Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 1, 1873
No. 418.
General Sickles to Mr. Fish.
Madrid, August 8, 1873. (Received August 30.)
Sir: I have the satisfaction to forward a copy and translation of a law passed by the Cortes granting a comprehensive bill of rights to the inhabitants of Porto Rico, being substantially the same found in Title I of the Spanish constitution. After a failure to pass the bill on Saturday last, the 2d instant, for the want of the prescribed quorum of deputies, the measure was again brought forward day before yesterday, and received one hundred and eighty-four affirmative votes against one in the negative. Another attempt was made to count out the house, but it happily failed, a sufficient number remaining, although there were but two to spare. On the failure of the bill to pass when first presented a cry of triumph went up from the conservative press, including the Imparcial, identified last year with the Zorrilla-Martos cabinet, and it was supposed the insurrectionary and turbulent spirit shown in the Spanish provinces might deter the Cortes from further concessions to the colonies. I commend to your attention the brief speech of Mr. Labra, a deputy from Porto Rico, and a leading reformer and abolitionist.
I am, &c.,
Report of the colonial committee declaring the first title of the constitution of 1869 in force in Porto Rico.
[From el Diario delas Sessions de las Cortes Constituyentes de la Republica Española. Sixth appendix to No. 42 of July 17, 1873.]
To the Cortes:
The permanent committee on the colonies has examined with all the deliberation and care possible under the circumstances the proposed law by virtue of which Title I of the Spanish constitution of 1869 is extended to the province of Porto Rico.
The committee accepts to its full extent the luminous preamble to the measure, a document which demonstrates that from to-day henceforth the colonial ministry will be animated solely by a high and broad sentiment of justice, the only one which can keep alive the sentiment of national unity beyond the Atlantic, and the only one sufficient to assure not merely the integrity of the country, but also the realization of the grand destiny reserved to Spain in the continent discovered by our great navigator of the fourteenth century.
The committee nevertheless deems it advisable to introduce some modifications into the bill submitted for its examination.
According to article 31 of the constitution of 1869, a law is requisite whenever the security of the state demands the suspension of the rights guaranteed in the 2d, 5th, 6th, and 17th articles thereof. The committee does not now discuss the goodness of this doctrine; it regards it as a fact of law, and looks only to harmonizing it with the actual state of affairs in the colonies, that is to say, with all those institutions which cannot be blotted out with the stroke of the pen, and the incongruities of which will be appreciated by the Cortes when they are finally called upon to reorganize the administration in our transatlantic provinces, if indeed such a matter be not left to the free initiative of the individual states of the Spanish federation.
For it is evident, on the one hand, that in view of the distance of Porto Rico from the mother-country, and the want of continuous and rapid communications between them, it would be scarcely less than impossible in certain cases that the 31st article referred to could be observed to the letter, for if it were, the law voted by the Cortes would sometimes arrive too late.
On the other hand, the superior governors and captains-general of the province of Porto Rico, although they do not enjoy, at least to their fullest extent, the extraordinary powers conferred under the royal order of 1825, are invested with all the authority and all the means sanctioned in the “Recopilacion des Indias” especially stated in Title III, book III, thereof, and it is difficult if not impossible to reconcile all this with the constitutional code of 1869.
It is needful, therefore, to harmonize all those regulations and face the difficulties which distance, even though slight, may bring about at times.
To this end the committee has given due attention to the propositions of law presented to the present Cortes by the worthy deputies from Porto Rico, as well as the evident spirit of the considerations with which the colonial minister prefaces the bill now under examination. But it is to be understood that the committee only endeavors to solve the difficulties of the moment without venturing any definitive opinion on the future organization of the provinces that are to constitute the individual transatlantic states of the Spanish federation.
For analogous reasons the committee opines that it is indispensable to give a certain development, and with it a certain precision, to a resort specified in the second paragraph of article 31, determining the law of public order, which is to be enforced in Porto Rico as in the Peninsula in certain determinate cases.
Basing its course on the foregoing considerations, the permanent committee on colonial affairs has the honor to propose for the approbation of the Constituent Cortes the following report:
- Article I. The first title of the constitution of June 1, 1869, is declared in force in the province of Porto Rico.
- Article II. When the safety of the state, in extraordinary circumstances, requires the suspension in the province of Porto Rico of the rights guaranteed in articles 2, 5, and 6, and the first, second, and third paragraphs of article 17, the superior governor shall communicate the fact to the central government by telegraph, so that the government may solicit from the Cortes the law referred to in the 31st article of the constitution.
- Article III. In case of interruption of telegraphic communications, either permanently or for any length of time, by which compliance with the preceding article may be prevented, the superior civil governor of the province is hereby authorized to suspend the rights guaranteed in articles 2, 5, and 6, and paragraphs one, two, and three of the 17th article, unless the full provincial deputation convened for this purpose, together with the junta of the authorities, by a majority of votes, be unfavorable to the suspension in question.
- In case of a tie the superior civil governor shall have the casting vote.
- Under any circumstances the superior governor shall immediately communicate the resolution adopted, and the facts and circumstances on which it is based, to the ministry of the colonies, in order that the latter may transmit it to the Cortes, which, by means of a law if they deem it expedient, shall ratify the suspension of guarantees. In the negative case, or if thirty days elapse from the date of the suspension without the Cortes having taken any action thereon, the decree of the superior governor of Porto Rico shall be deemed to have been annulled.
- Article IV. For all the effects of the 31st article of the constitution, the law of public order of April 23, 1870, shall be understood to be operative in the province of Porto Rico.
- Article V. All laws and ordinances in any way opposed, to the provisions of the present law are hereby annulled.
- JOSÉ RAMON FERNANDEZ,
Chairman. - MANUEL GARCIA MARQUÉS.
- MANUEL CORCHADO.
- ENRIQUE CALVO DELGADO.
- SANTIAGO SOLER.
Extract from proceedings in the Cortes July 28, 1873. Approval of hill extending the first chapter of the Spanish constitution to Porto Rico.
* * * * * * *
The report of the permanent colonial committee on the bill extending to Porto Rico the first title of the constitution of 1869 was then taken up for debate, and there being no deputy to ask the floor upon the bill as a whole, it was then submitted to discussion by articles, and articles 1 and 2 were approved without debate.
Article 3 was read, when
Mr. Diaz Quintero said: I do not rise to impugn the article, but to make a protest and to say that, although I am not in conformity with the whole bill, I accept it as the least possible evil.
Without further discussion article 3 was approved, as were likewise articles 4 and 5, and it was announced that the bill would go before the committee on the correction of style, and that a day would be designated for putting it to a final vote.
* * * * * * *
Final passage in the Constituent Cortes August 6, 1873, of the bill of rights for Porto Rico.
* * * * * * *
The law declaring in force in Porto Rico the first title of the constitution of 1869, as revised by the committee on the correction of style and declared conformable to previous resolution, was then read, and upon Mr. Secretary Cagigal inquiring if it was definitively approved, several deputies demanded that the yeas and nays be taken.
Mr. Labra. Let the names of those who have demanded the yeas and nays be placed on record.
Mr. Moran, (Don Valentine.) Let them be recorded once, twice, and a thousand times.
The Vice-President. It is not customary to record the names of those who demand the yeas and nays, and the rules say nothing on the subject.
Mr. La Rosa. I doubt if enough deputies have stood up to demand the yeas and nays.
The Vice-President. There is no doubt about it, Mr. Deputy.
The yeas and nays were taken.
This having been done, the said law was definitively approved by one hundred and eighty-four deputies against one, in the following form. (See the list, appendix.)
Mr. Labra. I have asked the floor, first, to beg that the chamber will be pleased [Page 1029] to direct that the law which has just been passed be transmitted to Porto Rico by telegraph; and, secondly, in the name of the Porto Rican deputation, and, I think I may also say, in the name of all of the liberals of Porto Rico, to render here a public tribute of thanks to this assembly and to this government which has consecrated liberty in that island, bringing before us and voting to-day with noble enthusiasm that which henceforth may be called the bill of rights of Porto Rico.
The chamber recalls another moment of peril for the country, the time when, at the commencement of this century, the empire of Spain beyond the Atlantic fell through the shocks of a separatist movement. Then from the Antillian seas a voice resounded proclaiming that whatever might be the fate in store for Spain in the midst of that tempest, she would still have one island united to her and ready to follow her to the end in her days of glory as in the abyss of her misfortune. That voice was the voice of Porto Rico, [applause,] and her spirit is the spirit that to-day inspires me in addressing you these words. [Applause.] At the same time I have risen to express my fervent hopes that the resolution to-day taken by this chamber may re-echo to the furthermost parts of Spanish territory, as well as in other lands, so that those who dwell in exile, driven away by the voice of discord and of disheartenment, may realize that there is no motive, no excuse, no pretext, for not recognizing the rule of Spain; that she cherishes the firm resolve, solemn and honorable, to consecrate liberty alike in both hemispheres. Let them know, then, that this chamber bears itself worthily, nobly, and loyally; let no one doubt the sincerity of Spain; let all be of one mind in this, and thus shall we found upon solid bases the integrity of our country by means of liberty and democracy. [Great applause.]
On the motion being put that the resolution of the chamber be transmitted by telegraph to Porto Rico, it was carried.