No. 335.
Mr. Foster to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

No. 121.]

Sir: The condition of slavery in Cuba, a fertile source of discussion in and out of the Cortes, has attracted increased attention during the past week on account of the public meeting of the Spanish Abolition Society. The law of the 13th of February, 1880, established a kind of guardianship over the slaves, who were accorded certain rights and privileges in which they were to be guaranteed by the intervention of “juntas “in the various districts of the island. My predecessor, Mr. Lowell, in transmitting a copy of that law (No. 216, November 11, 1879,) termed it an “attempt to cross slavery with freedom, being in its very nature futile,” and he reported that “nobody expects that the system of guardianship will work, or that slaves can be kept half emancipated.”

The object of the meeting referred to was to expose the evil workings of the law of 1880, and to demand the immediate and complete emancipation of the slaves. It is insisted by this society that the influence of the masters exercised on the local “juntas” and in the departments of the Madrid Government has been sufficient in many instances to nullify the most important provisions of the law. It states that the district “juntas” are in most part composed of masters or advocates of slavery, and hence are always disposed to favor the patrons” or masters; and that the circulars which the ministry of ultramar has sent to the island enjoining, in the most explicit manner, the observance of the rights of the negroes specified in the law of 1880, have been repeatedly disobeyed or ignored. By that law all corporal punishment was prohibited, but notwithstanding this positive provision the use of stocks and the ball and chain in the most cruel manner has been notorious. Separation of families is also prohibited, but this has been openly disregarded. For the failure of the masters to comply with certain specified provisions adopted for the protection and benefit of the slaves, the law decrees their immediate and unconditional freedom; but this society estimates that there are now seventy thousand negroes entitled to their freedom, who are held in bondage through the failure or refusal of the “juntas” to give effect to the law. As illustrations it cites the fact that under the law a slave who desires emancipation may be appraised, and upon payment of the amount fixed he is to become free; but there are instances where the “juntas” have refused to recognize the payment in Mexican silver (which is the current coin in commerce) and have required gold of the old Spanish coinage (not in circulation), and thereby defeated the law. In other instances the “juntas” have refused to consider the petitions of the slaves because they have not been presented on official paper or have not selected as their representative a person approved by the “junta”; and when no such technical objection can be interposed, in many cases the negroes are deprived of their freedom or rights guaranteed by the law by the mere inaction of the “juntas,” allowing their petitions to remain unattended to for months or years. Another provision repeatedly violated by masters without relief from the “juntas” [Page 467] is the payment of the monthly stipend to the slaves. A further injustice is cited in the frequent denial or failure of the “juntas” to grant an appeal from their decisions, provided for in the law.

Up to the present it is claimed the official influence in Cuba has almost entirely been on the side of the “patrons” and against the negroes; but the society recognizes the indication of a better spirit in the new governor-general of the island, and in its recent meeting a note of thanks was tendered to the present ministry, and especially to the president of the cabinet and the minister of ultramar, for the adoption of the royal decree of the 27th November last, abolishing punishment by stocks and the ball and chain. But it is insisted that the only remedy for the injustice being inflicted upon the negroes and the evils suffered by the island through slavery is its immediate and unconditional abolition; that any political or economic reform is absolutely impossible in Cuba without first destroying slavery, “the center of all abominations, the foundation of all opposition, the cause of all antagonisms, the fountain of all immorality, the supposed source of all disasters.”

A considerable number of the Cuban representatives in the Cortes are active members of the Abolition Society, and as immediate emancipation has been one of the measures proclaimed by the public men and party now in power, it is designed to press the measure during the present session of the Cortes, with a fair prospect of success.

Besides the interest which our country has in the general and moral aspects of a question affecting so near a neighbor, for us additional interest attaches to the measures which it is proposed by the advocates of immediate emancipation to adopt, to compensate the owners tor the loss of their slaves. It is conceded that neither the financial condition of Cuba or of the mother country will admit of a money compensation. It is, therefore, proposed to afford them relief in two ways: first, by removing all the export tax on the products of the island; and second, by negotiating treaties of commerce, especially a reciprocity convention with the United States by which Cuban products will be afforded a more advantageous market, and articles of prime necessity of living will be introduced free of duty or at a lower tariff. The adoption of these measures it is claimed will so greatly improve the interests of the planters as to abundantly compensate them for the loss of slave-labor, which in its present condition has already almost ceased to be valuable to them.

I am, &c.,

JOHN W. FOSTER.