The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-09

be sovereign and independent, they of course
concede that a community of about the same
size as an average American State does not
need the restraining authority of a supreme
central government, like that at Washington,
to insure it's success and prosperity as free
State. If the Cubans may be safely trusted
to manage their internal affairs in their
own way without outside interference
or outside restraint, then there is no
reason why any State i'm this Union
may not be safely trusted to do the
same thing. If Cuba is competent to govern
itself out of Federal leading-strings, il cannot
without gross and self-stultifying inconsis-
tency be denied that each of our States is
capable of managing its own affairs. SO far
as the population of Cuba differs from the
population of an American State, the differ
ence is in favor of the latter. We have had a
long training in self-government; the Cubans
have had none. Education in this country is
nearly universal; in Cuba there is nothing cor
responding to our common schools Our
climate is more favorable than that of Cuba
to hardy industry and the moral virtues If
the Cubans are competent to govern them
selves wisely without outside dictation the
people of an American State are much more
capable. 1t is the height of absurdity and
self-contradiction to maintain that the people
of Cuba can manage their affairs successfully
as sovereign, Independent community, and
in the same breath deny that the people of
these States can be safely trusted to govern
themselves.
Cuba, as an independent nation, would en-
JOY the chief advantages which our States de
rive from their connection with the Union
namely cheap protection against foreign ag-
gression. If Cuba gains her independence
she will no more need a navy and a large
military establishment than the States of this
Union. All the reasons which have impelled
our Government so often to proclaim that it
will never permit that island to pass under the
control of any other European power than
Spain, will be as strong and imperative after
her independence as they were before Re-
gard for our own safety and our own inte-
rests will require us to repel, by arms if neces-
sary, all attempts by every foreign nation to
conquer and hold an island which lies
almost within sight of our coast, and
which would be dangerous to us as a
seat of military operations and a naval rem
devious in the hands of powerful enemy
The necessity which we should be
under of protecting the independence of Cuba
when she had once achieved it, would relieve
her from the burden of a naval and military
establishment for any other purpose than the
maintenance of internal order and domestic
tranquility. A well-organized militia, like
that of our States, is all the armed force she
would need The protection against foreign
aggression which we should owe her, and for
our own interests should give her, would bring
her the same advantages as are enjoyed by a
State in our Union in respect to cheap secu-
rity against hostile attacks from abroad. The
Republican advocates of her independence
virtually Though unintentionally) admit that
the States of the Union do not need the sur
veillance and interference of the Federal Gov
ernment in their internal and domestic affairs.
If Cuba is competent to manage hers, we are
surely competent to manage ours.
For our part, nothing would delight us more
than to see Cuba independent if her popula-
ton were as capable of wise self government
as that of our States. The island would III
that case, furnish n standing refutation of the
theory of the Republican party that the States
of this Union need to be held in Federal lead
ing-strings. If Cuba should become indepen-
dent, and should fail Gas we fear she might
in her experiment of self-government, her
failure would no more confirm the Republican
theory that the States cannot be safely trusted
with their own affairs, than the fifty years
failure of Mexico disproves the advantages of
free institutions for the Anglo-Saxon race.
The fact that the Cubans are of the same stock
as the Mexicans is the only reason why we
feel any distrust of the benefits which would
result to them, to us, and to the cause of self
government, from the establishment of their
independence.