The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-04-21
COLUMBIA, IS. G.
Wednesday Morning, April 81. 1869.

The more intelligent among those who
have watched the progress Of the present
struggle in Cuba, in the light of the dis
couragement Congress has continually
thrown in the face Of our own natural in
terest in its close, must incline to re-
newal Of the curses which honesty has been
hurling against. the radical leaders during
the past three years. There have been oc-
casions almost every week since the struggle
began, when proper expression, honestly
made and honorably carried out, would have
closed the fight Without the spilling of on.
other drop of blood or the expenditure OF
another dollar, and left the native intelli-
gence of the island to take the most natural
and judicious course as to its future govern
ment, and its relations with its surrounding
people. That expression was, on every
occasion, and in spite OF all our own plead
ing interests, added to the dictates of all
apparent humanity, cruelty withheld, and in
its place came, in hollow mockery of our
common cause, windy resolutions, blown
only to be pricked in passage to the COM
mittee-room. Thus the Cuban cause pro-
.gressed, and thus Congress Knocked the
honorable bidding of the time, and while
it did, the leading radical press was silent
as to the demand alike of interest and hu-
manity, not even censuring those in the
Spanish interest, who insulted our repre-
sentatives, seized our ships, and imprisoned
our officials there. Then, having disgraced
our craftsmanship, and sacrificed alike our
natural interests, and those of the native
Cubans struggling there, Congress ad-
journed.
Now, when the machinery competent to
effective action has been dissolved, and any
claims that may be made may be put of, on
the plea that Congress is not in session and
nothing effective can be done, that same
radical press teens with "reminiscences of
Spanish wrong and barbarism, and wonders
what the result will be.
Spain, that has naturally never lost its
strong desire to retoin its hold upon the
profitable products of the island, felt at the
commencement of the fight that at least the
moral influence of the United States would
be thrown with force into the native Cuban
scale, and knowing what the effect Of that
influence would be, made scarcely an effort
to maintain an army there. Now, seeing
that Congress has adjourned, leaving only a
mockery of the Cuban cause on record, we
hear of a gathering army and no less than
General Prim in effective command, to re-
tain authority and continue to reap its re-
ward. '@a
The ordinary reader will readily say:
'That was surely very strange policy for us,
and why did not the leading radical press
insist upon proper action at the most ad-
vantageous time? And the question is one
which must occur to any one who is still so
lost to the existing fact as to suppose that
Congress sits in Washington to do what is
best for either the material interest or honor
of the nation.
That neither Congress nor the leading
radical press did what it was patent to any
one at all informed, would have been right
is now acknowledged by the radical press
itself in its present eagerness to define the
right, when its advice is of no avail, except
as an example of its rare hypocracy. And
the reason is here.
Had this nation done what civilization,
including Spain, expected it to do, the in
telligont and property-owning inhabitants
OF Caba would have organized its
government and controlled its affairs with
out unnecessary arrangement OF landed or
commercial property interests, and when it
would present itself for admission to our
Union, it would be with its local govern
ment complete, and in the management of
those familiar with the peoples needs.
That would not suit the leading radicals
here. That would not have left the neces-