The History of Cuba, vol. 4

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

This astounding and unworthy attitude on the part of the Commission deeply hurt President Palma, who had with good cause expected not only its moral aid but probably also the military support of the armed force that came to Cuba, at least as long as the policy of his government could be justified. This mental attitude was not however indicated by any word that came from his lips. With unmoved dignity he bowed in uncomplaining acquiescence, and said that he entirely understood the situation; that Mr. Taft would receive his resignation as President, by word of mouth and in writing, as quickly as it could be dictated to his secretary; and that he would retire at once from the Presidency of Cuba. Against this action Mr. Taft protested, though he himself had obviously made it necessary, and explained that arrangements had been made, at his suggestion, in which Dr. Zayas as leader of the Liberals had acquiesced, to the effect that Mr. Palma should remain as President of the Republic, although the Liberals demanded the expulsion[{280}] of all other members of the administration. President Palma thanked Mr. Taft for his expression of faith in him personally, but absolutely refused to consider the withdrawal of his resignation, stating with impregnable logic, which Mr. Taft could not refute, that if his cabinet, his Congress and his courts were fraudulent, or held their positions illegally, he himself, having been elected at the same time, and in the same manner, was not the real President of Cuba. Therefore, he refused to remain longer in office. He added with punctilious courtesy that he would take the liberty of eating his supper in the palace with his family, since it was prepared, but he would not remain within its walls another day.

When this attitude of the President was communicated to the members of the Cuban Congress, a meeting was at once called, at which, after a great deal of animated discussion, a joint committee was appointed, consisting of twenty-four men, to wait upon and expostulate with President Palma, but after several hours of pleading, they were unsuccessful in persuading him to change his mind.

So came the fall of the Palma government, whereupon Secretary Taft assumed complete charge and control of the affairs of the Cuban Republic. The insurgent leaders signed a formal agreement to surrender, in which they promised to restore to their owners the horses and other property which they had seized, though as a matter of fact none of them did so; since, for good measure, perhaps, Mr. Taft through military decree gave to the rebels an absolute deed of ownership of the horses they had stolen from the stables and fields of their rightful owners. It took them nearly two weeks to disarm and disperse. Then Mr. Taft issued a proclamation granting "a full and complete amnesty and pardon to all persons who have[{281}] directly or indirectly participated in the recent insurrection in Cuba, or who have given aid or comfort to persons participating therein, for offenses political in their nature and committed in the course of the insurrection and prior to disbandment." This amnesty, he added, was to be "considered and construed as covering offenses of rebellion, sedition or conspiracy to commit the same, and other related offenses."

Finally, Mr. Taft announced on October 13 the turning over of the government of the island, with the full power which he himself had exercised, to Mr. Charles E. Magoon, and on that same date Mr. Magoon accepted and was installed in the office, thus beginning the second Government of Intervention. The general feeling of Cubans at that time was divided. The pessimistic elements rather suspected that the United States, having been called there a second time, might never leave. On the other hand, the thinking class, and those who had experienced the United States government and its various administrations in Cuba, especially under General Leonard Wood, were confident that it was only a temporary régime that circumstances had made necessary, and they hoped that out of it much good would come.

Thus ended the most pathetic and tragic incident in the history of the Cuban Republic, and the one which was on the whole most discreditable to the United States. Nothing could have been more deplorable than that a statesman of the great ability, the lofty ideals and especially the generally judicial mind of Mr. Taft should thus weakly and illogically have yielded to a vile conspiracy, manifested through lawless threats and unproved clamor, against a Chief of State who in validity of title, in purity of character, in unselfish devotion to the public good, and in potential efficiency of enlightened administrationship,[{282}] was not unworthy to be ranked even in the same category with the great President under whom Mr. Taft himself held his commission.

Estrada Palma, according to Mr. Taft's intimation, had erred. History will forever record that he erred chiefly if not solely in assuming, in his own transparent integrity, that other men were as honest as himself. He was, his enemies asserted, weak. But intelligence and justice must discern and declare that his only weakness was in an over-confidence in the people to whose service he had given all the best of his life and in whose loyalty and support he imagined that he could securely trust. He could not, in the greatness of his own soul, bring himself to believe it possible for men, for men calling themselves Cuban patriots, to do such things as those which Jose Miguel Gomez and Alfredo Zayas and Orestes Ferrara and their coparceners did. He was not moved by weakness, but by a desire to protect Cuba from the ravages of sordid revolution and from the unscrupulous exploitation of bushwhacking bandits, and to preserve for the Cuban people and their Republic the good name which had been so fairly and as he thought fully established during the years of his first administration. His place in the annals of Cuba is secure. His rank among the constitutional executives of the world is enviably high. There has been in Cuba or elsewhere no more honest administration than his, and none that more intelligently, unselfishly and untiringly strove to fulfil its every duty to the state. Its untimely fall is not to be charged against any subjective fault of its own, but to the unscrupulous malice of sordid foes, the apathy of the people in whom too great confidence had been reposed, and to the inexplicable betrayal by those who should have supported and protected it but who instead consented to its destruction.[{283}]

CHAPTER XV

Mr. Magoon came to Cuba but little known to Cubans and unfamiliar with what was before him. During this second American intervention there were some radical changes in the administration, and more public works were undertaken than President Palma had ventured upon. The consensus of opinion among American officers, all the officers who had accompanied Mr. Magoon, was that the Palma administration had made a mistake in allowing so much money to accumulate in the treasury. It had become a temptation to those who were not in power, and it would have been better to have the money expended along lines that would tend to advance the republic rather than to permit it to accumulate. So it was realized that if it was not expended during Mr. Magoon's administration, it would be spent, and probably largely wasted, if not actually misappropriated, by the Liberals if they should secure control of the government.

The most unfortunate thing in connection with the visit of Mr. Taft, and therefore with the administration of Mr. Magoon, was that the Liberals had apparently gained their ends. The majority of thoughtful and patriotic Cubans had expected the intervention of the United States to result in the upholding of law, order and justice in the support of President Palma and his administration. They had expected that Mr. Taft would take time to investigate the case thoroughly, and that he would insist at the outset, as an indispensable preliminary to his[{284}] entering into conference with them, that the Liberal insurgents should surrender their arms and ammunition, return the property which they had stolen, and submit themselves loyally to the constitutional government of the island; and that after that, but only after it, he would see to it that justice was done to them as to all parties and all people. That course was unfortunately not taken. Mr. Taft entered into conference with unrepentant and defiant rebels whose followers were at the moment in arms, threatening and preparing to make further criminal assaults upon property and life. He regarded or at least treated them as no less worthy of a hearing and of being taken into conference than the President himself; and despite his protests he concluded the sorry performance by practically ousting President Palma and his cabinet at the behest of these lawless insurgents.

The sequel was tragedy. Estrada Palma died, not of pneumonia but of a broken heart. Nor was that all. Encouragement was given to the lawless and criminal elements of the island, and to those who resort to violence, insurrection and revolution as the means of attaining their political ends, which has been felt ever since and which has repeatedly given rise to attempts to repeat the performance which then was so successful. Recognition was given to the Liberals, through what were doubtless good but certainly were mistaken motives, and the Liberals insisted upon maintaining that recognition and profiting from it. So when a Council, or Consulting Board, of eleven members was formed with General Enoch H. Crowder as chairman, it contained only two Conservatives and one man of doubtful affiliations. Three members, Senors Garcia Kohly, Viondi and Carrera, did not belong to the August revolutionists but were members of the Moderado party, which had supported[{285}] Estrada Palma. They acted as "Independents" on the Commission, though they were intimately associated with the Liberals, and as "Independents" they participated in the municipal elections. But later they joined the Liberals outright. All the rest of the Commission, or Consulting Board, were Liberals who had actually taken part in the rebellion. No appointment to office could be made without the sanction of that Board, and the result was that the Second Government of Intervention was packed with Liberal placeholders. Competent men, who had served the State well under President Palma's administration, were dismissed and replaced by incompetents whose sole recommendation was that they were Liberals. Now the voters of Cuba are as a rule easily impressed, and do not always appreciate the possibility, through hard work, of transforming a minority into a majority. They delight in being at once on the winning side, and therefore pay much attention to determining not so much which of two rival and contending parties is really right and deserving of support, as which side is going to win. The fact that the Liberal leaders, who previously had had almost no recognition, social, political or official, suddenly came to the front, and with the apparent acquiescence of the United States, or of the commission appointed in Washington, were exerting great influence, seemed a pretty sure indication, or at least was so interpreted, that the United States had changed its ideas with regard to the government in Cuba, and was favoring, and probably would continue to favor and sustain the Liberal party. That was one of the reasons why the Liberals won their next election. In fact they pointed to it as evidence of America's moral support, and frequently referred to and displayed an order, said to have been issued through mistake, which provided that every man[{286}] who had stolen a horse, and who confessed his theft frankly, should have full proprietary title to that horse and need not surrender it to the owner. The order is still on the statute books, a memento of the American intervention. That was resented by the better citizens; it discouraged many people who had had great confidence in the United States, and it illustrates not the general policy of the second government of intervention, but some of the unfortunate things that took place under that intervention, that seemed to the better class in Cuba, as mistaken.