"Sociedad Literaria Hispanoamericana" on 19 December 1889 to honor the visiting delegates of the First International American Conference. In it he paid homage to the democratic ideals of the Founding Fathers of the United States, but his main thrust was to exalt the values of human dignity and love of liberty which he identified as belonging to all the noble sons of America. The Issue of Cuban Independence Martí was obsessed with the independence of his native land. It was, after all, the single greatest cause in his life, and the one he was ultimately martyrized for. We have noted his constant lobbying for the cause while in the United States, and he saw the 1889-90 conference as a magnificent opportunity to make his case. He was not alone: there were a number of other Cuban exiles residing in the United States like Martí, who had learned the English language and the mysterious political ways of their hosts. Thus, they were of considerable value to the Conference's secretariat and to the various delegations, who accredited them as alternate delegates or translator/interpreters. For most of these Cuban exiles their first loyalty was to Cuba, and they too saw the utility of the Conference for their cause. However, to Martí's dismay, many of these Cuban appointees in the conference had accepted the basic argument of the U.S. annexationists, and thus a behind the scenes battle at the conference was the struggle for influence among the Latin delegates by these two groups of Cubans. Martí roundly condemned what he saw as treason by his countrymen: "And they are Cubans! Cubans! who serve these interests under the cloak of ostentatious patriotism. There has never been a more cowardly thing in the annals of free peoples, nor a more cold-blooded evil.". Martí was well aware of the strength of the annexationist movement in the United States, and he understood that a declining Spain could probably not hold out much longer on the island. Although the matter of Cuba was not on the formal agenda at the conference, Martí knew from his inside information that Blaine and his U.S. delegates were doing their own lobbying, seeking approval among some sympathetic Latin delegates for a concerted effort to push Spain off the island and place it under U.S. protection. Conclusions Despite his many reservations, and the lack of any decisive action on the Cuban issue, Martí felt