Hay–Quesada Treaty

Following the conclusion of hostilities in the Cuban War for Independence from Spain, the United States, which had entered the war in its final months in support of the Cubans, required that the new Republic of Cuba meet several conditions before the U.S. would withdraw its troops from Cuba. These conditions were set out in a U.S. law known as the Platt Amendment and the one that applied to the Isle of Pines read: "That the Isle of Pines shall be omitted from the proposed constitutional boundaries of Cuba, the title thereto being left to future adjustment by treaty." A New York Times editorial said this reflected the fact that the Isle of Pines had not been expressly considered during negotiations with Spain nor its status made clear in the treaty with Spain. It noted that the island's ties to Cuba and the province of Havana were so clearly established that the U.S. government must be considering "taking it only by purchase" because "It does not appear that it could be lawfully taken any other way." But public discussion in the U.S. did contemplate the Isle's attractions: When the first Constitution of the Republic of Cuba was initially adopted on February 21, 1901, it did not mention the Isle of Pines as part of the nation's territory. The Cuban Constitutional Convention accepted the Platt Amendment's provisions on a narrow vote in May 1901. After U.S. forces handed administration of the nation to the Cuban government on May 20, 1902, the Association of American Settlers on the Isle of Pines was quick to complain that they lacked government services and were "practically in a state of chaos as far as civil order is concerned", though some in the U.S. did not take the complaint seriously, calling the Isle "a country which appears to exist at the present time solely for the purpose of supplying material for the comedian". One attorney for U.S. companies doing business on Isle of Pines called for government action but undercut his argument: "There is absolutely no form of Government on the island, and the only authority visible is a guard consisting of eight constables representing the Cuban Government. So far as I know, they have never made an arrest, because the people of Isle of Pines are most orderly." ==Treaty==

U.S. Secretary of State John Hay had served as U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain during the Spanish–American War. He had insisted then that the U.S. acted "from the highest motives of humanity and in no sense as a war of conquest" and considered the annexation of Isle of Pines by the U.S. "an iniquity". On July 2, 1903, the Cuban Secretary of State and the U.S. Ambassador in Cuba, signed treaties securing the U.S. right to lease lands at Guantanamo Bay and recognizing Cuban sovereignty over Isle of Pines. The Cuban Senate ratified both on July 16. In the U.S. Senate, Senator Boies Penrose led the opposition to the Isle of Pines treaty on behalf of U.S. business interests, including some large investors and a friend who had built a large mansion. He claimed they had received assurances of U.S. sovereignty from the Military Governor of Cuba General Leonard Wood. When the United States Senate ratified only the lease treaty and failed to act on the Isle of Pines treaty within the time the treaty allowed, Hay and the Cuban ambassador in the U.S. Gonzalo de Quesada y Aróstegui signed a second version addressing the status of the Isle of Pines on March 2, 1904. It avoided specifying a time within which it needed to be ratified. ==Ratification==

For years the U.S. Senate did not ratify the treaty, though from 1903 on every U.S. president and Secretary of State urged its ratification and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent it to the floor and recommended its ratification three times. In 1907, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case disputing whether goods imported from the Isle of Pines should be subject to a tariff "on articles imported from foreign countries". Without addressing the issue of sovereignty per se, in Pearcy v. Stranahan Chief Justice Melville Fuller found for a unanimous court that the United States had never exercised sovereignty over the Isle of Pines and that since being ceded by Spain it had been under the de facto jurisdiction of Cuba, and it was therefore foreign territory for tariff purposes. The treaty was brought up again for ratification by the U.S. Senate in February 1924. Senator William E. Borah argued that U.S. citizens–700 of the island's 4,250 residents were U.S. citizens–owned 90% of the land and had invested there in anticipation that Isle of Pines would enjoy a status similar to that of Puerto Rico. Almost all of them had arrived since the Cubans had agreed to delay resolution of the island's legal status, though few were thought to remain for more than a few years. A committee of Americans who owned land in Isle of Pines visited President Calvin Coolidge and told him that ceding the island to Cuba would constitute "a blot on American history". A committee of Cuban businessmen called for ratification, described the Isle's inhabitants as Cubans who fought for independence from Spain, and cited the joint resolution adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1898, the Teller Amendment, that disavowed any U.S. intention to exercise sovereignty over Cuba. They disputed any attempt to divorce the island of Cuba from its thousands of adjacent islands and keys. Coolidge argued without reserve for ratification. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 13, 1925. Cuban President Alfredo Zayas and President-elect Gerardo Machado praised its action, as did newspapers throughout Latin America. In 1925 in Foreign Affairs, Benjamin H. Williams praised the ratification: ==References==