The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-04-09
The Cuban srruggle for Liberty.

Dolly-A Western Drovers Story.
The Cuban Struggle for Liberty.
In one thing we agree with our conteinPoi
airy 'sat the other end of the line. IL ID inu,'
putably true that there are enlisted among the
Observation-Disclosures great many selnsn anu
des;onino neople: the manifest destiny peo-
nile nnder Banks the annexationists, who look
upon the effort to secure Cuban independence
as something that may, and probably Will, re-
dound to our own advantage; the legions OF
restless fillibusters, who want either the ex-
citement of war or the gains that come from
successful predatory expeditions. Our nelgn-
bors will probably do us the justice 10 concede
that we have from the first protested against
all this. and that we have argued in favor OF
Cuban autonomy, because it is but the recogni-
tion of a principle of right which our own Rev
olution firmly established for Spain to grant
it. The idea of annexation is one which has
NO place in the minds of large Majority Of
those who desire to see the island freed from
It's letters. Those who take. an interested
view of the Cuban question are comparat lively
few; but those whose spontaneous impulse is
to give their moral support to a people
striving to get their necks from under the
heel of tyrants are very many.
The general question of the rightfuness OF
the Cuban revolt seems strange one to argue
in the United Satisfactorily stsange IN New
England, where the blood of the people,
though proverbially cold, is wont to be nred
instantly by the spectacle of a subjugated and
enslaved peoples struggle for their rights.
Hence Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill;
hence the men and the rifles sent to Kansas;
hence the New England quota for John
Browns army, the defiance of the fugitive
slave law, the moral and pecuniary aid to
Crete, the veneration OF Garibaldi, the well
come to Kossu.h, the support of the move
ment in favor of Irish nationality by every leg
itimate means, and the applause accorded to
Victor Hugo, who will not bow the knee to the
blood-stai French usurper. Why,-to ar
que about these things is like being called up
on to defend the proposition that men should
not be enslaved, that old age should be re-
spected, that women should be chaste or any
other axiom that the experience and thought
of centuries have placed beyond controversy.
It is proverbally hard to prove self-evi-
dent truth, hut not, however, when the other
side takes the burden of proof as our con
temporary has on the Cuban question. The
line Of argument pursued is, that a Spanish
constitutional monarchy is not very bar
thing after all; that ''the ancient coronation
formula of the Spanish Cortes' made the mon
arch's tenure OF power conditional upon hi
preservation of the popular rights; that thu
+ Bourbons have been driven from Spain, AMI
cannot under any circumstances return, tn,
crown having been offered, not to the Bourbon
Duke of Montpensier, but to Ferdinand o
Portugal; that the Cubans are not fightins
against slavery, the union of church and Stat
and tyranny, because all necessary reform
are accorded to them in the new constitution
in the DEGREES of the provisional government
and in the proclamations of the new Captain
General. This statement is in substance all tina
is urged in behalf of Spain and her cause. 4
very few words will suffice for answer
Concediag for the moment that Spain
presents government approximating t.
ideal perfection, what does it matter? The
system of holding remote colonial possession,
took its rise centuries ago and Is BOW obsoles
cent. 1t is no longer held incumbent upon
the colony desiring to sever its connection
with the mother country to give its reasons
England has already recognized the colonial
system as troublesome and no longer defen-
sible anomaly by virtually saying to Canada
$50 or stay as you choose
But the concession made for the moment
and for the purposes of argument is ian enor
nous one. Euloges on the government 0
Spoin.-Spain, where despite ''the ancient
coronation formula of the Cortes,' priests
have ruled with an absolutely despotic power
through their plant tool, the harlot Queen
whose courtiers were braiDless libertines
whose intellect never conceived loftier pur
pose than sensual qualification, and whose
ideas were bounded by the rosary on one sid
and crucifx on the other-Spain, where tn,
masses have been left in denser ignorance
and more hopeless poverty than the peasantry
of any other country in Europe, and where in
dustry has been crushed out of sight by the
exactions imposed upon it by the requirements
of a dissolute court and naughty nobility
Whoever would defend Spain would defend
the Devil as successfully incarnated in the
Emperor of France.
But are not the Bourbons expelled, and
has not Spain reformed constitution? 1t re
mains to be seen. Ferdinand of Portugal ha,
refused the crown. Montpensier, member
of tie Orleans branch of the House of Bour
bon, is the most promising candidate for tn,
succession. We hear of Carlist risings lin the
interest of Bourbon) which excite great
apprehension. What the future government
of Spain will be-who the monarch will be-
whether the new government will stand for a
single day after its inauguration-no man can
say. Nor is it in the power of anyone to de-
termine whether Spanish treachery would not
upon the surrender of the insurgents immedi-
ately cancel all the concessions that, under
the apprehension of the loss of ''the brightest
jewell in the Spanish CROWN have been
promised to Cuba To-day Spain has no con-
stitution and no monarch; tomorrow despot-
ism in its grossest form with Bourbon at its
head, may be established. 1t is this uncer-
tainty that the Cubans desire to avoid. It is
infamous to require them to trust their liberties
to most delicate contingency. They demand
autonomy-then their fate is in their own
hands.
Meanwhile the Cubans have abolished sla
very and set up Republic Spain may ol
may not do either She has yet done neither
The dicta of the Captain General who shoots
his prisoners, seizes foreign citizens, disre
CARDS the laws of international comfy and is
bullied by his volunteers until he allows then
to indulge their longing for slaughter furnish
nothing with which to controvert the facts o
current history. He may promise what hi
will, but the Cubans demand independence
They will not trust their liberties to the eph
emeral breath of a Spanish pro- consul, VIII,
may be made and unmade in day.