AGAIN SPAIN'S PERFIDY.
Before proceeding further, it is necessary to call attention to one very
important matter which was the direct result of the Ten Years' War. If
the insurgents accomplished nothing else, they may well be proud of this
achievement.
Their own freedom they failed to obtain, but they were the cause of
freedom being bestowed upon others.
We refer to the manumission of the slaves.
The Spanish slave code, promulgated in 1789, is admitted everywhere to
have been very humane in its character. So much so that when Trinidad
came into the possession of the English, the anti-slavery party resisted
successfully the attempt of the planters of that island to have the
Spanish law replaced by the British.
Once again, however, were the words of Spain falsified by her deeds.
Spanish diplomacy up to the present day has only been another name for
lies. For, notwithstanding the mildness of the code, its provisions were
constantly and glaringly violated.
In 1840, a writer, who had personal knowledge of the affairs of Cuba,
declared that slavery in Cuba was more destructive to human life, more
pernicious to society, degrading to the slave and debasing to the
master, more fatal to health and happiness than in any other
slave-holding country on the face of the habitable globe.
It was in Cuba that the slaves were subjected to the coarsest fare and
the most exhausting and unremitting toil. A portion of their number was
even absolutely destroyed every year by the slow torture of overwork and
insufficient sleep and rest.
In 1792 the slave population of the island was estimated at eighty-four
thousand; in 1817, one hundred and seventy-nine thousand; in 1827, two
hundred and eighty-six thousand; in 1843, four hundred and thirty-six
thousand; in 1867, three hundred and seventy-nine thousand, five hundred
and twenty-three, and in 1873, five hundred thousand, or about one-third
of the entire population.
In 1870, two years after the beginning of the war, in which the colored
people, both free and slaves, took a prominent part, the Spanish
legislature passed an act, providing that every slave who had then
passed, or should thereafter pass, the age of sixty should be at once
free, and that all yet unborn children of slaves should also be free.
The latter, however, were to be maintained at the expense of the
proprietors up to their eighteenth year, and during that time to be kept
as apprentices at such work as was suitable to their age. Slavery was
absolutely abolished in Cuba in 1886. Spain was therefore the last
civilized country to cling to this vestige of barbarism, and she
probably would not have abandoned it then had she not been impelled to
by force and her self-interest.
After the treaty of El Zanjon, it was supposed by the Cubans, and
rightly too, had they been dealing with an honorable opponent and not a
trickster, that the condition of Cuba would be greatly improved.
The treaty, in the first place, guaranteed Cuba representation in the
Cortes in Madrid. This was kept to the letter, but the spirit was
abominably lacking.
The Peninsulars, that is, the Spaniards in Cuba, obtained complete
control of the polls, and, by unparalleled frauds, always managed to
elect a majority of the deputies. The deputies, purporting to come from
Cuba, might just as well have been appointed by the Spanish crown.
In other and plainer words, Cuba had no representation whatever in the
Cortes.
The cities of Cuba were hopelessly in debt and they were not able to
provide money for any municipal services.
There were no funds to keep up the schools, and in consequence they were
closed.
As for hospitals and asylums, they scarcely existed. There was only one
asylum for the insane in all the island, and that was wretchedly
managed. This asylum was in Havana. Elsewhere, the insane were confined
in the cells of jails.
The public debt of Spain was something enormous, and Cuba was forced to
pay a part of the interest on this which was out of all proportion.
Perez Castaneda spoke of this in the Spanish Cortes in the following
terms:
"The debt of Cuba was created in 1864 by a simple issue of three million
dollars, and it now amounts to the fabulous sum of one hundred and
seventy-five million dollars. What originated the Cuban debt? The wars
of Santo Domingo, of Peru and of Mexico. But are not these matters for
the Peninsula? Certainly they are matters for the whole of Spain. Why
must Cuba pay that debt?"
Again, Senor Robledo, in a debate at Madrid, after speaking of the
fearful abuses existent in the government of Havana, said:
"I do not intend to read the whole of the report; but I must put the
House in possession of one fact. To what do these defalcations amount?
They amount to twenty-two million, eight hundred and eleven thousand,
five hundred and sixteen dollars. Did not the government know this? What
has been done?"
In 1895 it was alleged that the custom house frauds in Cuba, since the
end of the Ten Years War, amounted to over one hundred millions of
dollars. It is enough to make one hold one's breath in horror. And,
remember well, there was absolutely no redress for the suffering Cubans
by peaceful means.
One more quotation. Rafael de Eslara of Havana, when speaking of the
misery of the island, thus summed up the situation:
"Granted the correctness of the points which I have just presented, it
seems to be self-evident that a curse is pressing upon Cuba, condemning
her to witness her own disintegration, and converting her into a prey
for the operation of those swarms of vampires that are so cruelly
devouring us, deaf to the voice of conscience, if they have any; it
will not be rash to venture the assertion that Cuba is undone; there is
no salvation possible."
Taxation on all sides was enormous, the two chief products of the
island, sugar and tobacco, suffering the most. While other countries
gave encouragement to their colonies, Spain did everything she could to
discourage her well-beloved "Ever Faithful Isle."
The Cuban planter had to struggle along with a heavy tax on his crop, an
enormous duty on his machinery, and an additional duty at the port of
destination.
America once rose in wrath against unjust taxation, but her grievances
were as nothing in comparison with those of--we had almost written--her
sister republic. May the inadvertency prove a prophecy!
To show how the products of Cuba, under this ghastly extortion have
declined, we make the following statement, based on the most reliable
statistics.
In 1880 Cuba furnished twenty-five per cent. of all the sugar of the
world. In 1895 this had declined to ten and a half per cent. In 1889,
the export of cigars rated at forty dollars per one thousand amounted to
ten millions, nineteen thousand and forty dollars. In 1894 it was five
millions, three hundred and sixty-eight thousand, four hundred dollars,
a loss of nearly one-half in five years.
Then besides all this, Cuba had to pay the high salaries of the horde of
Spanish officials, nothing of which accrued to her advantage.
There can be no doubt but that the treaty of El Zanjon was a cheat, and
its administration a gigantic scandal.
Can any fair-minded person think then that the Cubans were wrong, when
driven to the wall, oppressed beyond measure, goaded to madness by an
inhuman master, they broke out once again into open revolt, determined
this time to fight to the death or to obtain their freedom?