Meantime the Autonomist government in Cuba, with a devotion that was pathetic to behold, persisted in its efforts to justify its existence. An electoral census was taken, though of course it could not cover more than a small fraction of the island, and on March 27 an "election" of Cuban Deputies to the Cortes was held. In fact there was no popular voting at all. A list was prepared of eligible candidates, twenty of them being Autonomists and Reformists, or supporters of the government, and ten representing the Constitutionalist opposition. The list was submitted to the Governor-General and approved by him, and the candidates were declared to have been duly elected. Jose Maria Galvez, the president of the Autonomist cabinet, reported to the President of the United States that the new government was satisfactorily performing its functions, and entreated him to give no encouragement to the revolutionists which would militate against its success. In April there was another "election" for members of the two houses of the Insular Legislature. On May 4 that Legislature met, chose Fernando del Casco as President of the Assembly, and confirmed the Autonomist cabinet in its place; and it continued patiently and valiantly to hold sessions, make laws, and act as though it were a real government, exercising real authority over the island, all through the period of the American war with Spain and the practical siege of the island by the American navy. When the Spanish forces yielded and a protocol for peace was signed, on August 12, the Legislature held its last meeting, and was declared dissolved by Blanco in October. The Autonomist Cabinet continued to exercise its functions, at least nominally, until the end of Spanish sovereignty in Cuba. CHAPTER VII There could be no greater mistake than that which has been too often and too persistently made, in regarding the destruction of the _Maine_ as the cause of American, intervention in Cuba. The declarations of policy which we have already quoted from the messages of President Cleveland and President McKinley, the former fourteen months and the latter two months before that vessel went to Havana, are ample indications of the purpose of the American government to intervene unless there were a satisfactory amelioration of Cuban affairs. But there was no such amelioration, and therefore war was declared. It unquestionably would have been declared just the same, perhaps at a later and perhaps at an earlier date, if there had been no _Maine_ at all.