In compliance with the request of Congress, I transmitted to the
American minister at Madrid, with instructions to present it to the
Spanish Government, the joint resolution approved on the 3d of March
last, tendering to the people of Spain, in the name and on the behalf of
the American people, the congratulations of Congress upon the efforts to
consolidate in Spain the principles of universal liberty in a republican
form of government.
The existence of this new Republic was inaugurated by striking the
fetters from the slaves in Porto Rico. This beneficent measure was
followed by the release of several thousand persons illegally held as
slaves in Cuba. Next, the Captain-General of that colony was deprived of
the power to set aside the orders of his superiors at Madrid, which had
pertained to the office since 1825. The sequestered estates of American
citizens, which had been the cause of long and fruitless correspondence,
were ordered to be restored to their owners. All these liberal steps
were taken in the face of a violent opposition directed by the
reactionary slaveholders of Havana, who are vainly striving to stay the
march of ideas which has terminated slavery in Christendom, Cuba only
excepted.
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