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74 
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 CUBAN OPINION 
 
 ON THE 
 
 President's Message 
 
 MANIFESTO ADDRESSED BY 
 
 "The Cuban Society of Judicial & Economic Studies" 
 
 TO THE 
 
 American People. 
 
 J. ii. ECIIEMENDIA PRESS 
 
 New York 
 
 1890 
 
on thePresident'sMessage 
 
 MANIFESTO ADDRESSED BY 
 
 "The Cuban Society of Micial & Economic Studies' ' 
 
 TO THE 
 
 AMERICAN PEOPLE. 
 
 ' Phe Cuban patriots have risen in arms against 
 * the despotic government of Spain, in 
 order to establish the absolute political indepen- 
 dence of the Island of Cuba. They have not for 
 a moment failed to recognize the magnitude and 
 the dangers of the enterprise. They did not for 
 a moment fail to see the calamities that they 
 were about to bring upon their own country, 
 nor were they so blind as not to foresee the inter- 
 national complications that might arise from a 
 state of war existing in a country, intimately 
 connected by mercantile interests with powerful 
 
foreign nations. But the evils which weighed 
 upon the Cubans had become so intolerable, 
 the injustice they experienced was so degrading 
 to their dignity, and the future of the Cuban 
 people was so seriously compromised, that they 
 preferred to risk all the dangers of an unequal 
 and tremendous struggle, rather than to contem- 
 plate their own material annihilation by the rapa- 
 city of the Spanish government, and their moral 
 ruin under the degrading and corrupted rule of 
 Spanish sovereignty, beneath whose shadow this 
 system was inflexibly maintained. 
 
 The patriots were well aware that they were 
 about to risk their lives, to place in jeopard}^ 
 the immediate prosperity of their country and 
 to disturb the economic equilibrium of the mar- 
 kets of the world. But a long and painful ex- 
 perience had taught them that, after all, the 
 Spanish government was more ruinous to the 
 Island than the most devastating war could be; 
 for in consequence of that government, the econo- 
 mic history of Cuba has been a prolonged crisis, 
 with periodic and frightful exacerbations. The 
 Cubans, moreover, confidently hoped that the 
 justice of their grievances, the elevation of their 
 principles and the purity of their intentions 
 would justify their manful resolution before the 
 eyes of the world. 
 
Iii this regard, the hopes of the Cubans have 
 not been wholly disappointed. The sympathies 
 of this great Republic, the natural asylum of 
 those who suffer for the sake of liberty, and the 
 pattern for those who aspire to civic dignity, 
 have been with us from the beginning. The 
 countries of Spanish America united to us by 
 close bonds of kinship and historic associations, 
 have been moved by our misfortunes, and have 
 applauded the heroic efforts of our people. 
 
 Now at the end of two years of incessant 
 struggle during which we have not spared our 
 blood and our properties in the effort to resist 
 the onslaught of the most formidable army that 
 ever crossed the Atlantic ocean; now that we 
 have dislodged the Spanish government from 
 four-fifths of our territory, now that we have 
 with us the immense majority of the Cuban 
 people, even to those who must remain in the 
 cities dominated by the Spanish army, it would 
 seem to us that we have a right to expect the 
 moral and diplomatic support of the free gov- 
 ernments of this New World, in the centre of 
 which our country lies. 
 
 It was natural, therefore, that we should 
 look forward with anxiety to the message of the 
 President of the American nation at the opening 
 of the Federal Congress. His words were to 
 
4 
 
 decide whether the justice of our cause, the her- 
 oic sacrifices and untold sufferings of our people 
 had been duly appreciated by him whose duty 
 it is to represent the spirit of this great Republic 
 in its relations with foreign powers. 
 
 We cannot doubt that the President has 
 studied carefully the situation in Cuba; that he 
 has made use of all the means to gather informa- 
 tion from the consular agents of the United States 
 in that island. We cannot doubt the rectitude 
 of his purposes nor the elevation of his senti- 
 ments, and we accept, therefore, with respect 
 and gratitude his offer to lend the good offices 
 of the United States to both belligerent parties 
 in order to hasten the termination of the struggle. 
 
 For the same reason we deplore most keenly 
 that the only explicit suggestion found in 
 the message looking toward an agreement be- 
 tween Cuba and Spain should be an altogether 
 impracticable suggestion. In these critical mo- 
 ments the slightest misunderstanding in the 
 public opinion may bring upon us grave perils. 
 The life or death of a people are in the balance. 
 Our duty and our interests demand that we 
 should express frankly oar convictions in order 
 that the American people and their representa- 
 tives shall not entertain a proposition that does 
 
not, in any way, satisfy the needs of Cuba nor 
 the deliberate purpose of its inhabitants. 
 
 The President believes that if Spain offered 
 a substantial autonomy to Cuba, it might be 
 reasonable to expect a peaceful understanding on 
 that basis, between the contending parties. The 
 weightiest reasons make this expedient absolutely 
 unacceptable. The Cubans have made the final 
 appeal to arms to free themselves from an in- 
 tolerable situation and to procure a definite 
 remedy for the wrongs of their country. 
 Autonomy, which after all, means Spanish sover- 
 eignty, in no wise solves the question; and this 
 can be demonstrated by arguments of an econo- 
 mic, political and moral order. 
 
 When the time came for the Metropolitan 
 Government to turn over into our hands the 
 administration of the Island we would find the 
 country in such conditions, as to make productive 
 labor impossible and the development of wealth 
 and the maintainance of order extremely diffi- 
 cult. The financial management of Spain in 
 Cuba has been so unreasoning, so lacking in pre- 
 vision, so indifferent to the future that if we were 
 to assume the responsibilities it has created we 
 would be confronted with immediate bankruptcy 
 or the complete paralyzation of the moral devel- 
 opment of public wealth. The fountains of 
 
wealth would be obstructed by a burden of 
 taxation which would consume all the profits. 
 Spain, who has never conceded the individuality 
 of the Colony for the administration of its affairs, 
 has given it a financial status for purposes of 
 spoliation. Cuba has never had its own magis- 
 trates and popular assemblies, but it has always 
 had its own treasury. It was a Cuban treasury, 
 since it fed on the revenues of the Island, but 
 the disposal of it was a prerogative of Spain. 
 Spain has made treaties and contracts in the name 
 of Cuba without authorization or representation 
 of the Cubans. Enormous loans have been con- 
 tracted on the guaranty of the colonial treasury. 
 At the beginning of the war a debt of 
 $190,000,000 weighed upon Cuba for which an 
 annual interest of $12,884, 549 was paid. Immedia- 
 tely upon the beginning of the war the Govern- 
 ment ordered a special issue of bond that were 
 held in reserve for the conversion of previous 
 obligations. Thus the Cuban treasury was over- 
 burdened with a debt of $122,500,000 at 5 per 
 cent interest, representing $6,125,000 annually. 
 Spain has used up these plentiful resources of 
 our wealth in making war against us to maintain 
 her oppressive supremacy. She has just nego- 
 tiated an interior loan of $80,000,000 at 5 per 
 cent, declaring that they will be paid by Cuba 
 
after the pacification. This represents an addi- 
 tional burden of $4,000,000 to he paid annually 
 from the Cuban Budget. In this manner suppo- 
 sing that the expenses of the war may be kept 
 within the limits of official declarations, the first 
 normal Budget of Spanish Cuba will have to 
 meet an annual payment of 123,009,549 solely 
 for charges of this overwhelming debt, which 
 would be held entirely outside of the Island. In 
 order to appreciate at a glance, the significance 
 of this important fact, it is sufficient to remember 
 that the Farmers' Association estimated in 1887 
 the clear income of the Island of Cuba at 
 $39,600,000, Supposing that Cuba would yield 
 the same revenues when peace shall have been 
 declared,— which is absurd,— is it at all possible 
 that Cuba would be able to maintain its produc- 
 tion, pay the expenses of administration and 
 government, and attend to the development of 
 the country with $16,000,000? 
 
 Were it necessary to lay stress upon this 
 line of argument we should say that the enor- 
 mous taxation imposed by Spain, and the constant 
 migration of capital from the Island have pre- 
 vented all capitalization in Cuba and have made 
 extremely dear all capital that has been brought 
 from foreign contries. 
 
8 
 
 The President's message acknowledges the 
 fact that more than $50,000,000 are invested in 
 Cuba by American citizens. Almost all the rail- 
 roads on the Island belong to English capitalists 
 and are worked with English capital. The large 
 sums that represent the interests upon these 
 capitals do not remain in Cuba. The country 
 would certainly be utterly ruined if we were to 
 add to this normal egress of capital the payment 
 of a monstrous debt. 
 
 On the other hand, we cannot presume that 
 Spain will ever renounce the mercantile monop- 
 oly which she now enjoys, becaus3 the undevel- 
 oped condition of her industries and the great 
 distance between Spain and Cuba do not permit 
 the former to compete advantageously in our 
 market. Now this monopoly in favor of Spain 
 results in- an increase of the price of necessaries 
 of life for the Cuban workingman; he is obliged 
 to consume Spanish articles of bad quality and 
 to pay for them dearly in order to keep up the 
 frauds that enrich the merchant, and demoralize 
 the people. 
 
 From a political point of view the obstacles 
 to an autonomic solution of the Cuban problem 
 are equally great. Spain is the reverse of a 
 Democratic state. There are three classes that 
 govern and live upon the Spanish people*, the 
 
9 
 
 military, the bureaucrats, called politicians, and 
 the clergy. Each one of these receives a part 
 of the spoils of Cuba and is resolved to hold the 
 Island at all hazards. The Colonial army is com- 
 posed exclusively of Spaniards and offers the 
 best field for the avarice and ambition of the 
 Spanish military. These will never consent to 
 the withdrawal of the Spanish army from Cuba. 
 Now, could the Cubans consider themselves free, 
 with a foreign army dominating the island 
 and a foreign fleet controlling its waters? 
 The Spanish bureaucrats or politicians, derive 
 a considerable portion of their power and profit 
 from the patronage they exercise over the 
 public offices in Cuba. This revenue they will 
 not give up as long as they control the destinies 
 of Spain. Would is be possible for the Cubans 
 to improve the administration of the island 
 whilst the most important offices were in the 
 hands of adventurers, who look upon Cuba as a 
 stepping stone for their own advancement and 
 the rapid acquisition of wealth? The clergy of 
 Cuba is also Spanish by birth and education, 
 and it rivals the politicians in unscrupulous 
 adroitness to draw the substance of the people. 
 The influence of the clergy will be enlisted 
 against all measures tending to grant the Cubans 
 their natural liberty, and will be the first to 
 
oppose and misrepresent all concessions toward 
 self-government. 
 
 Such being the obstacles to be met with on 
 the part of Spain, no less insurmountable are 
 those that present themselves on the part of Cuba. 
 The Cuban aspires to manage his own affairs 
 and to be solely responsible for his future desti- 
 nies, be they good or bad. He does not wish to 
 see his future bound to that of a degenerate 
 European nation, which is refractory to modern 
 ideas of right. If after the Ten Years' War the 
 Cuban was willing to accept colonial autonomy 
 as his political aspiration, it was because he 
 hoped that the lesson of the protracted struggle 
 had not heen lost on Spanish statesmen, and 
 because the economic situation of Cuba made 
 him foresee the possibility to heal shortly the 
 wounds of the war and to devote himself in days 
 of peace to the reformation of his political and 
 social condition. The subsequent conduct of 
 Spain shattered all the hopes of the Cuban 
 people. Spain adopted a system of mystification 
 which constitutes a persistent grievance against 
 our dignity and our rights, and she instituted, 
 furthermore, a fiscal management which was 
 surely driving us on to financial disaster, on the 
 eve of which we resolved to take up arms. 
 
 For this reasons the very men who for years, 
 
11 
 
 advocated and were the champions of home-rule 
 as the immediate solution of the Cuban problem, 
 were among the first to respond to the call of 
 their fellow citizens who pronunced themselves 
 in favor of independence. The old autonomists, 
 with very few exceptions, can be found today 
 in the fields of battle, in exile, or in Spanish 
 dungeons. The names of many of those who 
 sign this manifesto are sufficient proof of the 
 truth of our assertion. 
 
 Powerful as these arguments unquestionably 
 are, there are others of a still higher character 
 that may be opposed to the plan indicated by the 
 President. There can be no true political union 
 where the bond of a common sentiment is lacking. 
 From this point of view, the breach between the 
 Cuban and the Spanish concience is radical and 
 irremediable. The history of Spanish domination 
 in Cuba during this century consists of a series 
 of crimes perpetrated with the hypocritical 
 sanction of the law. Since 1810 the scaffold has 
 stood permanently in Cuba for the punishment 
 of so-called political crimes. The number of 
 Cuban patriots who have been hung, garroted 
 or shot by the Spaniards is frightful. The 
 number of those who have been killed arbitrarily 
 without a shadow of process of law, is countless. 
 On every occasion that the Cubans in desperation 
 
12 
 
 have appealed to arms to overturn a tyrannical 
 Government, the Spanish armies have fallen 
 upon Cuba like hordes of Tartars carrying 
 devastation and death before them. The Spanish 
 police have established a reign of terror in the 
 cities, dragging to Spanish dungeons for mere 
 suspicions the most respectable citizens. The 
 Cubans have had to choose between exile and 
 the prison, or death. The proclamations of 
 Spanish generals, from Yalmaseda to Weyler, 
 show that they have considered themselves in an 
 enemy's country, against which they have applied 
 the laws of war of the barbarous ages. In 1869 
 Yalmaseda desolated the eastern section of the 
 Island, and in 1896 Weyler is making a desert of 
 the western section. Spain has rejected no means 
 to carry out her object of drowning in blood the 
 love of liberty of the Cubans. She has paid 
 informers, has favored treason and has never 
 stopped at the commission of any crime. At 
 this moment, the world contemplates, with horror 
 and repugnance, the savage spectacle presented 
 by Spain, frantically gloating over the death of a 
 Cuban hero, whose mysterious disappearance 
 has opened an unhealable wound in every Cuban 
 breast. Nothing can be devised to bridge over 
 this abyss of blood. Spain has put our homes 
 in mourniug, has devastated our land, has 
 
13 
 
 scattered us over the world without a country, 
 without shelter, and has kindled in our hearts 
 an inextinguishable flame of horror. Under the 
 shadow of the Spanish flag the Cuban cannot 
 live with a serene conscience. There can be no 
 home for the Cuban in a Spanish colony. 
 
 The great people of the United States cannot 
 forget that the fathers of this free and prosperous 
 nation establish as an incontrovertible political 
 fact, that governments have been instituted to 
 secure for the citizens the enjoyment of "life, 
 liberty and the pursuit of happiness;" that 
 governments have been "instituted among men 
 deriving their just powers from the consent of 
 the governed. That whenever any form of 
 government becomes destructive of these ends, 
 it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish 
 it, and to institute a new government, laying its 
 foundations on such principles and organizing 
 its powers in such form, as to them shall seem 
 most likely to effect their safety and happiness." 
 The Cuban people under the power of Spain, 
 can find no security for their properties, their 
 lives, nor their liberties; they cannot count upon 
 the product of their own labor nor can they 
 develop freely the elements of moral and of 
 material culture. In this lies the justification 
 of the appeal to arms to abolish such a Govern- 
 
. 14 
 
 ment and create another one which will insure 
 the rights of the people. Can anyone doubt that 
 the Cuban acts wisely if he reject a transaction 
 which in every way, would maintain the political 
 domination of Spain? 
 
 The Government of this powerful Federa- 
 tion can find also rules of conduct that have 
 guided it in a number of precedents. We may 
 be permitted to state that, with respect to Ame- 
 rican colonies of European countries, Charles 
 Sumner in 1869 indicated the proper course 
 when he stated: "The day of European colonies 
 is past, at least upon this hemisphere, where 
 the rights of man were first proclaimed and 
 where self-government was first organized." 
 But yesterday colonists of Spain, tormented and 
 down-trodden, and in open and just rebellion 
 today, we cannot believe that the good offices of 
 the great Republic who gave the first example to 
 the world and who preserved the traditions of 
 self-government, will be exerted to keep us in 
 hateful bondage. We persevere in the hope 
 that it will be exerted rather to secure for us our 
 blood-bought right to liberty and independence. 
 
 New Yoek, Decembee 12th, 1896. 
 
Board of Directors: 
 
 Enrique Jose Varona, President. 
 
 Isaac Carrillo. Vice-President. 
 
 Francisco Figueras, Treasurer. 
 
 Emilio del Junco, Recording Secretary. 
 
 Nicolas Heredia, Corresponding Secretary. 
 
 AMD 
 
 Messes. 
 
 Manuel Sanguily. 
 Manuel Maria Coronado. 
 Horatio Rubens. 
 Enrique Trujillo. 
 Gonzalo de Quesada. 
 Rafael de Castro Palomino. 
 Hector de Saavedra. 
 Eduardo Cartaya. 
 Emilio Del Monte. 
 Manuel Monte verde. 
 Ernesto Castro, 
 Benjamin J. Guerra. 
 Ricardo Lancis. 
 Henry Lincoln de Zayas. 
 Rafael Govin. 
 Manuel R. de Morales. 
 Manuel F. Cuervo. 
 Diego Tamayo. 
 
 Kdel G. Herra. 
 1'Taneisco Chenard. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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