How St. Anthony Mary Claret defeated the US invasion of Cuba.
Ave Maria! May Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, together with St. Joseph, St. Anthony Mary Claret and all saints, pray for us!
Today, our beloved patron celebrates his feast, and yet many of his grand accomplishments are forgotten throughout the church. So to celebrate this great saint and to study one of his greatest enemies, secret societies, we will discuss St. Claret’s involvement in the defense of Spanish Cuba, of which he was the arhcbishop of, against US filibusters in the mid 1800s.
Prelude to the invasion.
When considering the foreign policy of the early 1800s United States, we quickly dispel the myth of an isolationist nation. Instead we find a nation eager to annex territory and destroy governments. Beginning in 1810, against Spanish West Florida, we learn of a popular method of acquiring land from foreign countries and removing governments. This method is called filibustering, not to be confused with the modern day political practice of delaying legislation. Filibustering, to put it simply, was the practice of enlisting a noted military commander and a volunteer force, then invading a foreign country, to either aid a rebellion or start one. Often times these filibusters had the support of the US federal government and federal agents were packed into every rank of the operation. This method was successfully used to capture Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and California from Spain and Mexico. It also must be stated also that these filibusters usually began their campaigns through some secret society, like the Order of the Lone Star, whose stated purpose was “conquest of territory owned by Spain in the New World, for the expansion of the United States.” A study of the order of the lone star will be the focus of my next article. In 1848, this secret society, as well as many other elites and politicians, desired to annex Cuba into the United States. Cuba was particularly coveted by southern plantation owners and pro-slavery politicians, who believed that Cuba with its large population of plantations would strengthen the political position of the slave states. It was estimated Cuba would have up to thirteen representatives in Congress, and a population more accustomed to slavery then other places like the former territories of Mexico, where slavery was outlawed. President James K Polk, perhaps riding the momentum of annexing 1/3 of Mexico’s territory, made an offer to Spain of 100 million to purchase Cuba, which was rejected. A campaign quickly formed for the annexation of Cuba by force and attracted support from many politicians including then senator Jefferson Davis and Mississippi Governor John Quitman. let’s take a moment to see who Quitman was, besides Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Mississippi.
Quitman was a Brigadier General during the Mexican-American war (1846-48) and after the surrender of Mexico, he was made military governor of Mexico City for the remainder of the occupation. He championed for the annexation of all of Mexico’s territory with the desire of making center America into a slave empire. He was the only American to rule from within the National Palace of Mexico and was a founding member of the Aztec Club. His plan or Cuba was the same as Texas, aid local revolutionaries in overthrowing Spanish rule, establish a republic, and later the United States would annex the island. Finding a Cuban revolutionary was since many had fled to the United States, following a brutal crackdown by Spanish officials in 1848. Narciso López was that revolutionary leader. Lopez was originally born in Venezuela and had joined the rebel army fighting against Spanish rule there. He was later captured and offered a position fighting for the Spanish, he agreed and stayed with the Spanish, even as they lost the war there and retreated to Cuba. Spain itself had undergone a liberal revolution and Lopez gladly fought against the deeply Catholic Carlist forces between 1833 and 1841. It should be no surprise, Lopez as was also a Freemason, and later returned to Cuba, where he was a champion for independence. López attempted to rally Cuban plantation owners against Spanish rule but was arrested. However, his lofty connections allowed him to escape and flee to New York City. There Lopez recruited over 300 volunteers but his expedition was halted by the government. Lopez would move his campaign to New Orleans, where he met many politicians who supported this cause.
Governor Qutiman formed a direct Freemasonic alliance with López, and provided substantial financial, material, and institutional backing to his cause. A plan was drafted for López to lead an army into Cuba, hoping to agitated a rebellion and allowing the US military to occupy the island. He also gained the support of senator Jefferson Davis, future confederate president, and senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. More importantly, he gained the support of the press, with editors, John O’Sullivan United States Magazine and Democratic Review and Laurence Sigur of the New Orleans Delta, publishing supporting columns for the expeditions. López and most of the filibuster leadership were Freemasons who relied extensively on the international fraternity to accomplish their plans. With roughly 50,000 dollars raised and a force of over 650 volunteers, Lopez advanced towards Cuba.
The failed invasions Cuba.
On 19 May 1850, Lopez’ forces landed near
San Juan de Cárdenas, a port roughly 100 miles east of Havana. They began their attack, quickly overwhelming the local garrison. After the capture of Cardenas, the insurgents burned the governor's mansion and raised the lone star flag, a flag Lopez had made for Cuba. Lopez mistakenly assumed that his mere arrival would trigger island-wide revolt but this never occurred. Liberals supported him as did the elites, who wanted to preserve slavery and further the plantation economy. However, the middle and lower classes never joined his rebellion. The inhabitants of Cuba did not view Lopez and expedition as liberators, but as oppressors understanding that an even more brutal slavery would be brought to Cuba with US rule. Shortly after the landing, Lopez and his insurgents would flee back to their ships. After Spanish infantry and the warship Pizarro arrived
to restore order. Lopez and his force escaped to Key West Florida, leaving behind 5 scouts who were captured and executed. Lopez and his forces were indicted for violating the Neutrality Act of 1808, but federal charges were dropped due to deadlocked juries. Lopez himself was acquitted and hailed as a hero by the inhabitants and newspapers of New Orleans. This defeat did not end the ambitions of Lopez but only strengthened his resolve to capture Cuba. López immediately began efforts for another expedition and gave command of his regiment of US volunteers to William Logan Crittenden. López never clarified whether the goal of the expedition was Cuban independence or annexation, thus drawing supporters of both outcomes into his expedition. When news reached Lopez of an uprising in Havana, started by one of his agents named Joaquín de Agüero, he rushed to aid this rebellion and capture Cuba.
It is at this point that our Saint Anthony Mary Claret becomes part of the story, though it should be noted he was praying against the invasion in 1850. Upon hearing of the initial revolt, Saint Anthony Mary Claret went to preach against the uprising so that the rebels “might lay down their weapons and return quietly to their homes.” St. Anthony wrote of his experience fighting the rebellion: “urgently requesting that I come there at once, as my presence was needed to help quell the revolution… Since everyone in the city was implicated—either involved in Narciso López’s revolution or aligned with the US insurgents against the Spaniards—they all received me with great suspicion. I began my mission, and people would come to see if I might speak about the political unrest gripping the entire island of Cuba—and the city of Puerto Príncipe in particular. However, upon observing that I never uttered a word about politics—neither from the pulpit, nor in the confessional, nor in private, personal conversation—they were struck by this, and it inspired their trust.”
Lopez and his force of 450 volunteers
departed from New Orleans in August 1851
But by the time Lopez’ forced arrived in Cuba, St. Anthony Mary Claret had already defeated the uprisings. According to Saint Anthony Claret, he was asked to be the confessor of Lopez’ agent, Joaquín de Agüero. St. Claret wrote: “During that very period, troops captured four insurgents—or revolutionaries—Joaquín de Agüero, Fernando de Zayas, Miguel Benavides, and Tomás Betancourt, all of whom were natives of the city. They were caught with arms in their hands and were, consequently, sentenced to death. The trust that the prisoners—and even their relatives—placed in me was so great that they called upon me to come to the prison to hear their confessions; and, indeed, I went and heard them.” The rebellion was quelled but this did not stop López from attempting to capture Cuba. Lopez’ forces advanced butwere quickly defeated in a series of skirmishes. Over 200 of López’ filibusters were killed in the fighting and the majority of the expedition being captured. Those captured were taken to Havana, where López was tried for treason and publicly executed, refusing the sacraments before his death. uS officer Crittenden and 50 other US volunteers were lined up and shot in the Havana’s Old Square. Most of the remaining prisoners were sentenced to hard labor. The flag used by Lopez would later become the basis for the modern national flag of Cuba, with a nod at the secret society that agitated revolt. In reaction to the failed expedition, mobs rioted in New Orleans, destroying the Spanish consulate and ransacking Spanish-owned shops. Despite the enraged southern public, the administration of Millard Fillmore was embarrassed by the failure and confined itself to securing the release of remaining American prisoners still in Spanish hands.American attempts to acquire Cuba continued until the 1900 Spanish -American war.
St. Anthony Mary claret wrote, ending his report: “Thus, during my stay, there were three attempts against the island: the first was very serious, and I completely thwarted it with the Lord’s help; the second was less significant; the third came to nothing. Consequently, the enemies of Spain could not stand the sight of me; they claimed that the Archbishop of Santiago caused them more harm than the entire army, and they asserted that as long as I remained on the island, they would be unable to advance their plans—which is why they attempted to take my life.”
References:
San Antonio María Claret en el Camagüey.
BIOGRAFÍA DEL ARZOBISPO ANTONIO MARÍA CLARET.
https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/filibusters/Claret-Camaguey.pd (https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/filibusters/Claret-Camaguey.pdf)
A Forgotten Chapter: In 1850 a Kentucky Regiment Invaded Cuba
ORDER OF THE LONE STAR OF THE WEST.
John Anthony Quitman: Life and Legacy of a Southern Statesman
Narciso López
Narciso López and the Original Filibusters
Knights of the Golden Circle
Secret Empire, Southern Secession, Civil War by David C. Keehn (https://lsupress.org/author/david-c-keehn)
Letter from Cuba 1851
Territorial Expansion, Filibustering, and U.S. Involvement in Central America and Cuba, 1849-1861
FILIBUSTERS AND FREEMASONS: THE
SWORN OBLIGATION
How a Spanish Officer Became the South’s Most Celebrated Filibuster
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