Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-04-20
GRANT ANn CUBA.


A desperate effort is being made
in the North to force the govern
ment into the recognition Of Cuban
independence. On Saturday the
country was startled with report
that orders had been sent out from
Washington TO get all the war
vessels at Charlestown and Ports
mouth navy yards ready for
service, and that q Senator from
the Pacific coast had stated that an
extra session of Congress would be
called within sixty days, undOubt-
eddy for the consideration of the
annexation of Cuba to the United
States, either peaceably or forcibly.
And now we have contradiction
of the latter part of this story. A
Washington dispatch to the Louis
vile Express, dated the 18th inst,
says: 81. fraI,. .a.s ID
"The sensational dispatch in a New
York paper Of yesterday that President
Grant cOntemplates a called session of
Congress in a short time, is evidently an
invention. 1t is stated or the authority
Of California Senator that not one Of
the Pacific Senator's or members has
any knowledge of such a movement
They are preparing to leave for home by
rail as soon as the Senate adjOurns, and
have almost a daily conference with the
Executive, who has never intimated such
a purpose, although he knows their
plans for returning to their constituents
The statement is either wholly unfounded
or originated in a Misunderstanding"
1t is by such stories as were put
afioat toward the close of the last
week, that the advocates of Cuban
recognition hope to force the ad-
ministration into that measure. 1t
appears to be well understood that
Grant is personally in favor Of such
step, and he is restrained from
urging it on his cabinet and Con
gress only by prudential consider
atoms. The impossibility of recon
cling the comparatively morgan
ised instruction now going on in
Cuba with the position assumed by
the government in regard to the re-
cognition of the Southern States by
foreign powers, has obviously re-
trained the administration from
doing that which Grant has been so
persistently urged to do, and which
his inclination would lead him to
do. The New Orleans Picayune
condenses this aspect of the case
against recognition into a sentence
as follows:
'If Mr.. Seward was logically right in
contending that confederacy composed
of eleven States some Of them older
than the government Of the United States
itself, in actual possession of a territory
larger than the kingdom of Spain, with a
government fully obeyed by many mil>
lions of people, and holding, at the time,
ports extending along coasts OF seas and
gulf for two Thousand miles, was the sign
only of mere local commotiOn, which
other governments could not invest with
any of the rights Of beligerence without
manifest wrong to the sovereignty of the
United States, how can Mr.. Fish argue
with Spain that the United States may,
in good faith, acknowledge an insurgent
government in Cuba-Which has no local
hsbitation, no known constituency, no de
fined area of territory, and no known
means of holding communication with
the world, outside the coasts Of the is
land, or even with its coasts ? If the
COnfederates were mere insuTectionists,
not entitled to belligeTent rights at all
with what face can Mr.. Fish, or any other
successor, accord the rights Of belligerehts
to rowing, unorganized bands, however
numerous, in the interior of an island,
which has belonged to Spain since the
first discovery Of America by continu-
Gus title, which all the early administra-
tons of our own government undertook
to protect, by refusing TO be party, even
to a prOtectorate which would give other
nations the privilege Of interfering, and
by avowing more than once that we would
not permit any European power but
Spain to hold the island, either by con-
quest or by purchase p
The New York Times recognises
the force of this position, by say
ing
" These queries go to the heart of the
question. Any plea now presented for
acknowledging the Cuban insurrectiOn,
or, for hastily recognizing any body pur-
porting to be government which the in
surrecuon may produce, may be urged |
with greater force by Great Britain and
France in justification of their conduct to-
ward the COnfederacy. If the House reso- |
luton is right now, they were right in
1861. If We may accord belligerent rights
to an insurrection which by comparison is
trifing, they were warranted in proclaims
ing the belhgerent privileges Of rebel |
lion which by comparison was gigantic. |
From this dilemma there is no deliver
ance. Its proportions are rendered more |
by tbs fresh phases that have
been imported into the alabama contro- |
versy. The refusal to ratify the Clsren-
treaty proceeds on the as
sumption that great wrong was done by |
the recognition Of the Confederacy. That |
would be demolished if the |
demand for Cuban recognition were COM
piled with. We must be consistent in |
this matter, or limit the alabama con-
TO the single question of money
Grant and his advisers appreci- |
ate the force of the reasoning of |
the Picayuae, and change of
policy with regard to Cuba has no
doubt been agreed upon. That
policy is to bring about a rupture
with Spain, and thus precipitate a
pretext for Selling and holding |
Cuha When Grant WAS inaupu-