The History of Cuba, vol. 3

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

However this impressed the Government at Washington, and notwithstanding the marked sympathy in the United States for the cause of the Republic, the desired recognition was not obtained.

The impression of the revolution and its leaders which was given to the people of the United States may be judged from what was written by an authoritative correspondent of the New York Tribune:

FRANCISCO V. AGUILERA

One of the organizers of the Ten Years' War, Francisco V. Aguilera was born at Bayamo in 1821, of a wealthy and distinguished family, and was finely educated in America and Europe. Although married to the daughter of the Spanish Governor of Santiago, General Kindelan, he was an ardent patriot, liberating his slaves and giving his great fortune to the cause of independence. He served in the Ten Years' War as Secretary of War and as Commander in Chief in Oriente; and succeeded Salvador Cisneros Betancourt as President of the Revolutionary government. He died in New York on February 22, 1877, and though his government had not been officially recognized, full honors as to a Chief of State were paid at his funeral.

"General Cespedes, the hero and chief of the revolt—is a man of good appearance, fifty years of age, and has traveled in the United States. His second in command, Arango, the Marquis of Santa Lucia, is a native of Puerto Principe, and at taking part in the insurrection emancipated his slaves. General Aguilera was a man of great wealth, and had once held under the Government the office of mayor over the town of Bayamo just burnt by the rebels. He too released his slaves. General Donato Marmol bears the repute of having genuine military talent, as he is said to have defeated his opponents in most of their encounters with him, and signally at Bairi, in the Eastern District. He is admired for the ready invention of a new weapon of defence in war, which is called the horguetilla, and is a kind of hook to resist bayonet charges. The hook, which can be made without much trouble, of wood, is held with the left hand to catch the bayonet, while with the right the rebel brings his rude machete, a kind of sword, down upon his Spanish foe. General Quesada, the other mentionable Cuban leader, served with credit on the side of Juarez during the intervention in Mexico. The soldiers of the revolt are of the rawest kind. A good part of them have been recruited from the emancipated slaves of Cespedes, Arango, and Aguilera. Many of the weapons are of the poorest kind, but I have heard that a certain number of Enfields have been furnished them, and lately some hand grenades. It is told me that no help, or exceedingly little, has reached them from the North. Among some other things of their own device, they have been employing wooden cannon, good for one shot and no more."

The insurrection was eagerly supported by the "Juntas of the Laborers." These societies, formed at the suggestion of Rafael Merchan, issued a proclamation which enumerated the wrongs and insults endured by them under the Spanish rule of Cuba, and stated the principles for which they were willing to fight:

"The Laborers, animated by the love for their native land, aspire to the hope of seeing Cuba happy and prosperous by virtue of her own power, and demand the inviolability of individuals, their homes, their families, and the fruits of their labor, which they would have guaranteed by the liberty of conscience, of speech, of the press, and of peaceful meetings. In fact, they demand a government of the country for and by the country, free from an army of parasites and soldiers that only serves to consume it and oppress it. And, as nothing of that kind can be obtained from Spain, they intend to fight that power with all available means, and drive and uproot its domination from the face of Cuba. Respecting above all and before all the dignity of man, the association declares that it will not accept slavery as a forced inheritance of the past. However, instead of abolishing it as an arm by which to sink the Island into barbarity, as threatened by the government of Spain, they view abolition as a means of improving the moral and national condition of the working men, and thereby to place property and wealth in a more just and safe position.

"Sons of their times, baptised in the vivid stream of civilization, and, therefore above preoccupation of nationality, the laborers will respect the neutrality of Spaniards, but among Cubans will distinguish only friends and foes, those that are with them or against them. To the former they offer peace, fraternity, and concord; to the latter, brutality and war—war and brutality that will be more implacable to the traitors to Cuba, where they first saw the day, who turn their arms against them, or offer any asylum or refuge to their tyrants. We, the laborers, do not ignore the value of nationality, but at the present moment consider it of secondary moment. Before nationality stands liberty, the indisputable condition of existence. We must be a people before becoming a nation. When the Cubans constitute a free people they will receive the nationality that becomes them. Now they have none."

The Captain-General replied to this in January, 1869, with a proclamation, full of promises which, however, were never fulfilled. It said: