The History of Cuba, vol. 2

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

JOSÉ ANTONIO SACO

One of the greatest of Cuban publicists, José Antonio Saco was born at Bayamo on May 7, 1797; studied philosophy and politics, and succeeded Varela as Professor of Philosophy at the San Carlos Seminary, Havana. In 1828 he founded in New York the "Mensajero Quincenal," and four years later in Havana became editor of the Revista Bimestre Cubana. Because of his defense of the Academy of Literature, Captain-General Tacon banished him to the island of Trinidad. In 1836 he represented Cuba in the Spanish Cortes, and afterward travelled in Europe. In Paris he published a treatise of Cuban annexation to the United States, and after the Lopex expedition he wrote again on the political situation in Cuba. He was a member of the Junta of Information in 1866, and a Deputy to the Cortes from Santiago de Cuba. He died at Barcelona, Spain, on September 26, 1879, and his body was returned to Cuba for burial. His greatest literary work was a monumental "History of Slavery," but he wrote many others on political, economical, social and literary subjects.

The fiscal officers were able to carry out these infamies because they were at once prosecuting attorney, judge and jury. They obtained testimony, apprehended, imprisoned, condemned and executed. The testimony which they extorted was taken without witnesses. They themselves wrote down the declarations, distorting them to suit their own purposes. The blacks seldom knew how to read or write, and they were obliged to set their mark to anything which the fiscal officer chose to record. Not even the notary who swore the witness was allowed to check up the declaration with his knowledge of the statements. The Spanish government had for a long time played the most corrupt and petty of politics in apportioning the smaller offices on the island. Political hangers-on, with little education, no moral sense and no honor, were paid for their loyalty to Spain with these positions. The records show that during this reign of terror one thousand three hundred and forty-six people were victims of the inquisition.

But Spain in her campaigns of cruelty was only laying up trouble for herself. She was raising a storm which would never again be completely quelled until Cuba was free. The abolitionists and the liberals, or those who longed for freedom from Spanish rule, began joining forces. The cause of freedom for the slaves, and of separation from Spain, were curiously interlaced. The country was worn out with turmoil and eager for peace, but there could be no peace, it was believed, while Spain and the Spaniards on Cuban soil ruled with such cruel measures.

The problem of how separation might be obtained was capable of either of two solutions, by annexation to some other country, or by independence. The cause of independence had at this time for its leader a Cuban of the highest type, José Antonio Saco, who had traveled all over the world, and was a man of fine education and great culture. The larger proportion of those Cubans who were intelligent, and who were thinking out for themselves the problem of the fate of Cuba, accepted him as their leader. Of course, it is understood that all organization, all plans and almost all conversation, except in whispers behind closed doors, or in corners of cafes which seemed safe from surveillance, had to be secret. To come out openly for the salvation of Cuba from Spanish rule meant banishment or death.

Saco's ideas were well known to the Spanish governor, for in 1834 he had been exiled because of them. But he was prudent, and was not disposed to do anything that would hurl Cuba into the throes of revolution. He felt that a revolution at this time, with the blacks subdued but not conquered, might mean a race war which would be the most disastrous thing that could happen to the island. He also opposed annexation to any other country, particularly to the United States, because he felt that Cuba, being in such close proximity to the latter country, would lose her individuality, be absorbed and become Anglo-Saxon. In 1845 he wrote on this subject, as follows:

"If the slave trade continues, there will be in Cuba neither peace nor security. Their risings have occurred at all times; but they have always been partial, confined to one or two forms, without plan or political result. Very different is the character of the risings which at brief intervals have occurred in 1842-43; and the conspiracy last discovered is the most frightful which has even been planned in Cuba, at once on account of its vast ramifications among slaves and free negroes, and on account of its origin and purpose. It is not necessary that the negroes should rise all at once all over the island; it is not necessary that its fields should blaze in conflagration from one end to the other in a single day; partial movements repeated here and there are enough to destroy faith and confidence. Then emigration will begin, capital will flee, agriculture and commerce will rapidly diminish, public revenues will lessen, the poverty of these and the fresh demands imposed by a continual state of alarm, will cause taxes to rise; and, with expenses on the one hand increased, but with receipts diminished, the situation of the island will grow more involved until there comes the most terrible catastrophe."

Again we find in a letter to a friend, Caspar Betancourt Cisneros, written a little later than the former communication: