National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-07-17

Governmental promise reciprocal or equita-
bic relations between this country and the
island, which is of so much commercial i'm
pOrtance to US; and that those promises
have also been ignored In short, the his
tory Of Cuba is of piece with the history
of all the Spanish-American possessions,
except that the perfdious and tyrannical
control over it has been continued to a
greater length of time. But this last stroke,
this announcement that the Government
will receive blood money from its slaves,
in gold, and that it expects to derive its sup
port in part from infamous traffic in human
flesh, caps the climax. The money of the
Spanish bank at Havana may be used in
part payment of ordinary taxes, but gold,
or its equivalent, isdemanded from the poor
slave who struggles for the priceless boon
of freedom The Captain General, clothed,
as he is, with more than vicarious power,
and representing, as he does, the Madrid
Government, has been for months laboring
with vain attempts to regulate the financial
affairs of the island-to bring his depre-
ciated currency back to something like a
specie value, and as the blacks began to
take advantage Of the depreciation of the
paper mOney--to purchase their freedom
with the Governments own obligations
the order is issued that the price shall be
paid in gold. How the blood of the old
time abolitionists and those of younger
birth, as well as all the true friends of hu-
manity who hope to see the continent free
from the communicating and demoralizing
influences of slavery, will bound with ire
prcssible anger at this Let the New
World be a Free World has been the
motto of thousands of our fellow citizens,
and when CASTELAR,, with his noble aspira-
tions, reached control at Madrid, the reali-
zation of their hopes seemed certain.
Their sympathy with the struggling repub
lican insurgents on the island, earnest
as it had been, was somewhat abated. I'm
der CASTELAR, it was believed that both king
power and slave power would be forever
banished from the Spanish dominion, and
even when Serano succeeded him there
were those sanguine enough to believe that
the same results would follow. But here
we find "Concha, the cruel" the represen
tative of Serrano, placing a price upon the
lives and freedom of human beings. This,
too, when the insurgents have freed their
slaves, and are fighting side by side in the
same ranks against Concha's troops.
There may be few Americans so sordid
and 50 welded to the lust Of gain, q few
leading capitalists in. New York, Boston.
and Phihdelphia, including certain so-called
Christian Statesmen, who shah be nameless
for the present, who will yield quiet but
nevertheless effective sympathy and influ-
ence in support of this monstrous PROPOSE
ton; but the overwhelming majority Of our
people will demand from our Government
an earnest protest against it. And they
will not be satisfied unless the protest is
by earnest demonstrations 10 show
that nothing less than complete and
prompt fulfllment of every promise made
to us will be accepted. They will not hes
itate to declare more than ever their sym
pathy with the Republican insurgents, and
by the time Congress meets again the re-
cognition of their independence will have
become an imperative command, which
that body will not dare to disObeY.