ol of the island to its own people. It was with
that end in view that General Wood filled all possible offices with
Cubans. It was also to the same end that the municipal election was held
in June, 1900, under a new election law. Soon after that election there
came a call for another, of vastly greater importance. On July 25, 1900,
the President of the United States authorized General Wood as Military
Governor of Cuba to issue a call for the election of a Cuban
Constitutional Convention, which should be representative of the Cuban
people and which should prepare the fundamental law of the independent
insular government which was about to be erected.

General Wood issued the call, fixing September 15 as the date of the
election. This call repeated and reaffirmed the Congressional
declaration of April 20, 1898, concerning the purpose of the United
States not to annex Cuba but to "leave the government and control of the
island to its people." It also called upon the people of Cuba, through
their Constitutional Convention, not only to frame and adopt a
Constitution, but also, "as a part thereof, to provide for and agree
with the Government of the United States upon the relations to exist
between that government and the Government of Cuba." That was a most
significant thing. It made it quite clear that the United States
expected and intended that some special relations should exist between
the two countries, apart from those ordinarily provided in treaties.

Comment, criticism and protest were provoked; some temperate, some
intemperate. Most of the unfavorable comments, and by far the most
severe, came from the United States and were obviously animated by
political hostility to the President. In Cuba the chief objection was
based upon the ground that the island was thus required to do something
through a Constitutional Convention which that body was not intended to
do but which should be done by the diplomatic department of the
government; and also to put into the Constitution something which did
not belong there but which should be determined in a treaty. In this
there was obviously much logical and moral force, and that fact was
appreciated by General Wood, and by the government at Washington, with
the result that assurances were presently given that the order would be
satisfactorily modified. On the strength of this assurance, which was
given in undoubted good faith, Cubans generally prepared for the coming
election and