Portage Sentinel

THE CUBAN QUESTION.—We often see, (in the articles written about Cuban affairs, and especially the part taken by some of our countrymen in the late movement,) that reference is made to the Laws of Nations. And we are told that even by those laws,—without reference to the treaties between our government and other countries, and the laws made in pursuance of those treaties,—the people of our country are not at liberty to disturb or molest a neighboring people, who are in no way interfering with their rights and privileges. This we regard as a most infamous doctrine,—utterly at variance with the whole tenor of our institutions—and one which the fathers of our Constitution never would have sanctioned. What are the implied assertions contained in it? Simply that we,—who were once so weak as to implore the lovers of liberty everywhere to come and join our drooping standard, and aid us in gaining our independence of a power to whom, under the Laws of Nations, we were sub-subject,—should now deny the truth of the very first principles on which we relied for success, and tell the world that we were willing to perform a trick, in order to gain our own independence; but, having now become strong and powerful, we are willing to act with the despots and tyrants of the world, in helping to bind our struggling fellow-men, or to strike down any who may go forward and tell the oppressed of the way, and to aid them in gaining that way. That, though we profess to be Republicans and Democrats, and to hold up the torch of liberty to light the world, we are, notwithstanding, willing to assist a despot in binding heavier chains about the necks of the Oppressed, because we have become one among the nations of the earth; and may therefore act our will.

But what are these Laws of Nations?—What voice had the American People in enacting those laws? When was held the Convention of the People or their Representatives, that sanctioned them? The Laws of Nations are nothing more than a collection of maxims rendered venerable by long monarchical sanction. There has been nothing added to them since we had an existence as a people; and as we are a "peculiar people," as we differ in almost all respects from the "rest of mankind,"—being made up of those who loved liberty better than monarchy, from among all nations,—those maxims, taken as a whole, were never designed for our government; and should be utterly discarded by us.

This is sound American doctrine; and is what should be communicated to the world; that they may know our determination as a People to aid those who are struggling to be free in every part of the world; and that we will throw ourselves between them and their tyrants, whenever the occasion shall offer for doing so; and more especially will we do this upon the whole vast Continent of which our country forms a part.

When the Laws of Nations shall recognize every people as entitled to the enjoyment of their separate and equal right to liberty and independence,—when they shall utterly deny the right of the strong to appropriate to themselves the country of the weak; and when those who have been banded together under them for centuries, in order to sustain tyranny and oppression, and to enslave the millions, shall recognize the truth of the doctrine that all men have a right to the enjoyment of equal civil and political rights; and that all have a right to seek or happiness in any way according with their own ideas, restrained only by a sense of duty to their fellow-men,—then, but not till then, will the People of the United States be bound to regard the Laws of Nations; because till that moment shall arrive, those laws will be found in opposition to the spirit of our free institutions; and should therefore be disregarded by this People and this Government, and by all others who shall strive to maintain the blessings of civil and religious liberty.—Pittsburgh Post.