Puerto Rico History - 1898 - Luis Munoz Rivera
The promulgation of the Charter of Autonomy was received by Puerto Rican liberals with great rejoicing. For don Luis Munoz Rivera it signified unhampered development of self-government, as Puerto Rico began to feel master of its present and its future. Shortly afterwards he repeated that the declaration of autonomy in 1897 recognized the personality of Puerto Rico more amply than England had recognized that of Canada and Australia, given the continued representation in the Congress of Madrid. According to Munoz, autonomy brought with it both legislative bodies and a responsible executive cabinet. The national representative, more nominal than executive, was a Governor who reigned but did not govern, in much the same way as the sovereigns of parliamentary monarchies.
For the present, autonomy represented complete liberty and exclusive control; for the future, it was something else independence without violence or confusion. Thus, the efforts of Baldorioty de Castro and Munoz Rivera were lauded as having inspired the achievement of autonomy, resulting in a proclamation which, according to Jose de Diego, represented the most important event in the Antilles since its discovery and settlement.
The granting of the Charter of Autonomy indicated a profound and unequivocal change in Spanish colonial policy. Thus the old concept of unlimited, all-embracing power of the metropolis vis-a-vis the colony was replaced by a concept of moderate and relative power, establishing the principle that the colony was entitled to a recognition of well-being and happiness on the basis of human rights. The purely reformist ideas initiated by such men as Las Casas, Vitoria, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Bacon, and pursued by most liberal theoreticians, were superseded by the concepts of harmony, partnership, and association as concerned the rights and interests of both metropolis and colony.
The historical perspective for such a view can be seen in the writings of the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega who, in his "History of Peru" (1600), asserts that relations between Governor and governed could be based on the concept of mutual assistance; don Jose del Campillo Cossio, in a book entitled "New Systems of Government for America" (1743), had recommended that colonial legislation be adapted to the specific circumstances. Turgot, in his "Memorandum" (1776), had advocated that the status of subjugated colonies be changed to that of allied provinces. In his "Dictionary of the Social Sciences," Juan Francisco Robinet clearly expressed the concept that the relationship between Governor and governed rests on the principle of association. In 1797, Kant proposed the doctrine that the relationship between metropolis and colony could be justified only by means of a pact or union. In 1801, Charpentier de Cassigny, formulating a colonization project in Madagascar, declared his intention to transport civilization to its shores and thereby to join a valiant peasant people to the French nation.
In 1803, John Baptiste Say maintained that the life of the colonies was composed of two successive phases : the first being that of an association between metropolis and colony while the latter was in need of protection and development; and the second, that of emancipation of the colony once she had achieved maturity and experience. Somewhat later the Count of Laborde, in a book entitled "The Spirit of Association in the Community" (1821), praised the concept of a pact between mother country and colony. In 1836, the explorer and geographer Domeny de Rienzi expressed a desire that the peoples of the Pacific be taken and won over through the means of association. The following year the famous economist the Count of Rossi, in his "Course on Political Economy," presented a broad discussion of the doctrine of association as a model for the colony-metropolis relationship.
From 1840 on, Enfantin, the leading disciple of Saint-Simon, as well as Auguste Compte, Fourier, Edgar Quinet, Victor Hugo, Julio Boussiere, and others, made manifest their support of the theory of association. This, then, is the doctrine behind the plea made by don Segismundo Mord Prendergast in 1885 when he argued for a policy of liberal concessions in order to reinforce the close relationship between the peninsula and her colonies; it is the doctrine that served as the basis for the aims expressed in the preamble of the Charter of Autonomy, in which the desire to create a system which would facilitate harmony, mutual support, and free accord, given the rights and interests of the metropolis and (those of) the colony, thus making clashes and insoluble dilemmas obsolete, is reiterated. With respect to the future, the Charter of Autonomy left all roads open, since from the hierarchical association between unequals which it embodied, Puerto Rico could move towards egalitarian association or even towards independence. On July 17, 1898, after various incidents caused by the union of the liberal and orthodox parties into which the autonomist groups had divided after the assembly in San Juan on February 11, 1897; after the constitution of the first composite Cabinet; after the failure of the liberal-orthodox union, and the election of April 10, 1898, the insular Parliament of Puerto Rico opened.
And 4 days later, by virtue of the first statute approved by Parliament the day before, the autonomous cabinet was reorganized under the Presidency of don Luis Munoz Rivera. And with the creation of a homogeneous liberal Cabinet, all paths were open for the development of its own policies.
Briefly explaining the fundamental aspects of his governmental program, Munoz Rivera had declared he would exercise power fairly and energetically. He would decrease the imperfections and bad habits of colonialism; he would build on freedoms; suppress the abuse of failing peaceful citizens on mere suspicion; stop the concealment of punishable actions and lawbreaking; advance programs of public hygiene ; regulate police services; guarantee equity in tax assessment; organize a competent government administration; encourage integrity as the basis for obtaining public employment ; extend unlimited opportunity to the sons of the island ; activate all reforms favoring moral, intellectual, and economic betterment of the working class; and sponsor the founding of a university as the center of a broad and complete educational system.
Before, in its inaugural session, the first mixed cabinet had reformed the payroll of the departments of the autonomous government. In the second session it voted to include in the budget a credit of 1,000 pesos annually for her lifetime for the widow of Baldorioty de Castro. Later it passed an order making it unnecessary for the newspapers to submit three copies to the government as the printing law had required. Another provision named don Francisco Garcia Molinas, don Rafael Maria de Labra, and don Melquiades Cintrón as delegates in the drawing up of a trade treaty among Puerto Rico, Cuba, Spain, and the United States, and to study the possibilities of trade between Puerto Rico and Canada. Another provision prescribed a study of reform of the tariff system of the island. Thus the cabinet successively adopted these other resolutions in order to deal with the issues of the moment.
All such activity, however, was to vanish from sight as the result of the Spanish-American War.
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