The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-07-06

an,
We cannot undertake to return rejected Communca-
tons. 49, ,,---.-. -.
y Letters to be addressed 10 HE DAILY EAchAN's
baltimore, Maryland"
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The Honorable AUGUSTUS G. DODGE, late MINIS
Ter Of the UNITED STATES to the Court OF Madrid,
addressed letter, last week, to The National m
tUigeacer for the purpose Of correcting certain
erroneous impressions to which that journal had
,;veu circulation, concerning his opinions IN re-
card to the ACQUISITION of Cuba. 1t appears, from
Mr. DopGE's communication that he not only ap-
proves generally, 'the course which the PRESIDENT
shas pursued in conducting our foreign relations,
but Especially his statesmanlike views upon this
t.oreat American e.. c. CUBAN question" Mr.
DopGE admits that ''the prospect of acquiring
nCuba, by purchase, under present circumstances,
ois decidedly inauspicious," but he protests
that he ''never said or intmated that the PROPOSE
s,tion in any way involved the honor of Spain, or
"that the purchase might not, at some future
'neriod. be effected" He thinks that the real
difficulty consists in the perversity of people here
at home, who entertain obstinate opinions, such
as The National Intelligencer circulates, to wit:
that the acquisition of Cuba is a party project,
and not n national measure-and who persist in
the Suicidal policy" of defeating the wishes and
seforts of the Administration" by placing
stumbling blocks" in the way of such enlight-
ened and statesmanlike measures, as the Thirty
Million Bill of the Hon. Mr. SLIDELL. Our true
plan, Mr. DODGE thinks, is to keep up q system
of chronic appropriations for the purchase of Cuba
placing the PRESIDENT always in funds, from year
to YEAR to ''proper amount" so that he may
make 'the first payment" whenever a chance
occurs. If we pcrsevere in this, with unanimity
"aud decision proving to Spain magnanmOus-
w. meanwhile that we will 'employ no unfair
':means," even if she pertinaciously insists on
committing the outrage of doing what she pleases
with her own-Nr. DODGE is quite positive that
the Queen of the Antilles will be thrown upon
our warming bosom at last. If we are not will
ing to adopt this plan he thinks that we ought to
''proclam to Spain and the world that we will
''not receive Cuba on any terms" For his part
however, he has no doubt of the efficacy of the
system which he proposes-and he feels nowise
dauntcd in regard thereto by the declaration of
the Spanish Cortes that it would be inconsistent
with the dignity of the nation to dispose of the
Island. 'You know Messrs. Editors, enough"
he says, in his persuasive way, "of the action of
"Lcgisative bodies, to be aware of the difference
''betwcen a momentary ebulltion of feeling and
deliberate and settled policy" Evidently he
has come TO the conclusion that in diplomacy, as
in love, two negatives, if not actually equivalent
to an affirmative, as in grammar, are at all events
no bar to one, and having made up his mind that
the fair object is worth the winning he has re-
solved not TO let faint heart stand in the way
of it.
We believe that we have done Mr.. DODGE full
justice, in this abstract of his views, and if the
eader should enquire-such being the case--why
we have deemed it worth while to notice them, we
only reply, that it is because the recent off
cal position of their author may possibly reflect
on them an Importance, which it is quite obvious
that they do not possess in themselves. The pub
lie may have IN idea, perhaps, that Mr.. DODGE
having lately returned from Madrid is in posses
sion Of knowledge on the subject which is not
accessible 10 the profane vulgar at home, and that
there may he springs TO be touched in Spain
which onl the experienced can lay their hands on,
but which, once touched, will do the work for us
Judgment does not lead us to any such conclusion.
We cannot help regarding Mr.. DoDGE's letter as
but another evidence of the folly of sending gen
temen abroad, to represent the country, who are
so unfit for such duty that they return home,
us profoundly ignorant as when they started, of
the spirit character, and policy of the people
among whom they have sojourned long enough to
receive their four years salary. 1t passes belief
that any man of common intelligence and observa-
tlon residing in any part of Spain at the time of
Mr.. DoDGEs official connection with the Govern
ment of that country, should gravely characterize
the unanimous declaration of the Cortes, on the
question Of the sale of Cuba, as "a momentary
'ebulliton of feeling.' We assert, as matter of
perfectly notorious fact,-to the contrary of which
not one authentic fact can be set up-that upon
no question since the invasion of NAPOLEON, has
the Spanish people ever been more absolutely and
deliberately unit, than upon this very one of
Cuban annexation. Nay, during the French inva-
sion, NAPOLEON had his sympathizers-good men
and patriots, who were willing to take the risk of
his ambition, in the hope of enlightened and libe-
raj reform, at his hands. But, with the movement
OF the UNITED STATES upon the Cuban question,
there is not, and there never has been, any sha-
dow of sympathy whatever in Spain. The whole
press of the Kingdom has been unanimous and
even violent against it, from the beginning,
as every one who has given the subject
the slightest attention well knows. The le-
gslative declaration to which Mr.. DODGE refers,
was signalized by the grave deliberate, ar
gumentatiye adhesion of the ablest and best men
OF the Peninsula of all partiesorgetting, for the
moment, all the animosities of an active and acri-
monious opposition, to rally around the ministry
upon that one national issue. Not only this but
the declaration itself was a mere reiteration of
one, equally decided, made four years be-
fore, with equal unanimity, at the time of Mr.
SoULE's offensive demonstrations upon the same
point. Discussed as the question had been, over
and over, in every shape, during all the nterme-
date time and through all the changes which had
taken place in the legislative and executive depart
ments-with different Ministers, different politics,
and different Cortes-it is impossible that the
reiterated and identical solution which it received
in 1885, could have indicated any thing short of a
liked and resolute national feeling and determine
ton, which no negotiator in his sound senses could
fail to accept as settled facts.
Nor is Mr. DODGE at all more happy in his sng-
gestion that the proposition to buy Cuba does not
'involve the honor of Spain'-coupled, as he saws
it is, with Mr.. BUCHANAN's assurance that 1--WE
'would not if we could acquire it by any other
"way" than honorable negotiation" Spain has
never pretended-it would be simple folly for any
government TO pretend-that fair and respectful
proposition TO purchase any of her dependencies is
in itself an insult. That is not the point. 1t is
the case OF proposition to purchase-preceded by
repeated and dsgraceful attempts to invade, revo-
iuuonlze and seize-made, it is true, by portion
only OF our people, but scandalously permitted by
our Government. 1t is the case of such propos-
ton, accompanied by threats more or less
covert out still always intelligible-that if Spain
VIII not sell, We shall be compelled 10 take by
force what signifies Mr. BucHANAs's virtuons
alluslon to honorable negotiation" AS tbe only
mode by which we could consent TO acon;ra Cuba
when there is the Qstend Manifesto, SIGNED INV
his own hand and holding out the menace sc.rco
disguised, of what we may be compelled to do
should honorable negotiation" not attain opr
end? Can Spain shut her eyes to this Has she
no ears for the threatening voices of our press and
the annexationist cry of private and official bus
terism-the speeches and reports of members and
committees of Congress, whose every word, written
and spoken, upon the subject is an indirect or
an open insult? IF the debates of the last session