The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1853-07-12
Cuba.

A considerable portion of the public press has
given circulation, if not some degree Of credence
to strange rulpors apparently emanating from
Cuba. These rulnors are to the effect that the
. British government is actively instigating that
of Spain to emancipate the slaves now on the IS
land; that the inducement to this step on the
part of Spain is to be the opening of the ports Of
Cuba, under British guaranty, for the importa-
ton of negroes from Africa to serve fora term OF
years as apprentices and then to be left free up
on the island; and finally, that the Spanish gov
ernment is inclined to regard the whole PROPOSE
tion with much favor, in the view that the adop-
{ ton of such a measure must, at least, forever
s prevent the annexation of Cuba to the United
! States.
We have no reason to believe that these re-
ports are sustained by any sufficient information,
/ or by any other reliable and official evidence
Taken as stated, they assuredly present plan
for the barbarization of Cuba by giving that fair
island over in the course Of few years, to the
sway of horde Of savage negroes, who, under
the name of freedom, would be the slaves Of 4
/ horrible anarchy. This doom-the fate of Hay
ii, and so much the worse, because Cuba would
give the larger field for its deveopment-would
be all that could be hoped for the "Quccn Of the
! Antilles" if the plan Of emancipation and Atri-
can immigration, as above stated, should take ef-
feet. If on the other hand, the term of appren-
ticeship both for the emancipatcd slaves and the
imported Africans should be extended, as, accord
ing to some statements, it is to be, to about the
average of slave life in Cuba then the opening
of the ports Of Cuba for the importation Of such
apprentices, is of course only another name for a
gigantic expansion and legalization Of the slave
trade! Now, while it is undoubtedly true that
the condition of Cuba and the policy both Of
England and Of Spain iu respect to it are such
as to demand the careful attention of the Gov
ernment fthe United States to the whole sub
iect vet it is not credible except upon.the clear
est and fullest evidence; it is fact scarcely
conceirable-that those governments should
lend themselves, the one to the enforcement and
the other to the adoption Of scheme manifest
. ly involving consequences so unspeakaby de-
p!orable.,
Be this as it may, however, there can be no
doubt that the adoption Of a policy either by
Great Britain or Spain, designed to renew in Gu
ba, upon larger scale and in an aggravated
form, the horrors and the suffering Of Hayt,
must rouse and unite against it as single man
the masses Oh lne poPuldtou VI an secIios vi l'i1
United States. In such crisis, if it shall ever ar
rive there is as little doubt that our government
will fully respond to the spirit Of the people
The plan of stretching Gordon of barbarous or
semibarbarous free negro islands all along our
Atlantic coast-with Cuba, the-largest Of them,
efectually commanding the outlet Of the whole
West and Southwest through the Mississippi
and alof them necessarily the centres and strong
holds of the worst form Of abolIoniSt agitation
this is plan alike at war with every Impulse
of humanity, every dictate Of Christianity and
every principle of civilization. When even con-
templated as result of British interference in
the affairs of the established governments of this
continent, it demonstrates the salutary wisdom
of that policy which, in the language Of the In
augural, proclams all such interference to be ut
terly inadmisssbe. In view of the state Of things
now existing, it is impossible to estimate too
highly the frmne and the forecast which, at
the outset Of the present administration present
ed the whole principle of the Monroe doctrine
demanding an American policy for the Amer-
can Continents cardinal point in the regula-
ton of our foreign relations.
Washington Union.