Commons, made in March, 1850, that the number of slaves exported from Africa had sunk down in 1842 (the very year in which the Ashburton treaty was concluded) to nearly 30,000. In 1843 it rose to 55,000. In 1846 it was 76,000. In 1847 it was 84,000, and was then in a state of unusual activity. Sir Charles Hotham, one of the most distinguished officers of the British navy, and who commanded on the coast of Africa for several years, was examined by that select committee. He said that the force under his command was in a high state of discipline; that his views were carried out by his officers to his entire satisfaction; that, so far from having succeeded in stopping the slave trade, he had not even crippled it to the extent of giving it a permanent check; that the slave trade had been regulated by the commercial demand for slaves, and had been little affected by the presence of his squadron, and that experience had proven the system of repression by cruisers on the coast of Africa futile-this, too, when the British squadron counted 27 vessels, comprising several steamers, carrying about 300 guns and 3,000 men. The annual expense of the squadron is about $3,500,000, with auxiliary establishments on the coast costing at least $1,500,000 more—a total cost annually of $5,000,000 in pursuance of a system which experience has proved to be futile.

In 1847 the Brazilian slave trade was in full activity. It has been entirely suppressed for several years. The slaves now shipped from the coast of Africa are exclusively for the Spanish islands. It is not easy to estimate the number. From the best data, however, it is supposed now to be from twenty-five to thirty thousand per year. It would cease to exist the moment we acquire possession of the Island of Cuba.

The importation of slaves into the United States was prohibited in 1808. Since then, a period of more than fifty years, but one case has occurred of its violation-that of the Wanderer, which has recently excited so much attention.

Another consequence which should equally enlist the sympathies of philanthropists, excepting that class whose tears are only shed for those of ebon hue, and who turn with indifference from the sufferings of men of any other complexion, is the suppression of the infamous coolie traffic-a traffic so much the more nefarious as the Chinese is elevated above the African in the scale of creation; more civilized, more intellectual, and therefore feeling more acutely the shackles of the slave ship and the harsh discipline of the overseer. The number of Chinese shipped for Cuba since the commencement of the traffic up to March last is 28,777, of whom 4,134 perished on the passage. From that date up to the close of the year the number landed at Habana was 9,449. We blush to say that three-fourths of the number were transported under the American and British flags-under the flags of the two countries that have been the most zealous for the suppression of the African slave trade. The ratio of mortality on the passage was 142 per cent, and a much larger proportion of these wretched beings were landed in an enfeebled condition. Coming, too, from a temperate climate, they are not capable of enduring the exposure to the tropical sun, in which the African delights to bask. When their allotted time of service shall have been completed, the small remnant of the survivors will furnish conclusive evidence of the barbarity with which they are treated. The master feels no interest in his temporary slave beyond that of extracting from him the greatest possible amount of labor during the continuance of his servitude. His death or incapacity to labor at the end of his term is to the master a matter of as much indifference as is the fate of the operative employed in his mill to the Manchester spinner.

Another effect of this measure, which will recommend it most strongly to the humanitarians, will be the better treatment and increased happiness of the slaves now existing in the island that would inevitably flow from it. As a general rule the slave is well treated in proportion to his productiveness and convertible value, as an expensive instrument is more carefully handled than one of less cost. When the importation of slaves from abroad is arrested, the home production affords the only means of supplying the increasing demand for labor. It may be assumed as an axiom of political economy that the increase of popu lation, if not the only true test, is the most reliable of the average wellbeing of the class to which it is applied. Tried by this test, the slave of the United States affords a very high standard as compared even with the white population of our favored land. But when comparison is made with the statistics of African slavery in all European colonies the results are startling. Since Las Casas, in his zeal for the protec tion of the Indian, originated the African slave trade, it is estimated that the whole number transported to the New World has been about 8,375,000. Of these, we, in our colonial condition, and since, have only received about 375,000. By natural increase, after deducting all who are free, we had, in 1850, 3,204,000 slaves of the African race. These, allowing the same percentage of increase for nine years, as the census returns show during the last decennial period, would now number over 4,300,000; while, from the same data, the free colored population would amount to 496,000. The British West India colonies received about 1,700,000. The whole population of those islands, including Jamaica and Trinidad, acquired from the Spaniards, and British Guiana, black, white, and mixed, is but 1,062,639. The Spanish and other West India Islands received about 3,000,000. This is very much more than their entire population to-day. The proportion may vary in some of the colonies, but the general result will be found everywhere the same-a very much less number now existing of African descent, either pure or mixed, than have been imported from Africa.

There is another aspect in which this proposition may be viewed which is deserving of serious consideration. It is forcibly put in the President's annual message that the multiplied aggressions upon the persons and property of our citizens by the local authorities of Cuba for many years past present, in the person of the Captain-General, the anomaly of absolute power to inflict injury without any corresponding faculty to redress it. He can, almost in sight of our shores, confiscate, without just cause, the property of an American citizen or incarcerate his person; but if applied to for redress we are told that he can not act without consulting his royal mistress at Madrid. There we are informed that it is necessary to await the return of a report of the case which is to be obtained from Cuba, and many years elapse before it is ripe for decision. These delays in most instances amount to an absolute denial of justice. And even when the obligation of indemnity is admitted, the state of the treasury or a change of ministry is pleaded as an excuse for withholding payment. This would long since have justified us in resorting to measures of reprisal that would have necessarily led to war and ultimately resulted in the conquest of the island. Indeed, such is the acute sense of those wrongs prevailing among our people that nothing but our rigid neutrality laws, which, so long as they remain unrepealed or unmodified, a Chief Magistrate, acting under the sanction of his official oath to see that the laws be faithfully executed, is bound to enforce, has prevented the success of organized individual enterprises that would long ere this have revolutionized the

island. It is in part, probably, for this cause that the President has recommended the policy which this bill embodies, and the world can not fail to recognize in its adoption by Congress a determination to maintain him in his efforts to preserve untarnished our national character for justice and fair dealing.

The effect of the acquisition of Cuba will be no less beneficial in its commercial than in its political and moral aspects. The length of the island is about 770 miles, with an average breadth of about 40 miles, comprising an area of 31,468 square miles. The soil is fertile, climate genial, and its ports the finest in the world. Habana is more familiarly known to us, for apart from our extensive trade, which employs several hundred American vessels, thousands of our citizens have touched at that port in our steamers on their way to California or New Orleans. They have all carried away with them vivid recollections of its magnificent harbor, and have breathed ardent prayers that their next visit should be hailed by the Stars and Stripes floating from the Morro. And yet Cuba can boast of several other harbors equally safe and more extensive than that of Habana.

In 1855 the importations, by official custom-house returns, were $31,216,000, the exports $34,803,000. As duties are levied on exports as well as imports, there can be no exaggeration in these returns, and the real amount is undoubtedly considerably larger.

When we consider that more than two-thirds of the whole area of the island is susceptible of culture, and that not a tenth part of it is now cultivated, we may form some idea of the immense development which would be given to its industry by a change from a system of monopoly and despotism to free trade and free institutions. Whatever may be the enhanced cost of production, caused by the increased value of labor, it will be nearly if not quite compensated by the removal of export duties, and of those levied on articles produced in the United States, which are now by unjust discrimination virtually excluded from consumption. It is not possible within the limits which your committee have prescribed to themselves for this report to cite more than a few of the most important. Of flour, on an average of three years, from 1848 to 1850, there were imported from the United States 5,642 barrels, paying a duty of $10.81 per barrel. From other countries, and it is believed exclusively from Spain, 228,002 barrels, paying a duty of $2.52 per barrel, a discrimination against our flour of nearly 200 per cent on its present average value in our markets. On lard, of which the importation from the United States was 10,168,000 pounds, a duty is levied of $4 per quintal, while of olive oil 8,481,000 pounds were imported, which is chiefly used as its substitute, paying a duty of 87 cents per quintal. Of beef, dry and jerked, but 339,161 pounds were imported from the United States, paying a duty of $1.96 per quintal, while the importation from other quarters, principally from Buenos Ayres, was 30,544,000 pounds, paying a duty of $1.17, the difference being, in fact, a protection of the Spanish flag, which thus enjoys a monopoly of this branch of trade.

To-day, with its increased population and wealth, it is fair to presume that, were Cuba annexed to the United States, with the stimulus afforded by low prices, her annual consumption of our flour would be 600,000 barrels; of our lard, 25,000,000 pounds; of our beef, 20,000,000, and of pork, the most solid and nutritious food for the laborer, 10,000,000 pounds. The same ratio of increase would be exhibited in our whole lists of exports. Many articles that now appear not at all or in very limited quantities would force their way into general consumption.

The Spanish flag, deprived of the advantage of discriminating duties of tonnage and impost, would soon abandon a competition which it could not sustain on equal terms, and the whole carrying trade, foreign and domestic, would fall into the hands of our enterprising merchants and shipowners, but chiefly those of the Northern and Middle States, while the farmer of the West would have a new and constantly increasing market open to him for the products of the soil. With all the disadvantages under which we now labor, the American vessels entering the port of Habana alone last year numbered 958, with a tonnage of 403,479. To what figure will this be extended when ours shall be the national flag of Cuba?

The cultivation of sugar is the chief basis of the wealth and prosperity of Cuba. The average annual production, exclusive of what is consumed on the island, is about 400,000 tons; that of Louisiana about 175,000 tons. The whole amount of cane sugar, from which Europe and the United States are supplied, is estimated at 1,273,000 tons. Of this, Cuba and Louisiana now furnish somewhat more than 45 per cent. Is it extravagant to predict that, with Cuba annexed, we should in a few years have as complete control of this great staple-which has long since ceased to be a luxury and become almost a necessity of life-as we now have of cotton?

There is one other consideration, of minor importance when compared with the vast political interests involved in the question of acquisition; it is that of cost. Ten years past, as appears from the published correspondence, our minister at Madrid was authorized to offer $100,000,000 as the extreme price for the purchase of Cuba. If that was its value then, something may be added to it now. Assuming it to be twenty-five millions more, the annual interest, without reference to the probable premium which would be realized from a loan bearing 5 per cent interest, would be $6,250,000. Of the imposts of $31,216,000 in 1856, your committee have not before them the means of ascertaining the proportion coming from the United States. From the summary of Balanzas Generales from 1848 to 1854, in the report of Commercial Relations, volume 1, page 187, it may, however, be fairly assumed to be somewhat more than one-fourth, or about $8,000,000. This proportion would doubtless be largely increased. Admitting it to be $16,216,000, it would leave a balance of $15,000,000 on which duties could be levied. Under our present tariff the average rate of duties is about 18 per cent; but as the articles on our free list are of very limited consumption in Cuba, the average there would be at least 20 per cent. This would yield a revenue from customs of $3,000,000. But under the stimulus of free trade and free institutions, with the removal of many burdens from the consumer, it would necessarily be greatly and speedily augmented. It would be a moderate calculation to say that in two years it would reach $4,000,000. On the other hand, it may be said that our expenditure would be largely increased. Such is not the opinion of your committee. On the contrary, it is believed that from the greater security of our foreign relations, resulting from the settlement of this long-agitated and disturbing ques tion, our naval expenditure might be safely reduced, while no addition to our military establishment would be required. It has already been shown that an annual saving of $800,000 may be effected by withdrawing the African Squadron when its services will no longer be necessary. Thus our expenditure for the interest on the debt incurred by the acquisition would be credited by $4,800,000, leaving an annual balance of but $1,425,000 to the debit of the purchase. Is this sum to be weighed in S. Doc. 231, pt 7-6

the balance with the advantages, political and commercial, which would result from it? Your committee think that it should not.

A few words on the wealth and resources of Cuba, and your committee will close this report, which has swollen to dimensions not incommensurate with the importance of the subject, but which, it may be feared, will, under the pressure of other business during this short session, be considered as unduly trespassing on the attention of the Senate. The amount of taxes that can be levied upon any people without paralyzing their industry and arresting their material progress is the experimentum crucis of the fertility of the land they inhabit. Tried by this test, Cuba will favorably compare with any country on either side of the Atlantic.

Your committee have before them the last Cuban budget, which presents the actual receipts and expenditures for one year, with the estimates for the same for the next six months. The income derived from direct taxes, customs, monopolies, lotteries, etc., is $16,303,950. The expenses are $16,299,663. This equilibrium of the budget is accounted for by the fact that the surplus revenue is remitted to Spain. It figures under the head of "Atenciones de la Peninsula," and amounts to $1,404,059, and is the only direct pecuniary advantage Spain derives from the possession of Cuba, and even this sum very much exceeds the average net revenue remitted from that island, all the expenses of the army and navy employed at or near Cuba being paid by the island. The disbursements are those of the general administration of the island, those of Habana and other cities being provided for by special imposts and taxes.

It may be moderately estimated that the personal exactions of Spanish officials amount to $5,000,000 per annum, thus increasing the expenses of the Government of Cuba, apart from those which with us would be considered as county or municipal, to the enormous sum of $21,300,000, or about $13.50 per head for the whole population of the island, free and slave. Under this system of government and this excessive taxation the population has, for a series of years, steadily increased at the mean rate of 3 per cent per annum, about equal to that of the United States.

Since the reference of the bill to the committee, the President, in response to a resolution of the Senate requesting him, if not incompatible with the public interest, to communicate to the Senate any and all correspondence between the Government of the United States and the Government of Her Catholic Majesty relating to any proposition for the purchase of the Island of Cuba, which correspondence has not been furnished to either House of Congress, informs us that no such correspondence has taken place which has not already been communicated to Congress. He takes occasion to repeat what he said in his annual message, that it is highly important, if not indispensable to the success of any negotiation for the purchase, that the measure should receive the previous sanction of Congress.

This emphatic reiteration of his previous recommendation throws upon Congress the responsibility of failure if withheld. Indeed, the inference is sufficiently clear that, without some expression of opinion by Congress, the President will not feel justified in renewing negotiations. The committee beg leave to append hereto various tables concerning statistical details of matters treated of in this report. All of which is respectfully submitted.