No greater contrast to Campos could possibly be imagined than his successor, General Valeriano Weyler, known, and with the utmost justice, throughout Cuba and the United States as "The Butcher."
During his official life in Cuba, he proved again and again the truth of his reputation for relentless cruelty.
There is no doubt that during former wars he committed the most atrocious crimes.
It is not claimed that he ever showed any brilliant qualifications as a military leader, and it was precisely because he lacked the characteristics of General Campos, that Spain appointed him governor-general, hoping that his severity (no, severity is too mild a word, his savage brutality) would accomplish what Campos had failed to do.
In the light of events following his appointment, events which filled the whole civilized world with indignation and horror, it has been pretended by Spain that her ministry specially instructed him to "moderate his ardor."
Moderate his ardor, indeed! Granted that he obeyed instructions, if, indeed such instructions ever existed, just think for a moment what would have happened if he had not!
It is very hard to write in a temperate vein when Weyler is the subject. But where is the case for the plaintiff? Where are their defenders, when Nero, Caligula or Judas is in question?
Let us now contemplate a pen picture of "The Butcher," painted by Mr. Elbert Rappleye, a very clever American newspaper correspondent:
"General Weyler is one of those men who creates a first impression, the first sight of whom can never be effaced from the mind, by whose presence the most careless observer is impressed instantly, and yet, taken altogether, he is a man in whom the elements of greatness are concealed under a cloak of impenetrable obscurity. Inferior physically, unsoldierly in bearing, exhibiting no trace of refined sensibilities nor pleasure in the gentle associations that others live for, or at least seek as diversions, he is nevertheless the embodiment of mental acuteness, crafty, unscrupulous, fearless and of indomitable perseverance.
"Campos was fat, good-natured, wise, philosophical, slow in his mental processes, clear in his judgment, emphatic in his opinions, outspoken and withal, lovable, humane, conservative, constructive, progressive, with but one object ever before him, the glorification of Spain as a motherland and a figure among peaceful, enlightened nations. Weyler is lean, diminutive, shriveled, ambitious for immortality, irrespective of its odor, a master of diplomacy, the slave of Spain for the glory of sitting at the right of her throne, unlovable, unloving, exalted."