plex. Marti was a patriot, a poet, and a dreamer. Maximo Gomez, once a petty officer in the Spanish army, a native of Santo Domingo, had dreamed impracticable dreams of a united West Indian Republic. Maceo's motive was perhaps a compound of patriotism and a love for the excitement of war, and a hatred of Spain. Among leaders and among followers, there was genuine patriotism, love of country, desire for freedom and national independence. There was also hatred of Spanish government and Spanish governors, personal ambition, love of war and love of the glory which comes from war, the hope of gain, and the desire for preferment.

Immediately upon landing, José Marti, the acknowledged head of the revolutionary element, issued a call for the selection of representatives to form a civil government. Before this could be effected, Marti met his death, on May 19, in an engagement which occurred while he and Gomez, with some three hundred men, were seeking to pass the cordon established by General Campos between the provinces of Santiago and Puerto Principe. His death was a severe blow to the Cubans, but it in no way checked the movement. Gomez passed the cordon, and organized an army in Puerto Principe.

The constituent assembly, summoned by Marti, met at Jimaguayu, in Puerto Principe province, on Sept. 13, 1895. It consisted of twenty members, representing nearly all parts of the Island. Its purpose was the organization of a Cuban Republic. On the 16th, it adopted a constitution, and on the 18th elected, as President, Salvador Cisneros Betancourt, and as Vice President, Bartolomé Masó. Secretaries and sub-secretaries were duly chosen and all were formally installed. Maximo Gomez was elected Generalin-chief of the Army, with Antonio Maceo as Lieutenant

General. Tomas Estrada Palma was chosen as delegate plenipotentiary and general agent abroad, with headquarters in New York.

Both civil and military organizations were, for a time, crude and somewhat incoherent. It was a movement which could only succeed by success. Arms and money were lacking. The civil government was little else than a necessary form. Action lay with the military and with the Cuban Junta in the United States. The first real battle

Bayamo, in Santiago

of the war occurred at Peralojo, near Province, about the middle of July. The leaders of the opposing forces were Antonio Maceo and Governor General Campos, in person. The victory lay with Maceo, and Campos barely eluded capture. The fighting continued, with varying success, until the time of America's active interference. As it is not my purpose to write a war history, I touch these points only in outline. The war came and its determination is familiar to all.

Patriotism, desire for national independence, and personal ambition, were, undoubtedly, factors in the precipitation of the war. Its underlying cause, like that of its predecessors, is undoubtedly to be sought in the general discontent and unrest created by governmental action which imposed heavy burdens upon the industries of the Island, and at all times retarded its economic development. It is probable, if not certain, that the desire of the great majority was a larger economic life with greater national and individual prosperity, rather than separation from the mother country for any political reasons.

While the insurrection was taking on a more definite shape and increasing the area of its operations, in its beginning largely confined to the eastern end of the Island, the country at large and the principal cities were racked

with political turmoil which grew out of the movement. The different parties charged each other with responsibility for the insurrection, and parties divided into factions. The Union Constitutionals supported the Spanish Government, and forced the Autonomists into public declaration of a similar attitude. Had this party antagonism raged less furiously, it is certain that there would have been fewer exiles, and self-exiles, and fewer accessions to the insurgent ranks. Many were still so far loyal to Spain that, while desiring reform and demanding autonomy, they had no desire for a complete separation.

This type of lukewarm loyalty became the subject of suspicion and the object of attack. Many were practically driven from the country, and others were virtually forced into participation in the insurrection, because unable longer to halt between two defined opinions, and unwilling longer to confide in Spain's many unfulfilled promises to her Island colony. Some of those who remained were summarily arrested and deported, without trial, to Spanish penal institutions. Such rigorous measures made enemies rather than friends for the government, and resulted in further accessions to the insurgent cause. Large numbers of such accessions came from a more respectable element than that which had originally formed the majority of the insurrecto party. The weight of an iron hand might be borne, though with many protests, so long as hope of better things remained. The blow of the iron hand was not to be endured. But the insurrection secured its greatest numerical strength through other causes and as a direct result of its own operations. The idea is attributed to Maximo Gomez. Hopeful or hopeless as he may have been regarding the outcome of active war, he declared that if Spain would not give up Cuba to the Cubans, the Cubans would themselves render

the Island so worthless and desolate a possession that Spain could not afford to hold it. In furtherance of this idea, there was issued the following:

General Headquarters of the Army of Liberation,

NAJASA, CAMAGUEY, July 1, 1895.

To the Planters and Owners of Cattle Ranches:

In accord with the great interests of the revolution for the independence of the country and for which we are in arms:

Whereas, all exploitations of any product whatsoever are aids and resources to the Government that we are fighting, it is resolved by the general in chief to issue this general order throughout the Island, that the introduction of articles of commerce, as well as beef and cattle, into the towns occupied by the enemy, is absolutely prohibited. The sugar plantations will stop their labors, and those who shall attempt to grind the crop notwithstanding this order, will have their cane burned and their buildings demolished. The person who, disobeying this order, will try to profit from the present situation of affairs, will show by his conduct little respect for the rights of the revolution of redemption, and therefore shall be considered as an enemy, treated as a traitor, and tried as such in case of his capture.

MAXIMO GOMEZ,

The General in Chief.

Notwithstanding this preliminary warning, many continued their productive operations. This led to a more definite step, expressed in the following terms:

Headquarters of the Army of Liberation,

TERRITORY OF SANCTI SPIRITUS, Nov. 6, 1895.

Animated by the spirit of unchangeable resolution in defence of the rights of the revolution of redemption of this country of colonists, humiliated and despised by Spain, and in harmony with what has been decreed concerning the subject in the circular dated the 1st of July, I have ordered the following:

Article I. That all plantations shall be totally destroyed, their cane and outbuildings burned, and railroad connections destroyed. Article II. All laborers who shall aid the sugar factories these sources of supplies that we must deprive the enemy of shall be considered as traitors to their country.

Article III. All who are caught in the act, or whose violation of Article II shall be proven, shall be shot. Let all chiefs of operations of the army of liberty comply with this order, determined to unfurl triumphantly, even over ruin and ashes, the flag of the Republic of Cuba.

In regard to the manner of waging the war, follow the private instructions that I have already given.

For the sake of the honor of our arms and your well-known courage and patriotism, it is expected that you will strictly comply with the above orders.

M. GOMEZ,

General in Chief.

To the chiefs of operations: Circulate this.

Immediately upon the heels of the order, there came the following proclamation:

Headquarters of the Army of Liberation,

SANCTI SPIRITUS, Nov. 11, 1895.

To Honest Men, Victims of the Torch:

The painful measure made necessary by the revolution of redemption drenched in innocent blood from Hatuey to our own times by cruel and merciless Spain will plunge you in misery. As general in chief of the army of liberation it is my duty to lead it to victory, without permitting myself to be restrained or terrified, by any means necessary to place Cuba in the shortest time in possession of her dearest ideal. I therefore place the responsibility for so great a ruin on those who look on impassively and force us to those extreme measures which they then condemn like dolts and hypocrites that they are. After so many years of supplication, humiliation, contumely, banishment, and death, when this people,