TÍTULO SEXTO.

Disposiciones generales.

ART. 182. Los colores nacionales son el azul y el rojo colocados horizontalmente.

Las armas de la República son: una palmera coronada con el gorro de la libertad, y adornada con un trofeo, que lleve el lema "L'union fait la force." (La unión hace la fuerza.)

ART. 183. La ciudad de Port-au-Prince es la capital de la República y el sitio actual del Gobierno.

En circunstancias graves podrá la Asamblea Nacional, á propuesta del Ejecutivo, autorizar la traslación del sitio del Gobierno á cualquiera otro lugar fuera de la capital.

ART. 184. No podrá exigirse juramento alguno sino en virtud de una ley. Ella determinará cúal debe ser su fórmula, y en qué casos habrá de prestarse.

ART. 185. Todo extranjero que se encuentre en el territorio de la República gozará, en cuanto á su persona y bienes, de la protección concedida á los haitianos, salvo en los casos de excepción establecidos por la ley.

En caso de sufrir pérdidas, con motivo de disturbios civiles y políti cos, ni haitianos, ni extranjeros podrán pretender indemnización.

Será sin embargo facultativo para las partes perjudicadas acudir á los tribunales, conforme á las leyes, contra los autores reconocidos del mal causado, á fin de obtener justicia, y que se haga la reparación legal.

ART. 186. La ley establece un sistema uniforme de pesos y medidas. ART. 187. Las fiestas nacionales son: la de la independencia de Haití y de sus héroes, el primero de enero; y la de la Agricultura, el primero de mayo. Las fiestas legales se determinarán por la ley.

ART. 188. Una ley determinará la naturaleza de las recompensas que cada año deberán concederse, el primero de mayo, á los labradores y agricultores, como resultado del concurso concerniente á sus diversos productos.

En la misma ley se fijará también la manera de efectuarse estos

concursos.

ART. 189. Ninguna ley, decreto, ó reglamento de la administración pública tendrá fuerza obligatoria sino después de su publicación en la forma que la ley previene.

ART. 190. Ninguna plaza, ó lugar cualquiera del territorio de la República podrá ser declarado en estado de sitio, sino en caso de disturbios civiles, ó de inminente invasión por fuerzas extranjeras.

La declaratoria de estado de sitio que haga el Presidente de Haití tendrá que estar firmada por todos los Secretarios de Estado. De ella se dará cuenta á las Cámaras por el Poder Ejecutivo, al abrirse la sesión legislativa.

ART. 191. Los efectos del estado de sitio se determinarán por una ley especial.

ART. 192. Los Códigos civil, comercial, penal, y de instrucción criminal, así como todas las leyes que á ellos se refieran, continuarán en observancia en cuanto no se opongan á la presente Constitución.

Toda ley, decreto, reglamento, ó disposición de cualquier género, que contravenga á lo que en ella se preceptúa, se entenderá derogada.

Quedarán subsistentes, sin embargo, hasta que recaiga su derogación expresa, los decretos y acuerdos del Comité central revolucionario de Port-au-Prince, y del primer Gobierno Provisional (veinticuatro de agosto á veintiocho de septiembre de mil ochocientos ochenta y ocho), y los de los Comités revolucionarios del Artibonite, el Norte, y el Noroeste, y el último Gobierno Provisional (dos de octubre de mil ochocientos ochenta y ocho á ocho de octubre de mil ochocientos ochenta y nueve, inclusive).

ART. 193. No podrá suspenderse la Constitución, ni en todo, ni en parte, en ninguna porción del territorio de la República.

La Constitución está confiada al patriotismo y al valor de los grandes cuerpos del Estado y de todos los ciudadanos.

TÍTULO SÉPTIMO.

De la revisión de la Constitución.

ART. 194. El Poder Legislativo, á propuesta de una de las Cámaras, ó del Poder Ejecutivo, tiene derecho á declarar que ha lugar á la revisión de la disposición constitucional que se designe.

Esta declaración, que no puede hacerse sino en la última sesión de un período de la Cámara de Representantes, se publicará inmediatamente en toda la República.

ART. 195. En la sesión siguiente se reunirán las dos Cámaras en Asamblea Nacional, y determinarán lo que ha de hacerse respecto á la revisión propuesta.

ART. 196. La Asamblea Nacional no podrá deliberar respecto á esta revisión, si no están presentes por lo menos los dos tercios de sus miembros electos. No podrá hacerse ningún declaración, ni efectuarse ningún cambio, en este particular, sino por una mayoría de dos tercios de los votos.

TÍTULO OCTAVO.

Disposiciones transitorias.

ART. 197. El Presidente de Haití será elegido por la primera vez por la Asamblea Constituyente.

Esta Asamblea le recibirá el juramento, y lo instalará en sus funciones. ART. 198. La Asamblea Nacional Constituyente ejercerá el Poder Legislativo, en cualquiera caso de urgencia, hasta que se reunan las dos Cámaras.

ART. 199. Se disuelve el Consejo de Estado.

ART. 200. Se convocarán las Asambleas primarias y electorales en las épocas previstas por la ley para el nombramiento de Consejeros comunales y de distrito, y Diputados de las Comunas, y para escoger candidatos para el Senado.

ART. 201. La Asamblea Nacional Constituyente se trasladará á la capital de la República, tan luego como el Presidente de Haití haya prestado juramento.

ART. 202. La presente Constitución será publicada y ejecutada en toda la extensión de la República.

Hecho en Gonaïves á nueve de octubre de mil ochocientos ochenta y nueve, el octogésimo sexto de la independencia.

REPUBLIC OF CUBA.

HISTORICAL NOTES.

The interest that American students of history andpublic law usually take in Cuba is fully warranted by the facts, preeminent above many others, (1) that Cuba was the first country of importance which the Spaniards discovered in the New World, (2) that it was from the beginning and continued to be for a long time thereafter, by its ethnical composition, its municipal institutions, its peculiar customs, and other features exclusively pertaining thereto, not only the most Spanish, but the most purely and intensely Castilian, social structure ever founded this side of the Atlantic, and (3) that of all the Spanish possessions in America it was the last to yield to the inevitable action of time and circumstances and dissolve the political bonds that for about four centuries had connected it with Spain, starting an entirely new life as an American Republic under the Constitution and its Appendix, the text of which follows these notes.

The Spaniards did not find in the island the slightest vestige of a preexisting civilization. The natives with whom they had to deal were still in a tribal condition, and in less than forty years, partly through ill treatment, and partly, perhaps chiefly, through pestilence, completely disappeared. The work therefore of turning the island into a thoroughly Spanish country was rapidly accomplished.

a

As observed by an eminent Cuban scholar of the present day,' Cuba became in reality a kind of prolongation of Castile in America, retaining in regard to the mother country and to all other Spanish countries afterwards founded in the New World, a peculiarly distinctive character, that is preserved to a great extent up to the present day. A field of investigation, absolutely unexplored, or approached only in a spirit of prejudice and bad faith, broad and rich in promises of intellectual enjoyment, is opened on these lines to the student.

Cuba owes its independence from Spain to a joint resolution passed by the Congress of the United States of America, approved by the President on April 20, 1898, couched in the following language:

a The smallpox introduced in Cuba from Jamaica in 1512.

Dr. Don Francisco Carrera y Justiz, in his monumental work just published in Habana, in two volumes, entitled "Introducción á la Historia de las instituciones locales de Cuba" (Introduction to the history of the local institutions of Cuba).

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"JOINT RESOLUTION for the recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba, demanding that the Government of Spain relinquish its authority and government in the Island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters, and directing the President of the United States to use the land and naval forces of the United States to carry these resolutions into effect.

"Whereas the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to civilization, culminating as they have in the destruction of a United States battle ship, with two hundred and sixty-six of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, and can not longer be endured, as has been set forth by the President of the United States in his message to Congress of April eleventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, upon which the action of Congress was invited: Therefore,

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, First, That the people of the Island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent.

"Second. That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the Government of the United States does hereby demand, that the Government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and government in the Island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters.

"Third. That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States, and to call into the actual service of the United States the militia of the several States, to such extent as may be necessary, to carry these resolutions into effect.

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Fourth. That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island, except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people.

The period of "more than three years" to which the foregoing statute refers began on the 24th of February, 1895, when a revolutionary movement in favor of independence was started in Cuba.

The "abhorrent conditions" which the same statute invokes in justification of its precepts had been enumerated in the Presidential messages of December 2, 1895, December 7, 1896, December 6, 1897, March 28 and April 11, 1898, in the report of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, submitted April 13, 1898, and in the debates to which this report gave occasion in the Senate, as well as in the House of Representatives of the United States of America, between the date last mentioned and the date on which the joint resolution was passed. They were recapitulated under the headings of: "Anarchy in the island," "The cruel policy of concentration initiated on February 16, 1896," "The abuse of the rights of war," "The failure by Spain to perform her treaty obligations and other international duties toward the United States," "The seizure and imprisonment of American citizens," "The destruction of about $50,000,000 of property in the island of Cuba belonging to citizens of the United States," The fact that much of that destruction had been by the acts of Spain, and that the destruction of the remainder she (Spain) had been unable or unwilling to prevent," "The miserable condition to which the entire population of Cuba had been reduced," and "The impossibility for the United

States to consent upon any conditions that the depopulated portions of Cuba should be recolonized by Spain any more than she would be allowed to found a new colony in any other part of this hemisphere or island thereof."

For the enforcement of this statute the United States went to war with Spain, and the war ended on August 12 of the same year by the peace protocol, signed at Washington by accredited representatives of the two countries. The provisions of this protocol in regard to Cuba were preserved in the formal treaty of peace concluded at Paris on December 10, 1898.

Article I of that treaty reads:

"Spain relinquishes all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba. "And as the island is, upon its evacuation by Spain, to be occupied by the United States, the United States will, so long as such occupation shall last, assume and discharge the obligations that may under international law result from the fact of its occupation, for the protection of life and property.

Cuba was militarily occupied by the United States on January 1, 1899. This military occupation lasted until May 20, 1902, when the United States withdrew from Cuba and left the government and control of the island to its own people, upon the conditions stipulated in the compact usually known as "The Platt amendment."

LIST OF IMPORTANT BOOKS TO BE CONSULTED IN REFERENCE TO THE CONSTITUTION OF CUBA.

Diario de sesiones de la Convención constitucional cubana, 1900-1901. Habana.

SEDANO Y AGRAMONTE, JOSÉ RAUL. El libro del ciudadano cubano. Derecho político recopilado. Habana, 1901.