Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-01-01

years since was manifest Is now quite checked We
looked by the body of the Cuban people as enemies
watching opportunity to invade their soil plumber their
property and break up all the relations of social quiet
We overhang them with ever-threatening danger We
make themfeel insecure in all their possessions The
value OF property must speedily feel the effect of this
state Of things; and Of all property will be as SEN
ye the blight of this incessant disquiet as the pro-
pery in slaves and in the lands cultivated by them Is
il not the height of political madness for the people of the
South to join in these treacherous demonstrations the
first disastrous effect of which fall upon that inst
tuition in the preservation of which they so deeply in
teresed and the strengthening Of which is the very
tive by which they urged into the
| course? 3eE
1t is certainly possible to drive Spain from the DOS
session Of Cuba by persisng in this course Of hostility
Spain is poor at home and whatever her pride might die
tate, necessity would at last compel her to renoush
possession which could longer defray the cost Of its
own defence. The United States or some other nation
might then step into her place. But for the South what
of possession would it be- thus covered with earth
and filed with anarchy by the very process through
which it had been obtained! Its slaves turned loose for
want of profitable employment its rich plantations gone
TO waste and its white population ebttered against
by long course of petty hostilities Would il be
proud thing for the Southern people to look on such
scene, and say, I" This is our work!n 5
The very course of lawess and treacherous warfare
which the people Of the North have adopted towards them
would in this receive their sanction and they
would made themselves party to the consideration Of
the mschievous principle that no restraints of law or
Kindness good neighborhood IRE be respected to-
wards bordering people whose government and nstitu-
tons are not exactly after model VIII they be brought
to commit suicidal act? Will they thus strip them
selves naked OF their dences in the presence Of all the
dangers that surround them and be themselves the
to In the dirt those sacred principles Of national
law and State rights to which they constantly appeal
against the invaders Of their own peace? ss5
But aside from all the difficulties and dangers that sur
round the acquisition of Cuba, whether by between
notwithstanding neghborhood and even supposing all
these objections obvated and the acquisition allowed
be made without and without COST there
the measure strong enough make the Southern
people pause in the pursuit.
We do allude to the monarchical habits Of the
people, which would render standing army for the pre-
servaon Of order Indispensable to the difference
race which would make it the hardest Of all things
troduce our political institutions there to the fact
that there has always been established religion in the
Island eagued with the Government claiming universal
obedience and supported by 1.-THE Of the produce Of all
lands nor to the equally imposing fact that with its pre-
sent commerce. and with the habits of smuggling that
have grown up every where, Cuba must be filled with
custom-house police well standing army and thus
become the mere creature of the Federal Government
and its natural ally in every aggression upon the South
we pass over all these weghy considerations and find in
the sole condition Of slavery in Cuba powerful argu
ment against its annexation.
The present white population of Cuba is 600 900 the
free coored population somewhat more than 900 600 anc
the slaves about 400 OOO Cuba is but little larger thar
South Carolina and has almost twice the population
has grown through centuries under set Of laws and
toms little changed. Its habits IDEAS and whole social
spirit far fixed than those of any State of the
Union Now radical feature of slavery in Cuba is the
slave trade with Africa and another is ncessant enamel
patton and this through the operation of established
law Every slave has the right to buy his freedom and
the maximum price which the master demand is
$500 Moreover the law allows the slave to have his
value fixed and then to take his time to pay it,
giving to him portion of his time corresponding to the
portion of his price which he has paid. Thus, all the
dissatisfied and all the ambitious among the slaves
in perpetual transition towards freedom and the class
of free coored people, which ordinarily increases very
slowly in Cuba the most rapidly advancing of ALL In
i the last ten years it has increased % per cent
The slave population is kept up by the African slave
trade. The annexation of Cuba would be death blow
to this trade Our laws and the universal feeling of
people, are opposed to it; and If this enough,
Government is in the hands of the Free States
and league with England and France for the suppression
| of the trade.
With this suppression of the slave trade side,
and this ncessant emancipation the other what chance
would Cuban slavery have of escaping from the Abolition
lists Of the North and the free negroes with whom is
thronged Moreover there is additional obstruction
to the preservation Of the slave population in its actual
condition. The male population exceeds the female in
the proportion of about five to three, and this has been
the for period dating back to the earliest of
the island which have 1t is said indeed, that
such is the severity of labor that this enormous rregu
lary of the produces little Of that irreguarity
conduct that would nearly destroy all natural increase
under mild SYSTEM but is essential consideration
in estimating the prospects of the slave population and
bound to conclude that without the slave trade al
the great planting interests Of Cuba undergo steady
4 and fatal decline.
We vainy hope that the laws thus destructive of il
would be changed by the annexation Of Cuba We should
not be her legislators, she state of the Union
Cuba is already peoped and by that would retain
its jealous exclusiveness with all the ervd nacity
religious bgotry and national and social repusion.