CHAPTER XIV THE EFFORT OF 1865 TOWARD REFORM IN CUBAN ADMINISTRATION: CUBAN REVOLT THE interval of thirteen years, 1855 to 1868, was one of comparative quiet in Spanish-American relations. Spain, on June 17, 1861, had declared her neutrality in the contest between the North and South, thus conceding belligerent rights to the Southern confederacy. She was a signatory to the convention concluded in London between Great Britain, France, and herself, October 31, 1861, for combined action for the redress of grievances against Mexico, which resulted the same year in the expedition so fatal to France, and in which, in the beginning, a Spanish force under Marshal Prim, took part. In April, 1862, an agreement with Mexico having been reached as to the claims of Great Britain and Spain, Prim followed the example of the latter power, and withdrew the Spanish force, though this action was not in accord with the views of the Spanish ministry.' Spain was now wasting her strength in useless adventures in Cochin China, in Santo Domingo (a party in the Spanish half of which desired reannexation to Spain), and in a war, in 1866, against Peru and Chile, in which, May 2, her squadron was bitterly worsted in an attack on Callao. The whole of such inconsiderate action was due to the desire of Marshal O'Donnell, at the head of the ministry, to give employment to possible rivals, of whom Narvaez, Serrano, and Prim were the chief. Entire deprivation of political rights and emoluments would be serious enough in the present age, even were the autocratic government an ideal one in its administration of justice and finance. But when such a government, furnished by a distant authority, is radically corrupt in all its details, when it exists wholly for the 'Hume, Modern Spain, 446. 2 Ibid., 446. 274 CUBAN SLAVE-TRADE [1863 benefit of such distant authority and of the officials it supplies, the governed would be worthy of their slavery were there not discontent and effort at revolution. Cuba, naturally, under such circumstances, so long as slavery continued among us, desired and labored for annexation to the United States whence came her prosperity. With the abolition of slavery in the United States, there developed an antagonism to annexation among many of the Cuban planters themselves, as fearing the economic result of manumission in Cuba. Particularly was this so among Spanish owners of slaves, who became known as "negreros" or slavedealers. Not that there were not many planters who joined with the abolitionist party, which had existed in the island since 1830, in deprecating slavery and desiring its discontinuance; but the change wrought by the civil war had a distinct effect in causing Cuba to turn to Spain in an endeavor to establish relations which, being bearable, would bind the island more closely to the mother country. At this epoch the slave-trade to Cuba still continued. In 1863 and 1864 the attention of the captain-general had been called, by the British consul, to eleven disembarkations of slaves, one from a steamer at Cardenas and Sagua amounting to 1,500, and during these years 3,565 imported negroes were seized; chiefly, of course, on the motion of British and American authorities: statements which speak for the magnitude of the traffic.1 The abolition of slavery in the United States and the unsettlement of the labor conditions of the South had given a great impetus to the sugar industry of Cuba, and caused the formation of a Spanish party "for whom the cause of slavery and that of Spanish domination were identical and synonymous." It could not be 1 A despatch of Lord Lyons, February 4, 1864, to Mr. Seward, secretary of state, enclosed a memorandum which was a copy of a despatch from the British minister in Madrid, who, discussing the means of prevention, mentions the number of Africans introduced into Cuba in the twelve months ending September 30, 1863, as estimated at between 7,000 and 8,000, as against 11,254 in the twelve months preceding. He credited the diminution to the efforts of the new governor-general, Dulce, who undoubtedly did his utmost to suppress the traffic. Under the existing laws, the seizure of newly imported slaves by the authorities was prohibited after they had been received on an estate. 2 Gallenga, The Pearl of the Antilles, 12. 1865] VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT IN CUBA 275 otherwise, as severance from Spain, followed by annexation to the United States, now meant death to slavery. Two great parties were thus formed, the one fanatically loyal to Spain and consisting chiefly of Spanish immigrants favoring slavery and the status quo; the other, separatist, to which belonged most of the native-born element. Notwithstanding the facts of the slave-trade so fully established, the anti-reformist party, in a memorial addressed to the crown, June 28, 1865, claimed that the traffic no longer existed. They were unable to see that the question of slavery in Cuba itself had been decided by the outcome of the civil war in the United States. In the agitation following the expeditions of Lopez, the Spanish element had strengthened itself with the home government by claiming to stand for Spanish dominion and had re-enforced its political position by forming an organization of volunteers which became important by numbers, which rose to some 70,000 or 80,000; and by membership in the clubs throughout the island which, patterned after the Casino Español, of Havana, became points of great political influence and a power which no governor-general could resist, their power extending even, as will appear later, to forcing General Dulce, one of the best-meaning and most able governors of the island during the century, to resign his post and leave for Spain. On May 12, 1865, there was sent to Marshal Serrano, Duke de la Torre, at that time in the cabinet, a letter signed by over 24,000 residents of the island, among whom were all the most distinguished and important natives, calling for his aid in the Cortes, and detailing the difficulties under which Cuba labored. Serrano had been captain-general; he had left Cuba with the reputation of a kindly and beneficent master, and the appeal was not in vain. He spoke in the senate and answered in terms which gave hope of a change. The enemies of reform appealed to the crown for the retention of the status quo, but the outcome was a decree appointing a commission which, in the words of Marshal Serrano in a letter addressed to the signers of the reformist petition, "could inform the government concerning the reforms which, demanded by opinion, it is urgent to establish in that island." He continues: "This decree, recognizing and sanctioning in a solemn 276 COMMISSION ON CUBAN REFORM [1865 manner the right of the American provinces to take part in the formation of the political and economical laws by which they shall be governed, is a very advanced step in the reforms for which the island calls." 1 It is clear that representation was still looked upon as a panacea which was to bring justice and content to the Antilles, and the sentiment of the many overpowered the wise judgment of Señor Saco, who saw no practical good in the presence of a small knot of representatives, who could not have the numbers or influence in the Spanish Cortes to effect their wishes over those of a great majority formed of peninsular representatives. The royal decree, authorizing the ministry of ultramar to open an inquiry respecting reforms in Cuba and Puerto Rico was signed the 25th of November, 1865, the inquiry extending to principles on which the special laws governing Cuba and Puerto Rico should be based; the manner of regulating colored and Asiatic labor, and the means of facilitating the importation of such labor; the treaties of navigation and commerce which should be made with other nations, and the reform in the tariff and in the administration of the customs. Twenty representatives of the government, councilors of state, were to be named from the various departments of the government: sixteen members were to be elected from the fifteen most important ayuntamientos of Cuba, and six from Puerto Rico. Notwithstanding a change in the electoral law in the interest of the party of antireform while the election was pending, the whole representation sent from the Antilles belonged to the reform party. The following were regarded as the bases of their demands: 2 1. That the exceptional status of the islands cease, and also the discretional powers of the governor-general. 2. Separation of the political and civil power from the military. 3. That the stipulated guaranties be rigorously applied, and that the rights recognized in the constitution of the kingdom be extended to all Spanish subjects. 4. A governor-general to be nominated by the crown, representing the executive power with all its associated faculties. 1 Sedano, Estudios Politicos, 260. 2 From Sedano. Estudios Politicos, 300 et seq. 1866] COMMISSION ON CUBAN REFORM 277 5. A captain-general also to be nominated by the crown to command the army. 6. A naval commander-in-chief also to be named by the crown, to command the department. 7. A provincial junta and an insular committee for affairs peculiar to the island. 8. Representation in the Cortes in conformity with the law in force in the Peninsula. 9. Division of the province of Cuba into six districts, with their respective governors, councilors, and provincial committees with the same faculties as those of the Peninsula, saving the variations due to special conditions in the two countries. 10. Municipal governments to be elected and to have such enlargement of attributes as differing circumstances in the two countries demand. 11. That the creation of new municipalities be facilitated when desired. The abolition of the slave-trade was to be demanded, as also steps toward the abolition of slavery itself. And finally the vicious and complicated financial system was to be one of the main questions considered, and action taken toward seeking to reduce the enormous charges of the customs administration and its personnel, and to adopt a freer regimen which would augment the trade between Cuba and the United States. It was recognized and stated that it was Cuba's relations with this country which chiefly affected her commercial importance; the United States taking sixty-two per cent. of her sugar, England, France, and other powers twentytwo per cent., and Spain but three per cent. The commission began its sittings October 30, 1866, under the presidency of Señor Cánovas del Castillo, minister of ultramar. In opening the conference Señor Cánovas stated that he had not been the author of the decree of inquiry, but that he had accepted and would accept it in good faith; that the government declared solemnly that it had no preconceived idea, that it gave preference to no system, and that it was disposed to extract from the inquiry all the benefit which could be afforded through the knowledge and true patriotism of the commissioners sent by the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, and from the knowledge and experience of those |