Señor Polo de Bernabé to Mr. Sherman.
Washington, April 1, 1898.
Mr. Secretary: His excellency the Governor-General of the Island of Cuba requests me to communicate to your excellency, in order that it be transmitted to the President of the United States of America, the following telegram:
The colonial government of Cuba desires through your excellency to make known to the President of the United States that although there are some Cubans in arms yet there are an immense number who accept home rule, and are resolved to work zealously under this form of government in order to reestablish peace and prosperity in the land. The insurgents form a minority, while the autonomists represent the majority of the Cuban people decided to save the interests of civilization by means of justice and liberty. The Cuban people is an American people and has, in consequence, a perfect right to govern itself according to its wishes and aspirations, and in no way would it be just for a foreign will to impose upon it a political regime which it seems contrary to its happiness and unsuitable to its needs.
This would be to substitute oppression instead of liberty. The Cuban people is [Page 729] now a free people; it wishes to rule legitimately its own destinies, and it would be a great wrong to dispose of its lot without its consent. The history and the feelings of the United States do not permit an American people to be sacrificed and forced to a form of government which the same people consider pernicious to its permanent interests and to the cause of peace and order in a country of different races, of small population, and whose political education is yet incomplete. The home-rule government of Cuba hopes that the President of the United States, faithful to the noble traditions of the great North American Republic, will consider and respect the rights of the Cuban people, not permitting violence to prevail. It also hopes that he will contribute by powerful action to the reestablishment of peace in Cuba under the sovereignty of the mother country and with a home-rule government equal for all, and which can be improved so as to inspire confidence in everyone.
The home-rule government of this island, which is a Cuban government, protests energetically against the falsehoods of a part of the American press, published with the malignant intention of firing passions, making it appear that injustice and brutal force reign in Cuba, and that home rule has failed before even the colonial parliament has been organized and when experience can not yet tell whether the new regime will have a good outcome or not. There is no good faith in these stories. As was said by the immortal Washington, “Honesty is the best policy.” The Cuban parliament is about to meet, and both the spirit of American and the principles of right demand respect for the will of the majority of this people.
José Maria Galvez,
President of the Home-Rule Government of
Cuba.
While begging your excellency to be so kind as to forward to its high destination the foregoing telegram, which expresses the true facts and the will of the Cuban people as declared through the medium of the president of its government, I seize this opportunity, etc.