New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-06-02
A WAR WITH SPAIN.

war might be carried with little risk danger
to The finances and commercial interests of the cOun-
try ss the late with Mexico, and that Cuba nigh:
be acquired at cheap rate the banks OF the Rio
Grande. New Mexico and California.
The Shareholders have political advantages to gain
real or imaginary by the acquisition OF Cuba, and this
makes them totally nsensible TO what the acqul'
ton may cost; especially as they console themselves
with the idea that, whatever the expense may be-
whether in men, money reputation, three-quarters
Of it at least viii fall upon the Free States which WI"
thus be made the principal agents in placing them-
selves in permanent subsection to the Slave power
But those northern men who regard with comPlacency
the annexation Of Cuba even at the risk OF spanish
war must il is reasonable to suppose, he influenced
by totaly different set Of motives. As the North
has nothing to gain politically but much to lose by
tie annexation of Cuba nothing, it would seem, could
reconcile anybody at the North TO it, except the ex'
reciation of some very great pecuniary profit.
But of mercantile speculations into which war
has entered as an Ingredient, history records very
few. if any which have proved at all successful
Tie famous Dutch West India Company, lords form
erly of this our good City OF New-l ork then known
bv tbe name of New Amsterdam long as they con-
fined themselves to commerce and colOnlzatioh "ere
highly prosperous and successful' but When they I'M
dertook TO add and conquest TO their mercantile
operations though they succeeded in conquering
from the Portuguese large part OF Brazil yet these
very conquests involved them at last in total bank
ruptcy and ruin. Another striking example oil the
same sort is afforded by the English East India Com
paDy Their and conquest ate up all the prohts
OF their trade and mercantile enterprise proved
entirely unsuccessful and even rulnous, obIgIng the
Company to apply repeatedly to Parliament Tor Pc
cnary aid and to submit to such terms As the ministry
saw fit to impose Nor has the success OF national
wars undertaken with commercial objects III view,
proved any more striking The earliest enterprise I'M
,ertaken against Cuba, in which the Colonies no" the
United States of America participated was shatled by
Vernonin l74l who after his disastrous repulse from
made an attempt not much more successful
against that island. These enterprises against Car
thapepa and Cuba to which troops were furnished by
all the American colonies, were among the first move
mepts Of n war into which the British Government
lad been unwngly forced by the clamOrs of the
merchants who insisted upon that means of compel
ling Spain to open her colonial ports to British ships,
or. at least to allow British smuggers to navigate
the adjacent waters free from search or visitation.
But in ad diion to Spain enemy, the British
soon ound themselves involved in war with France
also: and, after eight years struggle which added
II hundred and fifty millions OF dollars to the British
National Debt, it became necessary to make peace
without the most distant auson in the treaty to the
original ground of the quarrel. Our own war OF lSl2
with Great Britain, is another instance OF war I'M
dertaken with mercantile object in view, which 1t
was found necessary terminate, without any refer
ence in the treaty of peace, to the subject matter
about which it began. Even if the war with Mexico.
the result of which, in adding great an extent to
our territories seems kelly to lead to new war for
Cuba it may well be doubted whether Mr.. Polk and
his Cabinet had they entertained any correct idea of
the amount of resistance they were to counter
of the expenditures which the war would make ne
cessary ever would have undertaken il.
But war with Spsin-and this is a point upon
which our merchants will do well to bestow little
attentions enterprise of very different charac-
ter from war with Mexico. Mexico without ships
or harbors her coast desert very sparsey inhab-
tied and ber population mainly collected on her great
interior table land had pretense to the character
of maritime nation. AT the same time that she was
destitute of all means of annoy ing us, there was
nothing in her position or her commercial relations to
induce any other nation to make any efforts or to
risk anything in her behalf Perfectly safe from any
attempt her part against u.s. all we had to do was
to march into her territories and to occupy and hold
them with nothing hardly to encounter except the
expense and difficulties which the length of the road
placed in our way, and the necessity We were under
of carrying all our supplies with us.
With respect to an attack upon Cuba. the military
and naval means of resistance possessed by the Cap
ainGeneral of that island must be set down as Tar
more formidable than ANYTHING that Mexico ever
able to array against us. Great reliance, we know,
is placed upon the alleged disafection Of the nhab
tsnts of Cuba and their readiness TO avail themselves
OF the aid Of any invader TO throw of the Spanish
yoke. But this is point on which II is best not to
be too saDguine. No doubt there is a good deal of
disafection among the better educated of the Creole
proprietors and merchants, but this is numerically
very email class. The great bulk of tie free p)pua
ton Of Cuba is made up of small proprietors in theS
interior-a rude and ignorant body of men, who have
very few ideas and very few feelings in common with
the sugarplanters and the merchants: while in the
and along the coasts, the free colored
and black inhabitants would not be likely to regard
an American invasion with great deal of favor.
But even .supposing the people of Cubs ever
ready to receive and welcome il would be mpossi
bic for us TO land al army the coast Of that island
or to antan any communication with it after it was
landed without the free consent Of Great Britain and
France; and that those nations would regard an in
vasion of the island undertaken avowedly for con-
quest, with much indifference as they did the dis
memberment Of Mexico, is by no means so certain.
There is no doubt certain number Of British mer-
chants and manufacturers, Nth Mr. Golden at their
head, who would be 81 to have us acquire Cuba, in