88 



humboldt's cuba. 



intelligent whites ; inhabiting a country whose area 

 is very nearly equal to that of England proper ; the 

 productions of whose industry rule many of the 

 most important markets of the world ; whose geo- 

 graphical position is one of the most marked upon 

 the globe; and the ratio of whose industrial and! 

 social progress is exceeded by only one among exist- 

 ing nations, does not depend, for its being, upon its 

 recognition in European reviews, or in cautiously- 

 written, and guardedly-worded, diplomatic notes. 

 The people of Cuba, by their labor, and the fertility 

 of her soil, have already stamped the fact of their 

 existence in unmistakable characters upon the in- 

 dustrial world, and in the struggle for their rights, 

 and for their very existence, which any attempt to 

 carry out the barbarous threat thus held forth by 

 Spaniards, and by Englishmen, would surely create, 

 the assertion of their rights would have a like effect 

 upon their political relations with other nations. 



That if Spain relinquished her forcibly-maintained 

 sovereignty over Cuba, by sale or treaty, to the 

 United States, the confederacy would " buy a colored 

 population more insubordinate than any they now 

 have," is an assertion in regard to the future, which 

 we do not deem justified by the general principles 

 which regulate cause and effect. 



In what manner the transfer of a sovereignty from 



