Class __E2_i:!^ 
 
 SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT 
 
The . Treaty of Peace between 
 Spain and the United States. 
 
 ' WAY ;^ 11912 
 
The Treaty of Peace between 
 Spain and the United States. 
 
 91^ 
 
 I 
 
.T 
 
 n^ 
 
 (1^- 
 
The contesi bcrAvccii Spain and the I.'nitcd States lia- 
 ving come to an end, public opinion in b(jth these coun- 
 tries is ori'eatlv engrossed bv the discussion of two itoints 
 ot* so great interest, not only lor the two nations directly 
 concerned in the Treaty ol" Peace, but lor all those ^vho 
 are united to them by their economical afliniries, that I 
 eannot but olt'ei* to the i)ublic, an opinion which, li'oni the 
 independent position in which I am placed, may be 
 thought of interest. 
 
 .M}' task is far from dillicidt thanks to the valuable 
 inft)rmation respecting the negotiations now being carried 
 oil, which has been made })ublie by the American press, 
 and whose iuformation is so accurate and ij:eneral; and it 
 is my tlesire and object if posible to prevent public oi)i- 
 nion going astray in reference to these matters, which 
 although (pute clear might b.* misrepresented with evil 
 intent; and to exjiose wiih as many deiails as possible, 
 the real essence and history of the points un<ler discus- 
 sion, reviewing them with the im})arti:d eye of one who 
 
4 
 
 professes as much sympathy for the noble nation con- 
 quered, as for its powerful conqueror. 
 
 The first of these points is the one relating to the re- 
 cognition and payment of colonial debts, the second to 
 the claim and title to the occupation of part of the PhiUp- 
 pine Islands, which the United States may invoke. 
 
 We will treat them separately. 
 
 I 
 
 Debts of the Spanish Colonies. — Antecedents. — 
 
 The war. 
 
 It is impossible to embrace in all its extension this 
 part of the Treaty under negotiation, without pointing 
 out previously, and having constantly in one's mind, the 
 orioin of the dissension between the two countries, and 
 the way in which the United States, owing to the rapid 
 and unexpected success of their arms, have been obliged 
 to put into effect their old plans of dominion over the 
 Caribbeean Sea. 
 
 The Spaniards contend, that it is very likely, although 
 they are unable to prove it, that the United States con- 
 ceived and gave its impulse to the Cuban insurrection 
 which began in 1895, but they add that it is notorious, 
 and has been demonstraded by the 42 filibustering ex- 
 peditions equipped on their soil and which have left their 
 ports in American ships, that this nation sustained and 
 fomented the military movements of the rebels with its 
 assistance moral and material, which if left to their own 
 ressources, would have soon died out. 
 
 There is no doubt that this remark is not absolutely 
 
lacking in prolhihility for one of tlie Inst Ainbassfidors 
 (»f the United States i<t (iiv.u Ilritain, the illiistrious 
 M. IMieljts lins stated in his famous letter of the 28" March 
 last, to M.Morton, Ivx-Mcc-President of the Repii1)li<-, 
 thai wiih a twentieth jtart of the naval forces at the 
 coinniand of the United States, these could have stopped 
 the onlv source from which the insurrection has received 
 the means wliirli allowed it to exist. 
 
 This notwithstanding, the Federal Government hns, 
 otHcially, always made protests of its sympathy to Spain, 
 and although, unfortunately its Agents have not always 
 been able to prevent the public meetings of the insurgents, 
 their filibustering manisfestations, the enrolment of 
 armed expeditions, and their departure for Cuba, it never 
 recognized the insurgents as belligerents, but acknow- 
 ledged in different treaties celebrated with Spain, and 
 in a continuous exchange of notes on these particulars, 
 carried on by the Diplomatic Representatives of botli 
 countries, the Spanish nation as sovereign of the Antilles, 
 and as such not only with a right but with the dnry to 
 suppress the insurrection as a perturbation of tlie i)ublic 
 order. — Spain was in consecjuence continually and 
 urgentlv advised hv the United States of the necessity 
 that bv means of her forces, and c;irr\ ing to effect such 
 military movements as it should be in her power, she 
 should reestablish public order in Cuba which had been 
 disturbed by the insurgents; and Spaniards affirm that 
 these demands on tlie i)art of the United States were 
 attended to, and were the source of great sacrifices of 
 lives and monev; and that thev were attended to not 
 only on account of the Island but with a view that the 
 relations existing then between the two countries should 
 not in anv wav be rendered dillicult. 
 
Spain's noble purpose had not the effect of stopping 
 the continual assistance which the insurrection was recei- 
 ving exclusively from the coiuitrv which so imperiously 
 demanded the reestablishment of order; and in my 
 opinion, she made a mistake in allowing the conduct of 
 the Federal Government to pass without claiming some 
 indemnity from a State wliich received fj, 15,000,000 
 from England on the well known occasion of the depre- 
 dations of the Alabama, a ship which had only been built, 
 but not equipped, fitted out or armed in that country, and 
 it is curious to observe, as M. Phelps remarks, much to 
 the point, in his letter previously alluded to, that when 
 the United States asked for reparation, they did so on 
 the ground that the English government, « had not 
 « exercised the necessary vigilance to prevent the ship 
 (( leaving its coasts. » 
 
 Spain however continued in her efforts to reestablish 
 order, and when the Cuban insurrection was in its full 
 force, and the States were observing an almost neutral 
 policy, as referred to above, that is adjusting all their 
 acts and official declarations, to the letter of the law 
 without ever going as far as suppressing public acts that 
 were not only evidently contrary to its spirit, but mani- 
 festly contrary to what its relations as a friendly coun- 
 trv, which the United States, were at the time with 
 Spain, imposed upon it; judged fit to prepare its inter- 
 vention in the greater Antille with the wellknown pre- 
 text, so often alluded to in late years, that the state 
 of intranquility and strife iu tlie Island, damaged the 
 commerce of the Union, and caused it economical incon- 
 veniences which it found impossible to overcome without 
 experiencing severe losses. 
 
 This is not the occasion to enquire whether the extreme 
 
case of sell-preservatiou, wliidi as M. (Jiiizot says, is the 
 oiil\ one w iiiclicivi/;iltMl('()iintri(^saii(lint<MMiaH()iial iiKH-als 
 recognize as jusliryiiig an .innrd iiitci-vontion, had nrrivcd 
 for the United Slates, or whctlier an invader can inter- 
 vene in the .-ilTnirs of an indejjendent State for the pur- 
 pose of imposing upon it, its own demands; l)ut it is 
 nevertiieless a fact Ih.d the United States, on tlie ground 
 above mentioned, and lor motives of Inunanity in iavor of 
 tlie so called rcroncentrndns who, as .AI. Piielps observes 
 in his letter were not really more than insurgents whose 
 ressources had come to an end during the struggle, and 
 who had left the field of battle upon being comiuered ; voted 
 the joint-resolution which was passed by the Federal Par- 
 liament and approved by the President of the Union 
 on the 20"' of April , and transmitted it to Spain, under 
 the form of an Kltiinntmn and with all the character 
 of a declaration of war. And it is as well to remark , 
 that this iiltiiinitimi /.s^ a declaration of war. ])ecause in 
 order that such a declaration should have taken place it is 
 not necessary for it to be notified i n so many words ; 
 international practices and common sense show that when 
 a State has an exaction imposed upon it. wliieh it is befo- 
 rehand notorious that it will not admit, and it is menaced 
 to do so by force, there is no doubt that war is declared 
 with :dl tlie requisites whicli such a declaration entails. 
 Speaking of the causes of the war, it is nnnecessiiry. 
 in my oi)inon, even to mention the unfortunate loss of 
 the « Maine », because the spirit of justice of every nation 
 has already given its verdict : they all refute with vio- 
 lence the su|)position that Spain can have directly or 
 indirectly eontribuled to the catastrophe. IJesides, the 
 United States have implicitly recognized it to be so ami 
 have wiselv. be it said in their lionour, abstained, either 
 
— 8 — 
 
 before or after the commencement of hostilities, from 
 returning upon this sad subject. 
 
 The law passed by tlie Federal Government respecting 
 the declaration of war, that is the joint-resolution of the 
 19"' April 1898, proclaims that Cuba must be free and inde- 
 pendent, that it is the duty of the United States to demand, 
 as it does , that Spain relinquishes its sovereignty and 
 government in Cuba; evacuating therefrom her naval 
 and military forces; that the President of the United 
 States will make use of the military forces whicli may be 
 necessary to carry this resolution into effect; and the text 
 of the law ends with the important declaration (n° 4), 
 that alhough tlie United States have no intention of exer- 
 cising their sovereignty in Cuba, they will nevertheless, 
 exercise it for the pacification of tlie Island, and it goes 
 on to state a tliat once this has been accomplished, they 
 (( will leave the sovereignty and government of the Island 
 « to the Cuban people ». 
 
 One cannot help obseving, that at this critical moment 
 in the liistory of events, the United States are not as 
 preoccupied as they were before by the public order in 
 Cuba, which they were about to disturb with another war, 
 or by considerations of humanity , equally out of place 
 with the idea of the coming strife. 
 
 The important documentjust extracted, unscrupulously 
 determines the new part which the United States has 
 reserved for itself in the contest. The States are to be the 
 liberators ot the Island : fighting for it and on its behalf : 
 they are going to wrest it from the sovereignty of Spain. 
 Once this is achieved, they are going to pacify it, taking 
 charge of its government, and when it has reached a 
 normal stage of order, they are going to give it up to the 
 Cuban people, in order that these may live independent. 
 
— !) — 
 
 For fliis one end, llicv (I(^(M1i tlicinsclvcs olilii^cd lo 
 Jissuiiic ;ill llio (l;il\'i(M's ;iii(l cxjicllscs of ;i \\;ii*. 
 and much ;i,L!niiisl their convic'tions, they hnvc to forget 
 tlie iaiiious theory ol" ii()n-iiitery(}ntion (h'liiicil on 1h(> 2d 
 of hccenilici' 1<S2.'{, hy President .Munivx-, w liieh Jill'irniv 
 that the United States Goyernnient \yoidd never intervene 
 in (he inh'rmd altairs of l^iropean nations or uf their 
 Colonics in Amcriro : ilie.y constitnte themselves into 
 ayents oI the Cnban insurgents, \vhom from that moment 
 they have been delfending- and represeathig a^iainst 
 Spnin, not only \vliile the \\-;ir was being carried on, ]>nt 
 ever since liie present armistice or suspension of iiosti- 
 Htliies. Great must have been the desire of tiie United 
 States for the independence of Cuba, wlien, Ayitliont 
 being molested, and mucli less attacked by Spain, who 
 as it uppears clearly from every account, restricted her 
 action to the sujijiression of a rebelion of her subjects, 
 within her own domains; they declaie wai', having, as 
 I liave said forgotten, not only the practises of all nn- 
 tions, but their own p.-irticulnr doctrines and the laws of 
 the Union, for ii is a well known fact that the United 
 States, with the intention of avoiding war. was the 
 first nation to propose in its Parliament the creation of 
 international tribunals whose duty it should be to settle the 
 disputes which should arise between the Powers. The Fede- 
 ral Senate in 1853, and the Committee of Foreign Atlairs in 
 1837 disposed that so it should be, and declared their wish 
 that a clause should be inserted in all the treaties then 
 under negotiation, as well as in those to be concluded in 
 the futui-e, tending to esta))lisli that all the differences 
 betw een the contracting parties should be settled diploma- 
 tically, by subjecting them, before the commencement 
 of hostilities, to the arbitrage of eminent jiu-ists. 
 
— 10 — 
 
 These resolutions were reaclopted in 1873 by the 
 Senate and by both Chambers in 1884, and in 1888, it 
 was proposed to the President ol the Repnbhc in a joint- 
 resolution, that he should use his iuduence to compel 
 all Governments which had relations with the United 
 States, to submit their differences to an arbitrator, once 
 the diplomatic cliannel had been exhausted, in order to 
 settle them in the most friendly way. 
 
 All these antecedents are nevertheless set on one 
 side, and on the occasion that Spain is attending to 
 two insurrections in her Colonies, both of them of the 
 greatest cost, and taking place in the most extreme parts, 
 one in Cuba, the olher in the Philippine Islands; when 
 the Antilles had obtained a system of self government, as 
 near as possible to independence, war breaks out, and 
 the attacks of the American Navy begin, 24 hours after 
 the joint resolution of the 19th April had been approved 
 bv the President. 
 
 Much has been said, and there has been much discus- 
 sion as to whether, if the only purpose of the war was 
 that consigned in the law referred to, viz the indepen- 
 dence of Cuba, and her much coveted soil being the 
 natural theatre of hostilities, the sound precepts of 
 international law allowed that Spain should also be 
 attacked in her Eastern Colonies where the United States 
 have also made the most of, and fomented a rebelion, as 
 an auxiliary to their arms. 
 
 Such conduct may fit in more or less with the mo- 
 dern character of the modern struggles of civilized na- 
 tions, but it is a doctrine sanctioned by the practise of war, 
 and once hostilities are broken by one of the belligerent 
 states, it can attack the other when and where it pleases, 
 although the responsability respecting its decision as to 
 
II 
 
 the jtliiee nttnckcil ;ui<l ilic iiiodo of ntfnokiiiL!- ir w ill he 
 left to liistorv lo jiKJiiC. 
 
 Peace. — Its Antecedents. 
 
 We liave pointed out roughly the historv of the war 
 which has had such hitter consequences for Spain : let 
 us now look into the mannei* in which peace was l/i'oughr 
 ahout. 
 
 Alicr se-arcily four iiionilis of hostilities, diii-ing 
 which, there has not been an\- really great stnig^^le, 
 for tlu' combats thnt have taken place have fortunately 
 not been characterized by great shedding of blood, 
 specially on the American side, the United States 
 obtained two naval victories, fought against forces 
 not a tenth as strong as theirs, and the surrender in 
 Cuba of a third class fortified place, after a, blockade 
 wliich lasted three months and was more or less fortu- 
 nate its rosulls; they also disembarked over lonely ijlayns 
 in Puerto-Rico, an Island which did not offer them nny 
 resistence. 
 
 At this time, and thanks to the intervention of the 
 ever generous France, a preliminary Treaty of [)eace bet- 
 ween the two bellii:jerents was nrrived at, which was 
 signed .it Washington on August 12th, and which con- 
 tains the bases upon which the definite Treaty, to be 
 signed in Paris is to be founded. 
 
 Its stipulations are clear and precise. Sjmin shall 
 reiuifjitis/i its sovefeit//t/t/ over Ctfdx. This \s the Wr^t of them, 
 and with it the 1"' article of the law by which war was 
 declared by the Federal rTovernment, is fulfdled — Cuba 
 will be free and independent. 
 
— 12 — 
 
 Tliere is nothing more said about Cuba in the preli- 
 minary treaty, except what refers to the evacuation of the 
 forces (art. 4), a,nd nothing is said because there is no 
 necessity to do so : tlie uhimatelotof Cuba, winch is to be 
 stipulated in the Treaty of peace, has already been more 
 or less specified and decided by the law of April 19th, 
 which binds both Parts to and equal extent ; one of them 
 because it is the edict of its Supreme Authority, and 
 the other because it is imposed upon her by the bitter 
 law of tlie conqueror. 
 
 By the 'P* article of this preliminary treaty, the only 
 ostensible purpose of the United States, is fulfihed. The 
 declaration of liberty in favor of the Cuban people was 
 confirmed by the success of the campaign, but this was 
 not all that the great American Republic had in view. 
 Tlie independence of Cuba, though limited by the previous 
 occupation and dominion of its deliverer, did not suffice 
 to fill the measure of its unexpected military successes, 
 so the cession of Puerto-Rico (invaded but not conquered) 
 was demanded; also that of an Island in the Ladrones 
 group, (which had not been occupied eitlier), which 
 appears to be Guam, and lastly the cession of all the other 
 Islands belonging to Spain situated in the Caribbeean 
 
 Sea. 
 
 Any one wlio has looked at a map of Cuba will see 
 that with its topographical position, and surrounded and 
 blocked as it is by this series of little islands, which 
 according to the Treaty are to pass under the absolute 
 sovereignly of the States, will doubtless remark that the 
 sovereign and indepeudent existence of Cuba, will always 
 be very closely watched over by the close vicinit}' ol 
 her powerful liberator. 
 
 What \\e have said up to now is the object of the 
 
S(V()ii(l stipiil:ilion contMiiit'fl in ihr I'rotocol, which con- 
 tains further only the usual sJii)nlations of ]iroccdure, 
 viz cl.-nisc 4th r(>lafinir to the a|»i)ointment of mixed Com- 
 missions for thecn-acnation of Cuha, Porto-Rico and other 
 islands in tlie Caribbeean sea : tlie fifth relatini,'- to tlio 
 conchisions of a delinite treaty of peace in Paris by the 
 Commissioners of botii Nations; tlie fifth which sti])ulates 
 the suspension of hostilities and that imme(liate advice of 
 ii he i^iven to the Commanders of the naval and militiiry 
 foroes; and the 3d Avliich we purposely mention last, 
 because it refers to the Liuarant\- demanded by the con- 
 queror for the fullillmentof these clauses, only mentions 
 the fact that the United States, will occupy the city 
 harbour bay and of ^Manila until the Treaty of Peace shall 
 have been signed, and it is determined in it what the 
 future form of government of the Pliilii^pine Islands is 
 to be. 
 
 These are the bases of the Treaty which is now being 
 negotiated, and these bases ^^•ill have to be developped 
 in accordance not onlv with the letter of the Protocol 
 of August 12t]i, Ijul also with the law of April PJth, by 
 which war was declared, which has also to be fuUilled ; 
 and every point which has not been settled l\v eitlier of 
 these documents will be so now in accordance with their 
 spirit and the free will of the commissioners. 
 
 The libertv with which the commissioners are inves- 
 ted, comes from the way in which the struggle has en- 
 ded. Public law only recognizes three ways in which a 
 war can terminate — by the cessation of hostilities — by 
 the submission of one of the belligerents, or by the 
 complete destruction (t/ci/i/io) of one of them, and also by 
 means of a treaty. The United States and Spain, have 
 decided to put an end to the strife by this last means. 
 
— 14 — 
 
 and as tlie juridical signification of the Avord Treaty car- 
 ries with it necessarily the idea that neither of the two 
 contracting parties is to be submitted to the exclusive do- 
 minion of the other, it is evident that both Parts have 
 absolute liberty to conlract upon all that has not been 
 previously decided and accepted by them. 
 
 llow are the ideas of both Parts to be shaped into 
 articles ? It is quite easy to do so. The United States will 
 assume the dominion of all the Antilles ; in some of them 
 with a definite character, in others only provisionally. The 
 words employed in the Protocol and those of the joint 
 resolution, do not lend themselves to misinterpretations. 
 
 Spain will abandon to the United States the Island of 
 Puerto Rico and all the rest she possesses in the Carib- 
 beean Sea which are chiefly those which surround Cuba. 
 This rich cession, is the price demanded by the United 
 States for the expenses and losses caused by a war which 
 they themselves had provoked. 
 
 Spain is to relincpiish its sovereignty over Cuba : nothing 
 more is said in article 1'* of the Protocol, and still the 
 word « relinquish », carries with it the idea of somebody 
 in favor of whom the relinquishment is to be made. It 
 was not really necessary to state in favour of whom this 
 relinquishment was to be; it was naturally to be in favoui* 
 of the Cuban people who are to be free and independent, 
 but Cuba must first pass to the dominion and government 
 of the United States, whose task it is to pacify the Island, 
 and to place it on a level with other Sovereign Nations. 
 This is the text of the second part, of the law of 19th 
 April by which war was declared, Avliich is fulfilled by 
 this article, and wliich as we have said is equally bin- 
 ding to both parts. 
 
 Tlie United States will not relinquish the sovereignty 
 
15 — 
 
 and ^ove I'm I KM 11 of the Island, lo IIk; cubaii pcoijlc iinlil 
 it is cnmj)l('i('ly pacilled, says the joiiif-r(\soIiiti()ii. It is 
 natural lliat to i-cliiKjuisli if then, tlioy should assume it 
 IU)\\\ ir only in llie name anil in iv[ii'osoniafion of the 
 peojih' ih<\\' are so disinterestedly abum Lo paeiliy and lo 
 pi'otect. 
 
 This exjtiains the (hlTereneeof words used in the two 
 artich^s of the Trotocol, which answer to the same idea, 
 althouiih the eireumsiances undei* which each Part is 
 placed, have ohiii^ed them to employ dillei'dit locutions. 
 Ihu there is yet anolher clearer proof to show that the 
 use of these t\\() dilterent words, answers necessarily to 
 the same idea, as h»r as the territories wliich Spain 
 abandons aiv concerned. 
 
 Cuba was at war : the insurgents dis])Ute(l fi'om Spain 
 the sovereij^nty over the Island; a question of rii-iit \\as the- 
 refore involved. Spain, thus need not necessarily ///^/'/;<^/o/?, 
 but rcfi/n//fis/t the sovereif»"nty which \\'as her due, for 
 there existed some one, who arms in hand, and with 
 more or less right to do so, demanded it. Porto Rico and 
 the other Islands were in an state of absolute peace : there 
 was no contention as to who should be their sovereign, 
 therefore it was necessar>" to make a cession, it was not 
 enoiv^h to reii/i(/ui.s/t a right which was never demanded 
 by any one. 
 
 Thi< is the reason of the dilTerence in the words 
 which is (piite justified in each case, and which in spite 
 of the dill'erence nevertlndess made them equal in prac- 
 tice and elTects. 
 
 Spain on reliu(piishing her sovereignty in ('nha kne\\' 
 in favor of whom she was reliuipiishing it. It was in fa- 
 vor of the Cuban peojile, who ilemanded it, and to-day 
 it is consetinenilv in iavoiu- of their defender and allv in 
 
— 16 — 
 
 WMr and peace. It was not necessary to say more. But, 
 if the same stipulation had been made with reference to 
 Porto Rico and the other islands, there would certainly 
 have been a doubt respecting whom the relinquishment 
 was made in favour of, as their sovereignty was not con- 
 tested ; that is why it was found necessary to add in the 
 2d article of the Protocol, Spain will cede them to the 
 United States of America. 
 
 We do not believe for a moment that this has been 
 a motive of discussion for any one, much less to the two 
 contending nations. 
 
 If Spain had started this doubt as a reason to oppose 
 the relinquishment of Cuba, on the groud that the Proto- 
 col did not state in favour of whom it was to be, the male- 
 volence of the argument Avould haA^e been evident. And if 
 the United States were to refuse the acceptance for them- 
 selves or for the Cuban people of the sovereignty thus re- 
 linquished by Spain, such conductwould give rise to inter- 
 pretations in no wise favorable to their recognized good 
 faith . 
 
 It would be supposed in this case that the United 
 States w^ere trying to avoid the accomplishment of an 
 oblio'ation which thev have necessarilv to fulfil either 
 in their own or in some one else's name. 
 
 Or do rliey expect Spain to relinquish her sovereign- 
 ty over Cuban favour of an unknown entity, and without 
 consigning in the Treaty any guarantee for those people, 
 who have been more or less unsrrateful to her, but still 
 are born of Spaniards, and the last representatives of 
 the latin race in the Antilles? Ought not the stipulation 
 that tlie United States should give up to the Cuban people 
 the island which they are about to receive, as soon as 
 itis pacified, and the corresponding right of Spain to exact 
 
— 17 — 
 
 tliat transmission, when iiiaf, times cunu's, lo Ix' included 
 in the tnwty ? Is it proposed hy not doinir so to prevent 
 anv future relntions to be entered uitoii li\- the riiitetl 
 States and Sjwiin or the States and ("uh;i, in ordei' tiiat 
 tlie American (lovernment may be left in abstdnte liberty 
 as to its eonrse of action in the future, carryin.ii out at is 
 discretion its programme of dominion over all the 
 Antilles? 
 
 Such an abnormal conduct if observed, wouM natu- 
 rally give rise to all these doubts. We cannot suppose 
 that the United States have declined to accept in their 
 own name and with the purpose of transmitting it to the 
 Cuban people, the sovereignty relinquished by Spain, as 
 stipulated by art I of the Protocol and demanded by the 
 joint resolution; this would be equivalent to their refusing 
 what they so urgently demanded, that which has been the 
 only object of the wai- which commenced the 20"' of April 
 last . 
 
 But it is impossible for a country to relin(pnsh its so- 
 verei<intv without that sovereignty beini^- taken up bv 
 another. The sovereingty over Cuba relinquished by Spain 
 cannot remain unaccepted : it must necessarily go to the 
 people in whom it radicates. And as the United States re- 
 present the Cuban people, it must of necessity go to them, 
 whether it is so stipulated in the treaty or n<»t, as they 
 must necessarilv exercise this sovereingtA- if tlie text of 
 the joint resolution is to be carried into elfect viz : that 
 they are to try to i)acify the island in order to give it up 
 to its riiihtful sovereimr. 
 
 Looking at the (piestion from this point of view, it 
 will be seen 1', that Spain must relin(iuisli her sove- 
 reingty in Cuba and 2* ' that this Sovereingty must neces- 
 
— 18 — 
 
 sarily pass to the United States either for themselves or 
 for the the Cuban people whom they represent. 
 
 This is further demonstrated by facts. The Protocol 
 signed at Washington stipulates the rehnquishment of Cuba 
 to the United States, who are to receive it from the hands 
 of the mixed Commissions appointed to that effect, and 
 it is well known that these Commissions have been for 
 some time in the Island carrying on their work. 
 
 And if this was not conclusive, I will add that the 
 Federal Government, in the only territory of the Island 
 which up to the present it occupies, which is Santiago, 
 is performing all the functions of a Sovereign, it being 
 therefore eiident, that the sovereingty of Spain passes, 
 and in part has already passed, to the United States, 
 either for themselves or for the people they have tried to 
 liberate. 
 
 The Treaty and the Loans. 
 
 The practical development of this first hypothesis, re- 
 lative to the chamre of sovereinstv, carries with it the 
 exposition and solution of the problem which contains the 
 first of the points discussed in these notes. — The ack- 
 nowledgement and payment of every sort of debt which 
 weighs on the treasuries of Spain's colonies, and which 
 are linked Avith properties and riglits wliich she relin- 
 quishes. 
 
 We will look at tlie question witfi the absolute impar- 
 tiatiality we have hitlicrto observed and we hope to be 
 able to show the unavoidable obligation that the State 
 which acquires sovereingty transmitted to it by another 
 has of assuming all the debts which radicate in it and 
 were lawfully acquired by it. 
 
— 1!) — 
 
 In support of tliis theory 1 will meniioii : I' tjio 
 fiindaiiiciitiil pi'iiiciplcs oT intcrnntionnl ];nv ;iii(l ilio sound 
 jin-idiciil doctrine of its most eminent MUthors ; 2" flic 
 constant practice of .ill nations which on con(;ludin,i;- 
 treaties with others, have respected their good name, 
 and liave not bemin their international existence by des- 
 |)oilinf;- their ennemy ; 3" the pccnliar character of the 
 (lights now weiiihinii- on the Islands which have been 
 relinqiiislied, and on the Pliilippines, and \" the excep- 
 tional circumstances under which these territories are to 
 pass into the possession of the United States. 
 
 ^^'e will look at lioth these aspects separately. 
 
 I. — The principle of natui\al law « res transit cum sno 
 onere » has been applied by the most eminent authors 
 on international law, to all cases of change of sovereignty, 
 whether this cliange arises from a cession or relinrpiish- 
 ment agreed upon in a treaty of peace, or wiiether it is 
 the consecuence of a conquest. 
 
 A. G. Hetrter, the eminent professor of the University 
 of Berlin, in accorrlance with the views expressed by 
 Grotius, Pufendorf, Wlieaton, Leonardi Blumschli and 
 Pliillimore, says in his woi^k « International law of 
 Europe » (Berlin 1883, pages 25 and 72) : (( Public domi- 
 (( nion together w ith the charges affected to it, belong 
 « to the State which succeeds the previous one in it. 
 « That is why it is said that the new treasury succeeds 
 « the old one imivcrsnllii not onlv in all its rii-hts but in 
 u all its obligations. In case of a partition (of territories) 
 « a division will be made proportional to each dismen- 
 « bered part. » 
 
 These prineiples of public law were put into edect by 
 the faculties of law of Kiel and Breslaii in the famous 
 
— 20 — 
 
 settlement of the question of the dominion of the Electo- 
 rate of Hesse (1823) : 
 
 (( Tlie charges which weigh upon a territory, (the 
 <( erudite professor goes on to say), subsist under the 
 « new sovereign. No one can confer on another more 
 « rights than he possesses, nor by its acts make the rights 
 (( of a tliird suffer. If the cession or aleniation consist in 
 (( a portion of the territory, the charges ^^•hich weigli 
 (' upon the Avhole will be apportioned (unless something 
 « to the contrary is stipulated) amongst the various 
 (( divided parts formed, except such undividible charges, 
 (I as the so called guaranteed loans, recognized as such 
 « b}^ diplomatic customs. » 
 
 It is convenient to our object to state here what this 
 author, in accordance with all those M'ho have treated 
 this subject, understands by guaranteed loans. 
 
 In page n" 71 of his work, he describes the processes 
 of aleniation of public property which are allowed to a 
 Sovereign by law, and third in tlie list he mentions the 
 mortgage or pledge of public lands, A\hich A\as very 
 much in use in former times, and savs : « But international 
 « customs have replaced this species of obligation />»;/ f/w 
 « .special affecl')on of certain properties or rents to the pay- 
 « nient of loans contracted In/ the State, loans which in 
 (( order to be valid, must have been realized in confor- 
 « mance with the laws of the State that contracts them. 
 (( Diplomatic language recognizes also under the denomi- 
 (( nation of guaranteed loans, those contracted for the 
 « benefit of a country or special region, and it is unders- 
 « food that an obligation of a permanent character 
 « weighs upon them, without adding in an}' waj' to 
 (( them the significance of a civil mortgage. » This same 
 
— 21 — 
 
 theory is expoimdfMl and apulu'd bv 1). Haas (Division of 
 the debts of States — IJonn, 1831), Leonliardi and i-lniniin^- 
 hans (DiLiest of <i('rnianic law). 
 
 Another authoriiy uii ihis matter, M;irt(Mis, jirofessor 
 at the University of Saint-Petersburg, establishes thf sauK.' 
 doetrine (International Law, 1'' vol. p. 369) : <( When 
 « a state annexes a foreign territory » lie says, <( itassn- 
 (( mes charge of the active and passive debts of the ter- 
 « ritorv annexed, in international law there can be no 
 (( benefit of inventory. The State which inherits can not 
 « iniijose tlie condition of only accepting the active 
 « obligations and refusing the passive ones. It must 
 (( accept all the obligations of the territory which has 
 « been annoxed, and is held bound to the payment of 
 (( its debts interets, and mortgages, according to the 
 (( l.iws bv ^^•]li(•ll thev are regulated. » 
 
 M. Kivier, professor at the university of Brussels, 
 and one of the most respected of modern authorities on 
 international l.iw, is also in favour of this doctrine, to- 
 gether with Cabonat (on the annexion of territories) 
 Selosse, Appleton, Alessandro ('orsi, Martens, already 
 referred to, Hartman, Calvo and Fiori who advocate 
 equally in pro of this theory. 
 
 There is a small group of authors however, ui a dill'c- 
 rent opinion as regards the apportionate division of so- 
 called n.itional debts, who n)aintain thnt whilst tho dis- 
 meml)('red State preserves its identity, either in the case 
 of the transfer to another State of a province,', or of such 
 .■I j)rovince becoming independent, the national debt 
 should continue intef?rallv affected to the; state which 
 ])reserves its personality. 
 
 These authors sustain this doctrine on the itrinciple 
 of the essentially personal character of an obligation. 
 
— 22 — 
 
 Applying as they do, to nations, ilie precepts of civil law, 
 there is no doubt that the personality does not chanore, 
 and does not lose its character as such, nor do the obli- 
 gations ail'ected to it diminish in the least, by the alenia- 
 tion of all or part of its patrimonial domains. 
 
 Apart from the fact that this view of the question 
 cannot be applied to the Spanish Colonies, as will be 
 shown later on, the error of these authors is evident. 
 
 They affirm tliat the State is a different entity to tlie 
 nation, whereas the first is merely the public life and 
 total personification of the second ; therefore its perso- 
 nality sufl'ers a change, tlie identity or integrity, of the 
 State cannot continue if tlie nation suffers important 
 dismemberments. 
 
 The authors Avho support this doctrine are Hall, Cla- 
 retien and Dudley Field, but the force of the theory we 
 have exposed imposes itself so forcibly, that Hall himself 
 acknowledges « that when part of a nation becomes 
 c< independent it has the moral if not the legal duty to 
 « pay a proportional part of the debt contracted with a 
 « national character by the primitive State. » 
 
 The American Author Dudley Field, who as I have 
 mentioned, belongs to this group, cannot help contra- 
 dicting himself and in the first lines of his International 
 Code , chapter 3°, page 23, says « that Avhen part of the 
 (( territory of a nation is annexed bv cession or otherwise 
 (( to the territory of another, this one assumes by this 
 <( fact all the obligations which correspond to tlie nation 
 « whose territory has been annexed. » 
 
 We may therefore I think, assume that the legal doc- 
 trine upon the matter, is as follows : 
 
 « The duty to assume and pay all the local charges 
 
which l(\ii"itinial('lv iiiijyoscil wciuh iijioii .-i rclinqiiisliod 
 territory or one that becomes indt^pcMidcnl, must neces- 
 sarily i)ass wiih the Sovereignty of the nation, whicli 
 anotiier nation inherits, or wliich is comjnered In' a 
 State whieii emancipates itself; as well as the gnaranteed 
 debts allected to certain domains and the revenncs of the 
 same, and a })ro|)ortional part of the national Debt, cor- 
 responding ;;/'0 rata rerjioms to the jiart lost by tlie dis- 
 membered State. )) 
 
 To snpport the contrary wonld be to come into inter- 
 national life sanctioning a despoliation by force ; hence 
 the great Neumann saying in his immortal political study 
 on nations. « The political emancipation of a people is a 
 (c historical fact which is legitimized l)y public law, when 
 « it takes place witliout olTending the rights of other 
 « States; and when tlie dismembered part acijuires an 
 « independent and certain existence, it enters into the 
 (t international community assuming a proportionate part 
 « of the obligations of the old State. )>. 
 
 We \\ill now without further comments, end the 
 exposition of the constituent law referring to these mat- 
 ters, and \\ill pass to show that international law has 
 positively sanctioned by practice these same principles. 
 
 11. — These precepts of public law, the eminently 
 democratic and civilizing character of whicli is apparent 
 to every one, were scrupulously respected by the Flmperor 
 Napoleon, ^^•]^cn as member of the Directoire, he signed 
 the Treaty of Campo-Formio on October 17" 1797, and 
 later on those of Luneville and Paris, sanctioned respec- 
 tively on the 9"' of February and the 2i"' of August 1801. 
 In all three of them, as well as in all w hich were instru- 
 mental to the peace of Eiu'ope after the Imperial wars. 
 
24 
 
 and wliicli were concluded in virtue of tlie stipulations 
 of the Congress of Viena, it is established that all local 
 mortgages, imposed on territories whose sovereignty 
 changes or which assume the capacities of independent 
 States, are to be recognized and paid by the new Sove- 
 
 reign. 
 
 This Congress, which has doubtless been the inter- 
 national instrument, which has given rise to most changes 
 of Sovereignty in modern Europe, established for ever 
 this principle of eternal justice in its 21"' article (Protocol 
 of May 30'" 1814) : « The debts specially guaranteed in 
 (( their origin by tliose territories which no longer belong 
 (( to France, or which were contracted bv its internal 
 (( administration, are to continue affected to the same 
 « territories. » 
 
 All tlie nations wliicli carried out by means of partial 
 Treaties the conventions of the Congress, applied that law, 
 and although the 14 Treaties which were signed contain 
 it in full and therefore render it useless to us to insert it 
 here, we cannot but call attention to article IX of Partial 
 Treaty n° 4, which is the one between Prussia and Saxony 
 concluded in Viena on the 18'" May 1815, which says : 
 (( The debts specially guaranteed and affected to the pro- 
 « vinces ^^•hicli pass or remain under the same sove- 
 (( reignty will be under the charge of the Government to 
 (( which the provinces belong. Respecting the debts of 
 « provinces which in part remain under the sovereignty 
 (( of the king of Saxony, as well as those which corres- 
 « pond to the Kingdom in general, the following pre- 
 (( cepts are established. 
 
 (( A difference will be made between the debts for 
 « the payment of whose capitals or interests special rents 
 « or products may have been assigned : and those which 
 
« arc not in this case. Tin' lirsi will pass with the rents 
 
 « or i'evemios,RO that thcv will he assumed hy the Trea- 
 
 <( siiries of each Suvt'rci,i:ii iiovcriiincnt in i>roi»ortion to 
 
 (( the ainouut jxM'ceived by each of LhcdisnicmhcriMJ i.-r- 
 
 « i'it()ri(\s. » 
 
 The article goes on to estahhsh rides for tiie propor- 
 tionate division of the dehts wliich have not a special se- 
 curity affected to them lor their payment, and ends by 
 savini:!' : « The pledges or securities redeemed by the 
 <( [layment of the debts wbicli they guaranteed, will be 
 « returned to the provinces to whicli tlie said j)ledges 
 (( belonged. » 
 
 It is impossible to furnish more details for the aj)pli- 
 cation of the legal doctrine exposed in the foregoiu": par- 
 rairranh. 
 
 \Vhen Denmark obtained its complete autonomy, 
 it assumed and recognized the public Debt correspond inii' 
 to its territorv, which \\as created bv the king of 
 Sweeden, with whom the Treaty was being contracted, 
 on the ll"" of .lannary IS 14. It also aprreed to pay the 
 public Debt contracted l)y the Roy;d Pomeranian Chamber, 
 as the future Sovereign of Swedish Pomerania (articles 6 
 and 10). 
 
 Later on, by article 13 of the Treaty signed in 1839 
 betwen Helgium :\\v\ Holland, the lirst of these Powers 
 agreed to pay o millions of llorins a year for the portion 
 of Dutch Debts contracted in 1815 and 1830. 
 
 Sardinia according to the Treaty of Zurich of 1859, 
 assumed jiart of the Austro-Lombardian Debt, as well as 
 a considerable part of the national loan of 185 'i, and a 
 
— 26 — 
 
 proportionate part of this debt passed also to France, 
 when Nice and Savoy were obtained by her on August 
 23" 1860. 
 
 The Treaty signed in Viena by Denmark, Austria and 
 Prussia on the 30th October 1864, apportioned the pubhc 
 debt of Denmark amongst this Nation and the Duchies ; 
 and these (the Duchies) specially stipulated (art. 17) that 
 the new government a\ as to inherit all the rights and all 
 the charges arising from contracts legally made by the 
 king of Denmark. 
 
 The Papal Debt was apportioned in the same wa}^ 
 between France and Italv on the 7th December 1866; 
 and on the 10th of May 1871, in the Treaty between 
 Germany and France, which is the one in whicli the 
 conquered foe has been most hardly treated, an analogous 
 question to that which is now^ occupying public opinion, 
 was discussed. 
 
 Prince Bismark demanded of the French government 
 that it should discharge the obligations weighing on the 
 i-ailroad which crossed the territories that had been relin- 
 quished, which was a local debt, and comprised tlie group 
 of those we have been speaking about, but in spite of 
 the firm position of the conquerors, an intelligence was 
 arrived at in article 21 of tlie Treat^'. Germanv agrees 
 to pay to France the sum of 325 millions of francs, and 
 the latter is to liquidate the charges in question. • 
 
 The last Treaty Avhich has been signed in Europe, 
 the Treaty of Berlin of 1878, in its articles 9, 33 and 42 
 adjudges to Bulgaria, Montenegro and Servia, the first 
 of which had received its independence from Turkey^ and 
 the other two w^hicli had increased their domains, the 
 payment of a portion of the Ottoman debt corresponding 
 
— 'Jl — 
 
 ill f.-iir pro|iortioii to lmcIi of tlu- tciTitorir-^ w Iiidi li.id 
 ht'cii (lisin('iii1)(M'<'(l. 
 
 \\V will coiiiplt'ic tills r()iir»ii skcMcli of tlir cnniiiu;! ot 
 iMirojic in rt'lcrciico to this important matter, In inciitio- 
 iiiiiL!' two vcrv sii:nilic;uit facts wliidi corroborate the 
 respect with w hicli even the hardest conqueror has alwa.vs 
 looked upon the subse(iuent valichty of delits imposed on 
 tei'ritories whose SovereiiJ:nty suiters a chan.Lic. 
 
 By quoting- one of them we w ill sliow that even in 
 the case of the debt liaving lieen created by an usiirjier 
 or by some one occupying the territory mnni/ militari, it 
 is recofiii/ed b^- t]i(> Monarcli on recoverinL:- his leaiti- 
 mate Sovereignty. 
 
 After tlie destruction of the kingdom of Westphalia 
 wliich had been created by the Emperor Napoleon for his 
 brother Jerome an<l which lasted? years, by the congre- 
 gation of several States, amongst which was the Electo- 
 rate of Hesse, when the Elector returned to his States, 
 he was nnaljle to enforce his pretension to ignore Uic 
 debts created by the previous Government. (Martens 
 vol. .Sp. 312.) 
 
 The secontl facts A\e are about to quote cori'oborate 
 the theorv on which the first is founded. Prussia, without 
 attending eitlier to external demands, or even to the 
 considerations which certain opinions are entitled to 
 during the elaboration of a Treatv, when it abolished bv 
 its famous law of September 22d J8GG the independence 
 of Ilannvi'i', the Electorate of Hesse, the duchy of Nassau 
 and the town of Frankfort-on-Mein, volinitarily declared 
 its willini^^ness to assume everv kind ot debt which these 
 States might have contracted during their independence. 
 (Martens 1st vol. p.. TO.) 
 
 The sj»anish Colonies in America which conquered 
 
— 28 — 
 
 their liberty bv their own impulse, recognized ^^■itllout 
 exception the debts which Avere particularly affected to 
 each of them, and which had been created by the Sove- 
 reign State, by virtue of the laws which authorized it to 
 do so, as can be seen by the 11 Treaties which were 
 signed to this effect from 1836 to 1870. 
 
 The United States have up to the present been of the 
 same opinion. If we examine carefully all the conven- 
 tions and Protocols of the Union, from that of North 
 Carolina and Rhode Island in 1790, to that of Colorado 
 in 1875, Ave Avill notice, as M"" Nolte, obserA^es, (History 
 of the United States) that in each of them the greatest 
 respect to contracts and obligations stipulated or con- 
 tracted bv the State or colon v which was added, Avas 
 observed ; tlie respect of the principle consigned in ar- 
 ticle 7 of their constitution Avhich stipulates that : « Every 
 « debt contracted and cA^ery promise or contract made by 
 (( anv State, will be considered valid bv the United 
 States. )) 
 
 And so it had to be. Long ago the precepts of interna- 
 tional laAv, if not moral laAv itself, upon which they are 
 founded, imposed themselves on the government of the 
 Union. 
 
 President Tyler in his famous Message to the Cham- 
 bers in 1844, remarked upon the socalled annexion of 
 Texas : 
 
 (( We cannot honesily take the territories A\ithout 
 takmg up the complete payment of all the debts \\\i\\ 
 which they are charged. » 
 
 There is not a doubt that the Federal Government 
 never forgot those words, for although in the Treaty of 
 the annexion of Texas, it is not categoricall}' stated that 
 
— 20 — 
 
 the Unitod States hound themselves to the payment of its 
 (U'hls, wliich ihen nnionntefl to ahont .S 10,0110, (MX), it 
 is a lac! I hat they abandoned in tavonr of the annexed 
 territories tiie property of tiio free lands whi' li accordinix 
 to the l.iw of the Kepnhlic, correspond by right to the 
 State, so Tiiat Texas might attend to the payment of its 
 debts. 
 
 Tliis in itself is an acknowledgement, l)nt there is 
 more : The congress of the States answered the claims of 
 the Texan creditors who were not paid, because the 
 value of the lands was not sufficient, on account of the 
 slowness of its commercial ])rogression, by voting on 
 February 25'" 1885, 7 12 million dollars for their pay- 
 ment, and the debt was liquidated by resolution of the 
 rhambers (September 185!) — 5. V.S. Stato at large 797). 
 
 It is worthy of note to consign that although it does 
 not appear so in the Protocol which was signed ad hoc, 
 until this date on which her debts were paid, Texas did 
 not abandon her claims to certain frontiers on the United 
 States. 
 
 The shortness of these notes prevents otir insisting 
 upon this particular point as we would have wished to, 
 bv mentioning some of the arguments adduced by the 
 creditors before the Parliament, which limit themselves 
 to the application of the principle exposed in our parra- 
 graph n ' I, but what has been said is enough to show 
 that the United States, thotigh refusing to do so at first, 
 could not help following the ride established by President 
 Tyler. 
 
 This is why doubtless, on the occasion of the inter- 
 vention of the United States as arbitrers in the contention 
 between Chile and Peru, after the lattiM- had been con- 
 quered, the state department of the Union resnlv.-d that 
 
— 30 — 
 
 Chile ought to respect and fulfil all the obligationes 
 which Aveighed on the territories Avhich it obtained and 
 which had been imposed on them by peruvian laws. 
 
 The peace which was signed with Mexico on February 
 20"' 1848, Avas but a corroboration of the same theory. 
 By its articles 13 and 14, the United States agree to the 
 payment of the mexican debt, Avhich was recognized 
 in the conventions of 1839 and 1843, in favour of the 
 citizens of both countries, adding to it also, without 
 any limit, the amount of the claims wliich were pending, 
 or might rise before the signing of the Treaty. Tlie 
 Treaty does not state the total amount of what Avas paid 
 on this occasion, on this account, though reliable infor- 
 mation gives it at ^' 15,000,000; but it does say in arti- 
 cle 15 that the debt alone recognized in favour of tlie 
 Mexicans amounted to 3 1/4 millions of dollars, Avhich 
 the United States agreed to pay, and did pay very shortly 
 after. 
 
 From all these remarks, AAdiich have perhaps been too 
 detailed, it is evident, that in every case, whether it is 
 one of conquest, AAdiether it is a peaceful agreement, whether 
 there has been absolute submission, whether contracting 
 personally or for a third, whether the change of sove- 
 reignty is due to the more or less free Avill of the tAvo 
 Parts, or Avhether it owes its origin to the demands of 
 one of them, under the form of a laAV and Avhether the 
 debts have been created by the legitimate sovereign or 
 by the usurper; the duty of the succeeding sovereign to 
 assume and pay the debts created by his predecessor in the 
 territory Avhich is transferred, has been always recognized. 
 
 in. — FolloAving the order Ave have marked out, let us 
 see if the Colonial debts of Spain, and specially the Cuban 
 
— :ii — 
 
 one, liavo nil the cliaracters wliidi tli<' doctrine we have 
 exponndcd (Ii'Hi.iikIs, for tlieir rccoLmitioii and assump- 
 tion l)v flic siiccec(liii^- soverei'^ii. 
 
 fi) These debts niusf in thoir ()riL!in lio le^iiiiniafe, th;it 
 is created in accordance with the laws of the State which 
 contracts tiieni. 
 
 /f) As re.Liai'ds their object they must be devoted to 
 useful and necesary |)ur|>oses in the country w ich is to 
 pay ilu>m. 
 
 c) As to the nature of them, they can either lie natio- 
 nal without any special security, orguaranteeil when spe- 
 cial rents or products of the relinquished territory are 
 all'ected to tlie payment of their capital ;iuil interests. 
 
 A. — I do not think that there have ever been any doubts 
 raised on the soverei.i^nty of Spain and of its government 
 over Cuba nnd the other Antilles which she is now about 
 TO lose. The United States themselves have ;il\\;iys reco- 
 gnized it, as we have abready stated in another place. 
 Hence, as their sovereign, the Spanish State has not only 
 had rlie right, hut the dutv to contract all ihe lonns that 
 may have been necesary for the good government, pro- 
 gress ;tnd prosperity of its subjects, whieh ;ire the |)rin- 
 cipal if not the only objects a Sovereign has ro fuhill. 
 
 This Spain has always done, subject to all the requi- 
 sites established hv the laws of its monarch v, and in accor- 
 dance with the purest constitutional principles. 
 
 Tli(* lii|uidation of all sorts of debts of the Island, 
 their consolidation, conversion and creation, liave been 
 authorized by laws vote<l in the Cortes, where th<' An- 
 tilles were fidly represented, and these resolutions of the 
 sovereign le-jisl.itive powei- wen* put into etTect by means 
 
of Royal Decrees emanating from the Executive, as the 
 Spanisli Constitution requires. 
 
 Tluis we see that the consoUdation of the debts of the 
 Cuban treasury is accorded by a Law dated June 5"" 1880. 
 
 A small redeemable debt at 3 p °/o interest was 
 created for the conversion of the previous one, by a law of 
 July 7"' 1882. The first issue of the guaranteed debt is agreed 
 upon and carried out, with the security of certain colo- 
 nial rents of Avhich we wiU speak later on, in virtue of a 
 law of 13 June 1885 and the Royal Decrees for its exe- 
 cution of I\Iay 10'" 1896. 
 
 A Law dated 18"' June 1890 ordains the second issue 
 of this class of bonds, in order to convert part of the 
 previous ones, and to pay the deficits of previous and 
 future Budgets of Cuba, and this issue was effected by 
 Royal Decree of 2T September 1890. 
 
 The laws of August 6'" 1893 and July 11'" 1894, autho- 
 rize the negotiation of these bonds, in order to do away 
 Avith the deficits of former Budgets. 
 
 The insurrection of 1895 breaks out and the Govern- 
 ment goes to the Cortes, where it obtains unlimited credit 
 to suppress it. And when all the ressources Avhich the 
 emission of 1890 produced haA^e been consumed (huvs of 
 14'" and 28'" June 1895, 28'" and 29'" June 1896), Spain has 
 to accomplish the sacrifice of pledging her OAvn revenues 
 to attend to the campain; authorized by a laAV of July 
 10'" 1896, she issues and negotiates the Loan on her 
 customs, according to Royal Decrees of the 5'", 9'" and 
 20'" of November of the same year, 7'" May 1897 and 
 7'" January 1898. Finally, a Royal Decree of April 2'^ of 
 this year, creates a small Cuban debt on the security of 
 various Peninsular revenues. 
 
 Public order in the Philippine Islands having been 
 
— 33 — 
 
 disturbed, tlie povernnient is authorized by a law of June 
 10"' 1S97, for the issue of a debt guaranteed by tlic 
 seeuritv of tliose Customs, w hieji weiLfhs on tli<; Ai*ehi- 
 piela<^o, and tiiis issue was autiiuri/ed Ijv Uo\al Decrees 
 and Orders oi •2><''' June and 23'' and 25'" of July of the same 
 year. 
 
 1 have therefore stated the le-.'al texts on whicli tlie 
 colonial debts of Spain, as well as part of her national 
 ones art' founded, the {product of \\hieh has been dedi- 
 cated in the later periods to the maintainment of order in 
 Cuba and the Philippnies. Can any one say that these debts 
 have not been legitimately created? 
 
 Perhaps it will be argued through ignorance or male- 
 volence, and owing to the deplorable Avant of informa- 
 tion of everytlung connected with the public life of Spain, 
 which is so general, specially with regards to her posses- 
 sions in the Caribbeean Sea, that these debts have not been 
 legitimately contracted, because the colony has not directly 
 intervened with its vote, in their contraction and issue 
 but on the contrary has had them imposed by force by 
 the Metropolis and its Authorities. 
 
 Although this is a very poor argument, only to be met 
 with in the columns of very inferior publications, 
 it is as well to consign here that it is founded on an absolute 
 falsehood : which is very dangerous, for based as it is on 
 democratic jjrinciples, it tries to find a harbour in the 
 minds of some who give an implicit credit to this species 
 of declamatory outpouring. 
 
 We put entirely on one side the loans of a j)ublic cha- 
 racter which weighed ujion the Colonies of Spain before 
 the constitutional government, and those which actually 
 weigh on the Philippine Islands, and wliieh were con- 
 tracted or imposed by the Authorities of these Colonies, 
 
— 34 — 
 
 authorities who by this mere fact assumed the represen- 
 tation of central Power and supreme sovereignty in these 
 Islands. 
 
 The others which now exist in Cuba, and which 
 have taken the place of the old ones, according to the 
 modern financial systems employed by Spain have either 
 been created with the solemn assent of the legislative 
 Powder given in the Cortes, and with all the Constitu- 
 tional requisites which are necessary, or by disposition of 
 the local authorities. In both cases, public law shows 
 that the Colony itself has intervened in the imposition of 
 these charges, for not only in the Cortes where she has 
 been represented by her Deputies and Senators, but in its 
 own soil, and by means of her lawful authorities, she has, 
 according to the law established the obligations which 
 now occupy us. 
 
 And it must not be said that any particular Senator 
 or Deputy has opposed the creation of the debts, on this 
 or the other ground, for it is a fact that not one of 
 them has ever protested in the name of Cuba, and the 
 resolution relating to the issue of its bonds was passed 
 in both Chambers with an absolute majority, which in a 
 representative system represents the legal truth. Whilst 
 the discussion is going on, any opinion may be put for- 
 ward, but once the resolution has been voted, that vote 
 is the one and only law, with all the qualities that render 
 it incontrovertible. 
 
 On what ground then is it said that Cuba had no 
 voice in the creation of these debts ? What do those who 
 sustain this think that Cuba is ? How was its vote to be 
 solicited and its voice to be heard ? The political system 
 of the country could not very w^ell be radically changed 
 merely for the creation of these loans. Cuba was heard 
 
— 35 — 
 
 freely, in the onlv manner established by Spanisji laws, 
 ;m<\ her free vote was solicited, in ilic only wny in which 
 it \\;is pnssihl(» foi- her to give it. 
 
 Oi" is it a condition >vV?^' '///o nnn flint in order that a 
 loan niav be instihahle and rii^iirfni it is necessary for the 
 State which creates it to monld itself to the practices of 
 the people who in the futnre may intend to annex the 
 Colony: or to the political rnle which in the fnture that 
 Colony when independent, may adopt? Let us admit that 
 this would be askini; for too much'prevision on the part 
 of a Sovereign State. 
 
 Lastly, Ave see that in order to repudiate these loans, 
 on the "-round of the ninnner in which thev were crea- 
 ted, it would be necessary to prove that the precepts 
 marked by Spanish legislation had not been observed 
 when they were created, wliether those who repudiate 
 them agree or not with the political principle to which 
 these laws may respond. A Sovereign's intervening more 
 or less directly in the alTairs of his people and of his Colo- 
 nies, does not in the least alter the eflicacv and nature 
 of the acts arising from the Power of Sovei-eingty, if, as 
 is at present the case, tliey are adjusted to the precepts of 
 its Constitution. 
 
 It is useless further to discuss this first point, wliich 
 has only occupied us for the purpose of showing up these 
 absurd arguments, the sincerety and good faith of which 
 is extremely doubtful. 
 
 {li) The debts, therefore, contracted for Cuba Ity the 
 Sovereign Sjjanish Nation, are legitimate in their ori- 
 gin, and they also possess to abundance the second qua- 
 lity, which the most exacting authors demand, in order 
 that their existence and pavment mav be necessarilv reco- 
 
— 36 — 
 
 gnized by the new or succeeding Sovereign, in the 
 Greater Antille, namely that they have been dedicated to 
 necessary and useful purposes. 
 
 In this respect facts have frequently been misrepre- 
 sented in the most lamentable manner, and every sort of 
 accusation has been made against the capital, making it 
 appear, very unjustly, in my opinion, against her most 
 favourite Colony. 
 
 It must be said that rather than Colonies, Cuba and 
 Porto Rico Avere two privileged Spanish Provmces. Be- 
 sides having granted to them all the political and civil 
 liberty which Spain itself enjoys, including their repre- 
 sentation in Parliament, which the majority of the English 
 Colonies even, do not yet possess, Spain has also devoted 
 not only its continual attention to the financial develop- 
 ment of the Greater Antille, but also a part of its own 
 Treasury. 
 
 It is not necessary to recall the many occasions on 
 which the mother country has come to a compromise 
 with the Antilles even on points in which Colonial inte- 
 rests were opposed to those of the Peninsula, but I will, 
 nevertheless point out some of these cases in order that 
 their tendency and importance may be judged. 
 
 When peace had been settled with France and Ferdi- 
 nand YII was restablished on the throne of Spain, the 
 famous royal Cliarters relative to the protection of the 
 white race and support of free commerce, were granted; 
 this measure opened the Island and its ports to people of 
 every country and to universal commerce, changing com- 
 pletely the life of that part of the Spanish territories, 
 and rendering unnecessary the pecuniary assistence 
 whicli it had constantly required, so that the « .sliuado 
 
— M7 — 
 
 nntml » which had uji to that thiic wcitilied on the M<»\i- 
 can Trcasurv for this purpose, was stopped. 
 
 Tiianl^s to tliosc 'reforms ('ul)a hocaiiic tlic ridi and 
 (Iniii-isliini^- eoimtrv wliioh Ave all know, and it attained 
 snt'h ;i j^rade of development, tha< fhc (^ tithe » (fliezmo) 
 applied hy fhe Treasury to the general expenses of the 
 .\ntillt' and a small tax of 2 and 4 p. "\,on rural and town 
 pi'operties, was found to suffice for its expenses, and tlic 
 Cuban Treasury had always f^ 3,000,000 as a reserve 
 fund. 
 
 The financial crisis which in the middle of this cen- 
 tury affected all the world hy tlie ruinous failures of Tom- 
 panie's by shares and the disastrous tinancial system oi 
 association to obtain riches in America and in the Spanish 
 Antilles were enouj^h to produce the first desiquilibrium 
 in that model administration. 
 
 The increase of the naval and military budgets, made 
 necessary by some tilil)ustering movements, the menace 
 of the extinction of slavery, shortly to be realized, and 
 the closing of several of the Antillian sugar markets, 
 were causes which althouiih aiiainst the wishes of the 
 Capital, pro<luced to the greatest extent, the damage which 
 had begun some years previously. 
 
 Public o]iiuion having been stirred up in Cuba, the 
 Spanish Covcrnment occupied itself about the increase of 
 labor hands, it suppressed the negro trade, it authorized 
 an ample introduction of Chinese] workmen, and congre- 
 gated in Madrid Delegates from the Antilles, in its desire 
 to hear them and to cooperate to the welfareof the colony. 
 In those meetings the most essential points of Cuban and 
 Porto Rican administration were en<iuired into and settled, 
 such as the inmigration into the Islands, the most favou- 
 
— 38 — 
 
 rable Treaties of Commerce, the change of the system 
 of taxes to one more in harmony with their requirements, 
 and also as to how the constitutional principle, that the 
 Colonial Provinces were to be ruled by^special laws, was 
 to be put into effect. 
 
 In 1868 the abolition of slavery was prepared and at 
 last accomplished without producing the disturbances 
 whicli it had elsewhere produced (of which the most ap- 
 parent is the war of Secession which broke out in the 
 United States on the occasion of this humane reform). 
 And if at the time the exigencies of war obliged the taxes 
 to be raised, after the pacification of the Island they have 
 been reduced to such an extent, that to day it pays, less, 
 under every heading than the most favoured european 
 nation in this respect. 
 
 The Cuban Deputies, in 1882, desirous of increasing 
 their markets in the Peninsula as well as their coasting 
 trade, obtained the famous law of a relations », and it 
 was passed much to the detriment of the national Trea- 
 sury, although there were some articles, which had to be 
 necessarily protected for they constituted the wealth of 
 large regions in Spain, which were excluded. 
 
 France has never done anything like this with her 
 colonies and much less England who from a commercial 
 point of view treats hers as strangers. And still less 
 Holland, who exploits hers in the notorious w^ay she 
 does. 
 
 After 1884, the sugar market for the Antilles having 
 been reduced to that of the United States, and as Cuba 
 feared that Nation w^ould impose its law^ on this parti- 
 cular, the government of the Metropolis avails itself of 
 every mean proposed by the Deputies of the Antilles to save 
 the situation, with an evident and certain prejudice to the 
 
— MO — 
 
 commerce of the Pcnisiila ; .in<l .uranted in <'xclianf,^e for 
 tlie nou application I>v ili.' I'nited States of an extraor- 
 (linarv inipoit diiiv whicli their ParUameni h.nl vot^d lor 
 Cuhan sugars, hcn.'lii of the sp;nii>h ll.ii:, lirsl foi* tlie 
 pro(hicls and ;d'l(M-\vanls for slups i)i'oceeding from 
 tlicir ports; and at the same time tlie lhid<,^et of war 
 of tlie Greater Antillc was decreased, more than was 
 prndcnt, as the events ^vhicll to-day embitter the life of 
 the Spanish nation have come to show. The Bndget of 
 Kxpenses was despoiled of everything tliat was not of an 
 inmediate and necessary character, and amoni;st other 
 very imi)ortant revennes, the export duty on sugar was 
 suppressed. 
 
 To end the story, a Treaty of Commerce is negotiated 
 with the United States lor the benefit of Cuba and Porto 
 Piico exclusively, a Treaty which destroyed amongst others, 
 the Spanish Hour industry, which had for many years 
 been the source of w«\alth of a large territory in the Pe- 
 ninsula. 
 
 All these events are apparent in the Budgets, and wa^ 
 will only ({uote ono figure to put the finishing touch on 
 the picture of sacrifices and i)rotection of Spain to one 
 which was of her most privileged provinces. 
 
 The Buduet of Kxpenses which in 1882 amounted 
 to ,$35,860,249, and that of the revenues whicii amounted 
 to $ 36.248.300, were in 10 years only, reduced 
 ,$21,914,577 and,$ 21.946.356 respectively : audit has 
 been curious to notice that even during the war and with 
 tlie natural increase of expenses and conse<iuent ditliculty 
 in the collection of taxes, these figures have altered very 
 little : the Budget of Revenues in 1897 amounts to 
 ,$ 24.640.759 and the Expenses to .$ 26.037. 39i. 
 
 One can realize better still the continual improvement 
 
— 40 — 
 
 and decrease of taxes and expenses, by taking the average 
 every ten years, during tlie period in which the econo- 
 mical progress of Cuba took place. The Budget of reve- 
 nues and expenses from 1870 to 1880 was on an average 
 ^ 40.100.000, from 1889 to the present it is ^ 24.100.000. 
 
 These official facts published in the partial budgets 
 which the Spanish Cortes have passed, are of incontes- 
 table authority, and are naturallj" explained by the enor- 
 mous decrease which thanks to the laws voted in the 
 Peninsula Cuban taxes have suffered. 
 
 Inmovable rustic and town property had been contri- 
 buting since 1875 in the same proportion which served 
 as a type in the Peninsula, and these taxes have been 
 gradually decreasing, until to-day town property in the 
 Island only pays 12 p. 0/0 and rustic 2 p. without any 
 class of distinction of what the taxed cultivation is, 
 whilst in Spain 28 and 29 p. 0/0 is paid by each respec- 
 tively. 
 
 The taxes on trades, commerce, arts, professions, 
 passports, patents, etc. do not amount to 1 % as a rule, 
 and certainly never exceed this modic amount. 
 
 Thanks to this system of taxation and to the constant 
 beneficent mfluence of protective laws, Cuba obtained 
 an enormous development in the years which preceded 
 the last insurrection : and the picture of the supposed 
 rapacity, tirany and absorbing egotism of the Spanish 
 government, should be completed by mentioning the enor- 
 mous expenses which the construction of its public works, 
 models of their class, supposes. Canals and ports have 
 been made, 1,000 kilometres of railways laid down, com- 
 munications of every kind have been established, land 
 and submarine cables have been laid, and subventioned 
 by the State ; the cultivations which to-day exist in the 
 
— il — 
 
 Island wore iuii-odiicod and extended, one of which isfhc 
 suf^arcnne wliieh isa plant forei«4n to that /one: immense 
 jinhlic ItuilduiLrs, miHIary defenses, nrsenals, and docks 
 have been hiiiU, and in L;eneral all that si<:ni(ies the fje- 
 velopment of otieial financial life in the (Ireater Antillc, 
 which in nianv |iaiMiculars can he presented as a model 
 even to Hnrojie. 
 
 If it was a devastated tei-ritory, if it did not possess 
 already, thanks to the efforts of Spain everything:: that 
 causes it to rank amon^'-st the most advanced and pro- 
 dnclive Colonies in America, it would certainlv not bo so 
 ambition(M|, nor would the United States have imposed 
 on themselves the painful sacrifice of wresting it from 
 Spanish dominion in order to aid it and jirotect it undei* 
 their liiimane llaii". 
 
 Fortunately for all, the state of culture and advance- 
 ment of that peo})le will certainly avoid the necessity of 
 the Federal government putting its colonizing practices 
 info efl'ect, which have caused the in habitants of the 
 territories they have annexed to disajtpear rajiidly before 
 the advance of their great civilization. 
 
 All the reforms efl'ected l»y i he Metropolis, in the shape 
 of reducing the taxes, and decreasing the Estimates in 
 every particular on which an economy could he introdu- 
 ced, gave as a necessary result that the Cuban' Budgets 
 since the year 1880 have been lirpiidated w ith enormous 
 deficits, without including the expenses involved h\- the 
 warof lS()8.and the present insurrection which In-oke out 
 at Baire in lS9r). 
 
 It should be remarked, that when we refer to Cid)aii 
 budgets, we do so to the special budgets of the Island : 
 for it is well known that the administrative and financial 
 systeiu always jtursued by Spain, allows the financial life 
 
— 42 — 
 
 of each one of its Colonies to be clearly examined, for their 
 Treasuries were never mingled with the National one. 
 This system also permits the exact amount of every ex- 
 pense and revenue of each Colonies to be known. 
 
 To give a clear idea of what has been said up to the 
 present, it will suffice to put down the official data resul- 
 ting from the provisional official balances of accounts 
 practized in the Colonial Departments, as well as the 
 definitive one which the Cortes have approved up to 1896. 
 
 Acording to these balances Spain has paid from 1883 
 to 1897, besides what it has collected from Cuba, and 
 only to attend to civil services, that is imthout coimthyj 
 any of the expenses to ivhkh the war has give?! rise, ^ 45, 
 186, 257, 52, that is ^ 225, 931, 287, 60"- pesetas. This 
 is what Spain has got out of Cuba ; this is the way it has 
 despoiled it, this is the picture of the rapine which is 
 described Avith sucli glowing colours in the columns of 
 the press, at the inspiration of those who guided by a 
 malevolent intention, and failing most barefacedly in 
 veracity, try to lead public opinion to the most fatal 
 errors. 
 
 We see, therefore that the Spanish government not 
 content A\'ith making every kind of compromise to its 
 detriment in its financial relations with its Colonies in 
 the Antilles, contributed with its own Treasurv to lift the 
 ordinary charges ihat weighed on those administrations. 
 
 But this was not enough. The separatist movements 
 of 1868 and 1895 created an economical state of aff'airs 
 Avhich was really abnormal. The Sovereign Power found 
 itself in front of an internal disturbance of public order, 
 all the more unreasonable because it coincided with' the 
 attainment ot tlie highest degree of prosperity' whicli the 
 Colony had ever reached. It was obliged to hasten to 
 
— /..s — 
 
 suppress it not only lor tiic interest of the Colony itself, 
 but because the insurrection nii.L(ht preju(lic«^ theni(!rean- 
 tile interests of nei^lihouriu'z- Powi'is willi which >\u' 
 held eontinual relations. Spain therefore fullilled by so 
 doing- one of the chicl and unavoidable duties of a Sovo- 
 reiyn, and for this purpose had to have recourse to tlnan- 
 cial measures of an extraordinary character. 
 
 What has oeeurivd respecting the Spanish Colonial 
 debts, in this particular, has been carefully mis represen- 
 ted and concealed, and it is hii^h time that the truth 
 should be known. 
 
 The issue of the Billetes hipotecarios of ISSd was 
 devoted to extin^uistin<^- all the previous debts of the 
 Greater Antille w hich then existed, and which had been 
 caused not only by the war of 18G8, bui by the inmense 
 improvements which had been made in Cid3a and the 
 payment of \vhich lia<l boon completed liy the treasury 
 of the Peninsula. 
 
 A great part of the guaranteed debt of ISDO is desti- 
 ned to liquidate the arrears and deficits past and future, 
 of the Cuban ordinary Budgets in which there was 
 always a deficit. When a perfect level in these Budgets 
 was about to be obtained, and Spain had siill at its 
 disposal a good part of this second issue, and which 
 slie intended to devote to the development of Colo- 
 nial prosperity, the second insurrection of 1895 l)rokc 
 our, and she was obliged to employ this reserve fund 
 in the first expenses of the war. And it is at this his- 
 torical moment that the baseless calumny which has 
 bc('n raised against the Spanish government and its 
 Administration of Cuba, is most apparent. That coun- 
 trv which as it is stated, has been continually incre- 
 asing its r(>venues at the expense of (.'uba, pledges its 
 
— 44 — 
 
 own, which were necessary to her to attend to the needs 
 of its existence, and devotes the products of the enor- 
 mous debt thus contracted to return to Cuba the peace 
 disturbed by the insurgents, who as President Grant in 
 his famous message of June 1870, remarked « had never 
 « any other doctrine but that of pillage and theft, no 
 « other rule but the will of their chiefs, and Avere in 
 (c constant battle with morality and the laws of loyalty 
 « and lienor. » 
 
 But in spite of this it has been constantly asserted 
 that that part of the Cuban debt which represents the 
 inversion of the sums destined to suppress these rebellious 
 uprisings, is not legitimately spent and can not therefore be 
 recognized because it was used to suppress the movement 
 in favor of independance made by a people, anxious to 
 shake off the yoke of the Metropolis. 
 
 Such is certainly no justifying reason either according 
 to right or to universal justice. Success sanctions every- 
 thing in the ample field of acts, but it can never justify 
 the transgression of the fundamental principle to which 
 Spain had always to adhere for the creation of this Debt. 
 Cuban Independence may sanction the triumph of the 
 American Arms, bat it can never have the desired retroac- 
 tive effect, of depriving the act of sovereignty which Spain 
 realized of its legitimacy and efficacy ; the act by which 
 Spain disposed of her own ressources as well as of the 
 Colonial ones in order to suppress the rebelion, which 
 would have soon ended had it not been for the assistance 
 it received from the United States, and which before the 
 hour of triumph, was but a disturbance of the public order. 
 Acting in this wise, Spain not only executed an action to 
 which she had a perfect right, but fulfilled one of her 
 most elementary duties. 
 
— 45 — 
 
 We might s;iy miu-li iiioiv on the extensive matter of 
 reestiiblisiiinii lli<^ fa(;ts of :t ease whieli have in tiie pre- 
 sent instaiiee been so grossly iiiiseoiistni('(| , and end 
 our notes hv jiivinii; a resnme ol ihe Debts wliich at the 
 jiivsent nionieiit weiiili upon the Spanish Antilles, and 
 the IMiilipiiiiic Islands, but this would u;i\c too much 
 extension to this work, so \\<' will liiuii oui'sclves lo the 
 statement, in view of perieetly reliable information in our 
 possession, that the loan now in eireulation whieh was 
 issued with the security of the customs and other taxes of 
 ('ub;i, 1)\ the Spanish Crown, amounts to 1,424, 08!). 500 
 |)esetab noiiiinal. 
 
 The dates of the issue of these loans themselves prove 
 that they were not created to attend to the suppression 
 of the present insurrection, for we kno\\- that the last law 
 under which they were issued was dated 1890, and the 
 insurrection <lid not break out till the beginning- of 1895 
 at Baire. Besides, these issues have been devoted eiiually 
 to iiaying oil" the balance of the expenditure caused by the 
 first insurrection, w Inch u[i to that time had not been 
 satisfied, and to liipiidating the enormous delicits which 
 as we have before said appeared in the ordinary Budgets 
 of Cuba till the time that the last revolution was in full 
 force, to the extent that it ^^•as found necessary to make 
 afresh issue of new bonds guaranteed by the rents of the 
 Peninsular treasury. And it is as well to consign that the 
 Spanish Government has contracted loans under the se- 
 euritv of the products of the National Customs, of it- 
 tobacco monopoly, its stamp and other revenues; oi 
 which t. large portion is in the form of Perpetnol Interior 
 Dc'bi at 4 °^^ interest, up to the enormous total of Pesetas 
 1,6S'2,SSjM(f(fy which she will have necessarily to pay 
 together with aliout 'lOO millions more which she owes. 
 
— 46 — 
 
 in order to liquidate completely the expenses of the war, 
 which have not yet been satisfied. 
 
 Such has been the conduct of Spain. 
 
 Are the development of public works and economical 
 life in a Territory useful and necessary? Can any one 
 doubt that it is useful and necessary to maintain public 
 order so that civil and political existence may be an 
 accomplished fact? In these two sole purposes has the Me- 
 tropolis employed not only the meag-re products of the 
 Colonies, and the sums which with their small revenues 
 these were able to provide, but also the enormous quantities 
 that its own treasury and ressources were able to devote 
 to this end. 
 
 All this is carefully left in silence by those Avho voci- 
 ferate in the sense we have said, but these facts must be 
 known, and it is meet that honest and impartial persons 
 in both countries should be able to judge them and think 
 them carefully over, so that their minds maybe convinced 
 of the unavoidable necessity of the recognition of the debt 
 by the sovereign succeeding Spain in the Greater Antille. 
 
 (C)We must also prove that the guaranteed character 
 of these colonial Loans decides the question in spite of 
 contrary opinions. Right can exist without compulsory 
 force ; it may in certain cases, as has happened in this 
 one, be suppressed by it, but suppressed or not, it will 
 always exist. This is the theory which must necessarily 
 be applied to the question, when Cuba begins to live 
 independently or under the natural and necessary pro- 
 tection of the great American people. 
 
 The Spanish Government, as absolute master of the 
 duties of the customs and other revenues of its Antilles 
 made a charge on them, affecting them specially to a Debt ; 
 
'u — 
 
 tliat is, it cst;»l)lislK'(l, \\\\:\i in Iiitern.-itionaliaw is known 
 as ii jjrn;irnnt('('(l l)i'l)t. And tlio fad of the bonds wliicii 
 ropivsent iliis sociiritv nicnlioniiii^ tli;ii iIk' n.-itional 
 Treasury also guarantees tiieir |»;iyincnL, iimkcs il evident 
 tlmt onlv a subsidiary obligation was so created, quite 
 secondary in character, the fulfilment of which could only 
 be exacted in the case of the disappearance of tlie original 
 security; disuitpearance and not cIhukjo of oHnrr ; for -a 
 security does not disappear by the change of its owner, 
 but goes on existing even if disputed by another possessor, 
 and until it ceases to exist the guaranteed security will 
 alwavs <;o together with the Cuban customs, in the sam<» 
 way as according to the opinion of an illustrious author, 
 the shadow follows and accompanies the body which 
 makes it. 
 
 If it could be proved that the security was given without 
 a legitimate right to do so, Spain would not claim the 
 perfect right which she has that these Debts should be 
 duly recognized and paid. But until this is proved, and 
 whilst tlie customs in Cuba are in financial existence, 
 whether under the sovereignty of the Spanish govern- 
 ment or not, it cannot be denied that they are burdened 
 with the obligation which their sovereign imposed on 
 them. The existence of a lawful security defies the right 
 of the strongest, that is wliy after all, tin- payment of 
 the guaranteed debts of Cuba and the Philipitine Islands, 
 would be for Spain a question of secondaiy imitortance. 
 Her line of conduct is simide. She contracted honestly, 
 with wh:it was her own ; a third person with more or 
 less right to do so, hut certainly with more success 
 wrests from her the i)roperties which she had pledged 
 for the payment of her debt : the obligation «jn the part 
 of Spain has ceased until it is proved to her that those 
 
— 48 — 
 
 properties have diminished or disappeared owing to causes 
 wliich are indepent of the will of the new Sovereign or 
 his administrator and that they do not therefore suffice for 
 the extinction of the total contracted debt. 
 
 By the efforts which it is apparently making, the 
 Spanish government has shown its honest purpose, that 
 none of its creditors should ever be able to say that he 
 has been despoiled of what was legally his due with its 
 consent. Spain is apparently opposing and refusing to 
 autliorize any act by which her creditors may be dispos- 
 sessed of what legally belongs to them. From its con- 
 duct which has reechoed in the press of every nation, it 
 transpires that as a every honest nation in her place 
 would do, she has denied her complicity and acquies- 
 cence to the unlieard of act of sacrificing the sacred private 
 interests of her people, which is undoubtedly the matter 
 on which a Sovereign's power to contract is most limited. 
 Rights which belong to him can be abdicated in his tran- 
 sactions with other Powers, but lie is not allowed to 
 relinquish those which belong to a third person, who has 
 no voice in the matter, and who honestly and legally 
 contracted with him giving him up his private fortune. 
 
 The Government of such a chivalrous nation will no 
 doubt much lament to be obliged to refuse for the future 
 the payment of its Colonial Debts, but by doing so it 
 will do its dut_\' towards its other creditors, who would 
 be unjustly injured in their interests, if they were 
 considered in the same light as the holders of Cuban bonds, 
 and if the ressources of the National Treasury were not 
 sufficient to meet both obligations; and it executes an act 
 of undeniable right, for there is no doctrine to prove or 
 is it sanctioned by the practice of any Nation, that when 
 a debtor ceases, against his will to hold the securitv 
 
— 'lit 
 all'ei'ttMl to ill.' p.iviiK'iii of :i (I. '1)1, ;iiiil lliis sf'cnrity 
 passes to the possession ol a lliii'il, iliai, flic lawful ('ITeefs 
 of the (lel)t are at an eini and that, tlu; oi'i<j;'inal owner of 
 the sccnrit y, is ninde the pi-in<-ip;il and only one res|)on- 
 sihlc foi' its payment. 
 
 For this reason we venhiiv to ^j^ive the alarm to hol- 
 ders of Cnhan honds, and to advise them not, tiMist the 
 (loetrines a\ hieh are eiiTnlatini:; in the press, and to notice 
 that Spain who has liad her secnrities snatehed from lier 
 withont any sort of eompensation is exempted from the 
 payment of the deht, and that this eharf^fe passes to those 
 wiio sncceed her in the eniovnient of the .Sfuaranteed 
 ivnts. 
 
 ^^'e have lieard that some hohh^'s of Tnhan honds of 
 this kind have constitntcd committees for the defense of 
 tlieir interests, and \\(' njipland their idea, and advise 
 tliem to present the proper claims, so that either the 
 ("nhan Treasm-y, if Cnh;i is independent, or the Treasnry 
 of the T'nited States if these protect and trovern \h<' Island 
 in the fntiu'e, as it is to be Imped, may pay or he respon- 
 sible for these Debts, if they are collecting and enjoyinL: 
 the properties which guarantee their payment. Their 
 denying to do so, A\-onlfl be erpiivalent to the act of a 
 debtor refnsing to discnss the payment of a debt, and 
 wonld have the iiimediatt^ elTect accordin.i:' to law, of 
 extinguishing the pledg*^ or gnarantee which the Spanish 
 government iiad given. 
 
 The government of the United States, eithei- in its 
 own name or in reprentation of that of the (Ireater 
 Antille, wonld ))e the only resjionsable entity for the state 
 of things which wonld he ja-odnced by such a jirocee- 
 ding, and to this Government the gnaranteed creditors of 
 Cn))a will liav.' to have recourse to, and fhev mnst not 
 
— 50 — 
 
 for a moment put in doubt the honour and justice of the 
 Jud^'es of the Federal Government, whose duty it will 
 be to decide these claims. 
 
 IV. — It has been proved witli the minuteness that 
 such an important matter requires, that the Debts affected 
 to the new Sovereignty of the Antilles were legitimately 
 contracted, and that their product has been devoted to 
 purposes of usefulness and necessity in those colonies, 
 and that the guaranteed character of the ones, and the 
 colonial character of the others cause them to be neces- 
 sarilv affected to the territor^■ in wliich thev radicate. We 
 Avill put down a few ideas, which independently of the 
 legal character of the obligation, lead the most impartial 
 minds to infer the moral duty which Cuba or the United 
 States have, to take up these obligations. 
 
 Although the facts we are about to mention have 
 most probably been observed by every one who has fol- 
 lowed the struggle, it is possible that they may not have 
 been appreciated in all their transcendence and impor- 
 tance, and for this reason we consider it suitable to recall 
 them briefly. 
 
 There is no doubt that the American people will be 
 obliged to intervene in the financial existence of Cuba, for 
 a long time, till a normal period of political advancement, 
 which the late struggle has retarded so much, is esta 
 blished. 
 
 This together with the natural enjoyment of Porto 
 Rico and the other Spanish Islands of the Caribeean Sea, 
 obtained as a war indemnity, have made it their lot to 
 possess the greatest booty of war that modern Nations 
 have ever witnessed. It is great, considered without rela- 
 tion or term of comparison with any other, for everyone 
 
knows lli.il Ihc SpMnisIi Colonics in tlic Aiitilh-s ;iiv Jhc 
 most fertile :in(l I'icii p.ni of Anieiica (Porto Rico is nioi'e 
 (lenselv |i()i.iil;ite(| l|i;in i)eI,L!illlil, iiU'l <'iili;i li;is ;i 
 "•reat«M- liu;iliei;il densilv i'\i'ii lli;ili lli«' I liited States), anil 
 tln'ir value can Ix' ^aiigeil, hv eonsiderin-j', that hoili An- 
 tilles, thanks to the enoi-nions sums w liich their provions 
 Sovereign had spent nii tlnm. are at iIm^ be<,nnnin',^ 
 of the inaxinnnii of iliejr pr(>dii<-ti(.n ; th.it i-« with every 
 sonreeof product yieldin,^', and all of them without havin-z' 
 even started eu the distant j)eriod of descent or ])arali- 
 zation, inseparable from every industrial or aiirieidtural 
 enterprise. 
 
 The iniportanee of the conrpK^st is all the ^ireater if we 
 remember that the pecuniary sacrifices and militai-y ope- 
 rations realized by the Union are not even remotely in 
 l»roi)ortion with the material resnU of her victories. The war 
 has lasted for three months. During this time, thei-e have 
 been two naval battles, which althouah of a satisfactory 
 result for the Americans, have cost l)iit a small elTort 
 to achieve. The American Fleet was ten times greatei* in 
 tona^'-e and in ofensive and defensive power than the Spa- 
 nish one, which was very easily reduced ; and in spite of 
 .S months of close siege, they only captured by force one 
 place in Puha. and that one of little importance — San- 
 tiaiio. 
 
 Judging therefore of the smallness of the saerifice 
 made and of llie insignificant success achieved, whieh was 
 merely a militarx one, we will have an aj»j)ro\imate idea 
 of thr enoi'mous result whieh they have obtained, as 1 
 mentioned previously. 
 
 Never has there hoen a case of such disproportion in 
 modern history. The most imjKjrtant wars, according to 
 the keenness of the struggle, the territoi-v that has been 
 
52 
 
 occupied or conquered bvtlie enemy, the pecuniary sncrifices 
 made, or the nummber of foes fighting on either side, 
 liave ever produced for the conqueror the definite domi- 
 nion even of the territory which lie occupied during 
 the strife : his claims have always been much less. 
 
 The Emperor, in his wars of roal conquest, when he 
 reached Berlin and Viena and conquered Prussia and 
 Austria, never thought of adding these States to his 
 Empire. Germany in a recent struggle defeated France, 
 occupied the Capital of the Empire, and nevertheless re- 
 duced its definite claims to some provinces, for the pos- 
 session of which, the apparently legitimate title of recon- 
 quishment was invoked. 
 
 The United States have obtained an enormous indem- 
 nity of war, much superior to the expenses they have 
 incurred, in the islands of Porto Pvico and the others 
 which surround Cuba in the Western Sea, and under the 
 title of protection, if only temporarily, though not limited 
 by any precise period, the most valued Island in the 
 Atlantic Ocean passes into their possession ; that is the 
 sovereignty of territories, in the greatest splendour of 
 civilization and prosperity, which comprise an aera of 
 130,000 square kilometres, equivalent to the fourth of the 
 total area of Spain itself. 
 
 Besides what we have said, Ave can add, ni order to 
 give a better idea of the importance wicli the results of 
 the war have had for the United States, that by tliem 
 they realize, if they dont complete a political plan which 
 for a long time they have been nursing; and it is not 
 likely or is it probable that such a severe and humane 
 race, should turn their eves awav from right and morals, 
 and refuse to recognize and pay debts Avhich are sacred, 
 either by pulting themseh^es in Spain's place, or in the 
 
— :y.i — 
 
 liaiHc of tlic < Ilium people; debts the pi-oduet (t| w liicli 
 every oneknows lias been employed lor the beiielit of the 
 colonies whieh tln'y ;ire iio\\ about to j)ossess, uinl in 
 siippressinj^' the iiisiirreciions which the Aiiiericaiis iheni- 
 selves encoiii'Miied , though at the same time ollicialy 
 demandiiii:" tln-ir repression with obsolete compulsion. 
 
 Spain, despoiled of her Colonies, with ;dl justice on 
 her side, with her chivalrous comlucl misinterpreted 
 and malij^ned, may perha])S yield to force, the dominion 
 of tiie conqueror may Ix^ carried to the extreme of exac- 
 ting from Iter, the assumption of obligations she contrac- 
 ted in order ])recisely to avoid the struirnr-je in which she 
 has sueciunbed, bin we who huve watched this contest 
 must not forget, that Sjuiin is conipiered but not dead, 
 and that every thing may be hoped for from that lieroi- 
 cal race which in no \ovy far removed date filled the new- 
 world with its gold, the old one with its heart and 
 both with its blood, ever generous and noble. 
 
 The sovereignty over the Philippine Islands 
 
 We said at the beginning of these notes, that the two 
 points we were going to discuss, were the Colonial 
 debts, of wliich w(^ have spoken at length, and the legi- 
 timacvof the title which the Federal (iovernment might 
 invoke in its claims of the Sovereignty over a j>art of the 
 I'hiliii|tin(! Islands. 
 
 \\C must first of all recall to our memory the terms 
 of the Protocol of the 12'^ of .\ugust last, in what they 
 refer to the .Vrchipielago of the Eastern Sea. 
 
 In its J ■ and '2'' articles, only the primary causes, 
 
— 0-4 
 
 that is those which produced the war are referred to, 
 those which solved themihtary problem set by the Power 
 that provoked the conflict, the independence of Cuba and 
 the cession of Porto Rico and other islands in the Carib- 
 beean Sea, and one in the Marianas, as a total indemnity 
 for war. 
 
 We mentioned in another part of this document, that 
 the rest of the agreements thereby made, referred only 
 to the particulars to be observed in carrying out the sti- 
 pulations contained in the former clauses; and we said, 
 that besides these two articles, another one, the 3'^ had 
 been inserted, which was really nothing more than a 
 guaranty for the fulfillment of the preliminary treaty, 
 which it is usual in this kind of conventions, and whicli 
 the precepts of public law recommend, should be establi- 
 shed on the suspension of hostilities between two 
 Nations, in order that a definite treaty of peace may be 
 eventuallv signed. 
 
 It was agreed therefore, at Washington, that the 
 American forces should occupy the city, bay and harbor 
 of Manila, till the treaty of peace, which is now being 
 negotiated in Paris should be signed, and which was to 
 determine the control, disposition and government of 
 the Philippines. Tliere is no further stipulation in tlie 
 treaty respecting the Archipelago. 
 
 Although it is impossible to know officially the thoughts 
 of either of the contracting Parts, the national press of 
 both of them has clearlv shown, that the Government of 
 the United States, claims to have a legal riglit to the 
 occupation of the Pliilippine Islands, which they unscru- 
 pulously demand. 
 
 Apart from whether this is or not the purpose of the 
 Union, in which case it is at perfect liberty to propose to 
 
.),) 
 
 Spjiiii ilir adciuisitiuii of the Aivliipcla^io, in th.- tonus it, 
 iiia\ think lit, it is inijiossihlc to sii|)|»()se ivas()nai)l\ , tliat 
 within the icrius of th<' I'l-oiocol of August 12" of tho 
 j)resent yoar,of the fiillilnicnl and .ipplicition of which the 
 two Nations arc now ti'catin«r, is containcfl not the dcti- 
 niiivo uccupation of the whole of tlie Archipelago, ))nt 
 even that of tlie city hay and harhor of Manila. 
 
 A ^dance at tlie article referring to the l'liili|»pine 
 Islands will clearly show the accnracy of this statement : 
 
 Tins article contains two principal ideas, aronnd 
 which ;dl the others which (•oni])i'ise the stipulation 
 revolve; the first is thai the occnjKition hy the I'nired 
 States of the city, hay and harhor of Manila is /('/////(v/v////; 
 the second; is that the disposition of the Government of 
 the IMiilii)pine Islands, to he determined in the definitive 
 treatv, refers exchisivelv to the Spanish (lovernment. 
 
 To interpret this article thus, it is not necessary to 
 vary the literal nieanini-- of any of the words which com- 
 pose it. IJulli ideas are expressed quite clearly. The text 
 of this part of the convention does not lend itself to any 
 kiud of duuht; luit even if it should; if the words siiould 
 not express with perfect clearness the ihoULihts of the 
 contracting parties, the precepts of international law 
 oblige them to he interpreted in the sense most favt)ii- 
 i-ahle to Spain, which is thel)urdened Nation. 
 
 The eminent jtirist Vattel after making a restmu' of 
 flu; (ypinions of all the learned autiiors, fixes the doetrine 
 upon this matter; and he adds that if obscure stipulations 
 were interpreted in favour of the strongtu* of the two 
 contracting Parlies, there would be a risk of converting 
 them in to veritable pits into which, the concpiered, on 
 whom the conrpieror had imposed his law in the treaty 
 
— 56 — 
 
 without his being able to deffend liimself, would neces- 
 sarily fall. 
 
 The honour of the American Nation puts aside any 
 suspicion that its Government might take advantage of 
 the doubtfulness of a phrase in order to interpret at its 
 will such an important clause as this which refers to the 
 future of tlie Philippine Islands. Only an erroneous appli- 
 cation of tlie law or an equivocal appreciation of facts 
 can have given rise to the supposed attitude of the Federal 
 Government concerning the Sovereignty over tlie Archi- 
 pelago. 
 
 We will try and explain clearly this simple matter. 
 
 I. The occupation of Manila, its and bay harbour, is to 
 be temporal. The French and English texts, both official 
 and signed by the two contracting parts, are couched in 
 such precise terms, that it is sufficient to read them to 
 realize the truth of this assertion. Both say, that " the 
 United States will occupy and hold the city, bay and 
 harbour of Manila pending (en attendant; waiting for : ) 
 the conclusion of a treaty of peace ". The word " pen- 
 ding " shows that both the powers intended to put a 
 limit on the occupation of Manila and its bay and har- 
 bour, which was to be the term comprised between the 
 signature of the Protocol and that of the final treaty in 
 Paris. This also shows the special species of guaranty 
 established in this clause in favour of the United States. 
 
 Thus does every one who reads article 3 with an 
 unbiassed mind, interpret it, and thus also, did the 
 French Government, quite alien to the matter, interpret 
 it Avhen it informed its Representatives in Europe of the 
 convention which had taken place. If document n° 19 of 
 the Yellow Book is consulted, which contains the particu- 
 lars of this negotiation, it will be seen that the occupa- 
 
— 57 — 
 
 tion (»f -Manila is distinctlv referred to as /troviftio/ia/ (sic). 
 
 ll is useless to say more on tjiis iiialtcr. 
 
 The st'CdiKJ |M»iiil is ('(|ii;illy clcir. 'lli-' I iiilcd St;ites 
 will ()('cii|)y the city, hay and hai'lionr of .M;inila jiriiiHiif/ 
 the sKj/inlure af a trend/ nf fivare ir/nr/i s/kiII drtcnnun' llif 
 control, t/i.\posi//o/> tmd (jororinnciil of iho PliHipinne 
 I slam Is. 
 
 The day on which ilir ri'ofocol was signed Jhe 
 fTOverninent of the Ai(hii»elai!0 was under the exclusive 
 sovereiLinty of Spain. No licit cause has come since then 
 to alter the state of posession in w hich the Soverei;jnty 
 of these Islands stood; w hat government, then is it ;i 
 question ofMViiat and whose control is there to be? 
 What is to be the disjjosition of tlieir government flf on 
 the day on which the Pmtoc<d was siq-ned or previously 
 to that date, there had existed any doubts about the 
 Sovereiiinty of Si)ain over the Philippine Islands; whe- 
 ther such doidtts arose from theclaims of another Power, 
 or from conventions to which Sjiain had been a w illing 
 party, it is evident that there would have been some 
 debateable matter, as to which of the two Nations was 
 to exercise its Soverei<^nt\- in the Islands after tli(,' 
 signing of the definitive treaty. 
 
 But if, as we have seen and we will clearly prove, 
 on the 12"' of Auitiist 1898 Spain exercised the go- 
 vernment of the Islands in all its integrity, how can 
 there be a dotd)t, and what doubt can this be, regarding 
 the .ipplication of article .'!', which wr are now com- 
 menting'- on i 
 
 The United States did not demand, f«»r they could 
 not then do so, the control disposition or ^(»vernment of 
 the Philippines. They only demanded this control (and 
 that is what article 3 of the Protocol states) in the final 
 
— 58 — 
 
 treaty which was to determine the form in which Spain 
 should establish her future political system of govern- 
 ment of the Archipelago. 
 
 If, then, the Sovereignty of Spain in those far away 
 regions was never discussed, and it is recognized by the 
 United States Avhich contract with her in the preliminary 
 treaty of peace as an exception, or as the express limit 
 of a right, that they are to occupy the city, hay and 
 harbour of Manila during the negociations, it is evident 
 that when it is said (article 3) that both Nations on the 
 signature of the definitive treaty would determine the 
 control, disposition and government of the Philippines, 
 the uncontestable and never contested Government of 
 Spain was alone referred to. 
 
 If another meaning is found, if an}' one should say 
 that control, disposition and government really referred 
 to the United States, he would have to prove it, and 
 with the text of article 3'', wdiich does not sav so. 
 
 We are not acquainted with the antecedents of this 
 particular convention; we are not acquainted with the 
 way in which the two Governments interpreted it either 
 before or after its signature; but it can certainly be 
 asserted that it was not in the mind of either of them 
 that the occupation of Manila by the United States should 
 be definitive, and much less that the stipulations of the 
 final treaty should imply the cession, relinquishment or 
 the slighest diminution of the Sovereignty of Spain in 
 any part of the Archipelago. 
 
 If such had been the idea of the contracting Parts, 
 they would have doubtless framed clause n° 3 of the 
 Protocol of Washington in a verv different stvle; for it 
 is well known that if there is a desire to exclude an idea 
 or to consign a stipulation in a treaty, the only way is to 
 
— 59 — 
 do so : thovc is iliiis im cause or reason fnr niisinh'i-pi-e- 
 tations, wliicli altlion.Lrli <>ut of pl:iee, as they are in this 
 Ciise are always (lan.Lrcrnus. 
 
 Tiiis elenient^uy rule based nui on Ihe rij^hts of the 
 eontr.H'tinpr parts, but ui)on simple common sense has 
 such a marked aiiplieation bi this case, that if by the 
 linal Treaty to be signed in Paris, the Sovereignty over 
 the I'hiliiipine Islands, were without any further proce- 
 dure to pass to the Inited States, the i)rincipal clause 
 contained in the article we are now discussing, would 
 not only not be fullilled, but violated; it would result 
 that a place would be given uj* lor good, which the Uni- 
 ted States should have occupied oni\ until the day of the 
 signature of the final Treaty. 
 
 But still, in the false supposition that the matter /ra.s 
 debateable, and sui)posing that this article did give rise 
 to the presumption that it had been in the minds of both 
 Nations to give to the United States a direct control over 
 the functions of the Spanish Government in the Philiji- 
 pine Islands, by what unknown gradation of sul)tle rea- 
 soning can it be concluded that this article also implies 
 the absolute reliniiuishment on the part of Spain of her 
 Sovereignty over all the Philip])ine Islands? 
 
 We confess that we ignore it and that it i< (put<' im- 
 possible to conjecture what it may be. 
 
 It is true that the same thing occurred to the Govern- 
 ment of the Fi-ench Kepublic, when it was informed of 
 the Convention of Washington; for in document n" U) 
 of this year's Yellow Hook, already referred to, it is not 
 even mentionecl that the future government of the Phi- 
 lippine Islands will be deternnned in the linal Treaty; 
 which shows, besides the little importance given to this 
 part of the contract, that it was not then in the mind of 
 
— GO — 
 
 the Parties, that anything relating to the substance and 
 disposition of the Sovereignty over the Arcliipelago 
 should be left for future settlement ; lor if there had been 
 any doubt upon such an important point, it Avould have 
 necessarily been consigned in a special part of the Con- 
 vention, and formed one of its principal clauses; and it 
 cannot be said that this point was ignored or forgotten, 
 when the temporal occupation of ^lanila, a far less im- 
 portant detail, was clearly consigned. 
 
 According to tlie spirit and to the letter of Article 3 
 of the Convention of Washington, the Federal Govern- 
 ment can demand nothing more than what it already has 
 in the Seas of Magellan, as a consequence of the Protocol; 
 that is the temporary occupation of the city, bay and 
 harbour of Manila, and the right to stipulate and deter- 
 mine in the final Treaty of Peace what is to be the sys- 
 tem of government whicli Spain is to establisli there in 
 tlie future. 
 
 If, nevertheless, it is tlie desire of the Union to incre- 
 ase the Colonial power of the Ptepublic by carrying it 
 to the Eastern Sea, and it desires to possess the Pliilip- 
 pine Islands, let it do so, btit it must be done Avith the 
 consent of their leiiitimate and incontestable Sovereign, 
 by a free contract with him, without pressure of any 
 kind, and above all witliout invoking the fulfilment of 
 a Treaty wliich this PoAver imposed Avitli the inflexible 
 liardness of her triumph, a treaty Avliich, in this case, it 
 Avould be the first to violate. 
 
 In order to end our remarks respecting this article, 
 in Avhat relates to the Sovereignty over the Archipelago, 
 I Avill mention, although it is hardly Avortli Avhile to do 
 so, the importance given by misinformed commentators, 
 to tlie french and english Avords used in the article to 
 
— (Jl 
 
 (Iclilic lilt' I'lllllft' |;it(' (>r the (loVri-llIlK'Ill of llic IMlili|i- 
 
 piiU's. Il is iu'^ikmI I)\ (Iiciii, lli;ii in ilic iVciicli woi-ds 
 cnn/ri')li\ t//\/)Osi//ofi rl iiniirrnirnirnl , ('f|lliv;il<MlI to flu' 
 englisli OIK'S cnntrul, disposiddH mid ijon'ruincnl, tin- word 
 conlrol, wliicli in iVcndi, cii^Iisli .-ind spiinisli niojius tlio 
 siinu', i.o. (nnfcrvcntion •,(( insjicction)) "coniitroljjition •>; 
 is to lie interproted as attributing- this intervention totlic 
 United Stiites, l)ec'aust' the word (control) in Kn^^lish im- 
 plies (( dominion », « anthority » and a command ». 
 
 In Ircneh, and the Ircnch tc.xl is (piiie ;is binding'- as 
 the en^lish one, this word has no such meaning-, and 
 nothinii e;m therefore be inferred from it ;iL'-;tinst Spain; 
 but even if ii h;id, even if it eonve.vcd this idi';>, what 
 does the article sav fnrthei' to suppose that such a domi- 
 nion or command was to be exercised by th'- United 
 States? Where does it say that Sjjain cannot «»o on exer- 
 cisini;- it ? In the text of the article there is not to be found 
 the sli'ihtest })hrase to authorize sucli an interpretation. 
 
 Understandinr;- this to be the case no doubt, and 
 that it could not hold against the simple readin.^* of 
 the \e\i of the article, the expounders of this curious 
 idea, have ti-ieil subsciinontly to argue that owinj to the 
 difTerence of lan,i:iiage employed by the contracting Parts, 
 the Americans when the Protocol was signed thouiiht 
 that from its i.Q\\^ the form and the extension of Spanish 
 Sovereignty over the Philip])ines was to b(.' discussed 
 and determined in Paris, whilsi Spain, l)tdived an<l her 
 Represent<itive signed, in the s(^nse that she retained 
 her uncontested sovereignty over all the Philippine 
 Islands. 
 
 This argument in no way favours the aspirations of 
 the Federal (Jovernmeni ; and is also little in favour of 
 the sinceritv of the contracting Parts, and evervone 
 
— 62 — 
 
 familiar with the uprightness and honour of M. Cambon 
 and of the President of the United States will no doubf 
 repudiate it. 
 
 Besides, Spain will surely attach no importance to 
 this new^ hypothesis, because, if it Avere real, the article 
 would be null, and would be considered void, as wanting 
 in a condition essential to eveiw convention, which is the 
 freewill of both parties, which would not exist if there had 
 been such a manifest error upon the substance on Avhich 
 the agreement is founded; and if it is not real, it is 
 useless to consider it. 
 
 From what has been said it is evident and uncon- 
 trovertible that the only right interpretation of the 
 Protocol of Washington is the following : 
 
 « The United States shall occupy the city, bay and 
 harbour of Manila pending the conclusion of the treaty 
 of peace which is being negotiated in Paris, in wliich it 
 shall be determined by l3oth Powers what system of 
 government Spain is to establish in the Archipelago. » 
 
 To end this matter, and entering in another order of 
 ideas, we cannot but state that this meaning is the only 
 (me which fits in with the policy of humane and civil i- 
 zino' intervention of the United States, for everv one knows, 
 and it has been stated again and again that the Avar with 
 Spain has had no other object than to improve the poli- 
 tical, civil and material existence of the inhabitants of 
 her Colonies. We can thus understand that the United 
 States should have reserved for themselves in that article 
 the exclusive right of stipulating with the Metropolis, 
 what her future government of the Island, was to be, 
 in order that on establishing it, she should grant to her 
 
— (33 — 
 
 Colonies the Lji'cntcst nniouiil «>f lilicrly ami aiilnnoniy 
 c'oni])atil)lo witli ilic Si.vi'i'(.'in<^ly «»|" ilic (-(Miti-al ;_'oV('rn- 
 ment, and n* this «'n(l I lio commissioners u[ botii eonn- 
 (ries are to (it'lcrniinc w lial tli(> eontrol, disposition and 
 irovernnKMit of S|)ain over tlie [)olitical administration of 
 the IMiilipjiino Islands, is for llie fntinv to be. 
 
 II. _ if^ ;is wo have shown, the United States can 
 invoke no stipnlation contained in the preliminary treaty 
 of peace, to demand leiiitimately the Soverei^'-nty over 
 the IMiilippines, can tlu'y invoke the riiiht of con(juest'^ 
 
 First let ns see what thecominests of the L'niled States 
 in the l^hilippines have been. 
 
 W.ir h.iviuii- bc<'n declared on the 23' of Ajiril, (he 
 Ciovernment of the United States directed its military 
 action aiiainst the Spanish Pacific sqnadron, which it 
 defeated after a short strniiule in front of Cavite, in tlie 
 hay of Manila. This had the immediate elTect of puttinir 
 that })ay in the possessi(m of the American lleet : in it 
 acted as it, thoniiht tit to, cntting the cables, captnrinii- 
 merchant and other vessels, landini;' in the Arsenal of 
 Cavite, etc. 
 
 Exceptini,' the continnal provisionini!- of the rebels, 
 the federal forces on sea or land did nothini:- further, 
 till the 12"' of An«rnst last, when the armistice was 
 sii;ned. 
 
 Hef()re ijoin^'- fnrther, let ns remark, that the Phi- 
 li[)I)ine rebels, thanks to every kind of assistance given 
 to them by the Americans, sncceeded in extending' the 
 rcvolntion in the interior, and created an extremely 
 ditlicnlt situati(»n for SjKiin, who not being able to distri- 
 Inite «)r dispose of her forces, which had been concen- 
 traded at the time in Manila, was inialih* to prevent the 
 
- 64 — 
 
 tagalos occnpyino' and plundering several villages and 
 properties which tliey still hold. 
 
 We do not for a moment suppose that the Federal 
 Armies count these usurpations of the rebels amongst 
 their victories or conquests; first because such a suppo- 
 sition would be very little to their credit; and secondly 
 because the insurgents themselves have declared in a 
 Congress, improvised a few days ago, that those doubt- 
 ful victories were theirs, and for the independence and 
 future Sovereignty of the Archipelago; they would cer- 
 tainly not have been very lasting if Spain had been able 
 to dispose of and distribute her means of deffence, which 
 Avere at the time paralized by the pressure of the Govern- 
 ment of the United States. 
 
 It is not therefore possible that the Federal Govern- 
 ment can consider these more or less legitimate victories 
 as its due, which those who obtained them declare, and 
 claim as theirs. 
 
 The federal forces thad not therefore conquered at 
 that time any other military position besides the bay of 
 Manila. 
 
 Whilst the siege and consequent blockade of the town 
 was going on, AA'ith the assistance of the rebels by land, 
 and Avithout any other material advantage having been 
 gained by the American forces ; the preliminary treaty of 
 peace was signed on the 12"' of August, in consequence 
 of Avliich hostilities Avei'e suspended, clearl}- and empha- 
 tically as appears in article n" 6, Avhich says : a On the 
 conclusion and signature of this Protocol hostilities bet- 
 Aveen l)oth countries Avill be suspended. » 
 
 That is to say, hostilities are suspended and the mo- 
 ment from Avhich the armistice binds both of the bellige- 
 rents is marked. 
 
(i.") — 
 
 Tho (liieti'iiu* of ;ill .iiitliors wlio h.ivc disciissfMl iliis 
 matter is clcnr ;in(l cniijliatical ; tlicy all aLircc. And it is 
 natural thai this shimld ho so, for tlicse arc moral and 
 intornatiitual laws, which cviMi the most fi'cc-ihinkin'.'- 
 authors have ncvci" discussed, and which liav<' never 
 heen violated even hy the most rapacious nations. 
 
 Frttm the earliest times in which this doctrine was 
 contained in tlio eloquent frase Eliam hosi'i ftdes sermndu 
 es/, uj) to the recent Con«rress of Hrussels, where scien- 
 litic re])resentati(ms from nil civilized countries compile(l 
 a codex of laws for war, ihc principle lias always suhsis- 
 led that: u An armistice I)inds the contractors from ihc 
 moment it is ai'reed upon — others are bound by it 
 frnm th(^ time they Imve kuowledi^'-e ot its existence — 
 tiie forces which violate it throuith i^nm'ance are not 
 directly responsible, but the contractiuL;- Soverei.nn, 
 whose duty it was in make it pul)lic, is oidiiied to in- 
 demnify the party which has been damaired. (Dudley- 
 Field (Drnft outlines of an International Code; (Irotius : 
 The law of war and nf peace lib. Ill, chaii. 21 ; llalleck: 
 Inlernaiiimal law, p. 341; Hell'ter : Public International 
 law, p. [\2\ Phillimore : Tommentaries upon Internatio- 
 nal law, vol. Ill, ]). 777; Pi-adier-Fodere : Traitd de 
 Droit International, tom. \'II, jt. 534, and others.) 
 
 It is a necessary consequence of this doctrine « that 
 hostile acts which have taken jilace after the convention 
 of the armistice are considered null and as if ihcy had 
 not occurred » (Fiore : Public International law, [i. 1.51M>. 
 — Hall : International law, IS84). 
 
 Afldin^'- to and crow nine' this doctrine, Plumschli tU' 
 Droit International codifi(», p. 709. — Calvo: Internatio- 
 nal law, p. 2, Vil). — Kent : Commentaries on American 
 law. p. 373 — Vattel : Droit des Gens, liv. Ill, p. '239, and 
 
— (56 — 
 
 Wheaton, li)). IV, chap. 2, p. 21); consiirn the correspon- 
 ding condition of (( returning the captures or evacuating 
 the forts or cities captured by ttie forces A\-hich were igno- 
 rant of the conclusion of peace. 
 
 Apphing these principles to the case under considera- 
 tion, it is clearly proved, that all the acts effected by the 
 American forces in the harbour of Manila after the 12"' of 
 August, whether they were aware or not of the armistice, 
 are null, and can give rise to no title or claim on the part 
 of the American Republic, and that everything should be 
 replaced in the same state as it was in on that da} . 
 
 The capitulation of Manila, which was initiated on 
 the 13"' and effecied on the 14"', is d.herefore null accor- 
 ding to International law. 
 
 The United States have conquered nothing, the taking 
 of Manila, we maintain, is an act realized in violation, 
 Avliich was perhaps unvoluntary, of an armistice, and 
 can therefore give rise to no title or claim on the part of 
 the Federal Government; so much so, that if its subse- 
 quent occupation had not been specially stipulated in 
 article 3 of the Protocol, the United States, would have 
 had to evacuate it, as a matter of course. 
 
 And it is no use to argue against these principles, which 
 have never been put in doubt by any one, that Manila 
 being besieged during the conclusion of the preliminary 
 treaty, this part or phase of the war was excluded from 
 the convention, leaving it to be decided by the victory of 
 one or other of the belligerents. 
 
 Although such an argument could not be sustained 
 by anyone informed of the facts of the case, it is as well 
 to meet it, by mentioning that conventions of this kind 
 are not supposed to exist, but on the (contrary, it is pre- 
 sumed that they do not, since the first effect produced 
 
liv ;iii .'ii'iilisiico (I'di' if lli(\\ <li<l ix'i lliry would iiol be 
 such) is llic siisjicnsioii of lioslililics in nil iiiilir;ii'\ npe- 
 ratioiis :iii(l in ;ill iln- icri'ilorics wlicr*' lii<',\ ;ii'(' Ix-iii'^'' 
 (.•ai'i'icil (di; fitr if ilicx .-ii'c ikH ('(iiuv;!,!!-!!! !<• iwane, 
 thov ;ii'0 al leiist a cmnplolc [uinilizalion of w.ir, Tlio 
 int('rpr(M;i<i(in nf iliis matter is acconlinu" f<» I'rndicr- 
 F<i(|('r(' (J). T)!!, I. 7, oli. ••il) so restricted, ili;il lo sii|»|)ose 
 the coiiirai-x , ii w.is necessary to ninke a proper exce|»- 
 tioii in the Iw" most famous iirmisi ices which have t;d\en 
 ])lace ill hisldry : llinl of I'^nince ;ind (IcrniMny in llie 
 23'' of .hinuarv 1871, ;ind I lint of l*"i'ance, Ku,L;l;ind .-ind 
 the how Coiinirics in 17'iN. in holh of liieiu a iiciK'nd 
 iii'iiiistice was aiirccd upon, wiih ilic exception of ihe 
 mililary operations tlierein ch'arly specified — of tlie 
 Jura, Doubs and Cote d'Or and the sie^e of Behoi-i in the 
 first; ;ind of tlie s'lefio of Maestrieht, \\hirli 1i;h1 be^un 
 ;il llie time, ill llie second. 
 
 Ill onler, therefore, that the operatic uis of tlie siege 
 of M;inila should have been exchnled from the armistice, 
 and ih;it its ca|)iiulation should produce all ilie leii'al 
 efl'ects of such, ii would li.ive been necessary to have 
 included such a stipulation in the preliminary treaty, 
 whose ;ipplic;iliou we are now discussinii-. 
 
 We will finish with this j);u*t of the discussion, l)v 
 IjiviiiLi lii'lii lo;i veiy- essenli.il |>oinl , which ;ilthoUL''h well 
 known, is nevertheless ;ipl to be misrepreseiit«'(| by 
 those who seek in llie <( cjipitulntioii » of .M;iiiil;i :i lille lo 
 tiio SovereiLinly over the IMiilippines. 
 
 ll must be said, before ijniii^- further, ilml the occu- 
 pnlion of Manila and its bay and harbour by ihe Ameri- 
 can Forces, is not the occupation which inlernntional 
 pratice aiifl \:\\\' vmv^mzc -AS ft/i uccupaf/o/i nfinir, because 
 it took |»lace in lime of peace, and it is only I'i^hl and 
 
— 68 — 
 
 leffal as far as it is thelultillment of article 3 of the Pro- 
 tocol. That is to sav, that it is only vahd because it is 
 founded on that convention. From its ongin, and as far 
 as the capitulation is concerned, it is absolutely null. 
 
 The only title which today legitimizes the militaiy 
 occupation of Manila by the Federal troups, is the treaty, 
 according to Ayhich, the United States have only, what is 
 tecnically known as a right of garrison, which contrary 
 to the lawful surrender or submission in time of war, 
 reserves for the State which suffers the armed intrusion, 
 the full title to its Sovereignty. 
 
 We do not consider it necessary to extend ourselves 
 further in this part of our notes, by quoting some of the 
 many examples of occupation, mentioned in history; for 
 we think that Avas had been said is enough to convey 
 to the most antagonistical mind the fact, that the 
 meagre military triumph obtained two days after the 
 signature of the armistice by a powerful and well provi- 
 sioned army on land and sea, over a town which had been 
 besieged for three months, and which did not defend 
 itself, is not a legitimate title to claim the Sovereignty 
 over the Philippine Islands, or even over Manila. 
 
 It is therefore proved l:)eyond ,a doubt that the United 
 States have not, according to the text and the spirit of 
 the Protocol any title to invoke for the Sovereignty over 
 the Philippine Islands, and the facts to which we have 
 with absolute impartiality alluded to, also show that they 
 cannot found their claims upon the right of conquest. 
 
 We repeat therefore yvhat was said in another part 
 of these notes. The Federal Government may propose to 
 Spain in the treaty under negotiation her voluntary ces- 
 sion of the Archipielago, under the couditions stipulated 
 by both Nations; and if perchance the proposal of the 
 
I'llidll sllnllM ||i)| S;ilisfv llli' (IcIII.IIkIs i^i llic Ic^MlllMtf 
 
 SovorcMLin of iln- Islands, iioiliiiiii- riirllicr w ill come of i I 
 than its refusal witlinui aiiv fiii'llicr coiiscinn'iicf'S, as is 
 the case in all ilic actions of five conli-act IkMwccii two 
 Nations. 
 
 Hut, fn»ni all tlio circMnislances siirnnin(lin<i- tju- 
 dtMiiand nf iho IMiilipiVnu' Islands, raado In the Tniicd 
 States Government, iIh'I'c apjieai's a kind of imi»ositioii 
 which although a frequent attrilnilc of a coii(|iieror, is no 
 less the hii^hest expression of abuse of power and injus- 
 tice. 
 
 The natural way in which peace has been accepted 
 bv the Spanish people, so s(>verely tried in the present 
 time, and the rt'serve and iiui)assiveness of European 
 Nations in this respect, have no doubt put into the mind 
 of the Federal Government, and induced it later on. to 
 tak(^ adventaiic of the position now occupied l)y its mili- 
 tai'v forces, in order to take possession, under theajipea- 
 ranceof ;i le^ntimate treaty, of that inniense .\rchipela<:o, 
 an inexaustible mine of Wealth in the Ivistern Sea, and 
 a strategical position envied by all who aspire to rule or to 
 liave an intliieiice over the Southern Fart of flu- Asiatic 
 Continent. 
 
 111. — This attitude on the part of tlu^ (loverimient of 
 the I'niled States, suiii^ests some remarks, whieh we 
 will ]>ut down AS a conclusion l<» this rouiih stri'tch. 
 
 If is a phenomenon ol)served Ity the indilTerent with 
 curiosity, and >iu'ely with wnder by the Kuropean 
 powers, to watch the new phase which the .\mericaii 
 Government is l)eii;inniiiL'' to ^rivcMo its foreii:u policy. 
 
 Soon after its constitution, and owinir to the richness 
 and fertilitv of the soil which it conliiuie<l to ann<-\ hy 
 
— 70 — 
 
 force or by purcliase, it has increased and completed with 
 unimportant conquests its colonial Empire until it extends, 
 to the Caribbeean Sea. In this way it has gone on fulfil- 
 ling the doctrine, famous for more than one reason, of its 
 celebrated President Munroe, although when it exer- 
 cised its intervention in, and afterwards conquered, the 
 Spanish Antilles and colonies, which once belonged to 
 other European Powers, the United States were obliged to 
 act in opposition to a great part of the doctrine to which 
 thev rendered such fervent veneration. In the contest 
 which they are at present engaged on, they seek for a 
 prize which may fulfill the measure ol their aspirations. 
 The New World has grown small for their ambition, and 
 they go out on the road of conquest to the Eastern Seas. 
 We do not know how the Treaty of Peace, noAv under 
 discussion Avill end, but we cannot but notice, first in 
 their preparations for the war, in the antecedents of the 
 preliminary convention afterwards, and subsequently in 
 all the particulars attending the conclusion of the final 
 Treaty, the peculiar conduct of the Federal Government 
 and the caution it has displayed, worthy of the interna- 
 tional relations sustained by Ancient Eastern Countries. 
 In this process, it can be seen how, it has been gradually 
 preparing the realization of its plans of dominion nnd 
 empire. The United States begin the war proclaiming 
 onh' the independence of Cuba. They seemingly therefore 
 restrict their military action to the Caribbean sea. They 
 say that their attacks in the East are only meant as a 
 means of hostilizing the ennemv, and thev gain there 
 an improvised victory. They contract the preliminaries 
 of peace, and in them they demand and obtahi, besides 
 the independence of Cuba, which was the only ostensible 
 object of the war, the Sovereignty over the Island of 
 
iNilId liico ;ili(i ;ill llic S|»;misli Ishiiuls in ||ic ( ';i|-il»l)t';iii 
 ScM, .-111(1 iiiicc llici-c llicy I;iv lliclirsi sliuir in ih,- lO.-isI, 
 bv (Iciii.-iuilini! :is ;i siir|)liis df the indcniiiiiv n|' w.-n-, mii 
 isliind ill I lie S|);inisli Arcln|iicl;i,L!(» u|' ilir .M;iri;iM;is or 
 I.;iilri>iifs, :iii(l sck'rl (lii:ini. wliidi is n*n(|i»iil)i((||\ iIk* 
 lar^vsl in :ill lli;il Zone. — This sclcci inn nf the island 
 nf (in.-iin lias a \ci'\ cluiinrnl meaning, hccansf wiili ii, 
 il a|i|)t'ars llial llu' caleiilatLMl lolal <>1' the expciiscs o| w.-ir 
 and ciainis of American subjects are answcn-d I'.n- wiih 
 an alisohilclv coninieivial accuracy; a t(ttal whicii a()|»a- 
 rcntly ihf rich cnjonies of the wcsi did not snfliec to 
 cancel. Let this remark serve as an alts(diilo denial lo 
 those who timidly allirm thai llie (iovernmenl of the 
 I'nion demands the cession of the Philippine Islands as an 
 indemnity of war. 
 
 From the moment of the signing' of (lie preliminaiy 
 treaty, tliat is the 12"' of Au'-iist, theyparalize the action 
 of Spain by invokin.u" the observance of tlie armistice, 
 ignorinii" her Sovereij^ntv to the extreme n( not allowiuir 
 her to aifenl to the reestablishment of oi-dei- in the 
 Arehipela<^-o, w here thanks to this [lolicy, the insurrection 
 increased and jji'ew very sei-ious. 
 
 Whilst thiniis are in ihis state, and Spain is be.i.>inning 
 loyally to fullill the obli*iation she contracted in the 
 Antilles l)v withdrawini:- therefrom the enoi'mous means 
 «if war which had been accumulaied; when the insurrec- 
 tion in ihe l'hilipi)ines is triumphant thanks |(. the assis- 
 tance which the taj^alos had been receivini:' directly from 
 the Feileral (iovcrnment. ami indirectly from the <-onduct 
 of the same towards Spain in not all<»wim^ her lo employ 
 her troojjs unlawfully imjtrisoneil by the cajdtulation of 
 Manila ; iln' negotiations for the linal treaty are opened in 
 Paris, (livinjj' way to ibis policy "f e\j»ansion, which is 
 
72 
 
 perhaps a Party Hag, in the Federal Nation, or may also 
 be the madness which will bring about its ruin, they 
 reveal completely their preconceived plan, and they 
 understand that, according to the preliminary treaty of 
 August 12, 1894, they have a right to demand, and they 
 do demand, the Sovereignty over the whole of the Philip- 
 pine Archipelago, as stated by the press of every country 
 and very specially by the American. 
 
 It is a gradation worthy of study, and so is the form , cha- 
 racteristic of its peculiar policy given by the government 
 of the Union first to its military relations, afterwards to its 
 diplomatic ones and subsequently to its contracting ones 
 to put into practice its plans of conquest. 
 
 To break completely away from its history, not to i-es- 
 pect the traditions established by its great legislators, and 
 to transform the modes of international existence by 
 which the people of the United States had reached their 
 development; implied a radical change which could only 
 be initiated and made public to the world under the protec- 
 tion of some noble and grand idea which should justify it. 
 It was necessary therefore to have a flag, a pro- 
 gramme, the announcement of Mhicli should close the lips 
 of all critics. The Federal Government first, and its Cham- 
 bers afterwards have found it in the idea, always grand 
 and noble, of protecting the oppressed and helping the 
 feeble; subsequently the victories of its arms and the able- 
 ness of its diplomacy will protect the principles of 
 humanity. 
 
 We might go very far if we followed the real humanity 
 for which the United States are now sacrificing them 
 selves; and although we cannot invoke the testimony of 
 many of its historical facts, for being a new country it has 
 no historv, Ave will nevertheless record two, A\hich 
 
— 7:{ — 
 sullico lo coiivcv to I lie iiiiiids of tliosc \\ lio are as indilTi*- 
 rciit .IS we arc to the result of ilic i)r('sent eonlest, a eer- 
 t'liii (lislnisi of ill' siiicci-il V of ilic iiiirposcs of the Fcdci'al 
 Ijlliou, which ;ill;ick(M| h_\ the iii;iiii;L for riclios, a very 
 coiiiiiiou coiiipl.-iiiit to nations diii-iii^ (he period of th<'ir 
 <j:realesl (h'VchipiiK'iu, and w hich i>^ also ('XjMTiriiccd hy 
 iiKhvithials in iho midst of the Jiiost advanced societies, 
 insists tliai llie only ohjeet w hirh she is piu'siiin'j' is to 
 I'edeeni the Cnhans in the ('arihl)eean Sen and the ta«,''aIos 
 in tlie East from their dejected and precarious eomhtion. 
 
 If one or the other of the>e races lived an independent 
 life, ifhotli of llieiii were sn fieri ni: from the conseqtienees 
 (d anarchy or were existiiii:' in a savaye stale, the desire of 
 liie Federal Government would ])e easily explained. We 
 should not have an^thini; to say either, if these races not 
 bein«4' in the state descrihed. and .dilionuh subjects of a 
 European Nation, the political system and the deiiree <d" 
 civilization reached by the I'nited States shoidd have 
 attained suclianexlremeofpiiriiy:ii id superiority over that 
 of their jtresent Sovereign, that their intervention should 
 impose itself on the Spanish ('(donies not as a pardonable 
 bill ;is a necessary fact; but as neither of these supposi- 
 tions is here to l)e considered, it is as well to call atten- 
 tion to the i)oinl, in order that Nations which may have 
 interests to juMtect in both those seas, may make a note 
 of tiiis tutelary piotectorale which the (Jovernment of 
 the American Union (dters lo .dl the wcnk and oppres- 
 sed. 
 
 We say that we could aceount foi\ if not excuse, this 
 obs(dete fit of j)roctecliug and eivilizini^ which has so 
 unexpeetedl\ attacked (he (Ireat Kei)ublic, if the inhabi- 
 tants of the Colonies whom she is about to libi-rate, found 
 themselves in such a degree of miserx as to justify and 
 
 \ 
 
— 74 — 
 
 require her interference, or that of some other nation, 
 whose history or higher intelectual level perhaps might 
 give her a better right to it. 
 
 But, are the inhabitants of the Plhlippines or of 
 the Caribbeean sea the victims of Spanish Sovereignty ? 
 
 Respecting Cuba, we have said more than enough; as 
 to the Phillippines we will remark, tliat since Spain has 
 occupied the Archipehigo, the material progress of this 
 colony has perhaps not answered to the needs of the 
 central government, but it has certainly greatly sur- 
 passed that of the natives who formerly inhabited it. This 
 is easy to explain. 
 
 The Spanish government has admitted the aborigines 
 to all the orders of political life, they have discharged 
 political functions mostly of a tecnical character; 'follo- 
 wing the precepts of Christianity, they have fulfil- 
 led parrocpiial charges; a great number of them can 
 show academical degrees which they have obtained in 
 the Universities of the Archipelago; the commerce is 
 mostly in the hands of natives, and all of them in the 
 various branches of the Administration or of public and 
 private life perform the functions which in more advan- 
 ced nations are open to all their citizens without a 
 distinction of their origin. 
 
 The proof of the advancement of this race, is the pre- 
 sent insurrection. By it they have given evidence of the 
 aspiration of a race desirous of dominion, a stage which 
 it is well known that races do not reach, until they 
 obtain a certain command of themselves which places 
 them, intellectually at least, on a level with those which 
 exercicethe Sovereignty. The military operations effected 
 by the tagalos during the present insurrection, have 
 shown, that although they are far from perfect, they are 
 
I.) 
 
 not iK'iirly ;is hju'kw.'ird ;is is su|)|)()st'(i. This iiilcllcc- 
 lii.il adviiiK't'iiifiii, ilio rosull of ilic theories of ('(|iiMlily 
 pr.MClised h\ S|i,iiii ill lier Colonies, which is iiiiiiuiiljtcdly 
 (Hie of ihi' iiiosl dciiinci'.'il i«' ii.ilioijs in ihcHld I 'niiliiD-iit , 
 is iiol lo hr iiiel wilh ill ;ill Ihe iiislilulioiis (d' .\iiifrie;iii 
 ii;itioii. Ill none ofSpaiii's colonial provinces, have ihcrc 
 yel heen diclaled speeinl l:i\\s exelndiiiii cohiured i-acrs 
 from (lie eiijoymeiil of ri^hls which ai'e not denied |o 
 others. 
 
 The civili/iiiLi action (d' S|»ain also extended to the 
 (levelojiment of (he |trimitive race, and her eltorts have 
 beeu so successful (hat (he ahori^-enes whost- nninber was 
 once Very small, ha\(' no( only heen preserved and im- 
 proved jihysically, bu( have readied (he creditable lot.il 
 of 8.()00.0!10. 
 
 We do not know (he number of Indians who in habi- 
 li'd North America when lirst the |til,Lirims of the Maij- 
 flnirer set foot upon it, but we can assert that thanks to 
 the |ialriarclial administration uf the [Jnioii, loitshnma- 
 njty and |irofouiHlly civilizin'i' law^s, these line indiaii 
 races, which were not allowed ever to mix with thean^-lo- 
 saxons. these Indians who could never as|)ire to any j>ri- 
 vile^e from the Inion, who inliabited reiiions as lar^'-e 
 as Kuropeitsidf, in iSS'i only numbered 4()U,01M); in liSOii 
 did not reach 300,01)0 and in 1870 were scarcily 280,000, 
 accordin;^- to the authorized tesliuKmy of histoi-ians as 
 well known as .lannet, Astier and Carlier. 
 
 And let us here mention the fact that Spain also exer- 
 cised her wise protection and soverei^idy over the same 
 territories which sulisequeiitly |>jissed to the I'niled States: 
 We refer to Canada. During: the Spanish admiuislratioii 
 (d' that distant territory, those same Indians led the 
 sedeiit:ii-\- life (if fariiiei's, <j:iiliti'ed luL'vther in villages. 
 
— 76 — 
 
 opening their minds to civilization, and developping to 
 sucli an extent, tliat owing to the legitimate unions they 
 contracted, and to the respect in which their properties 
 were held, they founded large cities, in which the primi- 
 tive race Avas greatly superior to any other. 
 
 All this had an end on the introduction of the civili- 
 zation of the Federal Government. It is true though, that 
 in spite of these examples left by Spain to posterity in 
 those which were her colonies, and under whose rule- 
 men of the primitive race as eminent and as distinguished 
 as Juarez flourished, amongst hundreds of others who 
 might be quoted, the political pioneers and party men 
 of the Union declare that the Indian race is not suscep- 
 tible of civilisation, because it is eminently nomad in 
 character. 
 
 This first fact that we have signaled is enough to jus- 
 tify the assertion we have made that the United States 
 have not in the face of history a sufficient moral autho- 
 rity for the performance of their new and humane part 
 of liberators of Spanish Colonials in the East and in the 
 West. The civilizing policy of the Federal Government, 
 towards the only race which by its immediate contact, 
 it might have perfected, is not in fact a model to recom- 
 mend to other countries. 
 
 But does the American Government yet pretend to 
 be so perfect and so superior to the European ones, and 
 specially to that of Spain, that it considers it its duty 
 to teach it and to impose upon it its own ideas of humanity 
 and tender protection of the destitute? 
 
 We involuntarily answ^er this position by recalling 
 their civil wars, in which doubtless the charitable senti- 
 ments of individuals and of races are so much drawn out, 
 because, as Laurent remarks, it is where their passions 
 
— 77 — 
 
 ;i|)|)i';ii- ;it llic ^rc;itcsl (elision, liiil \\ r art' obliiicMl In 
 turn Mill' iiiciiim'v a\\;iv fmin llir iiiassacrcs realized hv 
 Slieiiilaii ill llie valley nf Seiiandrale, and frniii lli<' 
 
 llnlTnrs (d (ieoriiia desll'n\ed liy SlnTIIiail . 
 
 Tlieselwn faels (d' tlnir reeeiil liisiui'v, apo cci'tainiv 
 nol e\aiii|»les 1)1' charily, imt can I heir [i(dili<-al or mililary 
 coiidiiel ill lhel)ay(d' Maiiihi he ciled as a ixTleel model, 
 f(U' il is \\(dl know 11 llial liie I'liiled Slales have iakoii 
 advanla;jv, lo llie prejudice of Spain, id' the annislicc so 
 l(»\all\- (d)served hy this Xalion; we are iherefore very 
 sori'V lo jiavc to say llial we do iioi lind in the superio- 
 i'il\' and perl'eclioii id' liie l-'edera! ( l(»veriiineiit a sii(!i- 
 cieiil lille to anthori/e ii lo take upon iisell', and wiihout 
 the suspicion (d' the othei- Powers, the hnniaiie task il 
 lias assumed. 
 
 And allhoii^ii su(di an all il iide would seem lo all lo 
 be loo prenialiiiv, ii would not be suspected, if on ihe tirsi 
 campaiLin td' ri-denipiion initiated by the American Union, 
 il did 11 ol annex, eilhef 1111 del' the prelexl <d' ja-oleelion, as 
 a^val• indeinnity or because il is the slroiii^er, lerritories 
 as exieiisive as Cuba, Poi'lo Rico and the IMiilijipines 
 Islands, which to^elhei' nieasufe iOO.OHO sipiare kilo- 
 metres, all in the full devolopmenl (d' llioir products and 
 [U'opled hy 11.000.000 ' d' inhahilanls. 
 
 The only Nation which has not more or less |)iibli(dy 
 protesb'd against this pidicy, is Kiiiilaml, allhoiiiih her 
 trade with ilic iMiilipj)ines amounted to .Vi millions (hd- 
 lars, that is, more ihan "_! niillioiis nioro lliaii that of ihf 
 Metropolis, and miKdi i: rea I er therefore ihaii the insii^ni- 
 licant «uie carried oii with the I'niled Stales in that 
 re.iiion. 
 
 AlllhoUiih tlie case is very miudi in harmony with the 
 Avell known traditions of Britisli |><diey, we canntd iielj> 
 
— 78 — 
 
 noticing it, and accepting the fact as a proof that the 
 intelligence between the two conntries, which has been 
 so manifest, evidently exists nniting two people whose 
 racial and dominating interests are mutual. 
 
 The inmense Colonial Empire of Great Brittain, united 
 to the possessions, Avhich the United States now pretend 
 to obtain, and which are, owing to their strategical posi- 
 tion of the greatest importance, are a menace to all other 
 Nations. They are a menace to the liberty of the seas, 
 which in modern times, and as the relations between the 
 various countries are organised, would represent the 
 means of commandnig all of them, of hindering their 
 commerce, and of leading them in case of a conflict, to a 
 necessary field of battle, where the defeat of the tw^o 
 United Powers would be very difficult. 
 
 Now that European Nations are devoting their efforts, 
 and directing the currents of their foreign policy to the 
 disarmament of their armies, it is well that their atten- 
 tion should be called to the colossal naval po^^■er of the 
 United States and Great Britain, Avhich together \\ith 
 the Colonies they now possess and tliose which they are 
 trying to obtain, will put into their hands the naviga- 
 tion on every sea and will submit peace and war, to 
 their caprice upon the New and Old Continents, where 
 perchance in the future both allies may have occasion to 
 apply their charitfd3le practices, 
 
 We will end therefore by fulfilling a duty imposed 
 upon every honest man, who sees in peril the road to 
 universal peace. The white fiag of charity and humane 
 sentiments, can be admitted every where, and it is eve- 
 rywhere welcomed with love and with respect, but it is in 
 the interest of Nations to prevent the perilous contraband 
 Oi CO vetousness to enter under its cover and protection. 
 
Addition 
 
 PROTOCOLE 
 
 Soil iixccllt'ncf M. Jiili's Cain- 
 boii, Anil)ass;i(li'ur Kxtraordi- 
 iiairc ot Ploiiip<it<'nli.iiri< (In la 
 IU'piihli(|iii' Kraiicaist' aWa^liin- 
 ;:l<m. ot \Nilliatii W. Day, Sfcre- 
 taiic il'Klal dcs Kiats-liiis.avant 
 rospi'Ctivciiii'iit r('(;n h ci'l clTct 
 ploiiK* antniisation itii Cihiimt- 
 iioiiiont ^l*"i Klals-l'iiis, out rnii- 
 I'hi ct siijiii' Irs aitirit's siiivaiits 
 ijiii pn'risciil Ics Icniit's siir l<'s- 
 (pii'ls Ics «l(Mix (Jotixorni'iiienls 
 sc soiit mis (racniid en < t' qui 
 i"(iiirci-iii> It's ipicsiioiis ci-apivs 
 ilfsii;ni('S »'t avaiit pour ohjct 
 i('t:iiiliss<'iiifiil (lt> la paix ciitip 
 li's (ii'ux pa)s. savoii" : 
 
 AllTICI.E I 
 
 L'Kspaf;n<' loiionccia a loutf 
 piOtciiiion ;\ sa soiivoi-aiiiftO <'t 
 a tout tli'oit sill- Cuba. 
 
 AnTici.E II 
 
 L'Kspafint' c«'Hli'ia aiix Etats- 
 L'liis I'ilo (If Porto-Rico iH Ics 
 nitres lies actiicllcinoiit sous la 
 soiivcrainpto F.spaijiiolc dans Ics 
 hides Oi'cidi'iitalcs. ainsi fpi'iiiie 
 iic dans Ics Ladroiics (|iii sera 
 choisic par Ics Klats-Tiiis. 
 
 AllTICl.t III 
 
 Lcs fitats-Fnis oeciipcront ct 
 tieiidroiit la \illc. la haic et le 
 port dc Maiiillc. cii attendant la 
 "•oncliisioii dim traili- dc |)aix 
 '|iii dcvra determiner Ic contiolc, 
 la disposition et Ic Goiivcrnc- 
 tnciit des Pliili|>ines. 
 
 AlMICI K I\ 
 
 L'KspaRiie uvacucra immedia- 
 tcmcnt (iiiha. Puito-Hico et ics 
 antics iles ai-tiicllcmcnt sons la 
 soinerainctd l-'.spajinolc dans Ics 
 hides Orcidciitalcs; a cet cITet. 
 rliai-iin dcs dciix Goincrnemcnts 
 luuiinicra. dans Ics dix Jours (jui 
 siiivront la signature de co Pro- 
 torole, des eominissaircs, et les 
 comniissairos ainsi nomnies de- 
 \ront. dans l(>s f rente jours <|ni 
 ^uiviont la signature de ec Pio- 
 loiol(>, sc reiicoiitrer:\ la Havaiic, 
 atiii d'airan;;er ct dcxcciitcr lc> 
 details de revacuation siismcii- 
 
 Addition 
 
 PROTOCOL 
 
 His Kxcellency Jides (lambon. 
 Ambassador Kxtraoidinary and 
 PIcniiiotcntiary of tlic Hcpiibiic 
 of Kranre at Wasliin^ton . and 
 William II. Day, Seeretary of 
 Stale of the United States ros- 
 pertively posscssin;j; for this 
 purpose riill aiitlioiiiy from tln' 
 (Jovcrnmciit of ilicl iiilcd Slates, 
 lia\e i-oii(-|iided and sii^'lied the 
 fiillow in;; artirles <'niliod\in^ the 
 terms on which the two (govern- 
 ments ha\c agreed in respect to 
 the matters herein after set forth. 
 liaNinj; in view the establishment 
 of |)eace between the two conn- 
 tries, that is to say. 
 
 Ar.TK.I.E I 
 
 Spain will relinquish all claim 
 of sovereii;ntv over and title to 
 Cuba. 
 
 .\IIT1CI.E II 
 
 S|)ain will ccd(> to the Uniti'd 
 Slates the island of Porto-llico 
 :ind other islands now- under 
 Spanish sovereip^nty in the West 
 Indii'S and also an island in the 
 l.adrones to be selected by the 
 United States. 
 
 Ar.Tici.K III 
 
 The United Suites will occiiiiy 
 and hold the city, bay and liar- 
 iionrt of .Manila pending the 
 conclusion of a treaty of peace 
 which shall determine the con- 
 ti'ol. (lispiisition and (Jovcrnincnt 
 of the Philippines. 
 
 AnTici.i-: IV 
 
 Spain will immediately eva- 
 cuate (liiba. Porlo-IUco and 
 other islands now under Spa- 
 nish soveici;;iily in th(> west 
 Indies; and to this end each 
 Gnvernnient will within ten days 
 after the sijiiiin;; of this l^ioto- 
 col appoint commissioners and 
 the coinmissioners so .-ippoiiitcd 
 shall within thirty days alfcr 
 the sijjnin^ of this Protocol. 
 mei>t at liaxaiia for tbc piirpnse 
 of arl'all^illl; and carrying out 
 tlie dci.iils (if the aforcsiiid eva- 
 cuation of (liiba and (he adj;.- 
 
 Adicion 
 
 PROTOCOLO 
 
 Sii |-".\re|pnria Monsieur Julio 
 ('..'iiiibon. b;iiii).'ijador Kxtraordi- 
 iiai'io \ Plenipotenciai'iodi; la He- 
 publi(-a Franccsa en Washington 
 y William W. Day, SecretJirio de 
 Kstado de los Kslados ( nidns, lia- 
 biendo i-ci-ibido ri's|)ei-iivanicnte 
 ;il efecti) plenos podcrcs del Go- 
 bicrno de Kspaha y del (inbicrno 
 de los l-'siados I nidos, li.in fo.- 
 miilado y (irmado los artfculos 
 siiiiiienies (pic pn>cisaii los ti'r- 
 iniiios en (|iie ambfis Gobiernos 
 sc ban puesto dc acuerdn relati- 
 vameiitc h las ciicstiones abajo 
 dcsipn.-idas (pic tiencii por objcto 
 el establecimieiito de la|)<^/. cntrc 
 los dos Pafses. 4 saber : 
 
 AnTi(.i;i.o 1." 
 
 Kspai'ia rcniinciara itodapn^- 
 tciisi6ii l\ sii soberanfay a todos 
 siis dercclios sobn! la i>la dc 
 Cuba. 
 
 AiiTi'cti.o 2." 
 
 I'.spafia i-edeiii a los Kstado.s 
 I nidos la isla d\' Puerto llico y 
 las dcniis islas (pic ai-tiialmentc 
 sc cnciientran bajo la si(bcraiiia 
 es|)anola en las liidias Occidcn- 
 talcs. as( conio una isla en las 
 LadroiK's, (pie scri cscogida |)nr 
 los l-lsiados I'nidos. 
 
 AnxiciLO 3." 
 
 Los Kstados Unidns ocuparaii 
 y conscrvaran lai-iiidad. la balii.i 
 y el piicrlo de Manila, i-ii cspcra 
 d(> la ciiiicliisioii dc iin tiatado 
 dc \y.\7. (pic debcrfi dctcrminar la 
 intcrvencidn contrrtio), la dis- 
 posi(-i(!m y el gobierno dc las 
 islas Filipinas. 
 
 .\r.T(cii.o '«." 
 
 Kspana e\aciiard immcdiata- 
 meiite Cuba, Pui-rto llico y las 
 (leiiias islas ipie sc cnciicMilran 
 .iciiialmentc- bajo l;i snbcraiiia dc 
 I'.Npari.'i en las liidias Occidcii- 
 talcs ; con estc objcto cada uin> 
 de Ins dos (iobicriios nomhrai a 
 (-oinisai'ios en los dicz dias (pie 
 se^iiiidn d la thiiia d(> cstc Pm- 
 t(M-olo \ los coinis.-U'i(>s as( iiom- 
 brados debei-,^ii en los li-cint;'. 
 dtas (pic segiiii-uii i'l la flriiia i!<- 
 es|c Protocolo eiicontrar^c III 
 la llabana ii tin de convcnii' \ 
 ejecutar los delalles de la e\,,- 
 
tiimiiee dc Cuba et dcs ilcs Es- 
 pagnoles adjacentcs ; ct chacun 
 dcs deux Goiivernements nom- 
 mera egalemont, dans les dix 
 jours qui suivront la signature 
 de ce Protocole. d'autres com- 
 missaires qui devi-ont, dans les 
 trente jours do la signature do 
 ce Protocole se rencontrer a San 
 Juan de Porto-Rico afin d'arian- 
 ger et d'executei- les details de 
 Tevacuation susmentionnee de 
 Porto-Rico ct des autres ilcs 
 actuellement sous la souverai- 
 nete Espagnole dans les Indes 
 Occidentalcs. 
 
 Article V 
 
 L'Espagne et les fitats-Unis 
 noranieront. pour traiter de la 
 paix, cinq conniiissaires au plus 
 pour chaque pays; les comniis- 
 saires ainsi nonimes devront se 
 rencontrer a Paris Ic 1'='' Octo- 
 bre 1898, au plus tard, et pro- 
 ceder a la negociation et a la 
 conclusion d'un traite de paix; 
 ce traite sera sujet a ratifica- 
 tion, selon les formes constitu- 
 tionnelles de chacun des deux 
 pays. 
 
 AnncLE VI 
 
 A la conclusion ct a la signa- 
 ture de ce Protocole, les hosti- 
 lites entre les deux pays devront 
 etre suspendues, et des ordres 
 a cet eHet devi-ont etre donncs 
 aussi tot que possible par chacun 
 des deux Gouvernenicnts aux 
 commandants de ses forces de 
 terrc et de mer. 
 
 Fait h Washington en double 
 exemplaire frangais et anglais 
 par les sous signes qui y ont ap- 
 pose lour signature et lour sceau, 
 le 12 Aoi:it 1898. —Jules Cambon. 
 —William R. Dav. 
 
 cent Spanish islands : and cacli 
 Govei'iunent will, within ten days 
 after the signing of this Proto- 
 col, also appoint other Commis- 
 sionners. who shall, within 
 thirty days after the signing of 
 this Protocol, meet at San Juan 
 in Porto-Rico, for the pui-jjosc 
 of arranging and carrying out 
 the details of the at'oresaid eva- 
 cuation of Porto-Rico and otliei' 
 islands now under Spanish so- 
 vereignty in the West Indies. 
 
 Article V 
 
 Spain and the United States 
 will each appoint not more 
 than five commissioners to treat 
 of peace, and the commissioners 
 so appointed sliall meet at Paris 
 not later than October 1, 1898, 
 and proceed to the negotiation 
 and conclusion of a treaty of 
 peace which treaty shall be sub- 
 ject to ratification according to 
 the respective constitutional 
 foims of the two countries. 
 
 Article VI 
 
 Upon the conclusion and sig- 
 ning of this Protocol, hostilities 
 between the two countries shall 
 be suspended, and notice to 
 that efi'ect shall be given as soon 
 as possible by each Govei'imient 
 to the conunanders of its niili- 
 tarv and naval forces. 
 
 Done at Washington, in du- 
 plicate, in French, and in English 
 by the Undersigned who have 
 hereunto set their hands and 
 seals, the, 12"' dav of August 
 1898. — Jules Cambon. — Wil- 
 liam R. Dav. 
 
 cuacion ya mencionada de Cuba 
 y do las islas espanolas adyaccn- 
 tes; y cada uno de los dos Go- 
 ibiornos nombi-ar^ igualmcnte en 
 OS diez dias siguientes al de la 
 firma de cste Protocole otros co- 
 inisarios que debcriln, en los 
 treinta dias que seguiran & la 
 fii'ma de este Protocolo, encon- 
 trarsc en San Juan de Puerti) 
 Rico afin de'convenir y cjecutar 
 los detalles de la eVacuacion 
 antes mencionada do Puerto 
 Rico y de las dcniAs islas que se 
 encuentran actualmente bajo la 
 sobcrania espahola en las Indias 
 Occidentalcs. 
 
 AuTicuLO 5." 
 
 Espana y los Estados Unidos 
 nombrar^n para tratar de la paz 
 cinco comisai-ios d lo mas por 
 cada Pais ; los comisarios asf 
 nombrados debciAn encontrarse 
 en Paiis el priinero do Octubre 
 de mil ochocientos noventa y 
 ocho lo mas tarde y proceder k 
 la negociacion y a la conclusidn 
 de un tratado de paz ; este tra- 
 tado quedard sujeto a ratifica- 
 cion con arrcglo a las formas 
 constitucionales dc cada unode 
 ambos Paises. 
 
 Articllo 6." 
 
 Una vcz terminado y fii-mado 
 este Protocolo dcber;'in suspen- 
 derse las hostilidades en los dos 
 Paises; & este cfecto se deberin 
 dar oidcnes poi' cada uno de los 
 dos Gobicrnos k los Jcfcs de sus 
 lucrzas de mar y tieri-a tan 
 pi-onto como sea posible. 
 
 Hecho en Washington pordu- 
 l)licado en trances e ingles por 
 los infrascritos que ])onen al pic 
 tu firma y sella, el 12 de Agosto 
 de 1898. — Jules Cambon. — 
 William R. Dav. 
 
 /a-io 
 
LB N '12 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 If II' 1 
 
 '!l "'! 
 
 II [1 
 
 II II M 
 
 II 
 
 II, 11 1 
 
 ni t 
 
 II II 
 
 .. . ,, 
 
 ill 
 
 013 902 187 3