Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1889 — WILL CUBA BE ABSORBED? [ARTICLE]

WILL CUBA BE ABSORBED?

Suggestion that the Atiantie Islands May Become American States—Work for Minlstsr Douglass. ’’ The Washington correspondent of the New York Herald says: Since I sent you .■the inside explanation of the circumstances and motives that led to the Hawaiian treaty, or other developments of what dip lomatic connoisseurs term the “blanket policy” of the State Department are pushing their way to the front. The diplomatic powers of Mr. Frederick Douglass are not to lie in the innocuous desuetude of a short residence at Pcrt-au Prince. Should be show that he is not intolerable to the dusky autocrats of Hayti, his powers are to be put to the proof in an

attempt to convince President Hippolyte that asurrenderof the control of the foreign relations of the black republic to the Department of State at Washington will be greatly' conducive to the security and prosperity of that country. A guarantee of the autonomy of the islland is to be had from the United States upon the terms above indicated, coupled with the concession of naval privelges and a right to-land troops in the discretion of the proper American authority to repel invasion or insure domestic tranquility. Should Hayti prove tolerant of the seductive suggestion, Mr. Douglass is expected to extend the sphere of his influence to San Domingo. He will do so, even if Hippolyte and his Cabinet should take the other course with a view to applying moral pressure npon the larger community by stamping, if possible. the character of proteges of the United States upon the Spanish speaking section of the island. As the “blanket policy” would be like a blanket with a hole in it unless Cuba should be brought into the line of ultimate absorbtion, Minister Palmer is stated to have had assigned to him apeculiarly delicate task. He is to use his unofficial good offices at Madrid to drop in the minds of the Dons and Grandees bf the Spanish Capital an occasional hint that Spain would-be well out of Cuba and Cuba would do well out of Spain. In the delicate and non-committal way indicated he will occasionally suggest that nothing could be friendlier or wiser or nearly so advantageous all around than to prepare to come into alignment with Mr. Blaine’s comprehensive American policy for the American 'Continent and hasten the slow but certain march of manifest destiny. .