315
PAPEns OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LA~IAR
zeal, I express myself with too much boldness. Your situation, like that of your country, is extremely critical, and every consideration for the truth, for friendship and for humanity oblige me to speak can- didly and without dissimulating anything. I trust that you will not take my frankness ill, and that my language, strong though it may seem to you, will merit some indulgence and find exculpation in con- sideration of my sincere desire to be of service to you and also to the noble cause to which you have consecrated yourself. I beg you, to remember that the good of others, and not my own interests, is the only motive which has induced me to write this letter. '!.'he liberation of Cuba from the heavy yoke of Spain is an under- taking of great magnitude-one of the most noble that a patriot can undertake. What can be more sublime than breaking the chains of despotism and giving freedom and a good government to half a mil- lion people? But such a work is not exempt from great danger (for there are always dangers in revolutions) and it cannot be effected with- out means proportionate and equivalent to the greatness of the objec- tive. In all attempts of this nature two things are indispensable to assure success: first, money to defray the expense of war, and second, virtue and example on the part of the inhabitants. Cuba does not lack money, because there is abundant wealth in that Island-her resources are unlimited-but as regards the other requisites-to wit-the moral and intellectual qualities so indispensable to success-I am not [cer- tain] whether they exist there. On this point I have some doubts. Vain would be her wealth if the Cubans lacked the principles of evan- gelic morale and good sentiments of honor and patriotism. Without these good qualities nothing can be done. The great Napoleon said, "the nation which wants to be free, is free,"-words full- of meaning-laconic and clear, and very chara~ter- istic of the one who proffered them. Ho~vever, I believe it better to say that the nation which determines to become free, succeds, without doubt, because the mere desire to attain something and the fixed de- termination to obtain it at any cost are two distinct things. "Give me the ready hand rather than the ready tongue." Consequently, I have adopted the unequalled maxim that no nation can become enslaved that is determined to be free. In order to be free, it suffices that the nation be resolved upon it. It is morally impossible by mere physical force to hold in slavery a people who are sufficiently enlightened to under- stand their rights, and who have the strength to vindicate them. With the will to be free there will never lack the means of obtaining free- . dom. :Moral strength is always superior to brute strength. The bay- onet is bound to succumb to virtue, because God is always on the side of the just and the downtrodden, and he never permits the tyrants of the world to oppress those whose virtues make them creditors to his goodness and protection. That which enslaves man is stupidity and vice-not the force of arms. It is easy to break the chains of political tyra1my. Just give a single blow and the bars will fall. It is not so with the adamantine chains which ignorance, wickedness and super- stition throw about the understanding and conscience of man. To shake these a nation requires the experience of many ages dedicated to the slow acquisition of knowledge until it reaches the stage of elucida- tion which is necessary for a free gm·ernment.
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