PRESIDENT BARTOLOME DE JESUS MASO MARQUEZ (CUBA) - MILITARY APPOINTMENT SIGNED 05/17/1898 CO-SIGNED BY: COLONEL ERNESTO FONTS Y STERLING, VICE PRESIDENT DOMINGO MENDEZ CAPOTE (CUBA), BRIGADIER GENERAL JOSE CLEMENTE VIVANCO, PRESIDENT ALBERTO HERRERA FRANCH (CUBA) - HFSID 250225

BARTOLOME DE JESUS MASO MARQUEZ, DOMINGO MENDEZ CAPOTE, JOSE CLEMENTE VIVANCO, ERNESTO FONTS Y STERLING, ALBERTO HERRERA FRANCH and SAUL ALSINA Y ESPINOSA
The Cuban President of the Republic in Arms Bartolome de Jesus Maso Marquez confers Commandant Manuel Luevias y Miralles the rank of Sanity Lieutenant and endorses this relevant diploma that is also co-signed by some important members of the presidential cabinet
Document Signed: "Bartolome Maso", "Sr. Domingo Mendez Capote", "Jose Clemente Vivanco", "Ernesto Fonts y Sterling", "Alberto Herrera Franch" and "Saul Alsina" in iron gall ink. 13¼x9. Two pages. Fully Translated in English: "The President of the Republic of Cuba.Due to the antecedents, military aptitudes and services given to the Independence of Cuba by Command Manuel Luevias y Miralles and considering the information given about it according the Article Twenty Two, part 8 of the Constitution, and due to the agreement of the Government Council, I confer Commandant Manuel Luevias y Miralles the rank of Sanity Lieutenant Colonel of the Liberation Army, with seniority of March 2 of this year. Therefore, I order the Civil and Military authorities to give the mentioned Lieutenant Colonel the respect and considerations inherited to its rank. And for this to be known, according to the Article Twenty Eight, part 5 of the Constitution, I issue this Diploma endorsed by my hand, sealed with the seal of the Republic, countersigned by the Secretary of State and given at the Secretary of Finance for the necessary effects. Fatherland and Liberty, Residence of the Executive on March 17, 1898. The President Bartolome Mazo, The Secretary of War Domingo Mendez Capote. Secretary of the Government Council. It was agreed on March 6, 1898. Registered on file 35, number 30, book 2. The Secretary, Jose Clemente Vivanco. Secretary of Finance. Ernesto Fonts y Sterling. Registerd on file 50, number 38, book 1. The Chief Department Alberto Herrera Franch. Secretary of War. Registered on file 496, number 26, book 1. The Chief Department Saul Alsina." Bartolome de Jesus Maso Marquez (1830-1907) was the son of a Catalan father and a Cuban mother from Bayamo who was born in Yara on a farm called "Cerca Pie". He later relocated with his parents to the city of Manzanillo and received education in the Convent of Santo Domingo. During his youth he put his activities in the service of commerce and since his interest in literature grow up he wrote some verses. In 1851 Bartolome participated in a protest against the execution of Narciso Lopez on the garrote and since that day the colonial authorities had him under surveillance. The years passed by and in 1867 Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, Francisco Vicente Aguilera and others started to conspire ways to obtain the independence of Cuba, and Maso Marquez joined the movement. On October 10, 1868, when he thought the moment had already come and took off with his two brothers, he met Cespedes in La Demajagua and was involved in the unsuccessful uprising of Yara. Later, he took part in the attack and capture of Bayamo and in the liberation struggles in Jiguani, Baguano, Rejondon, Bermeja and other places. Shortly after the death of Cespedes, Maso was elected as Representative of the Department of Oriente, and when Tomas Estrada Palma was chosen to be the delegate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, named Bartolome de Jesus as Secretary of War after the passing of Jose Marti, and once Estrada Palma was made prisoner Maso Marquez returned to the armed forces as Brigadier General. After the Ten Year's War ended, Bartolome was imprisoned in 1879 with Colonels Ricardo and Ismael Cespedes, first in the Castillo del Morro of Santiago de Cuba, and after in the Castillo de Santa Catalina, Puerto Rico, and later was transferred to a prison in Cadiz, Spain. Once Bartolome de Jesus was released, he visited Barcelona and then returned to Cuba traveling through France, England, Switzerland and Italy. On February 24, 1895 the Cuban War of Independence began and given the serious illness of Guillermo Moncada, Maso Marquez was transferred the command of the insurrects in the east until the arrival of Major Generals Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez; The combat of his units started in Bayate and Bartolome spent the eve of May 19, 1895 with Jose Marti, who died the next day in the Battle of Dos Rios. In September of that year, meeting the revolutionaries of the Assembly of Jimaguayu, was elected vice president of the "Republic in Arms" and in October 30, 1897 he met the revolutionary government in La Yaya, where he resulted voted as President and remained there until November 7, 1898. Afterwards, during the elections of the first presidency of the independent Cuban Republic in 1901he ran against Tomas Estrada Palma and the Independent Republican Party and the People's Labour Party supported him, however, he withdrew his candidacy under pressure from the United States, which secured a permanent right of intervention in the young republic by the Platt Amendment, opposed by Maso Marquez. On June 14, 1907 Bartolome de Jesus died in Manzanillo and was buried in the cemetery of the same city. Domingo Mendez Capote (1863-1934) was a prominent intellectual who fought for the Cuban independence and contributed a lot in the legal production of the Revolution of 1895. He studied in the school "El Progreso" and graduated as a lawyer from the Real and Literary University of La Habana. When the war for the independence began in 1895 he was working as a lawyer of the Energy Company and of the Railroad Company of the West. At the same time, he was also working as a teacher of law, but regardless of his good economic situation, he decided to join the fight against the Spanish government in February 2, 1896 and was immediately given the rank of captain. On March12, 1896 the liberation army named him Civil Governor of Las Villas province, where he remained until January 17, 1897 when he was designed chief of the Juridical Liberation Army. Domingo wrote many legislative articles that built a big part of the juridical architecture of the revolution. He is the author of the two criminal laws of the insurrect government, the Military Organic Law, the Procedural Law, the Military Prosecution Law and the Juridical-Military Regulation of the Republic of Cuba in Arms; also, he wrote political documents such as the Manifesto of Sebatopol, given to the press by Bartolome de Jesus Maso Marquez. During the war Domingo Mendez Capote reached the rank of Brigadier General. In September and October 1897 he was President of the Assembly of La Yaya and was elected vice president of the Republic of Cuba in Arms and of the second Government Council, which was officially dissolved in October 24, 1898. He had served also there as an Interim Secretary of War and due to his judicial character was called "the civil man of 95". On May17, 1898 he led the Cuban commission that traveled to the United States of America to clear details about its end and the American intervention in the island. Domingo also presided the Assembly of Santa Cruz until February 15, 1899 when he accepted to be the Secretary of State and Government of the invasive American government in Cuba. Afterwards, he was elected President of the Constituent Assembly of 1901 and was the leader of the Senate of the Republic from 1902 to 1904. In 1905, last year of the presidency of Tomas Estrada Palma, he was elected Vice President of the Republic, nevertheless, due to the turbulence and confrontations that the reelection of Estrada Palma caused and known as "Guerrita de Agosto", Domingo resigned from his position in order to help the United States to invade Cuba a second time between 1906 and 1909. So, once away from politics, he started working again as a Political Law Professor in the University of La Habana and did not come back to the politics until 1924, when he accepted to run for the vice presidency of the Republic. In his last years, he was an opponent of the Gerardo Machado's dictatorship and for that reason he created the Revolutionary Assembly, but later decided to leave the country and did not return until the dictatorship was overthrown. On July 16 1934 Domingo Mendez Capote died in La Habana. Jose Clemente Vivanco (1873-1946) was a Cuban patriotic lawyer who fought for the Independence of Cuba. He was Brigadier General and collaborated in many different newspapers and magazines in La Habana and San Antonio. Vivanco was a prominent editor and collaborator of Las Villas. During the war days he was the assistant of Jose Maria Aguirre but when he got caught, Vivanco escaped and moved to Cayo Hueso, where he continued fighting. He was elected Representative of the Assembly of Jimaguayú and was named as one of the Government Secretaries. He collaborated in the writing of the Invader Anthem. Ernesto Fonts y Sterling served as Secretary of Treasury of the Cuban Republic. He was descendent of an aristocratic Cuban family of lawyers who had two brothers practicing law in La Habana, one holding a position with the Spanish government. When he was a child, his parents were exiled to Spain, where he lived until 1876, when he returned to La Habana. Ernesto Fonts studied at Mount Pleasant, N.V. and once graduated he started the development of his estate at Alquizar. He joined the forces of Dr. Juan Bruno de Zayar on October 24, 1895 and later was appointed by the Cuban Government to the office of Treasurer of Las Villas. Alberto Herrera Franch (1872-1954) was a Cuban politician and military who in September 25, 1895 joined the liberation army and remained there until the end of the war as a Lieutenant Colonel. During the combats he was under the orders of Brigadier Juan Bruno Zayas, of Colonel Leoncio Vidal of the fourth force, the civil administration of Santa Clara and the Government Council of the Revolution. On March 1898 he embarked overseas in a service commission as an assistant of Brigadier Domingo Mendez Capote. Alberto Herrera chose the military career and after successfully passing a test, he joined the Rural Guard as Captain in August 1903. On November 4, 1904 he was named camp assistant of the Chief of the Rural Guard, and when the Permanent Army was created under the second United States occupation of Cuba in 1909, he joined that force with the rank of Commandant. Between April 1912 and May 1913 he served as camp assistant of President Jose Miguel Gomez and was part of the commission that represented Cuba in the Exposition in Jamestowns, Virginia, United States. On September 5, 1913 Alberto was the Master headquarters and General Commissary until January 5, 1914, when he was named Interim Chief of the General Major State. Three years later he was elevated to the rank of Colonel and served as Chief of the Eight District (Pinar del Rio) from 1917 to 1921, that last year as Chief of the Major State Direction Department, with the title of Brigadier. On June 19, 1922 President Alfredo Zayas Alfonso named him Chief of General Major State, with the transitory rank of Major General, where he remained until May 23, 1933. Herrera Franch was the military who stayed the longest consecutive period in the leadership of the Cuban Army until 1959. As Chief of General Major State, he was considered to go, in representation of the Government, to Spain and bring to Cuba the historical relics of the wars of independence. On May 1933 he decided to retire from the active service and was named Secretary of War and Marine in the cabinet of Gerardo Machado Morales and two days later was designated interim Secretary of State, because Orestes Ferrara was in a diplomatic mission in London. Alberto Herrera Franch occupied the Presidency of the Republic following the destitution of Gerardo Machado; in order to Herrera to be the President of the Republic, a transition plan had been made with the United States ambassador Benjamin Summer Welles. After his resignation, he yielded power to Carlos Manuel de Cespedes y Quesada and occupied the first magistracy of the nation. He was hidden in the Hotel National and with the support of the Welles he could escape with his family and did not return to Cuba until years later, but remained distant from all political activity. On September 19, 1954 Alberto Herrera Franch died in La Habana. Saul Alsina y Espinosa (b. 1868) was a Cuban who joined the Liberation Army in 1895 when landing in Tayabacoa beach with the expedition James Woodall on charge of Mayor General Carlos Roloff. He entered the General Barracks in Las Villas, obtaining the title of Captain and remained there until 1895, when was named Chief of War Secretary Department. In 1898, Alsina y Espinosa was named Chief of War Department of the Cuban Representatives Assembly. Sealed. Multiple mailing folds. Edges frayed. Lightly toned, soiled and worn. Otherwise, fine condition.