The History of Cuba, vol. 2

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

GASPAR BETANCOURT CISNEROS

Scion of a distinguished stock, Gaspar Betancourt Cisneros was born in Camaguey in 1803 and was educated in the United States. In 1823 he went with other Cubans to Colombia to confer with Bolivar on the theme of Cuban independence, and remained there for many years. In 1837 he began a notable series of papers in the Cuban press, on familiar economic and educational topics, signing them El Lugareno; under which pen name he became famous. He established schools and agricultural colonies, and built the second railroad in Cuba. In 1846 while he was in Europe he was suspected of revolutionary conspiracy, and his property was confiscated. He then became a teacher in the United States, but returned to Cuba in 1861 and became a journalist. He was too ill to accept election to the Junta of Information, and died in 1866.

"Let there be neither war nor conspiracies of any kind in Cuba. In our critical situation either one means the desolation of the country. Let us bear the yoke of Spain. But let us bear it so as to leave to our children, if not a country of liberty, at least one peaceful and hopeful. Let us try with all our energies to put down the infamous traffic in slaves; let us diminish without violence or injustice the number of these; let us do what we can to increase the white population; let us do all which you have always done, giving a good example to our own fellow countrymen, and Cuba, our beloved Cuba, shall some day be Cuba indeed!"

On the other hand the Annexationists were waging a vigorous though quiet campaign. On April 20, 1848, a proclamation urging the Cubans to make every effort to add their island to the United States appeared. It was signed simply "Unos Cubanos," and urged opposition to Saco and his sympathizers and a concerted effort to gain the political and civil rights which were enjoyed by Americans. "Amalgamation of the races," ran the proclamation, "would not extinguish Cuban nationality, for every child born in Cuba would be at once a Cuban and an American. Cuba united to this strong and respected nation, whose southern interests would be identified with hers, would be assured quiet and future success; her wealth would increase, doubling the value of her farms and slaves, trebling that of her whole territory; liberty would be given to individual action, and the system of hateful and harmful restrictions which paralyze commerce and agriculture could be destroyed."

But no matter what the Cubans themselves might dream of or hope for, Spain had not the slightest intention of surrendering Cuba without a struggle. No country, not even one more altruistic in its policies, and more highly civilized than Spain had shown herself to be at this time, would be eager to relinquish a colony which brought her in a revenue of three and a half millions clear, and which in the twenty years from 1830 to 1850 had poured over $50,000,000 into her coffers. Spain therefore cast around for any expedient which would enable her to retain her last possession in the new world. Roncali during his term as Captain-General very clearly expressed his views as to where the Spanish interests in Cuba lay:

"Among the considerable elements of power with which Spain counts in this island, ought to be mentioned slavery. Permit me, your excellency, to explain my belief in this regard. The interest in preserving their fortunes and in developing the rich crops from which they spring causes all the wealthy inhabitants of the country to fear the first whisper of conflict which may relax the discipline of the slaves, or threaten emancipation. From this fact I infer that slavery is the rein which, through fear and interest, will keep in submission the great majority of the white population. But if the event should arrive of foreign war and of inner commotions such as to threaten the dependence of the island, what should be the conduct of the Captain-General toward slavery? I, my noble lord, state my solemn belief that this terrible weapon which the government holds in its hand might in the last extremity prevent the loss of the island, and that if the inhabitants are persuaded that it will be used they will trouble and renounce every fond illusion rather than draw down such an anathema. The chance is remote without doubt, but that very fact makes me express myself clearly: the liberty of all the slaves in a day of gravest peril, proclaimed by Her Majesty's representative in these territories, would re-establish superiority and even strengthen our power in a very real way, based as it would then be on that very class which it seems best today to keep submerged. But if that last resort should prove insufficient, or if it did not suit Spain afterward to retain her hold, it may always be brought about that the conquerors shall acquire Hayti instead of the rich and prosperous Cuba and that the bastard sons who have brought down that calamity by their rebellion shall meet in their complete ruin, punishment and disillusionment. A principle of retributive justice or of harmony with the maxims of modern civilization, to which it is so customary now to appeal, would also call for general emancipation, at the moment when, for whatever reason, Spain should decide to renounce the island.... So far this trans-Atlantic province is still strongly attached to the mother land, and thanks to the wisdom and material solicitude of Her Majesty, I believe that the bonds of union will be still more strengthened; but if the fate of nations brings to this land a day pregnant with such circumstances as to threaten its loss, their national honor and interest alike would demand that every recourse and means be exhausted, without saving anything. If, even then, fortune should abandon us, we should at least leave it written in history that our departure from America corresponded to the heroic story of its acquisition."

CHAPTER XXV

The era of Cuban history which embraced part of the seventeenth, the eighteenth, and part of the nineteenth centuries, and which we have endeavored to review in this volume, presents a striking and almost unique contrast to the customary course of human affairs. The normal order of civic development begins with the rise and confirmation of nationality, and thence proceeds to international relationships and cosmopolitan interests and activities. Such was the record of other American states which grew up contemporaneously with Cuba. Such was notably the course of the United States of North America. In their colonial period they were intensely local, parochial, in sentiment and spirit. In their revolutionary era they began to manifest a national entity. It was not until long after their establishment of national independence that they fully realized their international status.

In Cuba the order was reversed. At first, as a colony of triumphant and masterful Spain, the island had neither national sentiment nor international interests. In the second stage, however, it became a pawn in the great international game which was being played between declining Spain and her increasingly powerful neighbors, actually for a time passing from Spanish to British possession, and often being regarded as likely to pass permanently into the hands of some other power than Spain.

These circumstances had a marked effect upon the whole genius of the Cuban people. It gave them international vision before they had learned to discern themselves even as a potential nation. It gave them a degree of cosmopolitanism such as few comparable colonies have ever known. It divorced them in sentiment from the Mother Country to an exceptional degree. They were made to feel that Spain meant little or nothing to them. She had planted them, it is true. But she had given them little cultivation, little protection. She had looked to them for more help for herself than she had herself given to them. She was unable to save them from the danger of being passed from hand to hand, from owner to owner.