SPAIN has always been exceedingly religious and exceedingly cruel. That
country had an unfortunate experience. The Spaniards fought the Moors
for about seven hundred or eight hundred years, and during that time
Catholicism and patriotism became synonymous. They were fighting the
Moslems. It was a religious war. For this reason they became intense in
their Catholicism, and they were fearful that if they should grant the
least concession to the Moor, God would destroy them. Their idea was
that the only way to secure divine aid was to have absolute faith, and
this faith was proved by their hatred of all ideas inconsistent with
their own.
Spain has been and is the victim of superstition. The Spaniards expelled
the Jews, who at that time represented a good deal of wealth and
considerable intelligence. This expulsion was characterized by infinite
brutality and by cruelties that words can not express. They drove
out the Moors at last. Not satisfied with this, they drove out the
Moriscoes. These were Moors who had been converted to Catholicism.
The Spaniards, however, had no confidence in the honesty of the
conversion, and for the purpose of gaining the good will of God, they
drove them out. They had succeeded in getting rid of Jews, Moors and
Moriscoes; that is to say, of the intelligence and industry of Spain.
Nothing was left but Spaniards; that is to say, indolence, pride,
cruelty and infinite superstition. So Spain destroyed all freedom of
thought through the Inquisition, and for many years the sky was livid
with the flames of the _Auto da fe_; Spain was busy carrying fagots
to the feet of philosophy, busy in burning people for thinking, for
investigating, for expressing honest opinions. The result was that a
great darkness settled over Spain, pierced by no star and shone upon by
no rising sun.
At one time Spain was the greatest of powers, owner of half the world,
and now she has only a few islands, the small change of her great
fortune, the few pennies in the almost empty purse, souvenirs of
departed wealth, of vanished greatness. Now Spain is bankrupt, bankrupt
not only in purse, but in the higher faculties of the mind, a nation
without progress, without thought; still devoted to bull fights and
superstition, still trying to affright contagious diseases by religious
processions. Spain is a part of the mediaeval ages, belongs to an ancient
generation. It really has no place in the nineteenth century.
Spain has always been cruel. S. S. Prentice, many years ago, speaking
of Spain said: "On the shore of discovery it leaped an armed robber, and
sought for gold even in the throats of its victims." The bloodiest pages
in the history of this world have been written by Spain. Spain in Peru,
in Mexico, Spain in the low countries--all possible cruelties come back
to the mind when we say Philip II., when we say the Duke of Alva, when
we pronounce the names of Ferdinand and Isabella. Spain has inflicted
every torture, has practiced every cruelty, has been guilty of every
possible outrage. There has been no break between Torquemada and
Weyler, between the Inquisition and the infamies committed in Cuba.
When Columbus found Cuba, the original inhabitants were the kindest and
gentlest of people. They practiced no inhuman rites, they were good,
contented people. The Spaniards enslaved them or sought to enslave them.
The people rising, they were hunted with dogs, they were tortured, they
were murdered, and finally exterminated. This was the commencement of
Spanish rule on the island of Cuba. The same spirit is in Spain to-day
that was in Spain then. The idea is not to conciliate, but to coerce,
not to treat justly, but to rob and enslave. No Spaniard regards a
Cuban as having equal rights with himself. He looks upon the island as
property, and upon the people as a part of that property, both equally
belonging to Spain.
Spain has kept no promises made to the Cubans and never will. At last
the Cubans know exactly what Spain is, and they have made up their minds
to be free or to be exterminated. There is nothing in history to equal
the atrocities and outrages that have been perpetrated by Spain upon
Cuba. What Spain does now, all know is only a repetition of what Spain
has done, and this is a prophecy of what Spain will do if she has the
power.
So far as I am concerned, I have no idea that there is to be any war
between Spain and the United States. A country that can't conquer Cuba,
certainly has no very flattering chance of overwhelming the United
States. A man that cannot whip one of his own boys is foolish when he
threatens to clean out the whole neighborhood. Of course, there is
some wisdom even in Spain, and the Spaniards who know anything of this
country know that it would be absolute madness and the utmost extreme
of folly to attack us. I believe in treating even Spain with perfect
fairness. I feel about the country as Burns did about the Devil: "O wad
ye tak' a thought an' mend!" I know that nations, like people, do as
they must, and I regard Spain as the victim and result of conditions,
the fruit of a tree that was planted by ignorance and watered by
superstition.
I believe that Cuba is to be free, and I want that island to give a new
flag to the air, whether it ever becomes a part of the United States
or not. My sympathies are all with those who are struggling for their
rights, trying to get the clutch of tyranny from their throats; for
those who are defending their homes, their firesides, against tyrants
and robbers.
Whether the Maine was blown up by the Spaniards is still a question. I
suppose it will soon be decided. In my own opinion, the disaster came
from the outside, but I do not know, and not knowing, I am willing
to wait for the sake of human nature. I sincerely hope that it was an
accident. I hate to think that there are people base and cruel enough
to commit such an act. Still, I think that all these matters will be
settled without war.
I am in favor of an international court, the members to be selected
by the ruling nations of the world; and before this court I think all
questions between nations should be decided, and the only army and the
only navy should be under its direction, and used only for the purpose
of enforcing its decrees. Were there such a court now, before which
Cuba could appear and tell the story of her wrongs, of the murders, the
assassinations, the treachery, the starvings, the cruelty, I think that
the decision would instantly be in her favor and that Spain would be
driven from the island. Until there is such a court there is no need of
talking about the world being civilized.
I am not a Christian, but I do believe in the religion of justice, of
kindness. I believe in humanity. I do believe that usefulness is the
highest possible form of worship. The useful man is the good man, the
useful man is the real saint. I care nothing about supernatural myths
and mysteries, but I do care for human beings. I have a little short
creed of my own, not very hard to understand, that has in it no
contradictions, and it is this: Happiness is the only good. The time to
be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is
to make others so.
I think this creed if adopted, would do away with war. I think it would
destroy superstition, and I think it would civilize even Spain.