Year: 1869

tom houses, accompanied with request for the
appointment of committees from among them
selves to protect the revenues; then angry
denunciations of the selfish greed of military
leaders, and finally determined expulsion of
the whole system of colonial government and
Spanish carpet-baggers.


In all this the acts of the Spanish volunteers
In Cuba constitute the most sweeping condem-
nation of the government against which the
Cubans have rebelled and an unanswerable
justification of their revolution. Whatever
may be the wishes or the aims of Spain and
her partisans, the course of time cannot be
rolled backward. Communities cannot be
drilled like armies, and when an error has been
committed in social revolution the word of
command 'as you were" can never be obeyed
by whole population. These truths are as
evident to the leaders of the Spanish volunteers
in Havana as they are to the rest of the world,
and they see clearly that the old despotism
cannot be restored even in that portion OF
Cuba which the Spanish bayonet still rules.
Already are they forced to contemplate the
next step. Shall it be reorganization Of gov
ernment as an integral portion of Spain, retain
ing power in the hands of resident Spaniards,
with representation in the Cortes and Captain
General only from the metropolis? Shall 1t be
distinct autonomy like that of Canada, with
local representation and only an executive
connection with the mother country? Shall
it be assimilation with revolutionary Cuba and
an Independent republic? Shall it be admis-
sion to the American Union to save the coun-
try from the horrors of civil war?


All of these propositions have been subjects
of discussion in the conclaves Of the leaders
of the Spanish volunteers in Cuba, but we
know of only two acts which have been ar
rived at-a countermand to Spain of the re-
quest for more Spanish troops and commit
tee to Porto Rico to meet the new Captain
General. One thing we do see. In the inn
possibility to send money to Cuba which weighs
upon Spain to-day the Spanish volunteers in
Havana hold both the sword and the purse of
Spanish power there. General Rodas must
yield to their wishes or be as powerless as was
General Dulce. In the midst of revolution
and civil war the march of events is infu-
enced by so many things, both of small and of
great import, that representation is impOssi-
BILE. What we have to do, therefore, is to
contemplate our own duty and examine if our
conduct is consonant with its requirements.


The question is, has the administration re-
cognized the magnitude of the events and met
them in spirit consonant with the wishes and
the needs of the country? An effete despot-
ism is expiring, new political forms are cristal-
lizing, new national connections and complica-
tions are forming and the territory which is
the scene of these important changes is con-
tiguous with our own, of great weight in our
political and public economy, and holding an
intimate relation with our national defence.
More than this, our government, under the
administration of President Monroe, nearly
fifty years ago, officially communicated to the
sister republics of South America the fact
that Cuba was so intimately connected with
the United States that we should not contem-
plate with Indifference any change in its poll
tcal status With all these great events in
view, and with this antecedent before us, we
are compelled to reply to the great question
they PROFOUND, and to say that the administra-
ton at Washington has not been awake to its
duty and is not meeting the question in a
spirit consonant with the wishes and the needs
of the country.


Secretary Fish, true to the fossil spirit with
which he was imbued in the timorous age of
American polity, is tortured with fears of
European complications in a purely American
question. He is afraid to act; and to excuse
his fears he tells the Cuban agents in Wash
ington that action at this juncture might
delay their triumph, while partisan jour-
nal in this city, prompted for his
defence, whispers loving words to the
Spaniards, and quotes the pirate Semmes to
show how great the debt we owe to generous,
American-loving Spain. If our timorous Sec
rotary wants to know the truth regarding our
debt to Spain for her course during our late
war we advise him TO read in his own de-
partment the dispatches of our Consul General
Shufeldt at Havana, to obtain from Admiral
Porter the communications from our naval
commanders during that time and TO look in
the rebel archives for those of the Confederate
Consul Helm TO JEFF Davis. But these are
paltry palaverings when great national inte-
rests are at stake. When nations are in the
throes of change through successful revolu-
tions the ordinary rules Of diplomatic inter-
course are suspended, aud great national needs
and duties rule the hour. The remnant of the
power Of Spain in America is crumblng rap
idly away, and with our great material and
moral power the pen Of living statesman at
Washington could, aud should, shape the
new formations. But while fear Of European
complications sits at the helm In our national
affairs and timidity sways our councils we can
hope for nothing from that quarter. In such
juncture we can only appeal from timorous