Our War with Spain for Cuba's FreedomWhite, Trumbull
History
Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom
White, Trumbull
Cuba -- History; Spain -- Foreign relations -- United States; Spanish-American War, 1898; United States -- Foreign relations -- Spain
Under no probable circumstance can Cuba ever yield to Spain one
per cent, on the large amount which the United States are willing
to pay for its acquisition. But Spain is in imminent danger of
losing Cuba without remuneration.
Extreme oppression, it is now universally admitted, justifies any
people in endeavoring to relieve themselves from the yoke of their
oppressors. The sufferings which corrupt, arbitrary and
unrelenting local administration necessarily entail upon the
inhabitants of Cuba cannot fail to stimulate and keep alive that
spirit of resistance and revolution against Spain which has of
late years been so often manifested. In this condition of affairs
it is vain to expect that the sympathies of the people of the
United States will not be warmly enlisted in favor of their
oppressed neighbors.
We know that the President is justly inflexible in his
determination to execute the neutrality laws; but should the
Cubans themselves rise in revolt against the oppression which they
suffer, no human power could prevent citizens of the United States
and liberal-minded men of other countries from rushing to their
assistance. Besides, the present is an age of adventure in which
restless and daring spirits abound in every portion of the world.
It is not improbable, therefore, that Cuba may be wrested from
Spain by a successful revolution; and in that event she will lose
both the island and the price which we are now willing to pay for
it--a price far beyond what was ever paid by one people to another
for any province.
It may also be remarked that the settlement of this vexed
question, by the cession of Cuba to the United States, would
forever prevent the dangerous complications between nations to
which it may otherwise give birth.
It is certain that, should the Cubans themselves organize an
insurrection against the Spanish government, and should other
independent nations come to the aid of Spain in the contest, no
human power could, in our opinion, prevent the people and
government of the United States from taking part in such a civil
war in support of their neighbors and friends.
But if Spain, dead to the voice of her own interest, and actuated
by a stubborn pride and a false sense of honor, should refuse to
sell Cuba to the United States, then the question will arise, What
ought to be the course of the American government under such
circumstances?
Self-preservation is the first law of nature with States as well
as with individuals. All nations have, at different periods, acted
upon this maxim. Although it has been made the pretext for
committing flagrant injustice, as in the partition of Poland and
other similar cases which history records, yet the principle
itself, though often abused, has always been recognized.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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