In case of foreign war it will give us command of all the
islands referred to, and thus prevent an enemy from ever again
possessing himself of rendezvous upon our very coast. At present our
coast trade between the States bordering on the Atlantic and those
bordering on the Gulf of Mexico is cut into by the Bahamas and the
Antilles, Twice we must, as it were, pass through foreign countries
to get by sea from Georgia to the west coast of Florida.
San Domingo, with a stable government, under which her immense resources
can be developed, will give remunerative wages to tens of thousands of
laborers not now upon the island. This labor will take advantage of
every available means of transportation to abandon the adjacent islands
and seek the blessings of freedom and its sequence--each inhabitant
receiving the reward of his own labor. Porto Rico and Cuba will have
to abolish slavery, as a measure of self-preservation, to retain their
laborers.
San Domingo will become a large consumer of the products of Northern
farms and manufactories. The cheap rate at which her citizens can be
furnished with food, tools, and machinery will make it necessary that
contiguous islands should have the same advantages in order to compete
in the production of sugar, coffee, tobacco, tropical fruits, etc.
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