José Morales Lemus
Gibara, Cuba, 1808 — Brooklyn, New York, 1870
1. Lawyer and Reformist in Havana
Born in Gibara, in eastern Cuba, of Canarian descent, Morales Lemus was educated in Havana and graduated as a lawyer in 1835, practicing before the Royal Court. Over the years he also became a prosperous merchant, becoming director and magistrate of the Sagua la Grande Railway.
In 1863 he founded the newspaperThe Century, a platform from which he advocated for political and economic reforms for the island, consolidating himself as one of the most influential voices of moderate Creole reformism.
2. The Commission to Madrid and the Failure of Reformism (1866–1867)
In 1866, before the Information Board convened by the government of Isabel II to examine the colonial situation, Morales Lemus led the Cuban reformist delegation in Madrid, along with figures such as José Antonio Saco, defending economic and political reforms and the abolition of slavery.
On April 27, 1867, the Cortes rejected all the commission's proposals and also imposed new tax burdens on the island. Convinced that the peaceful route had been exhausted, Morales Lemus joined those who, a year later, would begin the armed insurrection.
3. The Ten Years' War and the Cuban Junta of New York
When the Ten Years' War began in 1868, Morales Lemus was a founding member of the Revolutionary Committee of Havana, along with Miguel Aldama and other patriots. Forced to flee Cuba in 1869, he was named president of theNew York Cuban Board, in charge of the financial and diplomatic affairs of the nascent Republic of Cuba in Arms in U.S. territory.
President Carlos Manuel de Céspedes also designated him Extraordinary Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States. In April 1869, Captain General Domingo Dulce ordered the seizure of his assets in Cuba, and shortly afterward he was prosecuted in New York for violating the Neutrality Law of 1818 by organizing an armed expedition to the island; He voluntarily surrendered to the authorities and was released on bail.
4. Legacy for Collectors
As president of the Board, Morales Lemus signed the debt notes issued in New York in 1869 to finance the Cuban insurrection, convertible into bonds of the Republic of Cuba in Arms. A copy of this issue, with his signature, can be seen in the file of theA Peso from 1869of the collection.
He died in Brooklyn in June 1870, without seeing the end of the war he had helped finance from exile. His signature on these revolutionary debt documents constitutes one of the most direct material testimonies of the diplomacy and finances of insurgent Cuba in the 19th century.