PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 



87 



willing to aid the people of Cuba in an effort to 

 conquer the Spanish power there. 



European writers, in contemplating the accession 

 of new countries to the American confederation, stu- 

 diously forget, or avoid the fact, that it is not some 

 powerful king, surrounded by courtiers and privi- 

 leged classes of nobility, extending his sway over 

 new conquests and subjugated nations ; but it is the 

 extension of the right of self-government by the 

 people, and their integrity in the great arena of 

 freedom, guaranteed by the jealous watchfulness of 

 the whole. Should the people of Cuba successfully 

 assert their rights, and seek admission to the Amer- 

 ican confederacy, there would be no conquest but 

 that of right over might, and of freedom over oppres- 

 sion. 



That " they may find her emancipated or deso- 

 lated," that is to say, African, or a heap of moulder- 

 ing ashes, is apparently a bold threat; but to our 

 view it is only the ebullition of fear and weakness. 

 "We know that neither the liberalism nor the govern- 

 ments of Europe have ever recognized the existence 

 of the people of Cuba as a body politic ; but this in 

 no wise affects its vitality, nor the influence which a 

 successful assertion of its rights may have upon itself, 

 or upon its relations to other powers. A people 

 numbering almost six hundred thousand free and 



