Cuban independence was proclaimed on October 10, 1868, at the Yara
plantation. That was the natal date and that was the natal place of the
Republic of Cuba. The event was made known to the world in a Declaration
of Independence, which was issued at Manzanillo, and which was as
follows:
"In arming ourselves against the tyrannical Government of Spain we must,
according to precedent in all civilized countries, proclaim before the
world the cause that impels us to take this step, which though liable to
entail considerable disturbances upon the present, will insure the
happiness of the future.
"It is well known that Spain governs the Island of Cuba with an iron and
blood-stained hand. The former holds the latter deprived of political,
civil, and religious liberty. Hence, the unfortunate Cubans being
illegally prosecuted and thrown into exile or executed by military
commissions in times of peace. Hence, their being kept from public
meetings, and forbidden to speak or write on affairs of state; hence,
their remonstrances against the evils that afflict them being looked
upon as the proceedings of rebels, from the fact that they are bound to
keep silence and obey. Hence, the never-ending plague of hungry
officials from Spain to devour the product of their industry and labor.
Hence, their exclusion from public stations and want of opportunity to
skill themselves in the art of government. Hence, the restrictions to
which public instructions with them is subjected, in order to keep them
so ignorant as not to be able to know and enforce their rights in any
shape or form whatever. Hence, the navy and standing army, which are
kept upon their country at an enormous expenditure from their own wealth
to make them bend their knees and submit their necks to the iron yoke
that disgraces them. Hence, the grinding taxation under which they
labor, and which would make them all perish in misery but for the
marvelous fertility of the soil.
"On the other hand, Cuba cannot prosper as she ought to, because white
immigration that suits her best is artfully kept from her shores by the
Spanish Government, and as Spain has many a time promised us Cubans to
respect our rights without having hitherto fulfilled her promise, as she
continues to tax us heavily and by so doing is likely to destroy our
wealth; as we are in danger of losing our property, our lives, and our
honor under further Spanish domination; as we have reached a depth of
degradation utterly revolting to manhood; as great nations have sprung
from revolt against a similar disgrace, after exhausted pleadings for
relief, as we despair of justice from Spain through reasoning and cannot
longer live deprived of the rights which other people enjoy, we are
constrained to appeal to arms and to assert our rights in the
battle-field, cherishing the hope that our grievances will be a
sufficient excuse for this last resort to redress them and to secure our
future welfare.
"To the God of our conscience, and to all civilized nations, we submit
the sincerity of our purpose. Vengeance does not mislead us, not is
ambition our guide. We only want to be free and to see all men with us
equally free, as the Creator intended all mankind to be. Our earnest
belief is that all men are brethren. Hence our love of toleration, order
and justice in every respect. We desire the gradual abolition of
slavery, with indemnification; we admire universal suffrage, as it
insures the sovereignty of the people; we demand a religious regard for
the inalienable rights of men as the basis of freedom and nation
greatness."
Following the Declaration of Independence, the provisional government of
the Republic of Cuba was organized at Bayamo. The most prominent figure
in the organization of the Cuban revolutionists and the first really
constructive leader of the Cuban insurrection was Carlos Manuel
Cespedes, a native of Bayamo. At this time he was in the prime of life,
being forty nine years of age, a man of brilliant intellect and of fine
culture, for he had been educated at the University of Havana, and had,
in 1842, received his degree and license in law from the University of
Barcelona, in Spain.
Cespedes's openly expressed zeal for the emancipation of the oppressed
Cubans, and the earnest efforts which he had long exerted in their
behalf, had won for him such widespread recognition as a patriot that he
was, without a dissenting voice, chosen for the head of the provisional
government. By nature and training he was admirably suited for the
position, for from boyhood he had been not only enthusiastically devoted
to the cause of Cuban independence, but he had more than once, under
circumstances where his outspoken advocacy of his principles actually
placed his life in jeopardy, proved himself a worthy champion of
freedom, not only for his fellow citizens, but for Spanish subjects
wherever they were being trodden beneath the iron heel of Spanish
oppression. His love of liberty was not a mere enthusiasm, something
superficial and acquired, but it was inborn, a fundamental part of his
character, firmly knit into the very fibre of his life and its
activities.
While a student in Spain, he had joined the forces of General Prim,
during the latter's first attempt to establish a republic in that
country, and because of his complicity in that revolt, Cespedes had been
banished from Spain. Returning to Cuba, in 1844, he settled at Bayamo,
and took up the practice of law, where his skill as an advocate soon won
him recognition as one of the foremost lawyers of the Island. But again
his hatred of tyranny thrust him forth from the peaceful occupation of
amassing a fortune in the pursuit of jurisprudence. He could not
tranquilly pursue his daily course when he saw injustice and misrule
rampant around him, and so, in 1852, he made a speech, fervidly
denouncing Spain, and calling on high Heaven to aid the independence of
Cuba, which was considered by the authorities to be so incendiary that
he was arrested as a dangerous character, and subsequently suffered a
five months' imprisonment in Morro Castle, at Havana.
Opportunity soon came to Cespedes to give actual proof that his
principles were not abstract but concrete. The acid test was to be
applied and he was not to be found wanting, for immediately upon the
declaration by the Cuban republic of its principles of freedom and equal
rights for all men, he voluntarily exemplified their operation, so far
as lay in his individual power, by emancipating all the slaves on his
own estate.
[Illustration: CARLOS MANUEL DE CESPEDES
The supreme chieftain of the Cuban patriots in the Ten Years' War was
Carlos Manuel de Cespedes y Borges, who before becoming a soldier was
eminent as an advocate, poet, and man of letters. He was born at Bayamo
on April 18, 1819, and completed his education at the University of
Barcelona, Spain. Then he settled in Madrid, became associated with
General Prim, and was implicated in his first attempt at revolution. For
that he was banished to France, and later he was imprisoned for his
Liberal utterances. Returning to Cuba, he personally started the Ten
Years' War, with the story of which as elsewhere related he was
inseparably identified as President of the Cuban Republic. On February
27, 1874, he was betrayed to the Spaniards by a servant who thus sought
to save his own life, and after desperate resistance was wounded,
captured, and put to death.]
The first decree of the provisional government was issued by General
Cespedes on December 27. It was a proclamation of emancipation, as
follows:
"The revolution of Cuba, while proclaiming this independence of the
country, has proclaimed with it all the liberties, and could not well
commit the great inconsistency, to restrict them to only one part of the
population of the country. Free Cuba is incompatible with slave
Cuba, and the abolition of the Spanish institutions must include, and by
necessity and by reason of the greatest justice does include, the
abolition of slavery as the most odious of all. Abolition of slavery
has, therefore, been maintained among the principles proclaimed in the
first manifesto issued by the revolution, and in the opinion of all
Cubans, truly liberal, its entire realization must be the first of the
acts for which the country employs its conquered rights. But as a
general measure it can only be fully effected when the country in the
full use of its conquered rights can, by means of universal suffrage,
make the most suitable provision for carrying it through to real
advantage, both for the old and the new citizens. The subject of the
present measure is not, nor can it be, the abrogation of a right which
those who are at present directing the operations of the revolution are
far from believing themselves entitled to invade; thus participating the
solution of so difficult a question. On the other hand, however, the
provisional government could not in its turn oppose the use of a right
which our slaveholders possess in virtue of our laws, and which many of
them wish to exercise, namely, to emancipate their slaves at once. It
also sees how desirable it is to employ at once in the service of the
country the freedmen, and how necessary to make haste to prevent the
evils which they and the country might receive from a failure to employ
them immediately. The government, therefore, urges the adoption of
provisional dispositions, which are to serve as a rule for the military
chiefs in the several districts of this department, in order to solve
the questions presented to them. Therefore, availing myself of the
faculties with which I am invested, I have now resolved that the
following articles be observed.
"I. Free are the slaves whom their masters at once present to the
military chief for this purpose, the owners reserving, if they choose, a
claim to the indemnification which the nation may decree.
"II. The freedom shall, for the present, be employed in the service of
the country in such a manner as may be agreed upon.
"III. To this end a committee shall be appointed to find for them
employment, in accordance with regulations to be issued.
"IV. In other cases, the slaves of loyal Cubans and of neutral Spaniards
and foreigners shall continue to work, in accordance with the principle
of respect for property proclaimed by the revolution.
"V. The slaves of those who have been convicted of being enemies of the
country and openly hostile to the revolution, shall be confiscated with
their other property and declared free without a right to indemnity,
utilizing them in the service of the country.
"VI. The owners who shall place their slaves in the service of the
revolution without freeing them for the present, shall preserve their
right as long as the slaving question in general is not decided.
"VII. The slaves of the Palisades, who may present themselves to the
Cuban authorities, shall at once be declared free, with a right either
to live among us or to remain among the mountaineers.
"VIII. The isolated refugees who may be captured, or who may, without
the consent of their masters, present themselves to the authorities or
military chiefs, shall not be received without consulting their
masters."
Now this first government, of which Cespedes was made the chief, was
merely, after all, a temporary affair, organized to provide ways and
means for creating a more permanent body. Accordingly, on October 30,
1868, less than a month after the Declaration of Independence, Cespedes
issued a proclamation declaring that his election to office had been
only to provide for the time being an acting head of the provisional
government; that he believed that the organization should at once take
on the character of permanency; that he had no thought of imposing his
will upon Cuba; that he realized that he had not been elected to his
place by the suffrage of the Cuban people, and that he had no assurance
that, had they been given an opportunity to individually express
themselves, he would have been their choice; and that, therefore, since
it was practicable for all loyal Cubans to assemble in their respective
communities and by their suffrage constitute a permanent government, he
would gladly abide by their decision, and, if they desired, relinquish
the power with which they had entrusted him.
In response to this patriotic utterance, a convention was called, on
April 10, 1869, at Guaimaro. The leaders of this first representative
body of the Cuban people were the following: Miguel Gutierrez, Eduardo
Machado, Antonio Lorda, Tranquilino Valdez and Arcadio Garcia,
representing Villa Clara; Honorato Castillo, representing Sancti
Spiritus; Jose Maria Izaguirre, representing Jugari; Antonio Alcada and
Jesus Rodriguez, representing Holguin; and Salvador Cisneros, Francisco
Sanchez, Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz, Miguel Betancourt Guerra and Antonio
Zambrana, representing Camaguey.
At this convention, Cespedes resigned his position as provisional head
of the government and commander-in-chief of the army, in order that some
one might be regularly elected in his place, and in doing so he
addressed his colleagues in the following memorable terms:
"Now that the House of Representatives, gathered from all parts of the
Island, has been happily inaugurated in Guaimaro, it becomes from the
moment of its organization the supreme and only authority for all
Cubans, because it constitutes the depository of the people's will,
sovereign of the present and controller of the future. All temporary
power and authority ceases to have a rightful voice in Cuba from the
very moment in which the wise democratic system, laying its solid
foundations beneath the gigantic shadow of the tree of liberty, has come
to endow us--after suffering the most iniquitous rule--with the most
beautiful and magnificent of human institutions--a republican
government.
"Unfeigned gratitude I owe to the destiny which afforded me the glory of
being the first in Yara to raise the standard of independence, and the
still greater though less merited satisfaction, to see crowded around me
my fellow-citizens in demand of liberty, thus sustaining my weak arm and
stimulating my poor efforts by their confidence. But another glory was
reserved for me, far more grateful by my sentiments and democratic
convictions--that of also being the first to render homage to the
popular sovereignty.
"This duty fulfilled, having given an account to the fatherland of its
most genuine representation of the work which with the assistance of its
own heroic sons I had the good fortune to have commenced, it still
behooves me, fellow-citizens, to fulfill another, not less imperious to
my heart, of addressing my gratitude to you--to you, without whom my
humble, isolated efforts would not have produced other fruit than that
of adding one patriot more to the number of preceding martyrs for
independence--to you, who, recognizing in me the principle rather than
the man, came to stimulate me by your recognition of myself as chief of
the provisional government and the liberating army.
"Fellow citizens of the Eastern Department, your efforts as initiators
of the struggle against tyranny, your constancy, your sufferings, your
heroic sacrifices of all descriptions, your privations, the combat
without quarters which you have sustained and continue to sustain
against an enemy far superior in armament and discipline, and who
displays, for want of the valor which a good cause inspires, all the
ferocity which is the attitude of tyranny, have been witnessed by
myself, and so will remain eternally present to my heart. You are the
vanguard of the soldiers of our liberties. I commend you to the
admiration and to the gratitude of the Cubans. Continue your abnegation
of self, your discipline, your valor, and your enthusiasm, which will
entitle you to that gratitude and that admiration.
"Fellow citizens of the Western Department, if it has not been your good
fortune to be the first in grasping arms, neither were you among the
last in listening to the voice of the fatherland that cried for
revolution. Your moral aid and assistance responded from the very outset
to the call of your brethren of the Eastern and Central Departments.
Many of you hastened to the scene of revolution to share our colors. At
this moment, despite the activity displayed by the Spanish Government in
your districts, where its resources and the number of its hosts render
more difficult the current of the revolution, that same Government
trembles before your determined attitude, from the Las Villas to Havana,
and from Havana to the western boundary, and your first deeds of arms
were the presage to you and the brave and worthy sons of the Eastern and
Central Departments of new and decisive triumphs.
"Fellow citizens of all the Island: The blood of the patriots who have
fallen during the first onset of the struggle has consecrated our
aspirations with a glorious baptism. At this moment, when destiny has
been pleased to close the mission of him who was your first leader,
swear with him by that generous blood, that in order to render fruitful
that great sacrifice you will shed your own, to the very last drop, in
furtherance of the consummation of our independence, proclaimed in Yara.
Swear with me to give up our lives a thousand times over in sustaining
the republic proclaimed in Guaimaro.
"Fellow citizens, long live our independence. Long live the popular
sovereignty! Long live the Cuban Republic! Patria and liberty!"
The convention before proceeding to the election of officers of the
Republic, drafted and adopted the first Constitution of Free Cuba, as
follows:
"Article I. The legislative power shall be vested in a House of
Representatives.
"Article II. To this body shall be delegated an equal representation
from each of the four states into which the Island of Cuba shall be
divided.
"Article III. These states are Oriente, Camaguey, Las Villas and
Occidente.
"Article IV. No one shall be eligible as representatives of any of these
states except a citizen of the Republic, who is upward of 20 years of
age.
"Article V. No representative of any state shall hold any other official
position during his representative term.
"Article VI. Whenever a vacancy occurs in the representation of any
state, the executive thereof shall have power to fill such vacancy until
the ensuing election.
"Article VII. The House of Representatives shall elect a President of
the Republic, a General-in-Chief of its Armies, a President of the
Congress and other executive officers. The General-in-Chief shall be
subordinate to the Executive, and shall render him an account of the
performance of his duties.
"Article VIII. The President of the Republic, the General-in-Chief and
the Members of the House of Representatives are amenable to charges
which may be made by any citizen to the House of Representatives, which
shall proceed to examine into the charges preferred; and if in their
judgment it be necessary the case of the accused shall be submitted to
the Judiciary.
"Article IX. The House of Representatives shall have full power to
dismiss from office any functionary whom they have convicted.
"Article X. The legislative acts and decisions of the House of
Representatives, in order to be valid and binding, must have the
sanction of the President of the Republic.
"Article XI. If the President fails to approve the acts and decisions of
the House, he shall, without delay, return the same with his objections
thereto, for the reconsideration of that body.
"Article XII. Within 10 days after their reception, the President shall
return all bills, resolutions and enactments which may be sent to him by
the House for his approval, with his sanction thereof, or with his
objections thereto.
"Article XIII. Upon the passage of any Act, Bill or Resolution, after a
reconsideration thereof, by the House, it shall be sanctioned by the
President.
"Article XIV. The House of Representatives shall legislate upon
Taxation, Public Loans, and Ratification of Treaties; and shall have
power to declare and conclude War, to authorize the President to issue
letters of marque, to raise troops and provide for their support, to
organize and maintain a Navy, and to regulate reprisals as to the
public enemy.
"Article XV. The House of Representatives shall remain in permanent
session from the time of the ratification of this fundamental law by the
People until the termination of the war with Spain.
"Article XVI. The Executive Power shall be vested in the President of
the Republic.
"Article XVII. No one shall be eligible to the Presidency, who is not a
native of the Republic, and over 30 years of age.
"Article XVIII. All treaties made by the President may be ratified by
the House of Representatives.
"Article XIX. The President shall have power to appoint Ambassadors,
Ministers-plenipotentiary, and Consuls of the Republic, to foreign
countries.
"Article XX. The President shall treat with Ambassadors, and shall see
that the laws are faithfully executed. He shall also issue commissions
to all the functionaries of the Republic.
"Article XXI. The President shall propose the names of the members of
his Cabinet to the House of Representatives for its approval.
"Article XXII. The Judiciary shall form an independent co-ordinate
department of the Government, under the organization of a special law.
"Article XXIII. Voters are required to possess the same qualifications
as to age and citizenship as the members of House of Representatives.
"Article XXIV. All the inhabitants of the Republic of Cuba are
absolutely free.
"Article XXV. All the citizens are considered as soldiers of the
Liberating Army.
"Article XXVI. The Republic shall not bestow dignities, titles, nor
special privileges.
"Article XXVII. The citizens of the Republic shall not accept honors nor
titles from foreign countries.
"Article XXVIII. The House of Representatives shall not abridge the
Freedom of Religion, nor of the Press, nor of Public Meetings, nor of
Education, nor of Petition, nor any inalienable Right of the People.
"Article XXIX. The Constitution can be amended only by the unanimous
concurrence of the House of Representatives."
[Illustration: MANUEL QUESADA]
The next day the Convention proceeded to the election of officers of the
House of Representatives. Salvador Cisneros was elected President;
Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz and Antonio Zambrana were elected Secretaries,
and Miguel Betancourt and Eduardo Machado, Vice-Secretaries.
MANUEL QUESADA
Manuel Quesada, for a time military head of the Ten Years' War, was
born in Camaguey in 1830. He was banished for political reasons and
went to Mexico, where he fought under Benito Juarez. In 1868 he
joined the patriot army and became one of its leaders; in 1870
being its commander in chief. Failing to carry the war into Pinar
del Rio, he went on a trip to Venezuela, and trying to return was
pursued by a Spanish cruiser and took refuge in Santo Domingo. On
his final return to Cuba he was deposed from his command for being
too ambitious and autocratic, whereupon he went to the United
States and thence to Venezuela, where he died in 1886.
The seventh article of the Constitution was immediately put into
practice, when the convention, constituting itself a House of
Representatives, confirmed the confidence of the Cuban peoples in
Cespedes, by appointing him President of the Republic of Cuba, while
Manuel Quesada was made Commander-in-Chief of the Army. President
Cespedes immediately assumed his office and issued this proclamation:
"To the People of Cuba:
"Compatriots: The establishment of a free government in Cuba, on
the basis of democratic principles, was the most fervent wish of my
heart. The effective realization of this wish was, therefore,
enough to satisfy my aspirations and amply repay the services
which, jointly with you, I may have been able to devote to the
cause of Cuban independence. But the will of my compatriots has
gone far beyond this, by investing me with the most honored of all
duties, the supreme magistracy of the Republic.
"I am not blind to the great labors required in the exercise of the
high functions which you have placed in my charge in these critical
moments, notwithstanding the aid that may be derived from other
powers of the state. I am not ignorant of the grave responsibility
which I assume in accepting the Presidency of our new-born
Republic. I know that my weak powers would be far from being equal
to the demand if left to themselves alone. But this will not occur
and that conviction fills me with faith in the future.
"In the act of beginning the struggle with the oppressors, Cuba has
assumed the solemn duty to consummate her independence or perish in
the attempt, and in giving herself a democratic government she
obligates herself to become Republican. This double obligation,
contracted in the presence of free America, before the liberal
world, and, what is more, before our own conscience, signifies our
determination to be heroic and to be virtuous.
"Cubans! On your heroism I rely for the consummation of our
independence, and on your virtue I count to consolidate the
Republic. You may count on my abnegation of self.
"CARLOS DE CESPEDES.
"Guaimaro, April 11, 1869."
This was followed two days later by General Quesada's proclamation:
"Citizen Chiefs, Officers and Soldiers of the Liberating Army of
Cuba: When I returned to my country to place my sword at your
service, fulfilling the most sacred of duties, realizing the most
intense aspiration of my life, the vote of the Camagueyans, to my
surprise, honored me by conferring on me the command of their army.
Notwithstanding my poor merits and capacity, I accepted the post
because I expected to find and did find in the Camagueyans civic
virtues well established, and this has rendered supportable the
charge of the responsibility which I assumed.
"Now the legislative power of the Republic has filled me with a
greater surprise, promoting me to the Command-in-Chief of the
liberating army of Cuba. The want of confidence in my own resources
naturally moves me anew upon stronger grounds, although it also
strengthens the conviction that the patriotism of my brethren will
supply the insufficiency of my capacity.
"Camagueyans! You have given me undoubted proofs of your virtues.
You are models of subordination and enthusiasm. Preserve and extend
your discipline!
"Soldiers of the East! Initiators of our sacred revolution!
Veterans of Cuba! I salute you with sincere affection, counting on
your gallant chiefs, in order that they may aid me in realizing the
eminent work which we have undertaken, and I hope that union will
strengthen our forces.
"Soldiers of the Villas! You have already struggled with the
despot. I felicitate you for the efforts made and invite you to
continue them. You are patriots. You will be victors.
"Soldiers of the West! I know your heroic exploits, and venerate
them. I am well aware of the disadvantage of the situation in which
you find yourselves, in contrast with our oppressors, and it is our
purpose to remedy this. Accept the homage of my admiration and the
succor of my arms.
"Citizen chiefs, officers, and soldiers of the Cuban Army! Union,
discipline, and perseverance!
"The rapid increase which the glorious new Cuba has taken frightens
our oppressors, who now are suffering the pangs of desperation, and
carrying on a war of vengeance, not of principles. The tyrant
Valmaseda rages with the incendiary's torch and the homicidal knife
over the fields of Cuba. He has never done otherwise, but now he
adds to his crime the still greater one of publishing it by a
proclamation, which we can only describe by pronouncing it to be a
proclamation worthy of the Spanish Government. Thereby our property
is menaced by fire and pillage. This is nothing. It threatens us
with death; and this is nothing. But even our mothers, wives,
daughters, and sisters are menaced with resort to violence.
"Ferocity is the valor of cowards.
"I implore you, sons of Cuba, to recollect at all hours the
proclamation of Valmaseda. That document will shorten the time
necessary for the triumph of our cause. That document is an
additional proof of the character of our enemies. Those beings
appear deprived even of those gifts which Nature has conceded to
the irrationals--the instinct of foresight and of warning. We have
to struggle with tyrants, always such; the very same ones of the
Inquisition, of the Conquest, and of Spanish dominion in America.
In birth and in death they live and succeed; the Torquemadas, the
Pizarros, the Boves, the Morillos, the Tacons, the Conchas, and the
Valmasedas. We have to combat with the assassins of old women and
of children, with the mutilators of the dead, with the idolaters of
gold!
"Cubans! If you would save your honor and that of your families; if
you would conquer forever your liberty, be soldiers. War leads you
to peace and to happiness. Inertia precipitates you to misfortune
and to dishonor. Viva Cuba! Viva the President of the Republic!
Viva the Liberating Army! Patria and Liberty!
"MANUEL QUESADA."
The proclamation of Count Valmaseda, to which General Quesada referred,
had been issued at Bayamo on April 4, and was as follows:
"Inhabitants of the Country--
"The forces which I expected have arrived. With them I will afford
protection to the good and summarily punish all those who still
rebel against the government of the metropolis.
"Know ye that I have pardoned those who have fought against us,
armed; know ye that your wives, mothers and sisters have in me
found the protection they admired and which you rejected; know,
also, that many of the pardoned have turned against me. After all
these excesses, after so much ingratitude and so much villainy, it
is impossible for me to be the man I was heretofore. Deceptive
neutrality is no longer possible. 'He that is not with me is
against me,' and in order that my soldiers may know how to
distinguish you, hearken to the orders given them:
"Every man from the age of 15 upward, found beyond his farm, will
be shot, unless a justification for his absence be proven.
"Every hut that is found uninhabited will be burned by the troops.
"Every hamlet where a white cloth in the shape of a flag is not
hoisted in token that its inhabitants desire peace, will be reduced
to ashes.
"The women who are not found in their respective dwellings, or in
those of their relatives, will return to the towns of Jiguani or
Bayamo, where they will be duly provided for. Those who fail to do
so will be taken by compulsion. These orders will be in force on
and after the 14th inst.!
"COUNT VALMASEDA.
"Bayamo, April 4, 1869."
General Cespedes about this time sent to the Government of the United
States, in his name and in that of the Provisional Government of Cuba, a
request for recognition, as belligerents. His letter contained these
references to the strength of the movement in Cuba:
"We now hold much more than fifty leagues of the interior of this Island
in the Eastern Department, among which are the people (or communities)
of Jiguani, Tunas, Baire, Yara, Barrancas, Datil, Cauto, Embarcadero,
Guisa, and Horno, besides the cities of Bayamo and Holguin, in all
numbering 107,853 inhabitants, who obey us, and have sworn to shed to
the last drop of blood in our cause.
"In the mentioned city of Bayamo, we have established a provisional
government, and formed our general quarters, where we hold more than
three hundred of the enemy prisoners, taken from the Spanish Army, among
whom are generals and governors of high rank. All this has been
accomplished in ten days, without other resources than those offered by
the country we have passed through, without other losses than three or
four killed and six or eight wounded."
However this impressed the Government at Washington, and notwithstanding
the marked sympathy in the United States for the cause of the Republic,
the desired recognition was not obtained.
The impression of the revolution and its leaders which was given to the
people of the United States may be judged from what was written by an
authoritative correspondent of the New York _Tribune_:
[Illustration: FRANCISCO V. AGUILERA]
FRANCISCO V. AGUILERA
One of the organizers of the Ten Years' War, Francisco V. Aguilera
was born at Bayamo in 1821, of a wealthy and distinguished family,
and was finely educated in America and Europe. Although married to
the daughter of the Spanish Governor of Santiago, General Kindelan,
he was an ardent patriot, liberating his slaves and giving his
great fortune to the cause of independence. He served in the Ten
Years' War as Secretary of War and as Commander in Chief in
Oriente; and succeeded Salvador Cisneros Betancourt as President of
the Revolutionary government. He died in New York on February 22,
1877, and though his government had not been officially recognized,
full honors as to a Chief of State were paid at his funeral.
"General Cespedes, the hero and chief of the revolt--is a man of good
appearance, fifty years of age, and has traveled in the United States.
His second in command, Arango, the Marquis of Santa Lucia, is a native
of Puerto Principe, and at taking part in the insurrection emancipated
his slaves. General Aguilera was a man of great wealth, and had once
held under the Government the office of mayor over the town of Bayamo
just burnt by the rebels. He too released his slaves. General Donato
Marmol bears the repute of having genuine military talent, as he is
said to have defeated his opponents in most of their encounters with
him, and signally at Bairi, in the Eastern District. He is admired for
the ready invention of a new weapon of defence in war, which is called
the horguetilla, and is a kind of hook to resist bayonet charges. The
hook, which can be made without much trouble, of wood, is held with the
left hand to catch the bayonet, while with the right the rebel brings
his rude machete, a kind of sword, down upon his Spanish foe. General
Quesada, the other mentionable Cuban leader, served with credit on the
side of Juarez during the intervention in Mexico. The soldiers of the
revolt are of the rawest kind. A good part of them have been recruited
from the emancipated slaves of Cespedes, Arango, and Aguilera. Many of
the weapons are of the poorest kind, but I have heard that a certain
number of Enfields have been furnished them, and lately some hand
grenades. It is told me that no help, or exceedingly little, has reached
them from the North. Among some other things of their own device, they
have been employing wooden cannon, good for one shot and no more."
The insurrection was eagerly supported by the "Juntas of the Laborers."
These societies, formed at the suggestion of Rafael Merchan, issued a
proclamation which enumerated the wrongs and insults endured by them
under the Spanish rule of Cuba, and stated the principles for which they
were willing to fight:
"The Laborers, animated by the love for their native land, aspire to the
hope of seeing Cuba happy and prosperous by virtue of her own power, and
demand the inviolability of individuals, their homes, their families,
and the fruits of their labor, which they would have guaranteed by the
liberty of conscience, of speech, of the press, and of peaceful
meetings. In fact, they demand a government of the country for and by
the country, free from an army of parasites and soldiers that only
serves to consume it and oppress it. And, as nothing of that kind can be
obtained from Spain, they intend to fight that power with all available
means, and drive and uproot its domination from the face of Cuba.
Respecting above all and before all the dignity of man, the association
declares that it will not accept slavery as a forced inheritance of the
past. However, instead of abolishing it as an arm by which to sink the
Island into barbarity, as threatened by the government of Spain, they
view abolition as a means of improving the moral and national condition
of the working men, and thereby to place property and wealth in a more
just and safe position.
"Sons of their times, baptised in the vivid stream of civilization, and,
therefore above preoccupation of nationality, the laborers will respect
the neutrality of Spaniards, but among Cubans will distinguish only
friends and foes, those that are with them or against them. To the
former they offer peace, fraternity, and concord; to the latter,
brutality and war--war and brutality that will be more implacable to the
traitors to Cuba, where they first saw the day, who turn their arms
against them, or offer any asylum or refuge to their tyrants. We, the
laborers, do not ignore the value of nationality, but at the present
moment consider it of secondary moment. Before nationality stands
liberty, the indisputable condition of existence. We must be a people
before becoming a nation. When the Cubans constitute a free people they
will receive the nationality that becomes them. Now they have none."
The Captain-General replied to this in January, 1869, with a
proclamation, full of promises which, however, were never fulfilled. It
said:
"I will brave every danger, accept every responsibility, for your
welfare. The revolution has swept away the Bourbon dynasty, tearing up
by the roots a plant so poisonous that it polluted the air we breathe.
To the citizen shall be returned his rights, to man his dignity. You
will receive all the reforms which you require. Cubans and Spaniards are
all brothers. From this day, Cuba will be considered a province of
Spain. Freedom of the press, the right of meeting in public, and
representation in the national Cortes, the three fundamental principles
of true liberty, are granted you.
"Cubans and Spaniards! Speaking in the name of our mother, Spain, I
adjure you to forget the past, hope for the future, and establish union
and fraternity."
Cuba had declared herself to be an independent state, but that was
merely the first step in establishing her independence, and a long and
bitter struggle lay before her before she could hope to accomplish in
fact that for which her loyal citizens had armed themselves and which
they were determined to achieve.
The first regularly elected House of Representatives took their seats at
Guaimaro, whereupon the members of the former convention resigned their
seats to their successors. In the new House, Jorge Milanes was elected
from the District of Manzanillo, Manuel Gomez Silva from Camaguey,
Manuel Gomez Pena from Guantanamo, Tomas Estrada from Cobre, Pio Posada
from Santiago de Cuba, Fernando Fornaris from Bayamo, and Pedro Aguero
from Las Tunas. Later sessions of the House of Representatives were held
at Cascorro and at Sibanico. These towns, held sacred by Cubans as the
birthplaces of liberty, were stoutly defended during the revolution, and
in spite of repeated efforts the Spaniards were never able to effect
their capture, although they used their most highly trained troops, and
most efficient officers in their attacks.
Beginning with August 6, 1869, the Assembly began to organize the
government along the most enlightened lines, and provided for the
administration of justice by establishing a Judiciary Department with
the following branches:
1. A Supreme Court.
2. Criminal Judges.
3. Civil Judges.
4. Prefects and sub-prefects.
5. Court Martial.
The Supreme Court was composed of a presiding officer, two judges and a
judge-advocate. Each of the states of the Republic was divided into
districts, and a civil and criminal judge as well as an attorney for the
Commonwealth were appointed for each district.
Each state was to be ruled by a Civil Governor, and each district by a
Lieutenant-Governor, while the districts were divided into prefects and
sub-prefects, each with its appropriate ruler. The officers in question
were in every case to be elected by popular suffrage.
A chronological enumeration of the laws enacted by the Congress during
1869 is not only pertinent, but it divulges their evident intention to
administer the government of the island, should they obtain the power to
do so, along the most humane and enlightened lines.
On May 11, 1869, an amnesty was granted to all political prisoners, who
had not already been sentenced.
On June 4, much needed provisions for civil marriages, and regulations
concerning the same, were enacted.
On June 7, the commerce of the Republic was declared free to all
nations.
The enactment of June 15, while a customary proceeding, would have a
touch of irony connected with it, if it were not almost pathetic, as
revealing the sturdy belief of these officials of the young Republic in
the ultimate triumph of their cause. It was an authorization of the
issue of $2,000,700 of legal tender paper money, to be redeemed by the
Republic in coin, at par, when circumstances enabled them to do so--that
is when they had conquered the enemy and established their Republic on a
lasting basis. The bills thus issued had already reached the officers of
the Republic, having been engraved in New York, and sent to Cuba by the
New York Junta.
[Illustration: BERNABE DE VARONA]
On July 9, the army was definitely organized, and this organization
remained in force until the capture and death of General Quesada. It was
as follows:
Commander-in-Chief General Manuel Quesada
Chief-of-Staff General Thomas Jordan
Chief of Artillery Major Beauvilliers
Brigadier-Major of Orders Major Bernabe Varona
Sanitary Department Adolfo Varona
_First Division_ _Army of Camaguey_
Major General Ignacio Agramonte
Commanding 1st Brigade Colonel Miguel Bosse
" 2d Brigade General Francisco Castillo
" 3d Brigade Colonel Cornelio Porro
" 4th Brigade Colonel Lope Recio
" 5th Brigade Colonel Manuel Valdes Urra
" 6th Brigade Colonel Manuel Agramonte
" 1st Battalion Colonel Pedro Recio
" 2d Battalion Colonel Jose Lino Cica
" 3d Battalion Colonel Rafael Bobadilla
_Second Division_ _Army of Oriente_
Major General Francisco Aguilera
Commanding 1st Brigade General Donate Marmol
" 2d Brigade General Luis Marcano
" 3d Brigade General Julio Peralta
_Third Division_ _Army of Las Villas_
Commanding 1st Brigade General C. Acosta
" 2d Brigade General Salome Hernandez
" 3d Brigade General Adolfo Cabada
A law was enacted providing that every citizen of the Republic, between
the ages of 18 and 50 years, must under compulsion take up arms for the
cause of liberty.
BERNABE DE VARONA
Bernabe de Varona, a brilliant writer and devoted patriot, was born
at Camaguey in 1845, a member of a distinguished family. He entered
the Ten Years War with much zeal and displayed exceptional military
skill. He went on various patriotic missions to New York, to France
and to Mexico, and was instrumental in securing much aid for the
patriot cause. His last expedition was on the ill-fated
_Virginius_, on which he was captured and shot to death at Santiago
de Cuba on November 4, 1873.
On August 7, the powers of the various officers of the Government,
including the Secretaries of State, were described and fixed.
From the foregoing it will be seen that the officers of the new Republic
had high aspirations for an orderly government, and for the just
administration of wise laws for the benefit of the people.
Unfortunately, in a large measure, the Republic of Cuba established at
that time was a government only in name, and was not destined to take
the reins in administering the affairs of the Island, except in a more
or less theoretical way.