the people of the United States today must blush.  The independence movement in the States of Spanish-America may be said to have had its definite beginning in 1806, when Francisco Miranda, a Venezuelan, sailed from New York with three ships manned by American filibusters, although the first land battle was fought in Bolivia, in 1809, and the last was fought in the same country, in 1825.  But the great wave swept from the northern border of Mexico to the southernmost point of Spanish possession.  When these States declared their independence, they wrote into their Constitutions that all men should be free, that human slavery should be abolished forever from their soil.  The attitude of the United States in the matter of Cuba was determined by the objection to the existence of an anti-slavery State so near our border.  The experience of Haiti and Santo Domingo was, of course, clearly in mind, but the objection went deeper than that.  Those who are interested may read with profit the debates in the Congress of the United States, in 1826, on the subject of the despatch of delegates to the so-called Panama Congress-of that year.  On the whole, it is not pleasant reading from any present point of view.

Our cherished Monroe Doctrine was one of the fruits of this period, and in the enunciation of that policy the affairs of Cuba were a prominent if not the dominant force.  The language of this doctrine is said to have been written by Secretary Adams, but it is embodied in the message of President Monroe, in December, 1823, and so bears his name.  In April, of that year, Secretary Adams sent a long communication to Mr. Nelson, then the American Minister to Spain.  For their bearing on the Cuban question, and for the presentation of a view that runs through many years of American policy, extracts from that letter may be included here.

  DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
  WASHINGTON, April 28, 1823.

“In the war between France and Spain, now commencing, other interests, peculiarly ours, will, in all probability, be deeply involved.  Whatever may be the issue of this war, as between these two European powers, it may be taken for granted that the dominion of Spain upon the American continent, north and south, is irrecoverably gone.  But the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico still remain nominally, and so far really, dependent upon her, that she possesses the power of transferring her own dominion over them, together with the possession of them, to others.  These islands, from their local position are natural appendages to the North American continent, and one of them, Cuba, almost in sight of our shores, from a multitude of considerations, has become an object of transcendant importance to the commercial and political interests of our Union.  Its commanding position, with reference to the Gulf of Mexico and the West India seas; the character of its population; its situation midway between our southern coast and the island of St. Domingo; its safe and