Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-04-26

in the civil war in Spain. They, like our fill.
busters, took the liberal side in the domestic
strife
The causes which have agitated Cuba for
thirty years are active yet, and the effects are
seen to follow as the day succeeds the night,
and, in due time will be developed. We have
as yet been only grazed by the moving body,
and, if moderate and prudent counsels had
governed Cuba, we might for long time have
held aloof. But the policy of Spain with re-
gard to Cuba has deeply hurt the pride and
selfesteem Of our Government and people
Whatever may have been the antecedents of
the floating population Of the United States, in
their designs and actions upon Cuba, it is GER
tain that the Executive power of this country
has been, and is now, effectively exerted to de-
feat their aims and that Cuba has been saved
to Spain, up to this moment, solely by the I'M
finching fidelity of our Government to-our
treaty obligations. Public opinion has sus.
tanned the Government, from the suppression
Of the Sound Island Expedition to the disper-
sion of the last, by the seizure of the Massa-
chusetts. Both have united to preserve the
good faith of the nation without stain, and if
both have been outwitted and overcome by the
secret projects of small bands of fllibusters in
their midst, it must be remembered that these
bands were feeble, ineffective, and harmless, to
the Spaniard, because of the vigilance and
good faith of our authorities. We have right
to claim the Acknowledgements of Spain for
this and yet we find our countrymen pro-
claimed a band of grasping landstealers, our
citizens in Cuba logged and hunted as if they
were wolves prowling after lambs; our I'M
armed merchant ships treated, when in port,
with relentless rigor, as if they were common
smugglers-and at sea, as if each bore to the
coast of Cuba some frightful ogre which should
be strangled on the threshold. Our country is
maligned as ready to invade and plumber, like
a band of robbers, any convenient neighbor
who promised booty, and our Government as
the willing but prudent leader of the lawless
gang.
When words are wanting to express suspi-
cion of our purposes, deeds, more significant
than words stand out to proclaim the insult
ing imputation. Thirty thousand troops as
semble upon the Island of Cuba, the steam
and sailing feet is reinforced and stationed
around the coast the Creole and Negro popu-
laton are coerced to arms, every resident
American is watched and is liable to summary
imprisonment and transportation to the capital
by rude subordinates, under fimsy pretexts
every American ship, found in or near the
Cuban waters, ordered. to be arrested and
stamped with Spanish permit to proceed and
this in the toughest way, as the courtesy due
to pirates and two friendly powers invoked to
lend their aid, as if an armament like the great
Armada was expected to invade them!
And to what end is all this done? Is it to
meet an expedition of half armed and ill-or-
gained flibusters sailing in crippled craft
from our shores, to fight and beat some forty
thousand Spanish troops on their own soil
Oh no, in soothl the meanest Spanish soldier
would blush at such thought. Concha does
not dream of it; he knows better. 1t is not
poets the United States, he doubts the purposes
and sincerity of our Government and people,
and prepares for war, forgetful of the fact pa
tent to all the world beside, that Cuba is
Spanish now, and he her Captain General by
the viii, and honor, and good faith of this
United States. A nod Of acquiescence would
have sealed the fate of Cuba anytime for the
past FIVE years.
| Whatever may be the future relations of
Cuba and the United States, Spain has no Just
cause to reproach, no grounds for these tangi-
bic and hurtful imputations and. insoent sus-
picons against the United States. She may
be endangered BY our.contiguity but we have
saved Cuba to her by our good faith. She may
be threatened by the revolutionary spirit Of her
| Cuban subjects, but we have not profted by it;
we are in no wise answerable for it, more than
in the case Of her late American colonies; and
il, indeed, we be dangerous to her dominion
in Cuba the fate and condition of Cuba is no
less imminent to US. Because Spain may fear
her Creole population, there is no reason in it
| IOT M FURIOUS suspicious ana hostile treatment
to be directed against US. Even if the island
be declared in a state of seige and put under
martial law, that only relates to men and things
within the jurisdiction, and it becomes an in
tolerable outrage when the limits are extended
to embrace the rights and interests Of another
nation. It is quite enough that our people
who elect to go to Cuba upon their lawful oc-
casions should be subjected TO the control and
power Of the brutal military police which ride
booted and spurred over the Inundated people
Of the cities and the rural dstricts-they 90 of
their own choice and must submits but when
this sabred police Of the land is extended to
the "police Of the sea-" be the pretext for it
what it may, let this nation expend its last
drop Of blood to abate and suppress the nuis-
ance.
Having exhausted his repressive resources
on the land we find the Captain General
Concha extending his police system over the