The History of Cuba Volume IV Part 4

He set out from Havana with an imposing array of troops, and marched through the heart of the province and of Matanzas, into Santa Clara. On the way there was little fighting to do, not even to beat off guerrilla bands. His attention was given, therefore, to devastating the country, and to driving the inhabitants into "concentration camps," where they were doomed to starve to death by thousands. By the end of February he was triumphantly encamped at the foot of the Guamuhaya Mountains, between Santa Clara and Trinidad, and had the satisfaction of having wrought vast destruction upon the property of Cubans and upon the essential supplies of the Cuban army.

A few weeks later Quintin Bandera with a small force came from Camaguey and, by wading through the shallow water of the Bay of Sabanabamar, got around the trocha and joined Gomez. The latter directed him to continue westward, and to hara.s.s the Spaniards with guerrilla attacks. This was done, and Bandera proceeded as far as Trinidad. Then failing to receive necessary support he turned back, and on July 4 was killed in a skirmish at Pelayo. East of the trocha Calixto Garcia continued his formidable career against such Spanish forces as remained in that region. He captured Las Tunas after forty-eight hours of almost incessant fighting.

In Matanzas and Havana the revolutionary bands were badly broken up by the Spaniards, and they seemed to lack efficient leaders.h.i.+p. Their leader, General Lacret, fell into an unfortunate controversy with Gomez over his treatment of Cubans who disregarded government orders, especially in their att.i.tude toward the Spaniards. Gomez, remorseless, would have had them shot as traitors, but Lacret insisted upon more lenient treatment of them, realizing that they were almost literally "between the devil and the deep sea" and were therefore ent.i.tled to sympathetic consideration. The outcome was that Gomez relieved Lacret of his command and appointed Alexander Rodriguez in his place, in Matanzas.

That officer failed to command the loyalty of his troops, and the result was that the latter generally deserted and dispersed. Mayia Rodriguez was then ordered to the scene, but was unable to collect a sufficient force, and remained in Santa Clara, hemmed in by the Spanish. General Jose Maria Aguirre, who died in December, 1896, was succeeded in command in the Province of Havana by Nestor Aranguren, who performed some creditable minor operations, particularly against Spanish railroad communications, but achieved nothing of real importance. His lieutenant, General Adolfo Castillo, in the southern part of the province, was killed in battle, in September, and was succeeded by Juan Delgado. The Spanish General Parrado in October marched without opposition as far as Los Palos, and there received the surrender of a small Cuban band; and in November General Pando with a powerful army made his way without serious opposition from Havana to the western part of Oriente.

It was during this year that Weyler's ever infamous "concentration"

policy, which was really a policy of extermination, reached its infernal climax and was then repudiated and abandoned. This system, as already related, was decreed on October 21, 1896. It required all Cubans, men, women and children, to leave their homes in the rural regions and enter concentration camps. These were simply huge pens, enclosed with fences and barbed wire and guarded by Spanish soldiers. There the hapless prisoners were huddled together, without shelter from the elements, and with little or no food save such as could be procured by stealth. There was none to be had within the enclosures, of course, and the prisoners could not go out to get any, even if any was to be found in the devastated country around them. Their friends outside seldom dared approach the camps to bring them food, because as they had not themselves surrendered as commanded by Weyler, they were liable to be shot at sight.

Elsewhere Cubans by thousands were driven into towns and cities which were still under Spanish control, and were there kept prisoners within the Spanish lines. They were not quite so badly off as those in the concentration camps, though the difference was not great. They had no means of obtaining food, save as the munic.i.p.al authorities, more merciful than Weyler, opened "soup kitchens" and thus in charity kept some of them from starvation. As it was the mortality from starvation, disease and exposure was appalling. As it was reported that many of these sufferers were American citizens, the President of the United States asked Congress to appropriate $50,000 for their relief. This was done, and the sum was sent to the Consul-General at Havana. He was, however, able to reach only a small proportion of the sufferers, and thus was presently compelled to report that he had been unable to expend more than a fraction of the sum at his disposal. This monstrous policy of waging war against non-combatants, including women and children, did more perhaps than anything else to crystallize public opinion throughout the United States against Weyler and against the Spanish government which he represented and which was responsible for him, and to strengthen the demand that was being made for intervention in behalf of humanity.

This demand was made not merely by the "yellow press," which was inspired by sordid and sinister motives, but also by the most thoughtful, disinterested and upright men of America. Fitzhugh Lee, the highly competent and trustworthy consul-general at Havana, officially reported in December, 1897, that in the Province of Havana alone there had been 101,000 of the "reconcentrados," of which more than half had died. About 400,000 innocent and unoffending persons, chiefly women and children, had been transformed into imprisoned paupers, to be sustained by charity or to die of disease and famine. Senator Proctor, of Vermont, one of the foremost members of the United States Senate, made a personal tour of investigation in such parts of the island as were accessible, and reported to his colleagues that "It is not peace, nor is it war; it is desolation and distress, misery and starvation." The people of the United States thus came to the conclusion that the Spanish were unable to subdue the Cubans, and that the Cubans were unable to expel the Spanish, and that the war was therefore nothing but a campaign of destruction and extermination, which would end only when one side was exhausted or extirpated. It was impossible that a civilized and humane nation should regard such a spectacle at its very doors with indifference. We have hitherto quoted the significant remarks of President Cleveland on the subject in his message of December, 1896, clearly foreshadowing intervention. His successor, President McKinley, in his message of just a year later, in December, 1897, expressed in slightly different language the identical convictions and purposes. He said:

[Ill.u.s.tration: WILLIAM MCKINLEY]

"The near future will demonstrate whether the indispensable conditions of a righteous peace, just alike to the Cubans and to Spain, as well as equitable to all our interests so intimately involved in the welfare of Cuba, is likely to be attained. If not, the exigency of further and other action by the United States will remain to be taken. When that time comes, that action will be determined in the line of indisputable right and duty.... If it shall hereafter appear to be a duty imposed by our obligations to ourselves, to civilization, and to humanity, to intervene with force, it shall be without fault on our part, and only because the necessity for such action will be so clear as to command the support and approval of the civilized world."

If McKinley, a less aggressive and more conciliatory man than Cleveland, spoke a little less positively than his predecessor, in that he employed the hypothetical form, the purport of his words was the same. The one a Democratic President, the other a Republican President, long before that incident of the _Maine_ which has incorrectly been regarded by some as the cause of the American war with Spain, openly and in the most explicit manner contemplated the prospect of forcible intervention in Cuba and of consequent war.

Meantime Spain herself pa.s.sed through a political crisis, which made a change in her Cuban administration. Loud protests were made there against the ruthless and inhuman policy of Weyler, but the Prime Minister, Canovas del Castillo, was deaf to them and persisted in retaining Weyler in command. But on August 8 Canovas was a.s.sa.s.sinated by an Anarchist, and was succeeded by General Azcarraga, Minister of War, who continued his policy unchanged. But on September 29 the whole Cabinet resigned, and on October 4 Sagasta, the Liberal leader, became Prime Minister. He promptly recalled Weyler and appointed General Ramon Blanco to be Captain-General of Cuba in his stead. Weyler departed, breathing wrath and hatred against Cuba and against America, and predicting failure for his successor, even as Campos had predicted it for Weyler himself.

Blanco arrived at Havana on November 1, 1897, with the purpose, as he had announced before sailing, of putting sincerely into effect the reforms which Sagasta had outlined, reforms which would, he believed, be acceptable to the Cuban people. He found the condition of affairs in the island to be far worse than it had been reported, or than he had expected. The "reconcentrados" had been dying and were still dying by tens of thousands. The soldiers had not been paid for months and in consequence were disaffected and mutinous, and were looting to obtain food which they had no money to buy. Both the Spanish and the Cuban Autonomists were profoundly dissatisfied; while the Revolutionists, though making no progress, were as implacable as ever. He at once ordered the concentration camps to be abolished, saying that he would not make war upon women and children, and he secured a credit of $100,000 from the Spanish government to a.s.sist the Cuban peasantry in the rehabilitation of their ruined farms. All American citizens were released from prison, as were also many Cubans who were under sentence of death. Cuban refugees and exiles were invited to return home, and every facility possible was afforded for the resumption of sugar making and agriculture. He then undertook to put into effect a system of home rule which he fondly hoped would satisfy the Autonomists and would bring the ma.s.ses of the Cuban people over to the side of that party.

Let us review briefly the state of Cuba at this epochal time, the ending of 1897 and the beginning of 1898, the ultimate climax of four centuries of Cuban history. The War of Independence had been in progress less than three years. Five successively unsuccessful Captains-General had striven to conquer a brave people resolved to be free. No fewer than 52,000 Spanish soldiers had lost their lives in battle or from disease, 47,000 had been returned to Spain disabled, 42,000 were in hospitals unfit for duty, and 70,000 regulars and 16,000 irregulars still kept up the fatuous struggle. The infamies of Weyler had destroyed by starvation and disease 250,000 Cubans, the majority of them women and children, reducing the population of the island to 1,100,000 Cubans intent on independence and 150,000 Spaniards opposed to their having it. The Cuban army consisted of 25,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, fairly well armed, with some artillery. Maximo Gomez was Commander in Chief. Major-General Calixto Garcia commanded in Camaguey and Oriente, with Pedro Perez, Jesus Rabi and Mario G. Menocal as his lieutenants. Major-General Francisco Carrillo commanded in Santa Clara, aided by Jose Rodriguez, Hijino Esquerra, Jose Miguel Gomez and Jose Gonzales. In the western three provinces Major-General Jose Maria Rodriguez commanded, with Pedro Betancourt, Alexandra Rodriguez, Pedro Vias and Juan Lorente as his chief aids. The civil government of the Republic had been changed somewhat, Bartolome Maso being President, Domingo Mendez Capote Vice-President and Secretary of War, Andreas Moreno Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Ernesto Fonts-Sterling Secretary of Finance, and Manuel Silva Secretary of the Interior. This organization, with its provincial and munic.i.p.al subordinates, was performing the functions of government under great difficulties, yet much more efficiently and to a much wider extent throughout the island, than the Spanish administration.

The uncompromising att.i.tude of the Revolutionists, and the hopelessness of any attempt at amicable adjustment of affairs, was at this time strikingly shown in a tragic incident. It was in December, 1897. There was in Havana a young Spanish officer named Joaquin Ruiz, who had formerly served as a civil engineer, and had been intimately a.s.sociated with Nestor Aranguren, another young engineer who had become a leader of the Revolutionists and had made himself particularly active and annoying to the Spanish in the Province of Havana. The two were close friends, and were both men of charming personality. The Spanish authorities in Havana determined to use this friends.h.i.+p in an attempt to seduce Aranguren into betraying or at least deserting the patriot cause. So Ruiz was directed to open a correspondence with Aranguren, with a view to securing a personal interview with him. Aranguren wrote to Ruiz that he would be glad to meet him personally, but could not do so if he came on any political errand; and he warned him that for him to come to the Cuban camp with any proposal of Cuban surrender or acceptance of autonomy would subject him to the penalty of death, which would infallibly be carried out. Despite this warning, and presumably against his own better judgment, Ruiz obeyed the orders of his superiors, and undertook the errand. He had no safe conduct. He bore no flag of truce.

He went through no agreement between the commanding officers of the respective sides. He went in the circ.u.mstances and manner of a spy; and his purpose was to persuade, if possible, a Cuban officer to betray his trust and become a traitor to his own cause.

When in these circ.u.mstances Ruiz reached Aranguren, the latter was so distressed that it is said he burst into tears and, embracing his old friend, exclaimed, "Why have you come? It will mean your certain death!

I cannot save you!" And such indeed was the case. Aranguren was devoted to his friend, but still more to Cuba. Ruiz was taken before a court martial. He made no defence. He admitted the character and purpose of his errand. And he received the sentence of death with the fort.i.tude of a brave man. An attempt was made by the Spanish authorities to exploit Ruiz as a martyr to Cuban savagery, but it recoiled upon their own heads. It was shown that they had unworthily employed a brave and devoted soldier in a discreditable errand, and that he had been dealt with according to the stern but just rules of war. It was also demonstrated that Cuban patriots were not thus to be corrupted. By a strange turn of fate, only a few weeks later Nestor Aranguren was killed by the Spanish during one of his daring raids against Havana. It was said that he was betrayed by a Spaniard who had become one of his followers for the purpose of avenging Ruiz. His body fell into the hands of the Spanish, and, despite their former a.s.sumed wrath over the execution of Ruiz, they treated it with all respect and interred it in the Columbus Cemetery at Havana, close to the grave of Ruiz.

This was not the only incident of the sort. Only a few weeks after the death of Ruiz a civilian named Morales went to the camp of Pedro Ruiz, in the Province of Pinar del Rio, with proposals for compromise on the basis of autonomy. He was promptly taken before a court martial, tried, condemned, and put to death. Whether Blanco himself was responsible for this policy of sending emissaries to the Cuban camp with proposals which he would not venture to make openly in an accredited manner to the Cuban government, did not appear. The presumption, because of his known character, is that he was not, and indeed that he was not aware that they were being made. There is even reason for thinking that after the Morales case was brought to his attention, he prohibited any more such clandestine and illegal enterprises. Tragic as the incidents were, and especially regrettable as was the sacrifice of such a man as Ruiz, it was well to have it made unmistakably clear that the Cubans were not inclined to end the war by surrender or by compromise, but were intent upon fighting it out to the end.

In such circ.u.mstances Blanco strove for the last time to defeat the Cuban national desire for independence. He probably realized in advance the certainty of failure. He had been Captain-General before, succeeding Campos after the Ten Years' War and during the Little War, and he must have known the temper of the Cuban people and the unwillingness of the great majority of them to accept the delusive scheme of autonomy which Spain was fitfully offering, and in which he himself never had any real faith and which, indeed, he had never favored. But he was a loyal Spanish soldier, of the better type, and he was personally as little odious to the Cubans as any Spanish Captain General could be, for he had never been notably tyrannical or cruel. The decree of autonomy was adopted by the Spanish government on November 25, 1897, largely because of the urgings--to use no stronger term--of the United States, and was promulgated by Blanco in Cuba early in December. The scheme provided for universal suffrage; a bi-cameral Legislature consisting of a Council of eighteen elected members and seventeen appointed by the crown, and a House containing one elected member for each 25,000 inhabitants. To this Legislature were nominally committed most of the functions of government. But it was provided that "The supreme government of the colony shall be exercised by a Governor-General." That was the crux of the whole matter. That made the Captain-General, or Governor-General as he was thereafter to be called, the practical dictator of the island.

To this entirely illusive and delusive scheme, the remnant of the Autonomist party gave adherence with a devotion worthy of a better cause. The Reformist faction of the Spanish party also, though not so readily, approved it. The intransigent Const.i.tutionalists would have none of it. Tenuous and futile as were its apparent concessions to the Cubans, they were far too much for these insular Bourbons to be willing to grant. They socially ostracised Blanco, and before the system was to go into effect they called a convention at Havana to protest and to foment against it. The president of the party, the Cuban-born Marquis de Apezteguia, was indeed in favor of giving autonomy a trial. But he could not control the party whose other members were almost unanimously against it. They had defeated and expelled Campos. Now they resolved to do the same with Blanco. At the convention Apezteguia was rebuked and repudiated, though left in office. A telegram of sympathy was sent to Weyler. Speeches were made denouncing the United States, its President and its Congress. A resolution was adopted condemning and opposing autonomy, and another declaring that Const.i.tutionalists would not vote nor take any part in public affairs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ANTONIO GOVIN

Antonio Govin, born at Matanzas in 1849 and deceased in Havana in 1914, was a jurist, publicist, orator and patriot of distinction. He was Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Havana, and was the author of a number of volumes on law and on Colonial history. He was one of the founders and strong advocates of the Autonomist party and a member of the Autonomist cabinet.]

In the face of these circ.u.mstances, Blanco organized his Autonomist Cabinet. The date was January 1, 1898. The place was the historic throne room of the Captain-General's palace. There were present beside the Cabinet the various foreign consuls and the dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church. A small crowd of the people gathered outside, but the public in general paid little attention to the event. Yet the Cabinet which then came into brief existence was a body of men that in other circ.u.mstances would have commanded most favorable attention. The nominal head, President of the Cabinet without portfolio, was Jose Maria Galvez, a lawyer and orator, the author of the Autonomist manifestoes of 1879 and 1895. The real head, the most forceful and influential member, not only, indeed, of the Cabinet but of the whole Autonomist party, was Dr.

Rafael Montoro, the "Cuban Castelar" as his friends used to call him. He had long been an advocate of real autonomy, he had been the chief founder of the Autonomist party, he had been a Cuban Deputy to the Spanish Cortes, he had signed the Autonomist manifestoes of 1879 and 1895, and he had approved the insular reforms proposed by Canovas del Castillo. As lawyer, orator, scholar, writer, he had no superior if indeed a peer in Cuba. It was the inscrutable tragedy of a great career that he identified himself with the Autonomist movement. He was Minister of Finance. The Minister of Justice was Antonio Govin, also one of the original Autonomists, a man of great courage and ability, who on the failure of the Autonomist regime left Cuba and settled in the United States. Francisco Zayas, an accomplished educator, was made Minister of Instruction. Laureano Rodriguez, a Peninsular Spaniard, was Minister of Agriculture, Labor and Commerce. Eduardo Dolz, a Reformist, was also a member, who was supposed to be the special representative of the Spanish crown. Two other men, not Ministers but high in Autonomist councils, Senors Amblard and Giberga, were regarded by the Spanish party as traitors who were really in league with the Revolutionists. Blanco swore in these Ministers, addressed them with an exhortation to support autonomy and to suppress the revolution, and gave them as the watchword of their administration "Long live Cuba, forever Spanis.h.!.+"

For a few days the glamor and the illusion lasted. Some inconspicuous revolutionists yielded to Spanish blandishments and surrendered; to whom the honest and chivalrous Blanco granted in good faith the amnesty which he had promised. Some Cuban refugees returned from the United States.

The Autonomists--the few who still remained; for the majority had by this time joined the Revolutionists, gone into exile, or been imprisoned--declared their adherence to the new order of affairs and professed satisfaction with it. Apparently they accepted at face value the explanations which were voluminously put forth by the government, to the effect that the system was practically identical with that of Canada, under which that country had long been contented, loyal and prosperous. Technically, no doubt, there was a tolerably close a.n.a.logy between the two. It was quite true that the powers reserved to the Spanish crown in Cuba through the Governor-General were similar to those reserved to the British crown in Canada through the Viceroy. But the decisive factor in the case, which the Autonomists apparently ignored, was this, that while in Canada it was an unwritten but unbroken law that the crown did not exercise its powers save in accordance with the will of the people, it was morally certain that in Cuba the Spanish crown would exercise its powers to the full, whether the people liked it or not. The Cuban Autonomists in the United States, where many of them deemed it prudent to remain, did not suffer from the illusions of their compatriots in Cuba, and generally expressed dissatisfaction with the scheme, or at least reserved their judgment upon it.

The Spanish Reformists in Cuba also approved the scheme. They had deserted and betrayed Campos, and had been ignored by Weyler. Now they struggled to return to public recognition and influence. True, they had never before wanted or approved autonomy. But they saw that now they must do so or remain in retirement. So they joined hands with the Cuban Autonomists, congratulated the Spanish government, and pledged their loyalty to Blanco. This gave the Spanish government ground for its exultant belief that these two parties had united in its support, and would probably control the island in behalf of autonomy.

But there were still the Const.i.tutionalists to be reckoned with. They were implacable. They had shown in their convention a few weeks before their hostility to autonomy. They had ostracised Blanco. Now they proceeded to further extremes. They organized riotous disturbances in Havana, and made violent demonstrations against Blanco and, which was in some respects more serious, against the American government and the American citizens in Cuba. So ominous did these disturbances become at the middle of January that the Consul-General, Fitzhugh Lee, was driven to request the sending of a war s.h.i.+p to Havana harbor for the protection of American citizens. In consequence, on January 24 the cruiser _Maine_ was sent to Havana. This action was taken after consultation with the Spanish government, in which that government expressed great pleasure at the prospect of thus having a friendly visit of the American vessel to Cuban waters, and arranged to have its own cruiser the _Vizcaya_ make a return visit to New York.

This was not satisfactory, however, to the Spanish Minister at Was.h.i.+ngton, Senor Dupuy de Lome, who having failed to bring President McKinley to his own point of view of Cuban affairs, showed plainly his animosity against that gentleman, and wrote a letter to a personal friend characterizing the President as a vacillating and time-serving politician. This letter through some clandestine means was placed in the hands of the United States Secretary of State, who at once sent for the Minister and asked him plumply if he had written it. The latter of course acknowledged that he had. Thereupon the Secretary cabled to the American Minister at Madrid to request the Spanish government to recall the offending envoy. This the Spanish government would doubtless have done, but for the fact that De Lome forestalled such action by cabling his resignation an hour before the dispatch of the Secretary of State reached Madrid. The Spanish government then sent Senor Polo y Bernabe to be its Minister at Was.h.i.+ngton.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BAY AND HARBOR OF HAVANA

The capital of Cuba is seated upon the sh.o.r.e of a s.p.a.cious and beautiful bay, the entrance to which is between the two bold headlines crowned respectively by the Morro Castle and La Punta fortress, while the domes and spires of the great city have for a background the central mountain range of the island. The harbor of Havana is one of the most secure and commodious in the world, and in commercial importance, measured by tonnage of s.h.i.+pping, ranks among the foremost in the Western Hemisphere.]

There next occurred the greatest and most mysterious tragedy of the entire revolutionary period. On the evening of February 15, at twenty minutes before ten o'clock, a violent explosion occurred under or in the forward portion of the _Maine_ as she lay in Havana harbor, sufficient to lift the hull some distance above its normal level. A few seconds later another and more violent explosion followed, which so completely destroyed the forward part of the s.h.i.+p that most of it could never be found. The remainder of the vessel almost immediately sank, in about six fathoms of water. Of the complement of 360, two officers and 264 men were killed, and of the remainder 60 were wounded. Captain Sigsbee, commander of the _Maine_, telegraphed to Was.h.i.+ngton that all judgment upon the matter should be suspended until after full investigation.

Blanco telegraphed to Madrid that the catastrophe was doubtless due to an accident within the s.h.i.+p, and the Madrid government promptly expressed regret and sympathy.

In the United States there was a great outburst of grief and rage. Even the most restrained and conservative could not help a degree of suspicion of foul play, though of course not on the part of the Spanish government. A semi-criminal faction, in the "yellow" press, clamored furiously for war, charging Spaniards, even the Spanish government, with direct and malicious responsibility for the tragedy, and even publis.h.i.+ng the grossest of falsehoods for the sake of inflaming popular sentiment.

Too large a proportion of the nation was swayed by these latter sordid and sinister influences. But at least the government kept its head, and acted with admirable discretion; though for so doing the President incurred the virulent animosity of the chief clamorer for war, an animosity which was persistently maintained until it culminated in the incitement of a criminal Anarchist to a.s.sa.s.sinate the President.

When the explosion occurred, and Blanco learned what it was, it is said that he shed tears and exclaimed, "This is the beginning of the end!"

Despite his message to his government, he probably feared that there had been foul play, and he realized what effect, in any case, the incident would have upon Spanish-American relations. As for the Cuban revolutionists, both in Cuba and in the United States, they were almost stunned by two emotions. The hideous atrocity of the thing was overwhelming, and they grieved at the loss of the American sailors as though they themselves had been Americans. At the same time they could not be blind nor insensible to the almost certain sequel. They felt that, as Blanco said, it was the beginning of the end, and that now American intervention was practically a.s.sured.

The Spanish government proposed a joint investigation into the disaster, but the United States government declined and conducted a thorough investigation of its own, through a board of eminent official experts.

The report was that the loss of the s.h.i.+p was not due to any accident or to any negligence on the part of the officers and crew. The first explosion was external to the hull, as if caused by a torpedo or mine, and it caused the second explosion, which was that of the s.h.i.+p's magazines. The Spanish government then conducted an investigation of its own, resulting in a report that both explosions were within the s.h.i.+p and were presumably purely accidental. It may be added that a final examination in after years, when a cofferdam was built about the hulk and it was floated and then taken out to sea and sunk in deep water, fully confirmed the report of the American investigating board.

It is to be recalled that Ramon O. Williams, who had only a little while before retired from the office of American Consul-General at Havana, and was particularly well informed and judicious, earnestly warned the United States government against sending a s.h.i.+p to Havana, because the harbor was very elaborately mined, and there was a bitter and truculent feeling among the Spaniards against the United States; wherefore the danger of some untoward occurrence was too great to be incurred without a more pressing necessity than was then apparent. But despite his warning the _Maine_ was sent. She was conducted by a Spanish official pilot to her anchorage at a buoy between Regla and the old custom house.

Whether a mine was attached to that buoy or not is unknown, though Mr.

Williams was confident that one was. His theory was that some malignant Spanish officer, who had access to the keyboard of the mines, perhaps through connivance with some other fanatic, watched to see the tide swing the s.h.i.+p directly over the mine and then touched the key and caused the explosion. That would account for the enormous hole which was blown in the side of the s.h.i.+p, and which could not have been caused by any little mine or torpedo which might have been floated to the side of the s.h.i.+p, but must have been produced by a very large mine planted deep beneath the hull.

The findings of the American board of investigation were reported officially to the Spanish government, and the President in a message to Congress expressed confidence that Spain would act in the matter according to the dictates of justice, honor and friends.h.i.+p. The Spanish government replied that it would certainly do so, and it presently proposed to submit the whole subject to investigation by impartial experts, and to determination by arbitration. But this proposal was not made until April 10, when so much else had occurred to strain relations between the two countries that it could not be entertained by the United States.

Meantime the Autonomist government in Cuba, with a devotion that was pathetic to behold, persisted in its efforts to justify its existence.

An electoral census was taken, though of course it could not cover more than a small fraction of the island, and on March 27 an "election" of Cuban Deputies to the Cortes was held. In fact there was no popular voting at all. A list was prepared of eligible candidates, twenty of them being Autonomists and Reformists, or supporters of the government, and ten representing the Const.i.tutionalist opposition. The list was submitted to the Governor-General and approved by him, and the candidates were declared to have been duly elected. Jose Maria Galvez, the president of the Autonomist cabinet, reported to the President of the United States that the new government was satisfactorily performing its functions, and entreated him to give no encouragement to the revolutionists which would militate against its success. In April there was another "election" for members of the two houses of the Insular Legislature. On May 4 that Legislature met, chose Fernando del Casco as President of the a.s.sembly, and confirmed the Autonomist cabinet in its place; and it continued patiently and valiantly to hold sessions, make laws, and act as though it were a real government, exercising real authority over the island, all through the period of the American war with Spain and the practical siege of the island by the American navy.

When the Spanish forces yielded and a protocol for peace was signed, on August 12, the Legislature held its last meeting, and was declared dissolved by Blanco in October. The Autonomist Cabinet continued to exercise its functions, at least nominally, until the end of Spanish sovereignty in Cuba.

CHAPTER VII

There could be no greater mistake than that which has been too often and too persistently made, in regarding the destruction of the _Maine_ as the cause of American, intervention in Cuba. The declarations of policy which we have already quoted from the messages of President Cleveland and President McKinley, the former fourteen months and the latter two months before that vessel went to Havana, are ample indications of the purpose of the American government to intervene unless there were a satisfactory amelioration of Cuban affairs. But there was no such amelioration, and therefore war was declared. It unquestionably would have been declared just the same, perhaps at a later and perhaps at an earlier date, if there had been no _Maine_ at all.

Beginning before the destruction of the _Maine_, and accelerated after that event, both sides were preparing for war. Nevertheless diplomatic negotiations continued, chiefly conducted by the American Minister, Stewart L. Woodford, at Madrid. In order to facilitate such negotiations, President McKinley withheld the report on the _Maine_ from Congress for a time. Spain asked that the pacification of Cuba, which the United States was urging, be left to the Autonomist Legislature, which was to meet on May 4. The United States, declaring that it did not want Cuba but did want peace in Cuba, proposed an armistice to begin at once and to last until October 1, itself meantime to act as mediator between the Cubans and Spain. Spain replied that an armistice would be granted, to last at the pleasure of the Spanish commander, if the Cubans would ask for it themselves; and that already General Blanco had abandoned the "concentration" system. This was of course regarded as entirely unsatisfactory to the United States, but the peace-loving President McKinley hesitated to report to Congress his dissatisfaction with it.

Meantime the Pope semi-officially expressed to both governments his earnest desire for the maintenance of peace; but to no effect. The German government, strongly sympathizing with Spain and seeking to foment ill-feeling between the United States and Great Britain, had its Amba.s.sador at Was.h.i.+ngton, Dr. Von Holleben, form a cabal of the chief members of the Diplomatic Corps, to call on the President with what amounted to a suggestion of mediation, maliciously persuading the British Amba.s.sador to act as spokesman of the delegation, in order that any resentment or odium should fall upon him and his country; but the President with admirable temper and resolution declined with thanks all foreign meddling in a controversy which concerned only the United States and Spain. The Spanish government proclaimed on April 10 a suspension of hostilities, in deference to the wishes of the Pope and of the great European powers. It was reported officially to the United States government that this armistice was granted without conditions, though General Blanco's proclamation declared that it was to continue only at the pleasure of the Spanish commanders. The Cuban government, through Maximo Gomez, replied that it had not sought the armistice and would not accept it unless Spain agreed to evacuate Cuba.

The President of the United States at last, on April 11, laid the whole matter before Congress in a message which for calm moderation in the presence of unspeakable provocation, for convincing logic, for lofty and unselfish benevolence, for keen and just perception of existing conditions, and for valorous resolution to deal with them in the only satisfactory way, must take high rank among the great historic state doc.u.ments of the world. After reviewing the story of the Cuban revolution and the condition into which it had plunged the island, he said: "The war in Cuba is of such a nature that, short of subjugation or extermination, a military victory for either side seems impracticable."

Then, recounting the efforts of the United States to effect a just settlement by negotiation, he added: "The only hope of relief and repose from a condition which can no longer be endured is the enforced pacification of Cuba. In the name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in behalf of endangered American interests which give us the right and duty to speak and to act, the war in Cuba must stop. In view of these facts and these considerations I ask the Congress to authorize and empower the President to take measures to secure a full and final termination of hostilities between the government of Spain and the people of Cuba, and to secure in the island the establishment of a stable government capable of maintaining order and observing its international obligations, insuring peace and tranquillity and the security of its citizens as well as our own, and to use the military and naval forces of the United States as may be necessary for these purposes."

It is to be observed that the President spoke of the war "between the government of Spain and the Cuban people"--the Cuban people, not the Cuban government. There had as yet been no official recognition of the Cuban government, either as independent or as belligerent, and the President could therefore not properly refer to it. At the same time he spoke of "the Cuban people" and not of merely a part of them, recognizing by inference that fact that the Cuban people were substantially a unit in revolting against Spain and in demanding independence.

Spain made it dear that she bitterly resented what she regarded as the unwarrantable meddling of the United States in Cuban affairs, and that she would prefer war to yielding to that meddling. France and Austria, at German suggestion, made one more effort at mediation by the great powers, but abandoned it when Great Britain refused to have anything to do with it and indicated clearly her sympathy with the United States.

Finally, on April 20 President McKinley signed the act of Congress which was made in response to his message of April 11. That memorable act, the Magna Charta of the Cuban Republic, declared that the people of Cuba were and of right ought to be free and independent; that it was the duty of the United States to demand, and it accordingly did demand, that Spain should immediately relinquish her authority and government in Cuba and withdraw her military and naval forces from that island and its waters; that the President be authorized to employ the army and navy of the United States as might be necessary to carry these resolutions into effect; and that the United States disclaimed any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or control over Cuba, except for the pacification thereof, and a.s.serted its determination, when that was accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people.