The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-12-11

The Presidents Message.
The President, In his annual message to
Congress, rejoices in the year Of blessings
that has expired since his last. He
regrets, however, that in several Of the
States lately in rebellion" the verdict
Of the people has been reversed by " vio-
lence and Intimidation" The good man
says nothing OF New York, which also
went Democratic, and which was consid-
cred, just about the time of the election,
well worthy the presence of large mill
tary force. New York, however, was not
stately in rebellion" When Grant stops
trading in the rebellion, the subject may
we'll be considered played out.
! Georgia, he says, is the only State unre-
presented in Congress-. but he makes the
cheerful prophecy that her representatives
will be there by the LIST of January next,
when the work of reconstruction will, he
says, be complete.
He then touches upon French affairs, and
says that he ordered the recognition of the
Republic as soon az he learned that the
French people had acquiesced in it's forma-
ton. While he desires ito adhere persist
emily to the American policy of n-inter-
vention in European affairs he asserts that
we (Americans) cannot be Indifferent to
the spread of American political ideas in
a great aud highly civilized country like
France"
In Cuba there has been, he says, no ma
terial change of the position as regards the
instruction. The condition of American
citizens aggrieved by the Spanish authori-
ties has been ameliorated and their wrongs
are now redressed in a satisfactory manner.
The President next passes from Cuba to
San Domingo, and makes an elaborate
argument in favor of its acquisition. This
island, he says, is superior in soil and
climate to all the other West India Islands,
1t is the key of the Caribbean Sea, and will
command all the West Indies in case Of
war. Its possession must build up an i'm
mense- coastwise trade, and reinstate our
commercial marine. He calculates that if
this favored Isle of the Sea should have a
stable government, Che does not say a sable
one,) laborers will flock to it by tens of
thousands, deserving the neighboring islands
for the " blessings of freedom" The bal
ance of trade is against US now, and he
does not see any way of setting it in our
favor except through the acquisition of San
Domingo. It will furnish a new market
for our surplus products of farm and shop.
1t will "make slavery insupportable in
Cuba and Porto Rico, and ultimately SO in
Brazil;" it will pay our debts, make
things cheaper, and be stride towards
that greatness" etc., etc.
We can't see the point of most of these
reasonings. They sound exactly rs though
young lawyer had been employed to
write brief in favor of the Presidents
hobby, and was to be paid according to
the number of his arguments, not by their
merit. We don't think the hit about
(" freedom" is either fair or in good taste,
considering the source whence it comes.
What! are not the African gentlemen
who luxuriate in native freedom on those
tropic heaths to be considered as genuine
freemen Z Are they to be sighted and, in
deed, almost sneezed at as Republicans
Does Mr.. Grant mean to say that the citi-
zens of San Domingo are incapable of self
government because they are negroes
He does not actually say it in SO many
words, but it is evident that he means it.
What, then, would he think of the children
of Ham here at the South if they were not
necessary to the Republican partyf All,
ingratitude
The tens of thousands of Iaborers would
be mostly Yankee adventurers, we opine,
and how slavery in Cuba would be thereby
injured we are at loss to see. 1t is GER
tain that the Yankees aforesaid could not
do any thing on earth with the island until
they had instituted peonage or some such
system there, which would be rather SUP
port to slavery.
Still, take it all in all, we have heard no
material reason for objecting to the project
of annexing San Domingo, except that it
is suspected of being an immense Presi-
dental job. There are some reasons, too,
in favor of it which Gen. Grant has not
touched. 1t might form colony viii
to send the colored people of the South
without cruelty, because there they could
live without work, and it is evident that
they naturally gravitate towards those
depths of inertia where labor is unknown.
No doubt, too, it would hasten the move
ment towards peonage, which must.always
prevail where distinct races co-exist in
the same country