Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1851-09-04
From the N. o. True Delta, of August g.
The Cost Of the Acquisition of Cuba to the
Southern States.


measures and proceedings calculated TO in
crease still more the territory of the Repub-
lie, without pausing to estimate the proba-
BILE cost of the acquisitions, the morality of
the proceedings, or the dangers to the perma-
nence and stability of the Union, from a
cause SO disorganizing, perilous, and extra
ordinary.
we yield to no man in our republican in
stitutions, in our respect for their power,
their grandeur, their goodness and their re-
sponsbiiity; butwe do not wish to be misun-
derstood that, because we think and so write,
we are advocates of such extension of our
territorial limits as will inflict incalculable
injury upon States now within the Confede-
racy, destroy industry at present considered
domestic, disturb the equilibrium now ex-
listing, or introduce new, and distracting
questions to divide the people, and perad-
venture to break up the Union.
Whatever measures, then, which have to
our minds this tendency, shall receive no ia
vor from our hands, no matter who may be
their progenitor, or the amount Of local popu-
larity they are able to command.
We cannot but regard the annexation of
Cuba as of this character, and unless the adj
yocates of that measure, fraught as it is, in
its most favorable aspect, with grave draw
backs, can give some better argument for
their designs and intentions upon it than the
manifest destiny doctrine, we think it be-
hooves every Southern man well to consider
the matter in all its certain and possible con-
quences, before he becomes committed TO its
support or lends himself to its promotion.
we can scarcely imagine question more
calculated to mislead, to dazzle, and deceive
the Southern mind than the annexation of
Cuba. Its capabilities can hardly be exag-
gerated; the number and richness of its ag-
ricultural products exceeded; its position for
commerce surpassed. Sugar, Tobacco and
Coffee are the chief staples; mines ofcopper,
lead and coal abound; the soil produces all
the plants and fruits of the tropics in the
greatest variety, abundance and richness;
while the waters of its coast teen with fish
excellent in quality and vast in quantity.
The revenues of the island are said to ex-
coed twenty millions of dollars per annum
and its area to approach to nearly thirty-fv(
millions of acres, large portion of which
has not yet been made subject to cultivation
The white population exceed, according
the census of '46, four hundred thousand o
both sexes; the free colored reach to abou
one hundred and fifty thousand, the slave t.
three hundred and twenty-three thousand, o
whom the males are in the proportion Of al
most two to one.
Persons of good information and practica
minds consider that it is possible TO employ
one million additional slaves protitably in th'
cultivation of the soil of Cuba, and belicv
that the present exports of the island can b
quadrupled thereby. From this opinion WI
are not inclined to dissent; and assuming
to be correct, at least approximately, w
think it worthy of the gravest consideration
of every cotton and sugar planter in tn
: South.
1t will be in the recollection Of our read
ers, that, during the discussion of the Com
: promise in Congress, we earnestly and en-
ergetically advocated admission of Califor
- MIA, with or..without slavery, as she nigh
elect, expressing at the same time our fear
that, should slavery be adopted on the Pacii
ic, it would be at an early day the means c
its extinction everywhere in the Republic
, The arguments we then used we do not re
: member to have seen disputed or denied, an
4 we, now that the object of Cuban anneXatio
t has been forced upon the community, deer
= the occasion pertinent for their reproduction
f Had slavery been permitted in Californi
= its immediate effect would have been to drai
: large numbers of slaves from the frontie
r States, where their labor is less valuable
: and their profitable employments more pre-
r carious. Virginia, Delaware, Marylant
: Missouri, and Kentucky would have immC
$ diately felt the effects in a very sensible din
y mutton of their servile population, if not
S an extent that wonld incline them to reliI
u quishment of the institution in perpetuity.
/ The same effect only on much large
h scale, must be experienced, should the cours
|, of inevitable events, or the policy of OIL
e Government, lead to the incorporation
y: the Island of Cuba with these free State
# and such an event is at this moment presel
'e to the minds of many, and not absolutely in
n possible, should the means of precipitatir
70 thousands of men on that portion of Il
/ Queen of Spain's dominions be Forthcoming
: as it is vsuntingly proclaimed.