17B3 
 F38 
 opy 2 
 
 M 
 
 CUBA 
 
 MAY BECOME INDEPENDENT. 
 
 A POLITICAL PAMPHT /T 
 
 BEARING UPON CURRENT EVENT / 
 
 ( 
 
 BY 
 
 DON JOSE FERRER DE COUTO, 
 
 CHIEF OF CIVIL ADMINISTRATION, &c, &c. 
 
 Translated fkom the Spanish by Charles Kirchhoff, 
 
 Former Consul of Prussia at San Francisco, California, Translator of 
 
 " General Instructions for Consuls of the German Empire,'' and 
 
 Commercial Editor of "El Cronista," &c, &c. 
 
 NEW YORK : . 
 
 EL CRONISTA" PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 1872. 
 
 / 
 
i' 
 

 Mat Become Independent 
 
CUBA. 
 
 May Become independent. 
 
 A POLITICAL PAMPHLET BEAEING 
 UPON CUEEENT EVENTS: 
 
 BY 
 
 DOINT JOSE FERREE I>E COUTO, 
 
 CHIEF OP CIVIL ADMINISTRATION", &c, &c. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES KIRCHHOFF, 
 
 Former Consul of Prussia at San Francisco (California), 
 
 Tianslator of "General Instructions for Consul» 
 
 of the German Empire," and Commercial 
 
 Editor of El Cronista, &c, &c. 
 
 NEW TOEK. 
 
 «EL CRONISTA» PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 1872. 
 
 S 
 
Fill: 
 
 O* 
 
 
DEDIC^TIOIST. 
 
 The work I have published is dedicated to Americans 
 of the North, to those of Central and South America, to 
 loyal as well as to disloyal Cubans. 
 
 In thus addressing myself to the entire New World, 
 dedicating them this work, the confidence which inspires 
 me is not a slight one. But do not think that presumptu- 
 ous vanity dictates the course I have taken. Having 
 spent five-and-twenty years of the better portion of my 
 life in studying the relations and interests of the hemis- 
 phere of Columbus towards the rest of the world, I believe 
 that I may be permitted to raise a voice, where there are 
 people who claim a proficiency, although they be but su- 
 perficially familiar with science, and although they never 
 entered the portals where science is taught. 
 
 And I may, furthermore, aspire to dedicate this work to 
 the New World in general in the name of my native coun- 
 try, for the New World in general, even more than my 
 country, may be benefitted by the inferences to which the 
 ¡study leads. 
 
 Americans of the North will note, that the question has 
 a bearing on both their finances and on their commercial 
 relations, even though the consideration of right and mo- 
 rality were not made to weigh in the balance. 
 
 Those of Central America will note, that it is in their 
 
VI 
 
 interest that morality and right be not the losers within 
 the Mexican Gulf. 
 
 Those of South America are interested in the indepen- 
 dence of Central America being kept intact. 
 
 Cubans, that are loyal, will all the better measure the 
 great service which this loyalty renders to the future and 
 glory of their native land, to its commercial relations with 
 North America, to the consolidation of both Central and 
 South America, to right and morality in the New World 
 at large. 
 
 Disloyal Cubans will open their eyes and act according- 
 ly ; for if four years of strife and intrigue have sufficed 
 to stop for ten years at least advancement in the Is 
 land, in a struggle, which Spain is able to prolong inde- 
 finitely by virtue of her resources, of her power, and of the 
 strength of a legitimate cause, it certainly would seem pre- 
 ferable that the goal they aspire to reach be attained by 
 the peaceful progress of half a century, rather than that in 
 twenty years the Inland recede to those days of primitive 
 colonization, in which, alas ! Hayti and St. Domingo, are 
 vegetating at the present d*y. 
 
 If you wish to find the key that is to set at rest the 
 questions here involved, read the pamphlet in a spirit of 
 impartiaüty, the same spirit which presides over them, and 
 with this Disci. 
 
 JOSE FEEEEE DE COUTO. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 Few questions ventilated in the world in times past 
 and present have brought to the surface and fostered a 
 greater amount of errors than the Cuban. Not only have 
 these misconceptions arisen from the heated imagination 
 of some natives of Cuba, not only have they crept into 
 the calculation of those, who covet the possession of the 
 jewel as a great job, but even into the minds of men have 
 they been instilled, who may be put down as impartial 
 judges, and who, nevertheless, have not, in studying the 
 question, gone sufficiently to the bottom of a problem of 
 the first magnitude, calling for a thorough sifting. 
 
 We have, therefore, in the columns of El Cronista pene- 
 trated into the question to the extent of our capacities, so 
 that public opinion may judge by the light of truth, im- 
 pelled as we were by the regret, that gross misconception 
 long prevailing on the subject should still cling to it, 
 and although we know that much of what we brought for- 
 ward was not built on quicksand, much, we are sorry to con- 
 fess, remains to be done to triumphantly and radically 
 refute errors, and those who, in one way or another, are 
 interested in the question, have a right to claim a thorough 
 elucidation of it. 
 
 But it chances to be that journalism, of all the agents 
 of modern civilization, is the most impressionable, the least 
 

CAN CUBA BECOME INDEPENDENT f 
 
 Under this so significant heading the M Emigrado 
 has published an article, which we shall copy in fall, 
 instead of giving extracts therefrom, for it contains noth- 
 ing but what will answer our purposes : 
 
 " There are few questions, which more prominently pre- 
 occupy the thoughts and sentiments of our readers than 
 the one which heads these lines, cursory as the may be, 
 but sincere, for the possibility of Cuban independence, has 
 been to nearly all of us a subject of favorite study, of deep 
 meditation, of heartfelt desire; a cause of unheard-of 
 sacrifices; a basis of titanic labors and of the most vehe- 
 ment and incessant aspirations. 
 
 "■ With ourselves it has been at once a subject, a cause, 
 a basis and an aspiration. It has been no less attractive 
 to us, no less urgent with us, no less firm and no less sure 
 and constant than what it has been to any of those who 
 may honor us with an attentive perusal of these lines. 
 The solution of that, which to many is still a problem, has 
 now been greatly simplified by ruthless experience, by the 
 stern teaching of facts; let us study the question, there- 
 fore, in its main features, and let that which happened be 
 our luminous beacon, which may lead the opinion of those 
 to a safe anchorage, who know to subordinate all senti- 
 ment to the safety of our native land, of those who, as 
 we ourselves do believe, that it is the duty of every Cuban 
 of honor to save Cuba at all risks, although he perish in 
 its attainment, and although his days may be embittered 
 by vociferous patriotism, that judges from outside ap- 
 
12 
 
 pearances and faints before the arduous labor of penetrat- 
 ing into the essence of things. 
 
 " We have said that Cuban emigrants, whose faithful 
 echo we are, ask : Can Cuba become independent f we shall 
 add at once that this question has become a matter of fact, 
 imperceptible as it was at first — because enthusiasm stifled 
 it — that it has become more generally mooted, that it has 
 been openly pronounced, and that it now most legitimately 
 pre-occupies those, who in good faith take an interest in 
 our beloved Island. This is an undeniable truth' ; we have 
 discovered it, and claim no greater credit for it, than that we 
 bring to public notice a fact already notorious, though 
 some may call it lukewarmne-^s, som¿ weariness, and want 
 of faith others. With us there is no such thiug. We call 
 it an awakeuing from deep slumbers ; we call it a noble 
 wish to get at the truth by all means ; we applaud the 
 question, and we esteem those, who in their zeal to learn 
 that which is true, leave the easy paths that lead to the 
 castle-in-the-air which is called the palace of popularity. 
 
 " Let us cast aside with disdain all vacillation, uu worthy 
 of manly breasts, and let us attack in front this question 
 like any other — Gan Cuba become independent f Let us 
 examine into the matter, let us give substance to convic- 
 tions by lending them the binding power of an indestruct- 
 ible argument. 
 
 " To ask whether Cuba can become independent, a ques- 
 tion which is now being raised by nearly all our brethren, 
 is tantamount to doubting that such independence can be 
 accomplished. Thdt which in itself carries the august 
 stamp of truth will shine forth by its owu strength, it re- 
 quires no demonsiration, it is because it exists, and it 
 exists becaus j it is. It enters nobody's mind to attempt 
 impugüiug it. But when the sentiment is alive and yet 
 wavering and turning within a vicious circle, when it has 
 bun a faint perception of truth, or s ems to seek it, but to 
 avoid it, when it shrinks from the logical examination of 
 consequeuces, to which the very arguments it has raised 
 lead it, it may be truly said, that the thought itself is 
 afraid of its own wanderiugs, that it knowingly teuds to 
 surround itself with darkness, and that imagination and 
 hope strive to betray a stern judgment, that doubt is the 
 commencement, involuntary and unconscious though it 
 may be, of a negation, which only waits to take form by 
 a daring spirit pronouncing it. 
 
 " Let it be known, then, that in this moral agony, fertile 
 in torments greater than those with which the imagination 
 
13 
 
 of a Dante peopled the infernal regions, our brethren are 
 living for a twelve month past. Let us appeal to their 
 noble hearts, let us knock at the portals of their conscience 
 to ask them whether or not we speak the truth ? And 
 if this be so, resolved as we are to carry the whole load of 
 truth which has fallen upou our weak shoulders, we shall 
 concentrate all our energy to pronounce the negation, 
 which we poor emigrants anticipate, and which nobody 
 has the boldness tu speak out publicly. 
 
 ( > Let us be sincere, let us be frank, let sentiment be 
 hushed, 1 -t us ¡stifle the wish by the call co reason, let sen- 
 timent be always subordinate to the counsels of true, of 
 sound patriotism, and though ingratitude and calumny 
 poison our very existence, let us deny that which, logi- 
 cally, cannot be upheld. 
 
 " No, Cuba cannot become independent ; let us not 
 shrink from recognizing that much, for the acknowledg- 
 ment is in conformity with that, which a straightforward 
 criticism will discover, and the further spilling of precious 
 bl< >od may yet be avoided, which would uselessly water 
 fiel Is of battle instead of nourishing our beloved country 
 with its enlivening aud generous sap. 
 
 u What elements does our Island possess for conquering 
 independence? None, in truth, but the indomitable valor 
 of its great sons. But valor will not of itself suffice, where 
 the opponent is as valiant and has at his disposal resour- 
 ces of every kind, an organization that cannot be unhinged, 
 and a tenacity of purpose not inferior to our own. But 
 valor saves honor, and in Cuba honor has been saved. 
 Nor will valor suffice to change the essence of society, to 
 reconstruct the basis of its public life, to attain the man- 
 hood of political efficacy and to assume a place among the 
 nations of the earth. 
 
 " Valorous is Ireland, valiant are the Southern States 
 of the American Union, and yet their military bravery, 
 shown on a hundred battle-fields, has not given them the 
 independence which they are sighing for. Material brav- 
 ery is crushed by material obstacles, and when these have 
 proved victorious, moral bravery has to be appealed to 
 hardly less frequent, and even sublimer in order to ti£¡ up 
 the wounds of a bleeding country. There is no dishonor 
 in having been beaten from the moment the resistance has 
 been glorious, and bravery is, not made merely that we 
 should satisfy our aspirations,* but to lend it towards the 
 greatest good of that which we defend. 
 
 "But admitting even that by prodigious efforts we 
 
14 
 
 wrung from Spain the "wished-for independence, are we 
 so very certain, that we could live the life of an indepen- 
 deut nation ? To conquer is difficult, but it is a thousand 
 times more difficult to retain and proserve. Supposing, 
 then, we were independent, are we sure that we can bring 
 together the elements that are requisite to make use of 
 that wh ; ch we conquered ? Shall we, in cutting loose from 
 a government which ruled us during centuries, understand 
 how we shall be capacitated to govern ourselves in the 
 centuries to come ? Another question here arises which 
 can neither be solved to our satisfaction. 
 
 " The drift of the present revolution and that which we 
 have written about it in our last three editions with the 
 approbation of our readers, go to show clearly that we are 
 not permitted to hope for such a consummation. Although 
 born with superabundant elements, we have seen the in- 
 surrection flicker away by degrees, and our heart has been 
 crying blood, on discovering that the greatest stumbling- 
 block to success had to be searched for in the unbridled 
 ambition of our leaders, the bad faith of our allies, the 
 want of respect between equals, and consideration be- 
 stowed on inferior men. With rare, very rare exceptions 
 we have seen real merit unheeded and the gift of intrigue 
 exalted : the management of the public good has run at 
 random, the laws that were made have not been a curb on 
 the man invested with power, while tbey were made to 
 weigh down the powerless ; and if these undeniable facts 
 have occurred during the revolution, at a time when our 
 resources were over-abundant, what are we entitled to hope 
 for under ordinary circumstances, in which we have lacked 
 the magnanimity to sacrifice our ambition to our duties 
 while our country was endangered, when everything should 
 have impelled us to unite in that which we strove to attain. 
 And this is not only the history of yesterday, it is that of 
 to-day, and while we gave its outlines, we endeavored to 
 bring down our judgment within the spirit of toleration 
 inseparable from truth itself. 
 
 u IJp to this point we have demonstrated, though it be 
 with deep regret that the Island of Cuba cannot cut loose 
 from Spanish tutelage through her own making, and that 
 recent events raise grave doubts as to our knowing how 
 to place on a Mr basis our independence were we to ob- 
 tain it. But what shall we say further from the moment 
 that we seriously begin to weigh the dangers which would 
 surround Cuba, were we to go begging for our indepen- 
 dence at the hands of foreign help. 
 
15 
 
 1 a No allies need we look for outside of Cuba to accom- 
 plish political emancipation, for there are none, and those 
 that may be found, are either impotent or obnoxious. And 
 even admitting this to be saying too much, what foreign 
 nation came to our assistance during the present insurrec 
 tion ? Some men in South America, in a timid manner 
 within government circles, to such a point that the assist- 
 ance was impracticable, and outside of these circles there 
 were expressions of sympathy, which, though they rejoiced 
 our hearts, had no practical effect as to the end to be 
 reached. From other quarters adventurers have joined us, 
 on bad terms as they were, with the general peace of man- 
 kind, and who have been the disowned of the revolution. 
 
 And do not let us speak of the United States, for the 
 blindness would be unpardonable to stitl believe in the 
 genuineness of their loudly proclaimed friendship for the 
 Cuban people. The United States have lured us to believe 
 in help and did not lend the assistance, and they are the 
 only nation that possesses power enough in America to make 
 its will respected, a nation by tradition the enemy of Spain. 
 Who gave refuge to our revolutionary 'juntas' and al- 
 lowed military expeditions to slip out, violating in permit- 
 ting a 1 this to be done international law to please us? 
 Away with the b oody farce here enacted! Of what use 
 has the harboring of our i juntas' been but to breed an 
 end ess element of discord, of what use have the expedi- 
 tions really been beyond transferring money to the pockets 
 of our ' determined protectors ? ' " 
 
 " We have previously stated, and shall not get tired of 
 repeating it, the protection of the United States is noth- 
 ing but a meins of bleeding both Spain and Cuba, so that 
 at a given moment the American Union may all the easier 
 seize the coveted prize. Has not the great argument in- 
 variably been the eventual possession of Cuba, the key to 
 the Mexican Gulf, whenever public men of theirs have 
 spoken on the subject, and whenever the press has thun- 
 dered in favor of Cuban liberty, and all this without tacit 
 or expressed reservation ? To assist us has not been their 
 aim, but rather that we should perish and that Cuba should 
 be at the mercy of the punic faith of our generous allies. 
 
 " Let Cuba be independent to-morrow, and in a short 
 time the fable of the wolf and the lamb would at her 
 expense be re-enacted, for our beloved Maad would be 
 found disturbing the waters of the gulf which bathes the 
 feet of the American Union. 
 
 " The events now transpiring abundantly prove that we 
 
16 
 
 should in do case obtain our independence without passing 
 through a desperate struggle and even admitting that we 
 issued from it victoriously, our resources would be at an 
 end. Picture to yourselves, then, our country bl ed to death 
 and handed over in its internal workings to the convulsive 
 machinations of its own ambitious chiefs, how and with 
 what should we begin another war, not any more with 
 Spain, but with the most pugnacious power of America, 
 with a nation, whose basis of operations would be at ten 
 hours r distance from our shores. We should either suc- 
 cumb to the blow of Attila, or we should convert our coun- 
 try into a closed tilt-ground for Latin and Saxon influ- 
 ence to fight its battles in, our liberty being forfeited in 
 any event, though acquired at such cost. 
 
 " The wfyole problem as to whether Cuba can become 
 independent, to our regret is, therefore, narrowed down to 
 the inevitable dilemma: Either Cuba will be what she now 
 is, more or less free, but preserving intact her social phy- 
 siognomy, such as her idiosyncracy is constituted within 
 the folds of the Latin family, or she will from iuternecine 
 anarchy be handed over a slave to the foreign tyrant, that 
 would blot out her very name, would expel her sons, and 
 would finally surrender her as a prey to its proconsuls 
 and a victim to northern civilization, that substitutes 
 guns for the constitution, the revolver to the plough, and 
 the adoration of degrading material interests to that of 
 the G-od of Catholicism. 
 
 " In other words the whole thing resolves itse'f into 
 this — l In order to be Cuba, Cuba cannot be indepen- 
 dent.' 
 
 u This is the truth, which we record with deep regret, 
 but which reason dictates to us through the teachings of 
 disappointments. If we have swerved from the truth, 
 let our friends lead us back to the strict facts of the case, 
 let them correct our errors, for that which we wish to dis- 
 cover, is their greatest good. If on the other hand we are 
 right, if we have been truthful interpreters, as in good 
 conscience we do bolieve, of that which Cuban emigrants 
 feel and think, if in doing so, we have lent consistency to 
 vague and indecisive opinions, let them cut loose without 
 further hesitation from the false patriots, who strive to 
 mislead them, in order to swindle them out of their daily 
 bread, in earning which they do credit to themselves and 
 to their country, the false patriots, who may fling the poi- 
 soned arrow of slander at us, if they think fit that we 
 should be singled out to be the victim for daring to per- 
 
17 
 
 form an act of public virtue, which their own demoraliza- 
 tion would probably shrink from performing. 
 
 We ourselves, humble workmen of intelligence and pro- 
 gress, are content to serve Cuba in the paths of truth, the 
 fountain of all justice. While the penalty of unpopulari- 
 ty does not deter us, nor popularity entice us, threats do 
 not frighten us, for as long as that which we strive to pro- 
 pagate is just, it; will vanquish with the help of good men. 
 And although this aldress of ours may prove a fountain 
 of annoyances to us, the divine promise will both console 
 and strengthen us : l Happy are those who thirst for jus- 
 tice, for they shall be satisfied.'' " 
 
 Referring to the foregoing article, we beg to state that 
 we differ from El Emigrado in the definitive conclusion 
 which he arrives at, Cuba on the contrary can become inde- 
 pendent, and although this sentence of ours may seem 
 strange, it has nevertheless for its basis former periodical 
 labors of ours, and it is our intention, to devote a series of 
 articles to the subject, beginning with the ensuing week. 
 In publishing them the utmost attention will be bestowed 
 on the arguments we shall bring to bear upon the ques- 
 tions to be ventilated. 
 
CUBA MAY BECOME INDEPENDENT. 
 I. 
 
 Spain colonizing the New World did not intend to perpetuate herself in 
 her colonies, but iu the history of universal civilization. — Examples 
 which justify her eonduct. — Evils of the p emature emancipation of 
 the Spanish- American republics. — Cuba compared with said republics. — 
 Her progress in relation to those of the Peninsula. — Erroneous opinion 
 that is alleged about this matter. — Rectification. — Origin of the ideas 
 on which these articles are founded. — Vouchers. — Invocation to the 
 impartiality of those who read this work, in order that they may be 
 able to judge it. 
 
 How so 1 Have the insurgent Cubans, or those who are 
 loyal, ready supposed, that Spain would ever, and to the 
 day of judgment, strive to retain the precious Island? 
 Can any sane man suppose, that such a thing is or will be 
 the purpose of Spain ? 
 
 Beflect on the destinies we have fulfilled and still to ac- 
 complish! Nations that have carried out missions on 
 earth, such as we have filled in the history of civilization, 
 live for ever, although not within the precincts of any 
 given landmarks beyond their natural limits, for they will 
 stay there, but the time which their mission hus pre cribed, 
 so that they may hand back the colonies to universal so- 
 ciety shaped to its level, sufficiently developed and in the 
 age of manhoo'1. 
 
 So did Borne, and thus did Greece. Carthage had the 
 same aim, but for the g >od fortune of her antagonists. 
 Primitive populations, which tfiey converted into colonies, 
 in due time sallied forth to parti» ipate in the existence of 
 fertile and natural independence. 
 
 Spain sent forth the great contingent of her sons for the 
 same purpose, she instilled the fecundating sap of her life 
 into virgin America aud the nations, that arose, sprang 
 
20 
 
 from her life blood. Had these young: nati ns been less 
 precipitate in striving to emancipate themselves, too young 
 as they were, bow very different would not their future be 
 at the present day, bow much greater their real importance 
 in the general conclave of self constituted nations. 
 
 Cuba, the youngest sister of them all, fully proves the 
 truth of what we bring forward. She was content to be 
 kept tenderly sheltered near the boom of her mother, and 
 in doing s<», attained greater culture, greater wealth, a 
 more perfect development, with a future in prospect supe- 
 rior to the one that smiled or will ever smile per hauce 
 upon the others. 
 
 Witn what generous ideas, what sublime sentiments, 
 with what gushing love and kindness, with what abnega- 
 tion and te-derness has not Spain striven to support her 
 favorite daughter wiiile she followed in the path of civili- 
 zation at a great distance from herself! 
 
 In Cuba, even ahead of the Spani-h Peninsula, steam 
 was applied to communication ou shore and afloat, and 
 thus setting an example to Latin America. How many years 
 ahead of the most civilized from amon» the Spanish 
 American Eepublics did not the steam-whistle sound its 
 echo across the fields and along the shores of our Island, 
 steam, the most useful and fertile invention which the 
 agt s have witnessed, in positive good to mankind? 
 
 Some will answer, that Cuba owed to the vicinity of the 
 United States this advautage, and not to the happy condi- 
 ti -n. in which Spain kept the Island. But as ne >r at hand 
 is the Mexican Republic, ami yet, not one rai way line is 
 finished there to the present day, not a single merchant 
 steamer has been built in Mexico, or even carries the 
 Mexican flag. 
 
 And b sides, were the United States the only nati n 
 that aoplied steam to industry? Did not England, B 1- 
 giurn, France, Rus-da and Germany and the whole Europ- 
 ean continent snatch up the new motive power with feverish 
 haste and impro ve its application in an astonishing manner ! 
 And if in the f-ice oí all these facts thti Spanish Peninsula 
 caused her favorite daughter to take the lead am mg all 
 the Spar.ish countries in tlrs valuable acquisition, is not 
 this another positive proof of the love she bore her, of the 
 zeal, with which unmistakably she strove to develop the 
 I-land, so that Cuba might attain the age of emancipation 
 a model of well-ruled colonies, of well trained nationalities, 
 of nations iu full maturity and sufficiently strong to make 
 front against a host of pit-f «lis ? 
 
21 
 
 Some may be inclined to think, that the spirit of our 
 present argumentation is a forced and transitory one, that 
 it is not bound up with our national sentiments, as we pre- 
 tend it is. In order to dispel such a grave error, all we 
 have to do, is to point bark towards the labor, we have 
 been pursuing during near y seven years. Suffice it to 
 say, that the same ideas were uppermost in our mind at 
 the time of assuming the management of this new-paper, 
 that we did so in connection with the Government at 
 Madrid, and that all other suppositious are, therefore, 
 utterly groundless. 
 
 Aud on thus taking charge of La Crónica, the glorious 
 base and foundation of El Cronista, which we fear will 
 never equal its predecessor, we made public our pro- 
 gramme and one of its passages bore the fo rowing sen- 
 tence : . . 
 
 " The reincorporation of Santo Domingo within the folds 
 of the mother-country, turned as it came to be into a cry 
 of alarm sent forth to Spanish America by our common 
 enemies, has been an over-stepping of the ordinary rule 
 which Spain had laid down for its general conduct towards 
 the Eepublics of the new continent. A group of our fam • 
 ily there precariously existe I, not only because torn by 
 domestic discord, but because und-r constant threat of a 
 savage enemy, then making preparations to destroy our 
 brethren by sword and fire. 
 
 " S >ain, the noble and g'orious Spain, comprehending 
 the strategical importance of the country, not that she 
 coveted its possession, for it presented on its face nothing 
 but additional expenses, but in its bearings up >n the im- 
 mense future of the Great umpire of the Spanish Antilles, 
 which human progress in all its manifestations would have 
 to lift into existence in due course of time, and much to the 
 Wang of Spain, in the world of Columbus, the same as 
 Great Britain arose facing the old continent under less 
 auspicious circumstances," 
 
 Our readers will do ns the justice to believe, that at the 
 ' cridcal moment of making our programme in a paper sup- 
 ported by the National Government we could not well 
 have undertaken to venture upo:i a sentence of this kind on 
 our own responsibility, for there was near at hand a most 
 enlightened minister who represented with dignity the 
 Spanish intere- ts. 
 
 No, we did not s eak at the time, of our own accord, 
 we wrote that, which the Government at Madrid thought, 
 that which ax, the same time was blended with our own 
 
22 
 
 sentiments, that which all Spain cherishes with joy- 
 fulness. 
 
 And are not the words, we have quoted, sufficiently expli- 
 cit such as they are and of a nature to silence those, who 
 attack what we say? Hear, then, the amplified sense, 
 which we attributed to them in a leader, in La Crónica, 
 dated 30th Docember, 1865, the same year, in which we 
 assumed the editorship of the paper. 
 
 li The Antilles have their destiny written in golden 
 letters on the book of humanity. Their mission is one of 
 greatness and glory still, as sentinels and shields of the 
 Spanish-American Coutiuent, under the banner of their 
 discoverers. And the hand of God shall trace out to them 
 new paths in the march of uuiversal civilization, and when 
 their vital forces shall possess cohesion enough by virtue 
 of greater maturity and development, they will reach the 
 natural destiny, awaiting nations, that rear a new life, 
 Spain will frankly assist tliem to that end, she will lend them 
 efficacious and generous help, so that they may with dignity 
 represent the better portion of our race in Spanish America 
 and enter the lists of independent nations, linked with im- 
 perishable ties of true love to the illustrious matron, who 
 thus introduces them to the toorld n 
 
 Let what we have said suffice for the day as a forerunner 
 to the labor we have undertaken and let those, who seek 
 the truth in good faith read calin'y and without prejudice. 
 The question in hand is too important, no less than the life 
 or death of a people is here involved, and certainly a 
 couple of hundred of stubborn men are not the arbiters, 
 to solve in a fit of j assion that which in family conclave 
 should be judged upon mature investigation, giving due 
 weight to the general interests tied up with problems of 
 such nature. 
 
n. 
 
 Synthesis of the previous article. — Its Datural consequences cannot prescind 
 from any of the details which contribute to form its antecedent propo- 
 sitions. — Application of this axiom to the development of colonial po- 
 pulations. — Demoralization of politics and the deplorable influence they 
 thus exercise in practice. — The same argument is also applicable to the 
 final aim of this treatise.— Doubts as to its being of any effect against 
 the pretended wisdom of positive ignorance. — Firm resolution to go on 
 with the treatise and to combat error, convinced that the reader will 
 not knowingly be misled by the latter. 
 
 Taking up the thread of our previous article, which was 
 intended to be a preamble of tins thesis, three important 
 problems appear solved already from the very start, to 
 wit : That the colonizing nations are not perpetuated ad 
 eternum in the populations, which civilization has handed 
 over to them and yet are not within the limits traced out 
 by nature to their own territory, that La Crónica, the basis 
 upon which El Cronista was reared thus understood the 
 subject and thus interpreted the same on being consigned to 
 our management, chat the Antilles have before them an 
 immense future as a providential nationality, independent 
 and perhaps indeed, holding the balance between races in 
 the New World, that the government at Madrid has been 
 imbued with the idea and still entertains it, not by virtue 
 of events more or less fovorable or deplorable, but by rea- 
 son of the eminently paternal calling delegated to the 
 governments of the world, the vulgar spirit notwithstand- 
 ing, which has undertaken to analize the bearings of the 
 case and believes and preaches the reverse, rendering im- 
 possible the administration of public order, were we to 
 listen to it. 
 
 The case as it stands is a clearly defined one, consequent- 
 ly, and everythiug would point in Ihe affirmative with 
 
24 
 
 reference to the theme of our articles. But can the amis 
 of a government having for their object civilization and 
 humanity be allowed to be thwarted with impunity inthdr 
 process of elaboration, and when thus hampered, will not 
 the attainment of its aims be crippled, however much the 
 human family may wish it success ? 
 
 No human power, indeed, can with impunity disturb the 
 harmouy of the great conceptions, which have the spirit of 
 God for their source, and there is the same difference be 
 tween the meas ired steps of nature ia its developments 
 and the improvisation of an artificial state of affairs, as 
 exists between the sublime and the coarse, the same, which 
 distinguishes man in his utmost perfection from the unborn 
 babe ; we have here indeed the most eloquent and proud con- 
 trast wbich may be thrown into the faces of the pride of some 
 individuals, so that they may not reproduce the scene of 
 Luzbel, to the evident dismay of the world's progress and 
 of the manifest destiny of their country. 
 
 With politics, if we may be permitted to make some 
 digressions, though bearing upon the subject, people have 
 been so much familiarized, that we cau hardly meet with a 
 person, who does not handle them and deem th >m the 
 easiest thing, despite the difficulty of this complicated 
 science, and since this chances to be tin case, not a day of 
 peace is safe among men, nor is there a nook or corner, 
 exempt from danger and innovation. 
 
 Politics are despoiled now-a-days of the prestige, which 
 surrounded them, when they were exclusively wielded by 
 eminent statesmen, by men, who had grown grey iu their 
 study, bent down under the experience of a laborious life 
 iu their service and commanding respect at the hands of 
 the masses, whereas at the present day the baref 1 cedo ess is 
 great, indeed, with which their most.arduous problems are 
 discussed and disposed of by men of a deficient grasp of 
 mind and education and but too often vu'gar in se itiment. 
 
 Who does not deem himself capacitated to-day, to gov- 
 ern the nation from which he sprang ; who has uot the aw 
 bition to do the best he cao, the most moral and the most 
 honorable, so that his country may gain credit thereby, 
 that its material well-being may be perpetuated, that its 
 fame and prestige may rise ? 
 
 And how many did not seize the reins of State power with 
 similar honorable intentions, anxious to serve their country, 
 to be precipitated shorn of glory from the pedestal, which 
 supererogation caused them to mouut in an hour fatal to 
 themst Ives ! 
 
25 
 
 It would seem that the majority of those who handle 
 politics, be it in the open air or from the tribune, in Par- 
 liament or in the newspaper*, think that all that is required 
 are certain disconnected definitions, to assume a coloring 
 of one doctrine or another, to seize with enthu iasm one 
 opinion or another more or less adapted to the nature of 
 the ground where it is to be brought into p'ay, in order to 
 stamp them the most consummate judges of the art, un- 
 heedful of the warnings of the¡r m >st loyal opponent, from 
 the moment that their illusions are in the least interfered 
 with. 
 
 We have been obliged to make this digression, because 
 we apprehend that we shall stumble upon these doctors of 
 the faith of modern idras from the moment that we pro- 
 nounce the word that Cuba may become independent, after 
 deeply studying this complicated question in all its feat- 
 ures. From their point of view tne logic of time and 
 things is nothing but a reactionary pre >ccupation, they 
 will attempt to haul down our most cherished conclusions, 
 should they not chime in with theirs, although nothing 
 inspire their motives in doing so but caprice, nothing but 
 a thoughtless obstinacy, evidently exaggerated as it may 
 be. 
 
 We furthermore apprehend, that their inexpert followers, 
 equally se f-sufficient and who will endorse anything akin 
 to their ideas, will attack our arguments merely because 
 preceding from the opposite side, without reason and with- 
 out investigation, believing, as they seem to do, that they 
 need not trouble themselves about anything concerning 
 the welfare of the pe >ple beyond the present generation, 
 that men should weigh their own individual interests first 
 and those of their country at large afterwards. 
 
 But, however, this may be, that which we have under- 
 taken, shall, with the help of Providence be accomplished 
 to the extent of our capacities and in trying to do so we 
 shall soon see, with what degree of favor or disfavor our 
 reasonings will be received at the hands of those who, 
 while opposed to us, have never as yet taken the trouble 
 of going to the bottom of the question to be ventilated. 
 
 We shall, therefore, at our leisure endeavor to throw the 
 fullest light upon it from the various points of view which 
 may be deemed requisite for its thorough elucidation. 
 
in. 
 
 The practical and scientific character of the question.— Sophisms and errors. — 
 . They vanish or are explained. The so-called natives of the Island. — 
 The, aboiifúnes. — The Spaniards. — Mutual relations. — Respective 
 rights. — Abberrations resulting from denying the one and the others. — 
 General ideas of society as applied to family. — Attributes of home 
 rule. — Limitation by the simple process of time. — Application of the 
 rule to the project of Cuban independence. — Divergent opinions as to 
 time and opportunity.— Practical impediments to premature individual 
 and social independence.— Why Guba sooner than any other colony 
 should fortify her position and future ere striving for independence. — 
 Favorable and adverse hypothesis with reference to her present condi- 
 tion and the one towards which she tends. 
 
 Although eminently scientific, the question which we 
 propose to investigate, is not the less practical and we 
 could not well proceed a single step in it, without first 
 trying to remove subtleties and errors, which have arisen 
 in the minds of visionary people and with which they en- 
 deavor to bolster up fancied rights. 
 
 The generality of seditious Cubans found the ligitimacy 
 of their rebellious action, as proclaimed by them, precisely 
 on the idea of a right which in itself is fictitious, absurd 
 and baseless, because it completely and absolutely denies 
 positive rights. 
 
 They pretend to say, that Cuba belongs to them, and not 
 to Spain ; ace .rding to their notions they are the real and 
 only sons of the country, that the Spaniards are grasping 
 foreign interlopers and the theories thus flippantly enun- 
 ciated are so hollow, tha: they will not stand for a moment 
 the search of common sense. 
 
 The Cubans would in fact be the sods of the Island, had 
 they descended from the Indians whom the Spaniards found 
 
28 
 
 on larding. But since the native race was soon extinct, 
 too weak as it was, from the moment it came in contact 
 with another more powerful and in every respect superior 
 race, it is evident, that those, who proclaim themselves 
 owners of the Island because of their birth on its soil, 
 neither have, nor can have any greater right to it, than 
 the one they have inherited from their fathers, the same 
 Spaniards whom they call grasping foreign inti rlopers. In 
 order to divert a question so plain and pertinent of every 
 metaphysical argument, all we have to do is to take into 
 consideration that while there are many families iu the Is- 
 land, who by time and successive generations are mate 
 rially severed form continuity of descendency, there are 
 others, who form the majority, and who have sprung direct 
 from laborious, worthy and honorable Spaniard^, who 
 have reared families, are still alive and still preside over 
 them. 
 
 Where shall we be landed, however, were we to go and 
 proceed still further in metaphysical deductions and trom a 
 question of right pa-s to a practical and formal solution, 
 sanctioning the theory that property is exclusively bound up 
 with birth and not with the person, that created it: what 
 would the natives of the land do with their fathers, the 
 direct or indirect sons of Spaniards, were they to proceed 
 in the same sense and to defend, not any more the indis- 
 putable rights of the mother country, but that ov« r their 
 own proper ties, acquired by economy, industry and tabor ? 
 
 One of two moral and civil aberrations would have to 
 happen, either the sons would have to drown in the blo< d 
 of their fathers natural and acquired rights, or, by an act 
 of pity, the fathers, should they issue victoriously from 
 the struggle, would take into tutelage their own sons thus 
 resorting contrary to nature to an anti-social state of af- 
 fairs, deplorable and not creditable to their sons. 
 
 As it chances that society is the natural refl x of family, 
 the question of right may be reduced to a still clearer de- 
 finition: Is the right to the possesion of the father's 
 home claimed by the sonnore perfect because the son was 
 born ia it and superior to that of the father who built it 
 and who declines to leave it till he dies a natural dea h ? 
 
 Those who carry.ti the utmost extremes the artifices ot 
 argument say that the rights of the mother country have 
 also their limitations, that it is certain that if on the one 
 hand human society is reflected iu the family and that the 
 simile of fathers and sons is pertinent to the question, the 
 laws of nature have, on the other hand, also provided and 
 
29 
 
 laid down in the law books of every civilized nation, the 
 emancipation of the individual, and that consequently it 
 is equally applicable to nations. 
 
 This argument certainly is not devoid of logic and our 
 opponents will admit that we do not withhold weapons from 
 them, wherewith to sustain their abstractions. But, as 
 with reference to the question to be ventilated, it is not 
 denied, nor ever will be denied that Cuba may become inde- 
 pendent in good reason, other and important problems 
 may be deduced therefrom, which should be mathematic- 
 ally solved, for they remove the question from investiga- 
 tions of absolute light and narrow it down to one of abso- 
 lute practicability, as has been hinted at by us at the 
 head of this article. s ' .. i ' :.'■ ■> 
 
 Who, indeed, can determine the majority of age ot a 
 colony, its capacity f-V independent nationality without 
 recurring to mathematical investigations that solve the 
 great economical problems of its nature and its vitality? 
 . Dues it suffice, that some excited spirit, impatient to 
 step into the plenitude of perfect liberty, proclaim such 
 majority, while other more reflecting spirits, who may 
 possess more experience in examining question* of this 
 nature, declare, that the state of perfection which the 
 other party believed to have been reached, h mere illusion 1 
 
 Nothing, indeed, seems more natural, than that the sons 
 should wish to move about in the world by themselves and 
 in a state of independence, but it is quite as n itural, that 
 the fathers shou d place their veto upon a premature in- 
 dependence. Hjw many sons do not condemn the unre- 
 flecting weakness of their fathers, who in order not to 
 curb their inclinations, permitted them to sally forth ere 
 the proper time had arrived, only that they might prove a 
 nuisance to good society, a scourge of lawlessness and a 
 blot on a f iir name ! . . 
 
 Th i indeoendence of populations reared in the colonial 
 sta'e, as we have them in Cuba, requires certain qualities, 
 in order to render it useful, practical and permanent, not 
 only to themselves, but to others, who^e interests are in- 
 tertwined with tlieits, so that the acquisition may prove a 
 positive good, instead of entailing d sastrous consequences, 
 discrediting and obliterating it. 
 
 And Cuba, more than any other people, sprung from 
 Spaniards in America, should first oí all consolidate and 
 fortify the position, whhh is to raise her to national inde- 
 pendence and not to be merely the football or the prey of 
 any oUier nation. Her office will be to shield her sisters 
 
30 
 
 and to command respect by her organization, her wealth 
 and her judgment, by the instrumentality of material and 
 moral strength. She shou'd be in full mastery of the 
 dangers that lie hiddenbelow the heterogeneous population 
 she harbors, the dangers, besides, which are inseparable, 
 from ber extreme youth, her want of political education, 
 of experience and of routine in State matters. 
 
 What use would Cuba be able to make of it on conquering 
 her independence by the means and under the circumstan- 
 ces which the iusurgent Cubans propose to employ or 
 create % Would she be able to create an homogeneous state 
 of affairs among individuals there residing ; would she 
 lend order and cohesion to parties that are inexorable al- 
 ready in their disputes among each other ; would the labor 
 question be practically and beneficially solved; would her 
 riches be developed sufficiently to attract the necessary 
 immigration ; would foreign capital be safe, would general 
 commerce be benefitted, taking her start from the pre- 
 sent day such as the Island is constituted under the pro- 
 tection of Spain in all its relations of life; would she go on 
 increasing in due proportion to the happy state of inde- 
 pendence, as the whole world wuuld naturally be led to 
 hope? Or, would she rather stand stripped by a struggle of 
 her most vital, of her most valuable elements, now abound- 
 ing on her fortunate soil, torn by a war of races or by dis 
 cordant political elements, the strongest hands emanci- 
 pated from labor, with the fountains of her proverbial 
 riches choked, capital flying to more inviting regions, an- 
 other spectacle the counterpart of Hayti. Wi 1 she, over- 
 come by weariness, then surrender herself to the strongest 
 nation that may snatch up the prize and thus by a degrad- 
 ing process be transferred from the loving bosom of a 
 mother to slavery, to grasping foreign interlopers, indeed, 
 who would use her as a stepping stone from whence the 
 extinction of the whole Spanish-American race would 
 be consummated, because in her national independence 
 she was ncapable of accomplishing more elevated desti- 
 nies 1 
 
 Eeflect, then, that such may be the fate of Cuba, that 
 her own sons are those who most desire and preach it, and 
 that through their action they may bring it about. And 
 how can we in thus reflecting, prevent bitter irony from 
 conjuring up in our minds maledictions on the heads of 
 the corrupters of modern society, of those who preach the 
 right of whatever individual to outstep the limits, within 
 which an honorable, perchance modest position kept him, 
 
31 
 
 so that lie may become a man of politics and lead his 
 countay to such a state ! 
 
 But, do not let us be carried away ; the material, which 
 we have to go through is vast and complicated, nor can 
 we lose more time, since the painful solution is being 
 fought out by sword and by word. 
 
IV. 
 
 Positive foundations, which should underlie a society aspiring to become 
 independent.— Transitory straggle.— General conformity.— The other 
 phase with the disasters it involves.— Different features attending sub- 
 mis5Íou of one nation to another.— Italy ere it was united.— Poland he- 
 fore its dismemberment.— Cuba in her various phases, ancient and mo- 
 dern. — Character of the Peninsular group in t lie Island.— The creóles 
 of the Island.— Distinction of the Cuban question from those of 
 Mexico and Spanish-America.— Proofs.— Logical deduction in favor 
 of th'd treatise. 
 
 In order to determine the proper moment, at which a 
 colony sprung from the same nationality that founded it, 
 has reached the requisite ability for assuming a state of inde- 
 pendence, it will be necessary above every thing else that 
 the principle does not admit of discussion between the 
 great bodies that constitute it. But there may be diver- 
 gence on the part of the nation which founded the colony. 
 
 Not always is a nation resigned to be deprived of part 
 of its territory and in such a case the emancipation of a co- 
 lony is seldom carried out without an appeal to arms on 
 the part of the mother country with reference to the ques- 
 tion raised, in order to prevent its consummation. But 
 from the moment all voices are unanimously raised in sup- 
 port of the colony, thus lending to the latter that moral 
 strength, which does not yield, justice steps forward re- 
 gardless of the obstacles which hamper the struggling co- 
 lony and independence is accomplished by armistice be- 
 tween belligerents, the first and natural excitement of 
 passion having subsided and the honor between combatants 
 being saved. 
 
 But this cannot be brought about, from the moment 
 
34 
 
 there are dissensions in the colony itself, without the com- 
 pletest harmony within its bosom there would be a lack of 
 that cohesion indispensable to lend strength and prestige 
 to a new and independent nation, which has to confront, a 
 unit, its compeers ; without such perfect union, it would 
 be manifest, that one portion of the community had been 
 swayed by a caprice repulsive to the remaining portion, 
 evidently convinced of the premature nature of the move- 
 ment and hence the aim to be attained would carry within 
 it the germ of abortion. 
 
 We wish to be fully understood in this matter. History 
 presents to us cases in which a people has been subjugated 
 by an alien race and the struggle of independence appears 
 legitimate ; union and harmony of purpose will not be 
 lacking the nation which endeavors to expel the foreign 
 invader. By common agreement the question of right 
 will be superseded by that of local unanimity in the eyes 
 of outsiders. We have witnessed this for a long time in 
 Italy and we still see the example reenacted from time to 
 time in Poland ; the cause may then appear a just one, al- 
 though not so by right, and universal respect will be granted 
 the noble impulse which inspires the struggle against tyran- 
 nical and degrading oppression. 
 
 But, where no foreigners are to be expelled, where time 
 and resources have been badly measured in order to snap 
 the ties of a family compact, in which the elements are 
 otherwise concordant, although opinions may differ, the 
 case is au altogether different one. Even the vestiges 
 of right, which may be appealed to to curtail the pos- 
 session of the mother country in its own colonies on the 
 basis of the simile of sons in relation to their fathers, al- 
 luded to in a former article, utterly fail to be applicable to 
 the case and to have any force whatsoever, for there is not 
 a whole colony in arms, but only a portion of one to the 
 injury of both the loyal population and of the mother coun- 
 try. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to insist here on the extensive and 
 powerful element of peninsular Spaniards, settled in Cuba. 
 Some people call them strangers and even worse names. 
 It will be necessary to remove all misconception on this 
 important subject. 
 
 The name of foreign interlopers is altogether inapplicable 
 to the Spaniards resident in Cuba and any body who has 
 had occasion to study the population of the Island will 
 have convinced himself, that, even the epithets of ambu- 
 lant countrymen or men temporarily devoted to industrial 
 
35 
 
 pursuits could not well be applied to them without distort- 
 ing the truth or common sense. 
 
 Have not native-born Cubans, as we have said on a pre- 
 vious occasion, been born the sons of Spanish fathers, who 
 went to Cuba to work and who ere they made a fortune or 
 after they had made it, large or small, have reared a family 
 and live surrounded by it, and at the head of it, the very 
 sons, who call them foreigners forming part of such family 
 and all of them taken together being the only property 
 owners which the privileged soil of Cuba counts ? 
 
 In Mexico and the rest of Spanish- America at the time 
 of declaring their independence the epithets above alluded 
 to might not have been quite out of place, not however, in 
 the mouths of those who most used them, but in the 
 mouths of Indians, whose lands we had occupied and whom 
 we had redeemed from barbarism, at the expense, of 
 course, of their pitiable independence. 
 
 We shall go a step further and concede that much, that 
 in those outlying provinces the sons of Spaniards declared 
 their independence with a certain degree of authority, 
 when it seemed to them better that to the duties they 
 owed to their fathers, the liberation of the great majority 
 of their native land should be preferred. The right to 
 emancipation was in this case indisputable, because clearly 
 founded on natural right ; the question, there arising was 
 not so much that of a son who prematurely strives to cut 
 loose from his father, but of a whole people bent down by 
 the force of arms or by a preponderating civilization to 
 rules, to habits and to a government not any more con- 
 genial and, therefore, spurned. 
 
 But, in Cuba, where the only vestige that remains of the 
 Indians is the record or natural history of their extinction, * 
 where the whites are either Spaniards or their descendants, 
 excepting always some families of foreign origin which have 
 been intermingled with those of Spanish blood the epithet 
 given to Peninsular Spaniards is devoid of sense, is the most 
 extravagant aberration that can be put forward, coming 
 
 * We say the natut al history of their extinction for the reason, that the 
 Indians of tbe Antilles have not disappeared, as some believe and as Father 
 Las Casas has "written, by means of brutal hecatombs, of which there have 
 been none, but by contact with a superior race, which by crossing the same 
 went on producing other human beings more their image than that of the 
 feeb'er aborigines. The same thing occurred in the Antilles from mixture 
 between the white and black races, -where it has been observed at the end 
 of four or five generations as an extreme period, the distinguishing pecu- 
 liarities and color of the negro disappea" by the process of infusion of phy- 
 sical and moral superiority, brought about by our race. 
 
36 
 
 from the lips as it does of the very men who would not 
 exist and who would not have spread over the length and 
 breadth of the Antilles but for the very qualities, those of 
 an industrious people, which they fling into the faces of 
 their fathers. 
 
 Why indeed should the idea of instability of residence 
 be attached by some Cubans to Peninsular Spaniards 
 among them % Has it not, on the contrary, been invariably 
 the case, that all those Spaniards, who went to Cuba to 
 work, when young, and who have piled up colossal fortunes 
 there extant, have stayed and will stay, as long as they 
 live, watching over the well-being of the families, which 
 they raised in the Island while thus rising to wealth, pre- 
 paring the brilliant prospects that await the unnatural 
 sons who call foreigners their own fathers % 
 
 We should be wasting words, were we any further to 
 dwell on this subject and we are, therefore, landed once 
 more upon the fact, that that portion of Cuban population 
 which strikes for immediate independence has no greater 
 right than the remainder, which prefers staying within the 
 folds of the mother country, developing the resources of 
 the land, content to lead a provincial life instead of soaring 
 in the elevated sphere of sovereignty with those indispen- 
 sable conditions tacked upon it which constitute a rank so 
 supreme. 
 
 Cuban independence should be solid, it should be founded 
 on the united sympathies of all the elements of the country, 
 there should be a deep conviction that perfect ability for 
 self-government has been either reached or so very nearly 
 so, that a little practice would suffice to for ever avoid the 
 eternal political upheavings which have arisen in other 
 emancipated communities, prematurely become inde- 
 pendent. 
 
 It is only upon such conditions, that Cuba could attain 
 independence and retain it without converting the delicate 
 jewel into another Hayti or into a simple territory of the 
 absorbing and little scrupulous American Confederation. 
 
 How then can independence be obtained and the mishap 
 just alluded to be avoided % We shall in our ensuing arti- 
 cles endeavor to show. 
 
V. 
 
 Important digression. — Change of tactics by the leading promoters of 
 Cuban independence in tbe United States and Englmd.— Autonomy — 
 Human fallibility. Impediments to tbe theory, and tbe force of logic — 
 Can Cuba be granted autonomy now?— That which we call autonomy — 
 The real meaning of independence. — Spain'.-" attitude towards both 
 questions. — The advancement of Cuba in her political and administra- 
 tive organization. — Its hearings as to the future — Why autonomy and 
 not independence ? — Hidden aim 5 ! of this unexpected change of tactics. — 
 Futile intrigue. — Damaging dilemma. 
 
 Whenever a work of the nature we have undertaken 
 excites the interest, which the one in hand seems to attract 
 among a numerous class of men whose clear comprehen- 
 sion is struck by it, the signs of the day, in as much as 
 they may have a bearing upon the question, should not be 
 unheeded. They will help to enlighten us all the quicker, 
 that which we write down may assume the form of doc- 
 trine, if not sufficiently perfect as yet to settle the contro- 
 versy from the very start (and we dare not aspire to as 
 much), still complete enough to meet the innumerable 
 points of principle and the weighty interests involved in a 
 . struggle, which we all wish should be ended. Thus the 
 most unexpected, nay the most unlikely case has arisen 
 which could have been dreamt of at the end of four years of 
 armed rebellion to obtain an independence the feasibility 
 of which we are searching for, and the case has been pre- 
 sented by the most determined and influential men within 
 and outside of the Island that have been engaged in pro- 
 moting the cause. 
 
 And we do not allude to an illusion, nor to a mere rumor. 
 A new plan has been sketched out, although we are not 
 
38 
 
 aware, whether or not it has been duly weighed in propor- 
 tion to the importance of the subject to be attained, and 
 the plan takes out to Europe none less than Miguel Al- 
 dania, preceded by Fesser and Macias, accompanied by 
 Aguilera and followed by José de Armas y Céspedes, the 
 former irreconcilable opponent to any understanding, how- 
 ever reasonable and who has been the originator of the 
 perilous leap which they have all undertaken. 
 
 They go to solicit autonomy for Cuba, the very men, who 
 with tenacious resolution had pushed forward to proclaim 
 her independence, in other words they go to prove in the 
 face of the whole world that their attempt was a mistake 
 after the lives oí thousands of brave men have been sacri- 
 ficed, immolated as they were, and the picture of desola- 
 tion lit up by the glare of the incendiary torch. 
 
 We do not condemn this new step taken by the leaders, 
 because of its differing from what they have hitherto pur- 
 sued, error being the inheritance of our poor humanity, and 
 to recognize and disown it is but proper, however late the 
 acknowledgment may come. But we wish to have the 
 change marked down as another proof of the fallibility of 
 the human species and that our most irreconcilable oppo- 
 nents may take note, that in politics absolute truths need 
 not be searched for, nor human beings that may not 
 change their minds. 
 
 The sudden change which has been operated in the con- 
 victions of the individuals above named is, at all events, 
 a most eloquent one, and we should not lose sight of it 
 while we proceed, so that in their unshaken faith those who 
 blindly revered them may not believe in the future. 
 
 Let us investigate, then, whether this new phase and the 
 object it pursues are consonant with the interests of their 
 native land. 
 
 To enjoy autonomy will presuppose the same capacity 
 for self-government which would enable a nation to enjoy 
 and practice independence. 
 
 Is Cuba ripe for autonomy ? Can she govern herself 
 and administer her affairs, with nothing to be added by 
 Spain but her flag and name *? 
 
 If this be the case, although the proposition may be ex- 
 cused, it is inacceptable as it stands. It cannot, on the 
 one hand, suit Spain to be burdened with the experiment 
 without the necessary authority to restrain and regulate 5 
 nor can it suffice the Cubans, who desire to move untram- 
 melled, more because of its charm of novelty, than because 
 they have duly weighed and calculated the matter, which 
 
39 
 
 they evidently have not. This mixed state of affairs could, 
 indeed, hardly satisfy their ambition to its full measure, 
 nor would it harbor the germ of durability. 
 
 Autonomy is a species of agreement between populations 
 that would do as well, separated or united, without imperil- 
 ling the interests of either or both. Such is the case be- 
 tween Great Britain and Canada, where the majority of 
 the people are one, both by lineage and history, and where 
 mutual interests are already so blended and consolidated, 
 both mora ly and materially, that the form of government 
 raises no apprehensions, nor even the question of indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 In a case like this one, the mother country may grant 
 autonomy without fear ; it may, on the contrary, be even 
 more advautagenus to accede to it. Autonomy cannot be 
 merely proclaimed. Time only will ripen it as a logical 
 consequence of a series of natural reforms, which, by de- 
 grees, the measured development of populations will bring 
 about. 
 
 This same development has been going on in Cuba. 
 History is there to prove to those who will impartially, 
 and without distorting it, examine into what has taken 
 place — that the administration of Cub i has been vastly 
 improved daring the last quarter of a century the furthest. 
 
 There were no elective " ayuntamientos " twenty-five 
 years ago ; law-courts were not then independent, as they 
 are now, from civil authority ; there was no local legisla- 
 tion — everything under this head radiating from a ceutre, 
 the absolute arbiter of all initiative ; the process of law 
 was not administered as it is at the present day ; there was 
 no council of administration, with the attributes of a con- 
 sultative body, flanking superior authority, as is now the 
 case. 
 
 All these reforms, sketched out in a few words, were car- 
 ried out in Cuba within a lapse of time which could hardly 
 have been shortened tó meet the case, and with such prac- 
 tical resulrs, that the municipal sphere was doubled ; and 
 even importaut provincial experiments were made with 
 reference to the three headquarters of subdivision in the 
 Island. 
 
 The favorable consequences of gradual development in 
 colonies clearly shine forth from what we have said, so that 
 they may, in due course of time, be fitted for se'f-govern- 
 ment. This has recently been accomplished in Canada 
 after two centuries of a well regulated vitality, and the 
 same would have been the case with Cuba in due time, for 
 
áO 
 
 within a century of progressive advancement, she has 
 reached colossal proportious therein already. 
 
 But supposing the time of self-government had arrived 
 for Cuba, autonomy, or independence, would be indifferent, 
 like in the case of Canada. According to the belief of the 
 leaders above named, the time has arrived, for duiing the 
 past four years they sustained this conviction by word, by 
 the sword, by their action, and by their money. Why, 
 then, should they, who but yesterday strove to be inde- 
 pendent, cast about for autonomy, the one case calling for 
 as much capacity as the other ? 
 
 The movement is positive ; none of their agents ignore 
 it. El Cronista discovered it a week ago, and La Revo- 
 lución did not deny it. Does the movement represent the 
 unanimous seutiment of all seditious Cuban* ? Why, then, 
 if this be the case, do they go on crying in the Is and, and 
 repeating it in their newspapers, long live independent Cuba ? 
 Is the " autonomy movement" merely the action of a few ? 
 If this be the case, who warrants the submission of the 
 bulk of the insurgents'? 
 
 It may be a mere artifice and snare to the Span'sk gov- 
 ernment, for the fall months are the most adapted to the 
 sending of reinforcements to the army in Cuba. If this be 
 the case, they certainly have ill-judged our men in power. 
 
 Or do they act in good faith ? If this be the case, they 
 are lacking in logic; they are traitors to the sentiments of 
 their fellow-believers who want Cuba to be free, and not 
 autonomic. 
 
 We could pin still further important considerations upon 
 the sime subject did we wish to lengthen discussion; but 
 we shall let the matter rest, and merely sum up in the fol- 
 lowing words: Either Cuba possesses the ability and ele- 
 ments of self-government — and, in that event, she may be 
 independent — or she lacks them, and to ask for autonomy 
 would be an absurdity, or else treason. 
 
VL 
 
 Taking up again the thread of the pending treatise with two alternatives 
 of ariicle III. — Between preserving aud destroying the prosperity of 
 Cuba on becoming independent sick as now situated, the latter alter 
 native is the most likely 1n occur. — Attention of the Cub n emigrants 
 to this the is. — .Priof- 1 . — Why and when the United States mi»ht take 
 possession of independent Cuba. — Statistics of no ulation of tin Is 
 land. — Dissolution by diversity of race. — By nationalities. — By political 
 parties. — By numerical disproportion of sexe j . — The natural conse- 
 quences of these unfailing developments in hampering the consolida- 
 tion of independent Cuba. , 
 
 Witli two hypothetical queries as an alternative we 
 left pending in article III of this treatise the scientific so- 
 lution of the question we are investigating. The one laid 
 down the problem of the conservation of independent 
 Cuba in her present condition, and the other of her natu- 
 ral dissolution by the heterogeneous character peculiar to 
 the elements there extant. 
 
 We do not deny, that between the two phases, we, for our 
 part, saw more clearly the second although the first one 
 were more agreeable to us, and that we rather dwell upon 
 this one, and as this tendency of our mind will not be ac- 
 cepted by many without further explanations and as further- 
 more we cannot allow ideas of similar importance. to drift 
 along at random, while going to the bottom of this ques- 
 tion, we shall argue to-day, supported by the statistics 
 of Cuba, so as to enable us to demonstrate certain ideas, 
 which have been uttered, in as much as this may be feasi- 
 ble. Our aim shall be to let the most rigid truth rule our 
 attempt to discover a solution for this question by dint of 
 sincerity and pains-taking. 
 
 It is always a difficult task to arrive at the objective 
 
42 
 
 point of an undertaking having for its aim civilization and 
 magnanimity, while individual interests and the impatience 
 of inexperienced masses, discordant in sentiment, have to 
 be recoD tiled and considered. We may say, on this occa- 
 sion, however, and not without pride, our opponents have 
 paused, that they have flung aside their usual blindness 
 and thus do honor to their intelligence, for they are read- 
 ing El Cronista with the attention, which the subject in 
 hand demands, nor has as yet a single voice been raised 
 to interrupt our argumentation. 
 
 When this can be said of a body of men, much good 
 may be expected of them. Those, therefore, who at a great 
 distance read these lines, need not think that the emigrated 
 Cubans do nof peruse them, and that by not noticing what 
 we say, pretended toleration is exhibited, for in this city 
 alone upwards of three hundred of them pay enough at- 
 tention to it to come in quest of the paper and from all 
 parts of the Union we daily receive letters asking for the 
 complete series of issues beginning with the first one in 
 which the treatment of this important question has come 
 to be inaugurated. 
 
 Leaving at rest, then, these first signs, eloquent as they 
 are and reflecting credit as they do, we have still to add, 
 that their importance increases by the very character of 
 our arguments, which can hardly fail to strike the most 
 superficial reader. Men of less intelligence, and particu- 
 larly men of less toleration would have ceased to bestow 
 any attention upon what we are writing. We are glad to 
 observe, therefore, that the contrary is the case, a circum- 
 stance equally creditable to that class of our readers and 
 to El Cronista ; to them, because the truth is beaming 
 forth upon them and they perceive it, and to us because 
 they doubt no more our sincerity. 
 
 It is nothing but due to remark that El Cronista is 
 not only the acknowledged organ of the Spanish race in 
 America, but that it is also the most active and complete 
 commercial medium, which for a long time has been pub- 
 lished, semi-weekly, at Eew York, in the Spanish lan- 
 guage. • 
 
 In article III, we intimated, without saying so in as 
 many words, that it is evident, that if Cuba were to be- 
 come independent to-day, there would be no homogeneous 
 blending of the masses, that there would be no order and 
 no cohesion among political parties ; the very reverse of 
 what we perceive, where the common welfare rests on a 
 solid basis, and where the common interests are well deve- 
 
43 
 
 loped already. Nor would independence now obtained 
 solve in Cuba the labor question and yet leave unshaken 
 the wealth there accumulated, a wealth, which lends to the 
 Island the great importance it possesses, nor would there 
 be anything to invite the indispensable immigration; 
 foreign capital would take good care not to run the gaunt- 
 let of a gradual deadlock, that would irremediably paralyze 
 mercantile transactions there with the sudden decrease of 
 production to which the colonial staples raised in Cuba 
 would be hable. 
 
 On the contrary, as an immediate consequence of eman- 
 cipation the heterogeneous elements would be decom- 
 posed, now held side by side in groups in that rich country, 
 sheltered as they are beneath our national flag. This de- 
 composition would arise from the very rancor of a bloody 
 struggle of four years, recklessness would dictate disor- 
 ganizing and imprudent measures, where science and phi- 
 lanthropy should preside. In a word, the spectre of race 
 would all of sudden stand erect across the fair Antilles, 
 and with it the danger of a common Haytian Bepublic, 
 which, towards the East would stretch all the way to St. 
 Thomas, and would take in Cape San Antonio towards the 
 West, calling upon the American people to step in and in- 
 terfere. Such interference by the United States would 
 have for its motive merely strategical reasons, for there 
 would be nothing left to invite eommerce and industry ; 
 the interference would not be for purposes of annexation, 
 the practical and sensible people of the Union would care 
 very little indeed, to acquire a country promising to be a 
 dead load only. 
 
 It should be remembered in dwelling upon the dread 
 prospects here conjured up were Cuba to become suddenly 
 independent, that the Island now counts a population of 
 one million and four hundred thousand souls, about seven 
 hundred thousand of whom are of African origin, and that 
 in their sentiments upon the question of race the latter are 
 in perfect unison. Now, as for the remaining half, the 
 white population, the same includes 70,000 Peninsular 
 Spaniards, 49,000 Canary Islanders, 50 natives of the Phi- 
 lippines, 500 Porto Eicans, 2,600 Frenchmen, 1,240 English- 
 men, 500 Italians, 450 Germans, 150 Portuguese and 100 
 other Europeans, 2,500 Americans, 3,420 Spanish-Amer- 
 icans, 150 natives of Yucatan, 32,234 Coolies, 64 Dominic- 
 ans and 25 Brazilians. 
 
 It will thus be seen that there are 170,000 whites, not 
 born in Cuba, and that there would thus remain, to con- 
 
44 
 
 front the 700,000 colored people, 530,000 creóles, lield to be 
 all white, but were we to examine more closely, even 
 among them subdivison would be necessary. 
 
 The white population of the districts, where rebellion 
 has reared its head against Spain, including Sancti Spiri- 
 tus and the Villas already pacified, amounts to 307,359 
 persons ; as 36,384 of them are either Peninsular Spaniards, 
 however, or foreigners, the native population is shown to 
 be 270,975 only, in all the districts, which have been in 
 insurrection. 
 
 It would be just as much of an absurdity to suppose, 
 that a rebellious spirit animated all these inhabitants, the 
 majority and the best from among whom have been and 
 are still fighting the insurgents by the side of the Spanish 
 troops, as it would be to consider loyal all the people, na- 
 tives of the Island, who live in the remaining districts, 
 where peace has not been disturbed, a great many from 
 among whom have fled the country, while others, who 
 have not done so, conspire against Spain in the dark. 
 
 Setting then the loyal at heart, belonging to the present 
 and past rebellious districts, against the rebels in undis- 
 turbed ones, we may assume as pretty much beyond doubt 
 and cavil, that the number of white creóle inhabitants, 
 who would prefer to cease being Spanish subjects, amounts 
 to but 270,000. 
 
 We do not pretend to say that this would be the number 
 of Cubans, that would remain in the Island, were the lat- 
 ter to gain independence under prevailing circumstances, 
 dangerous as such independence would be, considering the 
 large number of colored people and the spirit which anim- 
 ates them ; but the most barefaced will not deny, that so 
 far as Peninsular Spaniards are concerned, at least one-half 
 of them, now side by side with us, would prefer to quit the 
 country, on the one hand, because they would not like to 
 be exposed to the hatred of those who are their bitterest 
 enemies to-day, nor on the other care to stand the brunt of 
 convulsions, which the fearful question of races would 
 sooner or later explode beneath their feet. 
 
 Another problem here arises as regards the relations be- 
 tween the white and colored inhabitants, that would re- 
 main in the Island. 
 
 The white population is pretty nearly equally divided 
 between the two sexes, while among the colored people 
 there are two men to every female. Consider then, that 
 most of the Peninsular, Canarian and foreign inhabitants 
 are men, and we have the fact before us, that the white 
 
45 
 
 element that were left in Cuba suddenly made independent 
 at the present moment, would prove to be physically by 
 far the weakest. 
 
 In order to narrow down the computation, we will assume 
 that 500,000 men of color remain, including the Indians 
 from Yucatan, the Chinese coolies and the dreg's of foreign- 
 ers, and it will be granted, that the adherence of such an 
 element to the new Bepublic would be anything but a 
 boon. 
 
 Conceding further, that among those, who remained in 
 the Island, the sexes were equally divided, we shall yet be 
 brought back to the fact, that white men would stand in 
 the proportion of one to every three men of color, and 
 that in the newly created position in which the colored po- 
 pulation would move, physically strong as it is, the very 
 independence of Cuba would be threatened, scarcely ac- 
 quired though it were, and that its consolidation would be 
 an impossibility. 
 
 It will thus be seen, that the question as it is constituted, 
 is such a complicated one, that in all its phases of life it 
 has so many ramifications in whichever direction we may 
 undertake to analyze it, that even upon the most superfi- 
 cial search we stumble upon the fact, that those, who have 
 undertaken to stir it up in arms, have but indifferently 
 considered its manifold bearings. We, therefore, beseech 
 our readers, to go on following our investigation with the 
 same leniency, they have hitherto shown us, and if then, 
 on terminating the study, they yet persevere in believing, 
 that we are in the wrong and that its solution should 
 rather stand committed to the arbitrament of the sword, 
 we shall wash our hands in innocence, if Cuban independ- 
 ence never be reached, while on the other hand it may be 
 attained, the natural tendency of colonies, remote from the 
 mother country, being towards independence, as we shall 
 by degrees point out in our work. 
 
VII. 
 
 Why the question of race would explore at once beneath the feet of inde- 
 pendent Cuba. — Eloquent examples. — Character of the negroes under 
 control. — Character of the negroes when left to themselves. — Brutal 
 excesses committed by them in parts of the country in insurrection. — 
 Many from among the Cubans in insurrectioa would as little wish the 
 Island to be ruled by negroes, as by Americans. 
 
 The dread prophecy that a war of races would convulse 
 Cuba, were she to become independent such as now con- 
 stituted, has not been thrown out in either a flippant or 
 arbitrary manner. The same thing- happened in the French 
 portion of Santo Domingo even before internal affairs had 
 been profoundly disturbed, for the negroes availed of the 
 general conflagration in which France found herself wrap- 
 ped up all of a sudden. A subdiied struggle for mastery 
 is even now going on in the Southern States of the Amer- 
 ican Union, although the phenomenon is at present mani- 
 festing itself somewhat differently. 
 
 The struggle for supremacy between one subdivision 
 and another of the great groups which make up the popu- 
 lation of a country constituted upon the latest model, has 
 nothing unnatural in it, and we witness it constantly in 
 communities, whose elements are a little discordant, espe- 
 cially where they are so by the difference of race, or by 
 that of religion and finally by politics as to the best form 
 of government. 
 
 The catastrophe, which a couple of years ago bent down 
 France, had essentially its origin in nothing but the differ- 
 ence of race. 
 
 How frequently has not Belgium been converted into a 
 field of Agramante by the question of religion, as to which 
 
48 
 
 should be the predominant one, staining with blood the 
 pavement of its beautiful capital, and carrying the strife 
 to the very halls of Parliament ? 
 
 And look at Spain herself, where a standing contention 
 is going on between two systems of government for the 
 past sixty four years, so much so, that the adherents of 
 one f >rm or another would very nearly appear ready to 
 sacrifice the very national existence upon the altar of their 
 idols, did not tbe proud character which distinguishes our 
 country screen her forever against every plan of disinteg- 
 ration"? 
 
 The question of supremacy in a country, shaped upon 
 the spirit of our age, is bound up with its very life, for the 
 traits of its character thus will it. 
 
 Transfer, then, the question of supremacy to Cuba with- 
 out the rneaws of repression. Picture unto yourselves a 
 state of equality and liberty as radical as independent 
 Cuba would entail it, and c msider that the black popula- 
 tion would be three or five times superior in numbers to 
 the whites, and then let tne most enlightened, the clever- 
 est and the most energetic from among our enemies declare, 
 what means they would employ to keep within bounds the 
 natural aspirations of a powerful and vigorous majority, 
 which, from the threshold of popular conventions to the 
 extremes of material preponderance, would have at com- 
 mand not only its own followers as a body, but the govern- 
 ment of the country itself. 
 
 Can there be imagined a more childish conception, than 
 the illusion which those have been indulging in, that 
 dreamt of angelic harmony in the new commonwealth, the 
 object of their ambition, a state of affairs, from which the 
 awakening would be a blood staiued reality! And there 
 are men who do be'ieve that all that were necessary would 
 be to shout : "Viva Cuba independiente" from the Morro of 
 the Havana and independence would be an undisputed 
 fact stripped of peril ! 
 
 The negroes, it cannot be denied, have given proof of 
 docility and submission to the white supremacy on the 
 Island, so much so that the almost incredible instance has 
 occurred of a single overseer, with four or five white sub- 
 ordinates, havii.g sufficed to hold undisturbed sway over 
 from two to three hundred colored men. 
 
 But this has been owing to, and will always be contin- 
 gent on the more immediate surroundings, on the strength 
 of the government and the state in which the country 
 chances to be. Do our misguided adversaries think other- 
 
49 
 
 wise ? Were not Hayti and the general massacre of the 
 white inhabitants there as a warning at the time of pro- 
 claiming the independence of the French portion of Santo 
 Domingo, we should but have to point at the atrocities 
 committed by people of color in insurrectionary districts, 
 of which women and children in particular have been the 
 victims, and this has been the case notwithstanding the 
 fact that they were nnder rebel military discipline, and 
 that they knew that Spain still held under sway the Island. 
 And news of these atrocities did not merely come to our 
 hearing with the u*ual exaggerations, which distance'from 
 the scene of action is apt to superadd, we have been able 
 to ascertain the truth about them; we have been near the 
 scene itself, and the heartrending cries of victims have 
 filled our breast with horror. The author of these lines 
 has lived in Cuba many years; has visited the various de- 
 partments; has had access to the archives ; has travelled 
 over the length and breadth of the land ; has lived on the 
 sugar plantations, and finally served as a soldier during 
 the in suit, ction so that he might personally learn the truth. 
 
 A split between the two races would be inevitable from 
 the very commencement, and soon degenerate into open 
 hostilities. But even were this not to take place at the 
 very start, doe.3 not the struggle now going on originate 
 from a eecular divergence between Peninsulars and Island- 
 ers, ridi< ulous and puerile though it may be, who on look- 
 ing closely into the matter we find to bear towards each 
 other the relation of fathers and their sons. How long do 
 our adversaries suppose the example would remain without 
 'followers among the colored population, when similar 
 scenes of rebellion would be re-enacted, euding in upset- 
 ting the authority of the whites themselves, and in finally 
 exterminating them. 
 
 But, a ide from a general massacre, or something akin 
 to it, two alternatives thrust themselves upon our consid- 
 eration : the one the spread of the Haytian H public all 
 the way towards the Cuban west end, Cape Sju Antonio, 
 and the other the superseding action of the United States 
 alluded to on a former occasion. 
 
 , It is self-evident, such as the matter stands, that Cuba 
 would not gain its independence, such as Cubans desire it 
 to be, and as united Spain desires that in due course of 
 time it should be attained. Our task having for its obj, ct 
 to point out how independence may eventually be reached, 
 we shall throw all the light procurable upon the investi- 
 gation of the case in hand in subsequent articles. 
 
YIIL 
 
 Mistaken notions about the real interests of the United States in connec- 
 tion with Cuba.— Speculative character of the American people. — Is 
 dualism in harmony wiih the opposing conditions to which it subordi- 
 nates itself ? — Contrary results, which this circumstauce of itself ca- 
 ries along hetween professed sympathy and real action. — The dualism 
 as it affects Cuba, to the disappointment of those who counted u¡>on 
 action. — Why Caba in the hands of Spain is ino4 accepable to the 
 United States. — Economical proofs, drawn from commercial statistics 
 in the United States. — What the incorporation of Cuba in the American 
 Union would entail. — Examples draw.i from the history of other Islands 
 of the kind in various conditions, aud from Mexico. — Advisableness to 
 cast a ide prevailing prejudices and attempt the soluti »n of similar 
 question* by the light of Science. — The discredit attaching to forcible 
 possession and dis strous consequences to the conquering nation. — The 
 absurdity of manifest destiny. — The exceptional c ise that would urge 
 the annexation of Cuba by the United States. 
 
 Those who suppose the United States have any imme- 
 diate and positive interest in taking Cuba, are very niuuh 
 mistaken, nor are those less so wh > lb lieve that the self- 
 same motives which now prevent the consummation of any 
 smilar scheme while we have the Island would still keep 
 them in check were Cuba independent to-morrow, unless 
 circumstances there subsisting were at the time radically 
 changed. 
 
 Tn^re are two striking features in the American mind 
 producing a dualism inexplicable to the superficial obser- 
 ver. The one is the practical spirit which guides the 
 Americans in everything to be accomplished, and the other 
 created by their constitution and by their unbounded ma- 
 tt-rial resource-!, filling the popular ma-ses with the belief 
 that there are no barriers which can be interposed between 
 their ambition and its attainment. 
 
 It thus happens that frequently both the government 
 and the press put forth the most absurd ideas and conflict- 
 ing with the very facts they are aimiug to bring about j not 
 
52 
 
 that they are ignorant of the very extravagance of such 
 ideas and the political, social or economical drawback 
 which would be inseparable from their accomplishment, 
 but because they know the national character which they 
 guide and portray, an 1 which th^y do not care to caro, 
 fully aware as they are thit finally the law will have to 
 decide and that in conformity therewith harmonious action 
 will then be reached. 
 
 These being the leading traits of the American charac- 
 ter, it is not easy for those to form a correct judgment who 
 but superficially watch and >tudy its manifestations ; aud 
 in the Cuban question, ab >ve all others, w.irds and action 
 have beeu so widely apart that frequently people h tv« been 
 iutimidated by suspicious teudencies, by sympathies and 
 antipathies, to which greater importance has been attached 
 than they in reality warranted, inasmuch as the practical 
 mind of the people in the end would subordinate and con- 
 trol manifestations of the kind and place a question of such 
 nature within manageable shape. 
 
 We have, in fact, but to cast a glance at the annual fiscal 
 statements emanating from Washington and we shall fiud 
 the figures to be of a nature to prove, that from whatsoever 
 side we may search them, they carry convincing proof that 
 it suits the United States that Spain should have Cuba as 
 long as she is able to keep possesion of the Island, and 
 this is the real secret of the conduct of the American gov- 
 ernment in hand'ing the various questions that have arisen 
 while events took their course. 
 
 The total imports and exports into and from the United 
 States in their commercial intercourse with Spanish Amer- 
 ica and the Brazils for the fiscal year ending June, 1870, 
 amounted to no less than one hundred and ninety one mil- 
 Lion dollars. 
 
 Cuban trade contributed thereto 71 millions, Porto Eico 
 11, or be it 82 for the Spanish Antilles; follow the Brazils 
 with 31, Mexico with 19, the tropical Br tish- American 
 possessions with 15, the River Plate Republics with 12, 
 Colombia with 10, Chili and Perú with 9, Hayti and St. 
 Domingo with 4, Venezuela with 3, St. Croix and St. 
 Thomas with 2, and Central Ameiica with 2, the remain- 
 der being ma !e up by the French Islands and Cayenne. 
 
 On superficially examining these figures, people will be 
 led to suppose that the material riches of Cuba would, if 
 anything, kindle the wish in the United States to possess 
 the Island outright; but when we come to consider that 
 the peculiar nature of the labor question is tied up with 
 
53 
 
 this very ahund nee of wealth, and that wherever bl ck 
 labur has been disturbe!, it has alw ys, to a vast extent, 
 become unproductive ar once, and that si ivery woul I dis- 
 appear with the act of incorporation, the imme date con- 
 sequence, wou'd be the curtailing by one half of Auuri an 
 trade with tropic d America for the mere p'e asure of plac 
 ing a dead load upon the shoulders of the United Sra*es, 
 while, on the other hand, the go<>d sense of the Ame icati 
 people, under the influence of its most solid int r. srs, is 
 bound to prevent the consummation of any such un l.-r- 
 taking, preferring, as it naturally will do, that Cuba be 
 retained by Spain. ♦ 
 
 This conservative course has a mueh wider bearing upon 
 commerce than the mere figure of eighty- two mi Ii >ns 
 through the ramifications of labor and dealings to which 
 they lead, productive of sustenance to the people at huge, 
 and in government circles this is also fudy understood, for 
 sugar and tobac-o beim»- the main staples of import from 
 the Spanish Antilles and producing a la<ge revenue, some 
 fifty or sixty millions of duties now collected thereon would 
 be wiped out at once, since at least from Cuba, on her in- 
 corporation, these artices would enter duty free- 
 That Cuba would be unproductive, <>r nearly so. from 
 the moment she ceases to form part of the S tanish domin- 
 ions, can be easily shown, not by pointing at the figures 
 above detailed, which, for the remaning ountrie-, are 
 small in comparison to the extent of territory of the ma- 
 jority of them, but by keeping before oar eyes the exam- 
 ple given by St. Domingo and Jamaica, whose elem nts 
 of labor when emancipate 1, and whose vicinity afford must 
 suitable comparison. 
 
 In 1790, St. Domingo exported of colonial produce 
 $27,828,000. In 1870 the trade of the Island with the 
 United States amounted, as shown above, between imports 
 and exports, to but $4,000,000, divided between the two 
 Eepublics, without counting, it is true, what European trade 
 may have been at the time. And this at a time, when 
 ' the Island had long emerged from the more immediate 
 consequences of the terrible catastrophe. 
 
 But, leaving aside this Island for the very reason that 
 the catastrophe was brought about by a war of races, and 
 supposing that in Cuba an upheaval of this kind were 
 never to occur, let us examine into Jamaican events and 
 the teaching they convey, there having been no independ- 
 ence in this case, but merely a disorganization of labor. 
 Movable and immovable property was upon the eve of 
 
54 
 
 emancipation represented in Jamaica by £50,000,000, while 
 in 1850 its value had declined to a little over £11,000,000 j 
 five years after emancipation labor had been stopped on 
 605 valuable plantations ; and its population has in the 
 meantime been as steadily decreasing-, as that of Cuba has 
 been increasing. We could, indeed, hardly add any more 
 convincing proofs, even were we to go on expatiating upon 
 the subject. 
 
 What then shall we say with respect to Mexico? While 
 being the largest Spanish- American Bepublic, with its in- 
 dependence acquired half a century ago, its population of 
 more than eight million inhabitants, a rich, fertile and ex- 
 tensive territory, that country appears with an amount of 
 trade comparatively small as compared to Cuba, in its 
 business with the United States, its most natural market. 
 
 It is evident from what precedes, that Cuba, made inde- 
 pendent ere she were ripe to be so, or labor there were 
 thoroughly transformed by a measured process, would but 
 add another example to the many already given all over 
 Spanish- America. It is furthermore clear, that it does not 
 by any means suit the United States that such risk should 
 be incurred, since it would be tantamount to killing the 
 hen that lays the golden eggs. 
 
 Now our century chances tobe preeminently a utilitarian 
 one and the useful side of a question is not left unheeded. 
 Masses, it is true may yet be swayed by the charm of 
 glory, and although in the United States the abstract idea 
 of glory would not of itself suffice, masses may yet be car- 
 ried away by tendencies to expand dominion, like some are 
 wont to attach to the Monroe Doctrine, yet the American 
 people is above all a practical nation and prefers under- 
 takings of greater usefulness, and whenever a solution is 
 to be found for any given question, the one which does not 
 destroy its commerce, will meet with greater favor in its 
 consideration. The American people imperturbably fol- 
 lows its own course, although it may not at once openly 
 disavow the utterings of sentiments more or less tinged 
 with the artificial and hence of passing effect. The impre- 
 cations of those who find themselves checkmated in their 
 chimerical plans will be listened to with as much forbear- 
 ance, as good sense in its application to the true interests 
 of the people at large will have a tacit support. 
 
 Besides, the expeditions of boundless conquest narrated 
 by history have been a good deal discredited by its teach- 
 ings. At the time, when to overgrown Borne, the world 
 seemed to be getting too small, the horses of Attila 
 
55 
 
 stamped their hoof marks on the altars of her Gods, and 
 when the sun had ceased to set upon the vast expanse of 
 Spanish dominion, she came very near being parcelled out 
 between some European nations. 
 
 Into the word manifest destiny (el destino manifiesto), so 
 often unconsciously repeated by the masses, we need sim- 
 ply to drop an 0, to make it manifest nonsense (desatino 
 manifiesto); for can there be anything more absurd ima- 
 gined, than the pretension to carry out throughout the 
 republican part of our hemisphere the useless strife of the 
 three emblems of war, that were carried about in imperial 
 triumphal processions on the old continent. 
 
 Very differently the case would present itself, however, 
 were the United States compelled to interfere by reason of 
 endangered interests within the Mexican Gulf, whether 
 such imperilment arose from some dread disaster, a state 
 of anarchical dissolution or of complete exhaustion. There 
 would, in such an event, be no commerce left, or very little of 
 it, to cause the Americans to hesitate, and Cuba would be 
 merely annexed as a territory. 
 
 Is this perchance the degrading prospect which the Cu- 
 bans would wish their country ! 
 
 But let us drop the subject, this article as it is, will do. 
 
I 
 
IX. 
 
 Previous propositions are not absolute on the ground of individual inter- 
 est. — Other phase of the question.— Exigencies of the personal policy 
 of the American President, leaving to another artificid party the res- 
 pon-ihilty of a disastrous war. — Cuba's mission regarding Spanish- 
 America.— Strange conduct of a portion of the latter iu tlie Cuban 
 question. — How the Antilles may become towards the American Conti- 
 nent that which England is to the Eunpean.— Cuba merged in the 
 united States would be a constant threat to the Spmish-Auierican Re- 
 publics. — Different features of supremacy and dominion of one peop'e 
 oyer another.— The immolation of Spanish- Ame iica a foregone conclu- 
 sion with the insurrectionary Cubans, who appeal to American inter- 
 vention against Spain. — A ruinous end easily avoided. 
 
 On endeavoring to show in our previous article how un- 
 welcome to the great mercantile interests of the United 
 States the separation of Cuba would be, either .to be an- 
 nexed to the Union, or to be left independent, we omitted 
 to mention, that some statesman or other may take it into 
 his head to make capital, by fostering among the masses 
 the idea of forcibly depriving Spain of the Island. 
 
 We all know but too well the human heart to understand 
 that ambition or cupidity have but too great a sway over 
 it, nor should we allow ourselves to be lulled into a fancied 
 security regarding the question in hand ; for are there not 
 cases in which a President might be tempted to sacrifice 
 the interests of the Eepublic to his personal ambition and 
 foster a war cry for electioneering purposes ? 
 
 History is filled with examples of this kind, not only where 
 constituencies are to be influenced, but where a man in 
 power is already well and firmly seated, if therefore in the 
 midst of a presidential campaign one of the candidates 
 flattered the instincts of the masses by conjuring up the 
 prospects of an extension of territory, in order to capture 
 
58 
 
 votes, it would not at all be surprising, were a question of 
 tins nature put forward, ruinous though it proved in the 
 end to the country that stirred it up. 
 
 Professional politicians in Bepublics above everything 
 else usually look to their own interests first and to those 
 of the people at large afterwards, and provided public opi- 
 nion can be swayed through the instrumentality of pre- 
 tended patriotism and heroism and all the clap-trap of an 
 ensnaring phantasmagoria, so that personal interests may 
 be secured, the consequences are often little heeded and 
 there are besides plenty of means to transfer the load of 
 responsibility to other shoulders and put forward other 
 grounds of action wholly distinct from the original one. 
 
 The question here touched upon is, therefore, very differ- 
 ent from the preceding one, and we shall analyze it as such. 
 As we have repeatedly said in El Cronista, Cuba pre- 
 sents a peculiar case, in as much as she will be both di- 
 rectly and indirectly accountable for any action of her own 
 towards the rest of Spanish- America, that consequently 
 she dare not proceed in the most vital question without 
 the greatest circumspection, for one false step may entail 
 imminent peril to the remaining Spanish- American popu- 
 lations, and that, the spell once broken, it will be impossi- 
 ble to master further dangers in the future. 
 
 It would be difficult, indeed, to determine what may 
 happen to Spanish- America, were Cuba incorporated in the 
 United States. It is but too evident to the eyes of all of 
 us, that sympathies more or less spontaneous, are given to 
 the ill-begotten insurrection, an insurrection which would 
 end. in the annexation of the Island to the United States, 
 if successful at the present day. Sympathies of this na- 
 ture, lacking in logic as they do, are with difficulty ex- 
 plained, except we try to find their origin in that meddling 
 spirit, which, in the midst of undoubted and visible pro- 
 gress, characterizes the XIX century. 
 
 Cuba, the key to the Mexican Gulf, the natural stepping 
 stone towards the isthmus, the link between the Southern 
 and the Northern portion of the New World, Cuba, the 
 Queen of the Caribbean Sea and the most valuable jewel 
 from among the islands that stretch out towards the Ocean, 
 harbors within her many attractions of material wealth to 
 ambitious people, as well as a strategical position of the first 
 class, from whence the whole Continent may be dominated. 
 
 A respectable power, whose dominion nobody would dare 
 to encroach upon, could be reared, were these in themselves 
 magnificent gifts properly availed of in conjunction with 
 
59 
 
 i 
 
 the remaining Antilles, her sisters, that may raise them- 
 selves to a level with her by degrees, while Cuba may rise 
 to that of Porto Eieo, an Island that has very nearly 
 reached the age of manhood already. Such a power would 
 be as safe from encroachment, as England is in her position 
 towards the continent, in which homage is doue her, and 
 in which she is both feared and admired. 
 
 But an independent nation cannot be called into exist- 
 ence from one day to another in the Island of Cub i suffi- 
 ciently strong to make front against all dangers, both in- 
 ternal and external, and as the Cubans would not like to 
 run the risk of being superseded by the blacks single- 
 handed, the inevitable fate would be that of a territory of 
 the Union fir>t, and next a State. 
 
 Let us ask, then, what guaranties would there be left 
 for the independence of the remaining Eepublics being 
 preserved, from the moment that the absolute sway of the 
 Gulf of Mexico fell to the lot of the United Sta es, carry- 
 ing along that of the Isthmus as the natural consequence. H 
 Where would Mexico remain ; where Venezuela 1? And 
 alluding but to the ports of Aspiuwall and Panama, what 
 of them? What guaianties should we have for the tran- 
 sit by canal through the Isthmus, now projected, should 
 the absorbing Anglo-Saxon race claim absolute possession 
 at that point of interoceanic traffic ? Dominion does not 
 met ely spread by conquest and the sword, it also makes 
 itself felt by insoleut dictation at the hands of a powerful 
 neighbor, all the more galling, as we may have nothing to 
 oppose to it, and the more exacting, the more we bow to it. 
 
 Are we to understand, that Cuba is ready before-hand to 
 lay on the shriue of a hasty independence her own individ- 
 uality and thrit of all Latin America to boot ? Yet, there 
 are men to be found in Latin America who sympathize 
 with an aberration of this kind! 
 
 There are insurrectional Cubans who would not 
 shrink from committing the suicide,. though as fully con- 
 vinced as we ourselves that what we say would be inevita- 
 ble ; they would willingly sacrifice both Cuba and the rest 
 of Spanish America for the doubtful boon of not remaining 
 the sous of their fathers, for to cut loose from Spain pre- 
 cisely conwy.s this meaning as the matter stands. 
 
 Can there be anything more hair-brained, while the paths 
 that naturally lead to the independence of a nation are so 
 easily travelled, and of a nation, too, that not only may 
 remain the absolute mistress of her own destinies, but a 
 natural buckler to her sisters ! 
 
Further concessions.— The case of independent Cuba without black domi- 
 nation or American absorption.— A foretaste of public order and mate- 
 rial welfare.— What foreign investors would do, now residents of the 
 Island.— Precedents and conclusions.— Present Cuban dissension a fore- 
 taste of future quarrels.— The influence of business paralyzation.— The 
 a sets and liabilities of independent Cuba.— Politico-economical compar- 
 isons.— I he ainiy,— The navy.— Standing rpquireuients.— Inevitable 
 dilemma; none bnt a powe-fully constituted Cuba can fulfill the desti 
 mes, to which nhe is called by nature —Her first unr.rammeiled move- 
 ments after independence should remove all apprehen ions on that 
 score.— Her break -down as an independent nation would entail the posi- 
 tion of vassalage of Latin America towards the United States.— Histor- 
 ical proofs.— The filibustering of a Walker.— Why it failed.— Summing 
 up and deductions. 
 
 Our readers shall not have occasion to say, that for the 
 sake of upholding exclusive opinions, we shall deny them 
 the possibility of Cuban independence without improving 
 the present condition of affairs there, without transforming 
 and increasing the population, without keepiug labor well 
 organized, and without preserving the wealth of the 
 country. We shall go further, even, and concede that the 
 Island may consolidate a new state of affairs like the rest 
 of Spanish America despite great material drawbacks cre- 
 ated by independence, despite the danger inseparable from 
 the colored element, and notwithstanding the no less per- 
 ilous disposition to acquire new countries which may be 
 lurking in the American mind. 
 
 The horizon of possible eventualities stretches out over 
 an expanse so vast that whatever the human mind may 
 choose to grasp, may be comprised in it. This, together 
 with the circumstance that our searches in this matter are 
 eminently philosophical, inasmuch as we strive to draw the 
 light of truth from the darkness of ignorance and error, 
 and place it before the world, obliges us to meet our oppo- 
 
62 
 
 nents upon their own ground, and there to ventilate the 
 question judiciously. 
 
 A philosopher once said that the mould of our poor hu- 
 manity is slippery aud of so ethereal a consistency that 
 you dare not breathe a word of < ontradiction without 
 breaking and destroying it by the fit of indignation into 
 wbi h it is turown. 
 
 This being the case, and our own experience having dur- 
 ing many years confirmed to us the truth of the simile, it 
 is clear that we should commit a great mistake were we to 
 proudly and intolerantly decline entertaining anv hypoth- 
 esis from the opposite camp except such as evidently led 
 to a well-determined solution within the precinta of our 
 own opinions. 
 
 Although we have every reason to believe that if Cuba 
 obtained independence to-day, she would be unable to re 
 tain it on account of the respective character of tbe races 
 that would form the nucleus of the population, and on ac- 
 count of the schemes that would arise with respect to the 
 Island in the United States, we shall grant that Divine 
 Providence, by special favor, may so dispense her blessings 
 that the negroes would abstain from disputing supremacy 
 to the new society and the Americans from extending their 
 dominion over it. 
 
 There are circumstances in the life of nations, however, 
 which radically change the direction into which their ac- 
 tion would otherwise expand, and the two alternatives we 
 have placed before our readers could thus, nevertheless, 
 occur without partaking of the miraculous. 
 
 Let us, then, concede that, by a stroke of good luck, 
 Cuba become independent iu the condition in which she 
 now finds herself situated, and, furthermore, that she con- 
 solidate her new state the same as the rest of Spanish 
 America. 
 
 But while thus consolidating her political status, it by 
 no means ensues that her material prosperity will be placed 
 on as firm a footing. It would be expecting a great deal 
 of her, indeed, were we to suppose that such could be the 
 case, inasmuch as prosperity there is bound up with the 
 quality of labor at her disposal, incompatible, as the same 
 would be in the estimation of every sane man, with the 
 constitution that would rule independent Cuba, limited as 
 the financial resources would at the same time be. Cuba 
 would require twice as many financial resources as she 
 possesses to be able to have the same rank as the Island 
 now occupies, or she would have to stoop down to the po- 
 
63 
 
 sition of a country whose independence was merely tole- 
 rated ; not that she were to derive any material benefit 
 from such exalted position, but to prevent being sneered 
 at the same as Hayti and other similarly situatod countries 
 now are. Good sense and discretion wouid, above every- 
 thing e'se, be expected of Cuba in the handling of her 
 policy when lifted to the rank of an independent nation, 
 and this so practically and visibly 3hown, that none of the 
 foreigners she would then comprise in her population may 
 take it into their heads to upset the state of affairs existing. 
 
 This would be all the more requisite since for a lately 
 subsisting system of labor, a new one would have to be 
 substituted in the midst of a sudden diminution of pro- 
 duction, and at a time when foreign industry and capital 
 could only be retained among them were their interests 
 fully protected. 
 
 Let us ask, now, by way of parenthesis, whether the 
 most prominent leaders of the insurrection have given suf- 
 ficient proof of their capacity, or inspired confidence, at 
 least, that they would understand how to successfully 
 bridge over matters at a juncture so precarious in direct- 
 ing tbe power of state craft ? 
 
 We, on the contrary, perceive them to be split up in per- 
 sonal fractions, kept together by an ephemerial aud adole- 
 scent power, which, as yet, offVrs to them no greater en- 
 joyment than that of satisfying their vanity. The fore- 
 taste of the future of their Republic thus held out, is 
 such, that we are involuntarily carried to the conclusion 
 that the country would like St. Domingo or Venezuela be 
 handed over to interminable factions, even granting them 
 that much that the catastrophe of Hayti were not repeated. 
 
 But casting aside these considerations, let us follow 
 up the thread of our treatise, showing the expenditure 
 that would be involved in carrying on the existence of the 
 new nation so that such existence may be useful to itself 
 and the outside world, and we see arise before our eyes the 
 installation and maintenance of the whole fabric of the 
 new power, with its executive, its chambers, its diplomatic 
 corps, its consular officials, its administration through all 
 the branches clinging thereto, its army, the national mili- 
 tia, and above all the navy, for being an Island situated at 
 the most important point in all the New World, it is clear, 
 that either the new Republic must be the owner of a pow- 
 erful fleet, or will have to relinquish holding that position, 
 which both, self-respect and necessity, would demand for 
 the country's own sake and that of all Spanish- America. 
 
64 
 
 In 18G8 the budget of the Island for ordinary expendi- 
 ture amount»! to $26,852,673 or be it about twenty seven 
 millions. Part of this, we will admit, would be saved by 
 independent Cuba, but what would be the difference if any 
 between the cost of sustaining independent and Spanish 
 Cuba ? 
 
 Granting even, and we grant much in admitting it, that 
 our administration of the Island, be expensive as it is 
 and that the Bepublic would have to cut down expenses 
 in various branches, the saving there effected would be 
 swallowed up by the necessity of upholding its sovereign 
 state within and without, and we do not believe that we 
 exaggerate when we calculate, that the expenditure would 
 aggregate at least twice as much as the amount above in- 
 dicated. 
 
 In the army perhaps a great saving might be effected 
 and the $8,000,000 set against that item in our budget 
 might be cut down to half as much ; but the recruitment, 
 cost of armament, the replacement of forces would on the 
 other baud have to be added, and in the end it would ap- 
 pear, that if any difference there be in favor of the new 
 order of things in this item, it would prove altogether in- 
 significant. 
 
 There next follows in said budget the navy with 
 $4,000,000 and with this item quite a different feature is 
 here looming up, for Spain would not leave behind her 
 navy, and Cuba, for the reasons given, could not dispense 
 with one. 
 
 Consider, then, the cost of creating and entertaining a 
 navy, and it will be conceded that from whatever point of 
 view you look at or approach the question of this all-import- 
 ant element, independent Cuba will have to expend from 
 $50,000,000 to $60,000,000 annually for carrying on the 
 normal life of a Bepublic, or cease being a nation worthy 
 of the Spanish descent and of the position which Pro- 
 vidence has singled out in her favor. 
 
 To begin with, the income of the new nation would have 
 to be doubled. And, how can this be effected from the 
 moment that its incipient life by a new labor system cur- 
 tails its large productive powers? On the contrary, the 
 bare fact of Cuban independence would reduce its income 
 by one-half at the least, and hence all the elements which 
 are now to be found there under our rule, instead of being 
 preserved, would vanish together with the prestige, which 
 now surrounds the Island, however much its new masters 
 might be endeavoring to prevent it. 
 
65 
 
 The consequence then and there arising would be de- 
 plorable indeed. Cuba would be carrying on a life fluc- 
 tuating between feebleness and mishap by reason of inca- 
 pacity, the same life which the St. Domingo and Venezuela 
 of to-day are dragging along, and towering above her and 
 the rest of the Spanish- American family there would be 
 the supremacy of the American Union, without the respect 
 in which that supremacy is held at present by the flag that 
 floats over Cuba. 
 
 Can the readers of El Ceonista entertain any doubts 
 on the subject % Eemember but the piratical expeditions 
 of Walker to Central America, both of which placed in 
 imminent peril the liberty of those populations, but as 
 Spain had something to lose in Cuba, the third expedition 
 was thwarted from Europe, and Honduras had the honors 
 of the fourth one. 
 
 Summing up, then, we repeat that Cuba might be inde- 
 pendent to-day, and remain so, if by mere chance it so 
 happened that she were not converted into a second Hayti 
 at once or that the United States did not absorb her, but a 
 greater miracle would have to happen, were she capable of 
 carrying out and persevering in the task without serious 
 detriment to herself and the remainder of Spanish- 
 America. 
 
 And, since Cuba may attain independence with a more 
 promising future before her, with a providential mission 
 to fulfill for the common good of the Spanish race, does 
 not the damage which our opponents do their own country 
 smite their conscience, when they come to consider that 
 they can do it so much good for a future not remote 1 We 
 shall more fully explain in another article. 
 
XI. 
 
 From the proofs giren, and that which has actually taken place, the veri- 
 table origin of our opinions has arisen. — Proofs. — The military condition 
 of Cuba at the beginning of the insurrection. — Spain's confidence in the 
 loyalty of the Island. — The conspirators all the more active. — Territo- 
 rial subdivisions of the Island. — The loyal portion. — The disloyal one. — 
 Population of the one and the other compared. — Comparisons and sum- 
 simg up. — The true state of public opinion in the Island, 
 
 The arguments, which we have been engaged in adduc- 
 ing, are, within themselves, so solid, tending to prove as 
 they do, that Cuban independence, such as the Island is 
 at present situated, would either earry along the most de- 
 plorable downfall ever occurred in any nation whatever, 
 whether Cuba become the prey of horrid negro sway, or 
 whether she be gobbled up by the Americans, or whether 
 the whites succeeded in governing her like they do the two 
 Eepublics nearest to Cuba, similarly situated as they are 
 in point of climate, soil and population, that we have but 
 to cast a glance at statistics on the one hand, and at his- 
 tory on the other, in order to give strength to what we are 
 putting forth. We shall not, in doing so, merely cling to 
 casual events, which may have been more or less an eman- 
 ation of the spirit that animates the people of the Island} 
 but shall on the contrary go on, proofs in hand, with 
 proofs indeed, of a less controvertible nature, such in fact 
 as human science can produce, and besides, the opinions 
 which we give, are not those of El Cronista, they are 
 but a pale reflex of the most general and respectable opi- 
 nion, which has ever been and is still uppermost in Cuba ; 
 and that it may not be said that this is an arbitrary asser- 
 tion and that it would be difficult for us to prove it } we 
 
68 
 
 shall dedicate this article to procuring such proof, and, 
 important as the subject is, shall use statistics on the one 
 hand, and actual occurrences on the other. Spain little 
 dreamt of what would happen in Cuba ; the small contin- 
 gent of soldiers in the Island at the breaking out of the 
 rebellion will go far enough to show this. On the contrary, 
 the home treasury had been borrowing money from the 
 Bank of Havana; the amount was a large one, having 
 been swallowed up by the Dominican and Mexican expedi- 
 tions, and the intention of the government at Madrid was 
 to cancel this indebtedness by making economies under 
 the head of the army, the heaviest and least productive 
 item at the time in Cuba. 
 
 Hence, the usual reinforcements to the army in Cuba 
 had for a long time ceased, and instead of keeping there 
 the ordinary force of about 25,000 men, there were barely 
 12,000 on the spot, when the luckless movement at Yara 
 startled the Spanish government into measuring the grave 
 mistake made. 
 
 Kbt a soldier was to be encountered in the purely rural 
 country between Point Mayst and Cape San Antonio, nor 
 were there at the various district headquarters sufficient 
 forces to reach even approximately half their ordinary 
 complement. 
 
 The Island being an extensive one and a great many mi- 
 litary posts having to be attended to, the fortified places 
 fared little better than district headquarters did, and 
 neither of them had half the garrison to make front against 
 a rising. 
 
 Hence, the Tara rising thus took everybody by surprise, 
 and the insurgents, marching upon Bayamo, captured the 
 place, the insurrection thence spreading further in mind 
 and deed without any serious check. 
 
 While Spain was placing full confidence in the loyalty 
 of the whole Island, events have proved, and the proofs 
 are multiplying, that even several years previous to the 
 breaking out of the rebellion, the disloyal Cubans had been 
 concerting matters, and had beeu getting r^ady for the 
 struggle. In their own pamphlets they have so'emnly de- 
 clared, subsequently, that such was the case. 
 
 We should keep well before us, consequently, the ar- 
 rangements made on the one hand, and the march of events 
 on the other, in order to fully understand the general drift 
 of what happened. Had the greater portion of the creóles 
 wished to be rid of Spanish dominion, as we are every 
 day told by the insurgents, the thing might then have been 
 
69 
 
 accomplished without Spain having the time to prevent it. 
 
 After settling this point, let us? by the help of statistics, 
 examine of what the elements consisted, for, unless logic 
 has ceased to be logic, the proofs we shall bring forth will 
 lead us to a just appreciation of the real sentiment there 
 prevailing. 
 
 The Island was then divided into three departments and 
 into thirty-two jurisdictions. The one department is the 
 " Oriental," starting from the imaginary point of Gibara to 
 Manzanillo, traversing Holguin and the Tunas, and in the 
 east terminating at Baracoa. The next is the "Central," 
 reaching from the same imaginary line across towards the 
 west, by traversing the Camagiiey, and ending at the Cinco 
 Villas; and the third is the old department of the west, 
 or " Occidental," covering the rest of the Island all the 
 way to the Vuelta Abajo. 
 
 The rising at Yara, as we have intimated before, commu- 
 nicated itself at once to the Oriental department, with the 
 important exceptions of the various district headquarters, 
 where the Spanish flag whs left floating, and whither all 
 the many Spaniards withdrew from the surronnding coun- 
 try. The movement subsequently spread to the Cama- 
 giiey, from whence it obtained a vigorous support, leaving 
 the cities of Puerto Principe and Nuevitas on our side, 
 while a couple of months later the insurrection also reared 
 its head in the mountains of the Cinco Villas, although 
 faintly and in small numbers. 
 
 It should be here adde I, that the insurgents have made 
 the very greatest efforts to bring about the revolt of the 
 Vuelta- Abajo, but the Spanish nationality has in the hearts 
 of its sons been deeply engraved, and whosoever from 
 among the faction undertook to try his luck in this quarter 
 did so not only to the loss of his illusions, but of his life 
 besides, from impulses of loyalty in men, their brothers in 
 blood and origin. 
 
 A flood of light will here bñ thrown upon the subject, 
 when we come to consider on the one hand the populations 
 of thrt rebel districts, and on the other, those remaining 
 true to the faith of their fatherland and family. We shall 
 draw the line in a manner that will not leave room for cavil, 
 and add such modifications as the strictest impartiality 
 may call for. We remarked that the Oriental department 
 unhesitatingly supported the rising at Yara. It is import- 
 ant, therefore, to examine the population returns of each, 
 which were: for Baracoa 10,800, Bayamo 31,336, Santiago 
 de Cuba 91,351, Guantánamo 19,421, Holguin 52,123, Jig 
 
70 
 
 naní 17,572, Manzanillo 26,493, and Tanas 6,823. The total 
 for eight jurisdictions thu,s sums up 255,919 souls. 
 
 Out of the Central department we can call in full revolt 
 at the time but two jurisdictions, those of Puerto Principe 
 and Nuevitas ; for in the remaining portion, from Morou to 
 the extreme west end of the Villas, the rebellion was born 
 of elements so very slim, that pacification has already 
 taken place, and even at the time that the revolt was in 
 full swing, it shrank from attempts to sally forth from the 
 roughest mountains, which there attain extraordinary pro- 
 portions. 
 
 In the census, the taking of which preceded the Tara 
 affair, Puerto Principe appears with 62,527 inhabitants, 
 and Nue vitas with 6,376, or be it 68,903 all told between 
 the two, and addiug their number to the above enumera- 
 tion, we have an aggregate figure of 321,822 inhabitants. 
 
 It should, in justice, be observed that the positive fact 
 is here brought to our notice, that a body of couutry peo- 
 ple, inhabiting the Villas, took share in the movement, and 
 fairness towards our antagonists requires that we should 
 take them into account, and we shall even go as far as to 
 give them credit for one-half of the whole population of 
 six additional jurisdictions, inclusive of Sagua, as devoted 
 to their cause. Be it known, then, that Cienfnegos counted 
 51,031 souls, Remedios 47,217, Sagua la Grande 51,986, 
 Santa Clara 52,611, Sancti Spiritus 15,707, and Trinidad 
 37.509, making up a total of 169 381 souls. 
 
 But on the other hand, the striking fact should not be 
 overlooked, that the headquarters of the territory under 
 arms, with the sole exceptiou of Bayamo, took sides with 
 Spain in the struggle. This is easily explained by the 
 fact, that there clustered around them the most distin- 
 guished individuals,, enlightened, and having most to lose. 
 Not without a good many individual exceptions, however, 
 in this ca-e, in which the persons Were frivolous and dissi- 
 pated you • g men, but it is not necessary to take them imto 
 account, for, as a set-off, we have the Spaniards iu the 
 country whom we did not count in the ab jve enumeration. 
 Deduct, the 1 ), from the grand total the inhabitan;s at head- 
 quarters: Baracoa 2,361, Cuba 36,191, Guantáuamo 1,735, 
 Holguin 1,951 Jiguani 1,317. Manzanillo 5,613, Tunas 1,810, 
 Nuevitas 2,208, and Puerto Principe 30,585, or be it alto- 
 gether 87,167, and we discover that the extreme figure of 
 popu ation, on which the insurgents based their operations, 
 did not exceed 382,217, even with all the liberal allowances 
 we hctve made. 
 
71 
 
 Now for the contrast which is presented by the loyal por- 
 tion! Here we have the following population: at Bahia- 
 Honda 12,773, at Bejucal 23,748, Cárdenas 50,465, Colon 
 64,217, Guanabaeoa 26,213, Guanajay 39,843, Güines 
 62,462, Havana 190,332, Jaruco 37,571, Matanzas 79,462, 
 Pinar del Eio 68,926, San Antonio 33,886, San Cristóbal 
 28,977, Santa Maria del Bosario 8,046, Santiago de las 
 Vegas 15,850, and the Isle of Pines 2,087, showing that in 
 the districts alone, where the insurrection was unable to 
 take a foothold, there are 745,289 souls. Adding thereto the 
 144,561, being one-half of the population of the Villas and 
 Sagua and furthermore the 87,167 eliminated from the 
 other headquarters, and we arrive at the fact that the peo- 
 ple, inhabitants of the Island, not wanting to be independ- 
 ent, are summed up in the grand total of 977,018 souls, 
 against 382,217, seemingly al! of a contrary opinion at the 
 'breaking out of the insurrection. 
 
 A good many men abroad have at once given their sym- 
 pathies to the insurgent cause, carried away by a generous 
 impulse imparted by the representations of emigrated 
 Cubans, who spread the impression that the troubles in 
 the Island have their real foundation in a split between 
 Cuba and Spain, Such represtmtations they have impli- 
 citly attached faith to without examining more closely into 
 the matter These sympathizers will do well to study the 
 statistics we have just given in these columns in order to 
 be convinced that there is no such question pending be- 
 tween Cuba and Spain, that on the contrary, the said trou- 
 bles have sprung from an insignificant and thoughtless 
 minority, localized, as it is, which has risen against the 
 majority that surrounds it, and against their country. 
 
 Even at the risk of tiring our readers by entering into 
 further details, not the less important in their bearings 
 upon the question, and hence indispensable in lending 
 force to our ar gument, we shall take up again the thread 
 of argumentation embodied in this article in the succeed- 
 ing one. 
 
XII. 
 
 New proofs. — The disloyal population of Cuba is not only the smallest in num - 
 ber, but also the poorest. — Proofs. — Territorial division of the Island 
 into sections. — Lands under cultivation. — Uncultivated lands. — Rich- 
 ness of the soil occupied by the loyalists. — Compared to that in rebel 
 districts. — Relative and positive proportion between the two. — The 
 loyalty of the largest and most valuable part of the Island is thus un- 
 questionably secured. 
 
 The work we have undertaken would not fulfill its pur- 
 pose, if we did not follow up gathering proofs, as we have 
 already been doing in the preceding article, proofs intended 
 to absolutely and indisputably show, that the Island of 
 Cuba does not now aspire to sever its connection with 
 Spain, that but a small minority is bent upon such separa- 
 tion, which tries to force its wül upon the Island and the 
 entire nation by persistently adhering to such scandalous 
 undertaking, and we, therefore, go on producing and com- 
 pleting the documentary vouchers, which are to lead us to 
 an unimpairable demonstration. Let us then take up the 
 thread of statistical analysis, the scientific test and touch- 
 stone by which the progress or decline of nations is 
 measured. 
 
 We said, and have furnished ample proof, that something 
 like three-quarters of the people of Cuba are of one mind 
 with us ; as it might chance, however, without partaking 
 of the miraculous, that these three-quarters failed to be 
 the most important and the richest portion of the com- 
 munity, the smallest being at times the best representative 
 body, we trust, that we shall not tax overmuch the pa- 
 tience of our readers in trying to show, that in this case 
 the very reverse is observable, for, not only is the popula- 
 
74 
 
 tion of the rebel districts tlie numerically smallest, but by 
 far the poorer. Let us then establish this fact in an incon- 
 trovertible manner by applying to it the same method of 
 calculation adopted in the foregoing article. 
 
 The totality of " caballerías " of land comprised within 
 the Oriental department, by adding thereto Puerto Prin- 
 cipe and Nuevitas, which by way of expediency we shall 
 put down as having risen in a body, amounts to 272,741. 
 We certainly proceed far in thus including Santiago de 
 Cuba, Guantánamo and Baracoa, which, we are all aware, 
 are not in rebellion. The Villas, by adding thereto, Sagua, 
 show an aggregate of 190,036 " caballerías," and in taking 
 one-half of the latter and adding the same to the jurisdic- 
 tions in insurrection, the area, that could be assumed as 
 having risen in support of the already much circumscribed 
 movement, would cover 367,759 " caballerías." 
 
 Our adversaries can hardly fail to admit, that we make 
 liberal allowance as regards the extent of territory, for 
 we grant them more than half of the entire Island, which 
 contains 629,886 " caballerías." 
 
 But this very item, even assuming it to be true, would 
 operate against the aspirations of our antagonists. Wish- 
 ing to be more than fair in our arguments, we have ac- 
 cepted the item as a fact, although in reality it is not. But 
 from the moment we push the search a little further, we shall 
 discover, that while conceding them so vast an extent of ter- 
 ritory, the relative wealth of it is considerably less important. 
 
 Out of the 367,759 " caballerías," over which the insur- 
 gents were wont to roam at the time of the rebellion 
 reaching its culminating point, there are but 16,809 under 
 cultivation of produce of all kinds, and as the sum total 
 under culture in the Island amounts to 54,102, there will 
 be found to be 37,293 in the loyal territory. 
 
 It should, here be added, that out of the 16,809 " cabal- 
 lerías " of improved lands in rebel hands, 4,200 belong to 
 the half of the territory under culture near Sagua and the 
 Villas, and that these cultivated lands have never been in 
 possession of the insurgents, the districts having besides 
 been pacified since. 
 
 Due note should be taken of this circumstance, for from 
 it we arrive at the conclusion, that the jurisdictions, where 
 the Yara movement took root, are restricted to those of 
 the "Oriente" with Puerto Principe and Kuevitas, whose 
 total area of 272,741 " caballerías," only embraces under 
 culture of all kinds of productions 12,609, or be it barely 
 five per cent. 
 
75 
 
 And, furthermore, eliminating the Villas and Sagua 
 from the jurisdictions in which the rebellion has never been 
 able to get a proper foothold but to bring to greater relief 
 the loyalty of its industrious inhabitants, the striking fact 
 is presented of 33,092 " caballerías " (out of 166,999) under 
 cultivation. The remarkable proportion of about twenty 
 per cent, of cultivated land is thus shown to be embraced 
 in the jurisdictions loyal to Spain. 
 
 The foregoing would of itself suffice to demonstrate and 
 furnish the analysis of respective importance as between 
 rebel and loyal jurisdictions, did we not apprehend that 
 somebody may not accept the same as conclusive testimony, 
 and that he will raise the question, as to whether a less 
 extent of area under cultivation may not in reality be proved 
 to be richer by the nature of its products, than the more 
 extensively improved one. 
 
 Such is indeed frequently the case elsewhere, and might 
 be supposed to be the case in Cuba also. 
 
 Some people always make it a point to lift their own 
 crotchets above the heads of all, however clear the case 
 under discussion may be ; since we, however, have striven 
 to leave nothing of what we bring forward without a solid 
 foundation to rest on, we shall now produce the last proof 
 necessary for the diffusion and establishment of a redeem- 
 ing idea, a proof which renders nugatory from the very 
 commencement the objection previously alluded to as not 
 unlikely to be raised. 
 
 Now, it chances to be, that the most valuable produc- 
 tions of the Island are sugar in the first place, and next 
 rum, molasses, honey, bees-wax, coffee and tobacco, the re- 
 mainder, with the exception of mahogany and cedar, do not, 
 properly speaking, constitute articles of commerce, used, 
 as they more exclusively are, for local consumption and 
 trade only, such as the cereals, meat, vegetables, fruit, &c. 
 
 Out of the articles of colonial produce we have named, 
 there accrue to the districts we have conceded to be con- 
 taminated by rebellion, the following: 6,197,783 arrobas 
 of sugar, from light colored to brown, five-sixths being of the 
 latter, Muscovado, and but one-twelfth white ; 27,971 casks 
 rum ; 41,138 casks of molasses j 305,085 barrels of honey ; 
 30,377 arrobas of wax; 445,139 arrobas of coffee, and 
 226,371 mule loads of tobacco. 
 
 As shown by official statistics, the distribution among 
 the loyal portion of the Island, is the following : 36,422,- 
 876 arrobas of sugar, only 13,000,000 being Muscovado, 
 and more than 16,000,000 box sugar; 96,162 casks of 
 
76 
 
 rum • 340,357 casks of molasses ; 269,653 barrels honey ; 
 38,043 arrobas wax; 296,103 arrobas coffee, and 129,209 
 mule-loads of tobacco. 
 
 In drawing a comparison between the two, we find that 
 the loyal districts produce six times as much sugar as the 
 rebel ones, and that in point of quality of the leading arti- 
 cle of produce in the Island, the same proportion of at 
 least a six-fo'd superiority characterizes the loyal part. 
 
 In rum, we have a three-fold larger production in the 
 loyal part, and six times the production of molasses and 
 honey taken together, and without drawing a line between 
 the value of the two liquids. Wax shows a quarter more 
 in favor of the loyal part, the latter producing two-fifths 
 less of coffee, and nearly one-half less of tobacco also. 
 
 As regards the latter two articles, we have to make some 
 remarks. The coffee plantations of Guantánamo have by 
 themselves clung to the Spanish cause, with very few ex 
 ceptions, and the tobacco produced in the Vuelta Abajo, 
 in the Spanish districts, is worth, as a general thing, from 
 five to six times as much as that which used to be raised 
 in the Yuelta- Arriba, in rebel jurisdictions. By reducing 
 to dollars and cents the two articles, the difference will 
 be found to incline from three to four times on our 
 side. 
 
 Erom the preceding, we therefore arrive at the following 
 conclusion : If, on the one hand, the population of loyal 
 districts stands in the proportion of three souls to one 
 versus the supposed territory of the rebels, wealth in the 
 loyal side ranks six to one, on comparing the loyal portion 
 of the Island to the rebel districts. An<1, on going into 
 details, in order to discover the cause of this extraordinary 
 disproportion, the best test is presented to us in the most 
 renowned of the rebel districts, the Camaguey, which has 
 been called the richest and most civilized " par excellence " 
 by amplifiers on the side of our enemies. While covering 
 an extent of territory of 82,409 " caballerías," and thus 
 beitíg the largest on the Island, we find there buc 1,318 
 under cultivation; under artificial pasturage there are 
 5,478, wild meadows embrace 37,960, and the balance con- 
 sists of dark forests, of wild cliffs, and of impenetrable 
 underwood, which the footsteps of man had left undis- 
 turbed until the rebels converted the region into a rabbit- 
 warren for the purposes of loop-holes of refuge. 
 
 And it should at this remarkable juncture be mentioned, 
 by way of parenthesis, that this very circumstance affords 
 us a clue to the protracted defence in a part of the country 
 
77 
 
 where it would long ago have been overcome but for the 
 impenetrable fastnesses covering it. 
 
 That the Cuban insurrection wears, by no means, a gen- 
 eral popular character, the notes we have given in the pre- 
 vious article will long ago have convinced the most exact- 
 ing reader, and he will be anxious, therefore, to be led on 
 to the main thesis of our proofs. We shall, consequently, 
 take in hand this principal sublect in the next following 
 article, and thus conform to their wishes, without losing 
 sight, at the same time, of what has thus far been proved. 
 
xm. 
 
 Fresh considerations.— The men of the insurrection. — The usual biding 
 places of leaders. — Carlos Manuel de Céspedes. — Francisco V. Agui- 
 lera. — The Figaeredos. — Peralta.— The Quesadas. — The Agramontes. — 
 The Agüeros. — The Arangos and their diverging views of the question. — 
 The Varonas. — Sanguüí. — The Cavadas, the Villegas, Jesus del Sol, 
 Villaamil. — Arredondo and his catastrophe. — Goioouria, his antecedents, 
 his movements and end. 
 
 Other important considerations are crowding upon our 
 mind, which should be embraced in this work, emanating 
 as they do from previous reasoning, in order to prove, that 
 Cuba has not risen in arms against Spain and that she is not 
 even bent upon a premature independence, which would 
 forthwith work her ruin in either of the forms we have 
 insinuated. That which we are bringing forward is not 
 our own opinion alone ? it is that of the bulk of the Cuban 
 people, with few and incompetent exceptions. And that 
 which we now propose to dissect is neither intended to 
 show the manner, nor the proper moment, how and when 
 Cuba may become independent, although we finally shall 
 point out all this, but it is to establish this very circum- 
 stance of prevalent sentiment in the Island. 
 
 The subject we have taken in hand is so paramount in 
 importance, it is so blended with and of such a powerful 
 influence upon the main thesis, from which it takes source, 
 that even did we succeed in convincing the most refractory 
 minds by the light of truth through this work of ours, the 
 question as to unanimity of sentiment in favor of inde- 
 pendence would be constantly recurred to, although such 
 unanimity does not exist. The impression of its existence 
 «has been artificially infiltered into the minds of civilized 
 
80 
 
 nations in general, and it is imperative, consequently, to 
 get at the truth upon this very suqject, so as to prevent 
 its being availed of against us Spaniards. 
 
 While striving to carry out this aim of ours, we are 
 again compelled to resort to a digression, which cannot 
 fail to spread light, and is, therefore, both indispensable 
 and urgent. An intimate interest attaches to the subject 
 of this digression and though independent of the basis of 
 our arguments, it may prove of prime importance, in de- 
 termining that which we wish to get at. 
 
 In thus fulfilling our duty in a straightforward manner 
 and not with motives which malice might attribute to it, 
 we have to combine proofs arisen from previous articles, 
 and pass in review the most distinguished leaders of the 
 insurrection, in order to prove, that the element here exhib- 
 ited was not composed of foreigners to the soil of Cuba, 
 but one native-born. It will go to show the part which the 
 remaining population played and enable us to destroy 
 other suppositions, as weU as unjust accusations, which 
 till now have successfully put afloat by some of our de- 
 tractors. 
 
 We have here, foremost of all, the celebrated Carlos 
 Manuel Céspedes, a lawyer of Bayamo, whose scientific 
 acquirements we shall not now discuss, nor even the con- 
 dition of his economical interests, which some say were 
 not of the most brilliant at the time of the rising at Yara. 
 All we want, is to point out the place from where Mr. 
 Carlos Manuel Céspedes hailed, so as to show that this in- 
 dividual has no connection with the districts that have 
 staid true in Cuba to the mother country of their ancestors. 
 
 The same has reference to Francisco V. Aguilera, to him 
 who styles himself the Vice-President of the Cuban Ee- 
 public with the greatest formality, for although the des- 
 cendant of an illustrious branch of Spaniards, long iden- 
 tified with the Island, himself and all his many relatives 
 were born in the districts, where the insurrection origin- 
 ated, and they were all, most of the time there living and 
 doing business. 
 
 The Figueredos, also, from the Oriental department, 
 have always, according to the more or less important posi- 
 tions filled by tiiem moved within the territory assigned in 
 this work to the rebels, content in not transferring their 
 activity to a wider range in cooperation with others in 
 every respect their superiors. 
 
 Aside from these three names, we do not remember any 
 one worth mentioning in the wide expanse from Yara to 
 
81 
 
 Baracoa, unless we also point out Peralta, who was from 
 Holguin, and unless from the crowd others may he pro- 
 duced, even of less importance than this one. 
 
 From the Orientel department to the vast pasturage of 
 80,000 " caballerías " of uncultivated land caUed the rich 
 and civilized Camaguey, there is but one step and we shall 
 let imagination take us thither and review the leaders that 
 were there marshalling the dissident forces. 
 
 Quesada was the first, and in deference to the serious 
 character of our labors, we shall not call him the heroic, 
 nor shall we search for reasons which carried him into the 
 camp of the insurgents, for he was a fugitive from justice 
 for an ordinary infraction of a bad nature. He is a native 
 of Puerto Principe, the same as his brother, who also 
 figures as a secondary leader, although they are both far 
 removed from the theatre of hostilities. This and their 
 birth go to show that they had nothing in common with 
 the Spanish districts, and if not questionable, their faith 
 in the cause of independent Cuba is of so rare a quality, 
 that we are in doubt as to its being made up of opinion or 
 from a sentiment of personal responsibility for the infrac- 
 tion alluded to in the one case. 
 
 We let Agramonte follow Quesada, with all the subal- 
 tern derivations of name and family that either actively or 
 passsively sided with the rebellion, some from among whom 
 have returned to the Spanish side disappointed and re- 
 pentant on account of the absurdity of their aspirations, 
 while others have perished in the struggle or have gone for 
 good to a foreign land. 
 
 The Agüeros are also of relative importance to this luck- 
 less insurrection which has pushed Cuba upon the brink 
 of an abyss, from which her own sons have snatched and 
 are snatching her. But the A güeros are also from Cama- 
 guey, the same as the Quesadas and Agramontes, so that 
 that their revolt also fails to convince us that they are the 
 representatives of premature Cuban independence on the 
 part of any district on the Island staying on the Spanish 
 side. 
 
 The Arangos have also taken an active part in the rising 
 of their locality, although never inspred by the same idea 
 as the rest ; and asa good many were carried away by 
 their example in the Camaguey, another important consid- 
 eration here presents itself, and that is, that there was a 
 great difference of opinion observable there, to such an 
 extent, that we Spaniards might well claim at least one- 
 half of the population, the Arangos never pretending to 
 
82 
 
 the independence of the Island, but only to obtaining lib- 
 eral concessions, more or less numerous and more or less 
 opportune, within the fold 3 of the country of their fathers. 
 
 From the immense and thinly populated part of the 
 Island another noble name gave the insurrection its con- 
 tingent. We mean the Varona family, some young mem- 
 bers of which, leadiug an adventurous ani profligate 
 hfe, also joined thft insurgents, more for the purpose of 
 escaping a life of privation to which they had been re 1 need 
 in the United Srates, than for the good of their country. 
 
 The general saying is that they were brave in their re- 
 volt, although much might be lessened under that head; 
 but, brave or not, they on the first occasion withdrew from 
 the theatre of events, and this goes to prove that besides 
 not being natives of the loyal districts, their faith in the 
 practicability of the cause they had embraced is not an 
 unshaken one. 
 
 How could we otherwise be able to explain tfcat others 
 stay there, arms in hand, who are deemed less valian', 
 while the Varonas have been travelling abroad, the one 
 honorably following up the scientific career taught him in 
 Spanish universities, while the other makes the best of 
 ridiculous actions, supported by the liberality of some 
 fools ? 
 
 But it would lead us astray, were we to cite other persons 
 from the districts alluded to, unless we take into account 
 the beardless Sanguili, a thoughtless cadet who has been 
 seduced into deserting from Havana to join the insurgents, 
 and who attained a certaiu degree of celebrity for having 
 had the bad luck of being crippled during the first encoun- 
 ter by a Spanish bullet. 
 
 Next come the Villas, stretching towards the western 
 extreme, where the insurgents succeeded in roaming about 
 duriug two years, and in this locality the Cavadas, the 
 Villegas, the unfortunate Jesus del Sol, and the still more 
 unfortunate Villaamil, are the only names that have been 
 heard there as leaders. These were all born in the same 
 districts that witnessed their discomfiture, except Villa- 
 amil, who was a native of the other side, all furmsUing us 
 additional proof of the unanimity of sentiment that, has 
 been all along existing in the more prominent districts, as 
 has been shown moreover in che article preceding the last 
 one. 
 
 If .we are not mistaken, Arredondo was a native of Ha- 
 vana ; nothing very particular was known respecting his 
 name till he became seduced by the erroneous belief which 
 
83 
 
 misleads a good many, that even the air in Cuba breathes 
 revolt, and invaded the Vuelta- Abajo in order to cause a 
 rising in the locality, the expedition proving so disastrous, 
 that not one of those who participated in it remained to 
 tell the tale of it, the lesson being givea by natives of the 
 Island themselves. 
 
 From the sphere of prominent men, the shadow of but 
 one rises to protest against our thesis, that of the unfortu- 
 nate Goicuria, who made to the Camaguey the last trip of 
 his eventful life in a manner very nearly constrained, and 
 who might pass for a representative of the capital of the 
 Island, inasmuch as he was a native of it. For aught we 
 know, he may have been born in Matanzas instead. 
 
 But what did Goicuria represent in the aspirations of 
 free Cuba ? A remini-cence of annexation plans cherished 
 in the days of López and Crirtenden, when the slave States 
 of the Federal Union wanted to gather new forces. The 
 same thing which Macias represents, not upon the theatre 
 of the struggle, although he calls himself a colonel, but 
 through the noise made by English newspapeis. Many 
 from among these would not as willingly lend themselves 
 to his lucubrations if this circumstance were shown to 
 them, or if he did not so well pay for the publication of the 
 nonsense he over and over again writes against Spain. 
 
 Goicuria — may he rest in peace, we do not wish to cast 
 blame, upon him — bad never been back to Cuba, nor was 
 h • well informed of the spirit that animates the I4and, 
 ex e r t by misrepresentations of an interested and absurd 
 na ure. He went there a representative, to say a great 
 ueal, of his own personal antecedents, and more under com- 
 pulsion than of his own free choice, for the prestige of his 
 former actions. We say that much in order to remove any 
 argumeut not to the point, and shall wind up this import 
 ant digression with our next article. 
 
XIV. 
 
 Local occurrences in their bearings upon the personal inclinations of the 
 lower classes that joined the insurgents. — New proofs of total disagree- 
 ment between individuals from the loyal and insurrectional districts. — " 
 Incendiarism and its character du ing the struggle. — Its significance in 
 weigbing and analyzing public opinion. — Its decisive results in favor of 
 Spain. — The military forces of Spanish-Cubans against independent 
 Cuha. — The volunteers. — Their numerical strength. — Statistics showing 
 Peninsular and Insular volunteers. — Partial facts relating to the Ma- 
 tanzas district. — Difficulties in drawing a precise line between the two 
 camps and definitively clearing up this point. — Prominent character of 
 the Cuban chiefs of the vol mteer militia. — Prominent character of 
 Creoles commanding troops of the army. — Contras b with what took 
 place in Mexico. — With what happened in South America. — Deduc- 
 tions. — Character of our opinion. 
 
 In the same strain in which we have expressed ourselves 
 with respect to the extemporaneous and highflying move- 
 ment of the leaders of independent Cuba, we might pro- 
 ceed and speak of the smaller lights of the insurrection in 
 general, supported by more numerous facts, for although at 
 its height it had a brigade called that of the Vuelta Abajo, 
 the number of its adherents was so limited, that it did no 
 good, and finally was dissolved. 
 
 It is advisable, that explanations of this kind should be 
 made at this juncture, so as to enable us to more fully 
 master the question; for although it is nothing but natural, 
 that the masses should not have rushed forward in suffi- 
 cient number to lend the rebellion a local complexion while 
 the leading men of the richest and most civilized jurisdic- 
 tions of these territories failed to respond to the call of 
 the thoughtless movement, some blind enthusiasts might 
 still labor under the impression, that strategical reasons 
 caused the theatre of the strife to be confined to jurisdic- 
 tions without culture, as presenting the greater advantages. 
 
8Q 
 
 But all suppositions bearing upon these points have to 
 be shorn of their plausibility by referring to the general 
 order recommending the application of the torch and 
 waste-laying, which the so-called President of the so-called 
 Cuban Eepublic issued, so that the apathetic might be 
 stirred up to join its banner and Spain deprived of all re- 
 sources in Cuba. 
 
 Were the Island in revolt to the very air it breathes, as 
 some tenacious spirits will continue insisting, is the case, 
 the crazy proclamation we have alluded to, would have 
 sufficed at the time to set ablaze this overcharged atmos- 
 phere, and to prove that the phrase was appropriate to the 
 occasion. What better opportunity, indeed, could have 
 been afforded to patriotic enthusiasm to set fire to the roof 
 of self and neighbour, involving in common ruin the enemy, 
 and thus parodying, by carrying out the command, the 
 heroes of Saguntum through the extravagant imitation of 
 the fugitives of Bayamo. 
 
 But, with irresistible eloquence facts at once came to 
 render patent the real state of affairs. The richest, the 
 most populous and most civilized jurisdictions of the Is- 
 land despised the command and not only made a common 
 front of loyalty for the country of their noble kinsmen, 
 but hurried forth, enthusiastic and ready for the fray, 
 swelling the ranks of the volunteers, and sending the men. 
 by the thousand into camp to side with us. 
 
 Nobody can deny or gainsay these facts, for the solemn 
 and truly glorious proceeding of the brave batallions of 
 Güines is well-known, as well as that of the warlike fire- 
 men of Havana, of the Cuban-Spanish counter-guerillas, 
 who took permanently active service from the Villas to 
 the extreme east of Baracoa, and of all the remaining 
 citizen forces, who have cooperated with such resolution in 
 support of the banner of Spain in the Island of Cuba. 
 
 Some may think, that we go on writing as the fancy 
 strikes us in favor of the object we have in view, without 
 continuing to back up with facts and documents that 
 which we pretend to affirm, but as El Ceonista is deter- 
 mined not to produce anything at random, but to adhere- 
 to the mathematical arsenal of statistics, which admits of 
 no shifting artifices, we shall now furnish that which we 
 have ascertained upon the subject, of the greatest import- 
 ance as it is. 
 
 There are in the Island, 58,293 male Peninsulars, and 
 putting down one-half for boys and old men, including 
 those otherwise unfit to bear arms, and assuming, as we 
 
87 
 
 well may do, that the remaining half is incorporated in the 
 corps of volunteers, or be it 29,642 Spaniards born on the 
 other side of the Ocean, there still remain 30,000 native 
 Cubans making up the upwards of 60,000 volunteers. 
 
 We have another book at hand offering still more con- 
 clusive evidence and going to furnish the most irrefutable 
 proof. We allude to the partial statistics of the various 
 volunteer batallions of the Matanzas district, one of the 
 points in the Island, where Peninsular population has 
 more thickly settled, in which we find registered with their 
 full names and places of birth, 5,933 men within the juris- 
 diction, including 710 native-born Cubans. 
 
 From this argument, although it rather diminishes the 
 general estimate which we wish to arrive at, the following 
 dilemma arises, which cannot be demonstrated away : 
 either there are in Cuba at least 60,000 volunteers, as every 
 day we are told by our adversaries, to increase the im- 
 portance of their faction, and if this be the case, it cannot 
 But be confessed that half of them are Cuban creóles, or 
 these mischievous volunteers are all Peninsular- Spaniards 
 stifling in Cuba the patriot sentiment which breathes in the 
 very air. Prom what precedes it is rendered manifest, that 
 not one-half the number of interloping Spaniards, whom, the 
 innumerable emigrants declare to be under arms in the Is- 
 land against them, are thus enrolled. 
 
 It would fortunately be an easy task, were we to under- 
 take furnishing the names of those who would affirm the 
 first case of the dilemma, for in Havana alone, we know 
 a good many leaders that hail from that city; among 
 others of no less prestige and renown, the marquis of Aguas 
 Claras, Calderón, Ampudia, Olano, and Sotolongo, a list 
 that we could extend considerably from memory. 
 
 And once that we have taken in hand this subject, an- 
 other most eloquent proof should be availed of, forming a 
 remarkable contrast with what has hapi ened in other parts 
 of Spanish America on their ceasing to do the bidding of 
 our country. 
 
 We allude to the brave creóle captains of the Spanish 
 army, who have had the privilege of taking part iu que ling 
 this mischievous rising that uselessly disturbs the Is' and 
 of Cuba for the f^ake of some ambitious men. 
 
 General Perrer, Brigadiers Ampudia and Acosta y Al- 
 viar ; the Colonel of Sappers Villalon ; Lieutenant Colonels 
 Santelices and Garcia; commanders Pérez, Michelena, 
 Don Manuel Herrera D avila, and a good many others that 
 we could name but fur memory failing us, and the list 
 
88 
 
 proving interminable — all living witnesses to the unpopu- 
 larity, the ill-timed nature, and moral and material dis- 
 creditableness of the movement which they confront. 
 
 In Mexico, for instance, and in all the Spanis-h- American 
 countries which precipitated themselves into the strugg e 
 for independence during the first third of the century, the 
 commanders and officers of the Spanish army, native? 
 of the soil, took a different course, and this should be noted 
 down, without our wishing to offer any apology f>f the line 
 of conduct thus adopted. 
 
 Thus Allende, Aldama and Abasólo were captains of the 
 Queen's regiment ; Iturbide wore the badge of a brigadier 
 ere he assumed the imperial ermine after the " plan de 
 Jguala," and Don Antonio López de Santa Anna had ob- 
 tained from the King of Spain a simi'ar dignity, or was at 
 least a colonel in the army at the time of his enlisting on 
 the side of patriot independence. 
 
 Shall we go still further and add, in order to convince 
 our readers on the Spanish Main, the names of other lead- 
 ing chiefs that stand prominent on the records of their 
 history % For there are Bolívar, Mosquera, Castilla, and 
 others of no less repute, that issued forth from the ranks 
 of the Spanish army and confrouted their old and brave 
 c mrades in the same sense, as we have shown to have been 
 the case in Mexico. 
 
 What do we, on the contrary, witness in Cuba, where 
 the very atmosphere is declared to be impregnated with 
 revolt ? We do find men preci-e ! y situated as were those 
 above enumerated, fighting side by side with us during the 
 four years' strife that has been going on. 
 
 Let us pass that which we have said and abundantly 
 proved, viz. : that nothing of a general national sentiment 
 can be discovered in Cuba, except the one in favor of Spain; 
 we find that Cuba is Spanish, if we eliminate from the 
 population an insignificant and disowned minority, and 
 that the opinions which " El Cronista " is emitting 1 in 
 this ungrateful task are not those of " El Cronista," hut 
 of Cuba herself. 
 
XV. 
 
 The majority in Cuba is ruled by conviction and not by expediency. — Mar 
 velious prepress of the Island during the past ninety years. — The in- 
 crease of population in Cuba compared with the increase in the United 
 States. — Territorial extent.— Positive contrasts. — Favorable consequen- 
 ce-< as regards prosperity in Cuba. — More comparisons. — Cub * and Porto 
 Kico in reference to St. Domingo and Jamaica. — Foreign residents in 
 Cuba. — Their position towards the question endorses Spain's nianage- 
 meut of her colonies. — Other contrasts and facts.— Cuban walth com- 
 pared to American. — Estimates of extent of territory, popul ftion and 
 wealth between the two. — The present condition of St. Domingo and 
 Jamaica denies the assertion, that the Spanish Antilles are exception- 
 ally constituted- 
 
 Nbr could this be otherwise, unless a fit of universal 
 insanity caught hold of the public miud in the Island, and 
 since some malevolent censors are constantly declaim- 
 ing against the moral and material backwardness in which 
 they allege Spain keeps the Island entrapped, this is also 
 debatable ground, upon which we are bound to cast a ray 
 of truth, so that the injustice of this slander be seen and 
 that another reason may be rendered patent to show the 
 abundance of motive which impels the great majority of 
 Cubans, as well as the most enlightened and wealthy from 
 among them, to be on our side while the struggle be pro- 
 ' ceeding. 
 
 There is no nation, under the heel and oppression of ty- 
 ranny, as some pretend to say, Spain keeps Cuba, that pro- 
 gresses in the shape and to the extent that she has been- 
 doing during the past ninety years. What we put forward 
 in venturing to say that much is positive. The climate of 
 the Island is of a nature, that one-third of its average im- 
 migration is doomed to succumb to it and this circum- 
 stance lends addition 1 force to the statistics we shall 
 
90 
 
 produce in order to place beyond a doubt that which we 
 have just asserted. 
 
 At the time that the United States consummated their 
 independence, they counted about 4,000,000 inhabitants 
 and Cuba no more than 170,000, while in 1862, the one had 
 a population of 31,000,000 and the other of 1,400,000, thus 
 showing, that while the former country had during this 
 lapse of time multiplied the number of souls in the coun- 
 try by seven and three-quarters, we had done so by eight 
 and a quarter, the greater gain being in a surprising man- 
 ner on our side ! 
 
 It should be here remembered that in the United States 
 the increase of population not only arcs 3 from the normal 
 progression of a country teeming with abundance, moral in 
 its habits and virtuous in social intercourse, as this country 
 was during the first fifty years of its independent life, but 
 that the daily accession of population by European immi- 
 gration on a vast scale, added to great acquisition of ter- 
 ritory, contributed towards its reaching such fabulous 
 figures, that the thirteen States came to be thirty-seven 
 since, each of them occupied by bonafide settlers. 
 
 In point of immigration, and acquisition of territory 
 Cuba has of course no parallels to exhibit in comparing 
 the one country with the other. The Island was under the 
 influence of the measured tread of civilization and of a labor 
 peculiar and natural to her, and has, therefore, not been 
 able to expand in a hke manner under this head. And 
 since tyranny, wherever exercised, does not carry its im- 
 pulsive force far enough to oblige the sexes to propagate 
 the species as the Holy Writ commands, the inference is 
 that the population of Cuba must have been in comfortable 
 circumstances, indeed, in order, evento outdo in the increase 
 of population the United States, that the prosperity there 
 must have been very different from what our detainers 
 would make people believe and from what oppressive and 
 tyrannical sway would lead us to suppose. 
 
 Prosperity in the Island is proved by another fact re- 
 vealed from statistical search. Starting from the favor- 
 able influences which the climate and fertility of soil bring 
 about to stimulate reproduction of the species in tropical 
 countries in general and in the Antilles in particular, we 
 have an exception jnesented in the case of St. Domingo 
 and Jamaica, both possessing the same advantages of soil 
 and climate and yet declining in population in an alarming 
 manner, instead of increasing. 
 
 The fact then, about to be brought to light, is of a deci- 
 
91 
 
 sive bearing upon the question having reference to the 
 11,200 foreigners, that were settled in the Island, when the 
 revolt at Yara broke out, in as much as they stay in the 
 Island, happy and content to do so; 6,601, or more than 
 half their number having been born on this side of the 
 Ocean and among these 3,633 natives of the Spanish- 
 American Republics. 
 
 This group of foreigners is a living protest against the 
 false imputations as regards the government of the Island, 
 for why should the freest men on earth come and settle in 
 a country, systematically oppressed, in numbers quite re- 
 spectable % 
 
 Wherever a government is oppressive, the very reverse 
 takes place, the Datives emigrate in great numbers, such 
 as we observe in the case of the Irish exodus and their re- 
 moval to this couutry. Now, it so chances, that emigration 
 from Cuba on an extensive scale has only been started by 
 thrt Yara revolt. 
 
 Another item that should have our imme liate attention 
 is the fabulous wealth of the Island compared with that 
 of the American Confederation. The very best barometer 
 of the prosperity of a country is the wealth of its inhabi- 
 tants, and this wealth on the other hand is.dependent upon 
 the inherent nature oí its administration ; with tue excel- 
 lence or drawbacks entailed by the latter, the accumulation 
 of riches will, in the long run, either ris a o decline. 
 
 Cuba produced in 1862 the value of $305 919,875. The 
 United States showed an accumulation of wealth in the 
 same year of $24,448,663,172 ; and calculating the produc- 
 tion therein at the rate of 7 pet' cent., for we have not at 
 hand the precipe figures, this would show $1,711,406,422, 
 or not quite six times the Cuban production. 
 
 The United Slate < hid at the time twenty-two times the 
 population of our Island, and eighty-six times the extent 
 of territory. It is shown, therefore, that the comparison 
 greatly speaks in our favor, each individual producing $55 
 in this country against $218 in Cuba. 
 
 The concentration of riches and productiveness here 
 exhibited in the ease of Cuba is so great, that it would 
 hardly be fair to dwell upon the vast extent of territory 
 from whence the American Union draws its annual quota 
 of the world's production. 
 
 Will anybody dare to deny that the local administration 
 has a paramount bearing upon the production of results so 
 surprising, and that any other government would insure 
 them as well % Search, then, into the cases of St. Domingo 
 
92 
 
 and Jamaica, in natural resources the compeers of Cuba, 
 and Porto Rico, and if the comparison be not a pertinent 
 one — although we cannot see why it should not — take up 
 the case of St. Domingo and see what the Spanish part of 
 the Island was under the sway of the Castilian crown, and 
 what it is now as an independent and sovereign Republic ! 
 
 But the life of a nation is not bound up with its material 
 riches alone. Intellectual life has its value, too ; and on 
 this very point Spain is misrepresented in her endeavors 
 by those who would fain tear away from her her vast pos- 
 sessions. 
 
 We shall postpone the investigation of this subject to 
 another article. 
 
XVI. 
 
 4nother phase.— The intellectual progress of Cuba on a level with and even 
 superior to her prosperity.— The historial character of Spain with re- 
 spect to the important subject of her colonial system. -The University 
 oí Havana.— The programmes of study.— The superior institute of hu- 
 manitarian studies subordinary to the University.— The professors 
 oi both schools and the superior and local juntas of public instruc- 
 tion.— Instruction in the Island nearly exclusively monopolized by Cu- 
 bans— Brüha.nt results which deny the a sertion, that there has not 
 been a sumciency of scope for iutellectual advancement —Personal 
 examples.— Eloquent comparisons between civilization and instruc- 
 ^"ü Pro f eS810Iial and Preparatory schools for all careers.— The state 
 oí Cuban instruction compared to that of the generality of Spanish- 
 
 Public instruction is the first sign of spiritual life in a 
 nation. A country may passess boundless wealth, nature 
 may shower upon her spontaneously grown material re- 
 sources of every imaginable kind ; but this cannot be said 
 of Cuba, for the real wealth of the Island consists of the 
 labor bestowed there on nature's gifts. Whiie abounding 
 in innumerable resources, a country may be lacking refine- 
 ment and civilization to such an extent, that the material 
 and intellectual power may there appear as far opposed to 
 each other as the two poles. 
 
 An example is offered to us by California at the time, 
 when the gold mines were yielding countless riches. The 
 most adventurous Americans were there collected together, 
 and among them the roughest, and many grew prodigious- 
 ly rich ; but life was of a precarious tenure and justice 
 and the law were dealt out practically and brutally, a half- 
 barbarian retribution caUed " lynch-law" was resorted to, 
 setting at defiance public morals and advancement. 
 
 It then, no doubt can be entertained, that the most fav- 
 ored of the Antilles, aside from its extraordinary prosper- 
 
94 
 
 ity, is equal in intellectual culture to any one of the coun- 
 tries on the American continent, is it not evident that the 
 mind has its sway there in due proportion to its civiliza- 
 tion and character, that the reproaches made to Spain are 
 malicious and abusive, baseless as they are ? 
 
 When Spain became the mistress of a new world, she 
 spread there her civilization and knowledge, she founded 
 magnificent institutions of learning, still to be met with all 
 over Latin America, in which the creóles received such li- 
 beral and solid education, that many from among them 
 rose to the dignity of teachers and even professors. Cuba 
 could not well have been gingerly dealt with in the pleni- 
 tude of advancement of the present age, nor was this the 
 case ; on the contrary, from common education to doctor- 
 ship in the most elevated spheres of learning, instruction 
 is at the bidding of the studious, as is well-known, and the 
 most obstinate of onr adversaries cannot deny it. 
 
 Besides, all we have to do in order to prove it, is to give 
 oflicial data of the various centres of instruction to be 
 met with in the Island. We can show that they embrace 
 all the professional and scientific careers which may be 
 selected and honorary examples abound to exhibit the 
 good seed sown and the fruits produced. It will then have 
 to be confessed, that what we have insisted upon, cannot 
 be gainsaid. 
 
 Taking our starting point from so firm a basis and en- 
 tering upon the subject in a spirit of serious investigation, 
 the first and most prominent institution that will call our 
 attention, is the University of Havana, whose programme 
 of instruction, embracing as it does pharmacy, medicine, 
 canonical and civil right, suffice to give us an idea of the 
 general instruction there obtainable. 
 
 A chair of philosophy was there also opened up to the 
 year 1863 ; but a new plan of studies, decreed by the gov- 
 ernment at Madrid, separated this branch of teaching from 
 the superior professional, creating " ad hoc " a new school. 
 Of coure, the first director, salaried as he was, whom the 
 national government placed at the head of the institute, 
 was a gentleman graced with the cross of the order of 
 Charles III, Don Antonio Bachiller y Morales, now a 
 prominent individual of Cubau emigration, who declaims 
 at New York against the constant exclusion and benighted 
 tyranny which Spain has always been inflicting upon Cuba. 
 
 Addiug, then, to these facts some names that have spread 
 renown, and still do spread it, we think that we shall have 
 done justice to the University of Havana. On consulting 
 
95 
 
 the « Guide for Travellers," we find, that from 1842 to 1865 
 the following have received the doctor title, among many 
 other persons more or less known, and we point them out 
 because of the character they have in subsequent events 
 assumed in and outside of Spain : 
 
 Don Frederico Fernández Vailin, Don Eamon Zambrana, 
 Don Joaquin Fabian Aenlle, Don Ambrosio González del 
 Yalle, Don Felipe Lima y Renté, Don José Ignacio Ro- 
 driguez, Don Jose Manuel Mestre, Don Francisco Fesser y 
 Diago, Don Antonio González Mendoza, Don José Maria 
 Céspedes, Don José Maria Trujillo, Don Francisco Zayas 
 y Jimenez, Don Felix Giralt y Fignerola, Don Antonio Mes- 
 tre y Domínguez, Don Luis Fernández de Castro, Don 
 Jesns Benigno Gálvez y Alfonso, and Don Frederico 
 Echarte y Gómez. 
 
 Some from among the individuals whom we have just 
 named are no doubt worthy mirrors of their science and 
 studies, and would not exchange their worth in the respec- 
 tive professions for that which the niosj renowned of this 
 model Republic may have mastered. If, then, from these 
 we turn towards other dor-tors, natives of Cuba, who are 
 dedicated here to the medical profession to the general 
 and just admiration of the public, leaving, in practical re- 
 sults, far behind them, a good many American medical 
 men, what just cause does there remain for the assertion, 
 that the pressure of a bad government stifles the iutelh c- 
 tual development of the Island, as with levity some per- 
 sons are known to declare, lowering their own mental ac- 
 quisitions, and picturing an imaginary tyranny? 
 
 Let Arango, Gonzalez, Echeverría, Landeta, Gálvez, 
 Illa, Adolfo de Varona, and others, answer in our plac?^ 
 and many besides who came here at hap hazard, some,- 
 pe¡haps, with the diffidence inherent to modesty, that they 
 might be found failing in competition with Americans, and 
 wh<>, nevertheless, acquired enviable renown, and while 
 doing so came to the conclusion that it was not pre- 
 cisely m j ces>ary to be American for the obtaining of the 
 highest degree of learning and culture. Any similar im- 
 p\e sion of an apprehended insufficiency of learning is 
 the most absurd that could be entertained in Cuba. 
 
 In order to corroborate this particular view, as regards 
 instruction to be obtained in Cuba, we. hardly need to dwell 
 so much upon college education; ad we have to point to is 
 the ordinary run of well-brought-up people in the Spanish 
 Aw tille--, who certainly will compare favorably with Amer- 
 icans similarly situated in life. 
 
96 
 
 And are our creóles inferior to Americans in breeding, 
 talent, general instruction, and the ordinary tact displayed 
 in dealing with men and matters, or in whatever else of 
 this nature? 
 
 From the alleged tyranny which, it is declared, smothers 
 and brutalizes intellectual life in the Antilles, such results 
 as we there perceive co >ld hardly be expected to emanate 
 anywhere, however much nature may have lavished her 
 preference on both soil and climate to produce a snonta 
 neously superior development of qualities as regards the 
 instincts of a gentleman. Be it known, that in the An- 
 tilles the solid depth of erudition and astonishing develop- 
 ment in the ediu ational branches had long ceased to be 
 the monopoly of foreign teachers, as they used to be in 
 times past, but that both had fallen to the lot of the very 
 creóles ere the Yara rising took place. 
 
 The superior junta of public instruction in Cuba in the 
 year of the outbreak of the rebellion consisted of three 
 sections, and the following were the gentlemen presiding: 
 Don Rainon Navarro, a Peninsular Spaniard; Don Joaquin 
 Santos Suárez, of Trinidad de Cuba ; the Marquis of San 
 Miguel, of Havana; Don Pedro Agüero, "ponente," draw- 
 ing a salary of $3,000, of Puerto Principe; Don Francisco 
 Alvear, of Havana; Don Manuel Fernandez de Castro, 
 from either Santo Domingo or Havana; Don José Silverio 
 Jorrin, of Havana; Don Florencio Yébenes, we presume 
 Peninsular ; Don José Maria del Castillo, of Havana ; Don 
 José de la Luz Hernández, also a Cuban creóle, and finally 
 two gentlemen of whom we do not know where they hail 
 from, Don José Guillermo Diaz and Don Eamon Hita. 
 Secretary to the superior junta was Don Teodoro Guerrero, 
 of Havana, who combined with his post that of chief of 
 section of the supreme government of the Island, with 
 $500 salary a month. 
 
 In other words, out of thirteen, ten were Cubans, com- 
 posing the superior junta of public instruction, or better 
 still, the management of education had, with few excep- 
 tions passed into the hands of natives of the land. 
 
 But, aside from the superior junta, the various cities of 
 the Island had their local juntas and the following gentle- 
 men made up the one of Havana : Don Domingo Garcia 
 Velayor, of Santiago de Cuba, with a munificent salary 
 adapted to his office of " canónigo," Don Eamon Zambrana 
 of Havana, Don José Maria Céspedes, of Havana, who 
 also drew a large salary in his quality of " catedrático," 
 appointed by the government, Don Fehpe Lima y Eenté, 
 
97 
 
 of Havana, Don Jose Maria de la Torre, of Havana, Don 
 Bernardo del Biesgo, we do not know wherefrom, Monsieur 
 Einile Auber, Frenchman, Don Meólas Azcarate, of Ha- 
 vana, Don José Toribio de Arazoza, we do not know, 
 wherefrom, Don Antonio Ambrosio Ecay of Havana, Don 
 Juan Francisco Chaple, from some other part of the Island, 
 Don Vicente Martinez Ibor, Peninsular, and Don José de 
 Villasante, Peninsular, secretary. Here, too, there are to 
 be met with at least eight Cubans out of thirteen. 
 
 It would be more than is required and tiresome to go on 
 producing individual instances in order to back up that 
 which we are treating of ; but one example at least should 
 be given, the one, that out of twenty-seven professors of 
 the University of Havana in 1865, twenty-four were natives 
 of the Island, all respectably salaried. Among them 
 figured, names such as the following : Josó María Céspedes, 
 íliralt, Zayas, González de Mendoza, Josó Manuel Mestrc 
 and there may be others, who soon after declaimed against 
 the tyranny, the exclusivism, the ignorance and whatever 
 absurdities else may have been imputed to Spain. 
 
 We have seen now, not only that intellectual life had an 
 unlimited field wherein to move in Cuba, but that the 
 spread of knowledge among youthful minds was specially 
 delegated to whomsoever capable of doing so the Island 
 contained, from the lower strata of elementary teaching to 
 the very highest ranks of collegial erudition. 
 
 But this is not all. We can even show, that there was 
 not merely the gloss and routine of instruction solely 
 moving within the more generally humanitarian sphere ox 
 learning, but that there were professional schools, prepar- 
 atory to every kind of calling, which young men might 
 choose to embrace. There were professional schools for 
 mechanics, surveyors, navigation, commerce, machinery 
 and telegrar>hs, and preparatory ones for engineers of 
 public roads, canals and harbors, mining, forrests, indus- 
 try, agriculture and architecture. 
 
 All these combined, and with the professional school of 
 painting, sculpture and engraving, also at Havana super- 
 added, and it seems to us, that the Island of Cuba has 
 little left to be envious, in the most important manifesta- 
 tions of intellectual life, of the most civilized Eepublic of 
 the American Continent. How many Eepublics of Spanish- 
 America will not feel humiliated before this loyal state- 
 ment of the truth, at being left behind by tyrannised and 
 oppressed Cuba in the true paths of progress and civiliza- 
 tion, which the educational branch traces ! 
 
XVII. 
 
 Another manifestation of intellectual life. — Harmony between the physical 
 and moi'al forces ia human nature. — Diversity of character and tenden- 
 cies as applied to the investigation of soeial truths. — Political errors and 
 personal fanaticism.— Then- influence upon the pending Cuban question.— 
 Fictitious complaints. — A question of political right. — Absolute equality 
 between Peninsulars and Islanders in the Spanish Antilles. — The same 
 in Spain. — Well-known injustice of the complaints. — Confined as those 
 complaints are to a minority they fail in bearing a collective stamp. — 
 The boasts indulged in, in this respect, form a strange contrast wltb 
 Spain's real proceedings. — Reforms made in the Island during the past 
 twenty years. — Convocation of a consultative junta by the government 
 at Madrid. — Unmistakable influence of the step on public order in 
 Cub i and Porto Rico. — Discretion of the national governmeut in duly 
 weighing the opinion of the majority of the junta. — Preliminary inci- 
 dents and their natural consequence. — Public opinion. —The rcst'ess 
 spirits. — Illtimed commencement of the revolution, considering tbat re- 
 forms were contemplated without it between the home government and 
 the Cuban reformers — Pacts and promises — The fallacy of some — Ap- 
 prehensions and consequent abstention of others. — ComDlete change of 
 views operated in most of them. — The logic of the reaction. — Contrary 
 arguments. — An answer reserved for the following article. 
 
 There are other manifestations of the human mind be- 
 sides the fundamental one of public education ; and one 
 in particular has impetuously invaded the character of 
 modern politics, with many and varied modifications, al- 
 most as many as there are individual tendencies reflected 
 by the manifold traits which the physical organism of man 
 involves. 
 
 With sublime wisdom God has rendered visible the di- 
 vergence of passion, the sentiments and the mode of actiou 
 of each of us, and thus while we do not meet with two 
 human frames nor with two physiognomies absolutely 
 alike, so that personal responsibility may cling to each in- 
 dividual, we observe the same diversity from a moral point 
 of view. 
 
 From these eternal and well-defined principles, which 
 
100 
 
 Lave not changed, and cannot "be changed in. all the coarse 
 of ages, for only God himself could change his own work*, 
 any just criterion might come to the conclusion that per- 
 fect truth applicable to the social fabric is a mystery out- 
 side of the natural order of the family precinct and the 
 relation of the latter towards the wider sphere of public 
 life. 
 
 This leads us to the inference that those, who pretend 
 having discovered perfection as applicable to the political 
 and social status of nations, are mere fanatic?, self-adorers, 
 a great deal more than reverers of that which they preach, 
 for amidst passions and aberrations, only the most obsti- 
 nate and extreme fanaticism can go such lengths as to claim 
 for itself the privilege of having found out the true thing, 
 for the so-called axioms of truth arc so manifold, so con- 
 tradictory, or lie so close together and present such a va- 
 riety, that even the crudest errors are extolled as incontro- 
 vertible and unimpeachable truths. 
 
 Do not overlook these definitions, which arc of the great- 
 est interest with respect to what we are going to say, inas- 
 much as divergences arose, which transformed the country 
 into two opposite camps, causing a portion of the native- 
 horn to rise against the bulk of their countrymen and the 
 nation, and inasmuch as this state of affairs had for its 
 basis rather aberration and personal fanaticism than any 
 clearly perceptible shortcomings under which the intellec- 
 tual life of the populations had been suffering. 
 
 Among the complaints which, for a long time past, had 
 been raised against Spain by some dozens of men, impa- 
 tient in their amhition, and by some hundreds of crudely 
 ignorant ones, for purposes of changing from top to bottom 
 political and social order in the Island of Cuba, was the one 
 that has most prestige in the eyes of modern society with- 
 out its being proved that either good or evil woukl result 
 from listening to it. They put forward that the Island was 
 deprived of right in the supreme Congress of the nation, 
 and as, in fact, Cuba seut no natives to the Cortes, as the 
 whole organization of its districts was not shaped upon 
 the popular system most in accordance with the spirit of 
 the century, the complaint was not devoid of reason, al- 
 ways abstracting from local traits not to ba overlooked, 
 which bring this question within the precinct of a distinc- 
 tion here applicable, for so far as Cuba is concerned, the 
 Island is in an exceptional position, in many respects in- 
 compatible with the political and social order existing iu 
 the Peninsula. 
 
101 
 
 There would be a more just cause for complaint if a line 
 of distinctiun were drawn in Cuba between the freedom 
 enjoyed by natives on the one hand and by Peninsular 
 Spaniards on the other, if the rights of the ones warred 
 against the rights of the others, if, in a word, the political 
 and civil status, as between the ones and the others, were 
 profoundly distinct, for within the folds of the same family 
 and country a galling injustice might be thus met with. 
 This not being the case in Cuba, but the strictest equality 
 leveling positions, privileges and rights among all belong- 
 ing to our race, without distinction of birth, and as by a tacit 
 consent the advisableness was acknowledged by Peninsu- 
 lar Spaniards that in the imperfect political condition of 
 the Island the introduction of the modern machinery of 
 political organization prevalent in the Peninsula should be 
 abstained from, and as the bulk of Cubans there were of 
 the same mind, it is evident that reforms of the kind were 
 not generally uppermost in the minds of the people, and 
 that those who, inside and outside the Island, lay stress 
 xipon this matter, erroneously interpret the reil popular 
 sentiment upon this question. 
 
 And in taking this correct standpoint and summing up 
 with it the statistics we have in a former article given as 
 regards the comparatively small portion of the Island that 
 rose in insurrection, 1he divergence existing there is at 
 once reduced to a fraction of the people, and not echoed 
 in its aspirations by the bulk. Dissidence is thus en- 
 trenched in open camp where fanaticism has raised the 
 sword, but in the legal one of party differences we perceive 
 no strife. 
 
 But Spain has never clung to exclusivisui in her colonies, 
 although envy has tried to belittle her glory and greatness 
 and deny this fact, despite the circumstance that she 
 ñlled her colonies with material and moral monuments 
 ere Spanish America rose to consummate its independence. 
 And the best proof has been furnished by the fact that not 
 a moment has been lost, nor a single opportunity, to pro- 
 pitiate a more liberal course, in view of the high degree of 
 prosperity in the Island, always anxious, as the men in 
 power are, to improve the condition of the western gems 
 we possess in all their sphere of political and moral life. 
 
 Hence, during the short interval of the last twenty 
 years, precisely at a time when cases of hostility were 
 shown that might have recommended the opposite course, 
 Spain did not cease to liberally modify the administrative 
 machinery in those possessions, but instead of remodeling 
 
102 
 
 from top to bottom every administrative and political de- 
 partment at once, the municipal reforms have been the first 
 which, with wisdom and discretion, have been taken in 
 hand, so that justice might have an even sphere from the 
 very basis, thus laying the foundations tor a provincial 
 existence, leaving the future to carry along other well- 
 timed reforms, and allowing the blessings thus gradually 
 gained to ripen into fullness in another sphere. 
 
 Who can gainsay this ? From the time that Don Jose 
 de la Concha proceeded to Cuba up to the breaking out of 
 the rebellion, there have been such thorough reforms made 
 in the paths of positive right, the popular element devel- 
 oped to such a degree, the tendencies of the modern 
 spirit were allowed such latitude in local juntas, in the 
 press above everthing else, that there cannot remain che 
 t-hadow of a doubt upon the mind of any one, that the 
 government at Madrid intended to shortly raise the An- 
 tilles to the level of the other Spanish province?. 
 
 Adhering, as Spain did, to this idea, she went as far as 
 to call together near at hand a consultative body of nota- 
 bles, so that the reforms might be proceeded with all the 
 more expeditiously, if such were feasible, having an eye to 
 administrative reform above everything: else. Was this con- 
 vocation unproductive of results ? Did not this very step 
 show that there was a willingness to make liberal conces- 
 sions so as to render more intimate the bonds of un:ou be- 
 tween Spain and her western provinces ? 
 
 Did not the steps sufficiently exhibit these progressive 
 tendencies on the part of Spain towards her colonies % 
 Was not there a state of transition rendered evident which 
 ¡should serve as a bridge between the long-subsisting and 
 modern, throwing open to intellectual life the doors of suf- 
 frage, so as to enter a new existence which maybe of ques- 
 tionable good, although part and parcel of relative pro- 
 gress in modern society? 
 
 This being the precise state of the case in which the ini- 
 tiative step taken by a moderate government was carrying 
 the country towards a liberal representative regime, it is 
 useless to go on repeating the blasphemy which ignorance 
 utters when trying to justify the insurrection on the 
 ground that the government of the Island was stationary. 
 
 The rejoinder might be made in this case, and not un- 
 justly, that none of the reforms were carried out. The 
 fact is that no agreement could be obtained among the 
 members of the junta that was called to assist the govern- 
 ment at Madrid and that without the support of a well 
 
103 
 
 defined course of policy as to what course would be mo c t 
 advisable to adopt, it would have been imperilling public 
 order in Cuba, perchance, to act precipitately in the matter. 
 
 Prudence left no other course to pursue and events 
 which preceded the calling of the junta recommended pru- 
 dence, for there were two petitions presented, backed by 
 signatures equally respectable, although some of them 
 Avere affixed to both at the same time, notwithstanding the 
 fact that the documents were radically distinct in tendency 
 from each other, causing the government to hesitate as to 
 the real wishes of the country. 
 
 What minister of ordinary precaution woiüd have liked 
 to assume the responsibility of acting upon a case which 
 presented similar features of disagreement on its very face, 
 the more so on learning that a large and respectable por- 
 tion of the people had abstained from participating in the 
 election of the junta, on the one hand, because they 
 deemed the step an ill-timed one, on the other because they 
 thought that the local management of the election was not 
 impartial enough to answer the occasion % 
 
 And besides the aspirations towards public life are not 
 participated in by everybody and there was evidently no 
 necessity to precipitate reforms in the Antilles, where, to 
 neither, the material nor the intellectual well-being, such re- 
 foms were immediately indispensable. Such reforms would 
 have expanded the sphere of intellectual life it is true, but 
 in a manner and at a time of doubtful opportuneness, at 
 all events the way in which it was at the time manifesting 
 itself in Spain was anything but edifying. 
 
 This being the case and aversion to similar innovations 
 being already revealed among the greater portion of the 
 community in Cuba, it is established beyond a doubt that 
 all illegal tendency was of a p artisan nature being anti- 
 Cuban in the true sense of the word as shown by the small 
 minority which backed the movement. 
 
 What shall we say, however, of the precise moment, 
 when rebellion was resorted to, even supposing that the 
 greater x^ortion of the population had been bent upon re- 
 forms ? In Spain a revolution had taken place altogether 
 radical in the name of modern political ideas, a revolution! 
 which was actively supported by those Cubans, who desired 
 reforms for the Island with the understanding that they 
 should subsequently be introduced there also, as might 
 have been supposed would be the case considering the 
 course events had taken and as in fact they were intro- 
 duced in Porto Eico. 
 
101 
 
 And do not let it be said that the Cubans who sallied 
 forth in the Island to kindle the spark of insurrection were 
 carried away by the remembrance of the past, for the pre- 
 cedents of twenty years had sufficiently shown that there 
 was a bona fide readiness to proceed in the path of reform, 
 although more radical ones might prove injurious, a thing 
 we shall not now discuss ; and as for anticipations as re- 
 gards the future, the necessary time had scarcely elapsed 
 since the Queen's throne had been upset in the Peninsula, 
 to determine whether or not reforms would be carried out, 
 when the rising at Yara already took place. 
 
 That reflection akin to this must hare got the better of 
 the consciences of many Cubans anxious for reforms, is 
 evidenced by the outspoken loyal attitude with which they 
 sided with us from the very beginning of the struggle. 
 
 Upon some of the Cubans anxious for reforms ere the 
 insurrection broke out the disloyalty of their former fellow 
 believers has made such a deep impression, that they are 
 not only the truest Spaniards, but that they even outdo 
 theh Peninsular countrymen and are now the declared 
 enemies to all reform, whatsoever, for Cuba. 
 
 And this is perfectly logical and should cause no sur- 
 prise, even though we may not in themselves condemn 
 modern political tendencies, for rather than that the safety 
 of the common country should be endangered by the ex- 
 tremes to which a sudden freak of caprice may carry tur- 
 bulent men, traitors at heart, it is nothing but natural that 
 men of good faith rather sacrifice as a matter of minor 
 concern, reforms upon the altar of their native land, so 
 that so precious a boon may be saved from the perils of 
 unforseen events. 
 
 A delectable state of affairs, indeed, it would be, were a 
 province to declare itself in open insurrection not only 
 against the home government but against the subliine sen- 
 timent of the whole country upon the very slightest occa- 
 sion! 
 
 Even men of less than ordinary understanding can 
 hardly fail to perceive that the day is not yet at hand 
 when artificial aspirations may be carried out, we mean 
 men of common sense, who do not speculate upon the mis- 
 fortunes of their country, or who do not live abroad to 
 foster insurrection in Cuba, especially those from among 
 the latter who do not stay in countries, where the senti- 
 ment of national independence has not been tinctured with 
 abject nioney-makmg. Add to this the sinister prospect 
 of Cuba becoming a prey within the claws of the North- 
 
105 
 
 era. Eagle and it is clear that no Cuban who lias his senser, 
 about him can lead himself to lowering the glorious des- 
 tinies which a not distant future has in store for civiliza- 
 tion in the New World, for the mere pleasure of persever- 
 ing in bad designs that have brought about the raising of 
 flags against country and family. 
 
 It is really not worth while that brothers should exter- 
 minate each other, while independence cannot thus be 
 gained, when the only prospect at hand would be the ab- 
 sorption of the country by a race, exclusive in its tenden- 
 cies, domineering and arrogant. 
 
 What would Cubans do if, after having rent by the 
 sword the light yoke of the mother country, they found 
 themselves chained to the ominous car of materialist 
 American civilization, which adores the rich and distin- 
 guishes the strong ? 
 
 By the force of routine some light scribblers tell us that 
 the reason why that which happened took place, has to be 
 searched for in Spain's exclusivism in distributing favors, 
 and that in the spirit of partiality shown, she often irrit- 
 ated the creóles. The great majority grouped around our 
 flag protests with its loyalty against so vulgar and mis- 
 taken a reproach. But since the word has been said and 
 is so often re-echoed againt us, it is nothing but proper, 
 that we should take up the matter and throw light upon 
 it, so that no subject should remain unexplained that is to 
 place our cause into its true position before the world. 
 
** 
 
XVIII. 
 
 Privileges.— Unjust ieproíches. — Their baseles-ness and tlie insolence with 
 which they are made. — Cubans in office in Cuba. — In high >r instruc- 
 tion. — In the administration of justice. — la treasury matters. — Iu tbe 
 army. — la government branches. — General reflections. 
 
 None of the concrete subjects upon which light has been 
 thrown in this work have caused us the amount of annoy- 
 ance we experience in approaching that of preferential 
 government employment. 
 
 Not that we were wanting in proofs to victoriously draw 
 forth the truth ; en the contrary, we are fortunate enough 
 to possess more than sufficient, hut their very abundance 
 provokes our indignation on reflecting upon the lamenta- 
 bly calumnious system which our astute adversaries resort 
 to every time they wish to surround their imputations with 
 a halo of justice. 
 
 After endeavoring to disturb our family compact, after 
 asking for our blood, we cannot bring ourselves to sit still 
 and passively witness the unexampled impudence that 
 characterizes them in endeavoring to palm off on the world 
 their ideas lucklessly conceived, by which they make white 
 that which is black, their aim being to make the best of a 
 bad case, and in attempting to do so they display the in- 
 born artifices of women, that have ever been deemed by 
 us unworthy of men. 
 
 Whosoever permits himself to be beguiled by the chat- 
 ter of Cuban emigrants who still perseveringiy cling to the 
 luckless insurrection, throwing back for years to come or 
 sinking forever into a bottomless pit the future destinies 
 of their country, will of course give them his sympathies, 
 for under what tyranny does not Cuba groan ? Have they 
 
IOS 
 
 not good canse for what they did, are there not abundant 
 facts to speak in favor of tbe course they adopted ? Have 
 they infringed upon any noble sentiment when they threw 
 off tha mask 1 Is not there plenty of local adhesion, so 
 that they may declare themselves the majority? What 
 political and social virtues do they not parade about, so 
 that their maturity for a distinct nationality and for the 
 Republic be known ? 
 
 And in the fie'd, who is not a hero, although he may 
 have sneaked out of the Island with the preconceived in- 
 tent never to return? Are there any battles which ever 
 they lost ? And what laurel have they not plucked ? Is 
 there a glory that can match theirs in the history of the 
 universe? 
 
 Still the plain truth L*, that they are vagrant here and 
 elsewhere remote from the Island, that their heart quails, 
 that instead of being found on the held of battle where 
 their metal would be put to a test, they made the best of 
 word and pen to attain their ends. We should have to 
 smother the consciousness of having sprung from a noble 
 nation, we should have to be renegades from the generous 
 blood which God instilled into our veins, if we did not sigh 
 over the spectacle of the most degenerate sons that ever 
 descended from brave ancestors, and if we had not the 
 consolation to know that they have hosts of brothers that 
 reflect honor both upon country and race. 
 
 However this be, a sacred duty demands that we should 
 undertake to prove their errors, to use a lenient expression, 
 in a manner best suited to the nature of this work. 
 
 They complain of the neglect in which the mother 
 country kept them in the ordinary distribution of State 
 offices, they say that they are shut out from careers, or at 
 least from the lucrative employs of all of them. This is the 
 precise expression, in which they indulge, and they add 
 that they cannot fill the posts, although they may be ob- 
 tained in Spain, because of the partiality, which they, at 
 every step encounter, unless they serve in the Peninsula 
 or in other distant possessions. 
 
 The reproach, or to use a milder term, the com- 
 plaint, unfounded as it is, does them little credit judged 
 from the stand-point of honor and loyalty upon which true 
 patriotism should be based. We pity the patriots who 
 have to lean upon lucrative employs, for the true no- 
 tions of loyalty and honor should only be imbued with 
 a disinterested patriotism, which leaves its imprint spon- 
 taneously, actively and vigorously, without the necessity 
 
100 
 
 of any other stimulus tliau tlio glory of our common 
 country ! 
 
 But, admitting even that patriotism stood in need of a duo 
 share of employs while distributing the offices underconsul- 
 tation of the budget and that Spain were the only nation that 
 brought into practice a system of exclusiveness and dis- 
 criminated against natives of the colonies, the laws in 
 force in Holland, England and all other countries protest- 
 ing against our applying a similar hypothesis to them, 
 there is still such manifest injustice in the accusation put 
 forward against Spain, it can be disproved by so many in- 
 stances to the contrary, that the men who utter the same, 
 can be but ill-informed, and the pen that commits this 
 complaint to paper must be wielded by an individual of 
 limited intelligence. 
 
 In article XVI of this series we said, that according to 
 the official guide of Cuba, the professorships of the higher 
 educational establishments in Cuba were filled by natives 
 of the Island. That which we here repeat is so well-estab- 
 lished a fact, that without taxing our memory, the follow- 
 ing highly respectable names rise before our mind's eye : 
 Messrs. Gonzalez del Valle, Zambrana and Valdés Fauli, 
 all men of distinction, each of whom were rectors of the 
 university of Havana during a lengthened period. 
 
 After thus proving the baselessness of the complaint so 
 far as this most important class of offices is concerned, a 
 branch in which any nation inclined to exclude natives, 
 Avould, with an eye to what might happen, be applying the 
 principle more particularly than in any other, let us bestow 
 a moment's attention upon the law-courts and see what 
 occurred with reference to them, Spain having in their case 
 even put the widest construction upon subsisting laws, in 
 order not to be in the least partial against natives. 
 
 The wise legislation of Spain provides, that nobody shall 
 administer justice in the province in which his wife may 
 chance to have been born, should he be married, and what- 
 ever the rank of a person may be, this exclusion is appli- 
 cable, so that family ties and duty towards the people may 
 not come into conflict with him. If the law were rigor- 
 ously applied to Cubans, but few would be able to fill posts 
 of the kind in their native land. 
 
 Is a strict adherence to the letter of this law that which 
 we perceive there % By no means, for there was a time 
 when in the Island all the "alcaldías mayores," or ''juz- 
 gados de primera instancia," to use Peninsular expressions, 
 were creditably filled by creóles, with very few exceptions. 
 
110 
 
 Let the following gentlemen answer for us: Messrs. Pala- 
 cios, Casanova, Ecay, Bastillo, Céspedes, Escobar, Vas- 
 quez Queipo, Toledo, and a hundred besides that assail our 
 memory, all of whom would have been found to be inca- 
 pacitated had the law been complied with to the letter ; 
 they could not have been judges, and yet they frequently 
 filled Ihe office of alcalde mayor, some, it is true, interim- 
 istically, but most of them were propiietors within the 
 locality. 
 
 The supposition might here be arising that there miy 
 have been a short supply of Peninsular Spaniards, and 
 this may have been the case in some localities, and, be- 
 sides, these offices were comparatively of a secondary rank, 
 but as even iu the halls of "audiencias" in the Island, 
 creóles have also been figuring, and in many instance*, 
 with great distinction and dignity, men born within the 
 respective jurisdictions — none less thau Mr. Vallin him- 
 self, Messrs. Armas, Císnero?, Valdés, Fauli, Guerrero, 
 Montoro, Santelis, and many others besides — it is clearly 
 shown that the infringement of the Spanish laws in favor 
 of creóles has not merely been a casual and transitory oc- 
 currence, but that the breach came to be systematic, and 
 fortunately justice was not the less sttingently adminis- 
 tered. 
 
 We say that justice was as evenly dealt as ever, for in 
 an apparently criminal case of prevarication which led to 
 a scandalous law-suit in the Island, it was precisely a na- 
 tive of Trinidad de Cuba, Don Manuel Toledo, alluded to 
 above, who distinguished himself in his legal capacity. 
 Let due acknowledgment be meted out wherever it be de- 
 served. 
 
 But, why go on searching for examples merely among 
 justices of the peace and ordinary courts of law, where 
 even the highest grade, that of regent of the " audiencia" 
 has fallen to the lot of natives of the Island ? 
 
 Echeverría is from Havana, which did not prevent him 
 from becoming regent of the " audiencia " of Havana 
 and he was morever "regente territorial" of Havana. 
 
 We should be carried too far altogether, and the limited 
 space of a newspaper would forbid our doing so were we 
 to go still further back, for we should then be enabled to 
 furnish proof that the list of Cubans is an interminable 
 one that have been serving in the judicial career from 
 " promotor f¡ sca l" to "regente" in Cuba, to the utter con- 
 fusion of those who talk oí exclusiveness, while on the 
 contrary we have broken laws to please them. 
 
Ill 
 
 If then our ¿efamers mean by lucrative employs those in 
 connection with the treasury, they have neither the right 
 to complain, for they have had their offices under it. All 
 we have to do is to produce the case of Count Villa Nueva, 
 who for years has been u superintendente general " of the 
 Island, eminently to the advantage of the public purse and 
 his own interests, and whatever complaint may be uttered 
 after we have stated an instance like the one in hand, will 
 of itself fall to the ground. 
 
 But, aside from this, we have the names of Las Casas, 
 Calleja, Eamirez, Cárdenas, Jústiz, Carrillo, Mantilla, Val- 
 dés Hernández, Bulnes, Martin Bivero, Mallen and innum- 
 erable Cubans, who have held office of prominence in the 
 Treasury of the Island, and if we sum up the names we 
 have had occasion to cite, it is a proof also that bur memory 
 is not altogether impaired as yet. 
 
 Were we to undertake to produce other meritorious Cu- 
 ban names in other branches of the Spanish service, we 
 should have to devote a large space to it, but our columns are 
 unfortunately circumscribed in extent. Who, for instance, 
 is not aware, that our army teems with Spanish-Cubans ? 
 AVho ignores that the distinguished and brave Captain 
 Ferrer is a native of Havana and that during several 
 months he has been Captain General of the Island ? And 
 who can deny the tribute due to excellence tomen like Acos- 
 ta, Ampudia, Yillalon and other general officers who have 
 taken share and still take share in the struggle on the side 
 of Spain "? Who is not aware of the enthusiasm, the deci- 
 sion and bravery of other leading military men, who, if 
 less eminent than the foregoing, have not the less distin- 
 guished themselves; Portnondo, Bomay, Laca, Bustillo 
 Bérez, who, during the strife which this luckless insurrec- 
 tion has stirred up, have followed the natural impulse of 
 the majority in their native land, who have proved ascourge 
 and a terror to rebels ? 
 
 Are not those who impute Spain with egotism in dealing- 
 out office perfectly aware, perchance, that lieutenant gov- 
 ernorships are confidential posts, and that they have been 
 occupied by Herrera, Letamendi, Santaliees, Boinez, above 
 alluded to, and many others besides f 
 
 If all this be public and notorious, why, then, is the 
 stigma of reproach still fluug at Spain, a calumny which 
 Ave have demolished by this article not through the instru- 
 mentality of an official array of figures, but by the enume- 
 ration from memory of a minimum portion ? 
 
 It is not easy, it should be conies ed, to muster patience 
 
112 
 
 enough to be able to stand ;i systein of attack of this na- 
 ture, a system ayIiícIi endeavors to forge tsiomph from 
 disloyal defamation, since by the ordinary legal coar-e or 
 by the sword it is not as. easily obtained, because Cuba 
 stands on our side, with the ex"e.ition of so msigiiiiicant a 
 minority. 
 
XIX. 
 
 Summing up from what has been ventilated in preceding articles, in order 
 to prove that the independence of Cuba can neither be arbitrarily de- 
 creed, nor undertaken as an experiment. — Essential foundations on 
 which it should rest. — Practical examples. — The colonial system of 
 Great Britain. — The colonial system of Spain. — Kespective results. — 
 Necessity to be guidon by experience, so as to avoid false measures 
 ruinous to the future of the Island. — Statistics comparing the develop- 
 ment of population and of material resources in Porto Rico with that 
 of Cuba with a view to tbis question. — The number of inhabitants that 
 Cuba should contain to ba on a level with Porto Rico. — The population 
 which Cuba might conveniently hold. — The two Islands compared with 
 respect to their territorial extent and resources. — Digression showing 
 their importance to the United States. — Necessity of retaining the Is- 
 land lander the Spanish flag, so that tbe same may reach tho develop- 
 ment which an independent state would require. — The eloquent exam- 
 ples of Hayti and St. Domingo. 
 
 We are now approaching the end of this pamphlet, for 
 to make any further digressions would be useless. . We 
 have at length been able to produce a a batch of evidence 
 showing the systematic dissemination of errors having 
 reference to Cuban^ affairs by spirits either vulgar, pas- 
 sionate or ignorant;/ 
 
 We have pointed out to all true men the immeasurable 
 damage which the rebellion could not well fail to inflict 
 upon a country of the importance of Cuba, that such damage 
 would recoil upon the commerce and revenue of the Uni- 
 ted States by whatever solution of the quarrel that might 
 be arrived at now, which should not bring back the state 
 of affairs in the Island to the same status that prevailed 
 there ere the insurrection was set on foot. Facts in hand 
 rather than by logical deduction we have striven to show 
 the baselessness which underlies the scandalous proceed- 
 ings, and by the production of figures that cannot be de- 
 
114 
 
 monstrated away, we have furthermore shown that C aba 
 and Spain are a unit in condemning and warring upon such 
 proceedings criminal from whatever point you may exam- 
 ine them, proceedings carried on by a handful of men who 
 are still in the bush, and another batch of speculators with- 
 out honor, without patriotism, and without conscience, 
 who live abroad upon the spoils which events may turn up, 
 without pausing to reflect upon the devastation which their 
 mode of life produces in the land of their birth. 
 
 Cuba may become independent, but in saying that much 
 we do not mean to imply that she will finally attain such 
 independence while the spurious from among her sons con- 
 tinue to follow the lengths they are now going. 
 
 Even supposing that Spain evacuated the Island* or 
 ceded it by a mistaken policy, and to the detriment of the 
 general interests of the nation, and to that of all the mer- 
 cantile and moral interests of the universe, there would be 
 no independence, but merely a change of flags, that chained 
 her forever in perpetual slavery under a more powerful 
 nation. 
 
 We have fully explained all this in a former article, Ave 
 have said enough to prove that it is not idle talk. Lee us, 
 then, fully and straightforward undertake a frauk unbos 
 oming upon the subject of our thesis with that sincerity 
 which the work calls for. 
 
 In order to enable a colonial population such as Cuba 
 has to aspire to the rank of an independent nation, it U 
 requisite, if not as yet fully developed, that at least there 
 shoir d not be the capacity wanting, the proper development 
 to attaiu it. To be deficient in such capacity involves the 
 very greatest danger. Mere numerical force will not suf- 
 fice to have the mastery of such danger, besides consider- 
 ing the extent of territory the numerical force that could 
 now be mustered would be but small, and thus there could 
 be no guaranties offered for the future as to the continuance 
 of the country's advancement. Such advancement also de- 
 pends upon its soil, its organization of labor, its moras, and 
 its hist orical antecedents. Capaci ty for selt'-go vernment can- 
 not be decreed in a country like Cuba, we have to search 
 first whether such capacity exists, by the light of science, 
 the most .-earthing inquiry must be passed upon it, so that 
 all doubt-s be dispelled. 
 
 Let us point for an example, to the United States on their 
 obtaining independence. England had so weaned the col- 
 onics to look out for their own interests, their colonial edu- 
 cation was made to such a degree that independence was, 
 
115 
 
 so to say, incarnate in germ in their official life as well as 
 in their habits. They had been accustomed to govern 
 themselves from the incipient stages of organization, their 
 transition from the colonial state to that of sovereign com- 
 munities was nothing but. a natural event in their exist- 
 ence as a people, it was inevitable in any case, there was 
 no danger lying hidden beneath their political, administra- 
 tive and social habits upon emerging to a new life. 
 
 Spain, on the contrary, following the inspirations of nat- 
 ural sentiments, and being more concerned in the welfare 
 of her sons, or, in other words, more of a mother than of 
 a step-mother, has unfortunately not brought up her colo- 
 nies to be able to confront premature independence ; she 
 has reared them to attain the development of the very ut- 
 most vitality near her bosom and in her lap, so that they 
 may present themselves in the congress of nations on a 
 footing of equality. 
 
 This loving conduct may have been a mistake, but it 
 nevertheless is a fact, and should be accepted as such, for 
 the hand of man cannot change in a day what centuries 
 have wrought. For this very reason the independence of 
 Spanish America has produced such bitter fruit in contra- 
 distinction from the brilliant results which the independ- 
 ence of the United States has brought abo at. 
 
 Taking, then, the things such as they are, and while 
 some restless spirits would fain force Cuba into paths in- 
 compatible with the measured and progressive step of its 
 organism, let us try to at least approximately get at a due 
 estimate as to what or.r western gem will require in the 
 way of advancement, to make her walk alone, the worthy 
 compeer of sovereign nations. 
 
 We shall, in order to sufficiently demonstrate this last 
 chapter of our thesis, not even step beyond our own Span- 
 ish Antilles in search of vouchers. Cuba and Porto Eico 
 present them in abundance to enable us to draw compari- 
 sons and to finish up to satisfaction that which we have- 
 undertaken to prove. We shall, therefore, confine our- 
 selves 1o them alone, and comprehension will be all the 
 easier even among those who may be less experienced in 
 researches of the kind. 
 
 Cuba, o ver an area of 3,615 square miles, had by the census 
 of 1862 about one million four hundel thousand inhabit- 
 ants, while Porto Eico, two years previous, with 331 14-00 
 square leagues, counted five hundred and eighty-three thou- 
 sand three hund ed ¿nd eight. There were thus in Cuba 386 
 inhabitants to the square league, and in Porto Eico 1,744. 
 
11G 
 
 Climate and soil being the same bel ween the two Islands, 
 as could be easily shown, and is besides sufficiently known 
 to attempt demonstration under this bead, it can hardly 
 fail to strike even a superficial observer that a remarkable 
 fact is here presented between the one, the larger Antille, 
 eleven times the size of her sister, and the lesser one, 
 nearly five times her superior in point of density of popu- 
 lation. 
 
 We thus perceive that Porto Eico in the year above 
 named had attained a remarkable degree of development 
 as regards her population. She has since added to it an- 
 other hundred thousand souls; but keeping in view, so far 
 as Porto Pico is concerned, the census year of 1860 we 
 find that the density of population in the Island was then 
 as great, as that of the new German Empire has been 
 found to be by a census taken after Alsace and Lorraine 
 had been united to it subsequent to the late war. 
 
 What we have just exhibited with reference to Cuba, 
 furthermore goes to show, that the Island is comparatively 
 sparcely jwpulated, and that, such being the case, inde- 
 pendence is uncalled for. Not that during independence 
 the population of the Island might not increase, were the 
 same an homogeneous one and were there a better under- 
 standing subsisting among motley races. The case that 
 would be arising there, as we have previously shown, 
 would present another feature in as much as immi- 
 gration would keep aloof and the material prosperity of 
 the country, which now nourishes it, thrown into confusion. 
 
 We shall assume that Cuba may be strong enough to 
 ensure the safety of autonomical existence the day she 
 comes to the level of Porto Eico, but she would only reach 
 such level on counting something like 0,304,500 inhabitants, 
 at the rate of 1,744 to the square league, the Porto Eico 
 density. 
 
 This would be, it is true, quite a large population and 
 yet it would be but one-half of what she conveniently 
 might hold, did she rise to the density of Belgium which 
 upon 1 ,203 square leagues represents 3,928 inhabitants to 
 the league. 
 
 In order to still better show the difference which results 
 against Cuba in comparing the Island with Porto Eico we 
 may as well take up again the annual trade balance of the 
 United States, since it will admirably serve our purpose. 
 
 In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1870, the imports 
 from and exports to Cuba figure with $71,000,000, and 
 $11,000,000 those between Porto Eico and the United 
 
117 
 
 States, showing that the larger Antille had a trade of 
 $19,640 to the square league, against Porto Rico doing a 
 business of $32,934 to the square league with the same 
 country. 
 
 Let us now make a little calculation which it will do the 
 American people good to follow us in. Supposing Cuba, 
 to be content to go on augmenting her population and 
 wealth under the folds of the Spanish flag, the protection 
 of which has brought about such results in the lesser of 
 the two Antilles, so that she might reach independence 
 under circumstances as favorable as those offered by Porto 
 Pico at the present day, Cuba would appear upon the fis- 
 cal statement of the United States with the enormous sum 
 of $119,056,410, which we arrive at on multiplying 3,6ir> 
 square leagues with the $32,934 above quoted. 
 
 And in order to silence beforehand absurd remarks that 
 might here- be thrown in to try to convince us, that Cuba. 
 without the protection of Spain may be able to attain the 
 same state of progression in the lapse of time that would 
 be required to reach a population proportionate to that of 
 Porto Pico, it is nothing but due that we should observe 
 that the Haytian and Dominican nationalities taken to- 
 gether occupy an Island but little inferior to Cuba in size 
 (containing 3,076 square leagues), while the population 
 is 900,000. This population having at its command such 
 a large and magnificent domain and a climate to match, 
 have come before the trade of the United States with an 
 aggregate of but $4,000,000 in the same year, or in othei 
 words the average to the square league was but $1,393. 
 
 Here, then, we have practical truths exhibited ; theory 
 before them is hushed. 
 
 Having arrived at the final demonstration which we haó 
 kept in reserve in favor of our diesis and which we intend 
 should contain more substance than any of the preceding 
 articles., our readers will pardon our taking breath in the 
 meantime. 
 
XX. 
 
 The great slavery and labor questions.— Consequences of unconditional and 
 sudden negro emancipation in Jamaica, Hayti and St. Domingo. — Lo- 
 gical deduc'ions from faets. — How slavery is disappearing in Porto 
 Rieo — In what manner it will disappear in Cuba. — Benevolent spirit of 
 the Spanish laws, as proved by statistics. — New legislation. — Spain 
 carryiag out the great plan of labor reform without profoundly disturb- 
 ing the subsisting organism. — Other changes. — Cuba's present popula- 
 tion, what it may come to be in its greatest development and what po- 
 pulation the Island will require for independence. — Statistical compa 
 ri<ons. — Numbers that tell. — When the change will be brought about in 
 the natural course of events. 
 
 In the investigations which we have gone through in 
 order to arrive at the definite clearing up of this problem, 
 there will be found embodied facts of the greatest interest, 
 not only justifying the reasonings put forth by us thus far 
 counselling Cuba not to precipitate the steps of a 
 measured advancement which of itself leads her to a glo- 
 rious future, but also presenting a solution of other impor- 
 tant problems that have reference to social changes in the 
 Spanish Antilles. 
 
 In countries where the negroes have been emancipated 
 without order and concert, the liberation of the slaves 
 being the work of sentiment rather than of statesmanship, 
 it has so happened that their number has been diminish- 
 ing, like, for instance, in Jamaica, to an alarming extent, 
 or that for purposes of labor and civilization their number 
 counts for very little, as we observe in the case of Hayti 
 and St. Domingo. 
 
 The natural conclusion from all this has been, and El 
 Cronista has accepted and sustained it many a time, that 
 unconditional liberation is prejudicial to the slaves them- 
 
120 
 
 selves, and that nothing would be more contrary to the legi- 
 timate interests of civilization and commerce than to knock 
 off the shackles at a single blow, this all the more in Cuba 
 where the slaves are still so numerous. 
 
 Th® abyss which apparently separates this argument 
 from generally accepted modern ideas is by no means so 
 wide a gap as many would pursuade us were the case, nor 
 is it so very difficult to fill it as extreme philanthropy 
 preaches. 
 
 If the Southern States of the American Union had ab- 
 stained from transferring the question ta the battle-field, 
 no decree of instantaneous emancipation would have been 
 issued Or do the philanthropists think, perchance, that 
 it is more conducive to the good of a country to ruin it 
 together with its workmen, for the mere pleasure of chang- 
 ing by a stroke of the pen the state in which these and their 
 ancestors have been accustomed to live for centuries past, 
 than to do the thing by degrees, to the manifestly greater 
 advantage of the country, of the negroes themselves, and 
 of the commercial interests of the world at large ? 
 
 Porto Eico, where the emancipation of the slaves has 
 not yet been decreed, offers the most conclusive and most 
 praiseworthy example as to how the question may be and 
 should be solved. All the colored people there were slaves 
 at first, the same as in Cuba, the Antilles and Bahama 
 Islands, as well as everywhere on the American main land, 
 and Porto Eico contained in 1861 two hundred and eighty- 
 two thousand seven hundred and fifty-one people of color, 
 only forty-one thousand seven hundred and thirty six of 
 whom were slaves, that is to say but about one-seventh. 
 Since then the total papulation of Porto Eico has been 
 augmented by one-sixth, the number of slaves has come 
 down to below thirty-four thousand, and the precise pro- 
 portion at tbe present day between the free colored and 
 slave population of the Island is of one slave to every ten 
 freedmen. 
 
 This miracle has been accomplished without in the least 
 injuring either the moral or material interests of the Is!?ind 
 and without inflicting a blow upon universal commerce in- 
 timately intertwined with the question, by merely two sim- 
 ple measures : abolishment of the slave-trade, come to an 
 end in Porto Eico for many years past, and strict vagrancy 
 laws. Free people of color are guarantied and imposed 
 work through the instrumentality of certain municipal or- 
 dinances, which fix the wages aud employ every freedman 
 who may stand in need of work. 
 
121 
 
 In Cuba, though, later thauiu Porto Eico, the slave-trade 
 wasextiuguished some years past, and there remains little to 
 be said upon the whole subject. Let similar vagrancy laws 
 be introduced against idleness and vagaboudry of free peo- 
 ple of color and similar results will be reached in Cuba. 
 Let the colored laboring classes multiply and become moral, 
 held to useful occupation the same as has been ordained 
 by Providence, that man should work instead of living 
 like the Haytians do, or as the negroes do in the land from 
 which they originated, to the scandal of the world. Let 
 civilization disenthral the negro, lift him up and lead him 
 to better destinies. 
 
 Oar laws, even previous to those which the Corte-? of 
 Madrid voted two years «go and which King Amadeus 
 despatched some months ago, have for their object the lib- 
 eration of the slaves by a steady and progressive method, 
 so much so that even i a Cuba at the time when the slave- 
 trade was still flourishing, and when the last census was 
 taken, out of 504,488 people of color then in the Island, but 
 308,550 were slaves. 
 
 Add then the law enacted that all children born of slaves 
 are free, and the extinction of slavery by age, voted by the 
 Cortes and decreed by King Amadeus, and it is easily per- 
 ceived, it is in fact as clear as the noonday sun, that s'av- 
 ery is at an end in the Spanish Antilles with the only ex- 
 ception, that instead of the fact being disastrous to the 
 slaves themselves, to the Islands, and to the most legiti- 
 mate interests of universal civilization, as had been the 
 case in the colonial possessions of other European coun- 
 tries, and as it will continue to be for many a year to the 
 Southern States of this greac Confederation, Spain, taking 
 warning from what happened elsewhere, will give the world 
 the magnificent spectacle of creating in the western hemi- 
 sphere a great and important nation by means of the very 
 discordant elements which have scattered ruin around her. 
 
 If that which forms the objections raised by abolition- 
 ists against the measured headway made in this respect in 
 Cuba and Porto Eico till both Islands reach the maturity 
 of nations without undue precipitation were only the one 
 that slavery is prolonged by us, the foregoing ought to set 
 at rest this point, or the abolitionists are warring against 
 the laws of humanity and logic. 
 
 If, on the one hand, the slave-trade has already been 
 blotted out in our Antilles, if slaves are free at sixty 
 years of age and if the children are liberated on seeing the 
 light of day, no sophism can sustain slavery in the future. 
 
122 
 
 All that is now left to show is to determine the period 
 when the important transition may take place upon which 
 this work of ours has been concentrating and we shall do 
 so forthwith. We said that Cuba will have to reach the 
 state of development in which Porto Eico finds herself at 
 the present day, in order to enable her to attain without 
 incurring dangers of magnitude, the rank of an independ- 
 ent nation, and we have at the same time shown by figures 
 that this period may be reached by the time that Cuba 
 shows sufficient development to count at least 6,304,500 
 inhabitants. This is one-half of what the Island may 
 hold with an eye towards Belgium, a country not the su- 
 perior of Cuba either in natural resources or geographical 
 importance and in doing so we grant Cuba with the resour- 
 ces she possesses and the autonómica! strength she may 
 gather the same space of time which society grants to man, 
 declaring him independent when about half of his term of 
 life and Ids career has been reached. 
 
 By the aid of history and mathematics we can without 
 losing many more words about it, easily determine the time 
 when Cuba may be near reaching national emancipation. 
 
 Cuba entered, the present century Avith an incoherent 
 population of about 300,000 inhabitants, after granting re- 
 fuge to families that were flying from Hayti and St. Do- 
 mingo for their lives, and after the cession of Louisiana 
 carried to her shores many from that portion of the Conti- 
 nent, and after Spain began to bestow greater attention 
 upon the Antilles, placing the Island in a position which 
 it was entitled to. 
 
 Between that time and 1802, the last taking of the cen- 
 sus, the 300,000 inhabitants had increased to 1,400,000, 
 being four and two-thirds times what they were then. 
 
 Assuming then, that the insurrection have swallowed all 
 further increase between 1862 and the present day and ap- 
 plying the same multiplication above exhibited, and we 
 shall have in another sixty years a population in the Island 
 of 6,700,000 souls. In other words Cuba requires as an 
 extreme 59 years to come up to the same density of popu- 
 lation now observable in Porto Bico, and we believe that 
 the country may then have reached a sufficient state of de- 
 velopment in its provincial status, or if we are to give our 
 own candid opinion upon the subject we would say : — 
 
 That in about half a century from now Cuba 
 may become independent, that this is the con- 
 clusion, ¥e have arrived at after fully and 
 scientifically investigating- the subject. 
 
WINDING UP. 
 
 Fifty years of the life of nations are like a drop of water 
 in the unfathomable depths of the oceans and the genera- 
 tion, which is bent upon steering counter to the eternal 
 order of nature is handed over to posterity branded with 
 ignominy by history, after working the ruin of its own 
 country. 
 
 This is our conviction as we write it down and we would 
 rather that the hand tracing it should be severed from its 
 wrist than that it should serve as an instrument to intrigue. 
 If then there be mistakes in what we have submitted, they 
 have not been premeditated, but are the failing of the 
 scientific proofs we consulted. Nothing is infallible in 
 human matters, nor have we the arrogant pretension that 
 we would monopolize the exclusive truth. Have we not, 
 alas ! proved the truth but too much in that which in all 
 sincerity we have demonstrated ? We, therefore, but re- 
 peat what we said at the very commencement : let those 
 who know it, show the truth, not merely by affirming that 
 such and such is the case, as ignorance is in the habit of 
 doing, but by means of other arguments superior to our 
 own. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A MINE AND A COUNTEE-MINE. 
 I. 
 
 We are not in the habit of indulging in formal polemics 
 with the Herald. Why not? A weather-cock that veers 
 round with all the winds of the compass, mimicking the 
 natural propensities of that which is vulgar in abject adu- 
 lation of it, the paper will upset to-day its arguments of 
 the day previous with the same ease, with which it will 
 to-morrow with either fresh or threadbare aphorism destroy 
 the most brilliant conclusions it may have arrived at in its 
 last article. 
 
 The Herald is the incarnation of Penelope in the Amer- 
 ican press, the least reflecting of the world's press with 
 few, and, therefore, all the more to be esteemed exceptions. 
 We are at a loss what to be more wondering at, the daring 
 with which it attacks and pulverizes the most solid princi- 
 ples of the social fabric and those of the organism of its own 
 country, with no other impulse to inspire it than the wish 
 to shine by insolence and extravagance, or the assuranec 
 with which it treats to its constant aberrations the Amer- 
 ican people, patient enough to listen to them, to applaud 
 them and even to raise them to the skies. 
 
 We should almost be inclined to suppose that the one 
 
126 
 
 were made to suit the other if events and their results 
 did not turn up in a practical manner the real, the solid 
 and true public opinion of the people, showing the little 
 esteem in which the Herald is held and why the paper is ne- 
 vertheless read. The American people is fond of strong emo- 
 tions, as long as they do not affect its real interests, and 
 inoffensive as the excitement is, which the Herald's tirades 
 produce, the latter are taken in the same sense as theatrical 
 display will be sought by way of relaxation in the midst 
 of the graver daily labors, which keep it busy, enrich it 
 and raise it to fame. 
 
 It is not always, however, our privilege, nor would it be 
 patriotic in El Cronista, to leave unnoticed the articles 
 appearing in the Herald, for some of them bear a semblance 
 of reason upon the surface of its organism and concep- 
 tions, which might inveigle those imperfectly informed, 
 and since unfortunately solid and thoughtful judgment is 
 not over abundant among the general public, it seems to us 
 but due that we should prevent dimness of sight among 
 readers of the paper in question by a quiet and reasoning 
 answer, rather than that ideas of the kind should be 
 adopted by Americans on the eve of the opening of Con- 
 gress. 
 
 This is the motive which inspires us in reproducing here 
 the article of the Herald, appearing in its issue of the 18th 
 of November. Our mode of proceeding is fully justified 
 and we are constrained to adopt it, reserving unto ourself 
 a full reply to all its more salient ideas in the next edition 
 of El Cronista. 
 
 OUR FUTURE POLICY IN REGARD TO CUBA — SHALL SLA- 
 VERY 5ÍXIST LONGER ON THE ISLAND? 
 
 " The existence of slavery in Cuba is a reproach to the 
 United States, and is especially scandalous to the Repub- 
 lican party, which has held control of the government for 
 the past twelve years, and has just secured a new lease of 
 power through the personal strength and popularity of 
 President Grant. The crusade against slavery within our 
 own borders brought on the war of the Southern rebellion, 
 cost the nation hundreds of thousands of lives and mil- 
 lions of treasure, and still keeps a large section of the 
 country stripped of those rights guarantied to all the 
 States by the constitution. Therespon ibility of abolition- 
 ism for the war has been from time to time denied for po- 
 litical effect; but the day has gone by for such, sophistry 
 
127 
 
 and the truth of history vindicates itself. When Mr. Sew- 
 ard, pending tbe first election of Mr. Lincoln, declared that 
 the triumph of the latter would enable the Republican 
 party within four years to convert: the Supreme Court of 
 the United States into a partisan tribunal that would in- 
 terpret the national constitution as giving no rights to 
 slavery, he committed an act of war just as effectually as 
 did the rebels when they fired the first gun on Sumter. 
 From that moment an appeal to arms bésame inevitable, 
 and slavery in the United States was doomed. No unpre- 
 judiced person now thinks of upbraiding republicanism 
 for its attack upon the ' institution' anymore than they 
 would blame the colonists who threw the tea overboard in 
 Boston harbor. The end justified the means. But it is 
 questionable whether a party that has carried a great moral 
 idea to a successful issue at home at such enormous risk 
 and sacrifice ; that has soaked its own soil with the blood 
 of its best citizens in the cause of freedom for the negro 
 race, can, without censure, refrain from usin^ its power to 
 strike down slavery in the neighboring Island of Cuba. 
 Yet we find our Republican Congress and the administra 
 tion at Washington not only abstaining from aggressive 
 acts against the system of slavery in the Spanish colony, 
 but doing much to foster it and keep it in existence We 
 contend that inasmuch as the party in absolute control of 
 the legislative and executive branches of the government 
 achieved power on the principle of unceasing war against 
 slavery as a great human wrong:, it has not the moral right 
 to remain inactive while four hundred thousand negroes 
 are held in bondage on an island lying in our waters and 
 within reach of our hands. Inaction is not, however, the 
 least of its sins. The policy of the domiaant party has 
 given direct aid to Cuban slavery, both in its unfriendli- 
 ness to wars the cause of the revolutionists and in it-» libe- 
 ral encouragement of Spanish interests in its commercial 
 intercourse with that nation. 
 
 "We pointed out to General Grant a few days ago the 
 fact that the shortest and surest, w^y to liberate the Cuban 
 slaves is to free the Island from Spanish rule. Independ- 
 ence to Cuba means freedom to every human being on the 
 Inland, for the regularly adopted constitution ot the lie- 
 public declaies that ' all the inhabitants,' of whatever race 
 or color, shall be ' absolutely free.' The recoguiti >n by the 
 United States of the belligerency of the re^o ationi^ts— a 
 recognition to which over four years' successful resistance 
 to Spanish authority entitle them, would speedi y clo¿e the 
 
128 
 
 struggle and drive the Spaniards from the Maud. This is 
 the judgment of reflecting fsiends of the patriots, and the 
 unceasing intrigues of the Spanish authorities to prevent 
 such action on the part of our government indicate that 
 they share the opinton. By refusing to Cubans, after four 
 years of rebellion, the rights that were accorded to the 
 South almost as soon as they had raised the banner of in- 
 surrection, our government incurs a grave responsibility, 
 of which it ought to be glad to relieve itself, and, as we 
 have heretofore shown, General Grant has now a happy 
 opportunity to make a new departure in his Cuban policy 
 appear a graceful concession to the sentiment of the peo- 
 ple who have just re-elected him to the Presidency of the 
 United States by a largely non-partisan vote. Should 
 there be any hesitation about the recognition of Cuban 
 belligerency, or should such actidh as we believe ought to 
 be taken by the administration fail in securing the desired 
 object, we have still the resort of an earnest appeal to the 
 Spanish government for the abolition of human servitude 
 on the Island, and, better still, ihe means of forcing that 
 concession from Spain if- we are serious in demanding it. 
 Up to the present time ihere has been much talk at Madrid 
 about the emancipation of the slaves in the colonies, and 
 the Republican party has declared in favor of such a pol- 
 icy; but the promises of the government appear to have 
 been induced by expediency and the declarations of the 
 republicans seem to have been made more for effect than 
 from principle. The protracted rebellion afforded a favor- 
 able opportunity for sweeping away the evil of slavery, 
 had the Spaniards been really desirous of accomplishing 
 that professed object ; but so much time has been wasted 
 over unsatisfactory propositions for gradual emancipation 
 and so many difficulties have constantly appeared in the 
 way of action that all faith in the sincerity of the move- 
 ment has been destroyed. 
 
 " Intervention with Spain for the liberation of Cuban 
 slaves is no new proposition to Congrc ss or the adminis- 
 tration. ^Neither has been idle in this direction, so far as 
 sentiment is concerned. President Grant has alluded to 
 the subject time and again ; Congress has resolved and 
 memorialized, and Secretary Fish has been as strong in 
 words and as weak in action as usual. Congress long since 
 adopted a resolution declaring that the existence of slavery 
 in Cuba would have an important bearing on the diploma- 
 tic and commercial relations of the . two countries, and no- 
 tice to that effect is supposed to have been given by our 
 
129 
 
 Secretary of State to the Spanish government. We have 
 plenty of evidence to show that the powers at Madrid 
 stand pledged to our government to abolish slavery on the 
 island, a promise which they have as yet shown no sin- 
 cere intention of redeeming. In January, 1870, Secretary 
 Fish, writing to the United States Minister in Spain, said, 
 1 This government regards the government of Madrid as 
 committed to the abolition of slavery in Cuba ;' and the 
 Secretary went on to instruct the Minister that if it should 
 appear that the Cuban insurrection was regarded by the 
 Spanish authorities as finally and completely suppressed, 
 he would seize the opportunity to inform that this govern- 
 ment, relying on l assurances so repeatedly given,' would 
 expect immediate steps to be taken for the emancipation 
 of the slaves in the Spanish colonies. In June, 1870, 
 Senator Sumner presented a report from the Committee on 
 Foreign Eelations of the Senate, declaring the £ pain of 
 the American government at the fact that the pretension 
 of property in man is still upheld in the island colonies of 
 Spain lying in American waters ; that such a spectacle is 
 justly offensive to all who love republican institutions, and 
 especially to the United States, who now, in the name of 
 justice and for the sake of good neighborhood, ask that 
 slavery shall cease there at once.' In Jul,> , 1870, the cor- 
 respondence between Secretary Fish and our Minister at 
 Madrid was sent in to the Senate, and from that it ap- 
 peared that in June preceding, about the time the above 
 report was made, the Secretary addressed an official com- 
 munication to the Minister, in which he spoke of the plan 
 proposed in the Spanish Cortes for the 'extirpation of 
 this blot upon the civilization of America ' as falling far 
 short of what the American people ' had a right to expect.' 
 Mr. Fish showed at length the insufficiency and deception 
 of the proposal for a gradual emancipation of the Cuban 
 slaves, and said, l You will state to the Spanish govern- 
 ment, in a friendly but decided manner, that this govern- 
 ment is disappointed in this project ; that it fails to meet 
 the expectations that have been raised by the various con- 
 versations with you ; that in the opinion of the President 
 it will produce dissatisfaction throughout the civilized 
 world, that is looking to see liberty as the universal law of 
 labor ; that it will fail to satisfy or to pacify Cuba ; that 
 peace, if restored, can be maintained only by force so long 
 as slavery exists, and that our proximity to that island 
 and our intimate relations with it give us a deep interest 
 in its welfare, and justify the expression of our earnest 
 
130 
 
 desire to see prevail tlio policy which, we believe calculated 
 to restore its peace and give it permanent prosperity.' 
 These were certainly brave words ; but they have unfor- 
 tunately been unproductive of good. It is now nearly three 
 years since they were penned, and Cuba is still in revolu- 
 tion and the fetters cling to the limbs of four hundred 
 thousand negroes on the island as cruelly as ever. This is 
 not as it should be. A powerful nation like the United 
 States should utter no threat that it does not mean to 
 carry out, and should make no demand that it does not in- 
 tend to enforce. The republican Congress, which, nearly 
 three years ago, l in the name of justice and for the sake 
 of good neighborhood,' asked of Spain that Cuban slavery 
 should cease at once, and which declared that the non- 
 emancipation of the slaves on the Island would influence. 
 our diplomatic and commercial intercourse with the 
 Spanish nation, is the republican Congress of to-day, with 
 a powerful majority in both branches of the national Le- 
 gislature. The administration which nearly three years 
 ago declared that the government of Spain was pledged 
 to us for the abolition of slavery in Cuba ; which declared 
 that our government, relying on pledges repeatedly given, 
 would expect the immediate emancipation of the slaves in 
 the Spanish colonies; which formally expressed dissatis- 
 faction with a scheme of gradual emancipation, and in 
 view of our proximity to Cuba and our intimate relations 
 with the Island pressed for the redemption of the promises 
 of unconditional emancipation, is the administration now 
 in power and about to enter upon a new term of office. 
 Are the republican Congress, the republican administra- 
 tion and the republican party to stand idly by another four 
 years, contented with high-sounding protests, while the 
 Cuban negroes drag out their lives in bondage and suf- 
 fering ? 
 
 "There is an easy way to force the abolition of Cuban 
 slavery from the Spanish government without the argu- 
 ment of powder and steel. The government and people of 
 the United States are in fact to-day its chief support, and 
 without their aid human servitude would not survive a 
 year. Our trade makes slavery profitable on the Island; 
 our money enriches the slave owner and confirms him in 
 his desire to rob the negroes of their labor; the revenue 
 we secure to Cuba make its ownership valuable to Spain, 
 and raises up a barrier to its independence and freedom. In 
 1868, of the whole six hundred and twenty thousand tons 
 f sugar exported from the Island in nine months only, 
 
- 131 
 
 from Janmry 1 to September 30, the XjhtSrtá /5v/7<\rí rr-ik 
 nearly four hundred thousand tons, a&d duriug tiie same 
 peiind, of three hundred and thirty thousand tons or mo- 
 lasses, we took nearly two hundred and twenty thousand 
 tons. The silgar crop for the year 1870 71 was five hun- 
 dred and forty thousand tons, of which the United States 
 received three hundred and twenty thousand tons. We 
 may safely state that we consume on an average between 
 sixty and seventy per cent, of the Cuba crop of sugar and 
 a greater percentage of the crop of molasses. This slave- 
 labor sugar, under our present tariff, comes in direct con- 
 flict with our free labor, and realizes to the Cubans a larger 
 profit than our own citizens can secure. On the other 
 hand, Spain affords us no facilities or advantages in the 
 Cuban markets. Her' tariff discriminates against Ameri 
 can imports, and the enormous 'duties are prohibitory of a 
 great part of our products. Machinery and a few articles 
 that cannot well be procured from home are the only things 
 on which Spanish tariff allows us a fair market in Cuba. 
 Our government thus directly encourages the manufacture 
 of slave products in our immediate neighborhood, and 
 gives life to the system of slave labor. If we were to 
 place a duty of one hundred per cent, on the slave labor 
 sugars of Cuba we should at once do much to loosen the 
 hold of Spain upon the Island and to strike the fetters 
 from the limbs-of the slaves. The loss of the American 
 markets would be fatal to the present condition of affairs, 
 and it would not be long before the Island obtained its 
 freedom or voluntarily sought an asylum within the Union. 
 At all events, it is a policy which should commend itself 
 to Republicans, unless their concern for the liberty of the 
 negro has erased with the enfranchisement of those of the 
 race whose ballots are cast in the United States. At pres- 
 ent the party which for the sake of abolition provoked the 
 war of the rebelión stands in the position of encouraging 
 slavery on territory lying at our very threshold ; of p'aeiug 
 foreign slave labor in competition with our own free labor : 
 of raising no hand to release four hundred thousand neigh- 
 boring negroes from the most cruel bondage. Let us see 
 whether President Grant will suffer the Spanish govern- 
 ment to trifle with us on the subject of Cuban slavery for 
 another four years, or whether he will boldly take the in- 
 itiatory in carrying into practice the policy which his pres- 
 ent Secretary of State has been for the last three years so 
 bold ti avow and so incompetent to enforce." 
 J)o not let the most sensitive readers of El Cronista 
 
132 
 
 be alarmed by the article they have just perused, for in 
 reproducing the same in its integrity, we do so, as though 
 we had been done a favor, and not because we feel in the 
 least aggrieved by the absurdities it contains. 
 
 There is not one idea in it, not a word which cannot be 
 upset and which we shall fail in annihilating absolutely 
 and victoriously. If then upon this occasion we are to 
 have the satisfaction greater than we ever had it, of pro- 
 ducing such results, impelled by the very petulance of the 
 Herald, would not the faintheartedness be great, which 
 made us shrink from doing the service to our country at 
 the very moment, when the American Congress is about 
 to reassemble ? 
 
A MIKE AND A COUNTER-MINE. 
 II. 
 
 The argumentation set on foot by tlie Herald in the fore- 
 going- article may be and should be written against from 
 various points of view, an article intended to induce the 
 President of the United States to take a hand in Cuban 
 affairs in a violent and decisive manner, inimical to Spain. 
 
 The first point of view bears upon the constitutional or- 
 ganization of this country. Although not the most inter- 
 esting one to ourselves, it is very much so to the American 
 people, unless the latter be resigned to fling its dignity at 
 the feet of the first man of ambition, who may undertake 
 to begrime it, while flattering the bad instincts of the 
 crowd m the daring manner traced out by the Herald. 
 
 In order to bring out the hypothesis we have just dotted 
 down in a more salient shape, we should fix our attention 
 upon the call, which the paper addresses to the will of Presi- 
 dent Grant, inviting him to take either warlike or fiscal 
 action, both of which are beyond the attributes of his 
 office. The Herald, thereby, commits at least a twofold 
 violation of law ; on the one hand it aims at the relaxation 
 of political sentiment in the American people, trying to 
 familiarize its readers with the idea that the will of Presi- 
 dent Grant should be submitted to, and on the other tries 
 to induce the President to exercise a disastrous dictator- 
 ship, which would be destructive &f the true interests of 
 his country, after trampling under foot the letter and spirit 
 of the federal constitution of the Union ruthlessly and 
 positively. 
 
134: 
 
 The eleventh paragraph of the VIII. section of article I. 
 of the organic law, to which we allude, is so clear in its 
 stipulations, that nothing short of Congress itself could 
 change the friendly relatk-iis now subsisting between 
 Spain and the United States, whatever the pretext might 
 be, or whatever the question which the President might 
 attempt to avail of, for the purpose of changing the said 
 relations to do pleasure to the Herald. We dare not in all 
 frankness determine, into which of two aberrations the 
 said periodical fell, from the moment the constitutive 
 federal right is called in question, whether the same pur- 
 posely assailed the constitution of its country under the 
 impulse of a bastard interest, not difficult to fathom, when 
 we come to consider the perseverance with which the 
 Herald, in its columns, over and over again takes hold of 
 the same question, or whether it feels the necessity, that a 
 foreigner should step forward to expound to the most po- 
 pular and most widely circulated periodical in the country, 
 the fundamental law of this Republic. 
 
 Bur, however this may be, a greater humiliation could 
 hardly be inflicted upon the liberal spirit of the American 
 people, nothing could more eloquently demonstrate either 
 the b id fdith or the ignorance of our Xew York colleague, 
 whom we leave at liberty to take unto itself the one quali- 
 fication or the other. Aud since regarding the other points 
 of view, upon which we shall underlake to beat bim, the 
 said paper has been displaying neither greater fairness nor 
 greater ability, we may as well give it as our opinion at 
 once, that the " Herald," when it lost its a3tute and expe 
 rienced founder, left a void in its reputation as an impor- 
 tant paper, which there is not a second Bennett to be found 
 to fill. 
 
 We have been often reading, with no small degree of 
 astonishment, in some papers of this city the severe charges 
 laid at the doors of President Grant and Secretary Fish as 
 regards their international policy, especially with respect 
 to Spain. We say astonishment, for while accustomed to 
 study the laws of the country and the character of the 
 nation, in the midst of which we follow our modest, but 
 honorable profession, we have as yet been unable to gather 
 from the American constitution, and much less from the 
 practical life of the people, what legal and true initiative 
 the executive power could seize, in order to stamp a per- 
 sonal character upon its line of policy in questions of this 
 character. 
 
 It is true, that over this concrete point the "Herald" 
 
135 
 
 extends its apostrophes to tli8 majority in Congress, since 
 the same originated from the Bepublican party, which, in 
 a high-handed manner, abolished slavery. But who told 
 the "Herald" that the measure would have been resorted 
 to had the country been enjoying profound peace, a meas- 
 ure which President Lincoln took under com] misión of the 
 all-absorbiDg circumstances attending the civil war, de- 
 creeing the same as an extreme step, of salvation in order 
 to rescue the Republic ? 
 
 Real statesmen will not fail to perceive the true motives 
 that guided the action of the Republican party at the time. 
 There was. no remedy left but the two proclamations of 
 President Lincoln in order to save the Union, the one an 
 exceptional one, and the other an absolute one. By a high- 
 handed blow the war power of the South had to be annihi- 
 lated. But there is the same difference between the case 
 just alluded to and the raising of banners for the puerile 
 satisfaction of destroying Ameiican commerce in the midst 
 of profound peace, as can be traced between the action of 
 the respective majorities in Congress while the war was at 
 its height, and the one that might be expected to arise at 
 the present moment without imputing to Congress tlin 
 slightest want of steadiness of purpose iu either its con- 
 victions or party learnings. 
 
 Does the Herald expect us to practically demonstrate to 
 him that which we have just treated of 1 All we have to 
 do is to beat him on his own ground, for if the majority of 
 voters did not think like we do, they would never have 
 kept in power a party that might be suspected of a read- 
 iness to trample under foot its very history and principles 
 in the manner the Herald would fain have it do. 
 
 Seldom has there been so unequivocal a sign in a. free 
 community in favor of a prudent and peaceful government, 
 as the one evidenced by the late elections ; not only has 
 this tendency shown itself in the reelection of President 
 Grant, but in the crushing defeat which has been adminis- 
 tered to the turbulent men, who in Congress have been all 
 along imxjortuning members with the question of free 
 Cuba, as well as with the Monroe doctrine in a spirit very 
 distinct from what might prove conducive to the true in- 
 terests of their country. Greeley, Banks, Hall, Cox and 
 other no less distinguished and influential republicans, who 
 might have been supposed to be firmly seated in their re- 
 spective positions, have, nevertheless, been ousted from 
 them in the late election. Does the Herald suppose that 
 if public opinion in the United States had chimed in with 
 
136 
 
 tliose men on the most concrete and culminating point of 
 the article we are replying to, or even upon the general 
 theme of the Cuban question, these men would not have 
 come out victorious, although some personal split excluded 
 them from General Grant's personal consideration ? 
 
 Fortunately, however, the practical sense of the Amer- 
 ican people cannot be carried away by the idle talk of the 
 Herald, similar verbiage in the press is tacitly disavowed 
 and thus rendered nugatory ; a distinct line should, there- 
 fore, be drawn between the one and the other, or we are 
 liable to judge erroneously the one by the other and the 
 result at the polls has been, although the Herald's bound- 
 less wisdom may not thus understand it, that the Amer- 
 ican nation, essentially an industrial and hardworking 
 people, declines to entrust its future to dangerous adven- 
 turers, notwithstanding its apparent sympathy with irre- 
 gular manifestations, a sympathy more exclusively due to 
 free institutions and a liberal and tolerant spirit, than to 
 the circumstance that any very great value is attached to 
 them ; at the polls, on the contrary, such irregular doc- 
 trines are in the end disavowed. 
 
 Had General Grunt clung to his Santo Domingo scheme, 
 or had be pronounced upon the Cuban question ere the 
 late vote was cast for his re-election, he would certainly 
 have been defeated at the polls. At it stand-', the re-elec- 
 tiou is a fluttering tribute of acknowledgment to the pru- 
 dence which guided him during the first term of the Pre- 
 sidency. 
 
 There are in the article of the Herald contradictory 
 phrases anil charges intended to cast ridicule upon the 
 con luct of President Grant and Secret -iry Fish, which, in 
 oth« r portions of the same article, are upset again; for if 
 executive resolutions not having originated in Congress 
 are forbidden by the law and they have on the diplomatic 
 field gone the lengths submitted to by some Spanish min- 
 isters — as shown and affirmed by the Herald in exhioiiing 
 passages from despatches — it is evident, that instead of 
 censurmg, the s id paper should have anpauded them. 
 
 Tnis we s <y wth all the more candor, the greater the 
 annoyance is which, what happened, causes us, for ueither 
 President Grant nor Secretary Fish, h id a right to avail 
 at the time < f a critical state of affairs in Sp-nin, in order 
 to molest the lattsr wi¡h any undue exigencies, «cíenla- 
 ted to lower our national sovereignty, nor snonld a S >auish 
 minister have lisiened to and complacently answered them, 
 nor was there any occusou for che American government 
 
137 
 
 to take as a handle the assent above alluded to and to repeat 
 that it was the promise of Spain — a minister not being Spain, 
 
 Does riot the Herald thus understand it, when it goes 
 down on its knees before the supposed argumentation of 
 Secretary Fish, that slavery ought to be abolished in the 
 Spanish Antilles ? If it does, it knows nothing about the 
 constitutional right of nations, and it acts improperly in 
 arguing with such zeal, and so loudly and pedagogically, 
 upon a subject it does not understand. 
 
 The slavery question is the war-horse now intended to 
 ride to death our power in the Antilles, and the Herald, 
 casting aside all further reserve in the matter, thus de- 
 clares it to be in the article we have reproduced. Aud 
 since the question is of the greatest importance, inasmuch 
 as it affects the organism and the very existence of our 
 possessions over the seas, is there any man half way famil- 
 iarized with government affairs, who is not aware that with 
 out due process of law a change cannot be brought about 
 in what is so closely linked with Spain 1 Tell us, then, 
 where the legislative power rests in Spain ; tell us where 
 the limits of government attributes are laid ? A question 
 like this one would seem not to be out of place addressed 
 to the paper of most repute in the United States, ignorant 
 as it seems to be as to how Spain is constituted. Would 
 not, on fhe other hand, Secretary Fish feel rather abashed 
 were the question put to him with the exclusive character 
 of an answer to his diplomas ? 
 
 Spain is just as sovereign and as much the absolute 
 mistress to take charge of her interests and her business 
 affairs as the United States, and Spain has done with re- 
 spect to the slavery question all that possibly could be 
 done through the instrumentability of the sovereign legis- 
 lation of her chambers, doing due homage to the spirit of the 
 age, without thereby endangering her national interests, 
 Avithout inflicting a life of hardships upon the slaves. 
 
 Spain will never do what the North of the Union did to 
 the South, disorganize its field labor and open the doors to 
 pauperism. Spain has done the behests of her conscience, 
 the dictates of her duty by unfettering labor by degrees, 
 so that it may not starve. 
 
 Is not the law that liberates old men and the newly bom 
 children calculated to shortly carry out the abolition of 
 slavery as radically as the most exacting may wish for ? In 
 four years, out of 350,000 slaves 50,000 have been liber- 
 ated in Cuba and out of 40,000 in Porto Eico 10,000 by the 
 same process of law % 
 
13S 
 
 What more do the philanthropists want I Whither 
 would the absurdest exactions fain lead ns ? To general and 
 unconditional abolition j Cast aside your hypocrisy then 
 and turn yonr eyes towards the Brazils, a country holding* 
 1,700,000 slaves and yet enacting a law of emancipation a 
 great deal less liberal and effective than ours. 
 
 Why has not attention rather been bestowed upon that 
 other piece of land on American soil, especially by the 
 Hervid, a paper that sends out its pilots to the centre of 
 Africa for the extinguishment of slavery ; why is Cuba 
 singled out and diatribes leveled at her, why are threats 
 flung at us, intended to overwhelm us with confusion and 
 fear, threats which we laugh at. Why does not the Herald 
 calculate rather who would be the loser ? 
 
 Spain, we repeat, placing full confidence in the intelli- 
 gence and management of the inhabitants of the Antilles 
 has done what possibly could be done, and will do no more. 
 Did not but a few days ago a telegram from Madrid inform 
 us, that a certain proposition which had been started be- 
 fore the Cortes to abolish slavery by a stroke of the pen 
 was shelved by an overwhelming majority ? This ought 
 to have sufficed the Herald and will certainly have convin- 
 ced Secretary Fish, that it would be useless to base any 
 argument upon what some minister may have promised in 
 matters subject to decision in the Cortes and 4~o none 
 besides. 
 
 Although we, for our part, do not lay claim to states- 
 manship, we candidly confess that we ¡should laugh out- 
 right the day that a declaration of war agaiust Spain were 
 forthcoming from President Grant of Ms own accord, that 
 is to S3y, without being duly authorized by the Federal 
 Congress: such, at least, is the idea we entertain of the 
 attributes of each in his sphere, and the profound re.-pect 
 with which the law inspires us. 
 
 It would be difficult to imagine anything more silly than 
 the threats of the Herald, and they certainly furnish us 
 the due measure of its capacity and knowledge. The arti- 
 cle being a leader, we cannot confiue our thoughts to the 
 writer alone, and, therefore, extend them to the whole 
 paper. 
 
 The article says that a recognition of belligerency in 
 favor of insurgent Cubans would be a mortal dart struck 
 at the heart of Spain in Cuba, and that the American gov- 
 ernment should proclaim such recognition to be the begin- 
 ning of the end to be reached. 
 
 An act of heroism, indeed, such action on the part of the 
 
139 
 
 American government would prove to be! Tke act of 
 recognition of a belligerent scate would give us the right 
 to search every ves>el that seemed to us suspicious within 
 arm's length of the American waters, affording us the full 
 measure of vigilance, which we are now deprived of, so 
 that we might "then nip in the bud any expedition starting 
 for Cuba, while American commerce would be hampered 
 to the very entrance of its ports by the legitimate action 
 of our men-of-war, and without any remedy against it. 
 This will give an inkling to the Herald as to who would be 
 the winner, and who the loser in the game, although some 
 pirates might ba benefitted by it. % 
 
 This so much as material interests are concerned. Mor- 
 ally, the case would stand a great deal worse. 
 
 Fancy the pitiful part, which the American nation would 
 be playing, were it to raise to its level a crowd of forlorn 
 people, not even backed by their own countrymen at home ! 
 
 In order to enable the ambassador of the Herald, Mr. 
 Henderson, to reach the residence of Agramonte, he had 
 to go under safe conduct of Spanish soldiery without whom 
 he would never have got there, and a novel piece of hu- 
 miliation it would be were the case to arise, that a minister , 
 accredited near the defunct Carlos Manuel Céspedes had 
 to avail of the good will of Spanish troops in order to dis- 
 cover where the power were located. 
 
 A recognition of belligerent rights calls for conditions 
 which the Cuban insurrection does not possess: the first and 
 most indispensable one is free and safe communication of 
 the recognized Power "with foreign" nations, and neither 
 the Herald nor anybody besides knows at the present day 
 where in this world Carlos Manuel Céspedes does reside, 
 nor by what route he might be reached by anybody with- 
 out forfeiture of life. 
 
 The fact is, that were a free people to be enlightened in 
 the manner the Herald would fain do it, it would ba irrem- 
 ediably carried back to ignorance and brutality. 
 
 isTot without a feeling of weariness do we approach an- 
 other threat, into which the Herald has endeavored to 
 throw the balance of profound ability and wisdom still at 
 its disposal. We might as well say that the worst enemy 
 of its fame has maliciously slipped into its columns to let 
 it shine forth the modern Ecee Homo of politico-economical 
 lore, a nuisance to the criticism of statisticians of repute. 
 
 "In order to kill off slavery," the paper exclaims in a 
 sublime fit of its fertile inspiration, " let us shut our ports 
 to sugar, raised and manufactured by slave labor, by im- 
 
140 
 
 posing a prohibitory duty of one hundred per cent, upon 
 its importation." 
 
 And as so dark a thought could not decently be allowed to 
 be based on thin air, the Herald falls back upon statistics, 
 in order to show that three-quarters of the sugar and mo- 
 lasses of the Spanish Antilles are bought and used by the 
 American nation. With this and with attributing to the 
 tariff in force in the Island of Cuba the heavy dues which 
 our colonial produce pays here, the Herald arrives at the stu- 
 pendous conclusion, that Cuba will drop down powerless 
 and surrender to its happy and overwhelming wisdom. 
 ♦ Upon examining the sugar statistics of Cuba made on a 
 former occasion by Messrs. Zaldo & Co., Havana, it appears 
 that the various 1 crops produced the following yields : — 
 In 1868, 711,000 tons of sugar and 205,000 tons of molas- 
 ses ; in 1809, 604,000 tons of the former and 234,000 tons 
 of the latter ; in 1870, 078,000 tons do. and 225,000 do. 
 These figures differ a little from those of the equally excel- 
 lent Annual Review, published at Havana, for it arrives at 
 the following numbers: — In 1868, 749,389 tons of sugar and 
 259,011 of molasses ; in 1809, 726,237 tons of the former 
 and 247,050 of the latter ; in 1870, 725,505 tons do. and 
 213,389 tons do., and in the same order in 1871, 539,441 
 tons do. and 152,459 tons do. ; the Herald took its figures 
 from the latter and we accept them as good authority there 
 being but a trifling difference. 
 
 The Herald, then goes on to show, that out of* ihe above 
 quantity 320,000 tons of sugar and a due proportion of mo- 
 lasses came to this country, and the paper finally comes to the 
 conclusion, that if the duties on these articles originating 
 from slave labor were greatly increased, the importation 
 of them would come to an end and that the coup de (¡race 
 would thus be dealt to slave labor in the Spanish colonies. 
 
 In order to show the absurdity, which this argument 
 contains, Ave are constrained to produce in our turn some 
 statistics of great weight; like for instance the sugar 
 consumed in Europe and the United States in 1871 and 
 the enormous quantity which we contributed towards the 
 supply by our privileged possessions. 
 
 The amount of sugar used during the said year was 
 1,927,000 tons, Europe having consumed 1,387,000 tons, and 
 the United States, of imported sugar, 540,000. 
 
 Towards these 1,927,000 tons consumed on both sides of 
 the Atlantic, the following countries contributed : — Beet- 
 root produced in Europe 943,000 tons, cane sugar furnish- 
 ed by Cuba, Porto Eico and the Philippine Islands, 642,000 
 
141 
 
 tons, and the balance of 342.000 tons by other cane sugar 
 producing countries, excepting the States of Louisiana and 
 Texas, whose crops famished aside from the above 540,000 
 tons imported, the amount of 109,500 tons to the United 
 State?. 
 
 Spain appearing anions the general sources of sugar 
 supply under the head of her three colonies with such an 
 enormous quantity, what does the Herald think would hap- 
 pen if the ridiculous prohibitive duties were to be imposed % 
 
 We have it at onr fingers' ends and shall let the paper 
 know it : the sugar of the Spanish colonies would sell as 
 well as ever in Europe, while the American refineries 
 would have to shut 'tip their establishments, that all the 
 great industries which now thrive upon sugar in the United 
 States would become equally defunct, carrying along in 
 their failure many respectable firms, a large portion of the 
 American merchant fleet would rot at its moorings in 
 American harbors and finally the entire people of the 
 United States, without ceasing to go on indirectly support- 
 ing sugar industry in the Spanish colonies by importing it 
 refined from Europe, would thus only become still more 
 dependent upon the latter, for possessing a Herald to give 
 it its advice. 
 
 And what shall we say, if Spain were to imitate the line 
 of policy traced out by our famous rival, and also adopted 
 an indentical course by way of reprisal, laying such a 
 heavy duty upon cotton, that Barcelona would cease im- 
 porting 150,000 bales of American cotton annually, our 
 spinners using Brazilian, India and Egyptian cotton, in- 
 stead, and rehnquishing for ever the use of the American 
 staple ? 
 
 Into another error the Herald has allowed itself to be 
 drawn, when the paper said, that American exports to the 
 Spanish Antilles did not amount to much. Upon examing 
 the federal statistics of export for the fiscal year ending 
 June 30, 1870, we find that out of $58,000,000, exported to 
 the remainder of America with the exception of Canada, 
 Cuba and Porto Bico received $16,000,000, without count- 
 ing the re-export of goods, of which out of $7,000,000, 
 the Spanish Antilles received $4,000,000 besides. 
 
 Add then the reprisals that would of course apply to 
 everything of American production in the Spanish colon- 
 ies and let us ask what will there remain of the iinijortant 
 mercantile interests now linking the one nation to the 
 other, the day that the government and Congress of the 
 United States embraced the line of policy sketched out to 
 
142 
 
 them and urged upon them by the Herald? If the dagger 
 is to be thrust into the heart of slaver}', as irom the good 
 faith of the Herald we ought to infer, we are naturally led 
 to the conclusion, that against Brazilian produce the same 
 line of fiscal discrimination is to be adopted, being produce 
 also raised by slave labor. If this be the case, let our collea- 
 gue frankly state so, for American commerce also draws 
 advantage from Brazilian sugar, coffee and India rubber 
 and the great interests at stake in that direction are not to 
 be left floating along at random, if the fiscal policy pro- 
 claimed by the Herald is to be adopted in the future. 
 
 And this is the paper that reflects the popular character 
 of this nation, the paper that interprets its sentiments, the 
 paper that educates the masses, the paper that exhibits to 
 foreign nations American civilization. 
 
 The Herald in publishing aberrations of this nature 
 heaps ridicule both upon its own importance and upon 
 those who serve it. It misrepresents the American people 
 instead of reflecting its true spirit. 
 
 This is the opinion we have arrived at, and with it we 
 finish these lines, requesting the American people to read 
 them, as their contents will not tail to be of service for the 
 future. 
 
 THE END. 
 
GERMAN EMPIRE, 
 
 ATEKMAN, 
 
 ESS ON THE BOOK. 
 
 An English translation of the General 
 
 <an Empire, of Jute 6, 1871, has just been 
 
 ier Consul for Prussia at San Francisco. 
 
 mmerce and Navigation which come within 
 
 anslation into English places them within 
 
 ing Consuls to whom they would be other- 
 
 .entleman eminently qualified for rendering 
 
 laving been himself a Consul for Prussia at 
 
 Js a want long felt in Probate Court, in ma- 
 
 iaily Bulletin. 
 
 ,?hhoff, redactor mercantil de El Cronista, nos 
 
 .NSTRUCCIONES CONSULARES DEL IMPERIO GER- 
 
 nglés, trabajo muy útil para casos de seguros 
 
 t, y de defunciones de extrangeros intestados. 
 
 izado que el alemán, creemos que la traducción 
 
 .culares y Cónsules de todas nacionalidades. — El 
 
 ONSULS of THE German Empire " eine gate Ueber- 
 
 m Herrn Charles Kirchhüff, ehemals preussis- 
 
 3i "W. H. Waterman, 88 John Str., New York, ged- 
 
 uisstattung dieses fiir die Handelswelt interessan- 
 
 jsche. — New Yorker Handelszeitung . 
 
 -Mr. Charles Kirchhoff, who at one time filled a 
 
 j, has recently translated the pamphlet of instructions 
 
 • its Consuls, into English. It is published in a neat 
 
 at first sight appears. In lawsuits arising from per- 
 
 ~&*¿aw, and so on, the German Consul has hitherto 
 
 jranlation of the instructions from his government for 
 
 oernll. This trouble and cost will hereafter be unne» 
 
 liso le of use to Consuls of other nations than Ger- 
 
 it sapijements the comparatively incomplete instruc- 
 
 n goveSments. — New York Evening Post. 
 
 .{CHHOFr redactor comercial del Cronista y del Bull' tin 
 iado un ejemplar de las " Instrucciones para los Cón- 
 s" que ha traducido al inglés y publicado hace poco en di- 
 ~cEa"CruíTaa' tsi roneio «ova elegantemente impreso y ofrece mayor utilidad de la que 
 pudiera creerse á primera vista. En los litigios que ocasionan los fallecimientos 
 abintestato; en los que se relacionan con las leyes maiitimas y otros, los Cónsules/ 
 alemanes se han visto en la necesidad de hacer traducciones especiales de las instrup 
 clones de su gobierno en obsequio de los interesados. El gasto y la molestia que esto 
 ocasiona quedan obviados con la expresada traducción, que solo requiere el conoci- 
 miento, tan generalizado, de los idiomas inglés y francés. El folleto, además, paede 
 ser útil a los Cónsules de otras naciones distantes de Alemania, pues llena en cierto 
 modo la deficiencia de las instrucciones dadas por sus respectivos gobiernos. Damos 
 las gracias al Sr. Kirchhoff por el ejemplar que se ha servido enviarnos, y cuya ad- 
 quisición recomendamos á las personas que por razoii del cargo que ejercsn pueden 
 necesitarlo. — Diario de la Marina, de la Habana. 
 
 For Sale at the Office of "EL CRONISTA," 
 
 At the Reduced Price of One Dollar and a Half, Currency, 
 POSTAGE PAID TO ANY PAKT OF THE WORLD. 
 
-XDKHKI ut- LUNbRESS 
 
 015 999 751 • 
 
 "EL CECXJSTISTA/' 
 
 Q 
 ORiaiNALLY "La Crónica,"— Pounded in 1848. 
 
 The Organ of Spain and all the Spanish-American Countries. 
 
 " El Cronista " circulates in all countries and colonies where Spank 
 is spoken, and the Paper is acknowledged to be a first-class organ. , 
 
 It embraces Universal Political, Politico-Economical, and Moral 
 terests, and its weekly Colonial Produce Reviews are second to noi ¡ 
 published in the United States, as regards the latest markets, correct- 
 ness and painstaking. In order to enable "El Cronista" to furnish 
 news so complete, it has correspondents all over the New ^orld, in 
 Europe, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Manila, and other East India, as 
 well as in Chinese and Japanese ports. 
 
 " El Cronista " is acknowledged to be the most valuable and respect- 
 able medium for advertising American finances, manufactures, and 
 trades, for the procurement of orders from Spain, the Philippine Islands 
 and all Spanish America, and the best proof that «ich is the case has 
 been given by its doubling in size within the^hcrt space of a six-month, 
 now being as large as the New York Reral * 
 
 The Paper is published semi-weekly, every Wednesday and Saturday. 
 The cost of subscription is $16 per annum, $8 50 for six months, and 
 $4 50 for three months. The cost of advertising in " El Cronista" is 
 cheaper than in any other semi-weekly paper. 
 
 EDITOR, FOUNDER, DIRECTOR AND PROPRIETOR, 
 
 DON JOSÉ FERRER DE COUTO 
 
 GENERAL HUSIXESS MANAGER OF THE MERCANTILE DEPARTMFXT, 
 
 Mil. CHARLES KIRCHHOFF. 
 Broadway. Post Offíce Addtíess, 
 
 Box 2806, New York.