Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1859-02-24
The ACQUISITION of Cuba.

SpSNSi N"o f0~~
for enabling the President to negotiate for Gu
ba. This bill, if passed, gives but another
mesh to the intricate and unsettled condition OF
National affairs.
While so little reliance can be placed on the
statements of Mr.. buchanan, and such are
the conflicting opinions of his Janus-faced Cab
met, that it is utterly impossible to make any
safe calculations on the future policy of the
Government The President, in his Message,
asked for thirty million Of money to be placed
at his disposal for the purchase Of Cuba, and a
bill is now pending in Congress for that pur-
pose. The President knew when he asked for
the money-every member of Congress now
knows-that it cannot be used for making this
purchase. During the Polk Administration
we offered Spain one hundred millions for Cuba,
and she refused even to negotiate with US on
the subject That Government has since pro-
claimed to the world that it will treat any offer
coming from u.s. to purchase the Island Ma
tional insult. 1t must be plain to every ono
that this money cannot be used for the purchase
of Cuba. There must be some hidden motive,
some hidden object, that has led to this move
Does the Democratic party expect to go out of
power, and want to place this thirty million in
the pocket of Mr.. Buchanan, that they may
take it with them when they retire from office,
or do they want it to divide among set of pc
litical wire-pullers, to help in carrying the
election in 1860? We do not expect these
questions will be truthfully answered by the
Democracy, and we shall not attempt to answer
them. If this robbery is to be committed on
the National Treasury, Democratic editors will
share largely in the plumber, and have too much
interest in the question to tell the people the
truth and as to ourself, thanks to kind Prov
idence, we are not in their secrets.
A large majority of the Southern Democrats
in Congress, openly declare that they are in IA
vor of taking torcible possession of Cuba. Mr..
Buchanan, not only in his late Message. but in
the Ostend circular, expresses the same opin-
ion, and Mr., Douglas is reported to have said
in u Democratic caucus, (" Seize Cuba first and
negotiate afterwards Such being the state
of things at Washington it would seem to be
the duty of every good citizen to look little
at the condition Of Spain and the United
States, and calculate, as far as it can well be
done, what will be the consequences of pro-
tracted war between the two Countries.
Spain is as well situated to live independent
of the rest of the world, as any nation on the
globe. Though not oyerstockcd with inhabit-
ants, she still has an abundance of free labor
In the southern portion cotton and sugar are
produced in considerable quantities., and should
she lose Cuba, she can readily supply all she
wants within her own limits She has the
finest OF wool. Her table-lands, which COM
prehend one-half Of the country, are healthy
and productive, and yield her more than sup.
ply of all kinds Of grain. The numerous
streams, descending from this central table, lur-
nish an immense amount of water-power, and
she is beginning to manufacture her abundant
productions. She has q coast line of nearly
seven hundred miles on the Mediterranean and
five hundred miles on the Atlantic The whole
coast is indented with numerous bays and inlets
well calculated to furnish shelter for privateers
but toe shallow to admit vessels of war. The
tseaboard is teo extensive to be guarded by a
fleet, and these privateers would have safe in
gress and regress.
Spain was once the greatest commercial na.
9 tion in the world. It had diminished largely
prior to 1907, when the Peninsular war nearly
destroyed it. In the protracted contest that
subsequently took place with her American Col
onies, the little commerce she had left was COM
pietely annihilated True, her commerce has
begun to revive, but she now has but few mer
chant vessels, and much Of her trade is carried
on in foreign bottoms, She can. in case Of war
relinquish to neutrals the whole of her carrying
trade, with very little injury to herself. Cubs
is the last of her American Colonies of any
value, and should this be taken from her, SHE
would have no foreign possessions worth de-
Tending. Even this laundering Administrator
would hardly commit the blunder of sending
! an invading army to Spain. A nation tina
. successfully resisted the first Napoleon backet
9 by two hundred thousand troops, would cart
very little for the fifteen or twenty Thousand
men that we could send there. The heat of til,
climate, and the unerring aim of the Gurilla
would soon use them up, and we should b.
onpuipaaI 1ho+ ~ Tar al +N INV an
> soldiers at home, than to send them to find di
honorable graves in Spain. AT what poin
could we aim our blows IN order to conquer
peace? Not at her commerce, for her carrying
trade would be in the hands of neutrals. No
i. OF her colonies, for Cuba gone, she would hay
none she would care for. Not at herself, 70
any attempt at invasion would be followed b.
!. disgrace to ourselves.
The Spaniard is courteous, brave, proud
naughty and yindictiye. He seldom forgivcs
! and never forgets, an injury. There is no dan
ger he will not encounter, and no evils he vii
not endure to crafty his desire for revenge
Should we seize Cuba it will arouse laten
= devil in him that we shall have no means t
stay. Spain will make the restoration {
) Cuba the sole condition of peace, and retirin
~ within her own limits, direct her whole enel
gies to privateering. Should she take thi
20 course, the generation that commence the wa
= will not live to see it ended.
IN We cannot examine our side Of the case q
present, but may do so hereafter.
Tho o~adit Yvhicb fha :.