“The liberty which, by the aid of the United States, Cuba has now conquered, will enable her to frame an entirely new tariff. This work, which must be done in accordance with other financial laws, will prove to be a rather easy task, because the commercial relations between Cuba and the United States are naturally beneficial to both countries. Perhaps the best arrangement, both on commercial and political grounds, would be to convert these relations into a coastwise trade, so that the productions of either country should be admitted free of duty in the other; provided that the question of the United States sugar industry could be settled by means of some compensation or otherwise. Cuba expects to be placed, in what respects custom duties, on the same footing as Puerto Rico; as it is necessary to save her sugar industry from its present depression and ruin.”
Here is annexation clearly marked out though not actually advocated. A country without credit cannot start up the machinery of government. To make the trade coastwise for Cuba, as we have already done in the case of Puerto Rico, means ultimate annexation. If, therefore, as Mr. Muñoz says, Cuba “expects to be placed on the same footing as Puerto Rico,” she expects annexation—nothing more, nothing less.
Attention is next directed to another, though not less interesting view of the future of Cuba. When in Cienfuegos the author had the honour and pleasure of meeting the Marquis de Apezteguia, President of the Conservative party, and, although a Cuban born, a strong sympathiser with Spain. There are few abler men in Cuba than the Marquis de Apezteguia. Educated in London, Paris, and Madrid, and at home in the best circles of New York, the Marquis is, in a sense, a cosmopolitan. His interests, however, are all bound up in Cuba. If Cuba once more flourishes the Marquis will become rich again; if it does not his large fortune will have gone, and he himself have been reduced to penury. Asked to give his opinion of the present and future condition of the Island of Cuba, the Marquis de Apezteguia did so without hesitation, clothing his thoughts in English so pointed and vigorous that it would be an injustice to the reader to abridge or change it, and it is therefore made part of this chapter.
“In regard to the disposition of Cuba,” said the Marquis de Apezteguia to the author, “you have first of all to consider the population of the Island, then you have its geographical position, which makes it of importance to the United States; nay, if there is anything in geographical position, which makes it dependent upon the United States. Key West is not an offensive position, it is simply a defensive position for the United States, because it commands the defence of the American coasts. The defence of your coast, with the Island of Cuba, is trebled with the same number of vessels, as its 750 miles practically makes the Gulf an inland sea, outside of the possibility of incursions from foreigners. Up to Cape Hatteras, Cuba defends your eastern coast. Therefore, to you as a military nation and as a naval power, Cuba is a necessity; without Cuba, you have simply Key West, and Cuba is an excellent substitute for Key West. Having this naval defence, which makes the United States non-attackable from Cape Hatteras to the Rio Grande, with how much more efficacy, and without danger, you can move your armies! Cuba is of immense value to the United States, and therefore from that point of view we will develop the others. Under the naval and military aspect in regard to the concentration of the army, we command the Gulf of Mexico as an inland sea of the United States, and we are the principal factor in the trans-oceanic traffic.
“The Cuban question is not a difficult one, because there is an imposed issue. In commercial development, to all evidence, you have been a long time a borrowing country, but to-day you have great banking centres: New York, Philadelphia, and Boston constituting an eastern centre; Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati constituting another; with a smaller one at New Orleans, and a western one at San Francisco. Certain centres, such as the New York one, which has an excess of capital, will act in this annexation of Cuba as a multiple in the matter of capital. The capital will in preference come to Cuba, instead of going west.
“In the political problem, the condition of the population of Cuba must be considered. It is not a new country, but four hundred years old,—a totally different nation, with different habits, ways, and languages. Then how can you profitably absorb that population as a State? You cannot afford to sacrifice the United States for Cuba, but must lend Cuba both moral and material riches without forgetting yourself. Is it profitable for the United States to absorb Cuba as a State? If I were an American, I would oppose it. I do not think the Cuban people have sufficient adaptation; in fact they will not Americanise for quite a while, and therefore you must create an empire and a public right that is not within the federal bounds. Your territorial laws pursue colonisation towards the end of absorption, and have placed in your Constitution a limit of population, which we initially possess. Were I an American, I would not be for annexation of Cuba as one of the units of the Union. I think there is a condition of injustice which would be felt by both parties, if you held Cuba in an inferior political state so close to Florida. I say that this is inevitably American, from the material defence which it procures to the United States, and it is a military necessity. It cannot, however, be absorbed and governed rapidly, and for a time you will have to create a new political right, for it is inevitable. You cannot absorb it without creating a different political right.
“Now I have said that, in my belief, the issue is imposed and inevitable; Cuba has to be American territory, and cannot be anything else, with restringent or lax ties uniting it; but in the exterior life it will have to be American. You have no laws so far that can be established here; the new political right will have to be created because of the way in which you acquired the Island. You cannot govern it until you give it those things which have been assured it. You have acquired responsibilities which you are not at liberty to throw away and go back on; that is your position towards Cuba and towards the world, and therefore towards yourself. The American people must not feel that they are making of Cuba a business, but a necessity, to be maintained by force if necessary until evolution can be accomplished.
“Since we see the problem is one with an imposed ultimate solution, the easiest way is to continue the same action that brought the Island. You need, as a guaranty to yourself, and to the Cubans not in arms (which are the majority), a material force here that cannot be disputed with any chance of success. After Spain has abandoned her sovereignty here you are under the responsibility of keeping a force here which will make it a crazy enterprise to dispute. This is a moral duty which you are obliged to fulfil; you cannot have the excuse of want of power that Spain had. The first element of success is the destruction beforehand of all insurgent or insurrection element. All minor things should be put aside and the American mind have a national policy toward the colonisation and final prosperity of Cuba. You do not want the Cuban question to become one of those burning questions of American politics; but it will, unless you have strength to determine it in the way it should go. If it is disputed now in the transient state, you will convert it into an interior American question, which would make things worse than if you had never come into the thing at all. It is the duty of your Administration to mark out these lines and tell the American people that it is a duty outside of small political lines.
“What is the duty of the Cuban people? Your trouble comes from having to handle an unknown land. The business of the President is, not to show business people how they can make money, but to show the people their duty, and leave the rest to American ingenuity. The Cubans are a good people. The population is divided about equally between whites and blacks, and has decreased about one third during the war. I do not wish to discuss the inferiority of the black race, but, so far as I can see in this country from whatever cause, they do not meet worry. The act of force is the determining one with them, and in it they are of great value. In all other social determinations they count very little indeed. From this you derive two lines of conduct: you must try to satisfy the whites as far as possible, and you must content the black so that he will not lend his brutal force to the discontent of the white. The insurrection caused a great fraternity, that is to say, the distinction of race which existed before the war does not exist now. This is not, however, one of the elements that is going to cause trouble, if you do not let them conflict. The insurgents have fought many years for independence, making great sacrifices for the sake of it, and therefore they will not be satisfied with anything short of independence. If you leave them in the future to their own inferior force, I do not think there will be a strong fight towards acquiring total independence in the exterior world, because they recognise the fact that their country is comparatively small and the United States is large, but if these people see that this independence at any moment is not given to them, they will rise in arms—to what extent I do not know. A man who has lost family, suffered sickness, and has no interest now in the home where he was born, is a very reduced moral being. He has not the energies of a total being. The Island of Cuba has been debased by a war of extermination, brought about by its own manner of warfare, and by the Spanish warfare. The Island of Cuba is now totally inert and totally incapable of any governing faculties, not only because of the dead, but by making the rich poor, by making the poor indigent, and the indigent dying. You have in the Island of Cuba a reduced specimen both of material and moral wealth, and these individuals are not capable of determinations of value and worth towards the natural end of civilisation. You then see how much you can depend on the help of the individual. If you attempt to govern by carpet-bag legislation, you will bring on an insurrection. If you help the indigent, and bring them to a condition like they were before the war, you will do them no good. Therefore, you must have a force to establish an indisputable power, and then you must have a policy in which each one finds a solution to his own interest and welfare, under the idea that the Cuban people are unable to take care of themselves to-day, and that none of them have definite ideas or definite plans for their welfare. These plans must come through a strange guidance and not from the Cubans. I have on the Constancia in my care about five thousand people to-day, whom I have helped all I could. I shall have to employ means of coercion to throw these people outside of my house, so little is the sense of dignity in them to-day, and shall have to give them lands, and help them, in order to get them to find their own way in life. This is the real condition of things. The more energetic element is the one in the insurrection, but these on my estate are such as constitute the element which took no sides but suffered the distress of both.