C H A P T E R X V I I
THE ACHIEVEMENT OF CUBAN INDEPENDENCE
WH A T E V E R promises or assurances of reform
may have been made by General Campos to
secure the peace of 1878, they were not kept, and
the grievances of the island grew heavier. T h e cost
of the war was put upon Cuba, and a debt that
began with $3,000,000 in 1864 was increased to
$175,000,000. T ax e s were multiplied and rigorously
exacted in the face of a decline in the great
sugar interest, and official corruption continued.
General Pando, in a speech in the Cortes in 1890,
gave a list of peculations which he reckoned at $40,-
000,000 in the a g gregate ; and a writer in the Ateneo
de Madrid, in 1895, declared that the custom-house
frauds since the close of the war amounted to $100,-
000,000. T h e exhaustion of the last insurrection
had not subdued the spirit of revolt, and it was not
long before a new revolution was plotted from the
outside. There were many Cubans, refugees or
voluntary exiles, scattered over the world, and no
less than 40,000 lived in the United States, many of
whom had become American citizens. A " Gran
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Junta” was formed with headquarters in New
Y o rk and with subordinate juntas in different parts
of the United States and Spanish America, and
even in the leading cities of Europe, while secret
societies were organised in the island itself. T he
purpose was to lay plans, raise funds, and make
preparations which should free Cuba from Spanish
rule and establish her independence. B y the beginning
of 1895, the revolutionary party was said to
comprise one hundred and forty societies, or juntas.
T he leading organiser and promoter of the revolution
at that time was José Marti, a native Cuban
who had been educated in Spain and had lived long
in the United States. He planned a general uprising
in all the provinces of Cuba to take place on the
24th of February, 1895, and organised an expedition
which was to start from Fernandina, Florida, with
three vessels, a considerable force of men, and war
supplies and munitions. T h e departure of this e x pedition
was prevented by the U nited States authorities,
and Marti set out for Santo Domingo to concert
plans with General Maximo Gomez and other leaders
of the former rebellion. Two of the chiefs in
the new movement were the mulatto brothers, A n tonio
and José Maceo, who were in Costa Rica.
T h e rising took place on the appointed day, but
only in a feeble manner in Santiago province under
Henry Brooks and Pedro Perez, and in Matanzas
under Manuel Garcia. Marti and Gomez issued a
“ manifesto ” from Santo Domingo on March 25th.
The Maceos, Dr. Agramonte, and others succeeded
in landing near Baracoa, March 3IS^> an(^ Marti and