Year: 1873

A grave responsibility rests upon the new
Government of Spain. Its leading members
have frequently declared In the most solemn
manner their belief that the immediate abOli-
ton of Slavery is demanded 10y morality, by
religion, by sound policy, and by the national
honor We will not multiply quotations to
prove this fact which is known of all men,
We cOnfne ourselves for the present to one
most important and formal utterance OF re-
cent date, which places the present Cabinet III
a position from which there is but one issue.


On the ed of September last the President,
Vice Presidents, and Secretaries of the Abo-
litonist Society of Spain presented petition
TO the Senate praying for the immediate abo-
litiOn of Slavery in Cuba and Porto Rico. This
petition was supported by statement of un-
usual terseness and force, which passed in rapid
review the failures and tergiverSati0ns OF the
Government and Its officers in the execution
of the law for gradual emancipation, and then
brought forward six propositions OF such evi-
dent truth and Importance that nothing Is
left to be said upon the subject. l. They
quote the bold and manly declaration of the
Superior Revolutionary Junta of Madrid,
that Slavery is an outrage upon human
nature, and a reprOach to the only civilized
"Dation which retains it." 2. Slavery has no
right to exist in the dOminiOns of people
who, like the Spanish, have recognized i'll their
Constitution the existence of natural and i'm
prescriptible rights of man. 8. They state
that on every occasion when an effort has
been made to ascertain the sentiments of the
inhabitants of the Antilles upon this subject
tbev have declared their desire for emancipa-
Al, NfG &c
international one, the Ministers and other rep
resentatives of all the great powers had pro-
tested against it. and against the atti-
tude of the Spanish Government in
relation to it, from which consequences
may result injurious to the national
interest and credit. 5. That the failure of the
preparatory law could be no surprise to those
who have studied the history of the emanci-
patton of labor, wherein it is shown that all
schemes of gradual emancipation have failed
and given way to more radical measures. O..
That the Abolition of Slavery could at this
moment serve as a highly polite measure to
finish the insurrectiOn in Cuba, and that the
postponement of it would be motive to fur
ther resistance, as proved by events in Santo
Domingo in 1893 and in 1904.


1t seems to us that every one Of these prOpo
sitiOns is indisputable, with the sole exception
of the last. The Abolition of Slavery will not
save Cuba to Spain, nor will any other meas
ure. The hate and suspicion engendered in
the long war have already finally divorced the
colony from the mother country. There is
scarcely an adult native Cuban who would be
willing to see the war end on any terms which
should secure the island under Spanish rule.
But leaving out this single illusion, which
seems inseparable from the Castiian blood,
the other five, propositions form a chain of
considerations which might well convince any
candid opponent, but which certainly bind for
ever the conscience and the action Of the men
who presented them. Among the names signed
TO this paper are Estanislao Figueras, Presi
dent of the Council of the Republic; Emilio
CASTELAR,, Secretary of State; Francisco Pi y
Margall, Minister of the Interior; Nicolas Sal
meron, Minister Of Justice. Other members
of the Government are as strongly pledged
CristinO MartOs, who was elected on Thursday
President of the National Assembly, is an Alb
OlitiOnist of such firm convictions that three
years ago, when the scheme OF gradual eman-
cipatOn was under discussion, he opposed the
Prm Government, with which he had been
identified, and voted with the Republicans for
the CASTELAR, amendment. No ministry ever
went into office with more inevitable com
initials.


We are all familiar with the conservatzing
influences of power. The agitatOr finds it far
easier to free his mind than the Cabinet Min


lister. The Rabagas OF the street often enough
becomes the stanch Tory at the palace. Eyon