n of suffrage was intensely controversial. There were
those who dreaded the result of giving the ballot to tens of thousands
of ignorant and illiterate men. Yet to disfranchise them would mean thus
to debar thousands who had fought for Cuban independence in the late
war, and it was not unreasonably feared that it would also cause
dissatisfaction and resentment which would culminate in disorder and
insurrection. In the end universal equal suffrage was adopted.

The most bitter debate of all, however, was over the qualifications of
the President of the Republic. A strong and persistent effort was made
to imitate the Constitution of the United States by requiring him to be
a native citizen. But that would have debarred Maximo Gomez, who was
born in Santo Domingo. For that reason the proposed restriction was
passionately opposed by all the friends of Gomez, and also by many who
were not his friends and who would have opposed his candidacy for the
Presidency but who felt that it would be disgraceful to put such a
slight upon the gallant old hero of the two wars. On the other hand, the
restriction was urged chiefly for that very reason, that it would debar
Gomez; for, idolized as he was by the great mass of the Cuban people, he
had a number of unrelenting enemies, especially among these politicians
whom he had opposed and overruled in the matter of the Cuban Assembly
and the payment of soldiers at the end of the war. After several days of
acrimonious discussion the friends of Gomez won by a narrow margin, and
the offensive proposal was rejected.

There were many other controversial points, less personal and more
worthy of debate in such a gathering on bases not of personality but of
principle. The governmental powers of the Provinces gave rise to debates
resembling those over state rights in America. The recognition of Cuban
debts was a momentous matter. The method of electing Senators was also
much discussed, as was the principle which the Military Administration
had adopted of having the state and not the provinces or municipalities
control public education. The right of the government to expel
objectionable aliens was the theme of a long and spirited discussion.
With all the animation, sentiment and rhetoric in which Latin debaters
and orators more freely indulge than do the more phlegmatic
Anglo-Saxons, all of these questions were very seriously considered
according to their merits, and were disposed of on that same basis