PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 



15 



same ratio with the increase of trade across the 

 various isthmus routes, and every new enterprise in 

 those regions has a direct and practical tendency to 

 increase the moral power of whatever government 

 rules in Cuba. The construction of the Panama 

 railroad, at the cost 'of millions of dollars to the 

 industrial resources of the United States, although of 

 great advantage, in a pecuniary sense, to all the 

 nations upon whose commerce it has conferred a 

 benefit, has brought an increase of national power 

 only to the Spanish government in Cuba, as it has 

 brought a great increase to the tides of national 

 wealth which must pass before its doors, and within 

 its easy grasp. The same result must attend every 

 increased facility of transit across the isthmus States, 

 and every movement which shall tend to augment 

 the products of labor within their borders, or their 

 intercourse with the great marts lying upon the 

 North Atlantic Ocean. 



The physical geography of all the isthmus states 

 north of Panama, and of the republic of Mexico, 

 give to Cuba in this respect, a peculiar natural terri- 

 torial relation to all those countries. Their eastern 

 shores are wanting in those deep and capacious har- 

 bors, so necessary not only for commerce, but for the 

 purposes of defence, while the situation of Cuba, 

 with her numerous ports, opposite, and almost imme- 



