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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/presentconditionOOcuba 
 
Jf I — I 
 
 THE PRESENT CONDITION 
 OF AFFAIRS IN CUBA. 
 
 .A. ZRZEHFOIRT 
 
 OP A 
 
 SPECIAL COMMITTEE 
 
 CUBAN LEAGUE 
 
 OIF THIS TTIISriTIEID STATES 
 
 Submitted and adopted by the Executive Committee of the 
 League, August 23, 1877. 
 
 
 
 leto iork: 
 
 DOUGLAS TAYLOR, PRINTER, 87 & 89 NASSAU AND 128 FULTON STREET. 
 
 18 7 7. 
 
At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Cuban 
 League of the United States, held at its office, No. 119 Broad- 
 way, on Thursday, the 23d August, 1877, Gen'l M. T. McMahon, 
 President, in the chair, the Committee on the present situation 
 of affairs in Cuba submitted a Report, which was accepted and 
 adopted. 
 
 After the reading of the Report Gen'l Joseph Hayes sub- 
 mitted a resolution, which was adopted, as follows, viz. : 
 
 Resolved, — That five thousand copies of the Keport, just submitted, be 
 printed for distribution to the Press, and the Senators and Representatives 
 in Congress ; and that the officers of the League be directed, in accordance 
 with the recommendations of the Committee, to cause a suitable memorial 
 to be prepared, for presentation to Congress, as soon as practicable after 
 that body convenes in October next. 
 
 IF n*5 
 
To the Cohort Leagae 
 
 of the TlrvtteoZ States : 
 
 The course of the United States toward the island of 
 Cuba, as one of the Spanish colonies, certainly presents one 
 of the most remarkable phenomena to be found in the mu- 
 tual relations of the American nations. This republic, follow- 
 ing a conservative and prudent political system, has 
 certainly never extended a friendly and protecting hand 
 to any colony which, since 1810, has successfully 
 raised against Spain the banner of revolution, and as- 
 sumed to follow in the footsteps of the generation of 
 George Washington. At the same time, it has never 
 denied the moral aid of its sympathies and good wishes to 
 any one of the colonies of this continent, nor been slow 
 to acknowledge their rights whenever they were boldly 
 claimed, and maintained at the point of the bayonet. 
 
 Even this good fortune, however, Cuba has never shared. 
 When, in 1826, her bonds were about to be broken by the 
 triumphant hand of the Liberator Bolivar, the Government 
 of the United States interposed its irresistible veto, and her 
 chains were thus riveted by the Administration at Washing- 
 ton. Political reasons, peculiar to the time, served as a 
 basis for the conduct of the Government. 
 
 But if these reasons justified this policy of repression in 
 the case of the liberator of Colombia, they neither weakened 
 nor destroyed, as to Cuba, the conviction which resulted 
 therefrom — that we, whose natural duty and desire it should 
 have been to smooth her pathway to freedom, had ourselves 
 crushed out her grandest opportunity for independence. 
 
 Cuba, in this her hour of anguish, cries aloud that we 
 owe to her a sacred debt, inasmuch as we are fairly respon- 
 
sible for half a century of her servitude ; and the conscience 
 of the nation declares that this debt should be paid. 
 
 Be that as it may, however, the times certainly have 
 changed. Bolivar has disappeared from the scene, and 
 with his death the Republic of Colombia broke into insig- 
 nificant fragments. There exists no longer any just reason 
 why the policy which prevailed under President J. Q. 
 Adams's administration should become traditional. And if 
 it has been followed by succeeding administrations, which 
 were shortsighted and given to routine, after it had ceased 
 to be appropriate to the time, it may be alleged as a 
 sufficient excuse, perhaps, that the grave affairs connected 
 with our own Government have wholly absorbed the atten- 
 tion of our people. Now, however, that we find our- 
 selves free from the formidable difficulties which sur- 
 rounded us, and happily well advanced upon the new road 
 marked out by the present Administration, is it not time to 
 turn our eyes toward our brothers in Cuba, and to fulfill 
 toward them the simple duty of considering the situation, 
 and deliberating as to the course of conduct which best 
 becomes us ? With this view, and to fulfill the duty im- 
 posed upon your Committee, the following observations 
 are respectfully submitted to the " Cuban League." 
 
 The Revolution in Cuba. 
 
 When in 1848 the Cuban patriots began to consider seri- 
 ously the question of accomplishing their independence by 
 an appeal to arms, their situation presented a striking con- 
 trast to the countries of South America which had initiated 
 revolutionary movements. 
 
 In those countries, the number of persons who were 
 capable of distinguishing between a good government and 
 a bad one was very small. The great majority, accustomed 
 to passive obedience, were without political aspirations. 
 While in Cuba, although there were still many who pre- 
 ferred the quiet possession of their riches and their slaves 
 to the risks and dangers of revolution, the desire for liberty, 
 
and hatred of Spanish rule, was universal among those born 
 on the soil. 
 
 In Colombia, there was needed a genius to create the 
 elements of revolution which were wanting. In Cuba no 
 creative genius has appeared, but, on the other hand, there 
 is, in the intense anti-Spanish feeling of the people, a revo- 
 lutionary element, the terrible force of which has been 
 abundantly proved by the result of the revolution com- 
 menced in Yara by a handful of brave men, who, in the 
 face of all the power of Spain, concentrated in this dis- 
 contented colony, and without arms or money, without aid 
 of men or material from abroad, entered upon a war against 
 the foreign oppressor, believing firmly in the co-operation 
 of their brothers, and hoping for the active sympathy of 
 good men in all free and independent nations. 
 
 These hopes have been realized in a very slight degree — 
 for, although it is true that the Republic of Peru has recog- 
 nized the independence of Cuba, and that in other Repub- 
 lics of South America, Cuban agents have been permitted 
 to work with some degree of freedom in securing, though 
 in small quantities, the elements of war, it is nevertheless 
 indisputable, and there are ample proofs to establish it, that 
 the co-operation of the Spanish- American countries, from 
 the Isthmus of Panama to Cape Horn, would have been 
 more than sufficient to destroy forever the Spanish power 
 iu the Antilles, had it not been for the attitude taken by 
 the Government at Washington, as manifested iu the mes- 
 sages of the Executive — an attitude which could not fail to 
 produce a certain restraint on the part of the weaker govern- 
 ments, who understand it not merely as a sign of indiffer- 
 ence to the fate of the Cubans, but as notice to all the world 
 of our opposition to the accomplishment of Cuban inde- 
 pendence through the agency of any Government other 
 than our own. 
 
 Thus had our responsibility increased, and our debt be- 
 come greater. Notwithstanding the disappointment suf- 
 fered in this respect by the Cuban patriots, their faith and 
 
6 
 
 resolution have never faltered ; their attitude, purely defen- 
 sive at first, has been changed into a campaign offensive 
 and vigorous. More than fifty thousand Cuban lives, im- 
 molated to the fury of a failing despotism, bear witness to 
 the perseverance and unaltered resolution of the patriots. 
 Meanwhile the barren sacrifice, upon the part of Spain, of 
 nearly two hundred thousand men sent to Cuba since the be- 
 ginning of the war, and directed by the best military minds 
 of the nation, presents to the eyes of civilized nations the 
 strangest spectacle of barbarism which the world has wit- 
 nessed in our day. The greater part of the territory of the 
 island is subject at this moment to the arms of the Cuban 
 patriots, although the Spaniards maintain themselves in the 
 sea-ports through their ships-of-war, which have acquired 
 the right to dominate these waters through our failure to 
 recognize the belligerent rights of the Cubans — or, rather, 
 to the strange construction given to our neutrality laws by 
 the late Administration. These laws, enacted in the early 
 part of the century, were framed in full view and expecta- 
 tion of the fact that European colonies in America would 
 sooner or later follow in our footsteps, and seek their inde- 
 pendence by arms. They were, therefore, framed to secure, 
 on our part, a perfect and impartial neutrality in such a 
 contest, arise where it may. The words of the Act of 1818 
 " forbid the furnishing, fitting out, or arming of any vessel 
 to cruise or commit hostilities against the subjects, citizens 
 or property of any foreign prince or state, or of any colon}!, 
 district, or people with whom the United States are at 
 peace." 
 
 In every section the words " or of any colony " are re- 
 peated. They were introduced in the Act for the sole pur- 
 pose of securing a just and perfect neutrality as between the 
 mother country and a revolting colony. They could have 
 no other significance. Yet, under the singular construc- 
 tion given to the Act under the Administration of President 
 Grant, thirty gunboats were fitted out by Spain in this 
 port, and armed and equipped to cruise against the citizens 
 
of the colony of Cuba, with whom the United States were 
 at peace. 
 
 This was a violation of the Act. Yet it was openly done, 
 and permitted to be done, by the officers of the law. While, 
 on the other hand, the most vigorous methods have been 
 constantly employed by the law officers of the Government, 
 actmg at the instance and sometimes under the instruction 
 of Spanish spies, to intercept and seize even a rishing-smack 
 intending to leave our ports to aid the cause of the colony. 
 It has been said, in answer to this accusation, that our Gov- 
 ernment did not recognize a state of war existing in Cuba. 
 This, however, is not true, for both Congress and the Execu- 
 tive — the former by formal resolution passed in the first 
 year of the insurrection, and the latter by repeated messages 
 — recognized the fact that an insurrection was in progress 
 in the island of Cuba. Moreover the answer, if true, is with- 
 out force. The Act does not contemplate the existence of 
 a state of war; it applies to all princes, states, peoples and 
 colonies with which we are at peace, and it applies at all 
 times. Was not the very building and arming of the gun- 
 boats a proof that there was war somewhere ? Thirty war 
 vessels, built in haste and specially armed in a neutral port, 
 were surely not intended for purposes of peace. Has not 
 Cuba, therefore, a right to complain of such neutrality? 
 Has she not a right to claim that our own laws be respected 
 and enforced, as far as they concern her rights, according 
 to their plain words and true intent ? These laws have 
 been perverted to a cruel purpose, and it is proper that the 
 Cuban League, composed, as it is, wholly of American citi- 
 zens, should protest against the wrong in their own name, 
 and in the name of all right-thinking men. 
 
 From the eastern extremity of the island to the district 
 of Colon in the west, the patriot forces have overrun the 
 whole territory at will, and without pursuit, even obliging 
 the enemy to shut themselves up in fortified places to await 
 the reinforcements, which they never cease to clamor for, 
 from the mother country. The Cuban army is composed of 
 men well accustomed to war. The Spanish army, although 
 
8 
 
 numbering more than one hundred thousand, is composed 
 in great part of new-levied soldiers, and is diminishing clay 
 by day, more because of the rigors of campaign life and 
 the evil influences of the climate than because of the ordi- 
 nary casualties of war. Established, as it is, that the Eevo- 
 lution enjoys a reproductive and ever-growing force, and 
 that the mother country has no resources beyond those 
 already employed so fruitlessly for nearly nine years, in 
 efforts to suppress the insurrection, we hazard nothing in 
 saying that the Eevolution is invincible — a fact which may 
 be* abundantly proved by other and corroborating circum- 
 stances. 
 
 The Colonial Government. 
 
 The most favorable thing that can be claimed for Spain, 
 in view of the present situation of the island of Cuba, is, 
 that she is not at this instant in absolute danger of seeing 
 her government overthrown by force of arms. But con- 
 sidering to what her dominion has already been reduced, 
 and the magnitude of the sacrifices which it has cost to pre- 
 serve even this ephemeral appearance of power in America, 
 as well as the enormous and insupportable burden of the 
 taxation with, which she oppresses all that remains of the 
 public wealth, it is easy to know that the day is not distant 
 of the " Neplus ultra" of the situation. The principal aid 
 upon which the Government has counted has been the 
 Spanish Bank, an institution which has been for years in 
 a state of bankruptcy, and whose notes, which constitute 
 the paper money, the forced currency of the island, are not 
 worth more than forty-four cents on the dollar, notwith- 
 standing the arbitrary methods and diligent efforts which 
 have been made to give them greater value. The public 
 credit, such as it is, has been artificially sustained by an 
 oppressive tariff, and by heavy direct contributions upon 
 production, which amount, in fact, to thirty-six per cent, 
 of the gross products, and in many cases, in the discretion of 
 the Government itself, there is wrested from the producer 
 
9 
 
 even more than the net result of his entire crop. With all 
 this, and after having increased the public receipts from 
 $35,000,000, which they amounted to before the war, to 
 $84,000,000, to which they amount to-day, the Government 
 has not only failed for some time to pay the pensions of 
 widows and orphans, and other obligations of secondary im- 
 portance, but even the very troops have never been either 
 regularly paid or properly maintained. This has naturally 
 occasioned many desertions to the camp of the patriots. To 
 extract in such a manner the blood, which, in order to give 
 life to the political system, must circulate freely through the 
 veins of industry, cannot fail to result in decay. This it 
 behooves us to consider in connection with our own national 
 interests. 
 
 The Financial Situation. 
 
 Of the three departments, the Eastern, the Central and 
 the Western, the two former (in which the insurrection 
 flourishes) have been almost completely ruined by the war ; 
 but the great sugar interest of the country has been always 
 centralized in great part in the department of the West, in- 
 asmuch as there are to be found the capital, audthe superior 
 authorities of the colony, and the mass of peninsular Span- 
 iards who compose the shop-keeping and commercial in- 
 terests. As yet the rigors of war have not borne directly 
 upon that part of the island. The injury to agriculture is 
 therefore au indirect but certain consequence of the same 
 general cause operating elsewhere, and contributes more 
 than anything else to the terrible pressure of exorbitant 
 contributions to which we have already alluded. 
 
 From jmblic printed documents, which are in the posses- 
 sion of your committee, we find that in the warehouses of 
 Havana, the entries of sugar in cases and hogsheads, in 
 the first six months of each one of the years that are men- 
 tioned, are as follows : 
 
 1875 221,000 tons. 
 
 1876 168,700 " 
 
 1877 137,300 " 
 
10 
 
 The exportation for the same period from the ports of 
 Havana and Matanzas, has been : 
 
 1875 238,458 tons. 
 
 1876 211,762 " 
 
 1877 147,924 " 
 
 And for the District of Cardenas, the total, including 
 mixed cases and sacks : 
 
 1875 105,226 tons) 
 
 1876 86,007 " } Sugar. 
 
 1877 ; 59,813 " ) 
 
 1875 90,000 hhds. ) 
 
 1876 67,000 " } Molasses. 
 
 1877 38,000 " ) 
 
 In every place we find the same descending progression, 
 whereas the proportion in which the necessities of the Gov- 
 ernment increase, and its resources diminish, is in the in- 
 verse order. The problem which in this connection presents 
 itself, is worthy of the serious consideration of the League. 
 
 The accelerated march of Cuba towards her absolute 
 ruin, certainly tends to put an end to Spanish dominion in 
 the island. But this result — brutal if it be not inevitable — 
 cannot be accomplished without serious injury to our own 
 national interests. 
 
 The imports of the United States from Cuba were in 
 
 1874 86,272,466. 
 
 1875 66,745,527. 
 
 1876 58,717,688. 
 
 Here we see a decrease in two years of almost thirty- 
 two per cent., or nearly one-third. And as for the pres- 
 ent year, the result may be predicted, in view of the gen- 
 eral deerease of the crop in Cuba, estimated by experienced 
 persons at fifteen per cent. 
 
11 
 
 Not only has our own commerce with Cuba been con- 
 ducted under the American flag, but we have always car- 
 ried, in addition, a large proportion of the sugar which 
 that island sends to other foreign nations. The goods 
 which we export to Cuba bear no proportion to our imports 
 from that island, but it is very clear that any single down- 
 ward movement in commerce brings others in its train. 
 
 The mere fact that sugar is less abundant has produced 
 a higher price in our market, and this price will certainly 
 increase when we pass from abundance — be it greater or 
 less — to an absolute scarcity of the article. We shall then 
 find less return from our general productions in the market 
 of Cuba, less occupation for our merchant marine, as well 
 in direct traffic with that island as with other portions of 
 the commercial world, and an increasing scarcity for our 
 45,000,000 of consumers of an article which has become in- 
 dispensable. And here the question may occur, What are 
 the interests which our Government represents, and needs 
 to defend 1 Until now, it appears that the conduct of the 
 Administration at Washington has had for its object a con- 
 tinuation of Spanish dominion in Cuba; partly because cer- 
 tain high commercial interests deem it for their advantage, 
 and partly because the Treasury department did not deem 
 it wise to diminish, either in whole or part, the millions of 
 dollars which the national treasury derives from the impor- 
 tation of fruit from the Spanish Antilles. We leave it to 
 others to estimate this policy according to its true weight, 
 and continue our report by briefly saying, that neither 
 the persistent denial to the Cubans of their rights as 
 belligerents, nor the furnishing of our docks to the Span- 
 iards to repair ships with which to deprive the patriot 
 Cubans of all intercourse with the exterior, nor the permis- 
 sion to construct, in our docks, thirty gun-boats, destined 
 to increase the efficacy of the Spanish squadron, nor the 
 privilege freely accorded the Spaniards to procure all classes 
 of arms and ammunition to be used against the Cubans, 
 nor the vigorous measures we have invariably taken to 
 prevent the Cubans from exercising, in the slightest degree, 
 
12 
 
 any one of the privileges accorded by us to her enemies ; 
 — not all this, we say, has been sufficient to prevent the 
 steady growth of the revolution. Neither has it favored in 
 any way the aims of our financial policy ; nor has it even 
 secured for us the grateful acknowledgment and good-will 
 of the Spaniards, for they regard us to-day with distrust 
 and hatred, as all the Spanish publications, both peninsular 
 and colonial, abundantly prove. 
 
 Is it right, therefore, to continue a policy which, while it 
 brings no satisfactory result, makes us accomplices in the 
 prolongation of the bloody struggle, in which civilization 
 laments not alone the voluntary sacrifice of the patriots who 
 love liberty, but also the barbarous immolation of the un- 
 fortunate Spaniards who, with no desire to subjugate their 
 brothers, are subjected to the rigors of a climate which is 
 deadly, with the sole alternative of perishing beneath the 
 Cuban machete, or by the deadly fevers which desolate the 
 land — a policy, moreover, which makes us accomplices in 
 the indefinite prolongation of Cuban slavery ? 
 
 Slavery. 
 
 Slavery was abolished by the Cuban patriots from the 
 very moment when they first displayed the banner of insur- 
 rection. The article in the Cuban Constitution is clear and 
 simple : " All the inhabitan ts of the Republic of Cuba are abso- 
 lutely free." Spain, on the other hand, has given no proof that 
 she means to abolish slavery. All concessions on this point 
 have been forced from her much against her will. More 
 than half a century — sixty years, in fact — have elapsed 
 since she sold to England, for two millions of dollars, her 
 right to export negroes from Africa ; while at least three 
 hundred thousand slaves on the island of Cuba, who were 
 born in Africa, furnish by their very presence ample and 
 visible proof of the perfidy of the Spanish Government. 
 The urgent insistence of our Minister at Madrid resulted in 
 something which was called a Law for the Abolition of 
 Slavery. It was a ridiculous farce, which would only satisfy 
 
13 
 
 those who were supposed to favor Spanish interests, and 
 who found it convenient to forget that the traditional policy 
 of that nation has been to deceive, in order to gain time. 
 
 It may be that there were grave political reasons why the 
 Cubans, on the one side, should decree the absolute freedom 
 of the slave, and why the Spaniards, on the other hand, 
 should temporize for the purpose of continuing the exist- 
 ence of slavery. Be that as it may, the fact of itself is suf- 
 ficient to prove the honesty of the one cause, and the in- 
 iquity of the other. But the contrast shown in the conduct 
 of the respective parties is not to be wondered at. The 
 education of Spaniards aud Cubans is very different, 
 although at first sight this may seem a paradox. The 
 Peninsular Spaniards are wedded to obsolete traditions. 
 They do not advance by their own proper impulse, but are 
 rather pushed onward by a civilization to which they con- 
 tribute nothing. The Cubans, contending for a long period 
 against the backward tendencies of the mother country, 
 have cultivated with zeal the fruitful ideas which, much 
 agaiust the will of their metropolitan masters, they have 
 absorbed like a sponge from their immediate neighbors. 
 For more than a quarter of a century there have been an- 
 nually educated in our colleges, one thousand Cuban 
 youths ; and these, with thousands of men of all classes in 
 the island, who have been accustomed to spend their sum- 
 mers in this country, have naturally become inspired with 
 somewhat of its liberal and progressive spirit. The grand 
 advances in the island of Cuba, of which the Spaniards are 
 accustomed to boast, have never been promoted, but rather 
 tolerated with disgust, by the mother country. The ad- 
 vancement of the colony is due, not to its dependence upon 
 Spain, which has been a brake upon all progress, but rather 
 to the nearness of the island to the United States. 
 
 So it is, therefore, that the emancipation of the slaves is, 
 upon the part of the Spanish Government, a mere pretence ; 
 while with the patriots it is a fact accomplished in good 
 faith, which has resulted in giving to the patriot ranks 
 many thousands of free negroes, some of whom have risen 
 
14 
 
 to distinction as general officers, having under their com- 
 mand officers and men of both races. This emancipation, 
 intended in good faith, is irrevocable ; and the continuance 
 of slavery under the shadow of the Spanish flag at this 
 moment, may be said to be the result of the apathy and in- 
 difference with which we have regarded during nine years 
 the gallant and heroic struggle of the Cuban patriots. 
 
 General Observations. 
 
 Spain has dissatisfied all her continental colonies through 
 bad government, and, not profiting by experience, she has 
 lost them one bj T one. Cuba has suffered all the injuries 
 which compelled the United States to declare their indepen- 
 dence, all the evils shared by the Spanish colonies of. 
 this continent, and perhaps others peculiar to her own sit- 
 uation. Cuba, whose resources and natural wealth are faj 
 beyond those of many sovereign states of the earth, has 
 been deprived of representation in the National Legisla- 
 ture, and her sons enjoy no political rights. Spain, impos- 
 ing her own laws arbitrarily upon Cuba, does not permit 
 the colonial people to purchase and consume what they 
 themselves desire or may select, but that which best suits 
 the people of the mother country. Instead of opening 
 a free exchange of products, she imposes heavy duties on 
 the importation into the Peninsula of the products of the 
 colony, of which she consumes only one-twentieth part. 
 
 Spain, with a population of seventeen millions, pays each 
 year $120,000,000 in taxes. Cuba, with a population of a 
 million and a half, one-third part slaves (and therefore not 
 to be considered in this connection), pays $84,000,000, ac- 
 cording to the latest official data ; this is at the rate of seven 
 dollars per head for a Spaniard of the Peninsula, and 
 eighty-four dollars for every Cuban. 
 
 Stubbornness is a characteristic quality of Spain. She 
 never recedes from any course once adopted, no matter how 
 senseless and condemned it may be, until compelled by 
 force. The Spaniards, as a general thing, would prefer to 
 
15 
 
 see Cuba reduced to ashes and desolation, rather than to 
 recognize, in any degree, the right of the Cubans to self- 
 government. The Cubans have proved by nine years of 
 struggle, under terrible disadvantages, that they do not yield 
 to their enemies in determination ; and every day confirms 
 their declaration that they will destroy absolutely the power 
 of Spain in Cuba, even though they be compelled to con- 
 vert the whole island into a desert. 
 
 To suppress the insurrection is an admitted impossibility ; 
 to carry to its final result the horrible work of total destruc- 
 tion, is not merely practicable, but will not fail to be ac- 
 complished, unless civilization, realizing the monstrous 
 evils which such a policy involves, will, through some hu- 
 man voice, powerful and respected, interfere to prevent it. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Such is the situation in Cuba. We have endeavored to pre- 
 sent it precisely as it is. From the sketch which we have 
 traced it appears that Cuba fights for her liberty with as much 
 justice, at least, as had the United States and the South 
 American Colonies in their respective contests for indepen- 
 dence ; that Spain is absolutely powerless to suppress the 
 insurrection ; that the contest is ruining that beautiful and 
 fertile Island, and thereby prejudicing each day, more and 
 more, the material interests of the United States ; that 
 apart from considerations based upon humanity, justice, 
 self-interest, and the usages of nations, the United States 
 has contracted a certain just obligation towards Cuba, by 
 having at one time absolutely prevented her emancipation, 
 later by depriving her, through our powerful example 
 of the protection of other friendly States, by denying to her 
 such a recognition as might have been properly accorded 
 under the laws of nations in the supreme discretion of our 
 Government and by failing to enforce against her enemy, 
 while rigidly maintaining as against herself, the neutrality 
 laws which were framed for the express purpose of securing 
 for her and other colonies similarly placed simple justice 
 
16 
 
 and fair dealing ; that the liberty of 500,000 slaves, the 
 preservation of the resources still remaining on the island, 
 sufficient as yet to give promise of a prosperous future for 
 her people, and the putting an end to the useless shedding 
 of torrents of human blood, all depend upon the policy to be 
 hereafter followed by the United States towards Spain, and 
 upon our assuming simply the attitude which becomes our 
 national character, and which requires neither armed inter- 
 vention, diplomatic explanation, nor anything that might 
 be understood to look toward the accomplishment of tbe 
 foolish dream of annexation. 
 
 In conclusion, your Committee believe that the time has 
 arrived when Congress may justly recognize the indepen- 
 dence of the island, or, at least, the belligerent rights of the 
 Cubans, and the Government may with propriety repeat the 
 offer of its friendly mediation heretofore made, perhaps at 
 a less opportune moment. 
 
 And your Committee therefore recommend that a peti- 
 tion to this effect be prepared by the League, and presented 
 at the next session of Congress. 
 
 CHARLES K. GRAHAM, 
 
 JOSEPH HAYES, V Committee. 
 
 
 
 JUAN M. MACIAS. J 
 
 M. T. McMAHON, HENRY C. LOCKWOOD, 
 
 President. Recording Secretary. 
 
 Office of the Cuban League ) 
 of the United States, ) 
 
 119 Broadway, New York, 
 
 August 23d, 1877. 
 
4<Ss 
 
 p£m== — — — &m$m 
 
 I THE PRESENT CONDITION 
 OF AFFAIRS IN CUBA. 
 
 _a_ :r:e:fo:rt 
 
 SPECIAL COMMITTEE 
 
 CUBAN LEAGUE 
 
 OIF 1 TIHIIE UNITED STATES 
 
 Submitted >nid adopted hy the Exeat lire Committee of the 
 Leo«ue,.Ui<u<sl 2 :}, 1877. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 DOUGLAS TAYLOR, PRINTER, 87 & 89 NASSAU STREET & 128 FULTON STREET. 
 
 18 7 7. 
 
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