Iowa capitol reporter. [volume] (Iowa City, Iowa) 1841-1855, 1853-02-23
From the Washington Union.
The Immediate Question.

Inc RMfaEeulatc question.
Cuba trembles on the crisis of her destiny.
few months may decide whether she is to be
bond or free-Hcaven planted sentinel of our
southern sea, shall belong 10 the blacks or
whites. This is the immediate question; and
if the Union does not make haste to guard it
against and adverse solution, by declaring
peremptorily and with authority that in no case
will it permit the negroes of Cuba to be armed
and licensed for the subjugation of the whites
unless this position is clearly and decidedly
taken by Congress, and taken at once, we have
good reason to fear that England is prepared
to occupy with energy the field We leave open
to her use. 1t is not new light to any of our
observant statesmen that the aim and policyof
England is to secure the negro preponderance
ir the West Indies; for as the nursing mother
and ever vigiant guardian ofthe colored race
on our border, however she may deal with
them elsewhere, she makes no secret of her
determination to maintain in every social and
official grade the dominating advantage which
the blacks derive from their numbers. Thus
in all the British islands mu'attoes and me-
groes sprinkle through every gathering-from
the colonial legis ature to the governors din
ner-table there is found the same impressive
mosaic of all shades and varieties of color
from the pure and FURNISHED jet of Africa to
the spotless white of northern Europe 1t is
the pride aud boast Of England that she tax
ed her toiling Industry at home to compensate
in part the ruined planters of her West India
islands for the forced and abrupt emancipation
of their slaves, and thclconsequent stagnaton
of their resources, From that period Jamaica
and the other British colonies have been stu
diously moulded into negro provinces by a
liberal and systematic fosterage of the African
population; which, in truth has succeeded so
well that we may hope some day to see the
Ireland; and the object of this peculiar favor
iteism is confesselly with view to possess on
the southern border of the Union force capa-
BILE of disturbing at any emergency the social
equilibrium Of the entire South. Neither has
the British government hesitated to dwell in
open Parliament upon.the value Of Cuba as
means of cutting in twain the trade between
the Atlantic and Gulf States.' To command
Cuba it is not absolutely necessary to possess
it as positive and recognised colony. While
owned by her timed and inert debtor Spain, she
can dictate her wishes and rely on passive obe-
dience. If there is danger that Cuba may break
her chains, she has but to say to Spain, "Arm
and set on the negroes of the island in war
Of races, and the unarmed whites will soon be
exterminateu or subdued. Cuba will be con-
verted to second San Domingo, and become
utterly worthless to the Union" This, is in.
deed, the argument officially used by the Brit.
ish minister to the Court of Spain, when in
September, and again in October, he urgently
advises Spain to liberate the blacks as the
best means of preventing the annexation of the
island of Cuba to the United States. When
the Spanish minister replies that this proce.
dure would be contrary to the advice which
England has heretofore given to conciiate the
inhabitants of Cuba, the representative of En-
gland promptly answers. "Not at all; it is the
coored population in which England feels h
strong interest, and it must naturally identify
itself with the power that comedies to it such
valuable privileges" In briec, Lord Palmer
ston and Lord Howden do not pretend to veil
their object in the slightest. They state to
Spain, and they cause it to be published in the
leading Loudon papers, that England warmly
desires to see the blacks of Cuba liberated; or
in other words, put in the ascendency in order
to make the island worthless to civilization
and the United States, and thus prevent an
nexation." This casting act would put the
entire West Indies under black dominion, for
the British and French islands are little re-
moved from Hayti in the social predominance
Of the colored race, and England would then
reign the dictator of them all and as such hold
the key of our gulf seaboard AID the gates of
the Pacific transit.
For twenty years We have looked on yet saw
not that she was building up, shaping out our
threshold. She boasted of the power to cut
into the communication between the manufac.
turing North and the agricultural South; but
we heard 1T not. She conniyed at the intro
duction Of one hundred thousand negroes from
Africa to increase the colored force in which
she has this deep and disinterested interest
and we heed not; and even now, when she de.
clared officially and without reserve, that Gu
ba must be given to the negroes to save it from
annexation, we remain as if it concerned us
not.
There are twenty thousand Spanish soldiers
in Cuba, and there are fifty thousand negroes
capable of bearing arms; Spanish fortresses
level their frowning artillery on every popu-
lous city, ready to pour forth hail storm of
desolation at the first uprising for liberty; and
between these forts and this legion of imported
barbarians is an oppressed and discontcnted