The History of Cuba Volume III Part 8

At this point, moreover, a serious complication was injected into the problem of Spanish-American relations by the attempted intervention of Great Britain and France. Both these powers sought to persuade Spain that they were better friends to her, especially in relation to Cuba, than the United States. They impressed upon her the idea that the United States intended to take Cuba away from her, while they were willing to respect her t.i.tle to it, and to protect her in possession of it.

These suggestions were followed by the menace of overt acts which, if committed, would have had very serious results. In 1851, the British and French governments let it be known that instructions had been given to their naval commanders to increase their forces in the waters adjacent to Cuba, and to exercise guardians.h.i.+p over the sh.o.r.es of that island to prevent the landing of any more filibustering expeditions from the United States or elsewhere, such as those of Lopez. It does not appear that this was done at the request of Spain. It was probably an entirely gratuitous performance intended partly to ingratiate the Spanish government, and partly to prevent the possibility of the seizure by the United States of Cuba. But it was certainly a most unwarrantable meddling in affairs which concerned only the United States and Spain. No possible justification for it could be found in international law. In the absence of a state of war, it was intolerable that vessels under the United States flag should be subjected to search upon the high seas, while, when they reached Cuban territorial waters, no other power than Spain had any right to interfere with them.

Daniel Webster was at that time ill and unable to perform the duties of his office, but J. J. Crittenden, who was acting as Secretary of State, made a forcible protest against any such action by Great Britain and France, and gave warning in the plainest terms that it would not be tolerated by the United States, and that any interference with American s.h.i.+pping between the United States and Cuba would be resented in the most vigorous manner. The result was that the British and French navies refrained from the contemplated meddling.

Following this, however, Spain made a direct appeal to the British government for protection against American aggression. The request was not so much for immediate military intervention as for securing treaty guarantees. The British government was in a receptive mood, and, in consequence, in April, 1852, it proposed to the United States that that country should join it and France in a tripart.i.te convention, guaranteeing to Spain continued and unmolested possession of Cuba, and explicitly renouncing any designs of their own for the acquisition of that island. It may be recalled that a similar proposal had been made by Great Britain and France in 1825, and that its acceptance had been favored by no less an American statesman than Thomas Jefferson, although, under the wiser counsels of John Quincy Adams, it had been rejected.

At this renewal of the proposal, in 1852, rejection was prompt and emphatic. Edward Everett was then the Secretary of State, under the Presidency of Millard Fillmore, and he refused positively to enter into any such compact. His ground was that American interests in Cuba and American relations toward that island were radically different, in kind as well as in degree, from those of any other power. That was of course a perfectly logical and sincere application of the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, and of the traditional policy of the United States in refusing to permit European intervention in the affairs of the United States or in affairs exclusively concerning the United States and a single European power.

It may be a.s.sumed that Everett had in mind at the time, also, the exceedingly unsatisfactory results of an attempt to establish just such a tripart.i.te protectorate guarantee over the Hawaiian Islands.

There was still another reason for the refusal of the United States to enter into such a compact. That country had already and repeatedly guaranteed the Spanish possession of Cuba as against the aggressions of any other power, but it had not guaranteed and would not guarantee her possession of Cuba against the self-a.s.sertion of the Cuban people. It recognized the right of revolution. It knew that the Cubans were dissatisfied, and that with good reason, with Spanish rule, and that sooner or later they would successfully revolt and establish their independence, and it had no thought of making itself the accomplice of Spain in repressing their aspirations for liberty.

CHAPTER VIII

The United States government, both before and immediately after the expeditions of Lopez, exhibited an increasing desire to acquire possession of Cuba by purchase or otherwise. We have already referred to the historic expression of John Quincy Adams upon this subject. It is also to be recalled that in 1823, in commenting upon the prospective results of the Monroe Doctrine, Thomas Jefferson looked upon Cuba as the most interesting addition that could be made to the United States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give the United States over the Gulf of Mexico, and all the countries bordering thereon, as well as all those whose waters flowed into the Gulf, would well be, he thought, the measure of American well-being. Such an end could be attained, he added, by no other means than that of war, and that was something to which he was reluctant to resort. He was, therefore, willing to accept the next best thing, to wit, the independence of Cuba, and especially its independence of England. James Madison, at the same time, and discussing the same general subject, expressed much curiosity to know what England's att.i.tude toward Cuba would be, and what the rights of the United States toward that island would be, under the Monroe Doctrine. John C. Calhoun was willing to pledge the United States not to take Cuba, although he had already expressed a desire for such acquisition, and Monroe himself would have adopted Calhoun's policy, had it not been for the resolute opposition of John Quincy Adams. That strenuous patriot was for reserving the plenary rights and powers of the United States, and for permitting Europe to have nothing whatever to do in the matter, and his counsel fortunately prevailed.

A little later, after the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine and in the course of Congressional discussion of the Panama Congress, it was emphatically stated in the Senate that, because of the great interest in the United States in Cuba, there ought to be no discussion with other powers concerning the destiny of that island, particularly with Colombia and Mexico, which were then contemplating the invasion of Cuba in order to take her forcibly from Spain. The British government, in August, 1825, proposed to the United States government, through its minister in London, that the United States, Great Britain and France should unite in a treaty engagement that none of them would take Cuba for itself or permit of the taking of it by either of the others. This proposal was promptly rejected by the United States. One of the grounds for her rejection of it was that such action guaranteeing Spain her possession of Cuba would encourage her to prolong indefinitely her struggle with her other American colonies. Another was that this country had already declared that it did not mean to seize Cuba for itself, and that it would not permit its seizure by any other power. The United States apparently did not fear that Great Britain would attempt to seize the island, since for her to do so would mean a rupture with the United States, which was at that time the last thing that the British government desired. There was much more cause to fear that France might attempt to take forcible possession of Cuba, and the suspicion that she might do so was strengthened by the fact that while, at first, she indicated a willingness to enter into the arrangement proposed by Great Britain, she suddenly changed her att.i.tude, and refused to do so. As a result of this change of front on the part of France, the United States government, in September, 1825, instructed its minister at Paris to inform the French government that under no contingency, either with or without the consent of Spain, would the United States permit France to occupy Cuba.

Scarcely less marked was the opposition of the United States to any scheme for the acquirement of Cuba by any of the American republics. It was notorious that both Colombia and Mexico had designs upon Cuba. These were not so much that either of these countries should acquire the island for itself, but that Cuba and Porto Rico should, nilly w.i.l.l.y, be taken away from Spain and made independent, and that thus Spain should be deprived of her last foothold in the Western hemisphere. This purpose was cherished, not only as a matter of sentiment, but as one of prudence. Spain was still trying to reconquer her revolted American provinces, and her possession of Cuba, of course, afforded her an admirable base for such operations. But the United States government took the ground that any such intervention in Cuba would make it much more difficult to secure Spanish recognition of the independence of the Central and South American States. In addition, there was undoubtedly--indeed it was very openly, emphatically and repeatedly expressed--the unwillingness of the slaveholding southern states of the United States to see Cuba made free soil, as the other Spanish colonies had been. It was because of the former consideration, however, that the American Secretary of State, Henry Clay, immediately after the rejection of the British proposal for a tripart.i.te guarantee, addressed a note to the governments of Colombia and Mexico, urging them to refrain from sending the expeditions which they were fitting out against the Spanish power in Cuba. To this request, the Colombian government promptly acceded, and so informed not only the United States, but also the government of Russia, which was, at that time, endeavoring to mediate between Spain and her late American colonies. The Mexican government did not receive the request so favorably, though it did withhold the threatened expedition.

With such antecedents set forth, we can more perfectly understand the att.i.tude of the United States toward Cuba at the time of which we are now writing. In 1848 a change of policy occurred, and the United States entered upon a new att.i.tude. At that time James K. Polk was President of the United States, and James Buchanan was his Secretary of State; both men of southern, proslavery and expansionist proclivities. The American minister to Spain was Romulus M. Saunders, of North Carolina, also a proslavery expansionist. He was instructed by Polk and Buchanan to sound the Spanish government as to the terms on which it would sell Cuba to the United States. The response to his overtures was immediate and left no room for doubt as to Spain's position. It was to the effect that Cuba was not for sale. Under no circ.u.mstances would the Spanish government so much as consider the sale of the island at any price whatever. No Spanish Minister of State would venture for a moment to entertain such a proposal. Such was the feeling of the Spanish government and of the Spanish nation, that they would rather see Cuba sunk in the depths of the sea, if it were possible, than transferred to the sovereignty of any other power. Cuba was the "Ever-Faithful Isle." She was the last remnant, the priceless memento of Spain's once vast empire in America, and as such she would be forever retained and treasured. Although not openly expressed, there was undoubtedly the additional feeling that Spain had already suffered too much spoliation at the hands of the United States. The United States, under Jefferson, had practically compelled Spain to sacrifice her vast Louisiana territory by nominally selling, but really giving it outright, to France. It had next taken West Florida from her without compensation. Following this, under the Monroe Doctrine, it had compelled her to sell it East Florida for a pitifully inadequate sum, not one dollar of which had ever found its way into the Spanish treasury. It had aided, abetted, and protected the Central and South American provinces in their revolt. Certainly, after such a record, it would be unthinkable to permit the United States to proceed with the acquisition of the last remaining portion of the Spanish American empire. The overtures for the United States purchase of Cuba were, therefore, for the time being, abruptly abandoned, but it was significant that they were promptly followed by the expeditions of Lopez and the widespread and intense manifestations of American interest therein.

There next occurred one of the most noteworthy and it must be confessed least creditable episodes in the whole story of the relations between the United States, Cuba and Spain. Franklin Pierce became President of the United States, and the active and aggressive William L. Marcy was his Secretary of State. Because of the strained relations between Spain and the United States, growing out of the Lopez expeditions, there was a well defined expectation that Marcy would pursue a vigorous policy leading to the annexation of Cuba, even at the cost of war with Spain.

Marcy was an expansionist, and would doubtless have been glad to have annexed Cuba, but he was something more than an expansionist. He was a statesman. He therefore considered the subject from its various aspects with a prudence and conservatism which were probably not at all pleasing to the impetuous proslavery propagandists of the south, but which were in the highest degree creditable to his good sense and to the honor of the United States. Unfortunately not even Marcy could remain entirely exempt from political and partizan considerations. He was practically compelled to acquiesce in the appointment as his minister to Spain of one of the more egregious misfits that ever disgraced American diplomacy. This man was Pierre Soule. He was of French origin, and had been a political conspirator and prisoner in that country. He had come to the United States as a refugee, but had continued there his political intrigues and revolutionary designs. Settling in New Orleans, he had been in active sympathy with the filibustering enterprises of Lopez and others against the Spanish rule in Cuba; he was suspected of having incited the anti-Spanish mob in that city; and he was known to be an ardent advocate of the annexation of Cuba by any means which might prove effective. The choice of such a man as American minister to Spain was certainly extraordinary. It must be a.s.sumed that Marcy agreed to it only with great reluctance and under protest; while it is plausible, and indeed permissible, to suspect that some ulterior influence dictated it for the deliberate purpose of provoking trouble with Spain.

In these circ.u.mstances, Marcy did his best. He instructed Soule to repress his anti-Spanish zeal, to do nothing which would irritate Spanish susceptibilities, and especially to be particularly cautious in making any suggestions or overtures concerning a change of relations in Cuba. He instructed him, however, to seek reparation for the gross injuries which Americans had undoubtedly suffered in Cuba, and to suggest to the Spanish government that it would greatly facilitate the friendly conduct of affairs for it to invest the Captain-General or other governor of Cuba with a degree of diplomatic authority and functions so that complaint could be addressed to him, and indeed all such matters could be negotiated with him directly, instead of their being referred to the government at Madrid. He did not urge Soule to seek the purchase of Cuba, but he did authorize him to enter into negotiations to that end, if the Spanish government should manifest a favorable inclination.

Despite these wise instructions and admonitions, Soule promptly entered upon a career of the wildest indiscretion. He went to Spain by way of France, where he was under political proscription, and this gave offence to the government of that country. On arriving at Madrid, he immediately quarreled with the French party there, and fought a duel with the French amba.s.sador in which the latter was crippled for life.

Then word came to him that the Spanish authorities at Havana had seized an American steamer, the _Black Warrior_. That steamer had, for a long time, been plying regularly between the United States and Cuba in a perfectly legitimate way. There was not the slightest proof or suggestion that she had ever engaged in filibustering or in any illegitimate commerce. Indeed she was not accused of it. But she was seized and her cargo was condemned simply for alleged disregard of some insignificant port regulation which, as a matter of fact, had not been enforced or observed by any vessel for many years. The master of the vessel resented and protested against the seizure and when the Spanish authorities arbitrarily persisted in it, he abandoned the vessel altogether, and reported the circ.u.mstances to the United States government. The President promptly laid the matter before Congress at Was.h.i.+ngton, stating that a demand for redress and indemnity was being made. Pa.s.sions flamed high in Congress, and southern members made speeches demanding war and the conquest of Cuba. Marcy, however, retained his sanity of judgment, and contented himself with instructing Soule at Madrid to demand an indemnity of $300,000 and to express the hope that the Spanish government would disavow and rebuke the act which it was confidently a.s.sumed had not been authorized and could not be approved. This gave Soule a fine opportunity to show himself a capable diplomat and to do a good stroke of work, for Spain was manifestly wrong and a proper presentation of the case would doubtless have caused her to accede pretty promptly to Marcy's reasonable demands.

Soule began well. He followed Marcy's instructions closely at the outset, and had a friendly and temperate interview with the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs; but when three days thereafter had pa.s.sed without a complete settlement, he seemed altogether to lose his head. He sent to the minister a peremptory note, demanding payment of the indemnity, and the immediate dismissal from the Spanish service of all persons in any way responsible for the seizure of the _Black Warrior_.

If this was not done within forty-eight hours, he added, he would immediately demand his pa.s.sports and sever diplomatic relations between the two countries. With customary arrogance, he instructed the messenger by whom he transmitted the note to call the attention of the Spanish minister to the exact hour and minute at which the messenger should deliver the note into his hands, and to remind him that an answer would be expected, under penalty, within forty-eight hours after that precise moment of time. Worst of all, perhaps, this occurred during Holy Week, when it was not customary for the Spanish government to transact any business which could possibly be deferred.

The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs was Calderon de la Barca, who had formerly been Spanish minister to the United States, and with whom Soule had personally very violently quarrelled at Was.h.i.+ngton. With characteristic Spanish courtesy, he very promptly, within twenty-four hours, replied to Soule that the matter would be most carefully considered at the earliest possible moment, but that it manifestly would not be practicable, and indeed would not be just, to dispose of so important a matter so hastily, and upon the hearing of only one side of it. He also added, quite properly, that the Spanish government was not accustomed to being addressed in so harsh and imperious a manner, and that he could not regard such a mode of procedure as calculated to facilitate the amicable settlement which both parties undoubtedly desired.

Thus placed, through his own folly, at a hopeless disadvantage, Soule abandoned the case. He sent to Marcy his own absurd and unauthorized ultimatum, together with Calderon's dignified and statesmanlike reply, possibly in the vain hope that Marcy would back him up in the impossible att.i.tude which he had a.s.sumed. Of course, Marcy did nothing of the sort.

As a matter of fact, it was not necessary for Marcy to pay any attention whatever to Soule's report, since, before it reached Was.h.i.+ngton, the Spanish authorities in Cuba had restored the _Black Warrior_ to her owners, with the amplest possible amends for their improper seizure of her, and the whole incident was thus happily ended.

The project of acquiring Cuba for the United States continued to be cherished by the American government. It must be supposed that the Secretary of State appreciated the immense value of Cuba, both in its resources and in its strategic position and so, for that reason, was desirous of acquiring the island. It must also be believed that he was to a degree moved by a desire to get rid of what he plainly saw would be a perennial cause of annoyance and even of danger. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, Cuba had been a cause of anxiety to the United States, and since the beginning of insurrections in that island, and especially insurrections looking to the United States for sympathy and aid, there was a constantly increasing danger of unpleasant and possibly hostile complications with Spain. There is no indication, however, that Marcy ever had any other thought than that of the peaceful acquisition of the island through friendly negotiations. It was most unfortunate that because of the political conditions which prevailed during that administration, he was compelled to act through unfit and indeed unworthy agents.

At the beginning of 1854, Mr. Marcy directed the United States ministers to Spain, France and Great Britain to confer among themselves as to the best means, if indeed any were practicable, to persuade Spain to sell Cuba to the United States, and at the same time to avoid or to overcome objections which France and Great Britain might make to such a transaction. That was a perfectly legitimate proposal, and indeed, under the circ.u.mstances, was desirable and should have been productive of excellent results. Its fatal defect lay in the personality of the men who were called upon to put it into execution. The minister to Spain was Soule, of whom we have already heard enough to indicate his very conspicuous unfitness for the task a.s.signed to him. The minister to France was James M. Mason, a Virginian, and one of the most aggressive and extreme Southern advocates of the extension of slavery. The minister to Great Britain was James Buchanan, who was afterward President of the United States, a northern man with strong southern sympathies and in complete subservience to the slaveholding interests of the south. The result of a conference among these three was practically a foregone conclusion.

They came together at Ostend in the summer of 1854, and a little later concluded their deliberations at Aix-la-Chapelle, and the result of their conference was embodied in that extraordinary doc.u.ment known to history as the Ostend Manifesto.

That doc.u.ment, which was drawn up in October, 1854, and was signed by these three ministers and sent by them to Mr. Marcy, was written chiefly by Soule. It set forth the various reasons why, in the opinion of Soule and his colleagues, Cuba ought to belong to the United States. A variety of reasons was set forth, but chief among them was this, that such acquisition of Cuba was necessary for the security and perpetuity of the slave system in the United States. Then Soule went on to tell why Spain ought to be willing to sell the island, and why Britain and France ought to be willing for her to sell it to the United States. The price to be paid for Cuba was not stated. It ought not, however, Soule said, to exceed a certain maximum sum to be prescribed by the United States; and there are reasons for believing that the price which Soule had in mind was $120,000,000. All this was bad enough. It was far removed from what Marcy had intended. But the worst was to come. With astounding effrontery and cynicism, the manifesto proceeded to say that if Spain should be so swayed by the voice of her own interest and actuated by a false sense of honor as to refuse to sell Cuba, then, by every law, human and divine, the United States would be justified in taking Cuba forcibly from her, on the ground that such seizure was necessary for the protection of the domestic peace of the United States. This Manifesto was sent by the three ministers to Marcy, with a memorandum written by Soule, suggesting that that would be a good time to start a war with Spain for the seizure of Cuba, because France and Great Britain were just then engaged in fighting Russia in the Crimea, and therefore would not be able to interfere with Spain's behalf.

Marcy never for a moment, of course, thought of acting upon these abominable recommendations. The overwhelming sentiment of this nation would have been against it. Even in the South, the majority of thoughtful men held that Soule and his colleagues had gone too far, while throughout the North, the Manifesto was scathingly denounced as a proposal of international brigandage. Not only in Spain, but almost equally in France and Great Britain, American diplomacy and the honor of the American government were regarded as seriously compromised. In these circ.u.mstances Marcy, to whom the Manifesto must have been revolting, very adroitly declined to recognize its real purport, but insisted upon interpreting it in an entirely different way from that which its authors had intended. The result was that the note was practically pigeonholed.

Soule was so chagrined and enraged at this disposition of a favorite child of his mind that he resigned his office as Minister to Spain, to the unmistakable relief both of Marcy and of the Spanish government.

Buchanan, another of the signers, became President of the United States a couple of years later, and in his second annual message, in December, 1858, sought to revive the Manifesto, referring to the possibility of its sometime being necessary for the United States to seize Cuba under the law of self-preservation. He also requested Congress to appropriate $30,000,000 for the purchase of the island, and a bill to that effect was introduced, but it was never pressed to final pa.s.sage. Again in 1859 he referred to the subject, being still apparently obsessed with the idea that the conquest of Cuba was necessary for the preservation of the United States, but on this occasion his reference to the subject was entirely ignored by Congress. Then came the Civil War in the United States, which, for a number of years, debarred that country from paying any attention to the affairs of its southern neighbor.

CHAPTER IX

The years following the close of the Civil War in the United States were marked with momentous occurrences in various other countries, particularly in Cuba, and the two nations with which she had long been intimately connected, Mexico and Spain.

The beginning of the year 1866 in Peninsular Spain saw General Prim heading a revolutionary body of troops at Aranjuez and at Ocana. These operations caused great excitement, and feeling ran high throughout the kingdom, for they were generally regarded as indicative and provocative of a radical change of government. Martial law was, however, promptly proclaimed at Madrid, and thus countless sympathizers with the revolution were restrained from taking an active part in it. The army of the government, under General Zabala, hastened to the scene of the insurrection, and pursued the revolutionary troops with such vigor that the latter, including General Prim himself, were compelled to retreat across the Portuguese frontier near Barracas, since they were, in fact, only about six hundred strong and were not prepared to make a resolute stand. In the same month, January, 1866, other revolutionary bodies were dispersed in Catalonia and Valencia.

So confident was the royal government of its security, and of the completeness with which the incipient revolution had been quelled, that on March 17 it repealed the decree of martial law at the capital. It was, however, cheris.h.i.+ng a fool's paradise. The spirit of revolution was at work, and was bound soon to rea.s.sert itself. Its next manifestation occurred in June, when two regiments of soldiers in Madrid itself mutinied and repudiated their officers, who had refused to join them in their action. These troops were well armed, having twenty-six cannon, and were soon reinforced by large numbers of volunteers from the populace, so that it was only by a supreme effort that the government troops were able to defeat and disperse them.

At the same time, a corresponding movement took place in the garrison at Gerona, where a considerable body of troops revolted and, when attacked by government forces, conducted a successful retreat across the French frontier. Having crossed the boundary, they laid down their arms, but the larger proportion of them soon found their way back into Spain to join the impending revolution. Other outbreaks occurred at other points, all of which were suppressed with difficulty, but with great severity, many of the leaders being summarily shot as a deterrent example. But this action instead of being deterrent was provocative. The next revolutionary manifestation was the formation of a junta at Madrid, which issued a proclamation setting forth the complaints of the insurgents against the government, in part as follows:

"Savage courts have led hundreds of victims to sacrifice, and a woman has contemplated pa.s.sively and even with complacency, the scaffold which has been erected.

"The Cortes have abjectly sold to the government the safety of the individual, the civil rights and the well-being of the commonwealth. The government has overthrown the press and rostrum, and has entrusted the administration of the provinces to rapacious mandarins and sanguinary generals; military tribunals have despoiled the rich and transported the poor to Fernando Po and to the Philippines.

"The laws of the Cortes have been replaced by decrees squandering the resources of the country by means of obscure and ruinous laws, trampling under foot right and virtue, violating homes, property and family; and during all this time, Isabella II, at Zuranz, and Madrid, meditating a plot against Italy, our sister, for the benefit of the Roman curia, partic.i.p.ating meanwhile in the depredations of violence of the pachas in Cuba, who tolerating the fraudulent introduction of slaves, are outraging public sentiment both in the Old and in the New World, and causing an estrangement between Spain and the great and glorious Republic of the United States."

Thereafter, a reasonable degree of quiet prevailed throughout the Kingdom, which was merely a lull before the renewal of the storm. On New Year's day of 1867, the Junta at Madrid issued another proclamation, announcing to the people of Spain that another revolutionary movement was about to begin, and inviting them to join it, and share its success.

To this there was not apparently a sufficient response to seem to warrant action, and it was not until the following August that anything more was heard of the revolution. The revolutionists, however, were merely outwardly quiet. Propaganda and organization were being systematically carried on, and the way was being paved for a really effective revolt, which would have widespread and far-reaching results in purging Spain of a tyrannous rule and subst.i.tuting in its place republican justice. When the time seemed propitious, in August, General Prim issued a third proclamation, calling the people to arms, the chief result of which was an increased degree of vigilance and severity on the part of the government. Many of the revolutionary leaders were apprehended and expelled from Spain on suspicion of sympathy and complicity with the revolution. Among this number were Generals Serrano, Cordova, Duke, Bedoya, and Zebula, and persons of no less high standing than the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Montpensier.

It is curious that all through history, movements like that which had gained such force and impetus in Spain have been met with the high hand of oppression. Instead of endeavoring to get at the root of the evil, to realize that since there was so persistent a dissatisfaction there must be real causes for grievance the removal of which would work toward a harmonious solution, it has seemed to be impossible for those born in the purple to understand the problems of the common people, and so when the latter have risen in revolt, cruelty and injustice, if not actual outrages, have marked the attempts to extinguish the trouble. The result has ever been the same. The story of the attempts to suppress the revolt in Spain differs not at all from the same story written on the pages of the history of other nations. The increased oppression on the part of the government only served to fan the smouldering fire into flame. The popular wrath and indignation against the queen and her underlings bade fair to burst into a huge conflagration.

In consequence, when the next overt act of insurrection occurred, at Cadiz, on September 17, there was a very general response throughout the Kingdom. General Prim was again at the head of the movement, supported by General Serrano and the other officers, to whom the sentence of banishment had not proved effective, since they had found their way back into Spain. Revolutionary Juntas were formed in almost all of the provinces, and in a number of the most important cities, and in the course of a few days the insurgents were in control of a considerable part of the Kingdom.

The City of Santander was seized for the revolution on September 21, but they were obliged to relinquish it to superior forces on September 24.

However, the revolutionists were far from discouraged by this momentary reverse, and four days later they rallied for their first important victory, which was followed by a general revolt of the troops in and about Madrid, and General Concha, the commander of the royal forces, was compelled to resign. The revolution was now in full swing and gaining impetus and strength every hour. General Serrano at the head of a revolutionary army entered Madrid in triumph, followed four days later by General Prim. Their reception exceeded their wildest expectations.

The city was on fire with revolt. The people greeted them with the warmest fervor, with shouts of welcome and rejoicing. They were hailed as the saviors of the nation, as the embodiment of Spain's hope for the future, and hourly their forces were increased by the addition of volunteers from all walks of life.

It is evident that Queen Isabella had not found Madrid a comfortable abiding place. There is no doubt that she entertained fears for her personal safety long before it was actually in jeopardy. Some time previous to these happenings she had, on some pretext, removed the court from Madrid to San Sebastian, in the Pyrenees, near the French frontier, and when news of the capture of the Spanish capital reached her, she lost no time in making her escape across the frontier into France, where she was met and welcomed by Emperor Napoleon III, at Hendye. Queen Isabella had good reason to fear the vengeance of the Spanish mob, for she had long been unpopular, an object of widespread hatred. She therefore had no intention of returning to Spain while matters were in such a turbulent condition, and shortly after her arrival in France, she proceeded to Paris, where she decided to make her home.

The Juntas which had been established throughout the Kingdom of Spain were amalgamated by the formation of a National Junta, on October 8, at Madrid, and a ministry was organized with General Serrano as Prime Minister, General Prim as Minister of War, Admiral Topete as Minister of Marine, Senor Figueroa as Minister of Finance, Senor Lorensano as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senor Ortiz as Minister of Justice, Senor Sagasta as Minister of the Interior, Senor Ayala as Minister for the Colonies and Senor Zorilla as Minister of Public Works.

The next day, the United States Minister at Madrid, Mr. Hill, notified General Serrano that his government has given official recognition to the new order of affairs in Spain, being the first in the world to take this action. Such was the state of affairs in Spain at the beginning of the great struggle in Cuba known as the Ten Years' War.

Conditions in Mexico likewise deserve pa.s.sing attention. For a number of years that country had been in a greatly troubled state. Years of successive revolutions had been followed by the military intervention of France, and the creation, under the protection of the French army, of a pinchbeck "empire," with the Archduke Maximilian of Austria as Emperor.

The Mexican people, under the leaders.h.i.+p of one of their greatest statesmen, Benito Juarez, never gave their allegiance to this usurping government, but maintained a more or less open resistance to it, and it was sustained for a few years only by the presence of a considerable French army.

The United States of America, at this time, was engaged in its great Civil War, and was therefore unable to do more than to register a formal protest against French aggressions, which were recognized as a great violation of the Monroe Doctrine. But when, in the spring of 1865, the Civil War ended, the triumphant federal armies were moved toward the Mexican frontier, and the United States Government sent to the French Government what was practically an ultimatum, requiring it to withdraw its forces from Mexico. Napoleon III demurred, temporized, and at length offered to withdraw if the United States would recognize Maximilian as the lawful emperor of Mexico. This the United States, with great promptness, refused to do, and the French army was thereupon unconditionally withdrawn, and the capture and military execution of Maximilian soon followed, the final tragedy occurring on June 19, 1867.