Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-02-02
Cuban Intervention.


the navy has been ordered TO rendezvous at
a Southern port, and is, in fact, already col
lected there. The message Of the President
seems TO favor intervention. To quote his
own language, he says
" The property Of our citizens in Cuba is large,
and is rendered insecure and deprecated in value
and in capacity Of production by the continuance
Of the strife and the unnatural mode Of It's con
duct The same is true differing only in degree
with respect to the interests and people OF other
nations and the absence Of any reasonable assur-
ance Of n near termination Of the conflict must
Of necessity soon compel the states thus suffering
TO consider what the interests Of their own people
and their duty toward themselves may demand.
Two reasons are here given, which, in the
opinion Of the President, may call for pos
sihle and early Intervention in Cuban affairs.
First, the property of our citizens in Cuba
is large. and is rendered insecure and depre-
ciated in value by the continuance Of the
strife. II is well for our people not to forget
that the property of our citizens in Cuba
is mostly slave property. 1t consists largely
Of plantations and slaves The citizens Of
our country in Cuba have invested their
means in sugar estates, worked, and only 10
be proftably worked by the unpaid toll Of
enslsved negroes For the United States to
interfere to protect and render secure such
property as that, would be a crime and a foul
blot upon our history. We have just gone
through with murderous war to abolish
that kind Of property in our own cotton and
sugar producing states, and there is an APP
pearauce Of faulty in the proposition Of the
President that we should undertake another
war in order TO secure and appreciate
slave property in Cuba. The second reason
the President gives for interference is, that
" the same is true with respect TO the inter
ests and people of other nations" But why
is our country 10 inaugurate costly war
with Spain to protect the slave property Of
our own citizens in Cuba, or the same kind
of property in the hands Of the people of
other nations What have we to do with
the English or German or French popula-
ton in the island of Cuba ? Let their own
government take care OF their interests. 1t
is not the province or duty Of this country
to protect them Unless there are better
reasons than these for intervention, then in
tervention would be both a crime and
blunder.
Intervention with Cuba means war with
Spain. 1t means the driving of the com
merce in American bottoms from the seas
for, in addition to her navy Spain, being
under no treaty stipulations to the contrary,
might arm as many privateers against us
as she chose, and give them secure refuge as
well as ample equipment and provision in
her own ports. II means the temporary ex-
tinction of our commerce. 1t means also
long and costly strife, Cuba cannot be con
quered by vessels Of war An army must
be landed there, and sustained by constant
and large re-inforcements. And then, if
conquered, the success would be worse for
us than defeat. We have no means of rul-
ing the island We should be obliged to ad-
nit it as a state, and subject it to such Co
erciye influences as would keep its dissimlar
and refractory population quiet. The popu-
lation of Cuba is in no respects homogeneous
with our own. In the mass it is ignorant
brutal, cruel. ltinherits the ideas and prin-
ciples of the inquisiton and the amphithea-
tire. II has no knowledge of even the ele-
mentary principles of civil or religious lib
erty. Its social and domestic customs do
not belong to this age of Christianity and
civilization. Such a state as Cuba, incor-
porated in one body polite, would be ike a
felon on the finger or a cancer in the system.
1t would be fountain of pain---a source of
vast corruption, and a constant hint of dsso-
luton and death Our interests are wide
and diverse enough now. The vast expan-
sion of our territory, and the extension of
our political system, have already reduced
the strength of our bonds of union How
long we can go on adding to the magnitude
of the nation, and diminishing its forces of
conference and its sentiments of unity, is
question that only requires time for q practi-
cal answer.
Intervention is only another name for POI
litical faulty. absurdity strife, corruption
and disintegratien. 1t is one of those Of
lenses against the peace and life of the ma
ton, which, if committed, Providence would
not fail to chastise with its severest penalties
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