"The Laborers, animated by the love for their native land, aspire to the hope of seeing Cuba happy and prosperous by virtue of her own power, and demand the inviolability of individuals, their homes, their families, and the fruits of their labor, which they would have guaranteed by the liberty of conscience, of speech, of the press, and of peaceful meetings. In fact, they demand a government of the country for and by the country, free from an army of parasites and soldiers that only serves to consume it and oppress it. And, as nothing of that kind can be obtained from Spain, they intend to fight that power with all available means, and drive and uproot its domination from the face of Cuba. Respecting above all and before all the dignity of man, the association declares that it will not accept slavery as a forced inheritance of the past. However, instead of abolishing it as an arm by which to sink the Island into barbarity, as threatened by the government of Spain, they view abolition as a means of improving the moral and national condition of the working men, and thereby to place property and wealth in a more just and safe position. "Sons of their times, baptised in the vivid stream of civilization, and, therefore above preoccupation of nationality, the laborers will respect the neutrality of Spaniards, but among Cubans will distinguish only friends and foes, those that are with them or against them. To the former they offer peace, fraternity, and concord; to the latter, brutality and war--war and brutality that will be more implacable to the traitors to Cuba, where they first saw the day, who turn their arms against them, or offer any asylum or refuge to their tyrants. We, the laborers, do not ignore the value of nationality, but at the present moment consider it of secondary moment. Before nationality stands liberty, the indisputable condition of existence. We must be a people before becoming a nation. When the Cubans constitute a free people they will receive the nationality that becomes them. Now they have none." The Captain-General replied to this in January, 1869, with a proclamation, full of promises which, however, were never fulfilled. It said: "I will brave every danger, accept every responsibility, for your welfare. The revolution has swept away the Bourbon dynasty, tearing up by the roots a plant so poisonous that it polluted the air we breathe. To the citizen shall be returned his rights, to man his dignity. You will receive all the reforms which you require. Cubans and Spaniards are all brothers. From this day, Cuba will be considered a province of Spain. Freedom of the press, the right of meeting in public, and representation in the national Cortes, the three fundamental principles of true liberty, are granted you. "Cubans and Spaniards! Speaking in the name of our mother, Spain, I adjure you to forget the past, hope for the future, and establish union and fraternity."