The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-06-17

i
| states.
Among the documents which Mr.. Millen.
our secret commissioner to Cuba, succeeded
in bringing through the Spanish lines is one
in the handwriting and bearing the signature
of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, President of the
Cuban Republic. 1t is the patriot President 8
testimonial to the enterprise of the HERALD,
as he in his forest fastness has experienced it.
similar document is one of the points most
paraded by the Spanish authorities in the case
against Mr.. OKelly. Valueless as it would
be in establishing even the semblance of GRIM
inaiity where none existed, it is most valuable
as proving beyond a doubt the triumph
HERALD, carried the spirit of the nineteenth
century into territory around which strong
government had vainly attempted to draw
a chain of silence. The President compli-
ments the HERALD and thanks it for the in
terest it has exhibited in the affairs Of Cuba.
He does not forget to note that it was
HERALD commissioner who penetrated another
terra incognita to find great traveller, whom
one of the strongest governments in the world
had left to his fate. Doubtless the
hope was in the mind of Cespedes that the
success of the HERALD commissioners in Cuba
would be as good an omen to the cause he
served as the triumph of Mr.. Stanley in Africa
had been to DR.. Livingstone and the cause he
wished to advance-the abolition of slavery as
well as the discovery of the headwaters of the
Nile. Cespedes receives the HERALD regularly,
and, therefore, he has seen the English govern
ment move for shame's sake to put down the
slave trade on the eastern coast of Africa.
The hope, indeed, whether founded on the good
omen of the HERALD Livingstone expedition or
not, finds pointed but brief expression in the
letter. He bears testimony to the light being
shed upon the long-obscured subject dearest to
his own and his fellow patriots hearts, and
then proceeds to ask whether the government
of the United States will take action on the
information gained.
It is a question which he has every right
to put, and to which we hope some answer
will be returned The chief of people who,
in the cause of independence, equality and re-
pubicanism have fought fierce fight during
nearly five years with their oppressive rulers
deserve some recognition from humanity beside
an interest in the moving details Of the bloody
warfare waged by them. There is, to be sure,
a republic of some kind in Spain; but the in
dignant remonstrance addressed by the Cuban
leaders in arms to the Spanish republicans
shows conclusively that the fighting Cubans
expect as little quarter or alienation from the
latest form of government in the Peninsula as
from any that preceded it. The latter
manifesto is exceedingly bitter in tone;
but it will, we fear, be very diff
cult to gainsay anything contained therein
regarding Spain's naughty, high-handed
and oppressive treatment Of the Cubans.
President Grant is himself responsible for the
statement that the American nation has
deep interest in the ''struggle at our DOORS"
and, much as Madrid thought fit to
be angered at the Presidents allusion
to Cuba in his Message, there is APP
parently nothing for Spain to apprehend
from our government in the matter as our
foreign affairs are at present conducted. Butts
this just, not to say manly, on the part of our
government Have we no nobler part to take
to look on and see men battle like wild ami
mails?
In the Cuban question the aspect which
should first attract attention is that the war in
Cuba is that of q people who demand self
government rs the sine qua non of termi-
mating the contest The causes for this
demand are notorious. They are primarily
material and secondly sentimental. The
material causes were contained in the fact that
Cuba was but stock farm from which Spain,
half or wholly bankrupt herself, drew an i'm
mense revenue for which Cuba never received
the slightest benefit. Instead, the island
ers were given Spaniards for governors
whose principal business was to retrieve
ruined fortunes by squeezing more
money from the Cubans, while treating
Cuba as q conquered province instead of as
colony whose kindness and good will they
should foster. Cuba, in fact, found herself
ruled by an insatiate Power, whose whole
object was to wiring as much gold from the
"Ever Faithful Isle" as possible. The denial
of political power to the native Cubans was
another material loss, aggravated by proximity
to the United States, where, under free institu-
tons, the most progressive spirits were enabled
to apply all the inventions of science to the
development of the country and its resources
Neither the Spanish nation nor its Spanish
representatives in Cuba cared to expend
money in improvements which would benefit
the islanders To build an aqueduct would
be, as it were, to defect money from official
pockets or from the bottomless Spanish
treasury. Cuba suffered perpetual pillage and
could not accustom herself to the process
claims that diplomatists respect. The ''war
for IDEAS" as Napoleon Ill, with his theatri-
cal cunning named the wars undertaken to