Daniel E. Sickles to Hamilton Fish, July 5, 1873

No. 410. General Sickles to Mr. Fish.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy and translation of a memorial of the Spanish Emancipation Society, lately presented to the Cortes Constituyentes. The petitioners include a number of the most influential members of the legislative body. The main facts and arguments, showing the expediency and necessity of the immediate abolition of slavery in Cuba, are stated with unusual brevity and force. The admirable results of the liberation of the slaves in Porto Rico have greatly encouraged the friends of emancipation. The slaveholders in Cuba are at a loss for pretexts for delay now that domestic servitude in the sister island has disappeared without any disturbance of public order or diminution of the sugar crop.

The colonial minister, Mr. Suñer y Capedevila, has recently stated in the Cortes his purpose to bring forward in the name of the government a radical emancipation bill. In several conversations with me he has reaffirmed these declarations with an earnestness and warmth of expression leaving no room to doubt his zeal. It is simply a question whether the perpetual changes of ministers in this country may not interrupt the labor of Mr. Suñer, as has before happened to several of his predecessors.

The president, Mr. Pi y Margall, is equally frank and emphatic in his avowed determination to put an end to slavery in Cuba. He does not propose to wait for the suppression of the rebellion, nor for the solution of the financial crisis in the island, nor for the restoration of tranquillity in Spain. On the contrary, he regards emancipation and other cognate reforms as the best means of restoring peace and prosperity to Cuba. He assures me he desires to see Cuba and Porto Rico admitted as states in the Spanish federal union. These are, likewise, the views of the colonial minister.

Mr. Castelar, Mr. Bias Quintero, Mr. Salmeron, and other influential members of the committee appointed to draft the federal constitution, are understood to entertain similar views. * * *

I am not without hope that the political administrative and social reforms we have so long urged upon this country in the government of its American possessions may be attained by means of suitable provisions embodied in the constitution of the republic.

I am, &c.,