The years following the close of the Civil War in the United States were
marked with momentous occurrences in various other countries,
particularly in Cuba, and the two nations with which she had long been
intimately connected, Mexico and Spain.
The beginning of the year 1866 in Peninsular Spain saw General Prim
heading a revolutionary body of troops at Aranjuez and at Ocana. These
operations caused great excitement, and feeling ran high throughout the
kingdom, for they were generally regarded as indicative and provocative
of a radical change of government. Martial law was, however, promptly
proclaimed at Madrid, and thus countless sympathizers with the
revolution were restrained from taking an active part in it. The army of
the government, under General Zabala, hastened to the scene of the
insurrection, and pursued the revolutionary troops with such vigor that
the latter, including General Prim himself, were compelled to retreat
across the Portuguese frontier near Barracas, since they were, in fact,
only about six hundred strong and were not prepared to make a resolute
stand. In the same month, January, 1866, other revolutionary bodies were
dispersed in Catalonia and Valencia.
So confident was the royal government of its security, and of the
completeness with which the incipient revolution had been quelled, that
on March 17 it repealed the decree of martial law at the capital. It
was, however, cherishing a fool's paradise. The spirit of revolution was
at work, and was bound soon to reassert itself. Its next manifestation
occurred in June, when two regiments of soldiers in Madrid itself
mutinied and repudiated their officers, who had refused to join them in
their action. These troops were well armed, having twenty-six cannon,
and were soon reinforced by large numbers of volunteers from the
populace, so that it was only by a supreme effort that the government
troops were able to defeat and disperse them.
At the same time, a corresponding movement took place in the garrison at
Gerona, where a considerable body of troops revolted and, when attacked
by government forces, conducted a successful retreat across the French
frontier. Having crossed the boundary, they laid down their arms, but
the larger proportion of them soon found their way back into Spain to
join the impending revolution. Other outbreaks occurred at other points,
all of which were suppressed with difficulty, but with great severity,
many of the leaders being summarily shot as a deterrent example. But
this action instead of being deterrent was provocative. The next
revolutionary manifestation was the formation of a junta at Madrid,
which issued a proclamation setting forth the complaints of the
insurgents against the government, in part as follows:
"Savage courts have led hundreds of victims to sacrifice, and a woman
has contemplated passively and even with complacency, the scaffold which
has been erected.
"The Cortes have abjectly sold to the government the safety of the
individual, the civil rights and the well-being of the commonwealth. The
government has overthrown the press and rostrum, and has entrusted the
administration of the provinces to rapacious mandarins and sanguinary
generals; military tribunals have despoiled the rich and transported the
poor to Fernando Po and to the Philippines.
"The laws of the Cortes have been replaced by decrees squandering the
resources of the country by means of obscure and ruinous laws, trampling
under foot right and virtue, violating homes, property and family; and
during all this time, Isabella II, at Zuranz, and Madrid, meditating a
plot against Italy, our sister, for the benefit of the Roman curia,
participating meanwhile in the depredations of violence of the pachas in
Cuba, who tolerating the fraudulent introduction of slaves, are
outraging public sentiment both in the Old and in the New World, and
causing an estrangement between Spain and the great and glorious
Republic of the United States."
Thereafter, a reasonable degree of quiet prevailed throughout the
Kingdom, which was merely a lull before the renewal of the storm. On New
Year's day of 1867, the Junta at Madrid issued another proclamation,
announcing to the people of Spain that another revolutionary movement
was about to begin, and inviting them to join it, and share its success.
To this there was not apparently a sufficient response to seem to
warrant action, and it was not until the following August that anything
more was heard of the revolution. The revolutionists, however, were
merely outwardly quiet. Propaganda and organization were being
systematically carried on, and the way was being paved for a really
effective revolt, which would have widespread and far-reaching results
in purging Spain of a tyrannous rule and substituting in its place
republican justice. When the time seemed propitious, in August, General
Prim issued a third proclamation, calling the people to arms, the chief
result of which was an increased degree of vigilance and severity on the
part of the government. Many of the revolutionary leaders were
apprehended and expelled from Spain on suspicion of sympathy and
complicity with the revolution. Among this number were Generals
Serrano, Cordova, Duke, Bedoya, and Zebula, and persons of no less high
standing than the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier.
It is curious that all through history, movements like that which had
gained such force and impetus in Spain have been met with the high hand
of oppression. Instead of endeavoring to get at the root of the evil, to
realize that since there was so persistent a dissatisfaction there must
be real causes for grievance the removal of which would work toward a
harmonious solution, it has seemed to be impossible for those born in
the purple to understand the problems of the common people, and so when
the latter have risen in revolt, cruelty and injustice, if not actual
outrages, have marked the attempts to extinguish the trouble. The result
has ever been the same. The story of the attempts to suppress the revolt
in Spain differs not at all from the same story written on the pages of
the history of other nations. The increased oppression on the part of
the government only served to fan the smouldering fire into flame. The
popular wrath and indignation against the queen and her underlings bade
fair to burst into a huge conflagration.
In consequence, when the next overt act of insurrection occurred, at
Cadiz, on September 17, there was a very general response throughout the
Kingdom. General Prim was again at the head of the movement, supported
by General Serrano and the other officers, to whom the sentence of
banishment had not proved effective, since they had found their way back
into Spain. Revolutionary Juntas were formed in almost all of the
provinces, and in a number of the most important cities, and in the
course of a few days the insurgents were in control of a considerable
part of the Kingdom.
The City of Santander was seized for the revolution on September 21, but
they were obliged to relinquish it to superior forces on September 24.
However, the revolutionists were far from discouraged by this momentary
reverse, and four days later they rallied for their first important
victory, which was followed by a general revolt of the troops in and
about Madrid, and General Concha, the commander of the royal forces, was
compelled to resign. The revolution was now in full swing and gaining
impetus and strength every hour. General Serrano at the head of a
revolutionary army entered Madrid in triumph, followed four days later
by General Prim. Their reception exceeded their wildest expectations.
The city was on fire with revolt. The people greeted them with the
warmest fervor, with shouts of welcome and rejoicing. They were hailed
as the saviors of the nation, as the embodiment of Spain's hope for the
future, and hourly their forces were increased by the addition of
volunteers from all walks of life.
It is evident that Queen Isabella had not found Madrid a comfortable
abiding place. There is no doubt that she entertained fears for her
personal safety long before it was actually in jeopardy. Some time
previous to these happenings she had, on some pretext, removed the court
from Madrid to San Sebastian, in the Pyrenees, near the French frontier,
and when news of the capture of the Spanish capital reached her, she
lost no time in making her escape across the frontier into France, where
she was met and welcomed by Emperor Napoleon III, at Hendye. Queen
Isabella had good reason to fear the vengeance of the Spanish mob, for
she had long been unpopular, an object of widespread hatred. She
therefore had no intention of returning to Spain while matters were in
such a turbulent condition, and shortly after her arrival in France,
she proceeded to Paris, where she decided to make her home.
The Juntas which had been established throughout the Kingdom of Spain
were amalgamated by the formation of a National Junta, on October 8, at
Madrid, and a ministry was organized with General Serrano as Prime
Minister, General Prim as Minister of War, Admiral Topete as Minister of
Marine, Senor Figueroa as Minister of Finance, Senor Lorensano as
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senor Ortiz as Minister of Justice, Senor
Sagasta as Minister of the Interior, Senor Ayala as Minister for the
Colonies and Senor Zorilla as Minister of Public Works.
The next day, the United States Minister at Madrid, Mr. Hill, notified
General Serrano that his government has given official recognition to
the new order of affairs in Spain, being the first in the world to take
this action. Such was the state of affairs in Spain at the beginning of
the great struggle in Cuba known as the Ten Years' War.
Conditions in Mexico likewise deserve passing attention. For a number of
years that country had been in a greatly troubled state. Years of
successive revolutions had been followed by the military intervention of
France, and the creation, under the protection of the French army, of a
pinchbeck "empire," with the Archduke Maximilian of Austria as Emperor.
The Mexican people, under the leadership of one of their greatest
statesmen, Benito Juarez, never gave their allegiance to this usurping
government, but maintained a more or less open resistance to it, and it
was sustained for a few years only by the presence of a considerable
French army.
The United States of America, at this time, was engaged in its great
Civil War, and was therefore unable to do more than to register a formal
protest against French aggressions, which were recognized as a great
violation of the Monroe Doctrine. But when, in the spring of 1865, the
Civil War ended, the triumphant federal armies were moved toward the
Mexican frontier, and the United States Government sent to the French
Government what was practically an ultimatum, requiring it to withdraw
its forces from Mexico. Napoleon III demurred, temporized, and at length
offered to withdraw if the United States would recognize Maximilian as
the lawful emperor of Mexico. This the United States, with great
promptness, refused to do, and the French army was thereupon
unconditionally withdrawn, and the capture and military execution of
Maximilian soon followed, the final tragedy occurring on June 19, 1867.
This left the United States with its prestige immeasurably enhanced and
free to pay such attention as might be necessary to the affairs of Cuba,
the only part of the western hemisphere in which European despotism was
still maintained.
The policy of the United States Government, and the sentiment of the
people of that country toward Cuba, had been materially modified by the
Civil War and its results. There was, of course, no longer any thought
of acquiring Cuba for the sake of expanding and fortifying the slave
power, but on the contrary, American influence was now exerted, so far
as it could properly be, toward prevailing upon the Spanish Government
to abolish slavery in Cuba. The Cuban revolutionists were almost without
exception in favor of such emancipation of the negroes, and that fact
caused them to be regarded with increased favor in the United States,
both officially and popularly. American influence was also exerted
toward the persuasion of Spain to give Cuba a more liberal and
beneficent government and to improve the commercial relations between
that island and the United States, for the benefit of both parties.
There was some expectation in both Cuba and the United States--a very
plausible belief--that the revolutionary movement in Spain, liberal and
democratic in character, and aiming at the establishment of a republic
in place of the Bourbon monarchy, would be accompanied by the grant of
liberal institutions and democratic freedom to Cuba; but such was not
the case.
During the Civil War, because of the suspension of the sugar industry in
the southern part of the United States, there had been a vast and
immensely profitable development of the sugar industry in Cuba, and this
seemed to be dependent for its success upon the continuance of slave
labor. These conditions strengthened the Spanish party in Cuba, which
was equally devoted to the maintenance of slavery and to Spanish
domination in the Island.
The Spanish party in Cuba, at this time, as we have seen, was known as
the "Peninsulars," and it comprised a great majority of the office
holders and wealthy planters and slave-holders. It was well organized
throughout the Island for the assertion of political influence, and for
the suppression of insurgent movements. Its central authority was in a
wealthy club at Havana, called the "Casino Espagnol," and similar clubs
on a more modest scale, existed in other cities and important towns
throughout Cuba, and from these, and under their control, there arose a
body known as the "Volunteers." This was ostensibly a military
organization to whose battalions all white men in the Island were
eligible, but as a matter of fact, membership in the Volunteers was
substantially confined to conservatives, loyalists and Spanish
sympathizers. The Volunteers, except in a few special cases, did not go
into the field, but left the actual fighting with insurgents to be done
by regular Spanish troops. They gave their own attention chiefly to the
overawing of the inhabitants of the cities and towns, and to
restraining them from joining the revolutions. They also acted as spies,
discovering and reporting to the Spanish Government the doings of Cuban
patriots. The leaders of the organization formed a "Council of
Colonels," meeting at the Casino Espagnol, and forming a sort of
_imperium in imperio_.
During the progress of the Ten Years' War, however, the Volunteers were
organized and placed under the command of General Lersuno, and
thereafter exerted a much more militant power than ever before. They
were not under the direct orders of the Captain-General, but enjoyed an
independent authority, and yet they were presently entrusted with the
garrisoning of forts and cities, so that the regular Spanish troops
could go into the field. They exercised far more military, naval and
civil authority than the Captain-General and other royal officials. They
actually compelled the retirement of General Dulce from the
Captain-Generalship because they regarded him as too kindly disposed
toward the Cubans. They similarly drove Caballero de Rodas from office,
and they gave Valmaseda and Ceballos, who followed, to understand that
the success of their administration depended upon their compliance with
the demands and policies of the Volunteers.
It was due to their opposition that the so-called Moret law, which
provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in Cuba, remained a dead
letter, and was not even published in the Island for several years after
the outside world had supposed it to be in force. The Volunteers were
also responsible for the numerous cases of violence against the patriot
party, the most flagrant of which was the execution of eight Cuban
students of the University of Havana.
There is no reason to suppose that there was any complicity or
cooperation between the revolution in Spain and the outbreak of the Ten
Years' War in Cuba. Nevertheless, the former practically gave the
signal, for the result of the Spanish revolution was indeed regarded by
Cuban patriots with much satisfaction and enthusiasm. Cries of "Hurrah
for Prim!" "Hurrah for Serrano!" and "Hurrah for the Spanish
Revolution!" were mingled with cries of "Viva Cuba Libre!" and it did
not take long for the disappointed realization to dawn upon Cuba that
liberalism in Spain did not necessarily imply the granting of freedom to
Cuba, but that on the contrary the "Peninsular" revolutionists were
scarcely less intent that the Bourbons had been upon retaining Cuba as
an appanage, and especially as a source of revenue for Spain.