The staunchest partisans of Cuban independence viewed with some misgiving the withdrawal of American control over the internal affairs of the Island. Thirty-five years of insurrection were not calculated to develop those civic qualities which lie at the basis of a stable, orderly and efficient government, especially when we keep in mind the fact that under Spanish rule the native population was systematically removed from contact with public affairs. During the period of American military occupation no branch of the public administration presented greater difficulties than the management of municipal matters. The people expected that the intervention of the United States would soon be followed by the grant of a wide measure of autonomy to the municipalities. It is a curious fact that all the Latin American peoples regard municipal autonomy as the principle upon which the political system of the United States rests, and it is therefore taken for granted that the extension of American influence means the emancipation of local government from central control. Even the more conservative Cubans felt that the centralization of the Spanish system was at an end. The Secretary of State under the American military government gave expression to this sentiment in his report for the fiscal year 1899-1900, when he said: “It is not meet that in a liberal and decentralizing régime, which is to acknowledge the personality of municipalities as one of the organs of the State, the municipal corporations, even though they are of popular and elective origin, should become agents of the central government.”