The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-27


trading commerce of the South seas. Eng
land had preserved her control of this COM
merce up to the revolution of her American
colonies, SO that when American indepen-
dence was acknowledged she excluded our
shipping from her West India ports There
is no doubt but that the necessity Of
some retaliatory enaotments was one
cause why the maritime interests of
the United Colonies insisted upon a
''more perfect union" which should give
to Congress the control of the commercial
relations among the States and with foreign
powers. IT is at this point that Mr.. Kelley
takes up the policy of General Washington as
impressiDg upon our Minister to England
that ''the privilege of carrying our own pro-
ductions in our own vessels to their (West
India) islands and bringing in return the
productions of those islands to our ports and
markets, is regarded here as of the greatest
importance"
Presidents Adams, Jefferson Madison,
Monroe and j. Q. Adams endeavored to carry
out this policy, but without success. At the
end of more than forty years President jack
son succeeded in securing an adequate
treaty.
Mr.. Kelley explains that our fathers we're
anxious to obtain free and unrestricted trade
with the tropics, because they afforded mate
rials of commercial exchange and would
always stand in need of the productions of
our fields and workshops. "The European
powers who had domineered over the Archi-
pelago SO persistently" attached the same
value to this intercourse, and herein the diff
Guilty. Added to this opposition are the
export duties laid by the governments of
those islands upon their own products, and
the import duties which they impose upon
ours. The import duties imposed by the
United States upon West Indian products are,
indirectly, taxes upon our industry The
speech contains a tabular estimate of our
trade with foreign nations, and shows that
about one-ffth of our entire foreign trade is
with Spanish America, and it is known to be
only about one-fifth of the foreign trade of
those countries with other nations
With this evidence of the Importance at
tached by the Government of the United
States to free or reciprocal trade with the
tropics, the question arises why, during the
thirty odd years since the administration of
Jackson, SO little progress has been made in
commercial expansion in the desired direc-
ton? This question Mr.. Kelley answers in
stating his own course of opinion. The fact
is, that about the same period with the close
of Jaoksons administration, the sectional
questions between the North and South
attained an Importance which eliminated
in war. The acquisition of Texas was
resisted by some statesmen and advocated
by others on the ground that it would affect
the balance of sectional power. The Wilmot
proviso was important as deciding against
Southern expansion in one direction, while
the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, about 1850, abso-
lutely renounced the right of the United
States to colonize or acquire territory in Cen
tral America. Some Northern statesmen re-
nounced their right of commercial expansion
and even their party affiliations rather than
assent to the extt nsion of an institution
which they did not approve, Among these
WIS Mr.. Kelley. He now says
''Some OF my friends who remember the energy
with which have hitherto opposed the acquisition
advocating earnestly, as do the acquisition OF San
Domingo My hostility to the measures alluded to
fact that they intended to extend the area OF
! slavery"
He charges that the Democratic party-of
which he was at that time a member-was
actuated by opposite motives, and says, 81
applehepd that they and ! have changed
grounds on this question for the same rea-
son." This shows that this 'halt in the COM
mercial progress of the United States" has
been caused by sectional difference which
has passed away with the cause that occa-
stoned it, The whole country is now in
terested in commercial expansion southwark.
Boston and New Orleans, Richmond and
Philadelphia, alike need more markets for
their various surplus productions.
Mr.. Kelley reprobates the inconsistency
OF those VINO think with him upon the subject
of human freedom. He SAYS
"The people OF the United States have waded
| through sea OF blood and tncumbered themselves
| and their posterty with mountains Of debt TO
abolish human slavery and make our institutions
throughout our broad limits homogeneous and har-
moniOus with the fundamental principles that un.
derlie them. And yet, sir, we are to-day the sup
port and buttress of slavery wherever IL exists upon
| the continent or islands of America, as we must
continue to be until shall acquire tropical terri
! tory, on which to grow coffee and sugar, and to-
bacco equal to that OF Cuba. By the acquisition or
San Domingo, and by no other peaceable means, we
! can overthrow both slavery and Spanish supremacy
in Cuba, for we consume fully seventy per cent. OF
her exports, every pound OF which might be pro-
duced by free labor in San Domingo"
We are not prepared to say that this allega-
ton is altogether unfounded. This paper has
heretofore contended that the policy of the
Government favored the production of slave
grown sugars, as the superior of almost the
only free labor sugars, those of Louisiana.
The capacity of bringing statistical facts to
bear upon an argument for which Mr.. Kelley
is SO we'll known has enabled him to show the
extent to which we should be benefited by
the acquisition of tropical territory, and his
speech, practical and statesmanlike, deserves
the attentive perusal of every editor or
merchant really interested in the future pros
perity of the city of New Orleans and the
valley of the Mississippi.