The History of Cuba, vol. 3Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
The History of Cuba, vol. 3
Johnson, Willis Fletcher
Cuba -- Economic conditions; Cuba -- History
Both parties disregarded the terms of the treaty. Doubtless the Cubans
would have played with entire fairness, had it not been for the fact
that the Spaniards at once demonstrated that they did not intend to keep
their promises. General Garcia retained the title of "President of the
Republic," and the House of Representatives continued, until 1869, to
meet somewhere in the wilderness. General Campos made a bid for popular
favor, and went on record as advocating a peace which would be lasting.
The Spaniards had good cause not to desire resumption of warfare, and
the Cubans were too worn out to start any serious trouble. Campos wrote
a report to the Spanish government, couched in florid language and
breathing benevolence:
"I do not wish to make a momentary peace. I desire that this peace be
the beginning of a bond of common interests between Spain and her Cuban
provinces, and that this bond be drawn continually closer by the
identity of aspirations and the good faith of both.
"Let not the Cubans be considered as pariahs or minors, but put on an
equality with other Spaniards in everything not inconsistent with their
present condition.
"It was on the other hand impossible, according to my judgment and
conscience, not to grant the first condition; not to do it was to
postpone indefinitely the fulfilment of a promise made in our present
constitution. It was not possible that this island, richer, more
populous, and more advanced morally and materially than her sister,
Porto Rico, should remain without the advantages and liberties long ago
planted in the latter with good results; and the spirit of the age, and
the decision of the country gradually to assimilate the colonies to the
Peninsula, made it necessary to grant the promised reforms, which would
have been already established, and surely more amply, if the abnormal
state of things had not concentrated all the attention of government on
the extirpation of the evil which was devouring this rich province.
"I did not make the last constitution; I had no part in the discussion
of it. It is now the law, and as such I respect it, and as such endeavor
to apply it. But there was in it something conditional, which I think a
danger, a motive of distrust, and I have wished that it might disappear.
Nothing assures me that the present ministry will continue in power, and
I do not know whether that which replaces it would believe the fit
moment to have arrived for fulfilling the precept of the constitution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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