hing. The very terms are contradictory. Gomez had declared that
if Spain would not give up Cuba to the Cubans, the Cubans would themselves
render the island so worthless and desolate a possession that Spain could
not afford to hold it. Short of further submission to a rule that was, very
rightly, regarded as no longer endurable, no other course was open to them.
Another proclamation appeared a few days later.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF
LIBERATION

Sancti Spiritus, November 11 1895.

To HONEST MEN, VICTIMS OF THE TORCH:

_The painful measure made necessary by the revolution of redemption
drenched in innocent blood from Hatuey to our own times by cruel and
merciless Spain will plunge you in misery. As general-in-chief of the army
of liberation, it is my duty to lead it to victory, without permitting
myself to be restrained or terrified, by any means necessary to place Cuba
in the shortest time in possession of her dearest ideal. I therefore place
the responsibility for so great a ruin on those who look on impassively and
force us to those extreme measures which they then condemn like dolts and
hypocrites as they are. After so many years of supplication, humiliation,
contumely, banishment, and death, when this people, of its own will, has
arisen in arms, there remains no solution but to triumph, it matters not
what means are employed to accomplish it_.

_This people cannot hesitate between the wealth of Spain and the liberty
of Cuba. Its greatest crime would be to stain the land with blood without
effecting its purposes because of puerile scruples and fears which do not
concur with the character of the men who are in the field, challenging the
fury of an army which is one of the bravest in the world, but which in this
war is without enthusiasm or faith, ill-fed and unpaid. The war did not
begin February 24; it is about to begin now_.

_The war had to be organized; it was necessary to calm and lead into
the proper channels the revolutionary spirit always exaggerated in the
beginning by wild enthusiasm. The struggle ought to begin in obedience to a
plan and method more or less studied, as the result of the peculiarities of
this war. This has already been done. Let Spain now send her soldiers to
rivet the chains on her slaves; the children of this land are in the field,
armed with the weapons of liberty. The struggle will be terrible, but
success will crown the revolution and the efforts of the oppressed_.

(