om of some of the provisions of this
Constitution. But it provides for a republican form of government; it
was adopted after long and patient consideration and discussion; it
represents the views of the delegates elected by the people of Cuba;
and it contains no features which would justify the assertion that a
government organized under it will not be one to which the United States
may properly transfer the obligations for the protection of life and
property under international law, assumed in the Treaty of Paris."

The first part of the Convention's work was thus done. There remained
the second part, the expression of Cuban opinion as to what ought to be
the relations between that island and the United States. Over this a
most unfortunate controversy arose, chiefly provoked and fomented,
however, not by Cubans but by the partisan enemies of the President of
the United States and of his policy, who did not scruple to intrigue
against him in the affairs of foreign lands. It will be recalled that
this hatred of him, provoked largely because of his insistence on
fulfilling the pledge of Cuban freedom instead of seeking to serve
certain sordid interests by forcibly annexing the island, culminated in
the assassination of President McKinley at the incitement of his
political foes. The opposition to him and to his policy in Cuba was
continued unabated against his successor, President Roosevelt; and it
was most unfortunate for both countries that the establishment of Cuban
self-government and the determination of her relations to her northern
neighbor, had to be effected in such circumstances.

The United States government had to deal on the one hand with those who
insisted that it should have no more special relations with Cuba than
any other country had; and on the other with those who demanded the
repudiation of the Congressional pledge and the forcible annexation of
the island. In those circumstances it was not strange that many Cubans
were disinclined to make any such arrangement as had been required in
the call for the Convention. They recalled that the United States had
declared that "Cuba is of right and ought to be free and independent,"
and they were not disposed to look beyond that declaration.

Three considerations were too much overlooked on both sides, save by the
thoughtful American and Cuban statesmen who finally solved the problem.
One was that the United States had for nearly a century exercised a
certain d