Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1870-07-06
From Harper's Weekly.
The United States and Cuba.

Mr.. Summers Cuban resolutions are an
admirable supplement to the Presidents
message. In his message the President
alludes to the steps he has taken in the
form of representations to the Spanish
Government for securing to the people Of
Cuba the blessings and the right Of indie
pendent self-government." Mr.. Sumner
resolutions declare the sympathy Of the
neople of the United States "with their
fellow-Americans in Cuba struggling for
independence" and with the people of
Spain in striving for liberal institutions at
home, calling upon the Spaniards, for the
sake Of peace, to recognize the independ-
ence of Cuba.
The resolutions also, like the message,
deplore the ferocities of the Cuban war;
fare upon both sides. The message and
the resolutions together define what we
believe to be the actual intelligent pub
lie opinion upon the subject in this coun-
try.
There is an instructive, and what may
be called hereditary sympathy, in the U.
S, with any people contending for indie
pendence Of a foreign power. That feel
ing in regard to Cuba would be much
more pronounced than it is but for two
reasons.
One is that, while the justification of
an appeal to arms is intolerable oppress-
ion, it could not be fairly assumed that
the people of Spain, who had expelled
the Bourbons at home upon that ground,
would continue the Bourbon regime in
Cuba. 1t has been therefore felt that the
Cuban revolution could not properly plead
against the new order in Spain, before it
was tried, the tyranny Of the old,
The other reason is, that the method in
which the Cuban cause has been managed
pas produced neither confidence nor re-
spect.
Moreover, it has been almost impossi-
bic to ascertain the facts. Gen. Banks.
for instance, understands them in one way
and the President in another.
The best public opinion Of the country,
therefore, while sympathizing with the
movement, has insisted that our most hon
orable traditions, and the sound reasons
in which they are founded, demanded that
the Government, under existing circum-
stances, ought not to interfere.
In maintaining this policy there has I'M
doubtedly seemed sometimes to be a want
Of that sympathy Of which we speak, and
after the emphatic declaration of the
House that nothing shall be done incon-
%sistent with that policy, it is most proper
and desirable that the natural sympathy
of the United States with those who are
striving for independence, and their desire
to see elsewhere the same general liberty
which they enjoy, should be officially ex.
pressed to the Spanish Govt.
Mr.. Thurman, the Democratic Senator
from Ohio, says that the expression a.
mounts to nothing. But it amounts to a
great deal. 1t says authoritatively to the
Spanish Government that, while do not as
yet consider ourselves justified in interfer-
ing, we nevertheless watch the contest
with interest and hope, and that we be-
lieve the day of farther European hold
upon this continent has passed by.
The resolutions officially declare the
opinion of this Government upon that
point. 10 declare that opinion and that
sympathy is to do all that can be done
short of actual interference and, there
fore, it is doing all that ought to be done.
Mr.. Thurman, indeed, would have us di-
rect Spain to recognize Cuban independ-
ence.
But the public good sense Of this coun-
try will decide whether, when we have
recently and properly admitted SO mary
new citizens in the late rebel States, when
the forced immigration of coolies is con-
sidered SO threatening by the trades I'M.
ions, and when the San Domingo aunexa-
ton project is still pending, it is desirable
to violate our honorable policy and inter-
fere in the troubles of another country,
with all the inevitable consequences Of
such interference, for the purpose Of add.
ing to our population more than a million
and half of people wholly alien from us
in principles, language, and traditions, a
third Of whom are barbarously ignorant,
two hundred thousand of them according
to Gen. Banks, speaking only the language
of the tribes of Africa.
The town of Peacham dedicated a
81 800 monument to her AZ dead sol.
diers on the Fourth.