The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-12-14
From the Chdrleston Mercury, December 8.
Cuba and the south.

One of the considerat tons that naturally should
isfuence opinion ut the South, is that, with the
possession of Cuba Spain is a slaveholding State,
having interests and symPsthes in some degree
opposed to that mischevous metropolitan which
has so deeply injected Western Europe and the
Northern States. and thus Spain breaks that pha-
lanx of aggressive opinion which threatens in 30
many ways to disturb the relations of peace.
Naturally Spain is our ally, and her interests
would secure her to US az a friend. Our inter-
course and trade with Cuba would be favored be.
yond that of hostile to her the question of
slavery; and with firm confidence in our friend
ship, the South would be counted the best safe
guard for the preservation of the industrial insti
tutions of that great and rich colony.
Deprive Spain OF Cuba, and she has no longer
any interest in the support of slavery. We throw
into the ranks Of our enemies the only nation of
Europe that now has any sympathy with our
a proof of an aggressive, grasping sprit, blinded
by tn, love of acquisition to the commonest laws
Of right and wrong, and the plainest duties of
good neighborhood ...
We are casting away all the advantages we
might easily secure, through the peaccabe posses
sion Of Cuba by Spain. Commercial relations ore
already shaken. The tendency towards social in
tercourse with the South, which a few years since
was manifest, is now quite checked We are
looked on by the body Oft Cuban people as enc
mics, watching opportunity to invade their soil,
piunder their property, and break Up all the rela-
tions Of social quiet. We overhang them with an
ever-threatenng danger. We make them feel in
secure in all their possessions The value Of pro-
perty must speedily feel the effect of this state OF
things; and of all property none will be sens-
tive to the blight of this incessant disquiet the
property in slaves, and in the lands cultivated by
them. Ia 1t not the height of political madness for
the people of the South to join in these reacherous
demonstration the first disastrous effect of which
must fall upon that institution in the preservation
OF which they 80 deeply interested, and the
strengthening Of which lie the very motive by
which they are urged into this most unaccountabe
course!
II ia certainly possible to drive Spain from the
possession OF Cuba by perssting in this course OF
hostility. Spain is poor Mt home, md whatever her
pride might dictate, necessity would at last COM
pei Der to relinqush possession which could no
longer dcfray the cost OF its own defenc,. The
United Staes, or come other nation, might then
step into her placer But for the South, what sort
of possession would il be- thus covered with dearth
and filed with anarchy, by the very process
through which it had been obtaincdi Its slaves
turned loose for want of profitable employment, it's
ulation embittered against US by long course Of
petty hostilities! Would il be proud thing foe
the southern people to look on such scene and
say ''this is our work!'
The very course of lawless and treacherous war.
fare which the people Of the North have adopted
sanction, and they would make Themselves party
to the consideration OF the mschevous principle
that restraints Of law, or kindness, good
ncighbor hood, are To be respected towards n Dor.
dering people, whose government and institutions
not exactly after our model Will they he
brought TO commit so suicidal an actS Will they
thus strip themselves naked OF their deiences, in
the presence Of oil the dangers that surround hen,
and be themselves the ones to trampls in the dirt
those sacred principles of national law and State
rights TO which they constantly appeal against the
invaders of their own peacei