No. 403.
Mr. Fish to General Sickles.
Washington, April 30, 1873.
Sir: Your No. 569, relating to the liberation of a large number of persons held in slavery in Cuba contrary to the act of July 4, 1870, and inclosing a note from Mr. Castelar on this subject, has been read with the greatest interest.
You will express to Mr. Castelar the satisfaction with which the Pres, ident has witnessed this noble step in the direction of freedom, personal liberty, and universal justice, toward which, under the wise counsels which now direct her destinies, Spain is steadily marching. Ten thousand chains struck from human limbs, ten thousand chattels made menten thousand souls told that they need not wait for the grave to set them free; this is a noble record.
The speech of Mr. Castelar, to which you invite attention, had already attracted my notice. Slavery is, as he justly says, an international question. The rapid increase of the means of communication throughout the globe have brought into almost daily intercourse communities which have hitherto been aliens and strangers to each other, so that now no great social and moral wrong can be inflicted on any people without being felt throughout the civilized globe. All powers interested in the advancement and happiness of the human race, and the spread of peaceful and Christian influences, are watching the noble efforts of Spain to disembarrass herself of the institution of human slavery.
I am, &c.,