The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-02-03
THE ORGANS DISCORDANT - THE
THIRTY-MILLION GRAB.

The proposition Of Mr.. Slidell, in the Senate,
to place thirty millions of dollars in the hands
of the President, ostensibly for the purchase of
Cuba, is less popular with some Southern polti-
clans than one would naturally be led to expect.
Indeed there is a diversity of views among the
genuine and nominal supporters of the Ad-
ministration, as to the real object of the pro-
posed appropriation. The New York Herald,
which is understood to be the confidential or
gan of the President, and which, oftener than
any other journal in the country, shadows forth
coming Executive policy in advance, has no
hesitation in saying that the object of the thirty
million scheme is to make political capital for
the Black Democracyin the approacbipg Pres,
popularity of any proposition looking to the
extension of our territory, and particularly to
the acquisition of Cuba, cannot fail to rally the
disorganized Democracy, North and South, and
at the same time to divide the Republicans
The Herald says;
d" The proposed Congressional bill of thirty
millions in behalf of active negotiation for the
purchase of Cuba, viewed in the light of a par
tisan movement for the Presidential succession,
Whether the purchase Of the beautiful and
'ever-faithful island may now be practicable
or impossible, this thirty-million bill raises a
new issue, which must inevitably divide the
masses of the American people into two great
partles-the one in favor of and the other in
opposition to the general movement. The
Democratic party, in taking the initiative in
behalf OF bold and active negotiations have
thus placed themselves in the best position to
command the field, because the prevailing con-
victon of the American people is that Sc oner
or later Cuba must be ours, and because t,eir
prevailing desire is the earliest practical move.
ment of the Government in this direction"
The Herald strikes at the root of the matter.
The proposition of Mr.. Slidell is intended and
believed by him, and by the Administration of
which he is the confidential spokesman, to be
" a mastery stroke of Democratic policy" The
acquisition of Cuba, as the Herald substantially
admits, is a secondary consideration, and may
be conceded to be "impracticable or impossi-
BILE" but the issue raised by the thirty-millon
bill will be none the worse hobby for that. The
Herald might have added, in a spirit of equal
candor, that to place thirty millions at the dis
cretionary disposal of the President would be
another mastery stroke of Democratic policy"
calculated to rally the discordant elements of
the party, and to facilitate triumph in 1860
Thirty millions thus appropriated, without any
Immediate call for its application, would afford
admirable facilities for the accommodation of
friends DESTROYS of specializing in the public
lands or in Fort Smelling reservations. In
word, it would constitute the most splendid
corruption fund which the world ever saw.
The Richmond Enquirer suggests another
motive for the appropriation of this enormous
sum to what, like the New York Herald, it re-
CARDS as an impracticabe scheme. The organ of
Governor Wise denounces Mr.. Slidell's propo-
osition as an adroit method of rendering pro-
tective tariff necessary. The editor classes it
among the startling propositions, Erecutice or
Legislative in their origin, which have distin-
guished the present session of Congress- He
continues:
Mr.. Slidells proposition will not. however.
we sincerely trust, be allowed to pass through
default of opposition, or by sufferance. The
serious financial embarrassment in which Il
cannot fail to involve us, offers very serious
obstacle to a scheme which affords no percep-
tible promise of countervailing ADVANTAGE. X
Why, then, shall the appropriation be made
If it is intended as a link in the policy of prac
teal argument, by which it is ATTEMPTED to force
on us an increase of tariff duties-that line of
vicious management which would increase ex
penditures, present and prospective, for the
purpose of increasing the rates of taxation only
for the ultimate purpose of stimulating certain
branches of industrial pursuit at the EXPENSE of
all other pursuits and occupations-then we owe
it to our ourselves, and to the principles of the
party to which we owe our honest LOYALTY gto
crush this .hantling as remoFselessly as we would
assail the protective system itself Nav. the
Qualifying if is scarcely necessary for. what
ever may be the intent of Mr.. SlidelI's propos;-
ton, its tendency of domestic influence il obyi-
ously what We indicate"
The following paragraph from the same
paper suggests the same objection to this thirty
million appropriation which we made to the
one-million proposition of Mr.. Branch, viz that
It will be used for the corruption of Spanish
oficials-and, we may add, ourof own:
But there is another sqpposition-the most