The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-05-12

lands, and have millions upon millions o
them, for 81 25; and yet you propose tc
tax the people of the United States to pay
ten dollars an acre for land that you dc
not get when you pay the money.
l notice by the report of the honorable
Senator from Louisiana, Mr.. Slidell.] >
that Cuba contains, at this time, popu-
lation of one million nine thousand and
sixty inha6ita nts. including negroes, old
men, and small children. You propose
to pay nearly two hundred dollars head
for every man, woman, child and negro
on the island, and then you do not own
one Of them. You propose to pay $780,
000, ,000-for whatl For the right to
govern one million of the refuse of the
Garth. You propose 20 pay 5000, 900 ,0eO
to bring in population that you would
reject with scorn if they were DOW to ap-
ply for admission into the Union free ol
all expense.
Do you think that proposition will payl
Do you think i: will CON mend itself to the
people of the Northwest! Do you think
it will com mend itself to the people of this
Union What do you get after you pay
your 5000 ,oOO,O You acquire the right
to build Notifications; to send an army to
Cuba; to govern it; to create navy to
protect it; to expend through all time,
from twenty five to q hundred millions
per annum, to take care of it. That is all
you get. Do you think it will pay! But,
as I said before, know something of the
people of this island, and something OF
their manners and customs.
The white population consists chiefly OF
creoles or native-born Cubans. Of the
slave population [ should think large
majority are native born Africans. The
honorable Senator from Louisiana Mr..
Benjamin. spoke the other day of the
great mortality among the slaves of Cuba.
If be meant to apply his remarks on that
point to the creole slaves, be made vast
mistake; for never in my life saw a more
healthy set of persons than the creole
slaves of Cuba. They are not half so hard
worked, they are better fed, they live Ion
ger than the slaves of Louisiana; and the
are not as cruelty treated. This remark
was made to me over and over again,
"Give me anything but Yankee master" "
They do not want an American master.
He is energetic, he drives, be works his
negroes; but the creoles are so utterly in
dolent themselves, that they allow their
negroes to do pretty much what they
please. Ii the Senator meant his remark
to apply to the Africans, it was, perhaps
correct. At the time | was upon the ISL
and, the mortality of the native Africans
was estimated thus: one fifth of all ship
ped from the coast of Africa died upon
the passage; one fifth more committed su-
icide within the first year after they we're
landed on the island; one fifth more died
the first year in the process of acclim alton,
because they were unaccustomed to toll,
unaccustomed to that mode of living
Consequently, three fifth of the entire ex-
portation from the coast of Africa were
lost in one year from the date of their ex-
portation. In regard to the remaining
two ffths, however, after becoming accli.
mated, they live as long as creole negroes
1t will be seen that three fifths being de-
stroyed the first year, in order to get an
average of any length of time, you must
rate long life to the rest, unless you
shorten the duration, perhaps to the time
the Senator mentioned but the lives o
] the creole negroes are as long as those oi
any other people in the world.
Now, as to the white population they
are ignorant, vicious, and priest-rdden
Prior to the administration of Genera
TacoD, there was not crime on the cal
endar which had not its fixed value in the
Island of Cuba. | had at one time the
tariff of crime there, but at the presen
moment only recollect single item
The price of assassination was two ounces
of gold, or thirty-four dollars head
You could have any man assassinated fo
thirty-f -four dollars before the adninistra
ton Of TacoD; and was iDformad by ma
ny old Cubans you could scarcely wall
out in the streets of Havana in the morn
ing without finding one or more dead bo
dies, the rasult of the last nights assas
siuations and robberies. My own expe
rieuce is. that the gibbet was common
sight-the gibbet, With the human skull
rafting 10 the wind, at the corner of fou
roads, or at some place where crime
had been committed and the murdere
met his fate.
On the accession Of Tacon to office
be increased the army to twenty thous
and men, and did establish, as the honor
able Senator from Louisiana Mr.. Benja
mini said, an absolute military despotism
which exists there to this day. But
was not as the Senator said to prevent in
surrection it was to prevent crime, an
that only; and if that military dcspotisu
had not been established, and had DO
been ruled with an iron hand, Cuba woul,
be to-day what it was before the admin
istration of Tacoa. AS said before, th
people are ignorant and vicious. The
will not labor, and they will resort to an
shifts of crime to obtain subsiste nce.-
Bribery is universal, from the Goyerno
General. who receives two ounces of gol