1895] IGNORANCE OF SPANISH PRESS 423 14, 1895, that Señor Cánovas would have certainly held other principles and have given a different solution to the affair of the Alliança 'if he had not been profoundly deceived as to two things: the effective power of the republic of Washington and the decadence which he thinks inevitable of the country whose fate he holds in his hands.' One was to see two years later who was deceived in this regard; unfortunately, Señor Cánovas was no longer of this world to recall it to the Madrid journal." 1 The quotation thus given by Señor Olivart to mark the folly of the press, shows not only ignorance of the terms of the treaty of 1795, but the incapacity for any real appreciation of the case. However much may be granted to the necessities of self-defence, such necessity could hardly be evident in the case of a large steamship, one of several (the appearance of which must have been perfectly familiar to the commander of the cruiser), standing her usual northerly course at high speed, past the extreme eastern end of Cuba, where no harbor existed. The act of the Spanish commander was simply one of utter want of judgment and wholly inexcusable from any point of view. Almost coincident with the Alliança affair the question of the payment of the large claim of Mr. Mora, an American citizen, whose extensive estates in Cuba had been confiscated during the ten years' war, assumed an acute form, and did much to disturb Spanish feeling. The claim was one which had been brought before the commission established by the convention of 1871. In The Marquis de Olivart, Revue Générale de Droit International Public, tome VII (1900), 544–546. The principal owner of El Heraldo was Captain Moreu, who commanded the Cristóbal Colón in 1898. This paper published an interview with Señor Cánovas, September 9, 1895, in which the latter expressed on the subject the very correct views of international law to which the paper took such exception. The Imparcial also said, September 12, 1895, referring to the government: "They will not be able to escape the humiliation imposed on Spain in the Alliança affair; they will not be able to repair the injustice committed against the commander of the Venadito. It is not less certain that Spain can and ought to scrutinize and detain all ships which give reason for suspicion. There is nothing established against this right. Admitted by writers, mutually signed in the treaty of 1795, ratified in 1869 (1877), this has neither been modified nor weakened by any later treaty; it has its foundation in the law of self-defence. Against all that they knew but one offset... the power of the United States. But the dignity of Spain is still greater than the power of the United States."—Ibid., 456. 424 THE MORA CLAIM [1895 November, 1886, Señor Moret made a formal offer to pay the sum of $1,500,000 as a full and definite indemnity, which was accepted by the United States, and a formal agreement was made. But the Spanish Chambers having refused to accord the necessary credit the money remained unpaid. The principal reason for the refusal of the Cortes was the existence of still larger Spanish claims for the cession of Florida and for indemnities to Spanish subjects for injuries during the American civil war. On March 16, 1894, a project of a convention of arbitration of these claims was presented by the American minister at Madrid,' but at the same time declaring expressly that the payment of the Mora indemnity would not be submitted to the proposed arbitration, and that the definitive arrangement of this latter could no longer be awaited. A note from the American minister, on December 28, 1894, stating that he was "instructed to respectfully, yet firmly, insist upon a reply, without further delay," " to his communication in the matter six months previous, brought reply that "when the occasion arrives the Cortes will be disposed to vote the necessary credit. provided such vote coincides with the decision of the United States to settle the pending Spanish claims." The passage of a joint resolution in Congress, approved March 2, 1895, requesting the President to insist upon this payment, with interest from December, 1886;-its presentation to the Spanish government by the American minister, June 18; and a note from the American secretary of state to the Spanish minister at Washington, "still more energetic and truly comminatory," brought an ending of the matter. Mr. Olney's proposal to Señor Dupuy de Lome was for an immediate payment of a half of the claim, and the remainder on January 1, 1896. It ended: "If the Cortes shall take such action as both the law and the justice of the case as well as the true interests of Spain require, a long-standing grievance and source of irritation between the two countries would be happily removed. If such action is refused, it would 1 1 Foreign Relations, 1894. (Appen. 442. Draft of proposed convention, Ibid., 435-438.) 2 Ibid., 1895, 1160. 3 Ibid., 1161. Ibid., 1895, 1165. $ De Olivart, Revue Générale de Droit International Public, tome VII, 551. 1895] THE MORA CLAIM 425 leave the United States to consider what course its honor and interests and the due protection of its citizens call for."1 "But the Spanish government could not dream of sending to the parliament, which was hostile to it, a question which the preceding cabinets had not succeeded in resolving with friendly majorities. Thus the legislature closed July 1 without being consulted." 2 On July 17 it was determined in the council of ministers to offer to execute the stipulation of 1886 by three payments of a half million Spanish dollars each, the form and time of payment to be the subject of ulterior arrangement. By a memorandum agreed upon at Boston, August 10, signed by the secretary of state, the Spanish minister, and the representatives of Señor Mora and of all interested, Spain agreed to pay the $1,500,000 in Spanish gold by September 15, 1895, which offer was accepted as in full of all demands. On August 19 a royal decree opened an extraordinary credit with the ministry of the colonies, to be covered by the floating debt of Cuba and to be submitted to the Cortes on their first meeting. On the date set payment was made in Washington, the sum finally received amounting in American gold to $1,449,000.* One can well recognize that the pressure of the American government at this time for such an amount of money could not be taken otherwise than as a grievance by Spain. The sum was one which Spain at no time was able to pay without difficulty, and still less at a moment when the resources of the country were so heavily strained by the immense efforts it was making, with revolt also active in the Philippines, to increase her force in Cuba which was rapidly becoming a gulf into which was to be swept whatever wealth had come from the comparative prosperity of the previous fifteen years of Cuban and peninsular peace. President Cleveland in his annual message, December 2, 1895, made an appeal to the country for support of the laws. "Whatever," he said, "may be the traditional sympathy of our countrymen as individuals with a people who seem to be struggling for larger autonomy and greater freedom, deepened, as such sympathy 1 Foreign Relations, 1895, 1196. 'De Olivart, Revue Générale de Droit International Public, tome VII, 551. 3 Señor de Lome to Mr. Olney, July 17, 1895, Foreign Relations, 1895, 1170. 4 Five Spanish duros are equal to $4.83 American. 426 ANNUAL MESSAGE OF 1895 [1895 naturally must be, in behalf of our neighbors, yet the plain duty of their government is to observe in good faith the recognized obligations of international relationship. The performance of this duty should not be made more difficult by a disregard on the part of our citizens of the obligations growing out of their allegiance to their country, which should restrain them from violating as individuals the neutrality which the nation of which they are members is bound to observe in its relations to friendly sovereign states." He referred to the case of the Alliança as an act "promptly disavowed, with full expression of regret and assurance of nonrecurrence of such just cause of complaint, while the offending officer was relieved of his command. Military arrests of citizens of the United States in Cuba had occasioned frequent reclamations. Where held on criminal charges their delivery to the ordinary civil jurisdiction for trial had been demanded and obtained in conformity with treaty provision, and where merely detained by way of military precaution under a proclaimed state of siege, without formulated accusation, their release or trial had been insisted upon. The right of American consular officers in the island to prefer protests and demands in such cases having been questioned by the insular authority, their enjoyment of the privilege stipulated by treaty for the consuls of Germany was claimed under the most-favored-nation provision of our own convention and was promptly recognized." 1 He announced the settlement of the Mora claim, and mentioned the conclusion of an arrangement in January, 1895, brought about by the enforcement of differential duties against United States exports to Cuba and Puerto Rico, and the immediate claim thereupon for the benefit of the minimum tariff of Spain in return for the most favorable treatment permitted by our laws as regarded the productions of Spanish territory. He noted that "vigorous protests against excessive fines imposed on our ships and merchandise by the customs officers of these islands for trivial errors have resulted in the remission of such fines in instances where the equity of the complaint was apparent, though the vexatious practice had not been wholly discontinued." 2 For the correspondence covering these cases, see Foreign Relations, 1895, 1209-1214. 'Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, IX, 636–637. 1 CHAPTER XXI CASES OF AMERICAN CITIZENS.-WEYLER SUCCEEDS CAMPOS.WEYLER'S PROCLAMATIONS.-CUBA IN THE SENATE. THE SPANISH MINISTER USES THE NEWSPAPERS.-SEÑOR CÁNOVAS. -SENATE DEBATE THE difficulties arising from the arrest of American citizens of Cuban birth, many of whom had merely taken out American citizenship ad hoc, were, by the wise prescience of Señor Cánovas, avoided in most cases during 1895 by expulsion from the island, instead of bringing them before the courts and submitting to the terms of the protocol of 1877, which were so irritating to Spanish sentiment through the precautions thus established against summary action.1 Señor Cánovas was happily supported throughout the year, by the humanity and excellent judgment of General Campos, though individual cases of extreme hardship arose through the harshness and arbitrary action of subordinate Spanish officers. In the cases of three of the Ansley family and a Mr. Somers, in September, the American government took marked exception to their treatment. "The right of Spain," said Mr. Olney, "as of every other sovereign state to expel aliens need not be discussed. If the right be conceded in its fullest extent, the mode of its exercise may be so harsh, unreasonable, and oppressive as to give just ground of complaint, and was so beyond all doubt in the four cases now under consideration. Whether there be regard to the arbitrary character of the decree of deportation, to the successive steps by which it was apparently proposed to be enforced, to the separation of husbands and fathers from dependent families, or to the constrained abandonment of the latter in destitute circumstances to the tender mercies of strangers, the proceedings at every stage and in every particular seem to have been characterized by wilful disregard, not merely of the rights of American citizens, but of the dictates of 1 Supra, 226. |