New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-01-19
NUMBER 27O.

highest bidder and reserTing to the State the |
appointment Of the officers and wardens of the |
institution.
In conclusion, adverting TO the recent events |
in the Island Of Cuba, and to the indications Of |
the intended policy of Spain with regard to the
blocks upon that Island, he speaks at length as
follows:
ss have thus endeavored, fellow-citizens, TO
sketch rapidly the administrative history of the
State for the past year and to offer such sug-
gestions as would, in my Judgment, promote the
interests Of our common constituents. But my
duty to you and to the State at large would be
bu1 partially and imperfectly accomplished. if,
connhing myself entirely to questions Of inter
nal policy, ! did not call your attention to q
subject winch, although not within your imme
dlate Juri5dictions s q too vital Importance to
this and to the other Southern States of our
confederacy to be passed unnoticed II is i'm
possible to resist the conviction produced nv n
close scrutiny q the events nov transpiring in
the Island Of Cuba-events which were fore
shadowed by the appointment of the present
Captain General of that eoieRy-that Spain,
urged on by the interested counsels Of England
and France and by that blind fanaticisrn Of ha-
tired which has often marked her political and
social history, has determined to follow the ez-
ample of her powerful allies and to add another
State to the black empire which would then ex-
tend from the mouths Of the orinoko.to the out
let's of the Mississippi
st Under the pretezt Of compliance with her
treaty obligations, she has already inaugurated
the new policy, and she is preparing to consum-
mate it by the introduction Of what she terms
free laborers to supply the place of still larger
numbers of emancipated Africans. The inter-
ested and ambiguous contradictions of European
diplomatists cannot diminish the significance of
these facts and Of the quas-offical deelara tions
of the organs of the Cuban Government Nei-
ther are the inferenees drawn from them fairly
and satisfactorily met by the argument that
such a course would be suicidal to Spanish in
terests. The question Of emancipation will not
be decided in Cuba, but in Madrid, in London
and in Paris, where opinions, widely different
from ours, are entertained upon this matter !;
and by philanthropists who will bear no part Of
the consequences Of their gratuitous beneyo-
lence; the Cubans will have no voice--no repre-
sentation-in these councils. The truth of this
is fully attested by the history of the West India
Islands. The French and Danish possessions were
precipitated into the abyss of emancipation even
when the warning voice of the English Colonies
could be heard from the depths below and Bra
zll, although an Independent Empire, and vast
as her interests are in the maintenance of her
present system of labor, is gradually yielding
to the threats of England and to the influences
of her Transatlantic afinities. But spain has
another-an European-interest which she must
consult, and which, coming home to the pre-
judices and pride Of her governing CLASSES, NAV
outweigh any mere pecuniary consideration she
might attach to the preservation Of the actual
order of things in Cuba--an interest whose co.
hesive action has produced remarkable, although
apparently unprecedented, concert between the
mnonarcbical bowers of the old world n everr
difficultv which has arisen of late Years betweeY
anv one Of them and ou,, royernment Jealons1
of our INCREASING mower, and nrosneritv and fea1
| of the Influences Of our example. are the bond,
| of this upion-to thwart and impede our pro