The Cadiz Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1854-1864, 1859-02-23


priatiOns to facilitate the acqui-
sitiOn of the island of Cuba, by ne
gOIiatiON."
Mr.. President in proceeding to consid-
er the question whether Cuba ought to be an
annexed to the United States, am not un-
mindful of the earnest declaration made by the
Senator from Virginia, Mr.. Mason,l that the
enlargement of our domain, for the purpose
Encouragement only, is an unwise policy, and Of
dangerous CONSCIENCE. Whether | should or
should not agree with him; in this regard, is i'm
material at present; no such enlargement has
been, or ever was seriously proposed. We have
in the United States people energetic and am
bilious to the last degree and our youth will
not be restrained from those fields of enterprise
in which others have failed, but in which they
are confident OF success. You may enact laws
and elaborate treaties and deliver maxms and is
sue proclamations you may send navies and ar
mics whithersoever you will; but my word for
| it. Senators, when you undertake to stay the
path of mans conquest over the material world
over the wastes of the land or the wastes OF
the sea-when you undertake to fortify sloth or
imbecility or barbarism, against the inrosdSiotn-
industry, courage, and ciyilizaton--whether in
Cuba, or Mexico, or Central America, or any
where ese--vou undertake vain and fruit
less task. If our system o. government be not ad-
equate for such emergencies; il it should ever be
placed in antagoniSm to the generation which,
with pulses warmer and quicker than inspire
us, with genius more exalted than we can boast,
with zeal too heroic for our comprehension, now
presses forward to the places we fill today, and
soon must drive us from the scenes Of action;
then, as certainly as the day pursues the night,
will grander and nobler systems Of government
! l, -, ho otxricIl of
time, the duty to which we have been called is
to avoid such antagonism, not to adapt by well
ordered amendments, not only our legislation,
but our general policy, to the necessities of our
children; that so, after we shall have forsaken
these places these honors and these cares. and
gone to our last repose, the Constitution and the
Union in which we now rejoice, with the Splen-
| did organization Of States thereby represented,
glorious in the achievements of the past and the
energies OF the present and the hopes of the Iu-
| ture, will remain securely established forever.
The boundaries Of the United States have
been extended, Mr.. President, on four memo
rable ccasons-by the acquisition of Louisiana,
Of Florida, of Texas, and Of New Mexico and
California. But, Sir besides these, every ad
mission of New State is and must needs be, an
extension of our system Of government. On
the Both Of April 1899, when our first President
entered upon his first term of administration,
the ambassadors Of eleven sovreignties were
summoned to the spectacle; when we followed
the Senator from Virginia, as our presiding oti
Ger, to the eastern access of the capitol on the
4th Of March. 1857 we represented thirty one
sovereignties; and since that time--since we in
stalled Mr. Buchanan in the presidential chair
Minnesota has been added to the number. We
can wisely decide, therefore, on the experience Of
more than halfa century, as to the effect OF ex-
tending our Federal system. There is no man,
probably, within the sound of my voice, who
does not now acknwledge (whatever he may
have said heretofore) that the fate of our repub-
! lican institutions, our independence, and our
prosperity, was involved IN the contest between
J ohm Adams and Thomas Jefferson, for the ad-
minisrration Of the executive department.
That contest was deided by the votes of States
admitted after the Constitution had been adopt
ed. Adams triumphed over Jefferson, in De-
ce!nber, 1896. by three votes, and Jefferson over
Adams, in December 1860, by eight votes. But
Jefferson received the votes of kentucky and
Tennessee; and, upon his second election, in De-
cember, 1904, the vote or Ohio. The subsequent
trumphs of Madison and Monroe, candidates Of
the ancient and genuine republican party, were
secured by the accession to the Union oil Louis
lana, Indiana Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama,
and Maine-as triumph Of the Democratic Re-
publican party, since that time, has been secur-
ed by the acquisition OF other new States The
problem of our destiny, as a nation, was solved
by the reelection Of James Monroe, in Dccem-
ber 1920. A country so extensive as the United
States, even at the period OF our independence,
with interests so widely diversified, never can
be subject to a consolidated government: it re-
quires Contederacy, limited to the regulation
ofthose affairs which all the States have in com
mon and excluded from everything else. Here
in, att length, was manifest the wisdom of that
Constitution our fathers had ordained; and slow
ly above the worlds horizon above the clouds
and the mists appeared new constellation, ,,o1
stars equal and separate in glory, but of glory
also in common; various in design, but OF kin
dred influence; alike in movement, and there
fore IN eifect a constellation which now enlight-
ems the whole western hemisphere, and calls to
its alteration the hearts of such as love liberty
Everywhere on the hahitable earth--I mean, sir
THE CONSTELLATION OF OUR IMPERIAL REpUB
F Lie. ...
Let us not be timid, nor too tardy npursuine
the path trodden by the wsest OF our predeces.
sors. With such boundaries as we have, al
present, no mere lust Of dominion ought to be
encouraged or tolerated; but only as the neces.
sites of our people require, from time to time
should the confines Of the Union be enlarged
This rule is safe one; it is one easily observed
as well as defended because it is the law of oul
national growth and development. If the &C
QUESTION OF Cuba be within this rule, as I shal
endeavor to show, our duty and our interest a.
like demand that we should omit no reasonable
endeavor toward its accomplishment To frus
trate such an enterprise on account Of sectional
or partisan, or personal considerations, would bt
to degrade cur country from the high position
she now occupies. '- ,-"
The island of Cuba extends almost from The
seventy. third meridian of longitude west from
Greenwich, to tho eighty fifth meridian, and
lies between the tropic OF cancer and the nine,
teenth parallel Of north latitude. Its area i,
thirty four thousand two hundred and thirty.
three square miles that of its principal depend.
lency, the Isle of, Pines, eight hundred and ter
square miles; and that of other dependencies
(small slands) nine hundred and seventy square
miles 1t is almost as large. therefore, as the
State ofOhio, and larger than the State Of In.
diana. The richness of its soil, the luxurianct
OF its agricultural productions, its genial climate
the wondrous beauty of It's hills, rivers, woods
land plains attracted the attention of Columbus
lon his first voyage OF discovery; and supposine
this to be part Of the Asiatic continent, he
mistook it for the kingdom Of Cathay, described
half in fable and halfin fact, BY the elder geog.
raphers and travellers. Since that time the ca.
pacities and resources OF Cuba have been ascer.
tanned to be greater than those Of any region, o
equal extent on the face Of the globe. Thesta
pies Of expectation, at present. are sugar, coffee
cigars, tobacco in leaf molases, honey, and wax,
these being SO profitable, in lateyears as al
most entirely to exclude cotton, indigo, wheat
hemp, fax, and the produce ofthe vine, Y
II has been shown to US, by the reports OF The
Committees on Foreign Relations, in the Senate
and ia the House, that free commerce between