After the Constitution, the Government. On October 14, 1901, General
Wood as Military Governor of Cuba issued an order for the holding of a
general election throughout the island on December 31, that day to be a
legal holiday. At that election there were to be chosen Presidential and
Senatorial Electors, Members of the House of Representatives, Governors
of Provinces or Departments, and members of Provincial Assemblies or
Councils. At the same time it was announced that the election of
President, Vice-President and Senators, by the electoral colleges, would
take place on February 24, 1902. A provisional election law was also
promulgated at that time.
This order brought acutely to the fore the question of Presidential
candidates. There were several of them, but none of them could be
regarded as a party candidate for the reason that there were then
practically no parties. The three which had existed had gradually
dissolved, merged into each other, and left the Cuban people free to
follow purely individual leaders again.
Maximo Gomez was naturally looked to as the foremost candidate for the
Presidency, and despite the bitterness of some politicians against him
there is little doubt that if he had consented to be a candidate he
would have stood alone and been elected practically without opposition.
No man deserved the honor more than he. But it was more than an honor.
It was a tremendously serious responsibility. Now Gomez was not the man
to shirk responsibility. But he was not a man, either, to accept it
rashly. He knew his own limitations. He knew, too, the requirements of
the place. There was needed a scholar and statesman, rather than a
"rough and ready" bushwhacking soldier. So he would not even consider
the offer of the nomination. "I was never intended," he said, "to become
the President of any country. I think too much of Cuba to become her
President."
Calixto Garcia, who after the death of Antonio Maceo stood second to
Gomez as a commander, and who was General-in-Chief of the eastern half
of the island, had won a splendid reputation for efficient work in
Oriente and Camaguey, and was a man of great force and ability, and of
much popularity among the Cuban people. But he died at Washington of
pneumonia soon after the close of the war.
With these two great chieftains of Cuba's wars thus out of the running,
the choice by common consent fell upon Tomas Estrada Palma; and a better
choice could not have been made. We have already seen something of his
work as the head of the Cuban Junta in New York. He was now past the
prime of life, having been born at Bayamo in 1837, but he was in full
mastery of his ripe intellectual and physical powers. The son of a rich
and distinguished family, he was sent in his youth to Seville to study
law, and for a time practised it with much success in Cuba. But he was a
patriot, and when the Ten Years' War began he entered the Cuban ranks
and had a distinguished career in the field, as also in the councils of
the Republic in the field. Unfortunately he was captured by the enemy
and was sent to Spain, where he was a prisoner until the end of the war.
Then he went to Honduras, became Postmaster-General of that country, and
married the accomplished daughter of President Guardiola. Thence he
went to the United States and for some years was the head of an
admirable private school for boys at Central Valley, New York; most of
his pupils being from Cuba and other Latin-American countries.
At the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1895 the veteran patriot
promptly offered himself for any service that he could perform. Though
nearing the age of three score, he would gladly have taken up his rifle
again and gone into the field. But there was more important and more
profitable work for Cuba to be done than that would have been, and he
entered upon it with zeal, as the head of the Cuban Junta in New York.
Especially after the death of Marti, he was the guiding spirit of that
organization, and as such, at least in the eyes of America and of the
world at large, he was the actual head of the Cuban revolution, even
more than the President of the Provisional Government in the patriot
stronghold in the mountains of Cubitas. He was not merely the very
active head of the working organization of the Junta, which supplied the
Cuban army with the sinews of war, but he was the diplomatic
representative of Cuba, though only informally recognized, at
Washington. He was at this time still in the United States, and was
making no effort whatever to secure the Presidential nomination.
Doubtless he would have been quite content not to receive it, and would
have given his heartiest and most efficient support to any other man who
might have been chosen. But there was a spontaneous turning of all Cuban
eyes and minds and hearts toward him as the man of all best fitted to
inaugurate the independent republican sovereignty of the insular state
as its first President. He was the choice of no party--parties were yet
inchoate--but of the Cuban people.
In similar fashion General Bartolome Maso was put forward for
Vice-President. Of him we have already heard much in these pages; a
stern old warrior patriot of Oriente, who had done inestimable service
in the field in the two wars, and who had been President of the
Revolutionary Government--its last President, in the mountains of
Cubitas, at the time of the American intervention. A man of fine
education, of unblemished integrity, of sterling patriotism, he
commanded the respect and affection of all who knew him; though it must
be confessed that he was personally little known at the capital or in
the western half of the island.
For a time there seemed every prospect that these two men, so admirably
chosen, would be elected without contest. But at the end of October
there was a schism. Estrada Palma was favorably inclined toward the
Platt Amendment, while Bartolome Maso remained outspoken against it. The
sequel was that all the politicians of whatever factions who were
opposed to that instrument joined in putting Maso forward as a candidate
not for the Vice-Presidency but for the Presidency, in opposition to
Palma. On October 31 Maso issued an address announcing his candidacy,
which, he said, he had been induced to accept "in order to preserve the
nationalism and patriotism of the country"; and he added that the
American intervention had been "perverted into a military occupation
approaching a conquest." This was exaggeration, though entirely sincere;
Maso lacking the broad international vision necessary to appreciate the
relationships with the United States and the rest of the world upon
which Cuba was about to enter. But it made a strong appeal to a number
of diverse and incongruous elements, including some of the former
Autonomists, many of the Spaniards, and a number of Negroes who were
inclined to form a race party of their own.
There followed an animated but orderly and amicable campaign of mass
meetings and stump speeches, quite after the American style. At one time
the followers of Maso appeared to be numerous, and claimed that they
were sixty per cent. of the citizens of Cuba. But such claims were
illusory. Nearly all important leaders, from Maximo Gomez down, were on
the side of Estrada Palma, and before the actual trial of strength at
the polls Maso withdrew from the campaign, leaving Palma alone in the
field. The supporters of Maso explained that his candidacy was withdrawn
because there was no prospect of a fair election. They objected to some
provisions of the election law, and complained that they were not fairly
represented on the boards of registration and election. They even
alleged that frauds were being committed in the registration, and they
asked that the election be postponed in order that there might be
another registration over which they should have a larger measure of
supervision. This request was refused, whereupon they withdrew from all
participation in the election. A manifesto was issued, denouncing the
Central Board of Elections as "a coalition of partisans" and declaring
that "neither in official circles in the United States nor in Cuba does
the intention exist to see that the elections are carried out with
sufficient legality to reflect the real wishes of the Cubans." These
imputations were unwarranted, and most regrettable; and were rightly
regarded by the great majority of Cubans as a practical confession of
the weakness of the Maso faction.
The elections were duly held on the day appointed, and were conducted
with admirable quiet, order and dignity. The unfortunate feature of them
was that only a very light vote was polled. Not only did the supporters
of Maso pretty generally abstain from voting, but many of Palma's
followers, knowing that there was no real contest, did not take the
trouble to go to the polls. Commenting upon the circumstances, General
Wood reported: "I regret to state that a large portion of the
conservative element, composed of property owners, and business and
professional men, did not take such an interest in the elections as
proper regard for the welfare of their country required, and
consequently the representation of this element among the officials
elected has not been proportionately as large as the best interests of
the island demand." Despite the abstention of Maso's followers from
voting, eight members of that faction were elected in the sixty-three
members of the Electoral College. On February 24 the Electoral College
met and elected Tomas Estrada Palma to be President and Luis Estevez to
be Vice-President of the Republic of Cuba.
President Roosevelt, in a message to the Congress of the United States
on March 27, reported the progress of Cuba toward self-government, and
recommended that provision be made for sending diplomatic and consular
representatives thither, and the Secretary of War began preparations for
withdrawing the Military Governor and all American officials and forces,
and permitting the installation of the native government. It was
arranged that the last-named event should occur on May 20, 1902, four
years and a month after the American act of intervention.
The closing weeks of the American occupation were made busy with the
closing up of affairs preparatory to departure. Two new laws relating to
railroads were promulgated on February 7 and March 3; laws which the
Cubans on assuming the government of the island found so beneficent that
they retained them unchanged. Another law on January 24 rearranged the
municipalities of the island and abolished a considerable number of
them, and still another on March 5 was intended to facilitate the
determination of boundaries of estates. Still another, on April 12, was
so vigorously opposed by Cubans that it was presently revoked, to the
great loss of the island. This was practically an application of the
merit system to a part of the civil service, declaring that officials in
the judicial and public prosecution services should not be removed from
their places without proof of adequate cause. Its revocation left those
and all branches of the civil service to be the prey of the spoils
system.
In April and May there were promulgated orders for systematizing
municipal finances, a manual for military tribunals, quarantine
regulations, rules for the revenue cutter service, immigration laws,
sanitary regulations, and some modifications of the Code of Civil
Procedure. These were all practical measures, of undoubted benefit to
the island, and all dealt with matters in which American experience was
reasonably supposed to be of advantage to Cuba.
General Wood on May 5 called the elected members of the Cuban Congress
together at the Palace, in the name of the President of the United
States, to welcome them and to wish them success in their coming work,
and to have them examine and pass upon their own credentials and count
and rectify the vote of the Electoral College for President and
Vice-President. He also announced to them that the formal transfer of
government, from the United States military authorities to the Cuban
President and Congress, would take place at noon of May 20. Mendez
Capote made a graceful and appreciative reply on behalf of himself and
his colleagues, and the two Houses took possession of their respective
halls and busied themselves with their credentials and with
preparations for the serious work which lay just a little distance
before them.
[Illustration: SCENE IN VILLALON PARK, HAVANA]
Meantime Tomas Estrada Palma was closing up his affairs in the land of
which he had been a guest for many years and was preparing to return to
the land of his birth to be its chief magistrate. He did not leave the
United States until late in April. Instead of going directly to Havana
he landed at Gibara, on the northern coast of Oriente, whence he went to
Holguin, to Santiago, and then to his old home, which also was destined
to be his last, at Bayamo. After a few days' visit there he proceeded to
Havana, and arrived in that city on May 11. All the way through the
island he was greeted with unbounded enthusiasm, and at every stopping
place he was received and entertained with all possible social
attention.
Havana itself for a week preceding the installation of the government
gave itself up to one incessant fiesta. Arches spanned the principal
streets, flowers and bunting made the day brilliant with color, and
fireworks illumined the night. The night of May 19 was such as the
ancient city had never before known. From evening to morning it was one
glare of rockets and illuminations, one roar of anticipatory and
jubilant cheers and music. If one single inhabitant of the city slept,
his name is not recorded. The riot of joy continued unabated until just
before noon, when it slackened for a time, only as a mark of respect for
the epochal ceremony which was being performed in the great State Hall
of the Palace.
There, in the very place where less than four years before General
Castellanos had abdicated the power of Spain over the last of her
American colonies, were gathered the members of the American Government
of Intervention, about to retire; the members of the Cuban Government,
about to assume authority; the representatives of various foreign
powers; and a few private guests of distinction. The central figures
were Leonard Wood and Tomas Estrada Palma. The former read a brief note
from President Roosevelt, announcing the transfer which was about to be
made, and expressing to the Cuban government the sincere friendship and
good wishes of the United States, the most earnest hopes for the
stability and success of the Cuban government, for the blessings of
peace, justice and prosperity and ordered freedom among the people of
Cuba and for enduring friendship between the United States and that
Republic.
[Illustration: TOMAS ESTRADA PALMA
"The Franklin of Cuba," Tomas Estrada Palma, was born at Bayamo on July
9, 1835, was educated in Havana and at the University of Seville, Spain,
and began the practice of law at his native place. But realizing that
under Spanish rule there was little administration of real justice in
Cuba, he abandoned his profession, devoted himself to the management of
his plantation, and when the Ten Years' War was planned entered the
patriotic conspiracy with zeal. He freed his slaves, gave his fortune to
the cause, and entered the army. His mother accompanied him to the camp,
and in his absence was captured by the Spaniards, who murdered her
through starvation and ill-treatment. He became Secretary of the
Republic and in March, 1876, was elected President. Betrayed to the
enemy, he was imprisoned in Morro Castle, Havana, and afterward in
Spain. At the end of the war he went to Honduras, taught school and
served as Postmaster-General, and then went to New York State, where he
established a school for boys. At the beginning of the War of
Independence he again gave himself to the Cuban cause, succeeded Marti
as head of the Junta in New York, became first President of the
Republic, was forced to resign through a traitorous insurrection and
ill-planned intervention, and died on November 4, 1908.]
General Wood then addressed the Cuban President and Congress, declaring
that he transferred to them the government and control of the island,
and that the American military occupation was ended. He reported the
amount of public funds which he turned over to the new officials, and
called attention to various plans for sewering, paving and other
sanitary works which were in course of execution. President Palma
responded, accepting the transfer of sovereignty, and expressing his and
his countrymen's appreciation of the course which the American
government had pursued.
Thus the transcendent consummation was achieved, for which during so
many weary and tragic years so many Cuban patriots had longed and for
which so much treasure had been spent, so much blood had been shed, and
so many lives had been sacrificed. "Cuba Libre" was an accomplished fact
among the nations of the world.
Leaving that memorable scene, General Wood telegraphed to the President
of the United States:
"I have the honor to report that, in compliance with instructions
received, I have this day, at 12 o'clock sharp, transferred to the
President and Congress of the Republic of Cuba the government and
control of the island, to be held and exercised by them under the
provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba."
One other incident remained. As soon as the brief ceremony with the
palace was completed, the American flag was hauled down from that and
all other public buildings and the Cuban flag was raised in its place.
It is not known whether the American Senator who had predicted that
"That Flag will never be hauled down!" was there to see the sight.
Certain it is that the people of Cuba were almost--and most
pardonably--wild with joy to see their own beautiful emblem at last
float in token of sovereignty over their island's capital. The Cuban
flag flying over the Palace and over the Morro Castle was the supreme
consummation of their patriotic dreams and visions.
[Illustration: FLAG OF CUBA]
The red, white and blue flag of Cuba, though then first raised in
unchallenged sovereignty, was then by no means a new thing. It was
already more than half a century old, and had been the guidon of brave
men in three bloody wars. It was designed by the first great Cuban
revolutionist, Narciso Lopez, and by his comrade, Miguel Teurbe Tolon,
of Matanzas, a gifted poet and ardent patriot, and it was first
displayed by Lopez in his raid upon and capture of the city of Cardenas,
on May 19, 1850. The five bars, alternately blue and white, represented
the five provinces into which the island was at that time divided; the
red triangle represented the blood of patriots which was being shed in
the cause of liberty; and the white star was the star of Cuba's hope.
After the death of Lopez the flag disappeared. But when the Ten Years'
War began many flags of that same design were made, the workroom being
in a house on Warren Street in the City of New York, and thereafter it
remained familiar to every Cuban patriot.
[Illustration: COAT OF ARMS OF CUBA]
The coat of arms of the Republic of Cuba displays the colors of the
flag, and by their side the Royal Palm, perhaps the most notable of the
trees in Cuba. The tree springs from a grassy plain, at the back of
which is a mountain range; agriculture and mining being thus typified.
Across the top of the shield extends a landscape-seascape, representing
the ocean, with Florida at one side and Yucatan at the other, while
between them lies the Key, Cuba. From the far horizon rises the sun.
Above all is the Cap of Liberty, while around the shield are twined
branches of oak and laurel.
No more just and fitting estimate of the great work of intervention
which thus, on May 20, 1902, was consummated, has ever been made than
that which was uttered only a few weeks later by President Roosevelt, in
speaking before a distinguished audience at Harvard University. He said:
"Four years ago Leonard Wood went down to Cuba, has served there ever
since, has rendered her literally invaluable service; a man who through
these four years thought of nothing else, did nothing else, save to try
to bring up the standard of political and social life in that island, to
clean it physically and morally, to make justice even and fair in it, to
found a school system which should be akin to our own, to teach the
people after four centuries of misrule that there were such things as
government righteousness and honesty and fair play for all men on their
merits as men."
That was the work which Leonard Wood did in Cuba; that was the work
which the United States government did by and through him; the
consummation of which was denoted in that unique act of withdrawing the
American flag and raising the Cuban flag in its place. Fortunate was it,
however, that the results of that work, the teachings of the American
occupation, the meaning of the American flag, were not and could not be
withdrawn when the Stars and Stripes came down. Just as the colors and
indeed the essential pattern of the flag remained, in different
arrangement, so the essential spirit of American republicanism remained,
to be manifested not any longer by American interveners but by the Cuban
people themselves.
It was a marvellous achievement, that of those four years. It was such
as the world had not seen equalled, at any other time or in any other
place. It was creditable in the highest degree to the Cuban people
themselves. It was creditable to the United States, for its intervention
at its own great cost and for its scrupulous keeping of its faith. It
was creditable to many individual actors in the great drama, both
insular and continental, who displayed unsurpassed fidelity,
self-sacrifice and heroism in the cause of Cuban liberation. But the
simple truth and justice of history would be impaired if the chief
credit were not given, _primus inter pares_, to the great American
administrator, conquering soldier and constructive statesman, who from
first to last was the guiding genius of Cuban rehabilitation.
The works of Durham in Canada, and of Cromer in Egypt, form splendid
passages in the history of benevolent colonial administration. But there
was a more difficult work performed not for a dependent colony which
would return compensation to the Mother Country or to the suzerain power
but for an alien land and people, presently to become entirely
independent of their benefactor. He found the Pearl of the Antilles
war-ravaged and faction-rent; her fields desolated, her industries
destroyed; her women widowed and her children orphaned; her treasury
empty and her debts heavy and pressing; her government abolished and her
laws inadequate; with famine, pestilence and hopelessness stalking
throughout the land. It was his work to heal the wounds of war and to
unite the people of all classes and parties for the common good; to
assist the revival of agriculture and the rebuilding of industry; to
care for the widowed and the orphaned; to replenish the public treasury
and to discharge the debt of honor to the veterans of the War of
Independence; to organize efficient government and out of his own
constructive genius to conceive and to promulgate needed and beneficent
laws; to feed the hungry until they could feed themselves, to banish
pestilence until a lazar-house became a health resort, and to inspire
with hope and faith triumphant a people who for a generation had striven
with the demons of despair.
With such a labor successfully achieved, through the exercise of a tact,
a perseverance, a resourcefulness and an administrative genius not
surpassed in his day and generation, we may not wonder that he was
universally beloved by all the Cuban people regardless of class, of
previous condition or of political predilections; that the only cloud
resting upon the brilliance of the consummation of Cuban independence
proceeded from the fact of his departure from the island and the people
he had so greatly served; and that, not waiting for the slow tributes of
remote posterity, the Cuban people of his own day hold in their
supremest confidence, gratitude, respect and enduring affection the
name, the memory and the vital personality of Leonard Wood.
President Palma had already selected the members of his Cabinet on May
17, three days before the transfer. It contained six members, chosen
without regard to party, for the President was not a partisan. As a
matter of fact, however, it contained representatives of all three of
the old parties, which were at this time in course of dissolution and
reorganization into the two which have since divided the Cuban people
between them. Diego Tamayo was the Secretary of Government, having
charge of the postal service, the signal service, sanitation, and the
Rural Guard. Carlos Zaldo was Secretary of State and of Justice. Emilio
Terry was Secretary of Agriculture. Manual Luciano Diaz was Secretary of
Public Works; Eduardo Yero was Secretary of Public Instruction; and
Garcia Montes was Secretary of Finance.
The President presented his first message to Congress on May 28. He
spoke with gratitude of the disinterested intervention and services of
the United States, and with confidence of Cuba's ability to fulfil her
duties as a sovereign State. He recommended care in the preparation of
the budget, and the formulation of measures for the encouragement of
cattle-raising and the growing of sugar and tobacco. Just then, owing
to the great increase of European beet sugar growing the Cuban sugar
trade was in an unsatisfactory state, but he hoped to improve it by
securing a reciprocity treaty with the United States which would admit
Cuban sugar to the markets of that country free of tariff duty. He also
promised to promote the building of much-needed railroads. He urged the
cultivation of cordial relations and commercial intercourse with all
nations, but especially with the United States. As a special act of
grace, a number of Americans who had justly been sentenced to terms in
Cuban prisons under the Government of Intervention received pardons.
These included three men, Rathbone, Neely and Reeves, who had been
sentenced for ten years for frauds in the Cuban postoffice, the only
serious scandal of the American administration.
Two of the items in the Platt Amendment were soon taken up by the United
States government, and were settled in a way eminently satisfactory to
Cuba. One was the disposition of the Isle of Pines. It was decided by
the State Department at Washington that when the American government was
withdrawn from Cuba, control of the Isle of Pines was transferred to the
Cuban government, to be held and exercised by it unless and until some
other disposition should subsequently be effected. In time Cuban
ownership of the isle was definitively confirmed by the government of
the United States.
The other point was that of American naval stations. A report was made
by Rear-Admiral Bradford of the United States Navy, recommending the
establishment of naval stations at Triscornia, in Havana Harbor; and at
Guantanamo, east of Santiago; and the establishment of coaling stations
at Nipe Bay and Cienfuegos. The Cubans were not inclined to object to
any of these excepting the first-named, to which their objection was
reasonable and convincing. It would not be agreeable, they thought, to
have the flag of a foreign power flying right in front of their own
capital and at the very gate of the harbor of that capital, so that
foreign vessels would pass by it and salute it equally with the Cuban
flag. This objection was recognized and respected by the United States
government, which waived all claim to Triscornia, and on July 2, 1903,
contented itself with land for naval stations at Guantanamo, one of the
finest harbors in the world, on the south coast of Oriente, and Bahia
Honda, another superb harbor, on the north coast of Pinar del Rio. Of
these only Guantanamo has actually been utilized.
The matter of reciprocity between the United States and Cuba was taken
up, but it was long before anything was effected. General Wood had urged
that a reduction of at least 33-1/3 per cent. should be made in the
sugar duty in favor of Cuba, as absolutely essential to the prosperity
of the island, and President Roosevelt urged upon Congress in the
strongest possible manner the desirability of some such action, partly
for the sake of Cuban prosperity, and partly for the fulfilment of
America's moral duty toward that island. Indeed, such commercial
relations had been promised to Cuba, and it was bad faith to withhold
them. Of course the commercial interests of Europe, both in sugar and
all other wares, were earnestly opposed to any such arrangement, and
they had their governments exert all possible influence to prevent its
being made. There were also large beet sugar interests in the United
States which strenuously opposed any reduction of the tariff on Cuban
sugar. President Roosevelt had a long and desperate battle with
Congress over the matter, before he finally prevailed upon it grudgingly
and imperfectly to make a reciprocity agreement, from which the United
States would profit much more than Cuba. This was on March 29, 1903.
Meantime, because of the American refusal to grant reciprocity, Cuba
suffered acute economic depression approximating disaster. The insular
treasury had scarcely enough money with which to pay current expenses,
and the government was driven to the imposition of burden-some taxes
upon many articles to save itself from bankruptcy.
The reciprocity treaty was finally ratified by the American Senate on
March 29, 1903. But it did not at once go into effect. There was needed
Congressional legislation to make it effective, and this was not
supplied. After discreditable delay on the part of the lawmakers,
President Roosevelt called Congress together in special session on
November 10, 1903, for the express purpose of having it take the needed
action for putting the treaty into operation. "I deem," he said, "such
legislation demanded not only by our interest but by our honor.... When
the acceptance of the Platt Amendment was required from Cuba by the
action of the Congress of the United States, this government thereby
definitely committed itself to the policy of treating Cuba as occupying
a unique position as regards this country. It was provided that when the
island became a free and independent republic she should stand in such
close relations with us as in certain respects to come within our system
of international policy; and it necessarily followed that she must also
to a certain degree become included within the lines of our economic
policy.... We gave her liberty. We are knit to her by the memories of
the blood and courage of our soldiers who fought for her in war; by the
memory of the wisdom and integrity of our administrators who served her
in peace and who started so well on the difficult path of
self-government. We must help her onward and upward; and in helping her
we shall help ourselves.... A failure to enact such legislation would
come perilously near a repudiation of the pledged faith of the nation."
Thus at last through such gallant urging a measure of justice was
secured for Cuba. The unwillingness and delay of Congress formed the
most discreditable chapter of the history of America's dealings with
Cuba. But the real attitude, the real purpose, the real spirit of the
United States toward Cuba, were unmistakably set forth not in the
paltering and tergiversation of a sordid Congress, but in the lofty and
inspiring words of the great American President.