PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 41 



sion, may soon create a state of affairs in Hayti in 

 which the powers of western Europe, always so ready 

 to mingle in questions of territorial difficulty, or 

 of dynasty, may feel themselves called upon to inter- 

 fere. Any infringement of the rights of a subject 

 of either crown may form a pretext, and a cover for 

 political designs, as we have seen in late occurrences 

 in the Dominican republic, where a pretended in- 

 fraction of individual rights, enabled them to pre- 

 vent the completion of a treaty between that republic 

 and the United States. 



The political relations of Cuba with the United 

 States constitute, in a great measure, those of Spain 

 with this country. They have been marked with 

 many cases of irritated feeling, arising in most part 

 from the wrong application of general principles to 

 private cases, by ignorant and irresponsible officials. 

 All the exponents of Spanish public policy trace the 

 loss of her rich American possessions to the evil 

 example of the United States ; and from this they 

 deduce a necessity of resistance to every principle 

 or precept, that in any way assimilates to the Ameri- 

 can theories ; and this necessity, they think, can be 

 fully complied with, only by a constant opposition 

 to the interests of such American citizens as com- 

 merce, or any other cause, may bring within the 

 sphere of their power. The Spanish press in Cuba 



