Page:Messages of the President of the United States on the Relations of the United States to Spain (1898).djvu/100

 Rh strengthened according as it is developed by the advantages of a system of government that teaches and gives evidence to the colonies that under no other will it be possible for them to attain a higher degree of welfare, security, and greatness.

This being the case, it was a condition essential to the attainment of the purpose had in view to seek for that principle a practical form and one that was intelligible to the people that had to be governed by it. and the Government found this in the programme of that insular party, considerable in numbers, but still more important by reason of its intelligence and perseverance, the predictions of which party have, for twenty years past, made the people of Cuba familiar with the spirit, the procedure and the great importance of the serious innovation which they are called upon to introduce into their political and social life.

It is asserted by the foregoing that the project is in nowise theoretical, and that it is not an imitation or copy of other colonial constitutions which have been justly regarded as models in the matter, for although the Government has carefully considered what those instruments teach it realizes that the institutions of peoples which, in their history and their race, differ so much from that of Cuba, can not take root where they have neither precedent nor atmosphere, nor that preparation which is the outgrowth of education and belief.

The problem having been thus defined, inasmuch as the question was to give an autonomic constitution to a Spanish territory peopled by a Spanish race and civilized by Europe, there was no longer any doubt as to the decision to be reached; autonomy had to be developed according to the ideas and the programme which bears that name in the Antilles, without eliminating anything of its contents, and especially without altering its spirit, but rather by completing and harmonizing it and giving it greater guaranties of stability, as should be done by the government of a mother country which feels itself called to establish such a programme, from a conviction of its advantages, from a desire to carry peace and tranquillity to those highly prized territories, and from a consciousness of its own responsibility, not only to the colonies, but also to its own vast interests which time has connected and woven together in the impenetrable net of years.

Being thus sure of the form which best fitted its design, the Government found it easy to distinguish the three aspects offered by the establishment of an autonomic constitution. In the first place, the sacred interests or the mother country, which, being alarmed and distrustful on account of the course pursued by many of her sons, and wounded by the ingratitude of those who put more trust in the selfishness of the speculator than they do in brotherly affection, desires above all things that the change for which she is prepared should draw closer and strengthen the bond of sovereignty, and that in the midst of a blessed peace the interests of all her sons, which are not at variance with each other, although they may be at times different, should be harmonized and developed by the free consent of all.

Next are to be considered the aspirations, the needs, and the desires of our colonial population, which is anxious to be treated like an unfortunate daughter instead of being crushed like an enemy, which is obedient to the call of affection, and ready to rebel like Spaniards against the brutal imposition of exterminating force. These people expect from the mother country a form in which their initiative may be molded and a mode of procedure that may authorize them to manage their own interests.

And finally, this vast and interesting mass of relations created of interests developed in that long past which nobody, still less a Government, is at liberty to disregard or forget, and whose preservation and development involve the fulfillment of the destiny of our race in America, and the glory of the Spanish flag in lands that were discovered and civilized by our ancestors.

These three orders of ideas find their answer in the fundamental provisions of the draft submitted to your Majesty for approval. To the first, that is, to the point of view of the mother country, belong the questions of sovereignty which have been confided to the highest authorities of the Spanish nation. The representation and authority of the King, who is the nation itself, the command of the army and navy, the administration of justice, diplomatic understanding with America, the constant and beneficent relations between the colony and the mother country, the pardoning power and the upholding and defense of the constitution are intrusted to the Governor-General as the King's representative, and under the direction of the council of ministers. Nothing that is essential has been forgotten; the authority of the central power is in nowise diminished or abated.

The insular aspect is, in its turn, developed in a manner as full and complete as could be desired by those who are most exacting, in central, provincial, and municipal autonomy; in the application without reserve or equivocation of the parliamentary system; in the powers of the insular chambers and in the creation of a responsible government, at the head of which,and forming the supreme bond of nationality as regards the executive power, again appears the Governor-General who, on the one hand, presides through responsible ministers over the development of