Cuba, Old and NewRobinson, Albert G. (Albert Gardner)
History
Cuba, Old and New
Robinson, Albert G. (Albert Gardner)
Cuba
The excitement of the Lopez incident was passing when it was revived,
in 1854, by the _Black Warrior_ experience, to which reference is made
elsewhere. Another invasion was projected by exuberant and adventurous
Americans. It was to sail from New Orleans under command of General
Quitman, a former Governor of the State of Mississippi. No secret was
made of the expedition, and Quitman openly boasted of his purposes, in
Washington. The reports having reached the White House, President Pierce
issued a proclamation warning "all persons, citizens of the United States
and others residing therein" that the General Government would not fail to
prosecute with due energy all those who presumed to disregard the laws of
the land and our treaty obligations. He charged all officers of the United
States to exert all their lawful power to maintain the authority and
preserve the peace of the country. Quitman was arrested, and put under
bonds to respect the neutrality laws. There was a limited uprising in
Puerto Principe, in 1851, and a conspiracy was revealed, in Pinar del Rio,
in 1852. A few years later the Liberal Club in Havana and the Cuban Junta
in New York were reported as raising money and organizing expeditions. Some
sailed, but they accomplished little, except as the activities appear as a
manifestation of the persistent opposition on the part of what was probably
only a small minority of the Cuban people. For several years, the unrest
and the agitation continued. Spain's blindness to the situation is
puzzling. In his _Cuba and International Relations_, Mr. Callahan says:
"Spain, after squandering a continent, had still clung tenaciously to Cuba;
and the changing governments which had been born (in Spain) only to be
strangled, held her with a taxing hand. While England had allowed her
colonies to rule themselves, Spain had persisted in keeping Cuba in the
same state of tutelage that existed when she was the greatest power in
the world, and when the idea of colonial rights had not developed." In
_Tomorrow in Cuba_, Mr. Pepper notes that "though the conception of
colonial home rule for Cuba was non-existent among the Spanish statesmen of
that day, the perception of it was clear on the part of the thinking
people of the island. The educated and wealthy Cubans who in 1865 formed
themselves into a national party and urged administrative and economic
changes upon Madrid felt the lack of understanding among Spanish statesmen.
The concessions asked were not a broad application of civil liberties. When
their programme was rejected in its entirety they ceased to ask favors.
They inaugurated the Ten Years' War." Regarding this action by the Cubans,
Dr. Enrique José Varona, a distinguished Cuban and a former deputy to the
Cortes, has stated that "before the insurrection of 1868, the reform party
which included the most enlightened, wealthy, and influential Cubans,
exhausted all the resources within their reach to induce Spain to initiate
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