President Grant in his final Message takes occasion to defend
his extraordinary attempt to induce the Government of the Union to take possession of St. Domingo. He says the acqui- sition of that Island would have ended the trade of the United States with Cuba, and have forced Spain to allow the freedom of the island. American vessels would have been employed in transporting the products of the island—i.e., St. Domingo, as we judge from the context—the soil would have fallen into the hands of American capitalists, and the demand for negro labour would have been so great, that any community of negroes op- pressed in America would have been able to emigrate thither, and the whole race would have remained "masters of the situa- tion," as far as their labour was concerned. This apology reads very much like an afterthought. The Union already possesses territories, such as Florida, which will grow everything St. Domingo grows, or Cuba either, without adding to its difficulties a new crowd of black subjects who do not speak English. If sugar or tobacco will pay so well in St. Domingo that negroes could demand high wages, why can they not demand them in Louisiana, where there is no competition as there would be in the island from the labourers already settled there?
