Cuba Part 7

Spain continued to dilly-dally and evade the question of her responsibility.

On the 25th of November Mr. Fish telegraphed to Minister Sickles:

"If no accommodation is reached by the close of to-morrow, leave. If a proposition is submitted, you will refer it to Washington, and defer action."

This was just after Minister Sickles had informed the authorities at Washington that Lord Granville regarded the reparation demanded as just and moderate.

On the 26th, however, just as the American minister was preparing to ask for his pa.s.sports, close the legation and leave Spain, he received a note from Senor Carvajal which conceded in part the demands of the United States.

This proposition was virtually that the Virginius and the survivors should be given up, but the salute was to be dispensed with, in case Spain satisfied the United States within a certain time that the Virginius had no right to carry the flag.

After considerable correspondence an arrangement was finally arrived at, Spain further agreeing to proceed against those who had offended the sovereignty of the United States, or who had violated their treaty rights.

In his message, President Grant says:

"The surrender of the vessel and the survivors to the jurisdiction of the tribunals of the United States was an admission of the principles upon which our demand had been founded. I therefore had no hesitation in agreeing to the arrangement which was moderate and just, and calculated to cement the good relations which have so long existed between Spain and the United States."

The following words, spoken by Secretary Fish to Admiral Polo, in an interview during the progress of the negotiations, are worthy to be quoted:

"I decline to submit to arbitration the question of an indignity to the flag. I am willing to submit all questions which are properly subjects of reference."

On the 16th of December the Virginius, with the American flag flying, was delivered to the United States at Bahia Honda.

The vessel was unseaworthy. Her engines were out of order and she was leaking badly. On the pa.s.sage to New York she encountered a severe storm, and, in spite of the efforts of her officers and men, she sank off Cape Fear. The survivors of the ma.s.sacre were surrendered at Santiago de Cuba on the 18th, and reached New York in safety.

About eighty thousand dollars were paid by Spain as compensation to the families of the American and British victims who perished at Santiago.

But no punishment was ever visited upon the governor who ordered the executions. There was a tremendous amount of feeling aroused in the United States over the Virginius affair, and the government was severely criticized and censured for not avenging the inhuman butcheries and the insults to the flag.

But it must be remembered that the government had a very hard task to deal with. There was little or no doubt but that the Virginius, at the time of her capture was intended for an unlawful enterprise, in spite of Captain Fry's words in a letter to his wife just before his execution:

"There is to be a fearful sacrifice of life from the Virginius, and, as I think, a needless one, as the poor people are unconscious of crime and even of their fate up to now. I hope G.o.d will forgive me, if I am to blame for it."

The clamor of the American people for revenge was fiery in its intensity, but the government did not yield to it, in which it was right. There has been more than one time in our history when if public opinion had been allowed to rule, the results would have been fatal; and the very men who were most abused, in the light of future events, have been praised for their wisdom and moderation.

Murat Halstead sums up the whole matter in a clear and just manner. He says in his admirable book, "The Story of Cuba:"

"It is not, we must say, a correct use of words to say that the United States was degraded by the Virginius incident. In proportion as nations are great and dignified, they must at least obey their own laws and treaties. When Grant was President of the United States and Castelar was President of Spain, there was a reckless adventure and shocking ma.s.sacre, but we were not degraded because we did not indulge in a policy of vengeance."

CHAPTER VI.

AGAIN SPAIN'S PERFIDY.

Before proceeding further, it is necessary to call attention to one very important matter which was the direct result of the Ten Years' War. If the insurgents accomplished nothing else, they may well be proud of this achievement.

Their own freedom they failed to obtain, but they were the cause of freedom being bestowed upon others.

We refer to the manumission of the slaves.

The Spanish slave code, promulgated in 1789, is admitted everywhere to have been very humane in its character. So much so that when Trinidad came into the possession of the English, the anti-slavery party resisted successfully the attempt of the planters of that island to have the Spanish law replaced by the British.

Once again, however, were the words of Spain falsified by her deeds.

Spanish diplomacy up to the present day has only been another name for lies. For, notwithstanding the mildness of the code, its provisions were constantly and glaringly violated.

In 1840, a writer, who had personal knowledge of the affairs of Cuba, declared that slavery in Cuba was more destructive to human life, more pernicious to society, degrading to the slave and debasing to the master, more fatal to health and happiness than in any other slave-holding country on the face of the habitable globe.

It was in Cuba that the slaves were subjected to the coa.r.s.est fare and the most exhausting and unremitting toil. A portion of their number was even absolutely destroyed every year by the slow torture of overwork and insufficient sleep and rest.

In 1792 the slave population of the island was estimated at eighty-four thousand; in 1817, one hundred and seventy-nine thousand; in 1827, two hundred and eighty-six thousand; in 1843, four hundred and thirty-six thousand; in 1867, three hundred and seventy-nine thousand, five hundred and twenty-three, and in 1873, five hundred thousand, or about one-third of the entire population.

In 1870, two years after the beginning of the war, in which the colored people, both free and slaves, took a prominent part, the Spanish legislature pa.s.sed an act, providing that every slave who had then pa.s.sed, or should thereafter pa.s.s, the age of sixty should be at once free, and that all yet unborn children of slaves should also be free.

The latter, however, were to be maintained at the expense of the proprietors up to their eighteenth year, and during that time to be kept as apprentices at such work as was suitable to their age. Slavery was absolutely abolished in Cuba in 1886. Spain was therefore the last civilized country to cling to this vestige of barbarism, and she probably would not have abandoned it then had she not been impelled to by force and her self-interest.

After the treaty of El Zanjon, it was supposed by the Cubans, and rightly too, had they been dealing with an honorable opponent and not a trickster, that the condition of Cuba would be greatly improved.

The treaty, in the first place, guaranteed Cuba representation in the Cortes in Madrid. This was kept to the letter, but the spirit was abominably lacking.

The Peninsulars, that is, the Spaniards in Cuba, obtained complete control of the polls, and, by unparalleled frauds, always managed to elect a majority of the deputies. The deputies, purporting to come from Cuba, might just as well have been appointed by the Spanish crown.

In other and plainer words, Cuba had no representation whatever in the Cortes.

The cities of Cuba were hopelessly in debt and they were not able to provide money for any munic.i.p.al services.

There were no funds to keep up the schools, and in consequence they were closed.

As for hospitals and asylums, they scarcely existed. There was only one asylum for the insane in all the island, and that was wretchedly managed. This asylum was in Havana. Elsewhere, the insane were confined in the cells of jails.

The public debt of Spain was something enormous, and Cuba was forced to pay a part of the interest on this which was out of all proportion.

Perez Castaneda spoke of this in the Spanish Cortes in the following terms:

"The debt of Cuba was created in 1864 by a simple issue of three million dollars, and it now amounts to the fabulous sum of one hundred and seventy-five million dollars. What originated the Cuban debt? The wars of Santo Domingo, of Peru and of Mexico. But are not these matters for the Peninsula? Certainly they are matters for the whole of Spain. Why must Cuba pay that debt?"

Again, Senor Robledo, in a debate at Madrid, after speaking of the fearful abuses existent in the government of Havana, said:

"I do not intend to read the whole of the report; but I must put the House in possession of one fact. To what do these defalcations amount?

They amount to twenty-two million, eight hundred and eleven thousand, five hundred and sixteen dollars. Did not the government know this? What has been done?"

In 1895 it was alleged that the custom house frauds in Cuba, since the end of the Ten Years War, amounted to over one hundred millions of dollars. It is enough to make one hold one's breath in horror. And, remember well, there was absolutely no redress for the suffering Cubans by peaceful means.

One more quotation. Rafael de Eslara of Havana, when speaking of the misery of the island, thus summed up the situation:

"Granted the correctness of the points which I have just presented, it seems to be self-evident that a curse is pressing upon Cuba, condemning her to witness her own disintegration, and converting her into a prey for the operation of those swarms of vampires that are so cruelly devouring us, deaf to the voice of conscience, if they have any; it will not be rash to venture the a.s.sertion that Cuba is undone; there is no salvation possible."

Taxation on all sides was enormous, the two chief products of the island, sugar and tobacco, suffering the most. While other countries gave encouragement to their colonies, Spain did everything she could to discourage her well-beloved "Ever Faithful Isle."