|
|
|
|
|
IX. PLATFORM FOR THE INDEPENDIENTES .
1. WHAT PRINCIPLES ARE
In this exposition of principles that is going to be attempted, the first idea that should be defined is the one which first comes to anyone's mind. It comes as a question: What is a principle? Principle comes from the Latin principium, a beginning, the first step in a progression, the first moment in a time period, the fundamentals or basis or foundations of an idea. When Cuba began to move toward independence, and with the revolution began the period of her new life, and with the Constitution Guaimaro declared slaves free and Cubans people with rights-=the Grito de Yara was the beginning of her sovereignty, the revolution was the beginning of her independence, and the Constitution was the beginning of her public rights. When Socrates declared that the soul is immortal, he turned the immortality of the soul into a principle of responsibility for all rational beings. When Christ preached that all men are brothers, he turned universal fraternity into a principle of cohesion for all humanity. When Martin Luther protested that the evidence and strength of beliefs are . This defense of the platform for the League of the Independientes appeared in seven successive articles in La Voz de la Patria, a weekly paper edited in New York for the Cuban exiles. From issues #32 to #38, dated from October 13 to November 24, 1876, Hostos's articles, signed E. M. R., developed one by one the principles of the platform of the Independientes. They are included in the Diary because Hostos was in New York that year. The following introduction preceded the first article:
249
found only in the free examination of individual consciousness, he turned free examination into a principle of independence for all conscious beings. The principle of responsibility establishes individual morality; the principle of cohesion establishes universal benevolence and social morality; the principle of free examination establishes the dignity and personality of human beings. There are principles in the sciences. "The force between two planets is directly proportional to the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distances" is a principle of astronomy; "the intensity of light is inversely proportional to the square of the distance" is a principle of optics; and "heat is a transformation of movement" is a principle that determines all modem physics. There are principles in the arts. The laws of perspective produce the same effects in imitations of nature as in real nature: this is the principle that radically separates ancient and medieval paintings from those of the Renaissance and modern times. Human 'nature is made up of more dramatic elements than the old artifices of destiny and fate: this is a principle that has transformed drama since Shakespeare. Time, circumstances, social medium, etc., pervade the lives of individuals, societies, and ideas: this is a principle that today broadens the horizons of criticism. Like the arts, physical sciences, morality, and everything, politics also has its principles. But since politics is an applied science which until recently has been based exclusively on the historical life of humanity, it considers as principles a number of errors, interests, and passions which, because of their long duration in the history of men , appeared to be normal elements of social life, and on these principles it built such antihuman devices as monarchy, dictatorship, privileged democracy, parlamentarianism, democratic empires, and mesocratic republics. Monarchy, in any form, whether elected or hereditary, constitutional or absolute, is based on three principles which are three counterprinciples: the principle of force, that of social classification, and that of personal authority. The establishment of order by force is not a principle; the division of society into classes is not a principle; the authority of a hierarchy, an autocrat, a king, or a despot, based on the weakness of a divided society and the compulsive action of brute force is not a principle; all of this goes against principles, all of these are counter principles. Dictatorship-whether exercised by Pericles, Caesar, or Napoleon-is based on a false principle, and saying that it fills a disorganized society's supreme necessity for cohesion goes against the principle-which is good
and effective because it is real and positive-that establishes order in liberty, cohesion in relationships, and the strength of the whole in the harmony of the parts, which is the true principle of organization in nature. Privileged democracy is what in Greece and Rome kept the slaves out of political activity, took the enjoyment of rights away from non-citizens, and by means of a census, suppressed the exercise of citizenship for some of the people. That privileged democracy, falsely founded on the principle of the direct sovereignty of the people, went against the principle of popular sovereignty, because it reduced the people to citizens of Sparta, Athens, Peloponnesus, and Rome, and abolished the right of liberty for slaves and the exercise of rights by Greeks and Romans who were not patricians or who were not born in Rome or Sparta or who had not had the chance to win citizenship through heroic services. Since Charles I of England decided to convene the Long Parliament and since the Parliament established the precedent of government by the people through their representatives, the principle of representation or delegation, even as corrupted and abnormally developed as it has been since the seventeenth century until today in England, became the ideal of oppressed peoples, the main topic f('"!' all those who wrote treatises on public rights, and the combination of precedents, actions, and balancing acts and crafty mechanisms that constitute the parliamentary system. But the principle of representation or delegation, which is sound and wise when applied to -the three functions of popular sovereignty, is false when applied exclusively to the legislative function-it is a counter-principle, not a principle. Democratic empires-which from Caesar Augustus to Napoleon III have tried to combine two opposing principles, not because there is logical opposition between them, but because they were applied with fallacy and evil-destroy the democratic principle because they substitute a man for a people, and destroy the principle of the authority of the law and the rule of the law because they make a supposed delegate of the popular power a legislator, executive, and judge. Mesocratic republics, or republics governed by the middle class, in infancy in France after having died in Italy in the Middle Ages, falsify the principle of sovereignty and adulterate the principle of election which, faithfully applied, constitute the republican principle of government. All these forms of government, which until 1787 had constituted the 1 In the twelfth century, all Italian cities erected as republics were actually oligarchies. The leading families governed and the mesocracy or bourgeoisie or middle class tolerated them.
251
political science and the political activity of the old world and the modern world, recognized historical reality, but failed to recognize human reality: they built upon the man and society which resulted from the casual or corrupted process of interests, errors, and passions, not upon the positive nature of man and society. Naturally, even when at times they might have recognized the essentiality of a rational principle, they adulterated it by violently combining it with means and tendencies that invalidated it, if not destroyed it. Since 1787, that is to say, since the moment when the federal Constitution of the United States of America appeared, politics, like science and art, took the most transcendental step ever taken in the science and art of government, because it established principles, and because these principles are rational, having been deduced from the rational nature of human beings. Whether sarcastic or sincere, Machiavelli deduced a system of government from the despotism of one of the Borgias, and all the principles he extracted from the hateful reality of that government are absurd. Montesquieu deduced his entire theory of constitutional monarchy from examining British parliamentarianism, and the principles of government he established are irrational. The Bill of Rights of the Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence, and the Federal Constitution deduced the principles on which the rights of man and the organization of civil society are founded from human nature and the natural conditions for social life. The deduction was so productive, that it brought forth true democracy, which begot systematic liberty, which produced scientific politics. Why? Because it originated from principles. It recognized the principle of liberty, and embraced the individual in all his manifestations, activities, and functions.. It recognized the principle of equal rights, and embraced all the subdivisions and functions of society. It recognized the principle of authority in the law and by the law, and combined individual rights with public rights. It affirmed the principle bf separation of the functions of sovereignty, and created the independence and responsibility of public powers. It affirmed the principle of unity in variety, and established the federation. , Now then, what are principles? We already know. In political science, they are the general ideas from which the rights of individuals, the rights of societies, the authority of the law, the organization of the powers of the State, and the harmonious action of each and everyone of the territories that compose a nation are spontaneously, naturally, and logically deduced, basing order on liberty, liberty on rights, and rights on human nature and natural activities of societies. In art, a principle is the conception of a beautiful, varying, and hanno
252
nious reality. In science, a principle is the affirmation of a general law of the universe. In morality, a principle is the recognition of a universal law of the human soul. Overall, principles are a rational point of departure, a foundation, a fundamental reality, a primary truth more evident than any other, a necessary base, the root and seed from which the fruit spontaneously, naturally, and logically grows, just as the independence of Cuba is spontaneously, naturally, and logically growing out of the step taken at Yara, and as, like we know and want, Cuba's freedom will grow out of independence.
II. THE PRINCIPLE OF LIBERTY'
"The principle of absolute liberty for human rights, founded on the imperative necessity for human consciousness, thought, morality, dignity, and activity." (From a platform.) To recognize a principle in politics, as in everything which is subjected to observation and experience, is to be subject to all the logical deductions, rational applications, and means of action derived from it. Likewise, when the principle of liberty is affirmed, all the liberties that an individual needs to realize his life's goals, plus the liberties that society needs to exercise its functions and satisfy its neeqs, are affirmed with it. If liberty were related by nature to any force that did not tend to aid, complete, and facilitate the fulfillment of individual and social ends in men, then individuals would not be able to use their abilities nor would . These are the statutes written by Hostos, who defends and explains his principles beginning with this article and ending with Principle of Expansion.
Statutes for the League of Independientes
Title of the League: Article 1. An association named the League of Independientes shall be established.
Objective: Article 2. The object of the League shall be to work physically, intellectually, and morally in favor of the absolute independence of Cuba and Puerto Rico, until their complete separation from Spain and their indisputable existence as sovereign nations are achieved. . Goals: Article 3. As the conquest of independence is only a step toward the final work of political, religious, economic, and intellectual liberty, the League shall consider as the exact goals of its existence today and of its actions always:
253
societies realize their goals. Nature has not made this contradiction, nor committed this counterprinciple. In nature, the rational being is absolutely free. In order to make human liberty more absolute, Nature gave humans the ability to completely break, under penalty of pain or decadence, the laws of their moral and intellectual existence and to partially oppose the law of their organic existence. Animals cannot oppose the law of their
a) The establishment of a Republic and a representative democracy in Cuba and Puerto Rico; b) The creation of an international identity or power by means of the Confederation of the Antilles; c) The substitution of the sentimental fellowship which today indifferently brings together the Latin American societies of the Antilles and the Continent, with the fraternity of material, intellectual, and moral interests, and with the unity of civilization that awaits societies with identical origins and tendencies. Principles: Article 4. The Independientes shall pledge themselves not to obey, in either their individual or collective efforts in favor the goals of the League, any political, religious, and socio-economic principles which are not among the following: a) The Principle of Absolute Liberty for human rights founded on the imperative necessity for human consciousness, thought, morality, dignity, and activity; b) The Principle of Absolute Authority for the Law, founded in written and spoken laws, approved and sanctioned by the representatives of the people; c) The Principle of Absolute Equality before the Law, for all races and nationalities, founded on the natural equality of the individual and political rights of all human beings; d) The Principle of Radical Separation of the Three Functions of the Sovereignty of the People, or division into what is called legislative, executive, and judiciary power; e) The Principle of Unity, Peace, and Nationality in the Antilles; 0 The Principle of Expansion toward the Latin American Continent.
Means: Article 5. In the attainment of its objectives and the realization of its goals, the League of Independientes shall not employ any means other than those fitting to the declared principles. Article 6. The League's means of action shall be coercive and persuasive. Article 7. Coercive means are those which, after discussion and resolution by the Executive Committee, shall be employed to realize a useful act for independence or liberty. Article 8. Persuasive means are those which shall be employed for the publicity, diffusion, and moral triumph of the League's principles.
The Coercive Means. Article 9. The coercive means shall be:
a) Searching for financial and military resources; b) Gathering military provisions for Cuba; c) Aiding revolutionary movements in Puerto Rico.
The Persuasive Means: Article 10. The persuasive means shall be: a) All forms of publicity, in all exiled communities, Puerto Rico, the other Antilles, and the Continent; b) Strict adherence to the rules of the Constitution of Guaimaro, in both the League's actions and publicity; c) The publication of a newspaper, or two, whose program shall be the affirmation of the League's principles and the declaration of its goals.
254
instincts without dying; plants die, even without opposing the law of their needs, as soon as these needs meet an insurmountable obstacle. Human artifice cannot freely go against the will of Nature; and if there is certain punishment in the frequently criminal history of our species, it is that which has fallen upon all races, and which is falling upon all the nations that have violated the principle of liberty. Of all the societies that have existed, none has had a more resistant vitality than the Chinese; before the dawn of civilization in the most ancient cultures, centuries and centuries before liberty smiled on Greece, the Chinese society had founded the laws of Manu, meditated on the human morality of Confucius, established one of the wisest penal codes ever, built the magnificent canal which runs through their immense territory, discovered dynamite, made the best discovery of the compass, and it is believed that
The Newspaper: Article 11. A League newspaper must publish the stated affirmation and declaration as its program, develop this program continuously in informative articles, and use any practice or anything realized under those practices in any of the republics of the New Continent or any of the nations of the Old Continent in favor of its principles.
Article 12. A League newspaper shall not. attack anyone nor ever accept any personal attack-or anything that may be interpreted as such-against anyone, least of all against Antilleans, the representatives of the government of Cuba, or that government itself.
Article 13. In the case that a League newspaper may be compelled to defend itself or its friends against unjust and slanderous attacks, it shall do so in only four lines and with the complete peace of mind that corresponds to conscientious men.
The League Members: Article 14. Those who shall be considered members or associates of the League are Antilleans, Latin Americans, and individuals of any other nationality who vow, under oath, to obey the principles of the League, to never waver from the objectives and goals of the League, and to use only the means of action or propaganda predetermined in these Statutes.
Duties of League Members: Article 15. From the moment of their initiation, league members shall be obliged to fulfill and obey the suggestions, instructions or orders of the Executive Committee and the Publicity Committee.
Banishment: Article 16. League members who fail in their duties shall be banished from the League.
Leadership of the League: Article 17. The League shall be directed by two committees: executive and publicity.
The Executive Committee: Article 18. The first committee shall be called the Executive Committee; it shall be composed of five league members; and it shall execute its resolutions with the utmost discretion.
The Publicity Committee: Article 19. The second committee shall be called the Publicity Committee; it shall be composed of eleven to fifteen league members, and it shall be in charge of:
a) The publication and maintenance of the League newspaper or newspapers; b) The communication of the declaration of the objective and goals, the search for affiliates, and the diffusion of ideas in Cuba, all exiled communities, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Haiti, and all Latin America. c) A night school for elementary instruction; a series of educational lectures, and the Supervision of as many elements ,of intellectual and moral information as necessary
255
they even discovered the printing press. But the two portentous walls that enclose that society are the stone symbol of its life: that walled society has never known freedom, and has suffered the harshest torment that human intelligence can suffer-to see that there are more and better achievements than the ones it has produced, and to feel itself molded eternally to the same molds in which it has been imprisoned for thousands of years. The first time Liberty smiled on mankind, she presented to history the ancient society which achieved more in less time. Since then, more than two thousand years have passed; and the death of that society, which knew everything except how to preserve its freedom, is still mourned by the many admirers of virtuous heroism, the many idolizers of intellectual genius, the many who praise resplendently good fortune, the many who feel pity for the misfortune received, and the many who know just how high the Greek people rose with liberty, and with liberty, just how low they sank from that height.
Convocation and Meetings: Article 20. The League shall be convened by the Executive Committee for all cases of elections and whenever it may deem necessary. Meetings shall be held in secret as long as it is not advisable under the circumstances to make its sessions and acts public.
Elections: Article 21. Both committees shall be elected by secret ballot by all League members, convened expressly on the first Sunday of the month prior to the end of the established terms for both committees.
Incompatibility: Article 22. The responsibilities of the two committees are incompatible with each other.
Duration and Designation: Article 23. The offices shall last one year and shall not lapse because of illness nor absence on account of service.
The offices shall be designated: president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and council members.
Substitution: Article 24. There shall be no temporary or permanent substitution of offices before the electoral term except in cases of illness, absence, or declaration of banishment. In the first two cases, the Vice-President shall act as President. In the third case, the banished member shall be replaced. Combined Deliberations: Article 25. The two committees shall deliberate together when deemed necessary by the President of the Executive Committee, who in these cases, as in all others, shall lead all League and Committee meetings either personally or through the Vice-President. The Executive Committee shall call for combined deliberations in the following cases:
a) Sending and instructing commissioners; b) Declaring the unworthiness of a League member.
Additional
1. As long as the current circumstances exist, the number of League members shall not exceed fifty, including the members of both committees. 2. For the duration of the Cuban War of Independence, the residence of the League shall be in New York.
256
If among modern nations there exists one which is a reminder of the bygone Hellenic race for its brilliance, glory, fortune, and widespread friendly virtue, one which is similar in both the good and bad aspects, it is the French nation. Shakespeare called France the Soldier of God after seeing her put her heroic efforts into all humanitarian interests; the history of the eighteenth century (the French century par excellence) will call the French nation the Warrior of Reason. But those of us who with keen insight see France in her long strife for liberty, if we did not hope that Liberty would redeem her, would unceasingly torment ourselves in our consciences, asking her: France, France, what have you done to liberty? What have you done, France? In order to be above the worst enemy, it suffices to do him peaceful justice. More worthy of reserved piety than boisterous anger, the arrogant Spanish nation cannot suffer a harsher punishment than that of realizing that it is looked down on from above, and that from above it is done impassive justice. This nation has three eminent virtues: love of its independence, loyalty to its beliefs, and valor in its enterprises. Had it known, loved, and been able to defend liberty, then no other European nation, except England, would have done so much good for civilization, because no other nation, except England, has so favorable a position in the geography of Europe, But the Spanish nation has the horrible ability to turn its virtues into vices, and has used this ability to turn its love of independence into hatred of independence for the territories it has dominated; its loyalty to accepted beliefs into hatred of the beliefs of others; and its valor into wild fury against the heroism of those who have defended their independence, faith, loyalty, and life against Spain. At the most opportune moment in Spanish history, when under Ferdinand and Isabella, Spain had been entrusted with the unification of her various ethnological elements for Western civilization, and when under Charles V of Germany, she was offered the great prospect of the moral leadership of the entire world by means of nascent free investigation and budding internal liberty, Spain smothered liberty and the existence of Indians, Jews, and Moors, drowned free investigation in a sea of blood, put Flemish liberty to the sword, killed her own liberty in the Comuneros of Castile and the Germandas 2 of Valencia; 'and just as the toad which a paleontologist found alive under the secular formation of rocks and moraines of the Alps, Spain has only preserved the organic functions of life, and has only lived to boast, as the toad could have done, of having lived in spite of the rocks which buried it.
2 Comuneros and Germandas were names of particular rebellious groups in Castile and Valencia, respectively. (Translators' note)
257
There are other examples of punishment for the crimes of peoples and nations against Liberty; history is almost entirely the recount of catastrophes which occurred because of violations of the principle of liberty, but the examples presented and catastrophes outlined here suffice to make the reality of this law of social and individual life indisputable. What is important now is to establish this principle on its natural basis and precisely formulate the law for life which is deduced, -from this principle. . A rational being is a responsible being. He is responsible for his life, the actions of his life, and the functions, activities, arid abilities of his life. If he did not have the right to deviate , from the plan of nature or oppose himself triumphantly to the obstacles which divert him from nature, then he would not react, because he would not be responsible. A planet is not responsible for its orbit. A plant is not responsible for its form. An animal is not responsible for its instincts. The animal, plant, and planet are unconditionally subject to the law that pre-establishes order in their orbit, form, and instincts. Man is also subject, but conditionally (with the condition that he establish order himself, to the biological law of his organs, the moral law of his activities, and the intellectual law of his abilities. He has the right to exercise his reason for this objective, but he also has the right to exercise his reason against this objective. This is why man is free. As absolutely free as he is, man can oppose the development of his organs, but bodily pain, illness, and the threat of death advise him to employ the rights and liberty at his disposal in favor of and not against his body. As absolutely free as he is, he can oppose the development of his moral actions, but the anguish of his spirit warns him that there is a more healthful way to exercise his rights and liberty. As absolutely free as he is, he can oppose the development of the creative strengths of his intelligence, but the suffering of his reason and the downfall of his conscience guard against this ill-fated use of his liberty and rights. As absolutely free as he is, he can oppose the law of individual attraction, and isolate himself, and not relinquish any of the forms of his liberty and rights to any association, but the torment of impotence cautions him against this exclusion of the ends of his nature. As absolutely free as he is in essence, he can associate with other men for evil purposes, but then, community life counters his right with another right, the liberty which he so poorly uses with a liberty as absolute as his. The law is absolute: man is free. But there are laws as absolute as this one, and they ordain it. A physical law for physical man, called the universal law of life. A 'moral law for moral man, called the law of conscience. An intellectual law for intellectual man, called the law of reason.
258
A law of individual ends, which compels human individuals to realize their organic, moral, and intellectual ends, and which imposes the necessity and the duty to realize them within the limits of humanity. A social law for social man, which Nature has enacted for the specific ends of individuals and the general ends of societies, and which will be a positive law that will become wiser the more it respects Nature, the better individual right is coordinated with social right, and the better the liberty of everyone complements the liberty of each one. Until the American nation was born, no positive law had been able to resolve this apparent conflict between individual and social liberties: either one was sacrificed for the other or one was denied for the other. By simply observing reality, the members of the American people resolved the conflict. They resolved it because they recognized a positive principle, and because from that principle they deduced a law preceding and above all others. This is the principle they discovered: Liberty is an absolutely indispensable way of life. This is the law they formulated: Liberty correlates to the right of all rational beings to live, believe, think, and exercise their organic, moral and intellectual activity. Having acknowledged the principle and formulated the natural law, they effortlessly enacted the positive law, and they established it in the Federal Constitution, which is an admirable combination of rights and liberties, and they absolutely ratified it in the First Amendment of their fundamental code, when they disaffirmed any right, ability, or action which restricts, diminishes, or impedes the action, ability, or rights of citizens to -freely manifest what they believe, think, and condemn, whether alone or accompanied, in places of worship, the courts, the press, public places, large meetings, or associations of any nature with any goals and inclinations whatsoever. Everything may perish in the memory of mankind, except for the new political world that was created by declaring the principle of individual liberty absolute in this immortal amendment. Those who were frightened upon simply hearing the adjective absolute applied to rights or liberty, and who prophesied anarchy as the inevitable result of the absoluteness of individual rights and liberty, saw that in practice the only means of creating stable order in society was to base it on the absolute right of liberty which belongs to essentially conscientious and responsible beings because of their origin, and by virtue of their dignity, morality, and activity.
259
III. THE PRINCIPLE OF AUTHORITY
"The principle of the absolute authority for the law, founded on laws written and discussed, approved and sanctioned by the representatives of the people." (From a platform,)
When God governed by means of Levi's tribe or allowed the equally dishonest tribes of monarchs who have represented and discredited Him before mankind to give terrible accounts of Him, authority came from the benevolent God, and it was the authority of divine right. But although divine, that is to say, inaccessible and irrefutable, it can be seen that that authority proceeded from a right. Even as monstrous as the fraud was, the authority of divine right did have an august filiation -it proceeded from aright. This is true for all authorities; in order to be authorities, they need to, proceed from a right. God has never had the right to exercise personal authority over mankind, because He does not have the right to do absurd things. Sacerdotal tribes, the Church, monarchs, despots, tyrants, and those who in the name of God have exercised authority over men, have not had the right to do so. Therefore, the right invoked for the compromising divinity and His uncompromising delegates has been faulty; it has been fiction, not a right. Wherever it has originated, originates, or will originate, the right to exercise authority over mankind lies in men themselves. By virtue of his dignity, morality, and physical activity, man enjoys all the rights of his life, reason, and conscience. Whether an isolated individual or an individual associated with other individuals, Nature reserves the same individual rights for him, and she reserves them absolutely. Imitating Nature, positive law already reserves for individuals the same absolute right to liberty in almost all of our New Continent. Given this absoluteness of individuals in their rights, 'what rights do societies have? They have the ones that they need. They have the right of supervision of general interests, the right of vigilance over the rights of associates, the rights of administration of collective interests and of execution of social will. All these rights give rise to the principle of authority which is based on the will of everyone, interests of everyone, and the need for leadership which everyone recognizes, respects, and wishes to fulflll. A society is neither an abstraction nor a myth. It is no more and no less than a group of human beings who have come together in order to better carry out the ends of their nature. As numbers of interests and rights are born out of this group, and many conflicts of rights and inter-
260
ests come out of these numbers, and disorderly activities which must be limited in their exact orbits proceed from these conflicts, and there must be someone to execute the limit imposed on these conflicts so that it will be effective, the individuals who make up societies are compelled to govern themselves, not according to the interests and rights of each one, but according to the rights and interests of everyone, in harmony with the rights and interests of each one. To pacify the conflicts of interests and rights, to limit disorderly activities, and to impose this limit: this is what is called government; this is what is called legislation, judgment, and administration; this is' what is called recognition in society of the right to leadership, the right to protection, and the right to administration or execution. Nevertheless: a society cannot exercise this triple authority with discretion without there first being an expressed mandate from each and every one of the judicious individuals which make up the society, a voluntary delegation of citizens, and a cession of a part of the power that they share as a whole; thus the perennial authority is the people, and the right to delegated authority comes from them. And it comes directly and indirectly. It comes directly when the people elect their representatives of legislative, judiciary, and executive power. It comes indirectly when the people reserve the right to make laws by means of the more numerous representatives to whose actions they are subject. Laws are no more than the expressed formula, the categorical imperative, of the will of the majority. The judiciary power only serves and has authority to apply the laws which it has been prescribed; therefore, it only executes the authority of written rights or laws. The executive power only serves and has the authority to execute the mandates of the law; therefore, it only executes the authority of written rights or laws. Thus established the filiation and function of authority, the principle on which it is founded becomes evident. It is founded on the right of society to govern, protect, and administrate its interests, and to govern, protect, and administrate civil rights. Yet in order to exercise these functions, which are not always in favor of and sometimes against the absolute rights and liberty of individuals, a society needs an absolute authority, which is given in the law. Therefore, "the principle of absolute liberty for all human rights, founded on the imperative necessity for human consciousness, thought morality, dignity, and activity" is opposed by "the principle of absolute authority for the law, founded on laws written and discussed, approved and sanctioned by the representatives of the people."
261
IV. THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUALITY
"The principle of absolute equality before the law, for all races and nationalities, founded on the equality of natural rights." (From a platform.)
A man does not cease to be a man because his skin is either light or dark, or equally, because he comes from the Caucasian or Mongolian or Ethiopian or American or Malaysian branch of the human species. A rational being does not cease to be rational because his native citizenship is Carabali, Tagala, Chinese, Japanese, or European. Whatever his color, whatever his nationality; a human being is the same rational being anywhere. Therefore everywhere he is owed the consideration that comes with the morality, dignity, and activity of his nature. Therefore, everywhere he is a being with natural rights, and everywhere he is owed the recognition of his natural rights. What are these natural rights, if they are not those founded on his own nature? Does his nature make him physically active? Then his physical activity must be respected. Does his nature make him dignified? Then his dignity must be respected. Does his nature make him moral? Then his morality must be respected. An active being, or equally, a being with organs, instincts, and needs, needs the rights which are founded on the physical activity of human beings wherever he may be. A dignified being, or equally, a rational being, needs the rights which are founded on the original dignity of human beings everywhere. A moral being, or equally, a being of integrity, has need for the rights which are founded on the responsibility of human beings wherever he may live. The rights founded on physical activity are those which are generically named from life. The rights founded on dignity are those which get their generic name from the thought process. The rights founded on morality are those which are generically called the rights of conscience. In reality, natural rights comprise those called civil and political rights which, as mere deductions of natural rights, are not effective unless they are logically deduced from their origin, which is the nature of rational beings. But the existence of different nationalities, and different organizations of families, properties, transmissions of properties, and economic and political order have coincided with the sophistries which these various organizations have been based on in order to establish more or less irrational differences in this order of rights. Palliating this inconsistency, the theory has distinguished natural rights from civil and political rights by declaring the former unlegis-
262
latable and most of the latter subject to a guideline of an organic law. Shunning the inconveniences of the inconsistency, the practice has facilitated the legal consistency of civil and political rights in free countries. Thus, in almost all of Latin America, the legal obstacles which opposed marriages because of differences of faith or nationality have disappeared. Thus, in some of the states of the United States of America the judicial obstacles which opposed property rights for foreigners have disappeared. Thus, in England, Switzerland, the United States, and many Latin American states, the barriers the law has placed against the civil rights of women are disappearing. Thus, in the British West Indies, the former slave states of the United States, Latin American societies where slavery existed, and the already independent part of Cuba, the emancipation of the slaves was followed by the declaration of their civil and political rights. Notwithstanding these concessions to logic, the difference between rights of natural origin and social origin still exists, and only after legal measures are the rights which come with citizenship conceded, for example. But natural rights have already crossed almost all boundaries, and there are only a few pigheaded countries which, like Spain, deny foreigners the right to believe what they want, to think freely in their own way, and to practice their occupations as they please. Just as the conduct of stagnant nations is based on an irrational counter principle, the opposite conduct of progressive nations and the theory they follow is based on a rational principle. What does the organic, moral, and intellectual identity3 of white, black, bronze, and olive-skinned men mean? Does it not mean that all men, whatever the color of their skin or their geographic origin, are equal in nature? Natural rights are effective in all cultures: what does this universality in the effectiveness of rights mean, if not that all human associations have specific ends (common to the entire species) and need equal means in order to realize them? Given the original existence of this equality in all rational beings, and given the fact that historically, the natural rights of human beings everywhere appear in the same way and with the same authority, what is this historical and natural reality based on, if not on a principle? As equality is founded on a principle, it cost no effort to reestablish it; and as blood is not the means to reestablish it, the just but demented French revolution was much less efficient in achieving it than was the
3 The shape of the cranium and the degree measurement of facial angles, which naturally establish certain anatomical differences among the individuals of different races, do not cause physiological differences, and this suffices for the stated identity to exist.
263
evolution of common sense which occurred in America. Here the fundamental equality of human beings with regard to natural rights was accepted, respected, and acknowledged; and to make this equality more effective in daily life, the equality of citizens with regard to written rights-the law-was declared. The declaration was made more absolute by extending it to any men who put themselves under the protection of the Constitution which declares that human rights are absolute, even though they may not be citizens or their skin is of a different color. In this way, with all the inequalities which nature4 and societies have established among men having been acknowledged, judicial equalitywhich is the most positive because it puts us all on the same level before the law, and which is the most effective because it is the most positiveis saved. At the current level of political science, the principles it recognizes are true principles of social organization, and not only must we respect them as the norm for rational conduct, but we must also conscientiously adopt them as indispensable foundations for stability. In this respect, the principle of equality is as fundamental as the others.
V. THE PRINCIPLE OF SEPARATION OF POWERS
"The principle of radical separation of the three functions of the sovereignty of the people, or division into what is called legislative, executive, and judiciary power." (From a platform.)
If the practice of pure democracy were possible, then a social order which is founded on the principle of absolute liberty, the principle of the absolute authority of the law, and the principle of absolute equality under the law could exist without the need for any other organization of the State. But pure democracy is so impracticable that, in order to approach it, the good Swiss nation has had to resort to successive reforms of its cantonal constitutions, and in the recent reform of its federal constitution, to deciding on the resolutions ad referendum. Given the impossibility of the direct exercise of sovereignty by the people, (this is what is called pure democracy), the organization of the State is an absolute necessity. And as, given the bases, no system of
4 Within the essential equality of all human beings, as long as they are rational and conscious beings, nature has created accidental inequ,alities, such as those of intelligence, emotional capacity or sensitivity, and volitive capacity or will or activity, etc., and by so doing nature has done nothing more than confirm the law of liberty.
264
265
Therefore: the organization of this entity, which in a pure democracy would be unnecessary or would be incorporated into the people themselves, since the people are who would directly exercise sovereignty; in a representative democracy it is necessary and must conform to the principle of judicial equality. The application of those principles to the organization of the powers of the State is what establishes such a radical difference between democratic constitutions and any other kind. With these principles existing as the axis of socio-political order, both would fail if the powers of the State did not periodically return to those who are sovereign, the people, or if these functions of sovereignty were exercised at the expense of individual liberty, the authority of the law, and equal rights, or if the functions were not delimited so that they would operate independently of each other. Therefore; in the system of representative democracy, three capital conditions are indispensable for the organization of the powers of the State. The first consideration is periodicity in the exercise of power; second, conditionality of the delegation of power; and third, radical separation among the three powers through which the sovereignty of the people functions. Periodic exercise of power is what characterizes a republic. Conditional delegation is what constitutes the omnipotence of suffrage. Separation of delegated powers is what establishes the balance between individual and social rights, between partial and common interests, and between collective liberty and the authority which all give to the law. The omission of anyone of these conditions in the organization of the State adulterates the system; but since it is impossible to conceive a representative democracy whose legislative and judiciary powers are not the result of a temporary election, and whose executive power does not reside in an elected magistrate; and since without universal suffrage there is neither democracy nor representation of the will of the people, these first two conditions are implicit, and the third only needs to be established. Popular sovereignty functions in a number6 of ways-promulgating the law through its representatives, executing the law through its delegate, and applying the law through its judges. If they were ever confused, joined, or subordinated to each other, then these three functions of the sovereignty, or the legislative, executive, and judiciary powers, would be an usurpation of the sovereignty they represent, would destroy the social stability which they are called upon to maintain, and would upset
6Actually there are four, because the act of election or delegation is an act and true function of the sovereignty; but since electoral power has been erroneously made a constitutional law, only three powers are considered.
266
the balance which they are meant to create between individual liberty and the rights of society. In summary: as each of the three has a different function in popular sovereignty, each of these powers revolves in a different orbit. To confuse these orbits would mean the destruction of one of these powers, and to destroy one of these powers would mean the destruction of the entire system. Therefore, the separation of the powers of the State has been established as a principle, and therefore, representative democracy recognizes the "principle of radical separation of the three functions of the sovereignty of the people, or division into what is called legislative, executive, and judiciary power."
VI. THE PRINCIPLE OF NATIONALITY
"The principle of unity, peace, and nationality in the Antilles." (From a platform.)
By eliminating all the useless materials which would make the problem of social reconstruction difficult, a society is reconstituted and only has to concern itself with the development of its own strengths. This will be the situation in Cuba when, with independence won and the doctrines of our platform applied to her political organization, the people set themselves to devising the quickest and best means to develop and increase their internal strengths. Cuba will no longer have to worry about liberty, because it will be the natural means and customary way of her life. She will no longer have to dispute exercising her free activity with the authorities, because since the administration of public rights and interests is not personal, there will only be one authority, and this invisible authority is that of the written law. Cuba will no longer have to fear the invasion of foreign immigrants, nor inequality based on skin color, because she will be able to maternally embrace and admit all her native and adoptive sons into the immense realm of judicial equality. Cuba will no longer have to anxiously await the deliberations of her constituents, because if they are sensible and do not go looking for the fossilized theories of the French revolution, or asking for barren reasoning from the ignorant scholars of liberty that abound in Europe, then in the four simple principles which serve as our norm they will have what they need for a short and easy, logical and coherent Constitution which can be written in four days and last for four centuries; that is, if common sense speaks out and capricious chatter is hushed, and if books with never were opened are now closed and sabers which were a long time in being drawn are now sheathed.
267
Once the Cuban society is established, not only on paper, where fundamental laws are written, but also on the eternal bases of all human societies, it will have to consult its own strengths. Will these strengths suffice for Cuba to make the influence promised by her wealth felt in the world? Cuba is an island, and her coasts provide a free access of five hundred leagues to any naval power, as insignificant as it may be. An immense territory for her small population, she will lack internal vitality, because of unused and uncultivated lands in both urban and rural economies. Cuba is a fraction of a race, still unaware of its destiny in the New World, and she needs to join with other fractions of her race in order to reconstitute unity. The island is a laboratory for the fusion of human elements which, once combined, will form the true race of the Antilles in the future,7 and Cuba is already obliged not to neglect the indirect means which may aid in that process. One of the indirect means is nationality. The way to reconstruct the unity of the Latin race in the Antilles is nationality. The way to artificially replace the vitality that unpopulated territories lack is nationality. The element of force necessary to supply what is missing to a country whose coasts are accessible to any naval force is nationality. Nationality is not established when it is wanted, or even how it is wanted. It is established when it is convenient, if possible. It should be established as a pact of reason, if necessary, for the positive ends of one or several societies and for the historical ends of a race. In the first case, nationality is not a principle-. It is an artificial 7 Those who try to ,mock with useless evasions, or eliminate through seditious and violent means, one of the most real factors of social reconstruction and order in the Antilles, are not at the level of the political and social problem which independence will soon present in Cuba, and will someday present in Puerto Rico. The factor referred to is the colored race and the hundred varieties it is forming with the white race. These two mother races and the subraces derived from them are destined to form throughout the archipelago, and especially in Puerto Rico and Cuba, the true race of the Antilles, a race sui generis which through one of its components (the Latin American branch) will preserve all the traditions', character tendencies, educational influences, and literary and artistic genius of its sister in Europe, and which by means of the other component (the Ethiopian-American branch) will maintain the virtues of the African race and will modify, simultaneously, the influences of Latin character in Europe and America. Those capable of science and conscience who will govern in Cuba and Puerto Rico must especially dedicate themselves to this work of social fusion if they want to have a people who governs itself, and not a society split into two hostile populations, as in Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico, where the indigenous race does not form a part of the whole, but rather is a passive or bothersome element to the population which governs and makes the decisions.
268
means, almost always crafty, often depraved, used to arrive at a mechanical end- the establishment of a physical power which annihilates or weakens one or many powers of civilization. The Jews, creators of credit, sustainers of commerce, and personal mediators of material and intellectual progress in the Middle Ages, were a force of civilization, and out of the desire to establish an exclusive nationality, Spain killed this force [in herself] by driving the Jews out. Civilization had great forces in the Moors who, during seven centuries, fed scientific thought in Spain; polished and softened and civilized Gothic traditions; improved agriculture; built amazing canals across the territory they occupied; enriched the Iberian Peninsula with their vast industries; contributed positively and negatively to forming Spanish character; created that captivating architecture which, copied by a branch of the same race, has left three of the architectural wonders of the world in Hindustan; produced that congenial semi-race of Mozarabs, who perhaps would have ended up fusing and improving the two hostile races which it resembled, and hastened in the Mozarabic Church in Toledo a type of religious reform that could have simplified the work of the great reformation in the world, and made it effective in the Peninsula: Spain destroyed all these forces of civilization out of the desire to constitute a Spanish nationality. Other forces of civilization-an entire civilization, two whole civilizations-were the Aztecs and the Incas, in many; ways superior to the very Western civilization that Spain began to enforce upon, and which she vainly declares she brought to, the New World; and Spain destroyed the Aztec and Incan civilizations by persisting in forging her monstrous nationality. The absurd Austrian nationality, based on conquest; the Russian nationality, equally absurd and equally based on conquest; the German nationality, recently founded on plundering; and even the Italian nationality, more logical, natural, rational, and better than all the previous ones, but which has only been able to be founded on mechanical unity, are all nationalities of convenience. They have coincided in dynastic greed or the insane balance of antagonistic forces which they call European balance, and there is not a single one of them-not even Italy which has not more or less perceptibly obstructed human progress and paralyzed or thrown off balance or invaliuated one or another of the forces of civilization. In the Antilles,8 nationality is a principle of organization in nature because it acts out a spontaneous force of civilization, because it can only
8 The Antilles referred to are Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, and Cuba. The rest will sooner or later follow whatever route these islands take. But it is still too early to show them the way.
269
be founded on a pact of reason, and because it contributes to one of the positive ends of the Antillean societies and to the historical end of the Latin American people. The principle of natural organization that nationality will correspond to in the Antilles is the principle of unity in variety. The spontaneous force of civilization it will act out is peace. The pact of reason on which it exclusively can be founded is the confederation. The positive end it will help is the commercial progress of the three islands. The historical end of the people it will contribute to realize is the moral and intellectual unity of Latin people on the New Continent. Nationality in the Antilles will correspond to the natural principle of organization because only by establishing it will the unity of external means united with the variety of internal ways of life and progress be produced. It will produce peace, because only by unifying the social and political activity of these three nations can the rivalry, greed, envy, and aggressive arrogance of neighboring governments be identified from the onset. This nationality will be founded in a Confederation, because a federal pact cannot be applied to territories divided by the sea or to societies educated in the exclusion and reclusion of localism. It will help commercial progress in the three islands, because it will eliminate the barriers which establish economic differences among them. It will contribute to the realization of Latin American unity because it will be a more practical example than that of the Central American union, and probably will last longer than that of the former Confederation of Colombia. Nothing will demand nobler patriotism, wiser foresight, or more persevering efforts than the campaign in favor of the establishment of the nationality of the Antilles. Independent of historical obstacles, there is an obstacle of social order, and another of political order, which perhaps will block the establishment of nationality for a long time. The first obstacle arises from the different social statuses of the three islands. Those of Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo are indisputably superior to that of Cuba; that of Santo Domingo constitutes a nationality in itself, undoubtedly defective and impotent, but a nationality with distinct characteristics nonetheless. The second obstacle arises from political status, which is inevitably very backward in all three islands, but which will present troubling differences because of the order in which they have been constituting themselves as independent sovereignties. Nevertheless, the advantages will outweigh the inconveniences, and if the same origin, the same physical, moral, and intellectual conditions, the same problems in life, the same language, the same history of an
270
guish and the same manifest destiny do not establish the bond of nationality, then we must be rebels of nature.
VII. THE PRINCIPLE OF EXPANSION
"The principle of expansion toward the American continent." (From a platform.)
In the great masses of the planets as well as in the invisible atoms of our bodies, in societies as well as in individuals, and in a nation as well as in a family of nations, every force has two tendencies: first, to expand, and second, to contract. In planets, the first is called the force of expansion (centrifugal) and the second is called the force of contraction (centripetal). In atoms, the force of repulsion and the force of attraction. In social and individual men, the forces of action and reaction. In nations and families of nations, diffusion or force of expansion, and equilibrium, or force of exclusion. Whatever its name or application, this occurrence and its manifestations are identical in planets, atoms, societies, individuals, single nations, or many nations connected by past, present, or foreseen interests. The occurrence is a force, and the manifestations are its tendencies to expand, on the one hand, and to contract, on the other. But why, in general phenomena and occurrences as different as planetary movement in space and molecular activity in bodies, life in societies and individuals, and conservation of isolated or connected nations, does every force have the same two tendencies? Because every force necessarily follows two fundamental principles: one which compels it to extend as much as possible, and another which contracts it as intensely as possible. A force which lacks or has lost the principle of contraction expands; it extends unceasingly and wastes away. A force which lacks or has lost the principle of expansion becomes highly concentrated; it becomes endlessly paralyzed and invalidated. This is to say, that to be effective, a force must be subject to both the principle that expands it and the principle that contracts it. The principle of concentration or conservation is that which constitutes the internal identity of a nation, its innate sovereignty, its self-dominion and control; it is the principle which will keep Cuba independent, free, prosperous, and happy if after the victory over her usurpers she also triumphs over those who cause her unrest (whether they be annexationists or independentists, conservatives or radicals), and if the island sets herself to work peacefully with and on behalf of all her sons, native
271
and adopted, light and dark skinned, criollos and foreigners. In any sense of the word force, Cuba will then be a force. In the physical sense, because Cuba will be a people capable of war and peace. In the social sense, because the island will represent labor and productivity. In the international sense, because she will be a worthy ally, neutral or enemy. Whatever the events which may lead Cuba to take an international stance as an enemy, neutral, or ally of another nation or other nations, and whatever importance may be attributed to her armed forces, economic strength, and the power of her national influence, the fact is that Cuba will always be attracted, as every force is, toward herself and away from herself. What will Cuba do? Will she go into seclusion? The history of the Great Wall of China, the Tabernacle of Jerusalem, the Regency of 1812, and the autocracy of Paraguay all warn Cuba against exclusions which always lead to immobility, dispersion, death, or impotence, whether they be exclusions of the industrial and intellectual activity of the entire world, as with the Celestial Empire; exclusions of the beliefs of other men, as with the city of God; exclusions of rights and liberties, as with those who preferred to lose an entire continent rather than grant those rights and liberties; or demented exclusions of civilization en masse, as with Dr. Francia's Paraguay. Universal law is the same in the heavens and on earth: every force needs two principles in order to be effective. And if not, it is annihilated or invalidated: In the heavens, a body which does not follow the principle of contraction is annihilated: for this reason there are shooting stars, aerolites, and runaway meteors. On the Earth, the nations which do not follow the principle of expansion are invalidated: for this reason there are Chinas, Judeas, and Spains in history. In order not to be a Spain, Judea, or China, it is necessary to make national forces expansive, follow the principle of expansion, go outside oneself, spread oneself out, 'youthfully live the energetic interactive life which is seeking and awaiting all the peoples of the New World, and perhaps more than any other, those peoples in the archipelago of the Antilles, the center of the civilized world, route of world commerce, the objective of industry of both worlds, and pivot of the scale which one day will weigh the destinies of cosmopolitan civilization. Columbus did not stumble upon these islands in vain; and if somebody-whose existence I neither acknowledge or deny-outside of this earthly world takes charge of the things in it, then that somebody could be attributed with the plan of making the unwitting discoverer of the New World understand that the unanticipated islands that he found in his path would find themselves in the future at the crossroads, as the center and nucleus, of a new world of ideas, interests, activity, and progress.
272
Since that prophetic visionary delivered the best of the Antilles to the worst of colonial governments, these islands have been living only to go against their destiny. Spain locked them up inside themselves: she closed them off to the intellectual communication of the world, denied them the knowledge of world progress, put up barriers of isolation amongst them-barriers which an idiotic decree9 has just made even more oppressive, and had Cuba and Puerto Rico not been elements which were absolutely indispensable to the commercial movement of the world-with their tariffs, fiscal laws, duties, and strict system of prohibition-Spain would have even kept them out of commerce. As this was impossible, and as the islands were requested by international trade, Cuba and Puerto Rico, above all Cuba, owe the artificial prosperity they have been able to enjoy under the grip of their usurpers to international trade. But they owe it much more. They owe it a lesson which Cuba will soon be in a position to use forever. The international trade which, without arms, war, or violence, submissive to rather than rebellious against the prohibitive laws of the Colony, commercially liberated Cuba from Spain and gave Cuba an international identity before world markets, an identity which Spain has never achieved. Has it not been practically, absolutely, and mathematically proven that the destiny of Cuba and all the Antilles lies, whether they like it or not, in the expansion of their forces, in their cordial communication with the rest of the world, and in the diffusion of their internal means for life and progress toward the outside world both near and far? The nearest outside world is her sister islands, above all, Puerto Rico; and equally as important as Puerto Rico is for this end, is Columbus's favorite island. The principle of nationality calls Cuba toward both of them. But the outside world to which the principle of expansion calls Cuba is the Latin American continent, which rivals the Antilles in its long suffering of colonialism, sets a glorious example of the struggle for its own life, and is a heroic teacher in the harsh task of reconstruction and a sister in race, blood, tendencies, character, present needs, vices inherited from the past, and common work for the future. Toward the Continent, out of affinity, sympathy, foresight, and dutylike chemical elements seeking out similar molecules, like those who feel moral grief seeking out others afflicted by moral grief, like those who can see farther than the tips of their noses, and like those who nobly respect and fulfill their duty-toward that continent slandered by those who in the past could not appreciate it and by those who today cannot compre
9 The decree which prohibits the introduction of Puerto Rican tobacco into Cuba.
273
hend it, Cuba and our Antilles should fraternally reach out their arms, because they are irresistibly called toward the continent by the universal principle of force that draws the planets toward the sun in the center, as it does sister nations toward sister nations.
274
| ||
| << Previous |
|