Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom

by Trumbull White

Slavery was a demoralizing influence to Cuba as it has been, to every other country in which the system has existed, and to its presence was traced one of the most sensational episodes in all the sensational history of the unhappy island. It is impossible to know to what extent the suspected insurrection of slaves on the sugar plantations about Matanzas was an actual threat. So horrible were the charges made by the accusers that it is almost impossible to believe them. At any rate, such an insurrection was anticipated, and the authorities took measures to crush it out, more severe than any such governmental movement has been since the days of the Spanish Inquisition itself. It was impossible to obtain witnesses by ordinary methods, so the most shocking forms of torture were employed. Those who refused to confess whatever charges happened to be brought against them were tortured till they did confess, and then probably executed for the crimes which they admitted under such circumstances. By such "judicial" processes, 1,346 persons were convicted, of whom seventy-eight were shot and the others punished less severely in various ways. Hundreds of others died from the tortures to which they were subjected, or in the foul prisons in which they were confined, and of these we have no record. Of those convicted and punished under the alleged forms of law, fourteen were white, 1,242 were free negroes, and fifty-nine were slaves. The negroes of Cuba have never forgotten the barbarities to which their parents were subjected in that trying year.

The most notable outbreak of Cuban insurrectionary forces prior to that of the Ten Years' war, which began in 1868, was that known as the conspiracy of Lopez.

As early as May, 1847, Narcisso Lopez and a number of his associates who had planned an insurrection in the central part of the island, were pursued to the United States by Spanish agents, who had kept track of their conspiracy. The Lone Star Society was in close sympathy with these refugees, and to a certain extent the two were co-existent. Lopez, in 1849, organized a military expedition to invade Cuba. By the exertions of the officers of the United States government the sailing of the expedition was prevented. Notwithstanding the activity of the government, however, Lopez, in the following year, got together a force of 600 men outside of the United States, shipped arms and ammunition to them from this country, and on May 19, 1850, made a landing at Cardenas.

The United States authorities had put the Spanish government in Cuba on the alert for this expedition. President Taylor had issued a proclamation warning all citizens of the United States not to take part in such an expedition or to assist it in any way. The expedition was driven out to sea from Cardenas a few days after it landed, sailed for Key West, and there disbanded. Meantime there were a number of uprisings in the island between groups of unhappy natives who had not the wisdom to co-operate in the effort to resist the oppressive hand of the Spaniards.

In August of 1851, Lopez eluded the United States authorities at the port of New Orleans, and sailed out into the Gulf of Mexico with an expedition 450 strong. His lieutenant on this expedition was a Colonel Crittenden, a native of the State of Kentucky. They landed near Bahia Honda, about thirty miles west of Havana, and found the government forces waiting for them. Colonel Crittenden, with a subdivision of 150 men, was compelled to surrender, and the rest were scattered. Lopez, with fifty others, was captured, taken to Havana, and there executed.

The circumstances attending the Lopez failure, and several Spanish outrages against American citizens and vessels, aroused deep feeling in the United States, and the sentiment was growing rapidly that it was a national duty to our own peace, to do something that would make the troublesome neighbor a pleasant one. It was fifty years before action was taken, but, once begun, it was well done.

It was in 1848, prior to the Lopez invasion, that President Polk made the first approaches to the Spanish government with a suggestion to purchase the island for $100,000,000, but was refused with scant consideration. A few years later came the succession of attacks on American merchant vessels by Spanish ships of war, on the pretext that the intercepted craft were in filibuster service. Some of these were fired on, and the American mail bags opened, the steamships Falcon and Crescent City being in this list. The most flagrant case was that of the Black Warrior, a large steamer in coasting trade between New York and Mobile. In February, 1850, while in the harbor of Havana, she was stopped, her cargo confiscated, and a fine of twice its value declared. Her captain hauled down the colors, and taking them with him, left the vessel as a Spanish capture. After five years of "diplomacy," Spain paid an indemnity of $300,000 for the outrage.

It was in 1852 that the governments of Great Britain and France tried to draw the United States into an agreement on the question of Cuba, which was happily refused on genuinely American grounds. It was suggested that all the parties should be bound not to acquire Cuba themselves, nor to permit any other power to do so. Our government gave the proposal respectful consideration, but declined to enter into any such arrangement, on the ground that we prefer to avoid entangling foreign alliances, that it would be unwise, if not unconstitutional, to tie our hands for the future regardless of what might happen, and that on geographical grounds, while England and France were making very slight concessions, we were asked to make a very important one.

The United States came as near to the purchase of Cuba in 1854 as it ever was, but Spain gave the plan little encouragement. Three American ministers to European countries, Messrs. Buchanan, Mason and Soule, met at Ostend and formulated a plan for the purchase, signing and issuing what came to be known as the Ostend manifesto. They recommended the purchase of the island for $120,000,000, and that in no event should it be allowed to come under the power of any other European government than the one by which it was held. At this time, and afterward, while filibustering expeditions were frequent and disorder constantly threatening in Cuba, the subject of the acquisition of Cuba was discussed in Congress, but no headway was made in the matter. At last, conditions in the island became intolerable to the patriots there, and the Ten Years' war began.

It is necessary at this point to relate some of the causes of the frequent disorders and uprisings in the island of Cuba. Some of the features of Spanish misgovernment in the colony have been named, but the catalogue is far from complete.