ernment," and "home-rule," had no equivalent in
the Spanish language. The first of these terms, distorted into "_mitin_,"
is now in common use, and its origin is obvious. Of theories, ideals, and
intellectual conceptions, there was an abundance, but government based
on beautiful dreams does not succeed in this practical world. Denied
opportunity for free discussion of practical methods, the Cubans discussed
theories in lyceums. Under the military government of the United States,
from January 1, 1899, to May 20, 1902, there was freedom of speech and
freedom of organization. The Cubans began to hold "_mitins_," but visions
and beautiful theories characterized the addresses. Prior to the Ten Years'
War (1868-1878), there were organizations more or less political in their
nature, but the authorities were alert in preventing discussions of too
practical a character. In 1865, a number of influential Cubans organized
what has been somewhat inappropriately termed a "national party." It was
not at all a party in our use of that term. Its purpose was to suggest and
urge administrative and economic changes from the Cuban point of view. The
suggestions were ignored and, a few years later, revolution was adopted as
a means of emphasizing their importance. The result of the Ten Years' War
was an assortment of pledges of greater political and economic freedom.
Much was promised but little if anything was really granted. There was,
however, a relaxation of the earlier absolutism, and under that there
appeared a semblance of party organization, in the form of a Liberal party
and a Union Constitutional party. There was no special difference in what
might be called their platforms. Both focussed, in a somewhat general way,
the political aspirations and the economic desires of the Cuban people,
much the same aspirations and desires that had been manifested by
complaint, protest, and occasional outbreak, for fifty years. National
independence had no place in either. That came later, when an army in the
field declared that if Spain would not grant independence, the island would
be made so worthless a possession that Spain could not afford to hold it.
A few years after their organization, the Liberals became the Cuban party,
and so remained, and the Union Constitutionals became the Spanish party,
the party of the immediate administration. Later on, the Liberal party
became the Autonomist party, but Spain's concession of the demands of that
group