The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-12-15
consol dated A1lg. 2, 1881.
duty to sanction and proclaim the
coionial statutes. Should he coneider

an enactment of the insular parlia
ment liable to endanger the national
legislation or SPANS sovereign In
terest in the colony he is authorized
to forward said enactment before its
approval to the council of ministers
of the kingdom who will decide with
! in two months Should the home
government fail to decide within the
above specified time, the governor
general ehall sanction and proclaim
the act of the insu!ar parliament.
In plain language. the governor
general can destroy any act of the
insulsr parliament by refusing to ''san.
ction and proclaim it, or he can
have il destroyed by the ministry at
Madrid. of which be is the mere
agent. The fact that the members Of
such an impotent assembly are to be
elected is of no importance whatever.
have attempted to demonstrate
elsewhere that the primary cause of
the endless conflict is economic and
that this difficulty can never be re-
moved until Cuba is independent or
possessed of an insular parliament
that can regulate absolutely her own
tariffs Nothing could be more dan
gerous than the device employed to
obscure the fact that no such conces-
sion is contemplated A Cuban par
lirnent is TO be given the power to
form it's own tariff, fixing beth import
and export duties provided the as
sent OF the home government can be
obtained thereto In case ola disa
greement s.the point in diepute shall
be submitted to committee of the
members of the cortes. consisting Of
an equal number of peninsular and
Gnbans,' Everybody knows that the
Cuban deputies in the cortes at Mad
rid are mere men Of straw returned
by the governor general. Even if
they were Independent no change
could ever be made in existing tariffs
without the consent of the peninsular
Spaniards, who would never listen tc
snch q thing,
At the end of three years of whole
sale destruction. provoked BY Spain.
through unprecedented political and
economic oppression that has brought
death and famine to hundreds of
thousands. the Spanish crown at last
confesses that the Cubans are right
and that their wrongs should now be
redressed by genuine grant ofhome
rule. When the preferred scheme is
examined It is found to be not only
indefinite and illegal, but absolutely
wanting in sincerity upon the two
vital points at issue Such proposal
has been extorted by the results of q
struggle that has SO completely broken
the military and financial power Of
>Syain that conquest of the island is
now hopeless After expending
$500. 600, 900 aud after sending over
the sea 800 9000 soldiers, Spain has
fighting force in the island of less
than 70. 600, while the revolutionary
army, now in possession Of the greater
part of the country, numbers about
so, 900. Who has the right to say
that the heroic men who have main
sained in the maniguas of Cuba such
conflict against such odds are not
capable of self.government !? Who
will say that all the fruits that they
have won through death by sword
and famine should, in the hour of
victory be surrendered for an empty
sham which means only new bond
age under their old and pitiless op-
pressors?
And yet this heartless, selfish mes
sage has not ooe word Of encourage
ueos or sympathy for this suffering
people now dying and starving by
thousaods at our very doors In it
they are contemptuously deemed as no
better than their prosecutors For
tuoately for the hooor OF a generous
Christian nation. this message with
cool aRd serene cynicism admits that it
does not represent the sentiments of the
American people as expressed by con-
gress a year age in the joint resola
ton in which both houses declared that
statcgof var did exist in Cuba and
that it should be 80 recognized by the
goyeroment. Congress is politely told
to attend to iis Own business that if
the recognition of belligerepcy shall
become necessary in the future the
executive power will act without COZ.
gessioDal interference
Il is generally understood that this
deliberate conspiracy to .bwart the will
Of che nation is to be carried cut
through ao appeal to the speaker of the
house OF representatives. who is expect
ed TO so manipulate it's rules as to pre-
vent the passage of the pending bclli-
gerency resolution which the senate has
slready approved 10 other words. the