The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-06-14
ARTHUR ROPES. General Editor
GOmez's Farewell.

General Maxine Gomezs farewell
manifesto to the Cuban army may NJ
rank with Washington's Fare well Ad
dress, but the old soldier is able to give
his compatrots sound advice. IT they
follow their Old leaders, wise counsels
they will hasten the time when their fair
island shall become the abode of hap
py and prosperous people, forgetting
centuries of war and devastation in tn g
blessings of peaceful industry, or re-
memb herring a bloody and turbulent past
only to enforce the lessons of peace
and the necessity for obedience to the
requirements of wise laws and whole
some restrictions upon individual lib
erty. Gomez thus addresses himself to
his fellow Cubans on the subject OF
the timely rescue of their cause and
the future of their country:
We wanted and depended upon foreign
Intervention to terminate the war. This
occurred at most terrible moment in our
None of us thought this extraordinary
event would be followed by the military
occupation OF our country by our allies,
who treat us as people incapable Of acting
for ourselves, who have reduced us to ODE
dience, submission and tutelage, imposed
by the force Of circumstances. This cannot
be our fate after years Of struggle. We
should aid by every pacific method in fin
ishing the work of organizing which the
Americans accept in the protocol and whic .
is as disagreeable to them as it is necessary
to us.
We must make useless by our behavior
the presence Of a strange power in the
island, and must assist the Americans to
complete the honorable mission they have
been compelled to assume by the force of
circumstances. This work is not sought by
these rich northerners owners of a CONT.
,nent. 1 think doubts and suspicious are
unjust. We must form Immediately com.
mittee or club to be the nucleus of a govern.
ment. This will serve the Cuban interests
perfectly and act as an aid to the inter-
venors. /. as one of the first Cubans, al
though one Of our last old soldiers and not
far from the grave, without passions or am
billions, call on you with the sincerity OF
father and urge the cessation of super
huous discussions and creation OF parties, all
Of which will disturb the country and tend
TO cause anarchy. In this country there
should not be one man whom we could con.
slider a stranger. To day we no longer have
the autonomists or conservative but only
Cubans. My mission having ended, / will
absent myself temporarily TO the embrace of
my family, but will return shortly to Cuba.
which love as much as my own land. My
last words, my soldiers are that, as always,
where my tent is, the Cubans have
friend.
Undoubtedly Gomez was the strong
bond that ht Id together the last Cuban
revolt against Spain, in its later years,
after the death of Jose Marti and An
tonic Maceo, if not, indeed, previous
to the death of those leading spirits in
the long war for Cuban freedom. Co.
mez's death at any time during the
last year or two of the instruction,
prior to the armed Intervention of the
United States, would have signifed the
disastrous end of another of Freedoms
battles. To what sorry straits the pa
triots were reduced became apparent
when the Cuban and American forces
were joined. Valley Forge was para
disc in comparison with the conditions
existing in the Cuban camp. That
Gomez was able to keep his half-starv-
ed, half-naked, half-armed followers to.
gether, escaping humiliation at the
hands of Spanish soldiers armed with
the fatal Mauser and plentifully sup
piled with ammunition, only small
part of whom withstood the American
army around Santiago, is tribute both
to the quality of Gomez as a leader
and demonstration of the historical
incapacity of the Spaniard in aggres-
sive warfare. The shocking violence
to truth and circumstance in the COM
parison the anti-imperialists have de-
lighted to institute between Washing
ton and Aguinaldo could not be found
in a similar comparison between
Washington and Gomez. The latter
has thus far maintained a striking
similitude to the great American pa
triot and commander, which, pra,
Heaven, he may continue to the enc
of a life which, he pathetically remind
his countrymen, is nearing its end.