The History of Cuba Volume III Part 10

"Article VII. The House of Representatives shall elect a President of the Republic, a General-in-Chief of its Armies, a President of the Congress and other executive officers. The General-in-Chief shall be subordinate to the Executive, and shall render him an account of the performance of his duties.

"Article VIII. The President of the Republic, the General-in-Chief and the Members of the House of Representatives are amenable to charges which may be made by any citizen to the House of Representatives, which shall proceed to examine into the charges preferred; and if in their judgment it be necessary the case of the accused shall be submitted to the Judiciary.

"Article IX. The House of Representatives shall have full power to dismiss from office any functionary whom they have convicted.

"Article X. The legislative acts and decisions of the House of Representatives, in order to be valid and binding, must have the sanction of the President of the Republic.

"Article XI. If the President fails to approve the acts and decisions of the House, he shall, without delay, return the same with his objections thereto, for the reconsideration of that body.

"Article XII. Within 10 days after their reception, the President shall return all bills, resolutions and enactments which may be sent to him by the House for his approval, with his sanction thereof, or with his objections thereto.

"Article XIII. Upon the pa.s.sage of any Act, Bill or Resolution, after a reconsideration thereof, by the House, it shall be sanctioned by the President.

"Article XIV. The House of Representatives shall legislate upon Taxation, Public Loans, and Ratification of Treaties; and shall have power to declare and conclude War, to authorize the President to issue letters of marque, to raise troops and provide for their support, to organize and maintain a Navy, and to regulate reprisals as to the public enemy.

"Article XV. The House of Representatives shall remain in permanent session from the time of the ratification of this fundamental law by the People until the termination of the war with Spain.

"Article XVI. The Executive Power shall be vested in the President of the Republic.

"Article XVII. No one shall be eligible to the Presidency, who is not a native of the Republic, and over 30 years of age.

"Article XVIII. All treaties made by the President may be ratified by the House of Representatives.

"Article XIX. The President shall have power to appoint Amba.s.sadors, Ministers-plenipotentiary, and Consuls of the Republic, to foreign countries.

"Article XX. The President shall treat with Amba.s.sadors, and shall see that the laws are faithfully executed. He shall also issue commissions to all the functionaries of the Republic.

"Article XXI. The President shall propose the names of the members of his Cabinet to the House of Representatives for its approval.

"Article XXII. The Judiciary shall form an independent co-ordinate department of the Government, under the organization of a special law.

"Article XXIII. Voters are required to possess the same qualifications as to age and citizens.h.i.+p as the members of House of Representatives.

"Article XXIV. All the inhabitants of the Republic of Cuba are absolutely free.

"Article XXV. All the citizens are considered as soldiers of the Liberating Army.

"Article XXVI. The Republic shall not bestow dignities, t.i.tles, nor special privileges.

"Article XXVII. The citizens of the Republic shall not accept honors nor t.i.tles from foreign countries.

"Article XXVIII. The House of Representatives shall not abridge the Freedom of Religion, nor of the Press, nor of Public Meetings, nor of Education, nor of Pet.i.tion, nor any inalienable Right of the People.

"Article XXIX. The Const.i.tution can be amended only by the unanimous concurrence of the House of Representatives."

[Ill.u.s.tration: MANUEL QUESADA]

The next day the Convention proceeded to the election of officers of the House of Representatives. Salvador Cisneros was elected President; Ignacio Agramonte Loynaz and Antonio Zambrana were elected Secretaries, and Miguel Betancourt and Eduardo Machado, Vice-Secretaries.

MANUEL QUESADA

Manuel Quesada, for a time military head of the Ten Years' War, was born in Camaguey in 1830. He was banished for political reasons and went to Mexico, where he fought under Benito Juarez. In 1868 he joined the patriot army and became one of its leaders; in 1870 being its commander in chief. Failing to carry the war into Pinar del Rio, he went on a trip to Venezuela, and trying to return was pursued by a Spanish cruiser and took refuge in Santo Domingo. On his final return to Cuba he was deposed from his command for being too ambitious and autocratic, whereupon he went to the United States and thence to Venezuela, where he died in 1886.

The seventh article of the Const.i.tution was immediately put into practice, when the convention, const.i.tuting itself a House of Representatives, confirmed the confidence of the Cuban peoples in Cespedes, by appointing him President of the Republic of Cuba, while Manuel Quesada was made Commander-in-Chief of the Army. President Cespedes immediately a.s.sumed his office and issued this proclamation:

"To the People of Cuba:

"Compatriots: The establishment of a free government in Cuba, on the basis of democratic principles, was the most fervent wish of my heart. The effective realization of this wish was, therefore, enough to satisfy my aspirations and amply repay the services which, jointly with you, I may have been able to devote to the cause of Cuban independence. But the will of my compatriots has gone far beyond this, by investing me with the most honored of all duties, the supreme magistracy of the Republic.

"I am not blind to the great labors required in the exercise of the high functions which you have placed in my charge in these critical moments, notwithstanding the aid that may be derived from other powers of the state. I am not ignorant of the grave responsibility which I a.s.sume in accepting the Presidency of our new-born Republic. I know that my weak powers would be far from being equal to the demand if left to themselves alone. But this will not occur and that conviction fills me with faith in the future.

"In the act of beginning the struggle with the oppressors, Cuba has a.s.sumed the solemn duty to consummate her independence or perish in the attempt, and in giving herself a democratic government she obligates herself to become Republican. This double obligation, contracted in the presence of free America, before the liberal world, and, what is more, before our own conscience, signifies our determination to be heroic and to be virtuous.

"Cubans! On your heroism I rely for the consummation of our independence, and on your virtue I count to consolidate the Republic. You may count on my abnegation of self.

"CARLOS DE CESPEDES.

"Guaimaro, April 11, 1869."

This was followed two days later by General Quesada's proclamation:

"Citizen Chiefs, Officers and Soldiers of the Liberating Army of Cuba: When I returned to my country to place my sword at your service, fulfilling the most sacred of duties, realizing the most intense aspiration of my life, the vote of the Camagueyans, to my surprise, honored me by conferring on me the command of their army.

Notwithstanding my poor merits and capacity, I accepted the post because I expected to find and did find in the Camagueyans civic virtues well established, and this has rendered supportable the charge of the responsibility which I a.s.sumed.

"Now the legislative power of the Republic has filled me with a greater surprise, promoting me to the Command-in-Chief of the liberating army of Cuba. The want of confidence in my own resources naturally moves me anew upon stronger grounds, although it also strengthens the conviction that the patriotism of my brethren will supply the insufficiency of my capacity.

"Camagueyans! You have given me undoubted proofs of your virtues.

You are models of subordination and enthusiasm. Preserve and extend your discipline!

"Soldiers of the East! Initiators of our sacred revolution!

Veterans of Cuba! I salute you with sincere affection, counting on your gallant chiefs, in order that they may aid me in realizing the eminent work which we have undertaken, and I hope that union will strengthen our forces.

"Soldiers of the Villas! You have already struggled with the despot. I felicitate you for the efforts made and invite you to continue them. You are patriots. You will be victors.

"Soldiers of the West! I know your heroic exploits, and venerate them. I am well aware of the disadvantage of the situation in which you find yourselves, in contrast with our oppressors, and it is our purpose to remedy this. Accept the homage of my admiration and the succor of my arms.

"Citizen chiefs, officers, and soldiers of the Cuban Army! Union, discipline, and perseverance!

"The rapid increase which the glorious new Cuba has taken frightens our oppressors, who now are suffering the pangs of desperation, and carrying on a war of vengeance, not of principles. The tyrant Valmaseda rages with the incendiary's torch and the homicidal knife over the fields of Cuba. He has never done otherwise, but now he adds to his crime the still greater one of publis.h.i.+ng it by a proclamation, which we can only describe by p.r.o.nouncing it to be a proclamation worthy of the Spanish Government. Thereby our property is menaced by fire and pillage. This is nothing. It threatens us with death; and this is nothing. But even our mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters are menaced with resort to violence.

"Ferocity is the valor of cowards.

"I implore you, sons of Cuba, to recollect at all hours the proclamation of Valmaseda. That doc.u.ment will shorten the time necessary for the triumph of our cause. That doc.u.ment is an additional proof of the character of our enemies. Those beings appear deprived even of those gifts which Nature has conceded to the irrationals--the instinct of foresight and of warning. We have to struggle with tyrants, always such; the very same ones of the Inquisition, of the Conquest, and of Spanish dominion in America.

In birth and in death they live and succeed; the Torquemadas, the Pizarros, the Boves, the Morillos, the Tacons, the Conchas, and the Valmasedas. We have to combat with the a.s.sa.s.sins of old women and of children, with the mutilators of the dead, with the idolaters of gold!

"Cubans! If you would save your honor and that of your families; if you would conquer forever your liberty, be soldiers. War leads you to peace and to happiness. Inertia precipitates you to misfortune and to dishonor. Viva Cuba! Viva the President of the Republic!

Viva the Liberating Army! Patria and Liberty!

"MANUEL QUESADA."