CHAPTER XX.

THE WORK OF THE CUBAN DELEGATION.

BY

GEN. T. ESTRADA PALMA, Delegate Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Cuba.

A

FTER the peace of Zanjon, in 1878, the Cuban leaders for the most part left Cuba and scattered through Spanish America and the United States. A great many individuals and families later followed their example and it may be broadly stated that nearly all the Cubans outside of Cuba, after the termination of the ten years war, were in sympathy with the idea of Cuban independence. José Marti conceived the idea of organizing the Cuban immigration into a revolutionary party and succeeded in establishing clubs throughout Central and South America, Mexico, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, Haiti and in many cities of the United States, particularly in the cigar-manufacturing centers. These clubs were united to form what was called the Cuban Revolutionary Party. They elected a president, who was called a Delegate, and a treasurer, the Delegate naming the secretary of the party.

The following are the by-laws of the Cuban Revolutionary Party:

ARTICLE Ist. The Cuban Revolutionary Party is established with the object of accomplishing, by the united efforts of all men of good will, the absolute independence of the island of Cuba, and with the object of aiding a similar movement for Porto Rico.

ARTICLE 2nd. The Cuban Revolutionary Party does not intend to precipitate war in Cuba inconsiderately, nor to begin a movement crudely and inharmoniously, at the expense of the country, but to bring about an organization approved by all the various elements and in accord with them all, which

will undertake a war, brief in duration, whole-hearted and single-aimed, for the purpose of establishing peace, opportunities of work and consequent happiness, for all the inhabitants of the island.

ARTICLE 3rd. The Cuban Revolutionary Party will bring together all the revolutionary elements now existing and, without degrading compromises with any man or body of men, will unite in the common movement all the elements, so that war may be conducted in a thoroughly republican spirit and method, with the sole aim of establishing a nation able to guarantee the happiness of its own children and to fulfil in the history of the Continent the difficult duties that its geographical situation entails.

ARTICLE 4th. The Cuban Revolutionary Party does not propose to perpetuate in the Cuban Republic, under new guises and with new words, the spirit of tyrannical authority and the bureaucratic composition of the colony but to found and to insure, in the untrammeled and free exercise of the legitimate rights of man, a new nation, sincere in its democracy and able by honesty, stability and hard work to cope with the dangers that nearly always attend a novel condition of society existing among a people suddenly brought out of bondage into freedom.

ARTICLE 5th. The Cuban Revolutionary Party does not propose to give over Cuba to the oppression of a dominant victorious party that will look on the island as its prey by right of conquest. It seeks only to insure by all legitimate means, which the freedom and protection of foreign countries offer it, the war which will be for the dignity and welfare of all the Cubans; and to deliver to all the inhabitants a liberated country.

ARTICLE 6th. The Cuban Revolutionary Party is established to found one free and united country in which the elements of organization will, from the first, work together to overcome the dangers threatening them at home and abroad, to substitute reform and good order for the economic disorder in which the financial system of the island is now and to prepare it for its immediate development.

ARTICLE 7th. The Cuban Revolutionary Party will endeavor not to utter an indiscreet word, or do any indiscreet action which might attract the ill-will of other peoples or countries with whom it is the duty of Cuba, not only from motives of prudence but of affection, to maintain friendly relations.

ARTICLE 8th. The Cuban Revolutionary Party has for its purposes:

ist. To unite in a continuous and common effort for Cuba's liberty all the Cubans residing in foreign lands.

2nd. To encourage sincere and cordial relations among the political and historical factors and agents in and out of the island which can contribute to the swift success of the war, and to aid and strengthen all the institutions that after the war shall be established and founded in consequence of it.

3rd. To disseminate in Cuba the knowledge of the spirit, aims and methods of the revolution and to bring all the inhabitants of the island to one mind with a spirit favorable to victory, in order that war may speedily be conducted without unnecessary risk to Cuban lives.

4th. To collect funds for the realization of that programme and to open every possible source for the war, and

5th. To establish discreetly, with countries friendly to us, relations which will tend to accelerate with the least possible blood and sacrifice the successful issue of the war and the foundation of the new republic which is indispensable to American equilibrium.

The members of the clubs contributed funds which were remitted to the treasurer who expended the moneys on the order of the Delegate.

José Marti was elected the first Delegate and undertook the work of opening and maintaining correspondence and communications with those in various parts of Cuba who were likely to respond to a call to arms in favor of the independence of their country. The preliminary work of organization lasted several years. At the end of that time Marti had conferred with all the principal veteran leaders of the ten years war, who had agreed that General Maximo Gomez, then residing in Santo Domingo, should be the Commander-in-chief of the coming revolution.

As the Spaniards did not allow the inhabitants of Cuba to own rifles without permits, plans had to be made for the shipment of arms as well as munitions to the island. Accordingly a large supply of war material was purchased and when all plans had been perfected and the various agents in Cuba had notified Marti that the people were ready to rise, three vessels, the Baracoa, the Amadis and the Lagonda, were chartered to take the various generals and their followers, to