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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
There is no doubt but that the Cubans have a vehement desire to be free, happy and independent, because this is natural for all men, but the question is whether they are or are no.t prepared and ready for a revolution. I ask, "Do they in reality have the qualities, already indicated, of heart and knowledge- I wish to say-the understanding necessary for such a contest? Has the desire for a revolution become general among them? Are there no divisions or dissentions among them? Will they work with one accord, in good faith, and with cour- age and spirit?" It is very necessary that these questions be answered. Liberty is not cheap. It cannot be bought at a low price. Its price is human life and millions of the public treasury. The stones of the Temple of Liberty must be cemented with the. blood of its friends. Who shall pay this price? Do the Cubans want to do it? Are they capable of sacrificing everything, even life, if necessary, for the fame and glory of their country? I believe not, and I shall soon tell you OE what I base my belief. The Cubans have very powerful motives for starting a revolution. There is no people on the face of the earth whose rights and liberties are as trampled upon as theirs. The government of Cuba is, without doubt, the most cruel and despotic in the world. .The nature bf man cannot invent a more infernal and diabolic system. It is the height of all that is wicked and atrocious. See the inhabitants groaning under enormous and onerous exactions. See the public officials, civic as well as militnry, lolling in vice, diversion and luxury at the expense of the public misery. See the poor converted into beasts of burden and driven at the will of the rulers. See the grandees and high personages vio- lating the laws with impunity, lording it over the lower classes. See also a clergy, more ferocious than all the others, living off the credulity and ignorance of the people, deluding the populace, deceiving the un- wary, and robbing all of the bread which they earn with such diffi- culty and by the sweat of their brows. In order to preserve their power more securely and practice their deceptions with impunity, behold them persecuting the virtuous and intelligent, suppressing all liberal inves- tigations, and taking vengeance on those who do not wish to admit their fictitious stories and false theories and submit to their enormous atrocities. I am not surprised, then, that the people of Cuba, tired of that state of affairs, should wish to establish (if they knew how to do it) a government more liberal, just and humane, and less cruel, despotic and sanguinary. I am only surprised that they have dragged the chains of tyranny for so long a time without arising 'en masse' and humbling in the dust their haughty oppressors. Why have they not done it ere now? Why do they not leap now, like so many lions~ on their enemies, and avenge themselves of their injuries and wrongs which their country has suffered for more than three centuries? I will tell you why. It is because the Cubans lack one thing-to wit-spirit. They do not have that noble disinterestedness, that loftiness of spirit and that manly courage which always characterizes real patriots and without which no people can acquire liberty nor be worthy of it either. Liberty is fhe gift of God to the valiant and the virtuous. No nation can receive it without first meriting it, and a timid and apathetic people can never hope to obtain it, if it believes war a worse evil than slavery, and prefers to live ignominiously to dying gloriously. The Cubans
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