New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-12-28
THE CUBAN QUESTION.
NEW BASES FOR ANNEXATION.
WHAT SLAVERY ONCE HAD TO DO WITH TIA
PROBLEM OF ECONOMICS AND

economics to be solved by the operation OF
natural laws That is the conventional repiS
which Consul General Williams invariably makes
when hard pressed by inQuisitiye travellers a'he'
for information. Having spent lifetime III ,nc
West Indies he knows Cnba thoroughly ana Has
made himself so useful to the United States GOV
eminent that no Administration can venture
10 displacc him. But he is TOO wary diplomat
70 be entanglcd in discussion of Cuban politics
or tho islands relations 10 the United States.
lie will listen politely, and then fill up the hrs'
pause by repeating: 1T is sugar ques,ioh'
Won must know something Of economic scie"ce
in order TO understand it
While the Cuban question now may be 4 sugar
question, it has been something else III tHe pas"
Forty years ago it was an annexation q"cS"o"
Two Northern Democratic Presidents, win "e
slaye-ownirC South behind them, favored t1e
acquisition of Cuba by purchase. IreSmen.
Pierce was only restrained by the caution III
Marcy from allowing Jefferson Davis VINO was
then Secretary of War, to drag the Admihis.r"'io"
into a war with Spain after the Black warrior
affair: and he advocated in special messages pre-
lminary legislation for the purchase OF the island
In the Ostend manifesto three American Minis
ters Ruchauan Mason and SOuc, declared that
S1oO0 600 would De fair price for the island
and that if Spain were 10 refuse 1t. the lnlteu
States would be justified in taking Cuba by force
The first Minister 10 attach his signature 10 'hat
audacious document became the next Ires'uen'
and in 1858 he reOpened the subject oy asking
Congress to authorize an appropriation Ior an
advance payment for the purchase OF CUBA. SHueii
MT once reported from the Committee on foreieh
Relations bill appropriating S5o,ooo,Voo lor tue
nurnose and in the debate which ensued III"
Southern leaders avowed their willingness TO give
from SIP OOO, 900 10 5000 10000 for the Island
withdrawn.
until the savc-owners in the Senate had disclosed
their Interior purpose of obtaining IN CUBA terri
tory out of which three slave States might ne
created as compensation for the free States IN the
West.
II was not sugar question which diverted
,bo attention of the Southern leaders from Kansas
and Nebraska 10 the tropics. Louisiana was then
supnlying the American market with sugar Win
the cid of importations from Barbados ana o'Eer
British islands in the West Indies. CUBAN sugar
was then going TO Europe BY triangular 'raue
route The sailing vessels carrying mefchahuiSc
from Liverpool 10 the Plate We're loaded there
with ierlied beef for the slaves in Cuba, ana
sailed from Havana and Matanzas for England
with cargocs of sugar. Cuba's trade relations
were then almost exclusively with Europe The
island WAS in no sense o commercial dependency
M the United States as il is to-day. The CubanS
wero not interested in the annexation question
nor in the negotiations for the purchase OF thelr
territory When Lopez, with his American Hi
busters. landed on the island no recruits Hooked
10 their standards. The planters coffee ana
sugar went to Europe. and they were satisfied
with their Spanish political connections. AZ slave
owners they were not menaccd with an emanclpa-
ton movement, and they were repealed rather
than attracted 10y the importunate advances OF
the Southern leaders.
WI. a. lao NH Qllp
was in reality desperate device for the enlarge
ment OF slave territory. The southern leaders,
disappointed by the results of the Mexican War
and alarmed by the agitation caused in the North
By their territorial intricucS, wcIo hunting about
for str6hgholds in the tropics for their peculiar
institution. Senator Vale tainted thcmfwlth de-
feating homestead legislation for filing the West
crn Territories with setter, and then going
abroad fishing for nig-ers through the whole
world" The annexation Of Cuba was justified by
Northern Democrats like Marcy and Douglas, on
the ground Of manifest destiny: but il
strcnuousIy opposed by all opponents of slavery.
The moral instincts of the North were against il
There was no sympathetic Response from Cuba to
the movement II the last resource of the
Southern leaders. who rushing hcadl1ne into
tho war for slavery.
When the Civil War in America came to an
end the Cuban question had become a sugar
question. While hosilities were in prorcss
created in the American market hv
the collapse of the Louisiana industry. Cuban
sugar filled It, Ii was diverted from Europe
because better prices offered in iii" United
States with shorter lines of communication. AZ
ter the clos, Of the war the Louisiana planta-
tons unable 10 resume operations such
scale as to enable them TO supply greatly
increased market. Cuban sugar continued 10 90
tbo Init Statc nd : no,
II was shut ont Of Europe entirely by the
marvellous development Of the sucar-bcct industry
under the protection Of bounties paid by Ger
MANY Frarce Austria-Ilungary and Bel inm.
When the patriot war arose in Cuba the Aneri-
can consumers virtually paid the cost Of sup
messing the protractcd rebellion. Tie planters
were on tic Spanish side and their slaves were
loyal 70 them. They continued to prolIcc
sugar, ard they had n market for it in the
United States II the sugar question which
determined the fate of the island. The indie
pcndcncc of Cuba would have been won if the
United States had shown any interest in the
island or had ceased 10 bay sugar from that
quarter Americans were Indifferent 10 the Cuban
struggle because slavery existed in the island
and emancipation was making trouble enough
in the Southern States They bought thr sugar
because there was no other adequate source of
supply
Since the close OF that disastrous struggle tho
Cubar question has remained . sugar question
The island had practically this one important
industry, and there was only one market for the
product. Emancipation followed the as
reward 10 the slaves for the Loyalty with which
they had supported their Spanish masters. The
planters being compelled to adapt themselves 10
the conditions Of free labor, abandoned coffee
growing and concentrated their efforts uron sugar
production: but they were confronted with de-
structive competition from the European beet.
The technical schools of Germany, by educating
the agricultural classes and improving the chem
zeal and mechanical processes, had driven Cuban
sugar ont Of Europe and Were displaciny it in
the United States. II became almost q matter
Of life or death for the planters OF the island