New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-12-19
From the National Republican,
Euoa in the COrtPs.

1t is only il week since the telegraph
brought the news from Havana that a dozen
bloodhOunds had arrived on the island of
Cuba and been purchased for the purpose of
chasing fugitive slaves. The world will. in
all probability, never know the cruelty, the
barbarity, and the inhuInanity of which that
country has been the scene during the last
three years under the infamous rule of
SPANS Captain Generals. If we may Judge
from 4 recent speech in the Spanish Senate,
BY Senior Edwardo Benot, chasing by blood
hounds is one of the gentlest features of the
cruel policy that is being pursued there. Said
Senior Bcnot:
IF, then, mistaken idea of our duties as
Spanlards has imposed silence upon US hith-
erto, we cannot, must not, will not for an in
slant longer allow ourselves to be considered
accomplices of the atrocities which are COM
mttcd and the crimes of less humanity which
are perpctrated in our colonies. Cuba is
groaning under the scourgc of arbitrary pow
err; there is no law, no code, no constitution;
the principles Of modern law are tramplcd in
the dust, and the ancient laws are disre-
gardcd. Children are inundated judgment
IS passed on the dead the innocent suffer
tor the guilty; human ears are fried and
eaten; the only power is brute force, the vile
greed of bad officials and the nfamy Of pi-
rates and slavers." Murmurs.l
what would you say, my lords, if on the
ground of your being Alphonssts, or Carl
lists, Or Republicans, Or Radicals, everything
you possessed were sold, without the author
lty OF any magistrate and without the pres
ence of any legal authority, without q no
tary, without reserve, proper conviction, or
valuation, without any proofs Of YOUR culpa
blllty, and on mere suspicion? What would
you say lfsthe proceeds of those inquisitorial
sales were to remain by rights sacred de-
p0slt IN the treasury, and the depostOrs
were, nevertheless, to use the deposit? Gen.
Dulce, yielding to pressure put upon him by
the volunteers, who afterwards overthrow
him and sent him back to Spain with igno-
miny, dccreed the attaInder Of the goods Of
all persons against whom it could be (and
repeat the word proved) that they had IA
vored the insurrectlOn with arms in their
hands, or had supplied money, munitions. or
subsistence. And so great was the pressure
OF these bad volunteers on the action and
the mind ofGeneral Dulce that he was obliged
to declare that he took these arbitrary meas
urcs without taking into account what might
be urged on the contrary, without respect to
principles or doctrines, and also that the eff
iects thereof should be retrospective. and
with force sufficient to deprive, immediately
On PRONUNCIATION Of the decree, the persons
comprised therein Of all their civil and po-
litical rights. Dulce, Unonist general, ac-
customed to no timid qualms respecting le-
gahty, decrecd these embargoGs dctatorially
and ministerially, giving them retrospective
force and depriving persons comprised of
their civil and political rights, without trial,
but at all events he decreed that there should
be proofs Of disatiiection and he ordered,
moreover, that the proceeds of the attained
property should remain az deposits in the
chests of the Treasury. But Senior Gasset.
whom | regret not to see in the House
Senior Gasset, a Radical Minister of demo-
cratic antecedents, Il champion of the rights
OF the subject, deep in all the democratic
theories, and whom no one would suspect of
leaning toward the system Of the inqusition
this lifelong Liberal no sooner penetrates in
to the black atmosphere Of slavery than he
loses his senses, and allows people to be
condemned on suspicion, trampling thus I'M
der foot the judicial power; dedicates the
proceeds Of the attained estates to the ex-
tinction of the notes of the Bank of Havana {;
raises to the position Of public power the
board of tho bank, and the committee of the
Havana public debt, who were more inter-
csted than any one else that these notes
should have something behind them to insure
their being duly met, bodies composed per-
haps OF the persons primarallyresponsible for
|. the issue of these enormous heaps of paper,
effected in defiance Of the laws governing the
matter, in infracton of the charter of the
Spanish bank Of Havana, and regardless of
the remonstranccs offered at the time by the
voice of foresight and patriotism. My lords,
what attainders are these? What laws are
these? Why are not our laws in force against
the Cubans?''
1.-The ancient laws, now repealed, allowed
con tiScatiOn in Spoin Int IncIaro5 ~ "a ho I'm,
applicable where tho delinquent had descend
ants or direct heirs, even in the tenth degree
of consanguinity; that is to say, that in wha t
are called the ages Of barbarism, there was
less barbarity than there is in Cuba in the
middle of the nineteenth century, Yes ; in
Cuba, in this enlightened nineteenth century,
it has happened that the families of insurrec-
tionists, or Of those suspected Of completely
or sympathy with the instruction, have been
deprived of their bread. General Valma-
seCa-ard l wish to call the especial atten-
ton Of the Senate to this point-was obliged
to condone all actions for cattle-steaing, as
he recognized that they arose in all cases
from the appealing hunger of the attantetl
families. This is fearful, indeed. No one is
| respected, no one pardoned; the sons of the
insurrectionists or suspected insurrectiOnists
| are embargoed and conliscated, and the con-
tiscatiOn extended to the wiie's marriage set
Element and trusts; ladies' are laid under en-
barge for being absent from the island who
have not left the Matanzas people are SINH
larly punished for not being in Spain who
have not left Madrid; nay, the very dead
themselves are laid under embargo"
The American correspondents at Havana
and other points on the island never mention
a word Of these illegal proceedings, and OF
this merciless tyranny in Cuba for reasons
| which we may some time explain but that
the horrible picture which Senior Benot has
painted is true in every particular no one in
| the Spanish Cortes has ventured to deny
Nor will it be denied anywhere or by any one.
Week after week we are told that the rebel
| lion is crushed; that the insurgents have
nearly all surrendered Or are starving in the
Businesses of the mountains, but still the
/ struggle goes on, notwithstanding the efforts
of the " slavers and pirates" The President
in his message attributed the disturbed con.
dition of the island to the existence of sla.
very, and hoped that the emancipation law
passed more than two years ago would be
executed. But Notwithstanding that the
rules and regulations for carrying out the Law
were announced mouths ago, the absence o
which, it was alleged, WAS the only reason
! why the law was not enforced, no movement
has yet been made in that direction. Our re
| lations with Cuba are too close and intimate
10 make us Indifferent to the unhappy struggle
| of which aha ia hn Scopo oyor, IL M npnciJ