"I am a Cuban, the same as yourselves, and I have consequently the same right to busy myself with the welfare of my country. Let everyone have his method; you pretend that you obey the popular will; that you are at the head of government, because the will of the people and popular choice; that you act in uniformity with ideas and sentiments of the Cubans; and finally that you are provoking the welfare and prosperity of Cuba. _I shall prove entirely the contrary._ "The favorable reception with which my ideas were met at Bayamo, the meeting at Clavellinas, that at Las Minas, and the desire--almost unanimous--to accept the _concessions_ offered by General Dulce, prove sufficiently that the country wanted peace, nevertheless you maintain war. Hence, popular suffrage in the country is but a chimera. "Let us see how the actual government was formed. On the one side, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes who, _for himself_ and in _his own name set himself up_ as the _dictator_ of Cuba, _appointed_ a certain number of deputies for the cast, at the famous meeting in Guaimaro. That is a fine representation of popular will and an admirable republic, when the deputies are not elected by the people! On the other hand, the assembly at Puerto Principe was _illegally constituted_ and _entirely unauthorized_; and, finally, some deputies from the Cinco Villas--the only ones which perhaps held a legitimate representation--met together and formed the actual government, which they should have called the _Venetian_ rather than a _Cuban Republic_. They formed the government by _sharing with each other the offices_, and they propose thus to shape the destiny of Cuba. A _handful of men_ thus representing over a million souls, who _have had no share_ in their nomination, does not assuredly constitute popular election. "The Cubans want the liberty of assemblage, freedom of speech, respect of property, personal security, the liberty to leave the territory of the Republic,--which is a right secured in all nations of the world to every individual, they want, in fine, to be governed as the majority choose, and not according to the will of a few. But _nothing of all this is done_. Whoever puts forth ideas _contrary_ to those of the government or any of its _functionaries_, is _threatened_ with four shots, _property is a prey to the first comer_, who, with arms in hand can take _possession_ of what suits him; the _lives_ of men are _sported_ with, just as children sport with flies; and in fine whoever attempts to abandon the government, even without intruding to wage war on it, is persecuted to death. Hence the conduct of said government is not in conformity with the ideas and sentiments of the country. "If to all this be added the _arsons_ and the complete _destruction_ of Cuban wealth, the _demolition of towns_ and--what must follow in the end, can there be one sensible man who will maintain that all this constitutes the prosperity and well-being of Cuba? Assuredly not.