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Spanish Story of the Treaty of Zanjon: Autonomist

The Liberal Autonomist party having always condemned revolutionary steps must now condemn, and does so condemn, with a better reason for it and more decidedly, the revolt started on the 24th of February, when reforms had just been voted with the concurrence of our representatives by the Cortes, and the importance of these reforms can hardly be overrated. It has been recognized by all who give them a fair consideration, without prejudice or malice, and even by those who were fiercely opposed to them at the beginning. If so much can be said of that which in the American atmosphere seems so little--what objection can be made too strong to the forms of misgovernment that it was considered the decree of reform was to remedy? In the Autonomist circular to which we refer, and which it is the Spanish fashion to regard as of the largest moment, the party much praises itself, saying:

The Autonomist party condemns perturbation because it is a legal party that has faith in the means afforded by the constitution, in the effectual agency of work, in the indisputable force of ideas; and affirms that revolutions, when not made under entirely exceptional circumstances, produced only at long periods in history, they are terrible scourges, great calamities for civilized countries, which by means of peaceful evolution, of reform in fundamental laws, of progress, and of the presence of public opinion, succeed in realizing all their reasonable purposes, and all their legitimate aspirations. Moreover, our party is necessarily Spanish because it is essentially and exclusively autonomist; and colonial autonomy, which is originated by the reality of a colony, of its wants and peculiar requirements, implies the entity of a metropolis in the fullness of its sovereignty and historical rights. This is the reason why our party from the beginning did inscribe on its standard liberty, peace and national unity as its mottoes.

Certainly this is a superbly expressed programme, and the Autonomists go on to say rebellion was threatening order and liberty, and had already (April, '95)--Caused the suspension of constitutional guarantees, thus preventing the free use of rights we had obtained, so ample indeed, that the very promoters of disorder have been using them at pleasure in favor of their own purposes; and we are not yet under martial law, with all its consequences, because the illustrious governor, who, in showing coolness and calm energy, is entitled to deep gratitude on the part of Cuba, has preserved and communicated to the supreme government the confidence deserved by sensible Cuban people, and would not restrain public liberty to any more than a strictly necessary extent. In consequence of the rebellious outbreak, our constitutional rights, the value and effectual agency of which have been proved by the very secessionists in their unrestricted actions, always under the protection of laws that they were endangering and discrediting, are at present suspended and at the mercy of military authorities, now fortunately addicted to a prudent and humane policy.

If the new regime adopted by the Cortes could have been established in full peace, and under the circumstances that were created in favor of concord and progress through liberty, it would have caused its beneficial effects to be felt immediately, preparing the way for further progress; but it could never produce such results if it were established under the influence of anxiety, anger, resentment, and indignation prevailing in civil wars, or of renewed mistrust and suspicions. All work intended to obtain administrative, financial and tariff reforms, demand peace as a first condition, and it will have to be postponed for time indefinite.

We had already secured the abolition of slavery, the rights instituted by the Constitution, such as speech, free meeting, free association, free education and religion, in the same degree and with the same guarantees as in the Peninsula; public trial by jury, and civil marriage; all the modern civil and criminal laws of the mother-country, a most important point to a people that had lived until lately under laws made before the present century; the abolition of differential and export duties, the reduction of over 35 per cent. of fiscal taxes, which had been increased in consequence of the last war; the public and official acceptance by all parties of a large portion of our administrative plan, and the abandonment of the useless principle of assimilation to adopt those of political individuality and partial self-administration whose normal development must lead to the full realization of our platform. And instead of these improvements and further progress that the country reasonably expects, what can the pretended liberators offer to us? The horrors of civil war, the armed contest among the very natives of the country, which perhaps in no distant time might become a strife of the worst description; and after that, a more complete ruin and a fatal move backwards in the way of civilization.

This document, in association with the programme of reformation which we have presented, is fully and fairly the Spanish case--the "readjustment" and the "modification" actually decreed. The representation of it at the beginning of the present war of which the liberal Autonomists thirteen months ago said in the pronunciamento, we have quoted, "in faithful warning" to those committing themselves to the current of the revolution, was this: All signs are leading to the belief that the rebellion, limited to one portion of the Eastern province, has succeeded with but few exceptions, in getting only those men who belong to the most ignorant and miserable classes, who are the victims of the lamentable want of advancement in which they were left to live in that fine section of Cuba as an easy prey for agitators, having no cohesion or discipline, for which reason it is expected that they will have to disband or surrender. To this end, will have co-operated, besides the forces rapidly accumulated by the metropolis, the sensible and liberal policy of the government and of its highest representative, and the general disposition of the country, indifferent to the satanic incitations of the stubborn, while loyal to their ideals of order, progress and liberty. It cannot be doubted that the pacifier to whose ability was due the re-establishment of peace, and of the constitutional regime in 1878, has come once more to solve the present problems in the same spirit of noble, righteous and generous confidence in the people. But in the present crisis, the same as in all others, it belongs to the people to make the greatest and most persistent effort, following the lines of that dignified policy and even acting in advance of emergencies, in order that peace be soon restored, that disagreements and diffidence disappear, that constitutional regime be reinstated, and that the new administration system of the colony be inaugurated in the same righteous and harmonious spirit in which the two governing parties of the metropolis bound themselves to maintain it, while we promised to abide by it if loyally respected. This is the only way to secure its fruitful and beneficial effects, and an eradication of abuses which are universally condemned. The conclusion of this manifesto is in these stately terms: The Liberal party of 1868 retired and left its place to the revolutionists of Yara, because after the reporting committee had finished its work, it was found that the legitimate expectations of said party had been frustrated and the most solemn promises of the metropolis had been postponed. The Liberal party of 1878 that, being more fortunate, has seen how those promises were kept, will not lower its flag or leave its place to those who come to spoil the results of our labor, to make us recede while on the path to calm progress, to ruin the land and to darken the prospects of our future with the horrible spectre of poverty, anarchy and barbarism.

Havana, April 4, 1895.

This manifesto, it should be specially marked, actually vindicates the war of '68-'78, and claims the fair execution of the treaty. The Autonomists have been disappointed, for the war has spread far beyond the bounds of former high watermarks of insurrection-indeed, over the whole Island-and the great Pacificator has gone home confessedly beaten. The Liberal Autonomist party and all its policies set forth in this eloquent and plausible address have totally failed.

This presentation of the alleged "readjustment" on which Spain relied for the Pacification of Cuba, and of the calculations of the necessary application of forces to produce order, are the more impressive because made from Spanish documents not yet familiar to the people of the United States, and they show with greater strength than the stories of a thousand incidents of the horrors of the war, the causes of the prostration of the Spanish cause in Cuba. C-6