[Illustration: Ramon Pinto]
Spain was now thoroughly alive to the danger which threatened her future
retention of Cuba, and in the face of an emergency she vacillated. Her
high officials began to wonder if after all their policy of extreme
oppression and suppression had not been in a measure the wrong one to
pursue with the Cubans. Roncali, who had been so pleasing to the
Peninsulars, or Spanish party in Cuba, and so unpopular with the
patriots, was recalled and Don Jose Gutierrez de la Concha was
dispatched to take his place as Captain-General. He took over the
affairs of the island on November 10, 1850. Concha was as unwelcome to
the Peninsulars as his predecessor had been to their liking. He was a
man who had at least some regard for justice, and who, if given a free
hand, might have governed Cuba with a degree of wisdom and fairness. He
was not a believer in liberty for the Cubans, but at least he had some
conception of what constituted equity. He publicly stated his ideal of
his office, as "a government of justice" and might have worked out
something like a solution of Spain's problems in Cuba, unless, as we
think it fair to believe, it was now much too late to quell the
revolutionary spirit which had grown to such great proportions; with "a
government of force," no matter what its purpose, the Cubans were all
too familiar, and they had plainly shown how much they hated it and
despised its administrators.
RAMON PINTO
An early martyr to the cause of Cuban freedom, Ramon Pinto, was
born in Cataluna, Spain, in 1802, and engaged in the revolution of
1820-23 in that country. Then he fled to Cuba and became a
brilliant writer in behalf of philanthropic works. In 1853 he
became director of the Havana Lyceum, and later was a close friend
and adviser of Captain-General Concha. In 1855 he was charged with
being engaged in a revolutionary conspiracy, was convicted on
dubious testimony, and died on the scaffold in March of that year.
One evil this new Captain-General did earnestly try to overcome. He
endeavored to do away with the fee system which had caused so much
unjust imprisonment and suffering. He made an effort to obtain fixed
salaries for all government officials instead of fees, but at every turn
he was balked by the Peninsulars. There is some reason to believe that
he was not altogether sincere; that he was a fair spokesman, but an evil
performer; that he did not allow his right hand to know the injustice he
was planning to do with his left. At any rate, at the very time when he
was offering such cheering words of hope to the Cubans, he was putting
into operation a regular line of vessels from Cadiz, Spain, to Havana.
He offered various excuses--of course, expansion, and many others--for
this action, but thinking Cubans well knew that his real purpose was
that communications might be more easy and frequent with the Spanish
court, and that news of uprisings, and the dispatching of troops to
suppress them, might be less delayed. He also--but, of course, this was
done under orders of the Spanish government, induced, we are told, by
his recommendations--increased and strengthened the fortifications of
the island, and asked for and received a greater number of troops to man
them.
However, there must have been some ground for the belief that Concha in
some ways favored the Cubans for in no other manner could he have
raised such a storm of dislike among the Peninsulars as constantly
whistled about his head, and finally resulted in his recall.
While these events were taking place in Cuba, Lopez, in the United
States, was far from idle, and he was not lacking in friends who sought
to aid him. Singularly enough those in the South who were numbered among
his supporters seemed not to be disheartened by the failure of the
Cardenas expedition, and, of course, the juntas were active in stirring
up popular opinion in favor of filibustering, and in obtaining both
moral and financial support for another enterprise. But with it all
money was woefully lacking.
General Henderson, who had been a member of the first expedition, and
had been one of those indicted and tried, at this time wrote to a
friend:
"I need not tell you how much I desire to see him (Lopez) move again,
and it is more useless to tell you how wholly unable I am to assist him
to make this move. With my limited means, I am under the extremest
burdens from my endeavors on the former occasion. Indeed I find my cash
advanced for the first experience were over half the cash advanced to
the enterprise, and all my present means and energies are exhausted in
bringing up the arrearages. Yet I still believe in the importance, the
morality and the probability of the enterprise; and I believe it is one
the South should steadfastly cherish and promote. I feel it is more
especially incumbent on us who have once failed to retrieve ourselves
from so much of the opprobrium and reproach as the defeat has cast upon
us. For we know that, could we succeed, we should win all those triumphs
which success in such enterprises never fails to command. And would not
such triumph be glorious! I believe you yield equal consideration to
the importance of this subject as I do; and as a Southern question, I do
not think, when properly viewed, its magnitude can be overestimated."
When a leader is able to enlist the sympathies, and drain the purse, of
a man so intelligent and of such high standing as John Henderson, former
Senator of the United States, and when he can bind such a man to him by
even stronger ties in defeat than in victory, the personality of that
leader must be one of extraordinary strength, courage and probity. It
speaks well for Lopez that all through his career he gathered around him
men of the finest families in the South, and indeed some of equally high
standing from the North which was not particularly in favor of his
venture, and those men fought for him and with him, and remained loyal
until the greater portion of them paid the penalty of their lives for
their devotion.
Now recruiting began in earnest. Everywhere in the South agents of Lopez
were busy, but the headquarters of this new movement seem to have been
at Savannah. Spain, of course, was not unaware of what was taking place
and was on the alert. Spanish spies were everywhere watching the
plotters against Spanish dominion in Cuba, and reporting their findings
to the Spanish legation at Washington. The Spanish minister had in his
employ a man who called himself at times Burtnett. (He had many
aliases.) He was more clever than the rank and file of the Spanish
agents, and by associating himself with the filibusters, he was able to
learn their plans. Lopez's followers were not rash; they tried very hard
to cover their activities; but in any undertaking in which a number of
people are concerned, anything like complete secrecy is absolutely out
of the question. Burtnett represented himself as a sympathizer; he
joined the filibusters and wormed himself into the confidence of the
leaders. He learned that the plan was to assemble on the coast of
Florida, and from there to set sail for Cuba. The filibusters would
themselves circulate rumors that the attack would be made on the south
coast of Cuba, but Burtnett discovered that in reality the forces would
be divided, and while the Spanish troops were mustered to repel an
attack in the south, several small bands would land, organize the
friendly Cubans, and give battle if necessary to what depleted Spanish
forces might be located on the north coast. This would preclude the
chance of such a disaster as the Cardenas expedition, and the Cubans,
uncowed by the presence of large bodies of governmental soldiery, would
hasten to the aid of Lopez. Even the Spanish troops, some of whom were
supposed to be in sympathy with the revolution, might be hoped to mutiny
and join the Cubans. Thus this time there could be no thought of
failure.
Meanwhile Southern gentlemen of wealth and family were eagerly supplying
funds to the enterprise. It is even said that some planters mortgaged
their estates to obtain funds to give to the expedition, in the
expectation that when rich Cuba was once acquired for the United States,
they would receive back a reward far greater than the amount which they
were contributing. Bonds of the proposed revolutionary government were
printed, and sold; arms and ammunition were purchased and stored in
readiness for the expedition. It was planned that the first consignment
of arms was to be conveyed to the steamer _Cleopatra_, which had been
purchased to carry the filibusters, by means of two small vessels, the
sloop _William Roe_, and the steamer _Nahantee_, which were to steal
respectively from the ports of New York and South Amboy, New Jersey, and
meet the _Cleopatra_ just beyond quarantine. When the details were
completed, Burtnett revealed the whole plan to the Spanish minister,
who lost no time in laying it before the United States government at
Washington. Now no matter what the sympathies of this government might
be, it could not be placed under the odium of giving its official
sanction to such an enterprise; indeed that would probably have resulted
in war with Spain. Its action was slightly delayed, and the expedition
might even yet have gotten off without interference had it not been that
the _William Roe_ was detained on account of a flaw in her papers, and
the _Cleopatra_, on which provisions were already stored, was delayed in
putting to sea to wait for the _William Roe_ and the _Nahantee_ because
at the last moment some of her crew went on shore and became
intoxicated. This slight postponement of her sailing gave an opportunity
for her attachment--at whose instigation it is not clear--for a writ for
$3,000, to cover repairs made by a former owner, and for which the
filibusters could hardly be held responsible. Nevertheless, they raised
the money, but before its transfer could be completed and the
_Cleopatra_ cleared on April 26, 1851, the leaders were arrested.
Things looked black for Lopez and his followers, but they still had the
influence of the South behind them, and for this reason or some equally
effective one, again the courts failed to convict them, and to add to
their good fortune the government did not confiscate the _Cleopatra_ and
the provisions with which she was loaded, and she was afterward sold and
the proceeds used as a nest-egg toward financing another expedition.
Spain was now thoroughly aroused to her danger, and determined to put
down the threatened revolution at any cost. Through her mouthpiece, the
Captain-General of Cuba, she issued a proclamation to the Governors and
Lieutenant Governors on the island:
"It has come to the knowledge of the Government that a new incursion of
pirates is preparing, similar to the one which took place at Cardenas
during the past year. It is proposed, without doubt, as it was then, to
sack defenseless towns and to disturb the order which reigns in this
beautiful part of the Spanish monarchy. But the loyalty of its
inhabitants, the valor and discipline of the troops, and the measures
taken by the government, are the surest guaranty that its destruction
will follow immediately the news of its disembarkation. You must, then,
above all else see to it that the news of this invasion produces no
alarm in the district which you command.
"To exterminate the pirates, whatever be their number, it is not
necessary to have recourse to extraordinary means; the ordinary means on
which the government can count are enough and even more than enough. Any
act, on the other hand, which is unusual would produce anxiety and
uneasiness among the peaceful inhabitants; it might cause, perhaps, an
interruption of business, and would thus occasion a real and important
loss for public and private interests. It is necessary, therefore, to
avoid any measures which may remove from the towns of that district the
confidence and sense of security which the government inspires. The
actual situation, however, imposes on the authorities the double duty to
cause order to reign, and not to appear to obtain it by unaccustomed
means which are only expedient when circumstances are really dangerous.
And this double object will be achieved if that vigilance, activity and
prudence are in evidence on which I should be able to count from you.
But you must not forget that in these circumstances, one of the most
important duties of the authorities is to quiet minds, and hush
suspicions, to take care, finally, that in not a single instance there
should be disturbed that harmony which now more than ever ought to
reign among the inhabitants of the island. Working to this end, I have
the most confidence that this event will end fortunately, making certain
the peace which the island needs to continue on the path of prosperity
which it has so far followed."
The foregoing gives a very adequate idea, cleverly cloaked under soft
and reassuring words, of the panic under which the authorities were
laboring. Only too well they knew the danger of "any unusual
disturbance," and of the exciting of the populace, for in it dwelt the
menace that that same excited mob might turn and rend their masters.
The Captain-General soon had another circumstance brought to his
attention which was a tremendous shock to his sensibilities, seeming as
it were a bomb placed at the very bulwarks of his authority. Puerto
Principe had been more or less a danger point, and harsh measures had
been used to put down the incipient rebellion there. The people had an
inkling that it was the intention of the Captain-General to deprive them
of their Audiencia. This would eliminate the cost of its maintenance,
and also keep the legislative or advisory power more closely
concentrated in Havana, where the Captain-General could keep a watchful
eye on proceedings. A petition was received by Concha requesting that
they be not deprived of their Audiencia, but when he examined it closely
he was shocked to observe that it was dated a month previous, and that
it had evidently been sent directly to the Spanish government at Madrid,
without the official sanction and endorsement of the Captain-General,
and this circumstance was aggravated by the fact that the Petition bore
the signature of the Commanding General. Things were coming to a pretty
pass if the Captain-General, the highest official in the land, was to
be ignored by his subjects. Concha made a great to-do about the matter,
and obtained the dismissal from office of the offending Commanding
General, at the same time securing the appointment of a close friend,
Don Jose Lemery, on whom he could depend to do his bidding. Lemery began
his tenure of office by using the most harsh and unwarranted methods of
suppressing what he termed an impending uprising, and by ordering the
arrest of a large number of the members of old Creole families--persons
who were known to have revolutionary sympathies--on suspicion of being
about to incite a rebellion. Among these were many members of the city
council under the old Commanding General, and one of the number, Don
Joaquin de Aguero, was later to figure as the leader of the most
successful revolution which Cuba had yet known.
Meanwhile Lopez, not disheartened, was once more planning an invasion of
Cuba, with belief unshaken, in spite of his discouraging experiences, in
the real desire of the Cubans for liberty and in their purpose to join
the revolutionary movement, if they could only be brought to emerge from
the deadening stupor of acquiescence into which fear of Spanish
vengeance seemed to have plunged them. This belief was strengthened by
the correspondence, which by an underground method he was carrying on
with Cuban patriots--men who he expected would be leaders in future
revolutions. They all assured him that if he could only start a real
movement for revolt, which promised actual deliverance, the Cubans would
no longer hesitate but would rush to his support. The fact that a price
had now been set on his head, should he set his foot on Cuban soil, and
be so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of the Spaniards, had no
deterring power on Lopez's purposes. He was above suspicion of a
personal axe to grind, and there was never any question of his courage
and perseverance.
Lopez was emboldened by the support which the Cuban juntas promised him,
but he did not find all of the men who had accompanied him on the
Cardenas expedition as confident as he was himself. Some of the less
daring spirits prepared a statement to their leader, setting forth their
viewpoint, in substantially the following language:
"The people of Cuba charge us with endeavoring to create a revolution
for the sake of pillage; they state that the Cubans do not desire
freedom; if they did they would strike for themselves. We will not waste
any more time, nor take another step until we see something more on the
part of the Creoles besides promises. We took the first step at
Cardenas, and gave them an opportunity to show their hands, which they
did not. They must take the next, and then we will go to their
assistance; otherwise we shall not budge an inch."
Naturally enough, upon consideration, this impressed Lopez and his more
loyal followers as embodying some pretty sound common sense. It seemed
to be logical that the Cubans themselves should make the next move, and
back up their assertions by action. This ultimatum was conveyed to them,
by the same devious ways in which their promises had gotten by the
Spanish spies, and the effect was miraculous. They rose to the
situation, and announced that they would bring about a revolution, and
that the first steps would be taken sometime between July 1 and 4. That
Lopez and his friends were astonished at this show of spirit in those
who had so sadly demonstrated their lack of grit at Cardenas a short
time before, is not beyond the realm of belief, nor is it necessary to
relate how delighted they were that at last the Cubans were about to
move in their own behalf. The time was then so near, and Lopez's own
preparations had made so little practical progress, that there was not a
sufficient period between the date on which he received this information
and the day set for the revolutionary movement to enable him to send any
aid, except cheering words.
On the morning of July 3, 1851, Don Joaquin de Aguero led a small band
of patriots to the public square at Puerto Principe, all of them
shouting in loud tones: "Liberty! Freedom for Cuba! Death to the
Spaniards!" Now Aguero had been promised that at least four hundred
patriots would join him on this occasion, at the place appointed, and
give battle to the Spanish troops, which they well knew would be called
upon to put down the demonstration. But the Cubans had not yet found
themselves; it was still difficult for them to shake off the spell which
the Spaniards seemed to have cast upon them, and to come out into the
open and fight for their freedom. The promised four hundred were
represented by a pitiful fifteen, and the little band naturally had
small chance against the overwhelming forces which were sent against
them immediately the alarm was given. They fought bravely, but there
could be only one result, against such odds. They were routed and their
leader was captured. Aguero succeeded, however, in escaping from the
Spaniards, and went into hiding until the next day, when the patriots
again made a demonstration for freedom at Najassa. Here, for the second
time, the flag of Cuba Libre was flung to the breeze, and with shouts
and cheers, the following Declaration of Independence for Cuba was read
to a great multitude which had assembled in the square:
"To the inhabitants of the Island of Cuba, Manifesto and Proclamation of
their independence by the Liberating Society of Puerto Principe.
"Human reason revolts against the idea that the social and political
condition of a people can be indefinitely prolonged, in which man,
stripped of all rights and guarantees, with no security of person or
property, no enjoyment in the present, no hope in the future, lives only
by the will, and under the conditions imposed by the pleasure of his
tyrants; where a vile calumny, a prisoner's denunciation, a despot's
suspicion, a word caught up by surprise in the sanctuary of home, or
from the violated privacy of a letter, furnishes ample grounds for
tearing a man from his hearth, and casting him forth to die of
destitution or despair in a foreign soil, if he escapes being subjected
to the insulting forms of a barbarous and arbitrary tribunal, where his
persecutors are themselves the judges who condemn him, and where,
instead of their proving his offence, he is required to prove his
innocence.
"A situation so violent as this, Cuba has been for many years enduring;
and, far from any promise of remedy appearing, every day adds new proof
that the policy of the mother-country and the ferocity of her rulers
will grant neither truce nor rest till she is reduced to the condition
of an immense prison, where every Cuban will be watched by a guard, and
will have to pay that guard for watching him. In vain have this people
exhibited a mildness, a prudence, and even a submission and loyalty,
which have been proverbial.
"When the iniquity of the government has not been able to find any
ostensible grounds for persecution, it has had recourse to cowardly arts
and snares to tempt its victims into some offence. Thus were various
individuals of Matanzas entrapped into an ambuscade of the soldiery, by
the pretext of selling them some arms, under circumstances which made
them believe those arms were necessary for self-defence, against
threatened attacks from the Peninsulars. Thus have sergeants and even
officers been seen to mingle among the country people, and pass
themselves off as enemies of the government, for the purpose of
betraying them into avowals of their sentiments to the ruin of many
persons so informed against as well as to the disgrace of military honor
on the part of those who have lent themselves to so villainous a
service.
"If the sons of Cuba, moved by the dread of greater evils, have ever
determined to employ legitimate means of imposing some law, or some
restraint upon the unbridled excesses of their rulers, these latter have
always found the way to distort such acts into attempts at rebellion.
"For having dared to give utterances to principles and opinions, which,
to other nations, constitute the foundation of their moral progress and
glory, the Cubans most distinguished for their virtues and talents have
found themselves wanderers and exiles. For the offence of having
exhibited their opposition to the unlawful and perilous slave trade,
from which the avarice of General O'Donnell promised itself so rich a
harvest of lucre, the latter satiated his resentment with the monstrous
vengeance of involving them in a charge of conspiracy with the free
colored people and the slaves of the estates; endeavoring, as the last
outrage that an immoral government could offer to law, to reason, or to
nature, to prove the object of that conspiracy, in which they implicated
whites of the most eminent virtue, knowledge, and patriotism, to have
been no other than the destruction of their own race.
"All the laws of society and nature trampled under foot--all races and
conditions confounded together--the island of Cuba then presented to the
civilized world a spectacle worthy of the rejoicings of hell. The
wretched slaves saw their flesh torn from them under the lash, and
bespattered with blood the faces of their executioners, who did not
cease exacting from their tortures denunciation against accomplices.
Others were shot in platoons without form of trial, and without even
coming to understand the pretext under which they were massacred. The
free colored people, after having been first lacerated by the lash, were
then hurried to the scaffold and those only escaped with life who had
gold enough to appease the fury of their executioners. And nevertheless,
when the government or its followers has come to fear some rising of the
Cubans their first threat has been that of arming the colored people
against them for their extermination. We abstain for very shame from
repeating the senseless pretences to which they have had recourse to
terrify the timid wretches! How have they been able to image that the
victims of their fury, with whom the whites of Cuba had shared in common
the horrors of misery and persecution, will turn against their own
friends at the call of the very tyrant who has torn them in pieces? If
the free colored people, who know their interests as well as the whites,
take any part in the movement of Cuba, it certainly will not be to the
injury of the mother who shelters them in her bosom, nor of those other
sons of hers who have never made them feel the difference of their race
and condition, and who, far from plundering them, have taken pride in
being their defenders and in meriting the title of their benefactors.
"The world would refuse to believe the history of the horrid crimes
which have been perpetrated in Cuba, and would reasonably consider that
if there have been monsters to commit, it is inconceivable that there
could so long have been men to endure them. But if there are few able to
penetrate to the truth of particular facts, through all the means
employed by the government to obscure and distort them, no one will
resist the evidence of public and official facts.
"Publicly and with arms in his hands, did General Tacon despoil Cuba of
the constitution of Spain, proclaimed by all the powers of the monarchy,
and sent to be sworn to in Cuba, as the fundamental law of the whole
kingdom.
"Publicly and by legislative act, was Cuba declared to be deprived of
all the rights enjoyed by all Spaniards, and conceded by nature and the
laws of nations the least advanced in civilization.
"Publicly have the sons of Cuba been cut off from all admission to the
commands and lucrative employments of the State.
"Publicly are unlimited powers of every description granted to the
Captains-General of Cuba who can refuse to those whom they condemn even
the right of a trial and the privilege of being sentenced by a tribunal.
"Public and permanent in the island of Cuba, are those courts martial
which the laws permit only in extraordinary cases of war, for offences
against the State.
"Publicly has the Spanish press hurled against Cuba the threat
converting the island into ruin and ashes by liberating the slaves and
unchaining against her the hordes of barbarian Africans.
"Publicly are impediments and difficulties imposed upon every
individual, to restrain him from moving from place to place, and from
exercising any branch of industry--no one being safe from arrest and
fine, for some deficiency of authority or license, at every step he may
take.
"Public are the taxes which have wasted away the substance of the island
and the project of other new ones, which threaten to abolish all the
products of its riches--nothing being left for the opinions and
interests of the country.
"Outrages so great and so frequent, reasons so many and so strong,
suffice not merely to justify, but to sanctify, in the eyes of the whole
world, the cause of the independence of Cuba, and any effort of her
people, by their own exertions, or with friendly aid from abroad, to put
an end to the evils they suffer, and secure the rights with which God
and nature have invested man.
"Who will in Cuba oppose this indefeasible instinct, this imperative
necessity of defending our property, and of seeking in the institutions
of a just, free and regulated government conditions on which alone
civilized society can exist?
"The Peninsulars (natives of Spain) perhaps, who have come to Cuba to
marry our daughters, who have here their children, their affections and
their property, will they disregard the laws of nature to range
themselves on the side of a government which oppresses them as it
oppresses us, and which will neither thank them for the service nor be
able, with all their help, to prevent the triumph of the independence of
Cuba?
"Are not they as intimately bound up with happiness and interest of Cuba
as those blood-natives of her soil, who will never be able to deny the
name of their fathers, and who, in rising up today against the despotism
of the government would wish to count upon their co-operation as the
best guaranty of their new social organization and the strongest proof
of the justice of their cause?
"Have they not fought in the Peninsula itself, for their national
independence, for the support of the same principles for which we, the
sons of Cuba proclaim, and which, being the same for men in all
countries, cannot be admitted in one and rejected in another without
doing treason to nature and to the light of reason, from which they
spring?
"No, no--it cannot be that they should carry submissiveness to the point
of preferring their own ruin, and the spilling of the blood of their
sons and brothers, to be triumph of the holiest cause ever embraced by
man--a cause which aims to promote their own happiness and to protect
their rights and properties. The Peninsulars who adorn and enrich our
soil, and to whom the title of labor gives as high a right as our own to
its preservation, know very well that the sons of Cuba regard them with
personal affection--have never failed to recognize the interest and
reciprocal wants which unite the two--nor have ever held them
responsible for the perversenesses of the few, and for the iniquities of
a government whose infernal policy alone has labored to separate them,
on the tyrant's familiar maxim--to divide and conquer.
"We, who proceed in good faith and with the noble ambition of earning
the applause of the world for the justice of our acts--we surely cannot
aim at the destruction of our brothers, nor at the usurpation of their
properties; and far from meriting that vile calumny which the government
will endeavor to fasten upon us, we do not hesitate to swear in the
sight of God and of man that nothing would better accord with the wishes
of our hearts, or with the glory and happiness of our country, than the
co-operation of the Peninsulars, in the sacred work of liberation.
United with them, we could realize that idea of entire independence
which is a pleasing one to our minds; but if they present themselves in
our way as enemies, we shall not be able to answer for the security of
their persons and properties, nor when adventuring all for the main
object of the liberty of Cuba, shall we be able to renounce any means of
effecting it.
"But if we have all these reasons to expect that the Peninsulars, who
are in nowise dependent on the government and who are so bound up with
the fate of Cuba, will at least remain neutral, it will not be supposed
that we can promise ourselves the same conduct on the part of the army,
the individuals composing which, without ties or affections, know no
other law nor consideration than the will of their commander. We pity
the lot of those unfortunate men, subject to a tyranny as hard as our
own, who, torn from their homes in the flower of their youth, have been
brought to Cuba to oppress us on condition of themselves renouncing the
dignity of men and all the enjoyments and hopes of life. If they shall
appreciate the difference between a free and happy citizen and a
dependent and hireling soldier, and choose to accept the benefits of
liberty and prosperity, which we tender them, we will admit them into
our ranks as brethren. But if they shall disregard the dictates of
reason and of their own interests and allow themselves to be controlled
by the insidious representations of their tyrants, so as to regard it as
their duty to oppose themselves to us on the field of battle as enemies,
we will then accept the combat, alike without hate and without fear and
always willing, whenever they may lay down their arms, to welcome them
to our embrace.
"To employ the language of moderation and justice--to seek for means of
peace and conciliation--to invoke the sentiments of love and
brotherhood--befits a cultivated and Christian people, which finds
itself forced to appeal to the violent recourse of arms, not for the
purpose of attacking the social order and the loves of fellow beings,
but to recover the condition and the rights of man, usurped from them by
an unjust and tyrannical power. But let not the expression of our
progress and wishes encourage in our opponents the idea that we are
ignorant of our resources, or distrustful of our strength. All the means
united, at the disposal of the Peninsulars in Cuba against us, could
only make the struggle more protracted and disastrous; but the issue in
our favor could not be any the less sure and decisive.
"In the ranks of independence we have to count all the free sons of
Cuba, whatever may be the color of their race--the brave nations of
South America, who inhabit our soil and who have already made trial of
the strength and conduct of our tyrants--the sturdy islanders of the
Canaries, who love Cuba as their country, and who have already had an
Hernandez and a Monies de Oca, to seal with the proof of martyrdom, the
heroic decision of their compatriots for our cause.
"The ranks of the government would find themselves constantly thinned by
desertion, by the climate, by death, which from all quarters would
spring up among them in a thousand forms. Cut short of means to pay and
maintain their army, dependent on recruits from Spain to fill up their
vacancies without an inch of friendly ground on which to plant their
feet, or an individual on whom to rely with security, war in the field
would be for them one of extermination; while, if they shut themselves
within the defences of their fortresses, hunger and want would soon
compel them to abandon them, if they were not carried by force of arms.
The example of the whole continent of Spanish America, under
circumstances more favorable for them, when they had Cuba as their
arsenal, the benefit of her coffers, and native aid in those countries
themselves, ought to serve them as a lesson not to undertake an
exterminating and fratricidal struggle, which could not fail to be
attended with the same or worse results.
"We, on the other hand, besides our own resources, have in the
neighboring States of the Union, and in all the republics of America,
the encampments of our troops, the depots of our supplies, and the
arsenals of our arms. All the sons of this vast New World, whose bosom
shelters the island of Cuba, and who have had, like us, to shake off by
force the yoke of tyranny, will enthusiastically applaud our resolve,
will fly by hundreds to place themselves beneath the flag of liberty in
our ranks, and there trained to experienced valor will aid us in
annihilating, once and for always, the last badge of ignominy that still
disgraces the free and independent soil of America.
"If we have hitherto hoped, with patience and resignation, that justice
and their own interests would change the mind of our tyrants; if we have
trusted to external efforts to bring the mother country to a negotiation
which should avoid the disasters of war, we are resolved to prove by
deeds that inaction and endurance have not been the results of impotence
and cowardice. Let the government undeceive itself in regard to the
power of its bayonets and the efficiency of all the means it has
invented to oppress and watch us. In the face of its very
authorities--in the sight of the spies at our side--on the day when we
have resolved to demand back our rights, the cry of liberty and
independence will rise from the Cape of San Antonio to the Point of
Maysi.
"We, then, as provisional representatives of the people of Cuba, and in
exercise of the rights which God and Nature have bestowed upon every
freeman, to secure his welfare and establish himself under the form of
government that suits him do solemnly declare, taking God to witness the
ends we propose, and invoking the favor of the people of America, who
have preceded us with their example, that the Island of Cuba is, and, by
the laws of nature ought to be, independent of Spain; and that
henceforth the inhabitants of Cuba are free from all obedience or
subjection to the Spanish government and the individuals composing it;
owing submission only to the authority and direction of those who, while
awaiting the action of the general suffrage of the people, are charged,
or may provisionally charge themselves with the command and government
of each locality, and of the military forces.
"By virtue of this declaration, the free sons of Cuba, and the
inhabitants of the Island who adhere to her cause, are authorized to
take up arms, to unite into corps, to name officers and juntas of
government, for their organization and direction, for the purpose of
putting themselves in communication with the juntas constituted for the
proclamation of the independence of Cuba, and which have given the
initiative to this movement. Placed in the imposing attitude of making
themselves respected, our compatriots will prefer all the means of
persuasion to those of force; they will protect the property of
neutrals, whatever may be their origin; they will welcome the
Peninsulars into their ranks as brothers and will respect all property.
"If, notwithstanding our purposes and fraternal intentions, the Spanish
government should find partizan obstruction bent upon sustaining it, and
we have to owe our liberty to the force of arms, sons of Cuba, let us
prove to the republics of America, which are contemplating us, that we
having been the last to follow their example does not make us unworthy
of them, nor incapable of receiving our liberty and achieving our
independence.
JOAQUIN DE AGUERO AGNEW,
FRANCISCO AGNERO ESTRADA,
WALDO ARETEACA PINA.
"July 4, 1851."
Immediately upon the reading of this the wildest excitement ensued. The
Cubans began to believe that at last deliverance was near. They flung
their hats into the air, while tears streamed down their faces, and they
shouted "Cuba Libre! Down with the Spaniards!" until hoarseness
compelled them to stop. Then an ominous noise, low at first, but growing
nearer and nearer, broke in upon their rapturous demonstrations. Well
they knew that sound, for they had heard it only too often. The Spanish
soldiers were approaching, and turning, those on the outskirts of the
crowd beheld column after column of infantry advancing from one
direction, while a troop of cavalry was apparently about to charge the
crowd from the opposite side of the square. Aguero knew that a crisis
had been reached and that on the work done in the next few moments
depended victory or defeat. He called upon those closest in his
confidence to organize the crowd. Plans for this action had previously
been completed, and the assembled people were quickly grouped into
divisions each containing one hundred men. By this time the Spanish
troops were only about a hundred yards distant, and they at once opened
fire on the revolutionists. Aguero's company was armed, and they had
brought with them extra equipment, which had been distributed among the
people. The revolutionists were by no means poor marksmen; they had long
been practicing in private for this very hour. They proved that they
were more skilled than the picked troops of Spain, and for a time they
showed astonishing efficiency in thinning the ranks of the Spanish
infantry. But the cavalry now charged the crowd, and this was more
serious than an infantry attack because the revolutionists were not
prepared to return it in kind. They stood their ground bravely, firing
at the horses, thus seeking to dismount and confuse the enemy, and
strange as it may seem they were successful. The cavalry commander
ordered a retreat, which was accomplished in great disorder, and under a
withering fire from the revolutionists, while the infantry, amazed and
alarmed to find themselves no longer able to rely on the support of the
cavalry, broke and fled toward Puerto Principe, from which place they
had come. The little army at Najassa well knew that no help could be
expected from their comrades at Puerto Principe, and therefore it seemed
the part of discretion to allow the Spanish army to retreat unmolested,
and for the revolutionists to take refuge in the interior of the island,
where it would be more difficult to apprehend them, and where they hoped
to find sympathy and support. They made their way to Guanamaquilla,
where they decided to make a stand, and where, after effecting a better
organization, they entrenched themselves.
On July 6 at this place they were attacked by six hundred Spaniards
under General Lemery, and the Spanish troops were again routed, again
retired in disorder, and once more the revolutionists celebrated a
victory. Not only did the Spanish troops beat a hasty retreat, but they
left behind them, on the field of battle, forty dead and dying.
It can be imagined with what elation the patriots celebrated this second
victory. They could hardly believe in their good fortune. It was
incredible that they should have prevailed against the trained forces of
Spain. It was not for them, at such close contact with events, to
realize that while they were fighting for their homes, for freedom, for
their families, for their very lives,--for capture meant as sure death
as any bullet of the enemy could bring,--after all the Spanish troops
were only hirelings, fighting for pay and not for a principle, and that
it has been the history of the world, since its beginning, that when
the home is at stake sooner or later victory comes to its defenders.
Now the little bands of one hundred separated, and the mistake was made
which proved fatal to the cause for which they had already sacrificed so
much, and which seemed about to triumph. They should have waited until
news of their triumph penetrated to other patriots, and until their
forces had been greatly swelled in volume, before any division was made.
Meanwhile, immediately after their first victory, they had sent a
courier to bear word to Lopez, through their mysterious channels of
communication, of their success, urging him to communicate the good news
to the junta in New York, and to hasten to their aid with a new
expedition, and promising that meanwhile they would spread the
revolution to all parts of the island, so that when he came again he
would have no cause to complain of lack of support.
The companies of one hundred each went in a separate direction, each
bent on conquest and propaganda among timid sympathizers. One party,
which was led by Aguero himself, made its way to Las Tunas, and arrived
there late in the evening. Aguero divided his little band into two parts
and approached the town from opposite directions, sounding the cry of
the revolution, "Cuba Libre!" and calling upon all good patriots to join
their forces. But Spanish spies, always active, had preceded them and
the garrison of five hundred soldiers was already alert. Then a
catastrophe happened. The two bands of patriots, in the midst of the
great confusion which their arrival occasioned, met in a dark, unpaved
street, and not recognizing one another, each believed the other to be
the Spaniards, and each opened fire upon the other. Too late the error
was rectified. Some of the patriots had been injured by their own
comrades, and the organization was in confusion; before order could be
educed from this chaos, the Spanish troops were upon them, and this time
it was the patriots who were put to rout.
Another of the bands of one hundred had proceeded, meanwhile, to the
plains of Santa Isabel. Large numbers of patriots rallied to their
assistance, but the attacking Spanish force, nearly a thousand strong,
and consisting of both cavalry and infantry, cast far too great odds
against them. The patriots again suffered defeat, and their losses were
twenty killed and forty captured by the enemy, while the Spanish
casualties were one hundred and thirty, fifty of whom were killed
outright.
A third band of one hundred, which had as its commander Don Serapin
Recio, made its way to Santa Cruz. They were more fortunate than had
been their comrades, for when they were attacked by four companies of
Spanish infantry, under Colonel Conti, they not only were victorious,
but they took Colonel Conti prisoner. This triumph, however, was short
lived, for Spanish reinforcements, consisting of four hundred
cavalrymen, were rushed to the scene of battle, and the tide turned
against the patriots. Recio was captured, fifty six revolutionists soon
lay dead or dying, and as the others sought to escape a large proportion
of them were taken captive.
Still a fourth band, advancing on Punta de Grandao, met with disaster,
as did the fifth division which had gone toward La Siguanea in the hope
of taking that place.
Only one little division of patriots, one hundred strong, remained
unconquered. Aguero, who had made his escape after the defeat at Las
Tunas, took command of this company. The city of Nuevitas was entered in
triumph, amid shouts of welcome from the people, who in large numbers
threw in their fortunes with the revolution. Don Carlos Comus led the
Spanish forces against the city, and a desperate battle which raged for
over three hours was fought. The ammunition of the patriots was
exhausted, and fighting against frightful odds, they were almost
exterminated; fewer than the original one hundred remained alive. They
fled, and were speedily captured by the pursuing Spaniards.
Complete defeat had now overtaken the revolutionists, who so boldly on
July 3 had declared their independence of Spain, and thrown a defiant
gauntlet before the Spanish power. By the end of July not a single one
of the original army remained at large to tell the story; they had all
been killed, captured, or frightened into cowed and silent obedience to
Spanish rule. Of those who had fallen into the hands of the Spaniards,
every one was tried by military tribunal, and sentence passed upon them.
Two courts sat in judgment on the offenders, one at Puerto Principe and
the other at Trinidad, at which latter the Captain-General, Jose de la
Concha, presided. Under his dictation sentence of death was pronounced
upon Jose Isidore Armenteros, Fernando Hernandez and Rafael Arcis, all
recognized as prime movers in the revolution. Ignacio Belen Perez,
Nestor Cadalso, Juan O'Bourke, Abeja Iznaga Miranda and Jose Maria
Rodriguez were sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, which was to be
suffered abroad, and they were forever banished from Cuba, while the
same terms were imposed on Juan Hevia and Avelind Porada, whose
sentences, however, were shortened to eight years each, and Pedro Jose
Pomarcz, Foribio Garcia, Cruz Birba and Fernando Medinilla were also
banished, and condemned to two years' imprisonment. All sentences went
into effect on August 18. It is interesting to note in passing a fact
which seems quite in keeping with the Spanish character as demonstrated
by the administration of the island; the men who were condemned to death
were led out into a field by the name of Del Negro, near the city of
Trinidad, and _shot in the back_.
The court which sat in judgment at Puerto Principe tried the leader of
the revolutionists, and brave Joaquin Aguero was condemned to die by the
garrote. The same sentence was imposed on Jose Thomas Betancourt,
Fernando de Zayas and Miguel Benavides; while Miguel Castellanos and
Adolfo Pierre Aguero were sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, which
sentences were all decreed to take effect on August 12.
It was impossible, even with the strict censorship which the Spanish
Captain-General maintained over the island, to keep reports of the
stirring events which were taking place from leaking forth into the
outer world. Of course, Lopez and the junta at New York learned of them
through the channels known only to themselves, and the news, spreading
to all parts of the United States, caused tremendous excitement. Great
interest was manifested, particularly in the southern states, and in New
York City, where the members of the Cuban junta had begun to stir up a
considerable amount of interest in and sympathy for the Cubans. The New
York papers dispatched correspondents to obtain the true story of the
rebellion, but the reporters had difficulty in getting into the country,
and encountered still greater obstacles in dispatching what news they
could gather to their respective sheets. They were hampered in their
efforts by Spanish officials and Spanish spies were always at their
heels.
While the main uprising had been in the vicinity of Puerto Principe,
incipient rebellions and sympathetic insurrections occurred in other
parts of the island, which were quickly quelled by overwhelming forces
of Spaniards, and the news of which was confined as much as possible to
the immediate vicinity of the uprisings. At Trinidad a mob assembled on
horseback, crying vengeance on the Spanish oppressors, but they were
soon driven from the city and obliged to take to cover on a densely
wooded hill, where their movements were so hampered by underbrush that
they were perforce compelled to abandon their mounts, and soon
surrendered to superior numbers. It was suspected that the inhabitants
of Havana, or rather the revolutionary sympathizers in that place, were
about to revolt, but the guard was redoubled, the crowd was overawed by
numbers of well armed troops, and the movement, if it ever had been
contemplated, never materialized. However, many of the wealthy
inhabitants, fearing that they might be seized on suspicion of
complicity with the revolutionists, hastily fled to their estates in the
country.
The New York _Herald_, which for a long time had been sympathetically
inclined toward the revolutionary party in Cuba, on July 16, 1851,
printed the following report, which was based on facts gathered by its
correspondent:
"I consider that, in a political point of view, this island was never in
a more critical state than it is at this present moment. The Creoles of
Cuba have at length thrown down the gauntlet of defiance to the
authority of Spain."
This statement was followed by a long account of the engagements between
the revolutionists and the forces of Spain. On July 22 the same paper,
under the guise of reporting conditions, issued what was really a call
of "The United States to the rescue," which in part read as follows:
"The revolution of Cuba has changed from chrysalis to full grown fly.
The first blood has been spilled. Cuba, some seem to think, has had her
Lexington.... The revolution having begun, it cannot go backward and it
is more than probable that the days of Spain's rule are at least to be
much embarrassed. The government counts 14,000 troops, and no more, in
all the island, and may, perhaps, be able to raise as many more from the
Spanish population; but their fleet is a good one, comprising some
twenty vessels, of which six are steamers. _Whether the struggle be a
long one or a short one, will depend on the 'aid and comfort' the Cubans
receive from the United States, in the shape of guns, pistols, powder,
ball and men that can teach them to organize and manoeuvre._"