PRELIMINARY ESSAY 



19 



and capacious ports it equals them. Its geographi- 

 cal position gives it also peculiar advantages in 

 respect to them. With one extremity resting in 

 undisturbed proximity upon the Continent for sup- 

 port, the other extends between, and in sight of St. 

 Domingo and Jamaica, which are the only other 

 islands of the Antilles possessing any territorial im- 

 portance. Its natural resources and facility of inter- 

 nal communication, give to these territorial relations 

 a power which can never be superseded by any com- 

 bination of natural or acquired advantages in the 

 other islands of the American Archipelago. 



Its territorial relations to the United States, con- 

 stitute probably its greatest value in the estimation 

 of European Cabinets. The geographical formation 

 of our Atlantic, and Gulf coasts places it midway 

 between them, enabling the power that holds Cuba, 

 to impede at will all maritime intercourse between 

 their ports. At the same time it is the key to the 

 sea gates of more than twenty thousand miles of 

 river navigation emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, 

 the shutting of which would inflict serious injury 

 upon every interest connected with the great valley 

 of the Mississippi. The evil effects of such an 

 untoward event, would be felt not only by the indus- 

 trial pursuits of the great and increasing States in 

 that region, but also bv the manufacturing and com- 



