Chapter XXXIV: Section III: of article 111 of the federal constitution is (2)

_President Cleveland's Message to Congress,
December 7, 1896._

Just at this time (December 7, 1896) the Cuban insurgents
suffered a serious calamity, in the death of Antonio Maceo,
the heroic mulatto, who seems to have been the most soldierly
and inspiring of their leaders. He had broken through the
"trocha," or fortified line across the island, by which the
Spaniards were endeavoring to hold its western part, and had
been troubling them in the province of Pinar del Rio for some
months. At length he was killed in an unimportant skirmish,
and much of the vigor of the insurrection appears to have gone
out of it when he died. The obstinacy of spirit remained,
nevertheless, and all the merciless energy of Weyler only
spread death and misery, without opening any prospect of an
end to the state of war. Spain was being utterly exhausted by
the immense cost of the struggle; Cuba was being ruined and
depopulated; yet neither would yield. The oppressors would not
set their victims free; the oppressed would not submit. But,
politically, the situation continued for another year as it
had been when described by President Cleveland at the close of
1896. The only visible authority was that which the Spaniards
maintained here and there. The revolutionists established no
government that could reasonably be given the name, and their
"Republic of Cuba," which foolish people in the United States
were clamoring to have recognized, existed on paper alone. To
concede "belligerent rights" to the scattered bands of
insurgents would only bring them under crippling rules of
international law, and do no good to their cause. President
McKinley, who succeeded President Cleveland in March, 1897,
made no change in the policy which the latter had pursued. He
continued the insistent pressure by which it was sought to
persuade the Spanish government to give a satisfying measure
of free government to its great dependency. After some months
there appeared to be a fair promise of success. The Liberal
party had come into power at Madrid, with Sagasta at its head.
In October, Weyler was recalled, General Blanco took his place,
and a new constitution for Cuba was announced, giving the
colony what seemed to be a fairly autonomous government, under
a parliament of its own. In his message to Congress the
following December, President McKinley was able to meet the
continued clamor for more violent measures of interference by
saying: "It is honestly due to Spain, and to our friendly
relations with Spain, that she should be given a reasonable
chance to realize her expectations, and to prove the asserted
efficacy of the new order of things to which she stands
irrevocably committed. She has recalled the commander whose
brutal orders inflamed the American mind and shocked the
civilized world. She has modified the horrible order of
concentration, and has undertaken to care for the helpless and
permit those who desire to resume the cultivation of their
fields to do so, and assures them the protection of the
Spanish Government in their lawful occupations."
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But the awful tragedy of suffering among the
"reconcontrados" had excited lookers-on to such a pitch that
the conduct of Spain in any new line of policy could no longer
be fairly judged. There had been attempts on the part of the
Spanish authorities to give some relief to the starved and
perishing multitude, and help to that end had been accepted
from the United States. The American Red Cross Society, with
Miss Clara Barton at its head, entered the island in December,
with vast stores of food and hospital supplies, and a strong
force of generous workers; but the need was far beyond their
means. The tale of death and misery in the stricken country
seemed to grow more sickening every day.

CUBA: A. D. 1897 (November).
Constitution establishing self-government in the islands of
Cuba and Porto Rico, promulgated by Royal Decree.

The following is a translation of the text of the Constitution
establishing self-government in the islands of Cuba and Porto
Rico which was promulgated by royal decree at Madrid on the
25th of November, 1897:

Upon the proposition of my Prime Minister, and with the
concurrence of the Council of Ministers in the name of my
august son, King Alfonso XIII, and as Queen Regent of the
Kingdom, I hereby decree as follows:

[Footnote Start]
EXPLANATORY NOTE.
To facilitate the understanding of this decree and to avoid
confusion as to the legal value of the terms employed therein
the following definitions are to be observed:

Central Executive Power: The King with his Council of Ministers.
The Spanish Parliament: The Cortes with the King.
The Spanish Chambers: The Congress and the Senate.
The Central Government: The Council of Ministers of the Kingdom.
The Colonial Parliament: The two Chambers with
the Governor-General.
The Colonial Chambers: The Council of Administration
and the Chamber of Representatives.
Colonial Legislative Assemblies: The Council of Administration
and the Chamber of Representatives.
Governor-General in Council: The Governor-General
with the Secretaries of his Cabinet.
Instructions of the Governor-General: Those which he may have
received when named for his office.
Statute: Colonial measure of a legislative character.
Colonial Statutes: Colonial Legislation.
Legislation or General Laws: Legislation or laws of the Kingdom.
[Footnote End]

TITLE I.
GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL ADMINISTRATION IN THE ISLANDS
OF CUBA AND PORTO RICO.

ARTICLE 1.
The system of government and civil administration in the
islands of Cuba and Porto Rico shall hereafter be carried on
in conformity with the following provisions:

ARTICLE 2.
Each island shall be governed by an insular parliament,
consisting of two chambers, and by the Governor-General,
representing the mother country, who shall exercise supreme
authority.

TITLE II.
THE INSULAR CHAMBERS.

ARTICLE 3.
The legislative power as to colonial matters in the shape and
manner prescribed by law, shall be vested in the insular
chambers conjointly with the Governor-General.

ARTICLE 4.
Insular representation shall consist of two bodies of equal
powers, which shall be known as chamber of representatives and
council of administration.

TITLE III.
COUNCIL OF ADMINISTRATION.

ARTICLE 5.
The council shall be composed of thirty-five members, of whom
eighteen shall be elected in the manner directed by the
electoral law and seventeen shall be appointed by the
Governor-General acting for the Crown, from among such persons
as have the qualifications specified in the following
articles:

ARTICLE 6.
To be entitled to sit in the council of administration it is
necessary to be a Spanish subject; to have attained the age of
thirty-five years; to have been born in the island, or to have
had four years' constant residence therein; not to be subject
to any pending criminal prosecution; to be in the full
enjoyment of his political rights; to have his property free
from attachment; to have had for two or more years previous an
annual income of four thousand dollars; to have no interest in
any contract with either the insular or the home government.
The shareholders of a stock company shall not be considered as
government contractors, even if the company has a contract
with the government.

ARTICLE 7.
Persons are also qualified to serve as councilors who, besides
the above-stated requirements, have any of the following
qualifications:

1. To be or to have been a senator of the Kingdom, or to
possess the requirements for being a senator, in conformity
with Article III of the constitution.

2. To have held for a period of two years any of the following
offices: President, or prosecuting attorney of the pretorian
court of Havana; rector of the University of Havana; councilor
of administration in the council formerly thus designated;
president of the Havana Chamber of Commerce; president of the
Economic Society of Friends of the Country; president of the
Sugar Planters' Association; president of the Tobacco
Manufacturers' Union; president of the Merchants, Tradesmen's,
and Agriculturalists' League; dean of the bar of Havana; mayor
of Havana; president of the provincial assembly of Havana
during two terms or of any provincial assembly during three
terms; dean of either of the chapters of the two cathedrals.
3. Likewise may be elected or appointed as councilor any
property owner from among the fifty taxpayers paying the
highest taxes, either on real estate or on industries,
commerce, arts, and the professions.

ARTICLE 8.
The councilors appointed by the Crown shall be appointed by
special decrees, stating the qualification entitling the
appointee to serve as councilor. Councilors thus appointed
shall hold office for life. One-half the number of elective
councilors shall be elected every five years, and the whole
number shall be elected whenever the council of administration
shall be dissolved by the Governor-General.

ARTICLE 9.
The qualifications required in order to be appointed or
elected councilor of administration may be changed by a
national law, at the request or upon the proposition of the
insular chambers.

ARTICLE 10.
No councilor shall, during the session of the council, accept
any civil office, promotion (unless it be strictly by
seniority), title, or decoration; but any councilor may be
appointed by either the local or the home government to any
commission within his own profession or category, whenever the
public service shall require it. The secretaries of the
insular government shall be excepted from the foregoing rule.

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TITLE IV.
THE CHAMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES.

ARTICLE 11.
The chamber of representatives shall be composed of members
named by the electoral boards in the manner prescribed by law
and in the proportion of one for every twenty-five thousand
inhabitants.

ARTICLE 12.
To be elected as representative the candidate must have the
following requirements: To be a Spanish citizen, to be a
layman, to have attained his majority, to be in full enjoyment
of civil rights, to have been born in the island or to have
had four years' constant residence therein, and not to be
subject to any pending criminal prosecution.

ARTICLE 13.
Representatives shall be elected every five years, and any
representative may be re-elected any number of times. The
insular chamber shall determine what classes of offices are
incompatible with the office of representative, as well as the
cases governing re-election.

ARTICLE 14.
Any representative upon whom either the local or home
government shall confer a pension, or any employment,
promotion (unless it be by strict seniority), paid commission,
title, or decoration, shall cease to be such without necessity
of any declaration to that effect, unless he shall within fifteen
days of his appointment notify the chamber of his having
declined the favor. The provisions of the preceding paragraph
shall not include the representatives who shall be appointed
members of the cabinet.

TITLE V.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSULAR CHAMBERS AND THEIR RELATIONS
TO EACH OTHER.

ARTICLE 15.
The chambers will meet every year. The King, the
Governor-General acting in his name, shall convene, suspend,
and adjourn the sessions and dissolve the chamber of
representatives and the council of administration, either
separately or simultaneously, under the obligation to call
them together again or renew them within three months.

ARTICLE 16.
Each of the two legislative bodies shall determine the rules
of their proceedings and shall be the judges of the
qualifications of their respective members and the legality of
their election. Until the chamber and the council shall pass
their own rules, they shall be governed by the rules of the
national house of representatives and of the senate,
respectively.

ARTICLE 17.
Each chamber shall choose its president, vice-president and
secretaries.

ARTICLE 18.
Neither chamber shall sit unless the other be sitting also,
except when the council exercises judicial functions.

ARTICLE 19.
The two insular chambers shall not deliberate together nor in
the presence of the Governor-General. The sessions shall be
public, but either chamber may hold secret sessions whenever
business of a private nature shall require it.

ARTICLE 20.
To the Governor-General, through his secretaries, as well as
to either of the two chambers, belongs the power to initiate
and propose colonial statutes.

ARTICLE 21.
All colonial statutes in regard to taxes and the public credit
shall originate in the chamber of representatives.

ARTICLE 22.
Resolutions may be passed by either chamber by a plurality of
votes; but in order to pass a measure of a legislative
character a majority of all the members constituting the body
must be present. Nevertheless, one-third of the members shall
constitute a quorum for deliberation.

ARTICLE 23.
No resolution or law shall be considered passed by the insular
parliament unless it has had the concurrence of the chamber of
representatives and the council of administration.

ARTICLE 24.
Every colonial statute, as soon as it has been approved in the
form prescribed in the preceding article, shall be presented
to the Governor-General by the officers of both chambers for
his sanction and proclamation of the same.

ARTICLE 25.
Members of the council and the chamber of representatives
shall have immunity for any speech or vote in either chamber.

ARTICLE 26.
No councilor of administration shall be indicted or arrested
without a previous resolution of the council, unless he shall
be found "in flagranti" or the council shall not be in
session, but in every case notice shall be given to that body
as soon as possible, that it may determine what should be
done. Nor shall the representatives be indicted or arrested
during the sessions without the permission of the chamber
unless they are found "in flagranti," but in this last case,
or in case of indictment or arrest when the chamber is not
sitting, notice shall be given as soon us possible to the
chamber of representatives for its information and action. All
proceedings against councilors and representatives shall be
brought before the pretorian court at Havana in the cases and
manner that shall be prescribed by colonial statutes.

ARTICLE 27.
The guarantees established in the foregoing section shall not
apply to a councilor or representative who shall himself admit
that he is the author of any article, book, pamphlet, or
printed matter wherein military sedition is incited or
invoked, or the Governor-General is insulted and maligned, or
national sovereignty is assailed.

ARTICLE 28.
The relations between the two chambers shall be governed,
until otherwise provided, by the act of July 19, 1837,
regulating the relations between the two legislative houses of
the Cortes.

ARTICLE 29.
Besides the power of enacting laws for the colony the insular
chambers shall have power:

1. To receive the oath of the Governor-General to preserve the
constitution and the laws which guarantee the autonomy of the
colony.

2. To enforce the responsibility of the secretaries of the
executive, who shall be tried by the council, whenever
impeached by the chamber of representatives.

3. To address the home government through the
Governor-General, proposing the abrogation or modification of
existing laws of the Kingdom; to invite the home government to
present bills as to particular matters, or to ask a decision
of an executive character on matters which interest the
colony.

ARTICLE 30.
The Governor-General shall communicate to the home government
before presenting to the insular parliament any bill
originating in the executive government of the island
whenever, in his judgment, said bill may affect national
interests. Should any such bill originate in the insular
parliament, the government of the island shall ask for a
postponement of the debate until the home government shall
have given its opinion. In either case the correspondence
passing between the two governments shall be laid before the
chambers and published in the official Gazette.

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ARTICLE 31.
All differences of jurisdiction between the several municipal,
provincial, and insular assemblies, or between any of them and
the executive, which by their nature may not be referred to
the home government, shall be submitted to the courts of
justice in accordance with the rules herein prescribed.

TITLE VI.
POWERS VESTED IN THE INSULAR PARLIAMENT.

ARTICLE 32.
The insular chambers shall have power to pass upon all matters
not specially and expressly reserved to the Cortes of the
Kingdom or to the central government as herein provided, or as
may be provided hereafter, in accordance with the prescription
set forth in additional Article 2. In this manner, and without
implying that the following enumeration presupposes any
limitation of their power to legislate on other subjects, they
shall have power to legislate on all matters and subjects
concerning the departments of justice, interior, treasury,
public works, education, and agriculture.

They shall likewise have exclusive cognizance of all matters
of a purely local nature which may principally affect the
colonial territory; and to this end they shall have power to
legislate on civil administration; on provincial, municipal,
or judicial apportionment; on public health, by land or sea,
and on public credit, banks, and the monetary system. This
power, however, shall not impair the powers vested in the
colonial executive according to the laws in connection with
the matters above mentioned.

ARTICLE 33.
It shall be incumbent upon the colonial parliament to make
regulations under such national laws as may be passed by the
Cortes and expressly intrusted to it. Especially among such
measures parliament shall legislate, and may do so at the
first sitting, for the purpose of regulating the elections,
the taking of the electoral census, qualifying electors, and
exercising the right of suffrage; but in no event shall these
dispositions affect the rights of the citizens, as established
by the electoral laws.

ARTICLE 34.
Notwithstanding that the laws governing the judiciary and the
administration of justice are of a national character, and
therefore obligatory for the colony, the insular parliament
may, within the provisions of said laws, make rules or propose
to the home government such measures as shall render easier
the admission, continuance, or promotion in the local courts
of lawyers, natives of the island, or practicing therein.

The Governor-General in council shall have, as far as the
island of Cuba is concerned, the same power that has been
vested heretofore in the minister for the colonies for the
appointment of the functionaries and subordinate and auxiliary
officers of the judicial order and as to the other matters
connected with the administration of justice.

ARTICLE 35.
The insular parliament shall have exclusive power to frame the
local budget of expenditures and revenues, including the
revenue corresponding to the island as her quota of the
national budget. To this end the Governor-General shall
present to the chambers every year before the month of January
the budget for the next fiscal year, divided in two parts, as
follows: The first part shall state the revenues needed to
defray the expenses of sovereignty, and the second part shall
state the revenues and expenditures estimated for the
maintenance of the colonial administration. Neither chamber
shall take up the budget of the colonial government without
having finally voted the part for the maintenance of
sovereignty.

ARTICLE 36.
The Cortes of the Kingdom shall determine what expenditures
are to be considered by reason of their nature as obligatory
expenses inherent to sovereignty, and shall fix the amount
every three years and the revenue needed to defray the same,
the Cortes reserving the right to alter this rule.

ARTICLE 37.
All treaties of commerce affecting the island of Cuba, be they
suggested by the insular or by the home government, shall be
made by the latter with the co-operation of special delegates
duly authorized by the colonial government, whose concurrence
shall be acknowledged upon submitting the treaties to the
Cortes. Said treaties, when approved by the Cortes, shall be
proclaimed as laws of the Kingdom and as such shall obtain in
the colony.

ARTICLE 38.
Notice shall be given to the insular government of any
commercial treaties made without its participation as soon as
said treaties shall become laws, to the end that, within a
period of three months, it may declare its acceptance or
nonacceptance of their stipulations. In case of acceptance the
Governor-General shall cause the treaty to be published in the
Gazette as a colonial statute.

ARTICLE 39.
The insular parliament shall also have power to frame the
tariff and fix the duties to be paid on merchandise as well
for its importation into the territory of the island as for
the exportation thereof.

ARTICLE 40.
As a transition from the old regime to the new constitution,
and until the home and insular governments may otherwise
conjointly determine hereafter, the commercial relations
between the island and the metropolis shall be governed by the
following rules:

1. No differential duty, whether fiscal or otherwise, either
on imports or exports, shall be imposed to the detriment of
either insular or peninsular production.

2. The two governments shall make a schedule of articles of
direct national origin to which shall be allowed by common
consent preferential duty over similar foreign products. In
another schedule made in like manner shall be determined such
articles of direct insular production as shall be entitled to
privileged treatment on their importation into the peninsula
and the amount of preferential duties thereon. In neither case
shall the preferential duty exceed 35 per cent. Should the
home and the colonial government agree upon the schedules and
the preferential duties, they shall be considered final and
shall be enforced at once. In case of disagreement the point
in dispute shall be submitted to a committee of
representatives of the Cortes, consisting of an equal number
of Cubans and Peninsulars. The committee shall appoint its
chairman, and in case of disagreement the eldest member shall
preside. The chairman shall have the casting vote.

3. The valuation tables concerning the articles in the
schedules above mentioned shall be fixed by mutual agreement,
and shall be revised after discussion every two years. The
modifications which may thereupon become necessary in the
tariff duties shall be carried out at once by the respective
governments.

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TITLE VII.
THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

ARTICLE 41.
The supreme authority of the colony shall be vested in a
Governor-General, appointed by the King on the nomination of
the council of ministers. In his capacity he shall have as
vice-royal patron the power inherent in the patronate of the
Indies; he shall have command of all military and naval forces
in the island; he shall act as delegate of the departments of
state, war, navy, and the colonies; all other authorities in
the island shall be subordinate to his, and he shall be
responsible for the preservation of order and the safety of
the colony. The Governor-General shall, before taking
possession of his office, take an oath in the presence of the
King to discharge his duties faithfully and loyally.

ARTICLE 42.
The Governor-General, representing the nation, will discharge
by himself and with the aid of his secretaries all the
functions indicated in the preceding articles and such others
as may devolve upon him as direct delegate of the King in
matters of a national character. It shall be incumbent upon
the Governor-General as representing the home government:

1. To appoint without restriction the secretaries of his
cabinet.

2. To proclaim, execute, and cause to be executed in the
island all laws, decrees, treaties, international covenants,
and all other acts emanating from the legislative branch of
the government, as well as all decrees, royal commands, and
other measures emanating from the executive which shall be
communicated to him by the departments of which he acts as
delegate. Whenever in his judgment and in that of his
secretaries he considers the resolutions of the home
government as liable to injure the general interests of the
nation or the special interests of the island, he shall have
power to suspend the publication and execution thereof, and
shall so notify the respective department, stating the reasons
for his action.

3. To grant pardons in the name of the King, within the
limitations specially prescribed to him in his instructions
from the government, and to stay the execution of a death
sentence whenever the gravity of the circumstances shall so
demand or the urgency of the case shall allow of no time to
solicit and obtain His Majesty's pardon; but in either case he
shall hear the counsel of his secretaries.

4. To suspend the guarantees set forth in articles 3, 5, 6,
and 9, and in the first, second, and third paragraphs of
article 13 of the constitution; to enforce legislation in
regard to public order, and to take all measures which he may
deem necessary to preserve the peace within and the safety
without for the territory entrusted to him after hearing the
counsel of his cabinet.

5. To take care that in the colony justice be promptly and
fully administered, and that it shall always be administered
in the name of the King.

6. To hold direct communication on foreign affairs with the
ministers, diplomatic agents, and counsels of Spain throughout
America. A full copy of such correspondence shall be
simultaneously forwarded to the home Department of State.

ARTICLE 43.
It behooves the Governor-General, as the superior authority in
the colony and head of its administration:

1. To take care that the rights, powers, and privileges now
vested or that may henceforth be vested in the colonial
administration be respected and protected.

2. To sanction and proclaim the acts of the insular
parliament, which shall be submitted to him by the president
and secretaries of the respective chambers. Whenever, in the
judgment of the Governor-General, an act of the insular
parliament goes beyond its powers or impairs the rights of the
citizens as set forth in Article I of the constitution, or
curtails the guarantees prescribed by law for the exercise of
said rights, or jeopards the interest of the colony or of the
nation, he shall forward the act to the council of ministers
of the Kingdom, which, within a period that shall not exceed
two months, shall either assent to it or return it to the
Governor-General with the objections to its sanction and
proclamation. The insular parliament may, in view of the
objections, reconsider or modify the act, if it deems fit,
without a special proposition. If two months shall elapse
without the central government giving any opinion as to a
measure agreed upon by the chambers which has been transmitted
to it by the Governor-General, the latter shall sanction and
proclaim the same.

3. To appoint, suspend, and discharge the employees of the
colonial administration, upon the suggestion of the
secretaries of the departments and in accordance with the
laws.

4. To appoint and remove, without restriction, the secretaries
of his cabinet.

ARTICLE 44.
No executive order of the Governor-General, acting as
representative and chief of the colony, shall take effect
unless countersigned by a secretary of the cabinet, who by
this act alone shall make himself responsible for the same.

ARTICLE 45.
There shall be five secretaries of department, to wit:
Grace and justice and interior;
finance;
public education, public works and posts and telegraphs;
agriculture, industry, and commerce.

The Governor-General shall appoint the president of the
cabinet from among the secretaries, and shall also have power
to appoint a president without a secretaryship. The power to
increase or diminish the number of secretaries composing the
colonial cabinet, and to determine the scope of each
department, is vested in the insular parliament.

ARTICLE 46.
The secretaries of the cabinet may be members of either the
chamber of representatives or the council of administration
and take part in the debates of either chamber, but a
secretary shall only vote in the chamber of which he is a
member.

ARTICLE 47.
The secretaries of the cabinet shall be responsible to the
insular parliament.

ARTICLE 48.
The Governor-General shall not modify or abrogate his own
orders after they are assented to by the home government, or
when they shall declare some rights, or when a sentence by a
judicial court or administrative tribunal shall have been
based upon said orders, or when they shall deal with his own
competency.

ARTICLE 49.
The Governor-General shall not turn over his office when
leaving the island except by special command from the home
government. In case of absence from the seat of government
which prevents his discharging the duties of his office or of
disability to perform such duties, he can appoint one or more
persons to take his place, provided the home government has
not previously done so or the method of substitution shall not
be stated in his instructions.

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ARTICLE 50.
The supreme court shall have the sole power to try the
Governor-General when impeached for his responsibilities as
defined by the Penal Code. The council of ministers shall take
cognizance of his other responsibilities.

ARTICLE 51.
The Governor-General shall have the power, in spite of the
provisions of the different articles of this decree, to act
upon his own responsibility, without consulting his
secretaries, in the following cases:

1. When forwarding to the home government a bill passed by the
insular parliament, especially when, in his opinion, it shall
abridge the rights set forth in Article 1 of the constitution
of the monarchy or the guarantees for the exercise thereof
vouchsafed by the laws.

2. When it shall be necessary to enforce the law or public
order, especially if there be no time or possibility to
consult the home government.

3. When enforcing the national laws that shall have been
approved by the Crown and made applicable to all of the
Spanish or to the colony under his government. The proceedings
and means of action which the Governor-General shall employ in
the above cases shall be determined by a special law.

TITLE VIII.
MUNICIPAL AND PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.

ARTICLE. 52.
Municipal organization shall be compulsory for every group of
population of more than one thousand inhabitants. Groups of
less number of inhabitants may organize the service of their
community by special covenants. Every legally constituted
municipality shall have power to frame its own laws regarding
public education; highways by land, river, and sea; public
health; municipal finances, as well as to freely appoint and
remove its own employees.

ARTICLE 53.
At the head of each province there shall be an assembly, which
shall be elected in the manner provided for by the colonial
statutes, and shall be composed of a number of members in
proportion to the population.

ARTICLE 54.
The provincial assembly shall be autonomous as regards the
creation and maintenance of public schools and colleges;
charitable institutions and provincial roads and ways by land,
river, or sea; also as regards their own budgets and the
appointment and removal of their respective employees.

ARTICLE 55.
The municipalities, as well as the provincial assemblies,
shall have power to freely raise the necessary revenue to
cover their expenditures, with no other limitation than to
make the means adopted compatible with the general system of
taxation which shall obtain in the island. The resources for
provincial appropriations shall be independent of municipal
resources.

ARTICLE 56.
The mayors and presidents of boards of aldermen shall be
chosen by their respective boards from among their members.

ARTICLE 57.
The mayors shall discharge without limitation the active
duties of the municipal administration, as executors of the
resolutions of the board of aldermen or their representatives.

ARTICLE 58.
The aldermen and the provincial assemblymen shall be civilly
responsible for the damages caused by their acts. Their
responsibility shall be exacted before the ordinary courts of
justice.

ARTICLE 59.
The provincial assemblies shall freely choose their respective
presidents.

ARTICLE 60.
The elections of aldermen and assemblymen shall be conducted
in such manner as to allow for a legitimate representation of
the minorities.

ARTICLE 61.
The provincial and municipal laws now obtaining in the island
shall continue in vogue, wherever not in conflict with the
provisions of this decree, until the insular parliament shall
legislate upon the matter.

ARTICLE 62.
No colonial statute shall abridge the powers vested by the
preceding articles in the municipalities and the provincial
assemblies.

TITLE IX.
AS TO THE GUARANTEES FOR THE FULFILLMENT OF
THE COLONIAL CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE 63.
Whenever a citizen shall consider that his rights have been
violated or his interests injured by the action of a
municipality or a provincial assembly he shall have the right
to apply to the courts of justice for redress. The department
of justice shall, if so required by the agents of the
executive government of the colony, prosecute before the
courts the boards of aldermen or provincial assemblies charged
with breaking the laws or abusing their power.

ARTICLE 64.
In the cases referred to in the preceding article, the
following courts shall have jurisdiction: The territorial
audiencia shall try all claims against municipalities; and the
pretorian court of Havana shall try all claims against
provincial assemblies. Said courts, when the charges against
any of the above-mentioned corporations shall be for abuse of
power, shall render their decisions by a full bench. From the
decision of the Territorial audiencia an appeal shall be
allowed to the pretorian court of Havana, and from the
decisions of the latter an appeal shall be allowed to the
supreme court of the Kingdom.

ARTICLE 65.
The redress of grievances which Article 62 grants to any
citizen can also be had collectively by means of public
action, by appointing an attorney or representative claimant.

ARTICLE 66.
Without in any way impairing the powers vested in the
Governor-General by Title V of the present decree, he may,
whenever he deems fit, appear before the pretorian court of
Havana in his capacity as chief of the executive government of
the colony, to the end that said court shall finally decide
any conflict of jurisdiction between the executive power and
the legislative chambers of the colony.

ARTICLE 67.
Should any question of jurisdiction be raised between the
insular parliament and the Governor-General in his capacity as
representative of the home government, which shall not have
been submitted to the council of ministers of the Kingdom by
petition of the insular parliament, either party shall have
power to bring the matter before the supreme court of the
Kingdom, which shall render its decision by a full bench and
in the first instance.

ARTICLE 68.
The decisions rendered in all cases provided for in the
preceding articles shall be published in the collection of
colonial statutes and shall form part of the insular
legislation.

ARTICLE 69.
Every municipal measure for the purpose of contracting a loan
or a municipal debt shall be without effect, unless it be
assented to by a majority of the townspeople whenever
one-third of the number of aldermen shall so demand. The
amount of the loan or debt which, according to the number of
inhabitants of a township, shall make the referendum
proceeding necessary, shall be determined by special statute.

{180}

ARTICLE 70.
All legislative acts originating in the insular parliament or
the Cortes shall be compiled under the title of colonial
statutes in a legislative collection, the formation and
publication of which shall be entrusted to the
Governor-General as chief of the colonial executive.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES.

ARTICLE 1.
Until the colonial statutes shall be published in due form,
the laws of the Kingdom shall be deemed applicable to all
matters reserved to the jurisdiction of the insular
government.

ARTICLE 2.
When the present constitution shall be once approved by the
Cortes of the Kingdom for the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico,
it shall not be amended except by virtue of a special law and
upon the petition of the insular parliament.

ARTICLE 3.
The provisions of the present decree shall obtain in their
entirety in the island of Porto Rico; they shall, however, be
ordained by special decree in order to conform them to the
population and nomenclature of said island.

ARTICLE 4.
Pending contracts for public services affecting in common the
Antilles and the Peninsula shall continue in their present
shape until termination, and shall be entirely governed by the
conditions and stipulations therein made. As regards other
contracts already entered into, but not yet in operation, the
Governor-General shall consult the home government, or the
colonial chambers, as the case may be, and the two governments
shall by mutual accord decide as between themselves the final
form of such contract.

TRANSITORY PROVISIONS.

ARTICLE 1.
With a view to carry out the transition from the present
regime to the system hereby established with the greatest
possible dispatch and the least interruption of the public
business, the Governor-General shall, whenever he deems it
timely and after consulting the home government, appoint the
secretaries of the executive office as per Article 45 of this
decree, and with their aid he shall conduct the local
government of the island until the insular chambers shall have
been constituted. The secretaries thus appointed shall vacate
their offices as soon as the Governor-General shall take his
oath of office before the insular chambers, and the
Governor-General shall immediately appoint as their successors
the members of parliament who, in his judgment, most fully
represent the majorities in the chamber of representatives and
the council of administration.

ARTICLE 2.
The manner of meeting the expenditures occasioned by the debt
now weighing upon the Spanish and Cuban treasuries, and the
debt that may be contracted until the termination of the war,
shall be determined by a law fixing the share that shall be
borne by each treasury, and the special ways and means for the
payment of the interest, and the sinking fund, and for
refunding the principal in due time. Until the Cortes of the
Kingdom shall decide this point no changes shall be made in
the conditions under which said debts were contracted, nor in
the payment of the interest, nor provisions for a sinking
fund, nor in the guarantees which they enjoy, nor in the
actual terms of payment. When the Cortes shall have
apportioned the shares, each of the two treasuries shall take
upon itself the payment of the share allotted. In no event
shall the obligations contracted towards the lenders on the
faith of the Spanish nation cease to be scrupulously
respected.
Issued in the Palace,
Madrid, November 25, 1897.
MARIA CHRISTINA.
The President of the Council of Ministers,
PRÁXEDES MATEO SAGASTA.

CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (November-February).
The experiment of autonomy or home rule.

It cannot be said that the Constitution of 1897 was given a
fair trial. In the circumstances, one may doubt whether a fair
trial of its working was possible. It came too late for
advantageous testing or unprejudiced judging of its
practicability. The autonomist party, which might once have
been able to make Cuba a constitutional dependency, like
Canada, had been discouraged and broken up. Weyler's policy
had excited a feeling in the United States which was too
impatient to wait for new experiments in Spanish dealing with
Cuba to be worked out, or to estimate reasonably the chances
of their success. The first showing of results from the scheme
of autonomy was unpromising, as it could hardly have failed to
be, and that was readily taken as conclusive in condemnation
of it. The judgment of General Fitzhugh Lee, Consul-General of
the United States at Havana, had great influence in America,
and he saw nothing to expect from the Constitution. In an
article contributed subsequently to the "Fortnightly Review,"
June, 1898, he wrote:

"It [the Constitution) was an elaborate system of 'Home Rule'
with a string to every sentence; so that I soon became
satisfied that, if the insurrection against the Spanish throne
on the island ceased, the condition of the Cubans would
speedily be the same as it was at the commencement of the war.
I gave the reasons therefor in a paper now on file in the
State Department which clearly proved that the Spaniards could
easily control one of the legislative chambers, and that
behind any joint action on the part of both was the veto of
the Governor-General, whose appointment was made from the
throne in Madrid.

"This system of autonomy, however, was gravely proceeded with.
An Autonomistic Cabinet was seriously formed, composed in part
of Cubans who, though at one time in favour of a government of
the island free from Spanish control, had given satisfactory
intimations that, if they were appointed to cabinet offices,
their former opinions could be modified to suit existing
circumstances. Blanco's Autonomistic Government was doomed to
failure from its inception. The Spanish soldiers and officers
scorned it, because they did not desire Cuban rule, which such
autonomy, if genuine, would insure. The Spanish merchants and
citizens were opposed to it, because they too were hostile to
the Cubans having control of the island, and if the question
could be narrowed down to Cuban control or annexation to the
United States, they were all annexationists, believing that
they could get a better government and one that would protect,
in a greater measure, life and property under the United States
flag than under the Cuban banner. On the other hand, the
Cubans in arms would not touch it, because they were fighting
for Free Cuba; and the Cuban citizens and sympathizers, or the
non-arm-bearing population, were distinctly opposed to it also;
while those in favour of it seemed to consist of the
Autonomistic Cabinet, General Blanco, his Secretary-General
and Staff, and a few followers elsewhere."

{181}

_Fitzhugh Lee,
Cuba and her Struggle for Freedom
(Fortnightly Review, June, 1898)._

CUBA: A. D. 1897-1898 (December-March).
Condition of the Reconcentrados.

On the 14th of December, 1897, General Fitzhugh Lee,
Consul-General of the United States at Havana, reported to the
Department of State as follows:

"I have the honor to report that I have received information
that in the Province of Havana reports show that there have
been 101,000 'Reconcentrados,' and that out of that 52,000
have died. Of the said 101,000, 32,000 were children. This
excludes the city of Havana and seven other towns from which
reports have not yet been made up. It is thought that the
total number of 'Reconcentrados' in Havana Province will
amount to 150,000, nearly all women and children, and that the
death rate among their whole number from starvation alone will be
over 50 per cent. For the above number of 'Reconcentrados'
$12,500, Spanish silver, was set aside out of the $100,000
appropriated for the purpose of relieving all the
'Reconcentrados' on the island. Seventy-five thousand of the
150,000 may be still living, so if every dollar appropriated
of the $12,500 reaches them the distribution will average
about 17 cents to a person, which, of course, will be rapidly
exhausted, and, as I can hear of no further succor being
afforded, it is easy to perceive what little practical relief
has taken place in the condition of these poor people."

On the 8th of January, 1898, General Lee made another report
on the same subject as follows:

"I have the honor to state, as a matter of public interest,
that the 'reconcentrado order' of General Weyler, formerly
Governor-General of this island, transformed about 400,000
self-supporting people, principally women and children, into a
multitude to be sustained by the contributions of others or die
of starvation or of fevers resulting from a low physical
condition and being massed in large bodies without change of
clothing and without food. Their houses were burned, their
fields and plant beds destroyed, and their live stock driven
away or killed. I estimate that probably 200,000 of the rural
population in the Provinces of Pinar del Rio, Havana,
Matanzas, and Santa Clara have died of starvation, or from
resultant causes, and the deaths of whole families almost
simultaneously, or within a few days of each other, and of
mothers praying for their children to be relieved of their
horrible sufferings by death, are not the least of the many
pitiable scenes which were ever present. In the Provinces of
Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba, where the 'reconcentrado
order' could not be enforced, the great mass of the people are
self-sustaining. A daily average of ten cents' worth of food
to 200,000 people would be an expenditure of $20,000 per day,
and of course the most humane efforts upon the part of our
citizens can not hope to accomplish such a gigantic relief,
and a great portion of these people will have to be abandoned
to their fate."

A little later, Senator Proctor, of Vermont, visited Cuba, for
personal observation of the condition of things in the island,
and, on his return, made a statement of what he had seen and
learned, in a speech to the Senate, which made an impression
on the country much deeper than any previous testimony on the
subject that had reached the public eye or ear. The following
is a part of the account that he gave:

"My observations were confined to the four western provinces,
which constitute about one-half of the island. The two eastern
ones are practically in the hands of the insurgents, except
the few fortified towns. These two large provinces are spoken
of to-day as 'Cuba Libre.' Outside Habana all is changed. It
is not peace nor is it war. It is desolation and distress,
misery and starvation. Every town and village is surrounded by
a 'trocha' (trench), a sort of rifle pit, but constructed on a
plan new to me, the dirt being thrown up on the inside and a
barbed-wire fence on the outer side of the trench. These
trochas have at every corner and at frequent intervals along
the sides what are there called forts, but which are really
small blockhouses, many of them more like large sentry boxes,
loopholed for musketry, and with a guard of from two to ten
soldiers in each.

"The purpose of these trochas is to keep the Reconcentrados in
as well as to keep the insurgents out. From all the
surrounding country the people have been driven in to these
fortified towns and held there to subsist as they can. They
are virtually prison yards, and not unlike one in general
appearance, except that the walls are not so high and strong;
but they suffice, where every point is in range of a soldier's
rifle, to keep in the poor reconcentrado women and children.
Every railroad station is within one of these trochas and has
an armed guard. Every train has an armored freight car,
loopholed for musketry and filled with soldiers, and with, as
I observed usually, and was informed is always the case, a
pilot engine a mile or so in advance. There are frequent
blockhouses inclosed by a trocha and with a guard along the
railroad track. With this exception there is no human life or
habitation between these fortified towns and villages, and
throughout the whole of the four western provinces, except to
a very limited extent among the hills where the Spaniards have
not been able to go and drive the people to the towns and burn
their dwellings. I saw no house or hut in the 400 miles of
railroad rides from Pinar del Rio Province in the west across
the full width of Habana and Matanzas provinces, and to Sagua
La Grande on the north shore, and to Cienfuegos on the south
shore of Santa Clara, except within the Spanish trochas.

"There are no domestic animals or crops on the rich fields and
pastures except such as are under guard in the immediate
vicinity of the towns. In other words, the Spaniards hold in
these four western provinces just what their army sits on.
Every man, woman, and child, and every domestic animal,
wherever their columns have reached, is under guard and within
their so-called fortifications. To describe one place is to
describe all. To repeat, it is neither peace nor war. It is
concentration and desolation. This is the 'pacified' condition
of the four western provinces. West of Habana is mainly the
rich tobacco country; east, so far as I went, a sugar region.
Nearly all the sugar mills are destroyed between Habana and
Sagua. Two or three were standing in the vicinity of Sagua,
and in part running, surrounded, as are the villages, by
trochas and 'forts' or palisades of the royal palm, and fully
guarded. Toward and near Cienfuegos there were more mills
running, but all with the same protection.
{182}
… All the country people in the four western provinces, about
400,000 in number, remaining outside the fortified towns when
Weyler's order was made were driven into these towns, and
these are the Reconcentrados. They were the peasantry, many of
them farmers, some landowners, others renting lands and owning
more or less stock, others working on estates and cultivating
small patches; and even a small patch in that fruitful clime
will support a family. It is but fair to say that the normal
condition of these people was very different from what
prevails in this country. Their standard of comfort and
prosperity was not high, measured by ours. But according to
their standards and requirements their conditions of life were
satisfactory. They lived mostly in cabins made of palms or in
wooden houses. Some of them had houses of stone, the blackened
walls of which are all that remain to show the country was
ever inhabited.

"The first clause of Weyler's order [renewing that of February
16, 1896] reads as follows: 'I Order and Command. First. All
the inhabitants of the country or outside of the line of
fortifications of the town shall, within the period of eight
days, concentrate themselves in the towns occupied by the
troops. Any individual who, after the expiration of this
period, is found in the uninhabited parts will be considered a
rebel and tried as such.' … Many, doubtless, did not learn of
this order. Others failed to grasp its terrible meaning. Its
execution was left largely to the guerrillas to drive in all
that had not obeyed, and I was informed that in many cases the
torch was applied to their homes with no notice, and the
inmates fled with such clothing as they might have on, their
stock and other belongings being appropriated by the
guerrillas. When they reached the towns, they were allowed to
build huts of palm leaves in the suburbs and vacant places
within the trochas, and left to live, if they could.

"Torn from their homes, with foul earth, foul air, foul water,
and foul food or none, what wonder that one-half have died and
that one-quarter of the living are so diseased that they
cannot be saved? … Deaths in the streets have not been
uncommon. I was told by one of our consuls that they have been
found dead about the markets in the morning, where they had
crawled, hoping to get some stray bits of food from the early
hucksters, and that there had been cases where they had
dropped dead inside the market surrounded by food. These
people were independent and self-supporting before Weyler's
order. … I went to Cuba with a strong conviction that the
picture had been overdrawn; that a few cases of starvation and
suffering had inspired and stimulated the press
correspondents, and that they had given free play to a strong,
natural, and highly cultivated imagination. … I could not
believe that, out of a population of 1,600,000, 200,000 had
died within these Spanish forts, practically prison walls,
within a few months past from actual starvation and diseases
caused by insufficient and improper food. My inquiries were
entirely outside of sensational sources. They were made of our
medical officers, of our consuls, of city alcaldes (mayors),
of relief committees, of leading merchants and bankers,
physicians, and lawyers. Several of my informants were Spanish
born, but every time the answer was that the case had not been
overstated. What I saw I cannot tell so that others can see it.
It must be seen with one's own eyes to be realized. …

"The dividing lines between parties are the most straight and
clear cut that have ever come to my knowledge. The division in
our war was by no means so clearly defined. It is Cuban
against Spaniard. It is practically the entire Cuban
population on one side and the Spanish army and Spanish
citizens on the other. I do not count the autonomists in this
division, as they are so far too inconsiderable in numbers to
be worth counting. General Blanco filled the civil offices
with men who had been autonomists and were still classed as
such. But the march of events had satisfied most of them that
the chance for autonomy came too late. … There is no doubt
that General Blanco is acting in entire good faith; that he
desires to give the Cubans a fair measure of autonomy, as
Campos did at the close of the ten-year war. He has, of
course, a few personal followers, but the army and the Spanish
citizens do not want genuine autonomy, for that means
government by the Cuban people. And it is not strange that the
Cubans say it comes too late."

_Congressional Record,
March 17, 1898._

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (February).
Destruction of the United States Battleship Maine in Havana harbor.

See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (March-April).
Discussion of Cuban affairs between Spain and the United States.
Message of the President to Congress asking for authority
to intervene.

See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-APRIL).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (April).
Demand of the United States Government for the withdrawal of
Spain from the island, and its result in a state of war.

See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (April-December).
Operations of war between the United States and Spain.
Suspension of hostilities.
Negotiation of treaty of peace.
Relinquishment of sovereignty by Spain.

See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL) to 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).

CUBA: A. D. 1898 (December).
Removal of the remains of Columbus to Spain.

The remains of Columbus were taken from the Cathedral in
Havana, on the 12th of December, for transfer to the cathedral
at Seville, in Spain.