92 



humboldt's ctjba. 



United States, exists solely from a contemplation of 

 moral possibilities, and not from any admission of 

 the fact by the European mind ; and the statesmen 

 of Europe are laboring strenuously to prevent its 

 accomplishment. The policy of the British cabinet 

 on this point is strikingly exhibited in Lord Palmer- 

 ston's assertion, that " if the negro population of 

 Cuba were rendered free, that fact would create a 

 most powerful element of resistance to any scheme 

 for annexing Cuba to the United States." In this 

 he is undoubtedly right. Emancipation in Cuba 

 would blot that country, and its productions, now so 

 important in the commerce of all civilized nations, 

 from the list of wealth-producing communities. It 

 would call into existence, in immediate proximity to 

 our southern shores, a negro community, under the 

 influence of the European idea and policy, which 

 would be dangerous to us as a neighbor, and worse 

 than dangerous to us as a part of this confederacy ; 

 or, perhaps, worse still, it might initiate a war of 

 races in Cuba, from a participation in which no 

 power or considerations could prevent our people, 

 and which might pro ve alike disastrous to the blacks 

 in the Antilles, and to our own domestic repose. 



In this question England is arrayed in hostility 

 against us, for the questions of Emancipation and 

 Slavery are the Scylla and Charybdis of our con* 



