Sharp County record., 1899-03-10
SLAVERY IN CUBA.
Attitude Of the United States 10
Times Gone By
Ensrts Of American Slave HslAsss
- secure Annexation st the ~
Iaad sd Their RsDsateA
Failurs,

Fsilurs.
TIE United States had undertaken to
stop the movement for the liberation
,f Spanish colonies at the point selected
by itself, and had deliberately entered
upon the policy OF maintaining Spanish
-uls In its own neighborhood. This pol
icy meant the assumption Of . heavy
responsibility, as well as continuous
effort to put 10 rest On unsettled ques-
tion, by stoutly. and in defiance OF facts,
asserting that it really was settled II
people would only agree pleasantly to
think 80. But in this, ~ in all like
cases, the effort was vain. Cuba was
held under Spanish rule. and the ques'
ton which had received the wrong an.
swer began almost At once to make
itself heard. after the awkward fashion
Of questions which men pretend to
have disposed OF, but which are still
restlessly seeking the right and final
snswer. and, without respect for pol
icies or vested interests, keep knock
ing and crying at the door. Some
Ame rican statesmen saw that there
was a real question 10 Cuba demanding
real settlement, and declared, like
John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay.
that Cuba must be annexed, and that
It would become indispensable to the
integrity of the union. Even then did
Adams also assert that the transfer OF
Cubs to some other power was danger
obtruding itself upon our councils. But
the plan Of leaving the island with
Spain prevailed. Cuba had come near
to both independence and annexation.
but both gave way before the slave
power. and for 20 years the policy OF
1898 had sway. AS late a. lS43, indeed,
Webster said that negro emancipation
in Cuba would strike death blow to
slavery in the United States, thus Civ
ing cynicsliy and frankly the bad and
true reason for the policy steadily
pressed since 1925. Never at rest, how
ever, the flave power itself, a few years
after Webster's lucid definition of its
Cuban policy, changed it's own A,a-
tude completely. Prom desiring to
keep Cuba in the hands Of Spain, in
order that the Cuban negroes might
remain slaves, It passed, as dangers
thickened around 1t at home, to the
determination TO secure Cuba, in order
that more slavery territory might be
added to the United States. Hence o
continuous effort 10 get the islsnd BY
annexation, and various projects. all
fallen into more or less oblivion now,
to bring that result about were de-
vised by American sloveholdsrs and
their allies. Their schemes ranged
from Buchanan's offer to purchase, re-
jected with deep scorn by Spain the in
teIIigent, to thsJ Ostend manifesto
barefaced argument for conquest-snd
included attempts TO bring about Gu
ban independence by exciting insurres-
tions and landing Alibustering expedi-
tions. But the time was fsAt drawing
near, even while the American slave
holders were thus seeking new terri
tory, when the slave power would be
thinking not Of extension, but OF ex-
istence. In 1851 American slavery In
voked the ordeal OF battle, and perishsd
utterly. With it died its political pow.
er, and the policies, foreign and domes-
tic, which It had 50 long imposed upon
the United States. But slavery also
left q number OF debts to humanity
which were not buried with 1t, but
which required payment at the hands
of the American people, who had been
responsible for slavery living, and
could not avoid settling It's debts when
It was dead. Among these debts was
Cuba. Nobody had thought OF II since
the Ostend manifesto. II anybody
chanced to remember 1t during or after
the civil war, the thought probably was
that Cuba at .aat was we'll out Of the
way, together with the slave power
which had been forever meddling with
It, and talking about II, and casting
covetous eyes upon its rich lands and
forests,--Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge. in
Harper's Magazine.