Placed on this isthmus of a middle state.
Tis but a short journey across the isthmus of Now.
What shall we call this undetermin'd state, This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless oceans, That whence we came, and that to which we tend?
I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.
Time,- that black and narrow isthmus between two eternities.
Vain, weak-built isthmus, which dost proudly rise Up between two eternities!