Abstract
As soon as Cuba accepted the Platt Amendment, the Military Government began to prepare for the transfer of control. Plans proceeded for electing a president and congress before the end of 1901, with installation of the Cuban government scheduled for May 20, 1902. In Root’s words, the government of Cuba was to be transferred as a “going concern,” with money in the treasury, civil servants functioning at their posts, law and order prevailing -a trust fulfilled and transferred.
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References
Wood papers, Wood to Root, July 1, 1901; Hagedorn, Wood, I, 367–368.
Wood papers, Wood to Root, Sept. 19, 1901; Hagedorn, Wood, I, 369; CDDC 3912, Sept. 12, 1901.
Roosevelt papers, Roosevelt to Frederic René Coudert, July 3, 1901.
New York Times, June 25, 1901; Diario de la Marina, June 25, 1901; Havana Post, June 30, 1900, June 25, 1901.
New York Times, July 7, 1901; Havana Post, July 3, 1901. Gómez’ interpreter was Alejandro González, Wood’s personal secretary and an old friend of Gómez.
Havana Post, July 16, 1901, July 21, 1901, July 24, 1901; Martínez Ortiz, Los primeros años, I, 353.
Riera, Cuba política, 44–45; Havana Post, Aug. 6, 1901.
Riera, Cuba política, 44–45.
Ibid., 46–47; Martínez Ortiz, Los primeros años, I, 354–55.
Havana Post, Sept. 24, 1901, Sept. 29, 1901; Martínez Ortiz, Los primeros años, I, 359–66.
Riera, Cuba política, 49; Martínez Ortiz, Los primeros años, I, 346–50.
Riera, Cuba política, 49–51; Martínez Ortiz, Los primeros años, I, 346–53; R. Pérez Landa, Bartolomé Masó y Márquez (La Habana, 1937), 312–16, disagrees, arguing Masó was more popular with the people.
Ibid.
Ibid., cf. R. Guerra Sánchez, et al., Historia de la nación Cubana, VII, 131; and Robinson, Cuba and the Intervention, 180–82.
Riera, Cuba política, 48, 50–51.
CDDC 3051, Lt. Carpenter to Scott, Aug. 10, 1901, Aug. 11, 1901; Edwards to Scott, Aug. 12, 1901.
BIA Library, 205A5, VII, sessions 43–52, Aug. 14, 1901, Aug. 31, 1901.
Ibid., Sept. 6, 1901, session 52; Wood papers, Wood to Méndez Capote, Sept. 28, 1901; Wood to Root, Sept. 12, 1901, containing the first mention of May as the month of departure in 1902.
Wood papers, Méndez Capote to Wood, Oct. 1, 1901; Wood to Méndez Capote, Oct. 3, 1901; CDDC 3051, Méndez Capote to Wood, Oct. 16, 1901, where Méndez Capote said their duties were done.
Wood papers, Wood to Root, Oct, 16, 1901.
Wood papers, Wood to Root, Nov. 4, 1901; DIA 1947–24, Wood to Edwards, Oct. 23, 1901. On the 23rd of October Wood mailed to Colonel Edwards of the Division of Insular Affairs the translations of the Cuban Constitution, the Platt appendix, the electoral law and the order publishing the electoral law with modifications. For the Cienfuegos affair, an example of mismanagement in municipal government and restraint by the Military Government, see CDDC 2698.
Wood papers, Wood to Root, Oct. 17, 1901.
Wood papers, Wood to Roosevelt, Oct. 28, 1901.
Havana Post, Oct. 15, 1901; La Discusión, Oct. 28, 1901, Oct. 29, 1901.
Havana Post, Nov. 1, 1901; Portell Vilá, Historia de Cuba, IV, 267, 273; Martínez Ortiz, Los primeros años, I, 351–54; Pérez Landa, Masó, 313, 391–6.
Havana Post, Nov. 2, 1901, Nov. 20, 1901.
Havana Post, Nov. 2, 1901; Dec. 12, 1901; La Discusión, Dec. 2, 1901; The Post of Nov. 27 carried the news that D. Tamayo had sworn Estrada Palma to Cuban citizenship again by proxy.
DIA 1327–32, E. Bonachea to Root, cable of Nov. 26, 1901.
DIA 1327–32, Root to Bonachea, Nov. 29, 1901.
DIA 1327–33, Hernández to Root, Dec. 3, 1901, cable; DIA 1327–36, petition Hernández to Wood; Havana Post, Dec. 7, 1901.
DIA 1327–35, Pierra to Root, Dec. 14, 1901.
DIA 1327–35, Root to Pierra, Dec. 16, 1901.
DIA 1327–37, Edwards to Wood, n.d. cable; Havana Post, Dec. 17, 1901, Dec. 18, 1901, Dec. 19, 1901. Wood papers, Wood to Root, Dec. 18, Dec. 30, 1901, Jan. 8, 1902.
DIA 1327–33, Pierra to Root, Dec. 23, 1901; DIA 1327–46, Pieira to Roosevelt, Dec. 21, 1901; DIA 1327–51, Pierra to Roosevelt, Dec. 27, 1901; Havana Post, Dec. 22, 24 and 25, 1901; La Discusión, Dec. 23, 1901. Both papers criticized the retirement of the Masoistas and disparaged Cuba’s political future.
Riera, Cuba política, 49; Martínez Ortiz, Los primeros años, 346; Robinson, Cuba and the Intervention, 180–3.
DIA 1327–54, Wood to Edwards, Jan. 7, 1902; DIA 1327–54, Wood to O. H. Platt, Jan. 7, 1902; Wood papers, Wood to Root, Dec. 30, 1901, Wood to Root, Jan. 8, 1902; CDDC 57, E. Núñez to Wood, Jan. 22, 1902, Report on the Investigation of the Ayuntamiento of Havana; Havana Post, Jan. 9, 1902, Feb. 9, 1902; Martínez Ortiz, Los primeros años, I, 380–81; Portell Vilá, Historia de Cuba, IV, 274–76.
New York Times, Dec. 27, 1901; Havana Post, Dec. 27, 1901, Dec. 28, 1901. Other examples of Cuban political behavior and respect for law were when a police officer tried to arrest a mulatto for an assault he observed himself, the crowd tried to prevent it and the suspect stabbed the policeman, who eventually took his man in. In Havana the Nacionalistas were found trying to siphon off five percent of the police force salaries for the political campaign.
CDDC 4779, J. G. Gómez to Wood, Dec. 6, 1901; CDDC 4209, abstract of Records of Board of Scrutiny.
DIA 1327–53, cable, Wood to Root, Jan. 1, 1902; DIA 1327–58, Wood to Corbin, Feb. 25, 1902; CO. 45 of Feb. 19, 1902, and CO. 67 of March 9, 1902 in DIA file 1327; Riera, Cuba política, 55–56; Martínez Ortiz, Los primeros años, I, 370–79. See Appendix D.
DIA 1327–58, Root to Estrada Palma, Feb. 27, 1902; DIA 1327–59, Estrada Palma to Root, March 1, 1902; Havana Post, Feb. 25, 1902, March 26, 1902, April 22, 1902. In March and April of 1902, the Post, not an organ of the Military Government, printed more than 13 editorials pleading for balance and temperance in the coming government and praising the Military Government. Estrada Palma, “The Future of Cuba,” Independent, LIV (April 3, 1902), 789–791.
Wood papers, Wood to Root, Jan. 27, 1902, Feb. 21, 1902, March 7, 1902, April 29, 1902; Root papers, Root to Wood, March 24, 1902.
Root papers, Root to Postmaster General, April 1, 1902, H. C. Payne (Postmaster General), to Root, April 16, 1902; Fitzgibbon, Cuba and the United States, 89.
Wood papers, Wood to Senators and Representatives Elect of the Cuban Congress, May 5, 1902; DIA 2229–23, CO. 101 of April 14, 1902.
DIA 195–13, CO. 133 of May 7, 1902; CO. 155 of May 15, 1902; letter to the author from Jane F. Smith, Chief, Social & Economic Branch, National Archives, September 30, 1966.
Root papers, Rood to Wood, May 3, 1902; CO. 148 of May 13, 1902.
DIA 1327–64, CO. 158 of May 16, 1902; Havana Post, April 22, 1902; Wood papers, Wood to Roosevelt, May 10, 1902. Wood to Estrada Palma, May 14, 1902; Estrada Palma to Wood, May 16, 1902.
Wood papers, Méndez Capote to Wood, May 15, 1902.
Wood, Civil Report, 1902, I, 4, 9, 195; Wood papers, Wood to Root, Dec. 4, 1906.
CDDC 1084, McCoy to Wood, May 24, 1902.
Wood papers, Wood to Root, Dec. 10, 1901, Root to Wood, Dec. 14, 1901, Wood to Auditor of Cuba, June 10, 1902, Wood to Root, Nov. 18, 1902; Wood, Civil Report, 1902, I, 196; U.S., Congress, House, Report of the Secretary of War, IV, no. 2, 57th Cong., 2nd Sess., 1902–1903, appendix B; Fitzgibbon, Cuba and the United States, 64–65.
Wood papers, Wood to Hanna, Jan. 7, 1904; Hanna’s reply, n.d., n.p., with comparison of costs of operation between Estrada Palma’s first year and Wood’s for 1901. Matthew Hanna remained in Havana as the U.S. military attache.
Wood, Civil Report, 1902, I, 212; Hagedorn, Wood, I, 390; Martínez Ortiz, Los primeros años, I, 424–25; Grover Flint, Marching with Gómez, 197n., tells of a Cuban legend that freedom would come in May when the white flower Libertad bloomed.
Wood papers, Estrada Palma letter of May 20, 1902. (Spanish with English trans.)
Root papers, Wood to Root, May 20, 1902; Wood to Corbin, June 10, 1902; Hagedorn, Wood, I, 389–92; U.S., Congress, Senate, “Inaugural of the President of Cuba…” doc. 363, 57th Cong., 1st Sess.
Wood, Civil Report, 1902, I, 270 ff.
U.S., Congress, House, Reports of the War Department, IV, no. 2, 57th Cong., 1st Sess., 1902–1903, 8–9.
Jessup, Root, I, 287.
Wood papers, Wood to Steinhart, June 23, 1902; Wood to Root, Oct. 17, 1902; J. D. Terrill to Wood, July 11, 1902; DIA file 2990; General Order #38, March 25, 1903, signed by the Secretary of War. Although Steinhart became U.S. Consul and later an influential millionaire in Cuba, the high point of life was working with Wood to build a republic.
Wood papers, Root to Wood, Oct. 31, 1906; Steinhart to Wood, June 25, 1902, June 30, 1902; González to Wood, May 20, 1902, Aug. 24, 1903, Sept. 10, 1903, March 25, 1904, Aug. 31, 1904, Sept. 20, 1905; Wood, Diary, Feb. 8, 1909; Hanna to Wood, Aug. 9, 1903; McCoy to Wood, Oct. 18, 1906; Bacardi to Wood, March 3, 1907; Wood to Cancio, July 25, 1907; Cancio to Wood, Oct. 18, 1907; Wood to Varela, Feb. 3, 1904; J. de Armas to Wood, Sept. 26, 1905; Wood to Quesada and Varona, both of Jan. 29, 1907; Wood to González, Feb. 7, 1907; DIA 1561–34, A. A. Adee to Root, Aug. 22, 1902; See also Wood papers, Steinhart to J. G. Rockwood, Dec. 10, 1906, where he stressed need for peaceful change of office.
Wood papers, Wood to Root, Dec. 4, 1906.
Wood papers, W. H. Moody to Wood, June 25, 1902, copy of speech he made at Detroit; Martínez Ortiz, Los primeros años, I, 428, 434, 436, a tribute to Wood, whom he called “essentially a reformer… a revolutionist in the better sense of the word, seeking in every possible way to elevate the moral level of Cuban society and prepare it for the real enjoyment and use of democratic institutions…. An indiscreet or hotheaded governor would have either humiliated the Cuban patriots or placed them in a position in which they could maintain their self-respect only by armed opposition… Neither favor nor gift counted with him… Friends and adversaries… joined… in this assertion; ‘he was an honorable man.’ “
Wood papers, Roosevelt to Wood, March 27, 1901.
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© 1971 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Holland
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Hitchman, J.H. (1971). The Transfer of Control, July, 1901 to May 20, 1902. In: Leonard Wood and Cuban Independence, 1898–1902. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-0749-3_11
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