(Morning Journal—February 3, 1873)

Every Spanish Government since the revolution of 1868 has proclaimed the intention to abolish slavery in the West Indian possessions ; every Government, it is not too much to say, has understood but not acknowledged the impossibility of suppressing the insurrection in Cuba. Yet it is only at the close of 1872 that the abolition of slavery in Porto Rico is proposed to the Cortes, and carried with enthusiasm by the magnificent rhetoric of the republican leader, Señor Castellar. Port Rico can well afford to pay the ransom of its fifty thousand slaves,, without appealing to the exhausted exchequer at Madrid. But if the fifty thousand slaves of Porto Rico are to be emancipated, how long are the three hundred and sixty thousand slaves of Cuba to wait for their liberation ? Until, says Señor Zorilla, the insurrection is suppressed.

No doubt the undertaking would at any time and in any circumstances be difficult and embarrassing ; for even the vested interest in Porto Rico slavery are already up in arms and forming a league against the Government ; and the vested interests in Cuban slavery are not only much stronger, but are very nearly concerned in the problem of suppression the Cuban insurrection. The Cuban insurgents, to say the least, are not all slaves or slaveholders ; nor are the Cuban volunteers who assist the Spanish army in putting down the insurgents all advocates of emancipation. But even the eloquent Castelar, who pronounces in the grandest and choicest Castilian a panegyric upon, “the wise, the virtuous, the immortal Lincoln,” and who exclaims, “Cursed be the genius of our country if, as some generals and some bureaucrats desire Spain is to continue to be a slave market !” —Even Castelar contemplates with pride the genius of Spain holding the keys of the Gulf of Mexico, and commanding the highway of Central America. He cannot think of letting Cuba go, though he would rather (as an orator) let Cuba go than that Spain should be responsible for the maintenance of slavery in that island.

Señor Castelar is probably as reluctant as the rest of his countrymen to agree with the President of the United States in his latest message, that “the continued maintenance of slavery” (in Cuba) “is doubtless the strongest inducement for the continuance of the strifes ;” though he might admit in general terms that “a terrible wrong is the natural cause of a terrible evil.” General Grant sees clearly enough that Cuban slavery and the Cuban insurrection are very closely related. The most humane of Spanish patriots shrinks from that conclusion, and the consequence is that Spain is hurrying towards a national bankruptcy, with very little hope of saving Cuba from that “manifest destiny” which General Grant, the soldier of emancipation, foresees. The destiny of Cuba, it is clear to all but Spaniards, depends more upon domestic policies in the United States, upon the temper of the Senate, and the pacification of the Southern States, than the declaration of patriots or the obstinacy of statesmen in Madrid.