cut it off from the Atlantic ocean and thus to sever our commerce in two, and ef- feet an actual blockade of all the ports in the Gulf of Mexico.
 The importance of this consideration has not been properly appreciated. More than one half of the productions ofthe Uni ted States find their foreign markets through the Gulf; the vast valley of the Mississippi discharges its treasures by this channel three -fourths ofthe great staple of our country, cotton, is borne by vessels through the Florida Pass. A stoppage off this pass would be an effectual blockade ofthe mouth of the Mississippi and of all the rivers from the Chattahoochee to the Rio Grande. All the most fertile portions of our Union, with their teeming wealth the Great West withit inexhaustble supplies of cereal gain of every kind, its '" corn and oil, " its cattle and live stock the South West, with its cotton and sugar, would be cut off from the markets of the world.
 The recent extension of our territorial possessions in Mexico increases the na- tional importance of the possession of the island of Cuba. They constitute vast do- mains which ere long will pass into the hands of industrious and productive culli- vation. Empires here as large and fer tile as many of the richest kingdoms off Europe are germinating now; soon to be. come important and fiourishing States of our confederacy. They will prodigiously increase the commercial resources and of this country; and the inti- mate relations of trade and intercourse we are destined Co establish with the States of the Mexican republic, will add greatly to Lhe importance and value of our present 
 All this vast wealth which at present is ncalculable, will have to pass through the channels of the Gulf of Mexi. co. in its search for appropriate markets, and all the importations of these extensive sections of our Union, of which we have spoken, have to be brought in by the same route. How indespensaby important hen, is it that we should own the island of Cuba, which is the commanding key of he Gulf-without which we are not secure, but with which the circle of our national dominion would be complete and we should stand in lofty position of com- nercial and maritime independence. |
 Our whole Union is interested in this natter, pecunliarly as well,as politically he North and East by their commerce md shipping, and mercantile connexions, but the South and West particularly, by which we have already We need glance no farther han the cities of New Orleans and Mo- ,ile, which are entrepots of these vast sections, to discover the. importance of his proposed acquisition. It would add greatly to the wealth and prosperity off hose cities. An active and immediate commerce, unchek ed by restrictive ar- would spring up at once by which the stInera hllndant prodIicfs of the