Semi-weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1871-1872, 1871-05-28

NhSt 40 the people OF She
United StatesI want 4 With Santo
Domingo ? This is asked over and
over again, and just as # no, salts
factory answer could possibly be
made tQit; apd yet no questions
can be more easily answered We
want Santo DOMINGO just as we
want anything else that we can
make useful to ourselves. Who
can doubt that the possession of
fifteen or evenly thousand miles
more or less, of tropical country,
within only three sofi -four days
sail of our shores, Astounding in ex-
cellenth timber fer sbip-hE,lding,
dye woods and cabinet woods of
the finest qualities known to COM
merce, capable of producing sugar,
coffee, cocoa, cotton, indigo, and
every vaiity of tropical plants and
fruits that one can think OF, would
be an advantage TO the American
r,eoraes So long as land end pro
auctions ''are valuable at ALL thew
will be as y.lualAetp tls American
people as +, others, and no, scorn-
ful question as to what w, want
with'it will be allowed to obscure
the fact. In this VEN of dispar-
agement, eten cool-headed states
man like Senator Morrill,, tell us
they would not have Santo Doniin-
go as a gift. Mr.. Schrrz is Of the
the Same way qf thinking. In
Santo Domingo They and q coun-
try incapable of serving any val
liable human purpose, and for the
existence of which no valid apology
can be made and yet it is fair to
presume that both gentlemen con-
s,lme their! full share of just such
productions as Santo Domingo and
other tropical countries can alone
produce. All this talk OF the worth
lessness of SantO Domingo, is
against the established and eternal
arrangements Of nature; and incon-
sistent with tie daily practice OF
the very men who resort to it.
Whether the torrid zone produces
great nations or small ones, strong
men or weak men, the lands within
that belt of our globe does produce
just such things as men in other
ATTITUDES consider useful, beautiful
and palatable, and which are pref
ty generally used by those who can
obtain them. 1t may be that the
American people think this all
wrong, and that it would be far
better that all commerce with the
tropics should ceases, and that men
should use and consume only those
articles which are predneed within
the lines of ATTITUDES where they
Happened to. be. born, and. where
theyIlive; but thus FIR they have
rot reduced this thought to prac-
ice. The morning sun does not
more regularly appear in the cas-
tern SKY than they take their.sugar
and coffee. Senator Schurz, the
most brilliant of all the Senatorial
assailants of Santo Domingo, de-
nounces the tropics with lips warm,
and person fragrant, with his
Havana cigar. To be sure, he tells
US (for lie is logical in words, at
least,l that only slave labor can
succeed in the tropics, and that for
himself, he would rather dispense
with the use of tropical products
than have them at the expense of
humanity and justice /; yet he takes
his coffee and lns cigar, asking "no
questions for conscience sake" APP
parenly never stopping to inquire
where these things come from, or
by what process they are produced.
Just here comes in argument of lib
erty and civilization in favor Of Santo
Domingo. The purely tropical pro-
auctions we now consume in the Uni
ted States arc produced, in slave coun-
tries and by slave labor. They are
gathered under the eye and lash of
task master. The laborer, receives no
wages for his work, but Is literally
robbed of his hard earnings by men
who, like the lilies of the field neither
toll nor spin. OF these, and not Of
the honest laborers who produce them
we buy out tropical products, and
thus help to perpetuate the barbarous
and inhuman system of slavery abroad
which we poured out millions Of treas
.... g 11oxl - ol,1.,l~ %