Puerto Rico History - Assimilationists
In another realm, the organization of the liberal and separatist sectors, born under the influence of the Spanish Independence War and the Venezuelan struggle for emancipation, created within Puerto Rican society the necessary instruments to give expression to its political, economic, and social aspirations.
The Puerto Rican liberal movement was comprised of two major phases. During the initial period of insular liberalism, from 1808 to 1823, the liberals championed the assimilation of Puerto Rico as a juridical equal of the peninsular provinces. It must be remembered that Spain herself was in a state of revolution, determined not only to defeat the expansionist ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte, but to replace the old absolute monarchy with a liberal or constitutional monarchy, and that it had been the interim government of Spain, represented by the Supreme Council, which had proclaimed the decree of January 22, 1809, recognizing the colonies as an integral part of the Spanish monarchy with the right to representation in the council.
When the Supreme Council was replaced by the Regency Council, the latter hastened to reaffirm the colonial policy of its predecessor; in February 1810, a decree was promulgated which reiterated the status of Puerto Rico as a part of the monarchy, granting the island a representative with voice and vote in the Spanish Cortes, and recognizing its citizens as having the same rights as those of the peninsula. The significance of such resolutions was not lost on the leaders of the incipient liberal sector.
The instructions given in 1810 to Power Giral, the first elected deputy, were accompanied by a statement on the need for reform of the existing colonial regime, including a declaration of their aspirations and ideals.
On the political front, the liberals expressed their deep attachment to the Spanish nation. Nevertheless, speaking out with valiant integrity against the arbitrary and tyrannical system which prevailed in the island, they charged their deputy to demand its immediate reform ; "a burden and an obstacle to progress, the chains must be broken that is the law of humanity." Thus did the Puerto Ricans affirm their existence as free human beings, entitled to a life of reason and conscience.
The leaders from San German went further, instructing Power to assert that, if as a result of the divine will the Supreme Council were to be destroyed and the peninsula lost to Bonaparte, Puerto Rico should be considered free to elect the means best suited to the preservation of peace and the Christian religion for the inhabitants of the island.
The liberals took this opportunity to state numerous recommendations in a variety of areas. In order to improve the intellectual environment of the island, Power Giral was requested to emphasize the development of public education and the establishment of a university of humanities and sciences, insofar as the education of youth was seen as the foundation on which the state is built.
Public sanitation was also an issue at hand, and the establishment of hospitals and health centers were considered to be essential to the proper functioning of a civilized community. The creation of a school of mechanic arts with rehabilitation facilities for both sexes was suggested as one answer to the problem of delinquency, since preventive laws tend to be far more effective than penal ones.
To foster internal communications and thereby overcome another major obstacle to the prosperity of the island, it was recommended that Power request construction of roads and bridges to replace the grossly unsatisfactory conditions for transport. To help raise the moral and material level of the workers as well as to create a useful class of workers, Power's instructions included a request for the division and distribution of untilled land belonging to the state, and the foundation of guilds with appropriate rules and statutes.
In order to improve the administration of justice, popular election of the lieutenants of war and their seconds, the major sergeants, were to be requested instead of having them appointed by the Governor, as well as the separation of Puerto Rico from the jurisdiction of the Cuban "Audiencia" and its incorporation into that of Venezuela, given its proximity and accessibility.
In the case of agriculture, the principal source of income, it was Power's role to demand the abolition of the tax on forced supply of meats and to repeal the prohibition on the growing of wheat, as well as a reduction of various duties and the free importation of agricultural tools from abroad. On behalf of insular industry, he was to solicit the right to distill and export rum, in addition to a franchise for the island's commerce, freedom of trade with foreign nations for a period of 15 or 20 years, and the establishment of new ports. Freedom to export was seen as a means to protect the cattle industry, and a system of proportional taxation was added to the list as well.
Finally, in order to break the tight circle which kept "criollos" from attaining official positions, Power was to defend the claim that native-born Puerto Ricans be given preference for public posts on the island.
The foregoing reflects the impact of various sociopolitical ideas of liberal theologians and jurists in Spain during the preceding centuries, as well as the influence of the democrat chartists of North America and European reformers an effective demonstration that the Enlightenment had not bypassed the current of island liberalism.
The political aspirations of the Puerto Rican liberals soon became a reality ; on July 14, 1812, Governor MelAndez Bruna promulgated a circular by which he declared the Spanish National Constitution, approved by the Cortes on March 19, to be effective in Puerto Rico. According to the articles of this Constitution, the first of its kind to be approved in Spain, representing a victory of liberalism over absolutism, the island of Puerto Rico was declared to be an integral part of the monarchy.
It granted Spanish citizenship to all white Puerto Ricans together with the right of inviolability of home, personal property, work, and welfare. It confirmed their right to name a deputy with voice and vote in the Cortes, the legislative power of the nation, by means of a process of universal indirect suffrage in which all citizens over 25 years of age might participate.
The Constitution also created a corporation, semi representative in origin and of an administrative character, which was called the provincial assembly, and was composed of nine members : two official members - the Governor, who acted as its president, and the intendent - in addition to seven land-holding members and three alternatives, chosen on an elective basis. It was the principal responsibility of this assembly to establish the basis for proportional taxation, to examine the accounts of the townships and regulate the investment of public funds, to propose public works, to protect the interests of welfare and religious institutions, and to promote agriculture, industry and commerce, as well as public education. As for everything else, on executive as well as administrative levels, the island of Puerto Rico was assimilated within the existing political framework of the Spanish peninsula, a process which was completed following the triumph of the Revolution of Riego in Spain in 1820.
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