King of the Gun Runners: How a Philadelphia Fruit Importer Inspired a Revolution and Provoked the Spanish-American War

The Spanish-American War has a paradoxical place in the American imagination. Heralded (and derided) as when the United States stepped onto the world stage, especially in the acquisition of overseas territories, the conflict has been called the dawn of imperialism and the beginning of the American Century. These are epic, world-changing historical themes. Yet for all that, the war itself, let alone its origins, garners much less attention, except for specialists. For too many, it is enough to say that yellow journalists spun up a credulous country into a frenzy over the sinking of the battleship Maine, sending the burgeoning power into the almost comically pathetic “splendid little war.” Off we went.History is never that simple. Explaining what really happened and why requires looking at countless actors, driven by countless motivations, to see how their complex interactions contributed to the ultimate outcomes. By looking at one largely peripheral actor in the Cuban Revolution, King of the Gun Runners illustrates some important truths about the complicated origins and conduct of the Spanish-American War. “Peripheral” is important here. Contrary to the subtitle of the book, Philadelphia shipowner and fruit importer John D. Hart definitely did not inspire the Cuban Revolution, and he played a minor role in provoking the Spanish-American War.King of the Gun Runners does not on its own have much to say about such larger historical themes. The book does not engage in any meaningful way with the secondary literature on the subjects at hand. Rather, author James Miller—a former journalist, NFL executive, and university athletic director—has set out to tell a story about how one man’s private efforts intersected with the great events of the day. It is a fascinating story, and well told, relying on a wide variety of archival sources and public documents, and making especially good use of newspapers from the time.The son of a Rebel veteran, born in Virginia, John D. Hart came of age in Baltimore, Maryland, working for his father’s produce company. In the 1870s, the firm began purchasing and selling bananas, and by the 1880s John switched over to the shipping side of the business, bringing fruits from their sources in the Caribbean. Throughout this time, Spain was trying to hold onto its last bastion of empire in the New World against a series of homegrown revolutions in Cuba.These revolutions led Spain to deport Cuban insurgents, and many of the exiles landed in the United States, setting up communities in Florida and in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York. José Martí emerged as a leader in this exile community, and they organized the Cuban Revolutionary Party to prepare for the final revolution. The revolutionaries in Cuba would need reinforcements and supplies, and the Cuban Revolutionary Party made exile and University of Pennsylvania graduate Emilio Núñez the chief of the Department of Expeditions, operating out of Philadelphia. In 1894, for business and personal reasons, Hart moved to the city to set up his own shipping firm. The depressed economy of the time—the Panic of 1893—cut into profits, and Hart began looking for other sources of income. All of these lines came together when war broke out in Cuba in 1895. The Cubans needed ships and could pay. Hart needed money and did not mind the danger and adventure of running men and guns. For the next three years, Hart and his ships would be associated with many of the at least two dozen filibustering expeditions to the war-torn island.Martí was killed in one of the first actions of the war, but that hardly slowed the momentum of the revolution in Cuba. Núñez, Hart, and the other filibusters had more difficulty. The official American government position was neutrality, and Spanish representatives in the United States howled about private support coming from America. The Spanish could do little against the filibusters, but American ships, agents, and private detectives hounded Hart and the rest, and large portions of Miller’s book deal with court cases to convict ship captains and owners of violating American neutrality. Hart himself disappears for whole sections as filibustering captains went on their own expeditions, and Cuban, Spanish, and American lawyers, judges, and politicians hashed out just what could and could not go to Cuba. The book could just have easily been centered on the notorious Captain Dynamite Johnny O’Brien or the less famous Hart lawyer and friend, William W. Ker.Hart’s relatively small role in the whole story is actually a strength in illustrating a larger truth. As Miller weaves in tales of famous American college graduates who joined the Cuban cause, the brutal conditions of the fighting and Spanish concentration camps on the island, Pinkerton detectives tracking down arms purchases in the United States, the various deceptions used by captains to load and ship their goods, the district and Supreme Court cases dealing with filibustering, and the political maneuvering in and around the Grover Cleveland and William McKinley administrations, the long and winding road to war becomes apparent.Neither McKinley, Congress, nor the American people were duped into war. Yes, journalists could stoke the fire to sell newspapers, but that fire only grew because there was so much fuel. All of the personalities, events, and issues surrounding the Cuban Revolution filled the front pages for three years. Sometimes the subject was John D. Hart, such as when he was tried and convicted for his role in late 1897, had his conviction upheld in early 1898, and entered prison just eight days after the Maine exploded. Hart himself did not inspire or provoke anything, but he was part of the story. His part, among others, is told well in King of the Gun Runners.