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Secretary of State Hamilton Fish protests harsh treatment of Cuban rebels & slaves
Secretary of State Hamilton Fish protests harsh treatment of Cuban rebels & slaves
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Fish Hamilton

Secretary of State Hamilton Fish Protests Harsh Treatment of Cuban Rebels & Slaves

 

“Although this is a measure touching the internal affairs of a country which is within the exclusive juridiccion of the Government of that country…this Government regards it as its duty merely as a friend of Spain, to protest and remonstrate against the carrying it into effect.”

 

Official manuscript fair copy, in both Spanish and English, signed as "Hamilton Fish", to Mauricio Lopez Roberts, January 8, 1872, Washington, D.C. 6 pp., 8.5" x 12.5", browning and minor tears on edges, not affecting text.

 

U.S. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish protests Governor Count Valmaseda’s proclamation threatening Cuban rebels with death if they do not surrender as “much at variance with the practice of Christian and civilized States in modern times.”

 

Complete Transcript of Copy in English:

                                                                        [Arryval? despacho No 11

LEGACION DE ESPAÑA en washington.

Copia.

                                                                        Department of State.

                                                                        Washington 8th Jan’y 1872.

            Sir: The attention of this Department has been called to an official Proclamation of the Governor and Captain General of the Island of Cuba bearing date the 15th of last month, threatening with death, insurgents taken prisoners with arms in their hands who shall not have given themselves up before the 15th of this month. Other harsh penalties are presented for slaves, of white & colored women and of leaders in the insurgent party who also shall neglect to surrender within the period adverted to.

            Although this is a measure touching the internal affairs of a country which is within the exclusive juridiccion of the Government of that country, it seems to be of a character so inhuman and so much at variance with the practice of Christian and civilized States in modern times under similar circumstances that this Government regards it as its duty merely as a friend of Spain, to protest and remonstrate against the carrying it into effect.

            In taking this course, we are actuated by the conviction that with the best disposition to the contrary those penalties must, from the condition of the scene and character of the strife in the Island of Cuba more or less be inflicted upon innocent persons and that when visited upon those who may be otherwise, they would be quite unnecessary and ineffectual for the purpose by which they were intended.

            Accept, Sir, a renewed assurance of my very high consideration. Signed=Hamilton Fish=Sor. D. M. Lopez Roberts=&=&=&=

 

On October 10, 1868, sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his supporters proclaimed the independence of Cuba from Spain. The revolt quickly gained volunteers, including a very young José Martí, who was imprisoned and later deported to Spain. The 1868 uprising marked the beginning of a ten-year war for Cuban independence that drew much sympathy from the United States. Although the revolutionary movement in Cuba peaked in 1872 and 1873 and ultimately ended in failure in 1878, it was a constant source of irritation between the United States and Spain during Hamilton Fish’s tenure as Secretary of State.

 

For their part, the Spanish frequently complained about American filibustering expeditions to Cuba. The U.S. government found it difficult to stop the flow of American arms and volunteers to the Cuban rebels. Faced with a widespread rebellion, Spanish Governor General Blas Villate y de la Herra, Count of Valmaseda (1824-1882) issued harsh orders to repress the Cuban insurrectionary movement. On November 25, 1871, the Spanish Governor of Havana arrested eight medical students, ages 16-21, in their classroom and charged them with vandalism of a tombstone. They were tried twice, sentenced to death, and executed by firing squad two days later. Two weeks later, Valmaseda issued the order to which Hamilton Fish protests in this letter.

 

In addition to the army, the government relied on the Voluntary Corps, a militia that became notorious for its violence. In October 1873, the Corps seized the steamship Virginius, an American steamship hired by the rebels to land men and supplies in Cuba. The Corps began executing those onboard as pirates, including many American and British citizens, and killed 53 before a British ship threatened retaliation if the executions did not stop. The Grant administration denounced the executions and only nearly averted war with Spain over the Virginius incident. Ultimately, Spain paid an $80,000 indemnity for the execution of the Americans from the crew of the Virginius and condemned the executions.

 

Hamilton Fish (1808-1893) was born in New York City and graduated from Columbia University in 1827. He studied law and was admitted to the New York bar in 1830. He served as a Whig in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1843 to 1845, as Lieutenant Governor in 1848, and as Governor in 1849 and 1850. He served as U.S. Senator from New York from 1851 to 1857. At the end of his term, he traveled in Europe and studied foreign policy. During the Civil War, Fish helped raise funds for equipping troops and caring for their families. In 1862, he was instrumental in establishing a prisoner exchange system with the Confederate government. President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Fish as Secretary of State, and he served through both of Grant’s terms from 1869 to 1877. During his tenure, Fish instituted several reforms to improve the efficiency of the State Department. After retiring from public office, he returned to the practice of law in New York.

 

Mauricio Lopez Roberts (d. 1884) served as minister plenipotentiary to the United States from March 1869 to April 1872. He married Angela Terry of New York, and they had two sons. In 1881, he was a member of the Spanish Board of the English Bank of Spain.

 

Text of Valmaseda’s Order:

To the Insurgent Bands:

            The gate of pardon has, with a feeling of kindness innate in the Spanish national character, been constantly open to those who, having laid down their arms, ask for their lives. As you all know, this pardon has been very liberally dispensed, as all those who have presented themselves have enjoyed full liberty from the moment they submitted to the legitimate authorities; only certain persons among you have, on account of their bad antecedents, received orders to quit the country and settle where they thought most suitable.

            This kindness, shown up to the present moment toward those who have wished to repent, cannot be prolong indefinitely, since there are many who remain in open rebellion, thinking that the gate of forgetfulness will always be open; who continue to commit new and greater crimes, imagining that they will always enjoy a propitious moment in which to profit by our habitual benevolence. It is necessary that such a belief should come to a decided end, and I have determined its close, as I informed you. Make use of the intervening days I give you to surrender, for when these shall have elapsed, the obstinate ones will be judged according to the following proclamation: 1. All those fighting as soldiers in the insurgent bands, who have not presented themselves by the 15th of January next, on being made prisoners, will be always (siempre) shot.

            2. Those presenting themselves after that day will suffer the next highest punishment, namely: imprisonment in the penitentiary for life.

            3. Male negro slaves presenting themselves before the 15th will be subject to the same conditions granted up to the present time to other rebels: but after that time will suffer, according to teach particular case, punishment as laid down in articles 1 and 4.

            4. Female slaves, either taken prisoner or presenting themselves after the 15h of January, will be handed over to their owners, to be put to work in the fields, and for four years shall wear iron rings.

            5. White women, or free women of color, on being found after the specified time in the woods, whether captured or surrendered themselves, will be banished from the country.

            6. The leaders of bands will, in common with all, be granted, on presenting themselves before the 15th of January, the privileges mentioned in my former proclamations. When that time shall have passed, they will be punished according to this one.

            Insurrectionists, in the period the close of which I have designated, there is ample time for you to repent and for us to forget. If you let it pass, the blood spilt in your foolhardy rebellion falls upon your head.

                                                                        The Count Valmaseda.

Havana, Dec. 15, 1871.

(New York Times, January 6, 1872, 2:2.)

 

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