Arizona silver belt., 1896-03-12
TINE MINERAL MARkEf. .
THE CUBAN QUESTION.

It is refreshing to read Tn foreign cables that European governments are amazed at the recognition oi the Cubans as belligerents by the United States Congress. To per sons conversant with American history there is nothing remark able, or inconsistent with inter national usage, in the action of Congress. For a full year the Cubans have more than held their own against great odds and are in possession of the entire island with the exception of the two or three provinces immediately surrounding Havana. For hundreds of years the natives have been oppressed by the mother country which has exacted their very substance to maintain an effete monarchy and at the same time has denied to the Cubans a voice in the government of the island. Their war for indepen- dence is as righteous as was the revolution of the American colo hies for freedom against the galling yoke of England.
 The American people not only endorse the action of their repre- sentatives in Congress on the Cuban question, but would sustain the recognition of the insurgents as an independent government entitled to all the rights and privileges usually accorded to an established nation. The inhuman treatment imposed upon Cuban prisoners by Spain removes all considerations of inter- national comity, and the succession of Captain General Weyler to the command of the Spanish forces in Cuba is with the avowed purpose of pursuing a still more inhuman warfare. In fact, the treatment of the Cubans by the Spanish mili- tary authorities places Spain beyond the pale of civilized nations.
 But, aside from the consideration of humanity, Spain has no cause for resentment against the people of the United States, and the sym pathetic expressions from other countries is only an evidence of the jealousy with which they view the growing importance and command ing position occupied by the United States in the Western hemisphere. Slowly but surely the power of monarchial Europe in the two Americas has ebbed, and ere many decades every vestige of kiugly rule will have succumbed to the irresistible spirit of democracy.
 The present is a seasonable time to remind carping critics of the action of England, France, Spain, Germany and Austria in recogniz- ing the Confederate States as bel. Hgerents during the war of the rebellion. This step was taken by England, and followed by other European powers, even before the first battle was fought, and at the time when a special envoy of this government, Charles Francis Adams, was on his way to England with the knowledge of the English government-to acquaint the Brit ish authorities with the policy of our government in the dire calamity of civil war and to appeal to En- gland and other foreign powers to abstain from any interference or pretended acts of neutrality which would give material or moral en- eouragement to the rebellion.
 The scheme of England, France and Spain was to destroy the Union, to establish great slave govern ment in the South, dominated by European influences, and the crea- tion of Latin empire in Mexico under the protection of France. Such was the perfdy of European governments during the most mo- mentous era in the history of our country, which is well told in Blaine's Twenty Years in Con- gress."
 Spain has no just cause of con- plsint against the United States.