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Spanish Story of the Treaty of Zanjon: Constitution

The Constitution of 1876 was promulgated in the island of Cuba on the 7th day of April, 1881. All public liberties and all the rights of citizenship were thereby granted to the island, and it is to be observed that this promulgation involved for the island the following essential change in its political regime: laws were thenceforth enacted for it by the representatives of the nation, whereas it had previously been governed by direct orders from the crown.

Since that time Cuba has been represented in the Cortes of the nation by its senators and representatives.

The royal decree of October 19, 1888, provided for the enforcement of the law concerning criminal prosecution. In this law provision is made for a highly important reform, viz.: the institution of oral trials in public, which had very shortly before been established in Spain.

Among the principal political laws whereby the principles of liberty inscribed in the Constitution have been developed, the following may be cited: By the royal decree of November 1st, 1881 (Gaceta of November 10th), the law of June 15th, 1880, was made to embrace the island of Cuba. That law regulates the right of meeting proclaimed in Article 13 of the Constitution, every peaceful meeting being authorized, provided that notice be given twenty-four hours beforehand to the Governor of the Province concerning the place, purpose and time of the meeting.

The law of the Peninsula of January 7th, 1879, was made applicable to Cuba by the royal decree of April 7th, 1881, and when that law was amended in a more liberal sense by the law of July 26th, 1883, the additional liberty thus provided for was extended to Cuba by the decree of November 11th, 1886. The principle was maintained that the provisions of the common law are sufficient to punish offenses of the press, and that the ordinary courts are sufficient to take cognizance thereof.

THE LAW CONCERNING THE CIVIL REGISTER, AND THE LAW CONCERNING CIVIL MARRIAGES. The former of these laws, which bears date of January 8th, 1884, and the latter, which bears date of November 13th, 1886, were supplementary in providing for the religious toleration which is proclaimed by the constitution in its 11th Article.

PROVINCIAL AND MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION The provincial law of June 21st, 1878, and the municipal law of the same date, are organic laws. The colonial provinces were assimilated by these laws to the European provinces, for said laws were the same that were then in force in the peninsula. Representatives and town boards were provided for where only the historical municipalities with their alienable offices, and a whole regime of privileges had previously existed. The local services were placed in charge of the representatives. The services, included roads, canal (both for navigation and irrigation), provincial public works, works of beneficence and instruction, together with the management of all the provincial funds. To the town boards were granted similar powers with respect to highways, sewers, water, markets, slaughter-houses, fairs, vigilance, guard duty, and municipal government.

REFORMS IN THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.

These reforms have also been extended to Cuba. Universal suffrage not having been granted, solely owing to the great difficulty existing everywhere where the negro race is in the majority, or where it may exert a decisive influence in elections. The law concerning voters in election for representatives in the Cortes, which was promulgated by the royal decree of December 27th, 1892, provides that every citizen twenty-five years of age, who pays the sum of five dollars in taxes to the State, shall have the right to vote, and this right is enjoyed by negroes as well as white persons. All the quotas paid for various reasons are computed, and the sum thereof is that which serves as a rule in determining this right. In this law there are likewise provisions which secures the representation of the minority in elections of representatives to the Cortes. This is a very important reform, and its extension to the election of representatives and members of town boards is one of the many reforms proclaimed in principle by the "basis" of March 15th, 1895, the enforcement of which is now pending.

The provisions relative to education form a highly important group. OFFICIAL EDUCATION.

As long ago as 1880 autonomy was granted to the University of Habana, and such ample provisions were granted to it that but one university in the peninsula (that of Madrid) enjoys privileges equally great. The power to appoint both male and female teachers, up to a certain grade in the island, was subsequently granted to the rector of that university. Institutions of secondary education were organized in 1883, and high schools were organized throughout the island. Finally, in 1887, freedom of education was proclaimed to the same extent and in the same manner as in the peninsula. There is thus no reason in Cuba to complain of the illiberality of the laws. If there has been any shortcoming in respect to morals, the nation is not to blame; none but the colonial provinces are to blame for this; if we proposed to seek comfort in comparisons, it would not be necessary to look for them in South America, in the countries that have emancipated themselves from the Spanish mother-country, because examples (some of them very recent) of acts of violence, anarchy and scandalous outbreaks could be found in the States of the Union itself.

In respect to another matter, a great deal of foolish talk is indulged in. Form the statements of some people it would appear that Cuba does nothing but contribute, by the taxes which it pays, to alleviate the burdens of the peninsular treasury; whereas, in reality, just the contrary is the truth. The nation has, of late, guaranteed the conversion of Spanish debts in Cuba, which took place in 1886 and 1890. Owing to these operations, and to the fact that all taxes which did not have to be met directly by its government have been rigorously eliminated from the budget of Cuba, it was possible to reduce the Cuban budget from forty-six and one-half millions of dollars, which was its amount at the close of the former war (for the fiscal year 1878-79), to a little more than twenty-three millions of dollars, as appears from the budget of 1893.

The financial laws have been assimilated, and if the system of taxation has not been entirely assimilated, this is because of the fact that direct taxes are very repugnant to the popular feeling in Cuba, especially the tax on land, which is the basis of the Peninsular budget. It appears, however, that our Cuban brethren have had no reason to complain in this respect. The direct tax on rural property is two per cent. In Cuba, whereas in Spain it is seventeen, and even twenty per cent. It is evident that every budget must be based upon something; in Cuba, as in all countries in which the natural conditions are similar, that something must necessarily be the income from customs duties. Notwithstanding this, it may be remarked that in the years when the greatest financial distress prevailed, the Spanish Government never hesitated to sacrifice that income when it was necessary to do so in order to meet the especial need of the principal agricultural product of Cuba. Consequently the Spanish commercial treaty with the United States was concluded, which certainly had not been concluded before, owing to any fault of the Spanish Government. Under that treaty, the principal object of which was to encourage the exportation of Cuban sugar, which found its chief market in the States of the Union, many Spanish industries were sacrificed which have formerly supplied the wants of people of Cuba. That sacrifice was unhesitatingly made, and now that the treaty is no longer in force, is due to the fact that the new American tariff has stricken sugar free from the list. Attention may also be called to the fact that the colonial provinces alone enjoy exemption from the blood tax, Cuba never having been obliged to furnish military recruits.