chapter 3.

CUBA: A. D. 1895. Insurrection renewed.

Early in 1895 a new uprising of the oppressed Cubans was begun, and on the 7th of December, in that year, T. Estrada Palma, writing as their authorized representative, presented to the State Department at Washington a statement setting forth the causes of the revolt and describing its state of organization at that time. The causes, he wrote, "are substantially the same as those of the former revolution, lasting from 1868 to 1878, and terminating only on the representation of the Spanish Government that Cuba would be granted such reforms as would remove the grounds of complaint on the part of the Cuban people. Unfortunately the hopes thus held out have never been realized. The representation which was to be given the Cubans has proved to be absolutely without character; taxes have been levied anew on everything conceivable; the offices in the island have increased, but the officers are all Spaniards; the native Cubans have been left with no public duties whatsoever to perform, except the payment of taxes to the Government and blackmail to the officials, without privilege even to move from place to place in the island except on the permission of the governmental authority. Spain has framed laws so that the natives have substantially been deprived of the right of suffrage. The taxes levied have been almost entirely devoted to support the army and navy in Cuba, to pay interest on the debt that Spain has saddled on the island, and to pay the salaries of the vast number of Spanish officeholders, devoting only $746,000 for internal improvements out of the $26,000,000 collected by tax. No public schools are within reach of the masses for their education. All the principal industries of the island are hampered by excessive imposts. Her commerce with every country but Spain has been crippled in every possible manner, as can readily be seen by the frequent protests of shipowners and merchants. The Cubans have no security of person or property. The judiciary are instruments of the military authorities. Trial by military tribunals can be ordered at any time at the will of the Captain-General. There is, beside, no freedom of speech, press, or religion. In point of fact, the causes of the Revolution of 1775 in this country were not nearly as grave as those that have driven the Cuban people to the various insurrections which culminated in the present revolution. …

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"Years before the outbreak of the present hostilities the people within and without the island began to organize, with a view of preparing for the inevitable revolution, being satisfied, after repeated and patient endeavors, that peaceful petition was fruitless. In order that the movement should be strong from the beginning, and organized both as to civil and military administration, the Cuban Revolutionary party was founded, with José Marti at its head. The principal objects were by united efforts to obtain the absolute independence of Cuba, to promote the sympathy of other countries, to collect funds with these objects in view, and to invest them in munitions of war. The military organization of this movement was completed by the election of Maximo Gomez as commander in chief. This election was made by the principal officers who fought in the last revolution. The time for the uprising was fixed at the solicitation of the people in Cuba, who protested that there was no hope of autonomy, and that their deposits of arms and ammunition were in danger of being discovered and their leaders arrested. A large amount of war material was then bought by Marti, and vessels chartered to transport it to Cuba, where arrangements were made for its reception in the provinces of Santiago, Puerto Principe, and Santa Clara; but at Fernandina, Florida, it was seized by the United States authorities. Efforts were successfully made for the restitution of this material; nevertheless valuable time and opportunity was thus lost. The people in Cuba clamored for the revolution to proceed immediately, and in consequence the uprising was not further postponed. The date fixed for the uprising was the 24th of February. The people responded in Santiago, Santa Clara, and Matanzas. The provinces of Puerto Principe and Pinar del Rio did not respond, owing to lack of arms. In Puerto Principe rigorous search had previous to the 24th been instituted, and all arms and ammunition confiscated by the Government. The leaders in the provinces of Matanzas and Santa Clara were imprisoned, and so the movement there was checked for the time being. … In the province of Santiago the revolution rapidly increased in strength under the leadership of Bartolome Masso; one of the most influential and respected citizens of Manzanillo; Guillermo Moncada, Jesus Rabi, Pedro Perez, Jose Miro, and others. It was characterized by the Spanish Government as a negro and bandit movement, but many of the most distinguished and wealthy white citizens of the district flocked to the insurgent camp. …

On the 1st of April, Generals Antonio and José Maceo, Flor Crombet, and Augustin Cebreco, all veteran leaders in the former revolt, landed at Duaba, in the province of Santiago, and thousands rose to join them. Antonio Maceo then took command of the troops in that province, and on the 11th of April a detachment received Generals Maximo Gomez, José Marti, Francisco Borrerro, and Angel Guerra. Captain-General Calleja was, on the 16th of April, succeeded by General Arsenio Martinez Campos, the present commander in chief of the Spanish forces, who has the reputation of being Spain's greatest living general. … The military organization of the Cubans is ample and complete. Major General Maximo Gomez is the commander in chief, as we have said, of all the forces, a veteran of the last revolution, as indeed are all the generals almost without exception. Major General Antonio Maceo is second in command of the army of liberation, and was, until called upon to cooperate with the commander in chief in the late march to the western province, in command of Santiago. The army is at present divided into five corps—two in Santiago, one in Puerto Principe, and two in Santa Clara and Matanzas. …

"As above indicated, Jose Marti was the head of the preliminary civil organization, and he, immediately upon landing with Gomez in Cuba, issued a call for the selection of representatives of the Cuban people to form a civil government. His death [in an engagement at Boca de Dos Rios, May 19] postponed for a time the selection of these men, but in the beginning of September the call previously issued was complied with. Representatives from each of the provinces of Santiago, Puerto Principe, Santa Clara, and the western part of the island, comprising the provinces of Matanzas and Havana, making twenty in all, were elected to the constituent assembly, which was to establish a civil government, republican in form. … A constitution of the Republic of Cuba was adopted on the 16th of September. … On the 18th of September … officers of the Government were elected by the constituent assembly in accordance with the terms of the constitution. …

"The Spaniards charge, in order to belittle the insurrection, that it is a movement of negroes. It should be remembered that not more than one-third of the entire population are of the colored race. As a matter of fact, less than one-third of the army are of the colored race. Take, for instance, the generals of corps, divisions, and brigades; there are but three of the colored race, namely, Antonio and José Maceo and Augustin Cebreco, and these are mulattoes whose deeds and victories have placed them far above the generals of those who pretend to despise them. None of the members of the constituent assembly or of the government are of the colored race. The Cubans and the colored race are as friendly in this war as they were in times of peace. …

"The subject … which has caused probably the most discussion is the order of General Gomez to prevent the grinding of sugar cane and in case of the disobedience of said order the destruction of the crop. … The reasons underlying this measure are the same which caused this country to destroy the cotton crop and the baled cotton in the South during the war of the secession. The sugar crop is a source of large income to the Spanish Government, directly by tax and export duty, as well as indirectly. The action of the insurgents is perfect]y justified, because it is simply a blockade, so to speak, on land—a prevention of the gathering, and hence the export, of the commodity with, naturally, a punishment for the violation thereof. …

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"In view of the history of this revolution as herein stated, in view of the causes which led to it, its rapid growth, its successes in arms, the establishment, operation, and resources of the Government of the Cuban Republic, the organization, number, and discipline of its army, the contrast in the treatment of prisoners to that of the enemy, the territory in its control and subject to the carrying out of its decrees, of the futility of the attempts of the Spanish Government to crush the revolution, in spite of the immense increase of its army in Cuba and of its blockade and the many millions spent for that purpose, the cruelties which on the part of the Spanish have especially characterized this sanguinary and fiercely conducted war, and the damage to the interests of the citizens of this country under the present conditions, I, as the duly accredited representative, in the name of the Cuban people in arms who have fought singly and alone against the monarchy of Spain for nearly a year, in the heart of a continent devoted to republican institutions, in the name of justice, in the name of humanity, in the name of liberty, petition you, and through you the Government of the United States of America, to accord the rights of belligerency to a people fighting for their absolute independence."

_United States, 54th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document Number 166._

CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897. Captain-General Campos succeeded by General Weyler. Weyler's Concentration Order and other edicts. Death of Antonio Maceo. Weyler succeeded by Blanco.

In January, 1896, Governor and Captain-General Campos, whose policy had been as humane and conciliatory as his Spanish surroundings would permit it to be, was recalled, and Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, Marquis of Teneriffe, and lately Captain-General of Catalonia, was sent to take his place. General Weyler arrived at Havana on the 10th of February, and six days later, before he could possibly have acquired any personal knowledge of the conditions with which he had to deal, he issued three military edicts, in which a policy of merciless ruin to the island was broadly set forth. The first of these edicts or proclamations commanded as follows:

"Article 1. All inhabitants of the district of Sancti Spiritus and the provinces of Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba will have to concentrate in places which are the headquarters of a division, a brigade, a column, or a troop, and will have to be provided with documentary proof of identity, within eight days of the publication of this proclamation in the municipalities.

"Article 2. To travel in the country in the radius covered by the columns in operation, it is absolutely indispensable to have a pass from the mayor, military commandants, or chiefs of detachments. Anyone lacking this will be detained and sent to headquarters of divisions or brigades, and thence to Havana, at my disposition, by the first possible means. Even if a pass is exhibited, which is suspected to be not authentic or granted by authority to person with known sympathy toward the rebellion, or who show favor thereto, rigorous measures will result to those responsible.

"Article 3. All owners of commercial establishments in the country districts will vacate them, and the chiefs of columns will take such measures as the success of their operations dictates regarding such places which, while useless for the country's wealth, serve the enemy as hiding places in the woods and in the interior.

"Article 4. All passes hitherto issued hereby become null and void."

The order of "concentration" contained in the first article of this decree was slowly executed, but ultimately it produced horrors of suffering and death which words could hardly describe. The second of Weyler's edicts delegated his own unlimited "judicial attributes," for the enforcement of the "military code of justice," to certain subordinate commanders, and gave sharp directions for their exercise. The third specified a large number of offenses as being "subject to military law," including in the category every use of tongue or pen that could be construed as "favorable to the rebellion," or as injurious to the "prestige" of the Spanish army, or "the volunteers, or firemen, or any other force that co-operates with the army." It is said to have been nearly a year before the Weyler policy of "concentration" was generally carried out; but even before that occurred the misery of the country had become very great. Both parties in the war were recklessly laying waste the land. The insurgent leaders had published orders for a total destruction of sugar factories and plantations, because the product supplied revenues to Spain; and now the Spanish governor struck all traffic and industry down in the rural districts, by driving the inhabitants from their homes and fields, to concentrate and pen them up in certain prescribed places, with practically no provision for employment, or shelter or food. At the close of the year 1896 the state of suffering in the island was not yet at its worst; but already it was riveting the attention of the neighboring people of the United States, exciting a hot feeling against Spain and a growing desire for measures on the part of the American government to bring it to an end. Repeated attempts had already been made by frothy politicians in Congress to force the country into an attitude toward Spain that would challenge war; but the Executive, supported by a congressional majority, and by the better opinion of the American public, adhered with firmness to a policy which aimed at the exhausting of pacific influences in favor of the Cuban cause. In his annual message to Congress at the opening of the session in December, 1896, President Cleveland set forth the situation in the following words:

"It is difficult to perceive that any progress has thus far been made towards the pacification of the island. … If Spain still holds Havana and the seaports and all the considerable towns, the insurgents still roam at will over at least two-thirds of the inland country. If the determination of Spain to put down the insurrection seems but to strengthen with the lapse of time, and is evinced by her unhesitating devotion of largely increased military and naval forces to the task, there is much reason to believe that the insurgents have gained in point of numbers, and character, and resources, and are none the less inflexible in their resolve not to succumb, without practically securing the great objects for which they took up arms. If Spain has not yet re-established her authority, neither have the insurgents yet made good their title to be regarded as an independent state. Indeed, as the contest has gone on, the pretense that civil government exists on the island, except so far as Spain is able to maintain it, has been practically abandoned. Spain does keep on foot such a government, more or less imperfectly, in the large towns and their immediate suburbs. But, that exception being made, the entire country is either given over to anarchy or is subject to the military occupation of one or the other party. … In pursuance of general orders, Spanish garrisons are now being withdrawn from plantations and the rural population required to concentrate itself in the towns. The sure result would seem to be that the industrial value of the island is fast diminishing, and that unless there is a speedy and radical change in existing conditions, it will soon disappear altogether. …

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"The spectacle of the utter ruin of an adjoining country, by nature one of the most fertile and charming on the globe, would engage the serious attention of the Government and people of the United States in any circumstances. In point of fact, they have a concern with it which is by no means of a wholly sentimental or philanthropic character. It lies so near to us as to be hardly separated from our territory. Our actual pecuniary interest in it is second only to that of the people and Government of Spain. It is reasonably estimated that at least from $30,000,000 to $50,000,000 of American capital are invested in plantations and in railroad, mining, and other business enterprises on the island. The volume of trade between the United States and Cuba, which in 1889 amounted to about $64,000,000, rose in 1893 to about $103,000,000, and in 1894, the year before the present insurrection broke out, amounted to nearly $96,000,000. Besides this large pecuniary stake in the fortunes of Cuba, the United States finds itself inextricably involved in the present contest in other ways both vexatious and costly. … These inevitable entanglements of the United States with the rebellion in Cuba, the large American property interests affected, and considerations of philanthropy and humanity in general, have led to a vehement demand in various quarters, for some sort of positive intervention on the part of the United States. …

"It would seem that if Spain should offer to Cuba genuine autonomy—a measure of home rule which, while preserving the sovereignty of Spain, would satisfy all rational requirements of her Spanish subjects—there should be no just reason why the pacification of the island might not be effected on that basis. Such a result would appear to be in the true interest of all concerned. … It has been objected on the one side that Spain should not promise autonomy until her insurgent subjects lay down their arms; on the other side, that promised autonomy, however liberal, is insufficient, because without assurance of the promise being fulfilled. … Realizing that suspicions and precautions on the part of the weaker of two combatants are always natural and not always unjustifiable—being sincerely desirous in the interest of both as well as on its own account that the Cuban problem should be solved with the least possible delay—it was intimated by this Government to the Government of Spain some months ago that, if a satisfactory measure of home rule were tendered the Cuban insurgents, and would be accepted by them upon a guaranty of its execution, the United States would endeavor to find a way not objectionable to Spain of furnishing such guaranty. While no definite response to this intimation has yet been received from the Spanish Government, it is believed to be not altogether unwelcome, while, as already suggested, no reason is perceived why it should not be approved by the insurgents. …

"It should be added that it can not be reasonably assumed that the hitherto expectant attitude of the United States will be indefinitely maintained. While we are anxious to accord all due respect to the sovereignty of Spain, we can not view the pending conflict in all its features, and properly apprehend our inevitably close relations to it, and its possible results, without considering that by the course of events we may be drawn into such an unusual and unprecedented condition, as will fix a limit to our patient waiting for Spain to end the contest, either alone and in her own way, or with our friendly co-operation."

_President Cleveland's Message to Congress, December 7, 1896._

Just at this time (December 7, 1896) the Cuban insurgents suffered a serious calamity, in the death of Antonio Maceo, the heroic mulatto, who seems to have been the most soldierly and inspiring of their leaders. He had broken through the "trocha," or fortified line across the island, by which the Spaniards were endeavoring to hold its western part, and had been troubling them in the province of Pinar del Rio for some months. At length he was killed in an unimportant skirmish, and much of the vigor of the insurrection appears to have gone out of it when he died. The obstinacy of spirit remained, nevertheless, and all the merciless energy of Weyler only spread death and misery, without opening any prospect of an end to the state of war. Spain was being utterly exhausted by the immense cost of the struggle; Cuba was being ruined and depopulated; yet neither would yield. The oppressors would not set their victims free; the oppressed would not submit. But, politically, the situation continued for another year as it had been when described by President Cleveland at the close of 1896. The only visible authority was that which the Spaniards maintained here and there. The revolutionists established no government that could reasonably be given the name, and their "Republic of Cuba," which foolish people in the United States were clamoring to have recognized, existed on paper alone. To concede "belligerent rights" to the scattered bands of insurgents would only bring them under crippling rules of international law, and do no good to their cause. President McKinley, who succeeded President Cleveland in March, 1897, made no change in the policy which the latter had pursued. He continued the insistent pressure by which it was sought to persuade the Spanish government to give a satisfying measure of free government to its great dependency. After some months there appeared to be a fair promise of success. The Liberal party had come into power at Madrid, with Sagasta at its head. In October, Weyler was recalled, General Blanco took his place, and a new constitution for Cuba was announced, giving the colony what seemed to be a fairly autonomous government, under a parliament of its own. In his message to Congress the following December, President McKinley was able to meet the continued clamor for more violent measures of interference by saying: "It is honestly due to Spain, and to our friendly relations with Spain, that she should be given a reasonable chance to realize her expectations, and to prove the asserted efficacy of the new order of things to which she stands irrevocably committed. She has recalled the commander whose brutal orders inflamed the American mind and shocked the civilized world. She has modified the horrible order of concentration, and has undertaken to care for the helpless and permit those who desire to resume the cultivation of their fields to do so, and assures them the protection of the Spanish Government in their lawful occupations." {175} But the awful tragedy of suffering among the "reconcontrados" had excited lookers-on to such a pitch that the conduct of Spain in any new line of policy could no longer be fairly judged. There had been attempts on the part of the Spanish authorities to give some relief to the starved and perishing multitude, and help to that end had been accepted from the United States. The American Red Cross Society, with Miss Clara Barton at its head, entered the island in December, with vast stores of food and hospital supplies, and a strong force of generous workers; but the need was far beyond their means. The tale of death and misery in the stricken country seemed to grow more sickening every day.

CUBA: A. D. 1897 (November). Constitution establishing self-government in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, promulgated by Royal Decree.

The following is a translation of the text of the Constitution establishing self-government in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico which was promulgated by royal decree at Madrid on the 25th of November, 1897:

Upon the proposition of my Prime Minister, and with the concurrence of the Council of Ministers in the name of my august son, King Alfonso XIII, and as Queen Regent of the Kingdom, I hereby decree as follows:

[Footnote Start] EXPLANATORY NOTE. To facilitate the understanding of this decree and to avoid confusion as to the legal value of the terms employed therein the following definitions are to be observed:

Central Executive Power: The King with his Council of Ministers. The Spanish Parliament: The Cortes with the King. The Spanish Chambers: The Congress and the Senate. The Central Government: The Council of Ministers of the Kingdom. The Colonial Parliament: The two Chambers with the Governor-General. The Colonial Chambers: The Council of Administration and the Chamber of Representatives. Colonial Legislative Assemblies: The Council of Administration and the Chamber of Representatives. Governor-General in Council: The Governor-General with the Secretaries of his Cabinet. Instructions of the Governor-General: Those which he may have received when named for his office. Statute: Colonial measure of a legislative character. Colonial Statutes: Colonial Legislation. Legislation or General Laws: Legislation or laws of the Kingdom. [Footnote End]

TITLE I. GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL ADMINISTRATION IN THE ISLANDS OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO.

ARTICLE 1. The system of government and civil administration in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico shall hereafter be carried on in conformity with the following provisions:

ARTICLE 2. Each island shall be governed by an insular parliament, consisting of two chambers, and by the Governor-General, representing the mother country, who shall exercise supreme authority.

TITLE II. THE INSULAR CHAMBERS.

ARTICLE 3. The legislative power as to colonial matters in the shape and manner prescribed by law, shall be vested in the insular chambers conjointly with the Governor-General.

ARTICLE 4. Insular representation shall consist of two bodies of equal powers, which shall be known as chamber of representatives and council of administration.

TITLE III. COUNCIL OF ADMINISTRATION.

ARTICLE 5. The council shall be composed of thirty-five members, of whom eighteen shall be elected in the manner directed by the electoral law and seventeen shall be appointed by the Governor-General acting for the Crown, from among such persons as have the qualifications specified in the following articles:

ARTICLE 6. To be entitled to sit in the council of administration it is necessary to be a Spanish subject; to have attained the age of thirty-five years; to have been born in the island, or to have had four years' constant residence therein; not to be subject to any pending criminal prosecution; to be in the full enjoyment of his political rights; to have his property free from attachment; to have had for two or more years previous an annual income of four thousand dollars; to have no interest in any contract with either the insular or the home government. The shareholders of a stock company shall not be considered as government contractors, even if the company has a contract with the government.

ARTICLE 7. Persons are also qualified to serve as councilors who, besides the above-stated requirements, have any of the following qualifications:

1. To be or to have been a senator of the Kingdom, or to possess the requirements for being a senator, in conformity with Article III of the constitution.

2. To have held for a period of two years any of the following offices: President, or prosecuting attorney of the pretorian court of Havana; rector of the University of Havana; councilor of administration in the council formerly thus designated; president of the Havana Chamber of Commerce; president of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country; president of the Sugar Planters' Association; president of the Tobacco Manufacturers' Union; president of the Merchants, Tradesmen's, and Agriculturalists' League; dean of the bar of Havana; mayor of Havana; president of the provincial assembly of Havana during two terms or of any provincial assembly during three terms; dean of either of the chapters of the two cathedrals. 3. Likewise may be elected or appointed as councilor any property owner from among the fifty taxpayers paying the highest taxes, either on real estate or on industries, commerce, arts, and the professions.

ARTICLE 8. The councilors appointed by the Crown shall be appointed by special decrees, stating the qualification entitling the appointee to serve as councilor. Councilors thus appointed shall hold office for life. One-half the number of elective councilors shall be elected every five years, and the whole number shall be elected whenever the council of administration shall be dissolved by the Governor-General.

ARTICLE 9. The qualifications required in order to be appointed or elected councilor of administration may be changed by a national law, at the request or upon the proposition of the insular chambers.

ARTICLE 10. No councilor shall, during the session of the council, accept any civil office, promotion (unless it be strictly by seniority), title, or decoration; but any councilor may be appointed by either the local or the home government to any commission within his own profession or category, whenever the public service shall require it. The secretaries of the insular government shall be excepted from the foregoing rule.

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TITLE IV. THE CHAMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES.

ARTICLE 11. The chamber of representatives shall be composed of members named by the electoral boards in the manner prescribed by law and in the proportion of one for every twenty-five thousand inhabitants.

ARTICLE 12. To be elected as representative the candidate must have the following requirements: To be a Spanish citizen, to be a layman, to have attained his majority, to be in full enjoyment of civil rights, to have been born in the island or to have had four years' constant residence therein, and not to be subject to any pending criminal prosecution.

ARTICLE 13. Representatives shall be elected every five years, and any representative may be re-elected any number of times. The insular chamber shall determine what classes of offices are incompatible with the office of representative, as well as the cases governing re-election.

ARTICLE 14. Any representative upon whom either the local or home government shall confer a pension, or any employment, promotion (unless it be by strict seniority), paid commission, title, or decoration, shall cease to be such without necessity of any declaration to that effect, unless he shall within fifteen days of his appointment notify the chamber of his having declined the favor. The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall not include the representatives who shall be appointed members of the cabinet.

TITLE V. PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSULAR CHAMBERS AND THEIR RELATIONS TO EACH OTHER.

ARTICLE 15. The chambers will meet every year. The King, the Governor-General acting in his name, shall convene, suspend, and adjourn the sessions and dissolve the chamber of representatives and the council of administration, either separately or simultaneously, under the obligation to call them together again or renew them within three months.

ARTICLE 16. Each of the two legislative bodies shall determine the rules of their proceedings and shall be the judges of the qualifications of their respective members and the legality of their election. Until the chamber and the council shall pass their own rules, they shall be governed by the rules of the national house of representatives and of the senate, respectively.

ARTICLE 17. Each chamber shall choose its president, vice-president and secretaries.

ARTICLE 18. Neither chamber shall sit unless the other be sitting also, except when the council exercises judicial functions.

ARTICLE 19. The two insular chambers shall not deliberate together nor in the presence of the Governor-General. The sessions shall be public, but either chamber may hold secret sessions whenever business of a private nature shall require it.

ARTICLE 20. To the Governor-General, through his secretaries, as well as to either of the two chambers, belongs the power to initiate and propose colonial statutes.

ARTICLE 21. All colonial statutes in regard to taxes and the public credit shall originate in the chamber of representatives.

ARTICLE 22. Resolutions may be passed by either chamber by a plurality of votes; but in order to pass a measure of a legislative character a majority of all the members constituting the body must be present. Nevertheless, one-third of the members shall constitute a quorum for deliberation.

ARTICLE 23. No resolution or law shall be considered passed by the insular parliament unless it has had the concurrence of the chamber of representatives and the council of administration.

ARTICLE 24. Every colonial statute, as soon as it has been approved in the form prescribed in the preceding article, shall be presented to the Governor-General by the officers of both chambers for his sanction and proclamation of the same.

ARTICLE 25. Members of the council and the chamber of representatives shall have immunity for any speech or vote in either chamber.

ARTICLE 26. No councilor of administration shall be indicted or arrested without a previous resolution of the council, unless he shall be found "in flagranti" or the council shall not be in session, but in every case notice shall be given to that body as soon as possible, that it may determine what should be done. Nor shall the representatives be indicted or arrested during the sessions without the permission of the chamber unless they are found "in flagranti," but in this last case, or in case of indictment or arrest when the chamber is not sitting, notice shall be given as soon us possible to the chamber of representatives for its information and action. All proceedings against councilors and representatives shall be brought before the pretorian court at Havana in the cases and manner that shall be prescribed by colonial statutes.

ARTICLE 27. The guarantees established in the foregoing section shall not apply to a councilor or representative who shall himself admit that he is the author of any article, book, pamphlet, or printed matter wherein military sedition is incited or invoked, or the Governor-General is insulted and maligned, or national sovereignty is assailed.

ARTICLE 28. The relations between the two chambers shall be governed, until otherwise provided, by the act of July 19, 1837, regulating the relations between the two legislative houses of the Cortes.

ARTICLE 29. Besides the power of enacting laws for the colony the insular chambers shall have power:

1. To receive the oath of the Governor-General to preserve the constitution and the laws which guarantee the autonomy of the colony.

2. To enforce the responsibility of the secretaries of the executive, who shall be tried by the council, whenever impeached by the chamber of representatives.

3. To address the home government through the Governor-General, proposing the abrogation or modification of existing laws of the Kingdom; to invite the home government to present bills as to particular matters, or to ask a decision of an executive character on matters which interest the colony.

ARTICLE 30. The Governor-General shall communicate to the home government before presenting to the insular parliament any bill originating in the executive government of the island whenever, in his judgment, said bill may affect national interests. Should any such bill originate in the insular parliament, the government of the island shall ask for a postponement of the debate until the home government shall have given its opinion. In either case the correspondence passing between the two governments shall be laid before the chambers and published in the official Gazette.

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ARTICLE 31. All differences of jurisdiction between the several municipal, provincial, and insular assemblies, or between any of them and the executive, which by their nature may not be referred to the home government, shall be submitted to the courts of justice in accordance with the rules herein prescribed.

TITLE VI. POWERS VESTED IN THE INSULAR PARLIAMENT.

ARTICLE 32. The insular chambers shall have power to pass upon all matters not specially and expressly reserved to the Cortes of the Kingdom or to the central government as herein provided, or as may be provided hereafter, in accordance with the prescription set forth in additional Article 2. In this manner, and without implying that the following enumeration presupposes any limitation of their power to legislate on other subjects, they shall have power to legislate on all matters and subjects concerning the departments of justice, interior, treasury, public works, education, and agriculture.

They shall likewise have exclusive cognizance of all matters of a purely local nature which may principally affect the colonial territory; and to this end they shall have power to legislate on civil administration; on provincial, municipal, or judicial apportionment; on public health, by land or sea, and on public credit, banks, and the monetary system. This power, however, shall not impair the powers vested in the colonial executive according to the laws in connection with the matters above mentioned.

ARTICLE 33. It shall be incumbent upon the colonial parliament to make regulations under such national laws as may be passed by the Cortes and expressly intrusted to it. Especially among such measures parliament shall legislate, and may do so at the first sitting, for the purpose of regulating the elections, the taking of the electoral census, qualifying electors, and exercising the right of suffrage; but in no event shall these dispositions affect the rights of the citizens, as established by the electoral laws.

ARTICLE 34. Notwithstanding that the laws governing the judiciary and the administration of justice are of a national character, and therefore obligatory for the colony, the insular parliament may, within the provisions of said laws, make rules or propose to the home government such measures as shall render easier the admission, continuance, or promotion in the local courts of lawyers, natives of the island, or practicing therein.

The Governor-General in council shall have, as far as the island of Cuba is concerned, the same power that has been vested heretofore in the minister for the colonies for the appointment of the functionaries and subordinate and auxiliary officers of the judicial order and as to the other matters connected with the administration of justice.

ARTICLE 35. The insular parliament shall have exclusive power to frame the local budget of expenditures and revenues, including the revenue corresponding to the island as her quota of the national budget. To this end the Governor-General shall present to the chambers every year before the month of January the budget for the next fiscal year, divided in two parts, as follows: The first part shall state the revenues needed to defray the expenses of sovereignty, and the second part shall state the revenues and expenditures estimated for the maintenance of the colonial administration. Neither chamber shall take up the budget of the colonial government without having finally voted the part for the maintenance of sovereignty.

ARTICLE 36. The Cortes of the Kingdom shall determine what expenditures are to be considered by reason of their nature as obligatory expenses inherent to sovereignty, and shall fix the amount every three years and the revenue needed to defray the same, the Cortes reserving the right to alter this rule.

ARTICLE 37. All treaties of commerce affecting the island of Cuba, be they suggested by the insular or by the home government, shall be made by the latter with the co-operation of special delegates duly authorized by the colonial government, whose concurrence shall be acknowledged upon submitting the treaties to the Cortes. Said treaties, when approved by the Cortes, shall be proclaimed as laws of the Kingdom and as such shall obtain in the colony.

ARTICLE 38. Notice shall be given to the insular government of any commercial treaties made without its participation as soon as said treaties shall become laws, to the end that, within a period of three months, it may declare its acceptance or nonacceptance of their stipulations. In case of acceptance the Governor-General shall cause the treaty to be published in the Gazette as a colonial statute.

ARTICLE 39. The insular parliament shall also have power to frame the tariff and fix the duties to be paid on merchandise as well for its importation into the territory of the island as for the exportation thereof.

ARTICLE 40. As a transition from the old regime to the new constitution, and until the home and insular governments may otherwise conjointly determine hereafter, the commercial relations between the island and the metropolis shall be governed by the following rules:

1. No differential duty, whether fiscal or otherwise, either on imports or exports, shall be imposed to the detriment of either insular or peninsular production.

2. The two governments shall make a schedule of articles of direct national origin to which shall be allowed by common consent preferential duty over similar foreign products. In another schedule made in like manner shall be determined such articles of direct insular production as shall be entitled to privileged treatment on their importation into the peninsula and the amount of preferential duties thereon. In neither case shall the preferential duty exceed 35 per cent. Should the home and the colonial government agree upon the schedules and the preferential duties, they shall be considered final and shall be enforced at once. In case of disagreement the point in dispute shall be submitted to a committee of representatives of the Cortes, consisting of an equal number of Cubans and Peninsulars. The committee shall appoint its chairman, and in case of disagreement the eldest member shall preside. The chairman shall have the casting vote.

3. The valuation tables concerning the articles in the schedules above mentioned shall be fixed by mutual agreement, and shall be revised after discussion every two years. The modifications which may thereupon become necessary in the tariff duties shall be carried out at once by the respective governments.

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TITLE VII. THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

ARTICLE 41. The supreme authority of the colony shall be vested in a Governor-General, appointed by the King on the nomination of the council of ministers. In his capacity he shall have as vice-royal patron the power inherent in the patronate of the Indies; he shall have command of all military and naval forces in the island; he shall act as delegate of the departments of state, war, navy, and the colonies; all other authorities in the island shall be subordinate to his, and he shall be responsible for the preservation of order and the safety of the colony. The Governor-General shall, before taking possession of his office, take an oath in the presence of the King to discharge his duties faithfully and loyally.

ARTICLE 42. The Governor-General, representing the nation, will discharge by himself and with the aid of his secretaries all the functions indicated in the preceding articles and such others as may devolve upon him as direct delegate of the King in matters of a national character. It shall be incumbent upon the Governor-General as representing the home government:

1. To appoint without restriction the secretaries of his cabinet.

2. To proclaim, execute, and cause to be executed in the island all laws, decrees, treaties, international covenants, and all other acts emanating from the legislative branch of the government, as well as all decrees, royal commands, and other measures emanating from the executive which shall be communicated to him by the departments of which he acts as delegate. Whenever in his judgment and in that of his secretaries he considers the resolutions of the home government as liable to injure the general interests of the nation or the special interests of the island, he shall have power to suspend the publication and execution thereof, and shall so notify the respective department, stating the reasons for his action.

3. To grant pardons in the name of the King, within the limitations specially prescribed to him in his instructions from the government, and to stay the execution of a death sentence whenever the gravity of the circumstances shall so demand or the urgency of the case shall allow of no time to solicit and obtain His Majesty's pardon; but in either case he shall hear the counsel of his secretaries.

4. To suspend the guarantees set forth in articles 3, 5, 6, and 9, and in the first, second, and third paragraphs of article 13 of the constitution; to enforce legislation in regard to public order, and to take all measures which he may deem necessary to preserve the peace within and the safety without for the territory entrusted to him after hearing the counsel of his cabinet.

5. To take care that in the colony justice be promptly and fully administered, and that it shall always be administered in the name of the King.

6. To hold direct communication on foreign affairs with the ministers, diplomatic agents, and counsels of Spain throughout America. A full copy of such correspondence shall be simultaneously forwarded to the home Department of State.

ARTICLE 43. It behooves the Governor-General, as the superior authority in the colony and head of its administration:

1. To take care that the rights, powers, and privileges now vested or that may henceforth be vested in the colonial administration be respected and protected.

2. To sanction and proclaim the acts of the insular parliament, which shall be submitted to him by the president and secretaries of the respective chambers. Whenever, in the judgment of the Governor-General, an act of the insular parliament goes beyond its powers or impairs the rights of the citizens as set forth in Article I of the constitution, or curtails the guarantees prescribed by law for the exercise of said rights, or jeopards the interest of the colony or of the nation, he shall forward the act to the council of ministers of the Kingdom, which, within a period that shall not exceed two months, shall either assent to it or return it to the Governor-General with the objections to its sanction and proclamation. The insular parliament may, in view of the objections, reconsider or modify the act, if it deems fit, without a special proposition. If two months shall elapse without the central government giving any opinion as to a measure agreed upon by the chambers which has been transmitted to it by the Governor-General, the latter shall sanction and proclaim the same.

3. To appoint, suspend, and discharge the employees of the colonial administration, upon the suggestion of the secretaries of the departments and in accordance with the laws.

4. To appoint and remove, without restriction, the secretaries of his cabinet.

ARTICLE 44. No executive order of the Governor-General, acting as representative and chief of the colony, shall take effect unless countersigned by a secretary of the cabinet, who by this act alone shall make himself responsible for the same.

ARTICLE 45. There shall be five secretaries of department, to wit: Grace and justice and interior; finance; public education, public works and posts and telegraphs; agriculture, industry, and commerce.

The Governor-General shall appoint the president of the cabinet from among the secretaries, and shall also have power to appoint a president without a secretaryship. The power to increase or diminish the number of secretaries composing the colonial cabinet, and to determine the scope of each department, is vested in the insular parliament.

ARTICLE 46. The secretaries of the cabinet may be members of either the chamber of representatives or the council of administration and take part in the debates of either chamber, but a secretary shall only vote in the chamber of which he is a member.

ARTICLE 47. The secretaries of the cabinet shall be responsible to the insular parliament.

ARTICLE 48. The Governor-General shall not modify or abrogate his own orders after they are assented to by the home government, or when they shall declare some rights, or when a sentence by a judicial court or administrative tribunal shall have been based upon said orders, or when they shall deal with his own competency.

ARTICLE 49. The Governor-General shall not turn over his office when leaving the island except by special command from the home government. In case of absence from the seat of government which prevents his discharging the duties of his office or of disability to perform such duties, he can appoint one or more persons to take his place, provided the home government has not previously done so or the method of substitution shall not be stated in his instructions.

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ARTICLE 50. The supreme court shall have the sole power to try the Governor-General when impeached for his responsibilities as defined by the Penal Code. The council of ministers shall take cognizance of his other responsibilities.

ARTICLE 51. The Governor-General shall have the power, in spite of the provisions of the different articles of this decree, to act upon his own responsibility, without consulting his secretaries, in the following cases:

1. When forwarding to the home government a bill passed by the insular parliament, especially when, in his opinion, it shall abridge the rights set forth in Article 1 of the constitution of the monarchy or the guarantees for the exercise thereof vouchsafed by the laws.

2. When it shall be necessary to enforce the law or public order, especially if there be no time or possibility to consult the home government.

3. When enforcing the national laws that shall have been approved by the Crown and made applicable to all of the Spanish or to the colony under his government. The proceedings and means of action which the Governor-General shall employ in the above cases shall be determined by a special law.

TITLE VIII. MUNICIPAL AND PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.

ARTICLE. 52. Municipal organization shall be compulsory for every group of population of more than one thousand inhabitants. Groups of less number of inhabitants may organize the service of their community by special covenants. Every legally constituted municipality shall have power to frame its own laws regarding public education; highways by land, river, and sea; public health; municipal finances, as well as to freely appoint and remove its own employees.

ARTICLE 53. At the head of each province there shall be an assembly, which shall be elected in the manner provided for by the colonial statutes, and shall be composed of a number of members in proportion to the population.

ARTICLE 54. The provincial assembly shall be autonomous as regards the creation and maintenance of public schools and colleges; charitable institutions and provincial roads and ways by land, river, or sea; also as regards their own budgets and the appointment and removal of their respective employees.

ARTICLE 55. The municipalities, as well as the provincial assemblies, shall have power to freely raise the necessary revenue to cover their expenditures, with no other limitation than to make the means adopted compatible with the general system of taxation which shall obtain in the island. The resources for provincial appropriations shall be independent of municipal resources.

ARTICLE 56. The mayors and presidents of boards of aldermen shall be chosen by their respective boards from among their members.

ARTICLE 57. The mayors shall discharge without limitation the active duties of the municipal administration, as executors of the resolutions of the board of aldermen or their representatives.

ARTICLE 58. The aldermen and the provincial assemblymen shall be civilly responsible for the damages caused by their acts. Their responsibility shall be exacted before the ordinary courts of justice.

ARTICLE 59. The provincial assemblies shall freely choose their respective presidents.

ARTICLE 60. The elections of aldermen and assemblymen shall be conducted in such manner as to allow for a legitimate representation of the minorities.

ARTICLE 61. The provincial and municipal laws now obtaining in the island shall continue in vogue, wherever not in conflict with the provisions of this decree, until the insular parliament shall legislate upon the matter.

ARTICLE 62. No colonial statute shall abridge the powers vested by the preceding articles in the municipalities and the provincial assemblies.

TITLE IX. AS TO THE GUARANTEES FOR THE FULFILLMENT OF THE COLONIAL CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE 63. Whenever a citizen shall consider that his rights have been violated or his interests injured by the action of a municipality or a provincial assembly he shall have the right to apply to the courts of justice for redress. The department of justice shall, if so required by the agents of the executive government of the colony, prosecute before the courts the boards of aldermen or provincial assemblies charged with breaking the laws or abusing their power.

ARTICLE 64. In the cases referred to in the preceding article, the following courts shall have jurisdiction: The territorial audiencia shall try all claims against municipalities; and the pretorian court of Havana shall try all claims against provincial assemblies. Said courts, when the charges against any of the above-mentioned corporations shall be for abuse of power, shall render their decisions by a full bench. From the decision of the Territorial audiencia an appeal shall be allowed to the pretorian court of Havana, and from the decisions of the latter an appeal shall be allowed to the supreme court of the Kingdom.

ARTICLE 65. The redress of grievances which Article 62 grants to any citizen can also be had collectively by means of public action, by appointing an attorney or representative claimant.

ARTICLE 66. Without in any way impairing the powers vested in the Governor-General by Title V of the present decree, he may, whenever he deems fit, appear before the pretorian court of Havana in his capacity as chief of the executive government of the colony, to the end that said court shall finally decide any conflict of jurisdiction between the executive power and the legislative chambers of the colony.

ARTICLE 67. Should any question of jurisdiction be raised between the insular parliament and the Governor-General in his capacity as representative of the home government, which shall not have been submitted to the council of ministers of the Kingdom by petition of the insular parliament, either party shall have power to bring the matter before the supreme court of the Kingdom, which shall render its decision by a full bench and in the first instance.

ARTICLE 68. The decisions rendered in all cases provided for in the preceding articles shall be published in the collection of colonial statutes and shall form part of the insular legislation.

ARTICLE 69. Every municipal measure for the purpose of contracting a loan or a municipal debt shall be without effect, unless it be assented to by a majority of the townspeople whenever one-third of the number of aldermen shall so demand. The amount of the loan or debt which, according to the number of inhabitants of a township, shall make the referendum proceeding necessary, shall be determined by special statute.

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ARTICLE 70. All legislative acts originating in the insular parliament or the Cortes shall be compiled under the title of colonial statutes in a legislative collection, the formation and publication of which shall be entrusted to the Governor-General as chief of the colonial executive.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES.

ARTICLE 1. Until the colonial statutes shall be published in due form, the laws of the Kingdom shall be deemed applicable to all matters reserved to the jurisdiction of the insular government.

ARTICLE 2. When the present constitution shall be once approved by the Cortes of the Kingdom for the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, it shall not be amended except by virtue of a special law and upon the petition of the insular parliament.

ARTICLE 3. The provisions of the present decree shall obtain in their entirety in the island of Porto Rico; they shall, however, be ordained by special decree in order to conform them to the population and nomenclature of said island.

ARTICLE 4. Pending contracts for public services affecting in common the Antilles and the Peninsula shall continue in their present shape until termination, and shall be entirely governed by the conditions and stipulations therein made. As regards other contracts already entered into, but not yet in operation, the Governor-General shall consult the home government, or the colonial chambers, as the case may be, and the two governments shall by mutual accord decide as between themselves the final form of such contract.

TRANSITORY PROVISIONS.

ARTICLE 1. With a view to carry out the transition from the present regime to the system hereby established with the greatest possible dispatch and the least interruption of the public business, the Governor-General shall, whenever he deems it timely and after consulting the home government, appoint the secretaries of the executive office as per Article 45 of this decree, and with their aid he shall conduct the local government of the island until the insular chambers shall have been constituted. The secretaries thus appointed shall vacate their offices as soon as the Governor-General shall take his oath of office before the insular chambers, and the Governor-General shall immediately appoint as their successors the members of parliament who, in his judgment, most fully represent the majorities in the chamber of representatives and the council of administration.

ARTICLE 2. The manner of meeting the expenditures occasioned by the debt now weighing upon the Spanish and Cuban treasuries, and the debt that may be contracted until the termination of the war, shall be determined by a law fixing the share that shall be borne by each treasury, and the special ways and means for the payment of the interest, and the sinking fund, and for refunding the principal in due time. Until the Cortes of the Kingdom shall decide this point no changes shall be made in the conditions under which said debts were contracted, nor in the payment of the interest, nor provisions for a sinking fund, nor in the guarantees which they enjoy, nor in the actual terms of payment. When the Cortes shall have apportioned the shares, each of the two treasuries shall take upon itself the payment of the share allotted. In no event shall the obligations contracted towards the lenders on the faith of the Spanish nation cease to be scrupulously respected. Issued in the Palace, Madrid, November 25, 1897. MARIA CHRISTINA. The President of the Council of Ministers, PRÁXEDES MATEO SAGASTA.

CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (November-February). The experiment of autonomy or home rule.

It cannot be said that the Constitution of 1897 was given a fair trial. In the circumstances, one may doubt whether a fair trial of its working was possible. It came too late for advantageous testing or unprejudiced judging of its practicability. The autonomist party, which might once have been able to make Cuba a constitutional dependency, like Canada, had been discouraged and broken up. Weyler's policy had excited a feeling in the United States which was too impatient to wait for new experiments in Spanish dealing with Cuba to be worked out, or to estimate reasonably the chances of their success. The first showing of results from the scheme of autonomy was unpromising, as it could hardly have failed to be, and that was readily taken as conclusive in condemnation of it. The judgment of General Fitzhugh Lee, Consul-General of the United States at Havana, had great influence in America, and he saw nothing to expect from the Constitution. In an article contributed subsequently to the "Fortnightly Review," June, 1898, he wrote:

"It [the Constitution) was an elaborate system of 'Home Rule' with a string to every sentence; so that I soon became satisfied that, if the insurrection against the Spanish throne on the island ceased, the condition of the Cubans would speedily be the same as it was at the commencement of the war. I gave the reasons therefor in a paper now on file in the State Department which clearly proved that the Spaniards could easily control one of the legislative chambers, and that behind any joint action on the part of both was the veto of the Governor-General, whose appointment was made from the throne in Madrid.

"This system of autonomy, however, was gravely proceeded with. An Autonomistic Cabinet was seriously formed, composed in part of Cubans who, though at one time in favour of a government of the island free from Spanish control, had given satisfactory intimations that, if they were appointed to cabinet offices, their former opinions could be modified to suit existing circumstances. Blanco's Autonomistic Government was doomed to failure from its inception. The Spanish soldiers and officers scorned it, because they did not desire Cuban rule, which such autonomy, if genuine, would insure. The Spanish merchants and citizens were opposed to it, because they too were hostile to the Cubans having control of the island, and if the question could be narrowed down to Cuban control or annexation to the United States, they were all annexationists, believing that they could get a better government and one that would protect, in a greater measure, life and property under the United States flag than under the Cuban banner. On the other hand, the Cubans in arms would not touch it, because they were fighting for Free Cuba; and the Cuban citizens and sympathizers, or the non-arm-bearing population, were distinctly opposed to it also; while those in favour of it seemed to consist of the Autonomistic Cabinet, General Blanco, his Secretary-General and Staff, and a few followers elsewhere."

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_Fitzhugh Lee, Cuba and her Struggle for Freedom (Fortnightly Review, June, 1898)._

CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (December-March). Condition of the Reconcentrados.

On the 14th of December, 1897, General Fitzhugh Lee, Consul-General of the United States at Havana, reported to the Department of State as follows:

"I have the honor to report that I have received information that in the Province of Havana reports show that there have been 101,000 'Reconcentrados,' and that out of that 52,000 have died. Of the said 101,000, 32,000 were children. This excludes the city of Havana and seven other towns from which reports have not yet been made up. It is thought that the total number of 'Reconcentrados' in Havana Province will amount to 150,000, nearly all women and children, and that the death rate among their whole number from starvation alone will be over 50 per cent. For the above number of 'Reconcentrados' $12,500, Spanish silver, was set aside out of the $100,000 appropriated for the purpose of relieving all the 'Reconcentrados' on the island. Seventy-five thousand of the 150,000 may be still living, so if every dollar appropriated of the $12,500 reaches them the distribution will average about 17 cents to a person, which, of course, will be rapidly exhausted, and, as I can hear of no further succor being afforded, it is easy to perceive what little practical relief has taken place in the condition of these poor people."

On the 8th of January, 1898, General Lee made another report on the same subject as follows:

"I have the honor to state, as a matter of public interest, that the 'reconcentrado order' of General Weyler, formerly Governor-General of this island, transformed about 400,000 self-supporting people, principally women and children, into a multitude to be sustained by the contributions of others or die of starvation or of fevers resulting from a low physical condition and being massed in large bodies without change of clothing and without food. Their houses were burned, their fields and plant beds destroyed, and their live stock driven away or killed. I estimate that probably 200,000 of the rural population in the Provinces of Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas, and Santa Clara have died of starvation, or from resultant causes, and the deaths of whole families almost simultaneously, or within a few days of each other, and of mothers praying for their children to be relieved of their horrible sufferings by death, are not the least of the many pitiable scenes which were ever present. In the Provinces of Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba, where the 'reconcentrado order' could not be enforced, the great mass of the people are self-sustaining. A daily average of ten cents' worth of food to 200,000 people would be an expenditure of $20,000 per day, and of course the most humane efforts upon the part of our citizens can not hope to accomplish such a gigantic relief, and a great portion of these people will have to be abandoned to their fate."

A little later, Senator Proctor, of Vermont, visited Cuba, for personal observation of the condition of things in the island, and, on his return, made a statement of what he had seen and learned, in a speech to the Senate, which made an impression on the country much deeper than any previous testimony on the subject that had reached the public eye or ear. The following is a part of the account that he gave:

"My observations were confined to the four western provinces, which constitute about one-half of the island. The two eastern ones are practically in the hands of the insurgents, except the few fortified towns. These two large provinces are spoken of to-day as 'Cuba Libre.' Outside Habana all is changed. It is not peace nor is it war. It is desolation and distress, misery and starvation. Every town and village is surrounded by a 'trocha' (trench), a sort of rifle pit, but constructed on a plan new to me, the dirt being thrown up on the inside and a barbed-wire fence on the outer side of the trench. These trochas have at every corner and at frequent intervals along the sides what are there called forts, but which are really small blockhouses, many of them more like large sentry boxes, loopholed for musketry, and with a guard of from two to ten soldiers in each.

"The purpose of these trochas is to keep the Reconcentrados in as well as to keep the insurgents out. From all the surrounding country the people have been driven in to these fortified towns and held there to subsist as they can. They are virtually prison yards, and not unlike one in general appearance, except that the walls are not so high and strong; but they suffice, where every point is in range of a soldier's rifle, to keep in the poor reconcentrado women and children. Every railroad station is within one of these trochas and has an armed guard. Every train has an armored freight car, loopholed for musketry and filled with soldiers, and with, as I observed usually, and was informed is always the case, a pilot engine a mile or so in advance. There are frequent blockhouses inclosed by a trocha and with a guard along the railroad track. With this exception there is no human life or habitation between these fortified towns and villages, and throughout the whole of the four western provinces, except to a very limited extent among the hills where the Spaniards have not been able to go and drive the people to the towns and burn their dwellings. I saw no house or hut in the 400 miles of railroad rides from Pinar del Rio Province in the west across the full width of Habana and Matanzas provinces, and to Sagua La Grande on the north shore, and to Cienfuegos on the south shore of Santa Clara, except within the Spanish trochas.

"There are no domestic animals or crops on the rich fields and pastures except such as are under guard in the immediate vicinity of the towns. In other words, the Spaniards hold in these four western provinces just what their army sits on. Every man, woman, and child, and every domestic animal, wherever their columns have reached, is under guard and within their so-called fortifications. To describe one place is to describe all. To repeat, it is neither peace nor war. It is concentration and desolation. This is the 'pacified' condition of the four western provinces. West of Habana is mainly the rich tobacco country; east, so far as I went, a sugar region. Nearly all the sugar mills are destroyed between Habana and Sagua. Two or three were standing in the vicinity of Sagua, and in part running, surrounded, as are the villages, by trochas and 'forts' or palisades of the royal palm, and fully guarded. Toward and near Cienfuegos there were more mills running, but all with the same protection. {182} … All the country people in the four western provinces, about 400,000 in number, remaining outside the fortified towns when Weyler's order was made were driven into these towns, and these are the Reconcentrados. They were the peasantry, many of them farmers, some landowners, others renting lands and owning more or less stock, others working on estates and cultivating small patches; and even a small patch in that fruitful clime will support a family. It is but fair to say that the normal condition of these people was very different from what prevails in this country. Their standard of comfort and prosperity was not high, measured by ours. But according to their standards and requirements their conditions of life were satisfactory. They lived mostly in cabins made of palms or in wooden houses. Some of them had houses of stone, the blackened walls of which are all that remain to show the country was ever inhabited.

"The first clause of Weyler's order [renewing that of February 16, 1896] reads as follows: 'I Order and Command. First. All the inhabitants of the country or outside of the line of fortifications of the town shall, within the period of eight days, concentrate themselves in the towns occupied by the troops. Any individual who, after the expiration of this period, is found in the uninhabited parts will be considered a rebel and tried as such.' … Many, doubtless, did not learn of this order. Others failed to grasp its terrible meaning. Its execution was left largely to the guerrillas to drive in all that had not obeyed, and I was informed that in many cases the torch was applied to their homes with no notice, and the inmates fled with such clothing as they might have on, their stock and other belongings being appropriated by the guerrillas. When they reached the towns, they were allowed to build huts of palm leaves in the suburbs and vacant places within the trochas, and left to live, if they could.

"Torn from their homes, with foul earth, foul air, foul water, and foul food or none, what wonder that one-half have died and that one-quarter of the living are so diseased that they cannot be saved? … Deaths in the streets have not been uncommon. I was told by one of our consuls that they have been found dead about the markets in the morning, where they had crawled, hoping to get some stray bits of food from the early hucksters, and that there had been cases where they had dropped dead inside the market surrounded by food. These people were independent and self-supporting before Weyler's order. … I went to Cuba with a strong conviction that the picture had been overdrawn; that a few cases of starvation and suffering had inspired and stimulated the press correspondents, and that they had given free play to a strong, natural, and highly cultivated imagination. … I could not believe that, out of a population of 1,600,000, 200,000 had died within these Spanish forts, practically prison walls, within a few months past from actual starvation and diseases caused by insufficient and improper food. My inquiries were entirely outside of sensational sources. They were made of our medical officers, of our consuls, of city alcaldes (mayors), of relief committees, of leading merchants and bankers, physicians, and lawyers. Several of my informants were Spanish born, but every time the answer was that the case had not been overstated. What I saw I cannot tell so that others can see it. It must be seen with one's own eyes to be realized. …

"The dividing lines between parties are the most straight and clear cut that have ever come to my knowledge. The division in our war was by no means so clearly defined. It is Cuban against Spaniard. It is practically the entire Cuban population on one side and the Spanish army and Spanish citizens on the other. I do not count the autonomists in this division, as they are so far too inconsiderable in numbers to be worth counting. General Blanco filled the civil offices with men who had been autonomists and were still classed as such. But the march of events had satisfied most of them that the chance for autonomy came too late. … There is no doubt that General Blanco is acting in entire good faith; that he desires to give the Cubans a fair measure of autonomy, as Campos did at the close of the ten-year war. He has, of course, a few personal followers, but the army and the Spanish citizens do not want genuine autonomy, for that means government by the Cuban people. And it is not strange that the Cubans say it comes too late."

_Congressional Record, March 17, 1898._

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (February). Destruction of the United States Battleship Maine in Havana harbor.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (March-April). Discussion of Cuban affairs between Spain and the United States. Message of the President to Congress asking for authority to intervene.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-APRIL).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (April). Demand of the United States Government for the withdrawal of Spain from the island, and its result in a state of war.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (April-December). Operations of war between the United States and Spain. Suspension of hostilities. Negotiation of treaty of peace. Relinquishment of sovereignty by Spain.

See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL) to 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (December). Removal of the remains of Columbus to Spain.

The remains of Columbus were taken from the Cathedral in Havana, on the 12th of December, for transfer to the cathedral at Seville, in Spain.

CUBA: A. D. 1898-1899 (December-October). Organization of military government under United States authority. Report of the military governor, on conditions prevailing, measures adopted, and results obtained.

On the 13th of December, 1898, the following General Order was issued by the Secretary of War:

"By direction of the President, a division to be known as the Division of Cuba, consisting of the geographical departments and provinces of the island of Cuba, with headquarters in the city of Habana, is hereby created, under command of Major General John R. Brooke, U. S. A., who, in addition to command of the troops in the division, will exercise the authority of military governor of the island. Major General Fitzhugh Lee, U. S. V., commanding the Seventh Army Corps, is assigned to the immediate command of all the troops in the province of Habana. Major General William Ludlow, U. S. V., is designated as the military governor of the city of Habana, and will report direct to the division commander. He is charged with all that relates to collection and disbursement of revenues of the port and city, and its police, sanitation, and general government, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the President."

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General Brooke arrived at Havana on the 28th of December and assumed the command of the troops and the military governorship of the island. In his subsequent report (October 1, 1899) of conditions then existing, proceedings taken, events occurring and results attained, he wrote: "It was found that considerable confusion incident to the withdrawal of the Spanish troops and replacing them with the United States troops existed, but no untoward event occurred, however, as every precaution was taken to maintain order. The gradual withdrawal of the Spanish troops and the advance of the United States troops continued, until the morning of the 1st of January, 1899, found but few Spanish troops in the city, and these went on board transports, which movement was completed about 12.30 p. m. Outside of the principal towns the retiring Spanish army was closely followed by the Cuban army, which took charge of the towns and country, maintaining order, and, generally, performing police duty. This state of affairs continued, substantially, until the final disbandment of that army. The disbandment of the Cuban army was commenced in November, 1898, but only such as could procure work, or were anxious to resume their former vocations, seem to have taken advantage of the 'licencia' (furlough) which was given to many. A large part of the army was held together on various pretexts until the distribution of the $3,000,000 [allotted for distribution to the Cuban army, to enable the soldiers to return to their homes], and the giving up of their arms effected a final disbandment. During the time the army was held together as an organized body the police duties performed seemed to be well done and order was preserved. The spectacle of an army of, according to the rolls, 48,000 men being peacefully dispersed among the people has for its prototype the disappearance of the great volunteer army of the United States in 1865. In neither case has there been any great disturbance, as was feared in both cases, and particularly so as regards the Cuban army. The small attempts at brigandage were quickly suppressed, the lawbreakers placed in prison, and the courts are now hearing their cases.

"On January 1, 1899, a division of the Seventh Army Corps, under the command of General Fitzhugh Lee, General Keifer's division, was brought to the city, and, with the regiments on duty in Habana under the command of General William Ludlow, were so placed as to insure good order during the ceremonies of the relinquishment of sovereignty by Spain, which occurred in the Governor-General's palace at 12 o'clock noon, where were assembled the Captain-General and his staff, the United States commission with its officers, the American military governor with his staff, Major General Fitzhugh Lee, Major General William Ludlow, Major General J. Warren Keifer, and their staffs, and nine Cuban generals as his guests. This ceremony was simple in its character, though very impressive, consisting of a formal speech by the Spanish Governor-General, which was replied to by General Wade, the chairman of the United States evacuation commission, who, in concluding his remarks, turned to the military governor and transferred the island of Cuba to him, who, thereupon, entered upon the full exercise of his duty as the military governor of Cuba. Of course, the gathering into his hands of all the duties of his office took time. The desire of a large body of the Cuban army to take part on the 1st of January in the ceremonies of the relinquishment of sovereignty by Spain was reported verbally, by General Ludlow, and he was informed that the danger to life and property was too great, and that the celebration must be postponed to a time when the excitement had cooled off and the passions of the people could be under control. This celebration afterwards took place on the arrival in the city of General Maximo Gomez, Commander in Chief of the Cuban forces, on February 24. General Ludlow was directed to meet General Gomez at the city limits and show him every courtesy possible. The Quinta de los Molinos, the summer residence of the Governor-General, was placed at his disposal, and for several months he, with his staff and escort, occupied the houses and grounds as the guests of this Government. The civil bureaus of the Governor-Generalcy were taken over by officers of the military governor's staff, and held by them until the proper civil officials could be selected and appointed. …

"In reaching this stage on the highway of progress toward the establishment of government through civil channels, many obstacles have been overcome, the most serious being the very natural distrust of the people, which was born and nurtured under the system of the preceding government, and was particularly the effect of the wars which these people waged in their effort to improve their condition. It is believed that this distrust has given way to confidence in the minds of a majority of the people, and that they are generally beginning to see that the government, as administered by the United States, is for them and for their benefit. It is proper at this time to speak of the condition of the people and the country as it existed at the time of the relinquishment of sovereignty by Spain. A large number of the people were found to be actually starving. Efforts were immediately made to supply food, which the War Department sent, all told, 5,493,500 Cuban rations, in addition to the 1,000,000 rations distributed by Mr. Gould, and these were sent into the country and distributed under the direction of the commanding generals of departments, through such agencies as they established; while in the cities the distribution was generally conducted by an officer of the Army. The result of this action was the immediate lowering of the death rate, the restoration to health of the sick, and a general change for the better was soon apparent. Medicines were also supplied for the sick with most beneficial results. Employment was given to those who could work, and they were paid weekly, so that they might have money to buy food. In fact, no effort was spared to relieve the terrible condition in which so many thousand people were found. …

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"Turning to the present conditions, we have in view such a change that the progress seems incredible. A great part of the improvement dates from the month of May, when the muster out of the Cuban army removed a great source of distrust. The extent to which have been carried the cultivation of the fields, the reconstruction of homes, the re-establishment of order and public service, especially in the matter of hygiene in the towns, is something wonderful. … The question of finance, as relates to the restoration of crippled and destroyed agricultural industries, is one which has occupied a great deal of attention on the part of this government. It is evident that assistance in the way of repairing the roads and bridges, as well as to municipalities in their present impoverished conditions, is a necessity, and the most pressing wants in this direction have been met by granting money from the revenues of the island. There is every reason to hope that the municipal revenues will meet all requirements as soon as agriculture is again on its feet, and there will, doubtless, be some changes in the present tax law made. In this connection, it is well to know that planters and small farmers in the tobacco growing districts are rapidly recovering from their forlorn condition. The quick growing crop and the remunerative prices have enabled them to restore, in a measure, the lost cattle, mules, and implements necessary to the farmers. There is, also, a desire to use labor-saving devices, which are now being slowly introduced. …

"The quiet severance of church and state has been effected by the fact of the Government of the United States being in control. Certain changes have already been made in the laws, and others will follow in due course; this without violating the legal rights of the Roman Catholic Church, which was the only religious denomination tolerated in the island, except a small body of Baptists. The important subject of schools is now approaching a solution. The present system will be improved upon, but it will require time to develop fully a good school system throughout the island. There are no school-houses, and under present conditions there can be none built for some time to come. It is hoped that a manual training school will be opened as soon as certain repairs and changes can be made in the Spanish barracks at Santiago de las Vegas, a short distance south of Habana, in which about 600 of both sexes can receive instruction at one time. This form of instruction is more important, under the conditions found to exist, than the ordinary instruction given in the other schools. As conditions improve, an opportunity can be given to increase the number of these schools, and by their means introduce modern methods more rapidly than by other systems."

_General John R. Brooke, Civil Report, October 1, 1899 (Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,