The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-02-07
MR.. BLAINE's VIEWS ON OUR FOR
EIGN POLICY

AS Mr.. Blaine will in all probability
be the Secretary of State under Harri
sons Admins ration, his views as to our
general foreign policy and especially
with reference to the relations of this
government to the islands OF the Pacific
will be found quite interesting. In a
communication to the U. S. Minister at
Hawaii in 1881, Mr.. Blaine wrote as fol-
lows:
THE policy of this country with re-
gard to the Pacific is the natural COM
plement to its Atlantic policy. The hIs-
tory of our European relations for fifty
years shows the jealous concern with
which the United States has guarded its
conttol of the coast from foreign inter.
ference, and this without extension of
territorial possession beyond the main
land. 1t has always been its aim to pre-
serve the friendly neutrality of the ad-
iacent States and insular possessions.
Its attitude toward Cuba Is a case in
point. That rich leland, the key to the
Gulf OF Mexico and the field for our moet
extended trade in the Western Hemis-
phere, is, though in the hands of Spain,
part of the American commercial sys-
TEN. Our relations present end prospec-
tive toward Cuba have never been more
ably set forth than in the remarkable
note addressed by my predecessor, Sec
rotary Everett, to the Ministers of Great
Britain and France in Washington on
the 1st of December, 1859, in rejection
of the suggested tripartite alliance TO
forever determine the neutral ty of the
Spanish Antilles. In response to the
proposal that the United States, Great
Britain and France should sevGrally and
collectively agree to forbid the acquisi-
ton of control over Cuba by any or ell
of them, Mr.. Everett showed that, with
out forcing or even coveting POSSESSION
OF the island Its condition was essential
" an American question; that the re-
nunciation forever by this government
Of contingent interest therein would be
far broader than the like remuneration
by Great Britain and France; that ever
ceasng to be Spanish, Cuba must nee
essarily become American and not fall
under any other European domination,
and that the ceaseless movement OF seq
regation of American interests from Eu'
ropean control and unification in a
broader sphere of independent life could
not and should not he checked by any
arbitrary agreement. Nearly thirty
years have demonstrated the wisdom OF
the attitude then maintained by Mr..
Everett and have made indispensable its
continuance and its extension to all parts
of the American Atlantic system where
a disturbance of the existing status
might be attempted in the interest OF
foreign powers. The present attitude OF
this government toward any European
project for the control of an lsthmian
route is but the logical sequence Of the
resistance made in 1852 to the attempted
pressure of an active foreign influence
in the West Indies. Hawaii, although
much farther from the California coast
than is Cuba from the Florida peninsula
holds in the Western Sea much the same
position as Cuba in the Atlantic. lt Is
the key to the maritime dominion OF the
Pacific States as Cuba is the key to the
Gulf trade. The mariim possession OF
Hawaii is not desired by the United
States any more than was that OF Cuba
But under no circumstances can the
United States permit any change in the
territorial control of either which cut 1t
adrft from the American system, where
TO they both indispensably belong"
The Republican leaders have intima-
ted that it will be their policy to treat
Samoa as much a key to the Pacific as
hey would Hawaii. They are of opinion
that the next movement which Germany
and Great Britain would make would be
toward Hawaii, il now successful in
Samoa