Starvation was before them, and starve they did. And let the reader bear this fact well in mind—these were non-combatants, women and children.
The deaths have occurred in ghastly numbers. More than two hundred thousand have perished from starvation and starvation alone, with no hand from the government stretched out to aid them. The record made by the butcher and the butcher's emissaries is without parallel in all history. No wonder that the United States held its breath in horror, before raising its mailed hand to strike forever the chains from this suffering people.
General Weyler did not care how deeply he should wade in blood, nor to what age or sex this blood belonged, so long as he should attain his ends.
Talk as you please about the atrocities of the Turks, but they pale before those of the Spaniards in Cuba; acts committed, too, not in secret, but openly and by public proclamation.
Read what Stephen Bonsal, who was an eye-witness, says in his book: "The Real Condition of Cuba To-day."
"In the western provinces, we find between three and four hundred thousand people penned up in starvation stations and a prey to all kinds of epidemic diseases. They are without means and without food, and with only the shelter that the dried palm-leaves of their hastily erected bohios afford, and in the rainy season that is now upon them, there is no shelter at all. They have less clothing than the Patagonian savages, and, half naked, they sleep upon the ground, exposed to the noxious vapors which these low-lying swamp-lands emit. They have no prospect before them but to die, or, what is more cruel, to see those of their own flesh andblood dying about them, and to be powerless to succor and to save. About these starvation stations the savage sentries pace up and down with ready rifle and bared machete, to shoot down and to cut up any one who dares to cross the line. And yet, who are these men who are shot down in the night like midnight marauders? And why is it they seek, with all the desperate courage of despair, to cross that line where death is always awaiting their coming, and almost invariably overtakes them? They are attempting nothing that history will preserve upon its imperishable tablets, or even this passing generation remember. No, they are simply attempting to get beyond the starvation lines, to dig their potatoes and yams, to bring home again to the hovel in which their families are housed with death and hunger all about them. And they do their simple duty, not blinded as to the danger, or without warning as to their probable fate, for hardly an hour of their interminable day passes without their hearing the sharp click of the trigger and the hoarse cry of the sentry which precede the murderous volley; and every morning, through the narrow, filthy lanes upon which the huts have been erected the guerillas, drive along the pack-mules bearing the mutilated bodies of those who have been punished cruelly for the crime of seeking food to keep their children from starvation. This colossal crime, with all the refinement of slow torture, is so barbarous, so bloodthirsty and yet so exquisite, that the human mind refuses to believe it, and revolts at the suggestion that it was conceived, planned and plotted by a man. And yetthis crime, this murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children, is now being daily committed in Cuba, at our very doors and well-nigh in sight of our shores, and we are paying very little heed to the spectacle."
These words were written before the United States came to the rescue, and the criticism in the last sentence is, thank Heaven, no longer applicable. We are slow to act perhaps, but when we do act, our work is effective, and we never rest until our aim is accomplished.
To enlarge upon the sufferings of the Cubans is a painful task, but it is a task that must be accomplished, in the interests of justice and humanity, and also that the reader may clearly understand why it was the bounden duty of the United States to interfere.
Let us therefore proceed with the evidence.
Julian Hawthorne gives his testimony as follows:
"These people have starved in a land capable of supplying tens of millions of people with abundant food. The very ground on which they lie down to breathe their last might be planted with produce that would feed them to repletion. But so far from any effort to save them having been made by Spain, she has wilfully and designedly compassed their destruction. She has driven them in from their fields and plantations and forbidden them to help themselves; the plantations themselves have been laid waste, and should the miserable reconcentrados attempt under the pretended kindly dispensation of Blanco to return to their properties they would find the Spanish guerillas lying in wait to massacre them. No agony of either mind or body has been wanting. The wife has lost her husband, the mother, her children; the child its parents, the husband, his family. They have seen them die. Often they haveseen them slaughtered wantonly as they lay helpless, waiting a slower end. The active as well as the passive cruelties of the Spaniards toward these people have been well-nigh unimaginable."
Call Richard Harding Davis to the stand!
"In other wars men have fought with men, and women have suffered indirectly because the men were killed, but in this war it is the women herded together in the towns like cattle who are going to die, while the men camped in the fields and mountains will live."
General Fitz Hugh Lee says:
"General Weyler believes that everything is fair in war and every means justifiable that will ultimately write success on his standards. He did not purpose to make war with velvet paws, but to achieve his purpose of putting down the insurrection, if he had to wade through, up to the visor of his helmet, the blood of every Cuban, man, women and child, on the island."
Now hear General Lee relate the following incident, an incident which created much discussion and feeling in the United States:
"Dr. Ruiz, an American dentist, who was practicing his profession in a town called Guanabacoa, some four miles from Havana, was arrested. A railroad train between Havana and this town had been captured by the insurgents, and the next day the Spanish authorities arrested a large number of persons in Guanabacoa, charging them with giving information which enabled the troops, under their enterprising young leader, Aranguren, to make the capture; and among these personsarrested was this American. He was a strongly built, athletic man, who confined himself strictly to the practice of his profession and let politics alone. He had nothing to do with the train being captured, but that night was visiting a neighbor opposite, until nine or ten o'clock, when he returned to his house and went to bed. He was arrested by the police the next morning; thrown into an incommunicado cell; kept there some fifty or sixty hours, and was finally (when half crazed by his horrible imprisonment and calling for his wife and children) struck over the head with a 'billy' in the hands of a brutal jailer and died from the effects. Ruiz went into the cell an unusually healthy and vigorous man, and came out a corpse."
James Creelman, a brilliant newspaper correspondent, gives his testimony:
"Everywhere the breadwinners of Cuba are fleeing in terror before the Spanish columns, and the ranks of life are being turned into the ranks of death, for the Cuban who has seen his honest and harmless neighbors tied up and shot before his eyes, in order that some officer may get credit for a battle, takes his family to the nearest town or city for safety, and then goes out to strike a manly blow for his country."
Senator Thurston, who was sent to Cuba to investigate and report the condition of affairs, in a passionate address to the United States Senate testifies:
"For myself I went to Cuba firmly believing the condition of affairs there had been greatly exaggerated by the press, and my own efforts were directed in the firstinstance to the attempted exposure of these supposed exaggerations. Mr. President, there has undoubtedly been much sensationalism in the journalism of the time, but as to the condition of affairs in Cuba, there has been no exaggeration, because exaggeration has been impossible. The pictures in the American newspapers of the starving reconcentrados are true. They can all be duplicated by the thousands. I never saw, and please God I may never see again, so deplorable a sight as the reconcentrados in the suburbs of Mantanzas. I can never forget to my dying day the hopeless anguish in their despairing eyes. Huddled about their little bark huts, they raised no voice of appeal to us for alms as we went among them. The government of Spain has not and will not appropriate one dollar to save these people. They are now being attended and nursed and administered to by the charity of the United States. Think of the spectacle! We are feeding these citizens of Spain; we are nursing their sick; we are saving such as can be saved, and yet there are those who still say: 'It is right for us to send food, but we must keep our hands off.' I say that the time has come when muskets ought to go with the food."
Finally, Senor Enrique Jose Verona, who was at one time a deputy to the Spanish Cortes, sums up the situation as follows:
"Spain denies to the Cubans all effective powers in their own county. Spain condemns the Cubans to a political inferiority in the land where they were born. Spain confiscates the product of the Cubans' labor withoutgiving them in return either safety, prosperity or education. Spain has shown itself utterly incapable of governing Cuba. Spain exploits, impoverishes and demoralizes Cuba."
This is only a very small portion of the testimony which might be offered, but can the opinions of men of undoubted honor and veracity be impeached?
Not a tithe of the horrors which has existed in the island of Cuba has been told, and probably never will be told. Because a large proportion of the sufferers did not, like Du Barri, shriek upon the scaffold, but, like De Rohan, died mute.
But still something further can be said as to "The Butcher's" methods, and, worse still, as to the putting into practice of those methods. The insurgents have invariably been treated as if they were pirates. The tigerish nature of Weyler spared no one. Refugees, that is those who did not obey his barbarous proclamation, were shot down in cold blood. Starvation was his policy, and starvation too of those, whatever their sympathies might have been, had never raised a finger against the existing government. The reconcentrados, harassed beyond all measure, saw nothing before them but death, and the happiest among them were those who died first.
How would you, reader, like to be shut off, with no means of subsistence, for yourself, your wife and your children, within military lines, to cross which meant instant death?
The Butcher could not conquer this valiant people in honorable warfare, and therefore, worthy scion of hisblood, he, without one qualm of conscience, determined to exterminate them. Young boys, not more than fifteen or sixteen years of age, were charged with the crime of "rebellion and incendiarism" (that was the favorite charge of Weyler), and sometimes with the pretence of a trial, sometimes with no trial at all, were shot down in cold blood by the score. Poor little starving babies clung to their mothers' breasts from which no substance was to be obtained. Weyler knew all this, and in his palace in Havana simply laughed, content so long as each day the death rate of the Cubans increased, and he himself was gaining favor with his government, and meanwhile had all that he wanted to eat and drink.
The merciless wretch, by the way, was ever careful not to expose his own precious person to bullet or machete.
But what could be expected of him? He was a Spaniard, a man after Spain's own heart, and one whom it was her delight to honor.
This picture is not over-painted. The colors if anything are laid on too thin.
Although the so-called rebels were not conquered and never could be conquered, Weyler was constantly sending reports home of the "pacification" of first this and then that portion of the island. This he probably supposed was necessary to placate the Spaniards, who are divided amongst themselves and ever ready to rise against the existing government whatever it may be.
In spite of all this, brute Weyler has been and still is the idol of a certain class of Spaniards. In spite of all? No, we should have said, because of all.
One of his adherents, among other things, said to Stephen Bonsal, and this is the sort of utterance that the majority of Spain applauds:
"The only way to end this Cuban question is the way General Weyler is going about it. The only way for Spain to retain her sovereignty over these islands is to exterminate—butcher if you like—every man, woman and child upon it who is infected with the contagion and dreams of Cuba Libre. These people must be exterminated and we consider no measure too ruthless to be adopted to secure this end.
"I read in an American paper the other day that General Weyler was poisoning the streams from which the insurgents drink in Matanzas province. It was not true, but I only wish it had been.
"General Weyler is our man. We feel sure of him. He will not be satisfied until every insurgent lies in the ditch with his throat cut, and that is all we want."
Stop a moment and think! These words were spoken at the end of the nineteenth century by the representative of a professed Christian country. How have the teachings of Christ, who always and primarily advocated charity, been forgotten or perverted!
The whole matter of Cuba under Spanish rule is a disgrace to the age we live in.
But (call it spread-eagleism if you like) the United States now has the affair in hand. It can and will right this wrong, and so effectively that there will be no possibility of its recurrence.
Now let us turn to the one crime, so-called, that has been alleged against the Cubans.
We refer to the burning of the sugar crops.
That this has been done on each and every occasion, no one will deny. At first glance, it seems an act of vandalism. But is it so? Let us examine carefully into the causes and reasons for it.
The Spaniards claim that it is a notable example of the reckless and uncivilized methods of the insurgents. On the contrary, it is a policy which was carefully planned and systematically carried out by Gomez and the other Cuban leaders.
In a proclamation by Gomez, he ordered his lieutenants to burn the sugar plantations, but he did not tell them to destroy the mills, because he did not wish, in case of his succeeding in his purpose of liberating Cuba, to lay the producers flat upon their backs, from which position they could never, or, only with the utmost difficulty, arise.
The destruction of the sugar cane was a necessity of war. It must be remembered that from the sugar crop Spain has received her largest revenue from Cuba, and to cut off this source of revenue is to cripple Spain andtake away from her a large sum of money with which she might otherwise wage warfare.
To show that the damage wrought is by no means irreparable, we cannot do better than quote Baron Antomarchi, a Frenchman who lived for a long time in Cuba, was there during the early part of the present insurrection, and knows of what he is speaking:
"Since the suppression of slavery, and as a result of the high price of labor the work of sugar making had been modified. In former times a sugar planter considered his plantation his most necessary possession. After the process of manufacture was modified, it was his sugar mill upon which he depended; his plantation was less important. So in burning the sugar crop, Gomez did not strike a death-blow at the producer. It is a well known fact that when the cane growth is cut by fire and the fields are burnt close to the ground, the yield of the following season is increased and improved; so we see that Gomez did not ruin the country when he burned the plantations. True, the fields have been burned, but they will spring up with a more vigorous luxuriance after the rest which was one of the conditions imposed upon the first agricultural community of which we have any reliable record, and if the mills which Gomez has left intact are not destroyed by some authority equally potent, when the country is reorganized, the sugar industry may flourish to a degree undreamed of before the Cuban war for liberty."
Besides depriving Spain of her revenue, Gomez had another though a lesser reason, for burning the sugarcane. He knew that those who were thrown out of employment would flock to his standard, and his forces thereby be greatly augmented.
On the whole, we do not see that the criticism and blame which have been given to the insurgents for destroying the crops and for the time being laying waste the land, are deserved. It was a measure of war, and one, which it seems to us, under the circumstances, was thoroughly justified.
Now let us contrast, for a moment, the different methods of the Spaniards and the Cubans in waging warfare.
In the first place, we do not mean to affirm that the insurgents have not committed actions, which, in the light of civilization, are indefensible, but they are few and far between, and they were forced upon them. After all the horrors to which they were subjected, they would have been less than human if they had not retaliated.
The Cubans, both in the Ten Years' War and in the present one, have been merciful to those of the enemy who fell into their hands. The latter have been almost invariably treated with kindness and allowed to go free and unmolested.
But the Spaniards never reciprocated. It has been their invariable policy not to exchange prisoners, a notable instance of this being their recent refusal to exchange the gallant Hobson and his comrades. To be sure, according to international law they are not compelled to do this, but it is doubtful if there is anothercivilized nation (by the way, it is an undeserved compliment to intimate that Spain is civilized), which would have acted as the country which boasts of its chivalry has done.
Just here, let us say that those acts of cruelty which have been committed by the Cuban army have been very far from receiving the sanction of their leaders. On the contrary, they have been done in violation of the explicit orders of those leaders; and whenever the offenders have been discovered, they have been hanged as bandits to the limb of the nearest tree.
The hatred and barbarity which the Spaniards have without exception, evinced toward the Cubans have done much to alienate the latter, have been the chief causes why peace could not be maintained, and have made only one outcome possible—the freedom and independence of the island.
We have already seen the humanity with which Gomez, Maceo and the other Cuban chiefs treated the wounded of the enemy who chanced to fall into their hands.
But how was it on the other side? How did the Spaniards behave toward the insurgent wounded? When not killed at once and their sufferings ended immediately, they were cast into loathsome dungeons, with insufficient food and with no medical attendance whatever.
Now to a charge which has more than once been brought against Spain, which has been brought against her recently, which her government has indignantly denied, but which both in the past and thepresent has been proved beyond any question of a doubt.
The charge refers to an action which, with the exception of Spain, has never been committed but by the most savage tribes, the Indians of North America and the inhabitants of darkest Africa. We do not think that even the Turks were ever accused of such an atrocious, unspeakable act.
We mean the mutilation of the dead bodies (often in a horrible, obscene way) left upon the battlefield.
It is with regret and loathing that we approach the subject. But facts must be spoken.
There has been scarcely a combat between the Spaniards and the Cubans, in all the revolutions which have occurred, where the former have not been guilty of the revolting practice of the mutilation of dead bodies.
Indeed the most savage of tribes have never gone further in the demoniac wreaking of vengeance upon the fallen bodies of the enemy than the Spaniards have.
It has been a common custom with them to disfigure, mangle and commit nameless indignities upon the dead.
When Nestor Aranguren, who you will remember was one of the bravest of the Cuban leaders, the "Marion," the "Swamp Fox" of the insurrection, was killed, his body, covered with honorable wounds was taken to Havana, and paraded before the citizens, subject to their jeers and curses.
When another insurgent leader, Castillo, was killed, the same frightful spectacle was witnessed.
Indeed, it has been the rule among the Spaniardswhenever the body of a so-called rebel leader fell into their hands, to drag his nude and mutilated body, tied at the end of a horse's tail, throughout the nearest town, and the excuse for this was—what? That the body might be fully identified.
Among the Cubans, there is only one instance related where they retaliated in kind. And this was when it is said that they sent a Spanish soldier back to Havana with his tongue cut out. But even this story, the only act of brutality alleged against them is not well authenticated, resting as it does entirely upon Spanish evidence. And we know well how much credence can be given to that evidence.
To come down to more recent occurrences.
When it was first reported that the bodies of our marines killed at Guantanamo were subjected to unmentionable mutilations by the Spaniards, we could not believe it. It was said that the condition of the bodies was caused by shots fired from the Mauser rifle. But the Mauser rifle inflicts a clean cut hole. It could not possibly have been responsible for the horrible condition of the bodies. It is impossible for us to explain further in print. Remember or look up what was done by the Apaches in some of our Indian wars, and then from your knowledge, or the knowledge gained by research, fill up the hiatus.
And the Spaniards cannot claim in this latter instance, if indeed they can in any other, that these barbarities were committed by irregular and irresponsible troops. It is beyond question that by far the greaterportion of the troops employed against Colonel Huntington (we are referring now to the affair at Guantanamo) belonged to the regular army, under the command of General Linares.
The New York Herald, in an editorial on the subject, remarks most justly and forcibly: "What sort of a degraded spectacle, then, does Spain present, going whining through Europe in search of intercession or intervention, with such a damnable record against her, made in the very first engagement of troops?
"We can hear good old John Bull sputter out his righteous indignation, but will his Holiness the Pope recognize such degenerate child? Can the punctilious Francis Joseph of Austria afford to condone crimes like these? Will the Emperor William or the Czar of Russia lift his voice in behalf of such fiends? Can our sister republic, France, sympathize with the monsters who disgrace the very name of soldier?
"Not so! All Europe will join with our own government, now thoroughly aroused to the indignities put upon it, and voice the stern edict of humanity and civilization:
"Spain has now placed herself without the pale of the nations. Let her meet the retribution she so justly deserves."
Senor Estrado Palma, the representative of Cuba in the United States, has declared in a manifesto that the Cubans threw themselves into the struggle advisedly and deliberately, that they knew what they had to face and decided unflinchingly to persevere until they shouldfree themselves from the Spanish government. Experience has taught them that they have nothing to envy in the Spaniards; that in fact, they feel themselves superior to them, and can expect from Spain no improvement, no better education.
Slavery is ended in Cuba, and the white and the colored live together in perfect harmony, fighting side by side, to obtain political liberty.
Senor Palma, by the way, asserts, with how much authority we are unable to state, that the colored population in Cuba is superior to that of the United States. He says that they are industrious, intelligent and lovers of learning; also, that, during the last fifteen years, they have attained remarkable intellectual development.
There are certain utterances of Senor Palma in this manifesto which deserve to be quoted in full, so pregnant are they with truth, and so full of food for thought to the average American citizen, whether he agrees with them or not. Senor Palma says:
"We Cubans have a thousandfold more reason in our endeavor to free ourselves from the Spanish yoke than had the people of the thirteen colonies, when, in 1775, they rose in arms against the British government. The people of these colonies were in full enjoyment of all the rights of man; they had liberty of conscience, freedom of speech, liberty of the press, the right of public meeting and the right of free locomotion. They elected those who governed them, they made their own laws, and, in fact, enjoyed the blessings of self-government. They were not under the sway of a captain-general witharbitrary powers, who, at his will could imprison them, deport them to penal colonies, or order their execution even without the semblance of a court-martial. They did not have to pay a permanent army and navy in order that they might be kept in subjection, nor to feed a swarm of hungry employees yearly sent over from the metropolis to prey upon the country. They were never subjected to a stupid and crushing customs tariff which compelled them to go to home markets for millions of merchandise annually which they could buy much cheaper elsewhere; they were never compelled to cover a budget of twenty-six or thirty millions a year without the consent of the taxpayers and for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the army and navy of the oppressor, to pay the salaries of thousands of worthless European employees, the whole interest on a debt not incurred by the colony, and other expenditures from which the island received no benefit whatever; for, out of all those millions, only the paltry sum of seven hundred thousand dollars was apparently applied for works of internal improvement, and one-half of which invariably went into the pockets of Spanish employees.
"If the right of the thirteen British colonies to rise in arms in order to acquire their independence has never been questioned because of the attempt of the mother country to tax them by a duty upon tea, or by the Stamp Act, will there be a single citizen in this great republic of the United States, whether he be a public or private man, who will doubt the justice, the necessity in which the Cuban people find themselves of fighting to-dayand to-morrow and always, until they shall have overthrown Spanish oppression and tyranny in their country, and formed themselves into a free and independent republic?"
Now, honestly, all prejudice aside, this is not a bad brief for the plaintiff, is it?
There is one more document to which we desire to call your attention. And that is, a letter written to Professor Starr Jordan, of the Leland Stanford, Jr., University of San Francisco, by a Havanese gentleman of undoubted integrity and of Spanish origin.
Professor Jordan declares that this letter seems to show that "the rebellion is not a mere bandit outbreak of negroes and jailbirds, but the effort of the whole people to throw off the yoke of a government they find intolerable."
The letter states, among other things, that the insurrection was begun and is kept up by Cuban people; that the Spanish government has made colossal and unheard-of efforts to put it down, but has not succeeded in diminishing it; on the contrary, the insurrection has spread from one extreme of the island to the other; that the flower of the Cuban youth is in the army of the insurrection, in whose ranks are many physicians, lawyers, druggists, professors, artists, business men, engineers and men of that ilk.
Professor Jordan's correspondent declares that this fact can be proved by the excellent consular service of the United States.
He admits that destruction has been carried on byboth sides, but affirms that the insurgents began by destroying their own property, in order to deprive the troops of the government of shelter and sustenance.
He further declares that the insurgents will continue in their course until they fulfill their purpose, carrying all before them by fire and blood.
He concludes as follows:
"All eyes are directed toward the north, to the republic which is the mother of all Americans. The people of the United States must bear strongly in mind now, as never before, that profession is null and void, if action does not affirm it."
But action has come at last, as the fiendish Spaniards have already found out to their cost.
What is Cuba, the "Pearl of the Antilles," at the present time of writing? The answer to that question is as follows:
A land devastated and temporarily ruined; a gem besmirched almost beyond recognition; a heap of smoking ashes; a population of starving men, women and children, with an iron hand clutching remorselessly at their hearts; a horrible, ghastly picture of what savage men are capable of in the way of destruction.
Now, Americans, people of the free and independent United States; you who enjoy all the blessings of liberty; you who can pursue your avocations without let or hindrance; you who are the jury in this case—the evidence is before you.
You have undoubtedly heard it said that the interference of the United States was unwarrantable; that therewas no real reason for the present Spanish-American war; that a stronger country took advantage of a weaker; and other arguments ad nauseam.
But is there one of our readers who would see a woman, or a weak though honorable man, attacked by a savage foe, without interfering, and doing the best he could to give life and freedom to the oppressed?
Think it all over, Americans, and think it over carefully and judiciously.
At your own doors, is a poor, miserable, starving wretch, starving from no fault of his, and with a bulldog, not your own, but belonging to a neighbor (a neighbor, grant you with whom you have always hitherto been at peace) about to fasten its fangs in the throat of this unhappy man.
Would you hold your hands, saying that it was no affair of yours, or, with your superior strength, would you fly to the rescue?
Once more, Americans, you have heard the whole evidence. The case is in your hands.
What is your verdict?
Now let us go back to the making of history, to the time when the butcher Weyler came to Cuba to assume the governor-generalship.
By this time the Cuban question had been brought authoritatively before the United States Senate, the people were beginning to be strongly roused with indignation at the state of affairs in Cuba, and there was considerable excitement when the news of Weyler's appointment became known.
Strange to say, the insurgents rejoiced rather than grieved at this appointment, the cause of which is not far to seek. They knew thoroughly well Weyler's character, and what his policy was more than likely to be. They thought that it would drive all the Cubans, who were wavering, into their ranks and would at last force the United States, whose people, when all is said and done, were their natural allies and defenders, to intervene.
After the battle of Coliseo, Gomez and Maceo made their way through Madruga, Nueva-Paz and Guines. Then they destroyed, at a large number of points, the very important railway which connected Havana with Batabano, and also cut the telegraph wires. When they had accomplished this, the two leaders separated,Gomez to advance in the direction of Havana, and Maceo to invade Pinar del Rio, which is in the extreme west of the island.
Gomez succeeded in burning several more or less important suburbs of Havana.
Almost the first military movement that Weyler made was an attempt to cut off Maceo and prevent his communication with the other detachments of the Cuban army. It seemed to be his chief purpose to compass the death of the mulatto leader, a purpose which at last was most unfortunately accomplished, but then only through treachery.
In emulation of his predecessor, Weyler also tried his hand at trocha building. He constructed a fence of this description across Cuba between the port of Artemisa and the bay of Majana, about twenty-five miles from Havana.
It may be of interest to describe this particular trocha, as it was one of, if not the most important, and a good example of the others.
As its name, trocha, signifies, it was a ditch, or rather two ditches, some three yards wide and the same in depth, with a road between them broad enough to allow cavalry to pass. On each bank was a barbed wire fence, to stop the assailants' progress. Beyond the two ditches, were trous-de-loup, or wolf-traps, from twenty to seventy feet apart. At every hundred yards or so there were fortifications. After night fell, this fortified line was lighted by electricity. Twelve thousand men comprised the garrison, besides outposts of half as many more.
Weyler prided himself greatly upon this trocha, which was intended to keep the rebels at a distance.
But, in spite of all the precautions taken, the wily Maceo and his men more than once crossed the trocha, and the Spanish were not the wiser until it was too late to prevent them.
Once, when they had passed the obstruction without a shot being fired, the insurgents tore up some distance of a railway line on the further side of the trocha, the Cuban leader remarking:
"We did this just to show the enemy that we noticed their plaything."
The headquarters of the insurgents was and is up to the present writing, a place called Cubitas, the top of a mountain, something over a score of miles from Puerto Principe. It is practically impregnable, only a very narrow spiral path leading up to it. A handful of men could defend it against a large army. The little plain on top of the mountain has an area of more than a square mile. It is arable land, and many food products are raised there. The insurgents have constructed here quite a number of wooden buildings, and they have also a dynamite factory. It would take a long time to capture the place by storm or to starve the defenders out.
The Cubans have had one great advantage, that is, they are acclimated. Quite the contrary is true of the Spanish army of invasion, and their ranks have suffered far more from the climate than they have from the bullets of the foe. Added to this, their wages are greatly inarrears and the rations provided for them are unwholesome and insufficient. The surgeons have a very small supply of quinine and antiseptics, both of which are absolutely essential.
The strength of the two armies, at the time of Weyler's arrival in Cuba was about as follows: The government has 200,000 men, including the 60,000 volunteers, while the insurgents numbered not much more than a fourth of this, some fifty or sixty thousand men, which were scattered among the various provinces, the largest proportion being massed in Santiago de Cuba.
There were twenty-four generals in the Cuban army, nineteen being white, three black, one a mulatto, and one an Indian; of the thirty-four colonels, twenty-seven were white, five were black, and two were mulattoes.
The record of the mortality among the Spanish soldiers is an appalling one, something simply ghastly to contemplate.
Harper's Weekly has published statistics concerning Spanish losses in Cuba, which were obtained from a source that it was forbidden to disclose. In two years from March, 1895 to March, 1897, 1,375 were killed in battle, 765 died of wounds, and 8,627 were wounded, but recovered. Ten per cent. of the killed and fatally wounded were officers, and 5 per cent. of the wounded died of yellow fever, while 127 officers and about 40,000 men succumbed to other maladies.
Another authority gives the following rates of losses: Out of every thousand, ten were killed, sixty-six died of yellow fever, two hundred and one died of other diseases,while one hundred and forty-three were sent home, either sick or wounded.
Out of two hundred thousand men sent to Cuba in two years, only in the neighborhood of ninety-six thousand, capable of bearing arms, were left the first of March, 1897.
During our own civil war one and sixty-five one-hundredths per cent. of all those mustered into the United States service were killed in action or died of their wounds; ten per cent. were wounded, and a little less than two per cent. died of wounds and from unknown causes.
That we lost during the civil war, 186,216 men from disease is terrible enough, but to equal the percentage of the Spanish losses from the same cause, during twice the time that our war lasted, would bring the total up to a million and a half of men.
From the very beginning, the insurgents held possession of the two eastern provinces, Santiago and Puerto Principe. It was only by unremitting efforts and the loss of many lives that the Spaniards retained their hold on the district about Bayamo.
Late in 1890 General Calixto Garcia, now second in rank to Gomez, and playing an important part in the aiding of the American troops, landed on the island with strong reinforcements. Garcia, who was also a veteran of the Ten Years' War had several more or less important engagements with the Spanish, in almost all of which he was victorious.
Antonio Maceo, in order to consult with Gomez,crossed the trocha on the night of December 4, 1896. The next day, at the head of five hundred men and within an hour's ride of Havana, he was killed in a skirmish, just as he had made the declaration that all was going well. A young son of Gomez, who was suffering from an old wound, and who refused to leave the ground until his chief was carried away, was also killed.
There is not the shadow of a doubt but that this double catastrophe was due to the treachery of one of Maceo's companions, a certain Dr. Zertucha.
One of Maceo's aides tells the story as follows: "Firing was heard near Punta Brava, and Zertucha, who had ridden off to one side of the road, came galloping back, crying: "Come with me! Come with me! Quick! Quick!" Maceo at once put spurs to his horse, and, followed by his five aids, rode swiftly after the physician, who plunged into the thick growth on the side of the road.
The party had only ridden a few yards, when Zertucha, bent low in his saddle, and swerved sharply to one side, galloping away like mad.
Almost at the same moment, a volley was fired by a party of Spanish soldiers hidden in the dense underbrush, and Maceo and four of his men dropped out of their saddles, mortally wounded."
The single survivor, the man whose words are quoted above, contrived to get back to his own party and brought them to the scene of the tragedy. The Spaniards were driven away, Maceo's body was foundstripped, and young Gomez had been stabbed, and his skull was broken.
The traitor Zertucha surrendered to the Spanish by whom naturally he was treated with the utmost kindness and consideration.
Afterwards Zertucha attempted to blacken Maceo's memory by declaring that he was disheartened and desperate, and that his death was the result of his own folly.
Senor Palma says of this:
"General Maceo was loved and supported by all men struggling for Cuban independence, whether in a military or civil capacity. If a man was ever idolized by his people, that man was General Maceo. Dr. Zertucha knows that, but perhaps he has an object in making his false assertions."
An object? Of course he had an object—the currying of favor with the Spaniards, the saving of his own wretched carcass and the obtaining of the blood-money due him.
So perished the last of the Maceos, eight brothers, all having died before him in the cause of Cuban liberty.
The following poem on Maceo's death appeared in the New York Sun:
Maceo's death was a terrible blow to the insurgents, but, with indomitable spirit they rallied and plunged with renewed energy into the fray.
Maceo was succeeded by General Rius Rivers, who does not seem to have been in any way the equal of his predecessor.
Having accomplished by low treachery what he had not succeeded in doing by open, honorable warfare, Weyler increased his efforts to put down the rebellion in Pinar del Rio, where Maceo had been in command.
The trochas now became of advantage, and Weyler succeeded in confining Rivera's scattered bands to the province. Early in 1897, Rivera was made a prisoner, and since then nothing of importance, from a military standpoint, has occurred in Pinar del Rio.
In 1897 there were but few incidents of interest in the war. The Cubans were holding back, evading conflicts wherever they could, and waiting for the long-delayed interposition of the United States.
Guines, however, was taken by them, and GeneralGarcia captured the fortified post of Tunas after a fight of three days. The Spanish commander and about forty per cent. of his force were killed. Finally the remainder of the garrison surrendered. The spoils which fell into the hands of the Cubans comprised a large amount of rifles and ammunition, besides two Krupp guns.
The victory was a notable one, especially as Weyler had cabled his government that Tunas was impregnable. Its fall gave rise to much harsh criticism and bitter feeling in Spain.
Weyler was constantly proclaiming the "pacification" of certain provinces, statements that were most transparently absurd and false. He even immediately followed up his proclamations by the most severe and brutal measures in those very provinces.
Finally even Madrid, to whom it would have mattered little if the policy had proved a success, became convinced that Weyler's savage procedure was a failure.
The butcher had gained absolutely no advantage, but had simply been the cause of untold and undeserved suffering.
The insurrection, taking it all for all, was just as strong, if not stronger, than it was the day Weyler arrived in Cuba.
So, in October, 1897, he was withdrawn from his post, and summoned back to Spain.
It is to be hoped that the world will never again witness such a shameful and shameless exhibition as was his administration.
Before dismissing him from these pages, let us quotefrom Stephen Bonsal, with whose words no unprejudiced person can quarrel.
Mr. Bonsal says:
"Should they be wise, and they will have a moment of clairvoyance soon, or they will disappear as a nation, the Spaniards should seek to cast a mantle of oblivion and forgetfulness about the wretched name of Weyler and all the ignoble deeds that have characterized his rule. While it cannot be expected that the bishop will be displaced by the butcher, there is one whom Weyler will displace upon his unenviable pinnacle of prominence in the temple of infamy, and that is Alva. His name is destined to become in every tongue that is spoken by civilized people a synonym of bloody, relentless and pitiless war waged upon American soil, upon the long-disused methods of the Vandals and the Visigoths; and Alva, who had the cruel spirit of his age and a sincere fanaticism as his excuse, will step down and out into an oblivion which will doubtless be grateful to his shade, and most certainly so to those who bear his execrated name.
"I could ask no more terrible punishment for him (Weyler) than many years of life to listen to the voices of despair he has heard ring out upon his path through Cuba; to hear again and ever the accusing voices which no human power can hush, and to review the scenes of suffering which he has occasioned which no human power can obliterate from his memory."
The new governor-general of Cuba was Don Ramon Blanco, as to whose character accounts differ. It is probable that while he is not the high-minded, honorable gentleman that Campos was, he is far, very far from being such an unmitigated beast as his predecessor.
Before he reached Cuba, which was the last of October, 1897, he stated in an interview:
"My policy will never include concentration. I fight the enemy, not women and children. One of the first things I shall do will be to allow the reconcentrados to go out of the town and till the soil."
This sounds very just and right, but, as a matter of fact, the policy enounced was never carried out, not even in minor particulars. The persecution of the pacificos remained as bitter and relentless as ever.
Perhaps General Blanco is not entirely to blame for this, as the pressure brought to bear against his expressed ideas both by the home government and by the "peninsulars" in Havana, who had been in full accord with the methods of the "Butcher," was so strong as scarcely to be resisted.
Blanco issued an amnesty proclamation soon after his arrival in Havana, but the insurgents paid little or noattention. Their experience in such matters in the past had been too stern to be forgotten.
In the field, Blanco was also most unsuccessful, gaining nothing but petty victories of no value whatever. The pay of the Spanish soldiers was terribly in arrears, and their rations were of the most meagre description. No wonder that they were disheartened, and in no condition to fight.
In a word, Blanco absolutely failed, as completely as had his predecessors, in quelling the rebellion.
The people of the United States were becoming more and more enraged at the atrocities committed at their very door, and more and more anxious that the Cubans should have the independence which they themselves had achieved.
Moreover, there was a large number of Americans in the island who were made to suffer from the policy of reconcentration. Citizens of the United States, a large number of them being naturalized Americans, were constantly being seized and imprisoned, on suspicion alone, no proof whatever being advanced, of their furnishing aid and comfort to the insurgents. They were placed in filthy cells, no communication with the outside world being allowed them. This is what the Spaniards term "incommunicado."
No writing materials were allowed them and nothing whatever to read. The windows were so high up that no view was to be obtained. The cells were damp with the moisture of years and had rotten, disease-breeding floors, covered with filth of every description. Moreover,they were overrun with cockroaches, rats and other vermin.
The sustenance furnished the prisoners was wretched, and even such as it was, it was not given to them regularly. More often than not, they were left for long hours to suffer the pangs of hunger and thirst.
A notable instance of Americans being seized and imprisoned in these loathsome dungeons is the following:
A little schooner called the "Competitor" attempted to land a filibustering expedition. She was captured, after most of her passengers had been landed, and her crew, numbering five, were tried by a court which had been instructed to convict them, and sentenced to death. They would undoubtedly have been executed, as some years before had been the prisoners of the ill-fated Virginius, had it not been for the prompt intervention of the United States, spurred thereto by General Fitz Hugh Lee.
The conviction was growing stronger and stronger in the United States that something should be done to mitigate the terrible suffering in Cuba.
The Red Cross Association, a splendid charitable organization, at the head of which was Miss Clara Barton, undertook this noble work of relief. The government of the United States lent its assistance and support. Large sums of money and tons of supplies of food were contributed throughout the Union, both by public and private donations. The newspapers everywhere, North, East, South and West, did magnificent service in furthering the good work.
Spain, instead of showing gratitude, rather resented this, and there was considerable difficulty to prosecute the labor of charity. Still, the efforts, in the interests of suffering humanity were by no means unavailing.
President McKinley speaks of the movement as follows:
"The success which had attended the limited measure of relief extended to the suffering American citizens of Cuba, by the judicious expenditure through consular agencies, of money appropriated expressly for their succor by the joint resolution approved May 24, 1897, prompted the humane extension of a similar scheme of aid to the great body of sufferers. A suggestion to this end was aquiesced in by the Spanish authorities. On the twenty-fourth of December last, I caused to be issued an appeal to the American people, inviting contributions, in money or in kind, for the starving sufferers in Cuba, following this on the eighth of January by a similar public announcement of the formation of a Central Cuban Relief Committee, with headquarters in New York city, composed of three members representing the American National Red Cross Society, and the religious and business elements of the community. The efforts of that committee have been untiring and have accomplished much. Arrangements for free transportation to Cuba have greatly aided the charitable work. The president of the American Red Cross and representatives of other contributory organizations have generously visited Cuba and co-operated with the consul-general and the local authorities to make effective disposition of the reliefcollected through the efforts of the Central Committee. Nearly $200,000 in money and supplies has already reached the sufferers and more is forthcoming. The supplies are admitted duty free, and transportation to the interior has been arranged, so that the relief, at first necessarily confined to Havana and the larger cities, is now extended through most if not all of the towns through which suffering exists. Thousands of lives have already been saved. The necessity for a change in the condition of the reconcentrados is recognized in the Spanish government."
And yet Spain resented these charitable efforts, as being opposed to her policy. The people of the United States, in sending this money and these supplies, had nothing else in view but charity, a longing to do all that they could to relieve the anguish of an oppressed and tortured people. There was no ulterior motive whatever.
A large amount of the sums contributed was diverted to a purpose very different from that for which it had been intended.
The Spanish government, more through fear of the condemnation of the other European nations than anything else, voted about six hundred thousand dollars for the relief of the starving reconcentradoes.
But this was a ruse, a sum chiefly on paper. General Lee, and his testimony is incontrovertible, says:
"I do not believe six hundred thousand dollars, in supplies, will be given to those people, and the soldiers left to starve. They will divide it up here and there; apiece taken off here and a piece taken off there. I do not believe they have appropriated anything of the kind. The condition of the reconcentrados out in the country is just as bad as in General Weyler's day. It has been relieved a good deal by supplies from the United States, but that has ceased now.
"General Blanco published a proclamation, rescinding General Weyler's bando, as they call it there, but it has had no practical effect. In the first place, these people have no place to go; the houses have been burned down; there is nothing but the bare land there, and it would take them two months before they could raise the first crop. In the next place, they are afraid to go out from the lines of the towns, because the roving bands of the Spanish guerillas, as they are called, would kill them. So they stick right in the edges of the town, just like they did, with nothing to eat except what they can get from charity. The Spanish have nothing to give."
The government and people of Spain now became very much afraid of the attitude of the United States. They knew that something had to be done, so to speak, to throw a sop to Cerberus. Therefore Sagasta, the premier of Spain, conceived the idea of granting to Cuba a species of autonomy. But, with the usual Spanish diplomacy, it was not autonomy at all. It purposed to be home rule, but every article gave a loop-hole for Spain not to fulfill her obligations.
It was a false and absurd proposition, intended to deceive, but too flimsy in its fabric to deceive any one. It was rotten clean through, and was opposed by everyoneexcept the framers of the autonomistic papers, General Blanco, his staff and a few others, who hoped, but hoped in vain, great things from the proclamation.
The Cuban leaders, who at one time would have hailed with joy such a concession, if they had been assured that the provisions would have been followed out loyally and without fraud, now rejected the autonomistic proposition with scorn and loathing.
Their battle cry was now, and they were determined it ever should be: "Independence or death!"
It was too late. There was no possibility now of home rule under Spanish domination.
Gomez even went so far as to declare that any one who should attempt to bring to his camp any offer of autonomy would be seized as a spy and shot.
General Lee, speaking of the proposed autonomy, says:
"Blanco's autonomistic government was doomed to failure from its inception. The Spanish soldiers and officers scorned it because they did not desire Cuban rule, which such autonomy, if genuine, would insure. The Spanish merchants and citizens were opposed to it because they too were hostile to the Cubans having control of the island, and, if the question could be narrowed down to Cuban control or annexation to the United States, they were all annexationists, believing that they could get a better government, and one that would protect in a greater measure life and property under the United States flag than under the Cuban banner. On the other hand, the Cubans in arms would nottouch it, because they were fighting for free Cuba. And the Cuban citizens and sympathizers were opposed to it also."
Senor Palma sums up the question of autonomy as follows:
"Autonomy would mean that the Cuban people will make their own laws, appoint all their public officers, except the governor-general, and attend to the local affairs with entire independence, without, of course, interference by the metropolis. What then would be left to Spain, since between her and Cuba there is no commercial intercourse of any kind? Spain is not and cannot be, a market for Cuban products, and is moreover unable to provide Cuba with the articles in need by the latter. The natural market for the Cuban products is the United States, from which in exchange Cuba buys with great advantage flour, provisions, machinery, etc. What then, I repeat, is left to Spain but the big debt incurred by her, without the consent and against the will of the people of Cuba? We perfectly understand the autonomy of Canada as a colony of Great Britain. The two countries are closely connected with each other by the most powerful ties—the mutual interest of a reciprocal commerce."
Murat Halstead, who is invariably logical and correct, puts the whole matter in a few trenchant words:
"There is nothing to regard as possible in any of the reforms the Spaniards are promising with much animation and to which they ascribe the greatest excellence, to take place after the insurgents have surrendered theirarms. Spain is, as always, incapable of changing her fatal colonial policy, that never has been or can be reformed."
Spain's fatal colonial policy. Could there be truer words?
Let us pause for a moment to contemplate what this fatal colonial policy has cost her.
At one time she swayed the destinies of Europe and had possessions in every continent. Samuel Johnson, in writing of her, said:
The whole reason of Spain's downfall is the ruthless and savage character of the Spanish people.
Due to her oppression, note the following list of colonies which she has lost:
1609. The Netherlands.
1628. Malacca, Ceylon, Java and other islands.
1640. Portugal.
1648. Spain renounced all claim to Holland.
1648. Brabant and other parts of Flanders.
1649. Maestricht, Hetogenbosch, Breda, Bergen-of-Zoom, and many other fortresses in the Low Countries. In this year also she practically surrendered supremacy on the seas to Northern Europe.
1659. Rousillon and Cardague. By the cession of these places to France, the boundary line between France and Spain became the Pyrenees.
1668. Other portions of Flanders.
1672. Still more cities and towns in Flanders.
1704. Gibraltar.
1704. Majorca, Minorca and Ivizza.
1791. The Nootka Sound settlements.
1794. St. Domingo.
1800. Louisiana.
1802. Trinidad.
1819. Florida.
1810-21. Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Patagonia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, San Salvador, Hayti and numerous other islands.
Spain has now not a foot of territory on the American continent, and very shortly she will not have a foot anywhere except within the confines of her own home.
To return again to the proposed autonomy of Cuba.
At the time it was offered Gomez, that grand old man of Cuba said:
"This is a war to the death for independence, and nothing but independence will we accept. To talk of home rule is to idle away time. But I have hopes that the United States, sooner or later, will recognize our belligerency. It is a question of mere justice, and, in spite of all arts of diplomacy, justice wins in the long run. The day we are recognized as belligerents, I can name a fixed term for the end of the war.
"With regard to paying an indemnity to Spain, that is a question of amount. A year ago we could pay $100,000,000, and I was ready to agree to that. Now that Spain owes more than $400,000,000, we will not pay so much."
It was too late now to speak of reforms or of home rule in any shape. The Cubans were not willing to nurse illusions. They were resolved on absolute freedom or nothing.
Any form of Spanish rule would mean the entire subjection of the Cubans, and, had they accepted the proposed autonomy, there is no doubt but that the future would have been as bad, if not worse, than the past.
Public opinion in the United States was never so deeply aroused as it was now. Citizens in all ranks of life were calling loudly for interference, which, in the name of civilization and humanity, should end the horrible state of affairs in Cuba.
The United States was Cuba's natural defender and protector, and now, both press and public declared, was the time to act.
The president was fully aware of the gravity of the situation, but with rare discretion, for which future historians will give him due credit, he bided his time, preferring, if possible, peace with honor.
In his first message relating to the Cuban situation, President McKinley said:
"If it shall hereafter appear to be a duty imposed by our obligations to ourselves, to civilization and humanity, to intervene with force, it shall be without fault on our part, and only because the necessity of such action will be so clear as to command the support and approval of the civilized world."
General Stewart L. Woodford, our minister to Spain,behaved with the utmost courtesy and did everything in the power of mortal man to avoid hostilities.
One cause of the American people's irritability, and in all justice there was much reason for it, was Spain's pretence that the Cuban war had been prolonged because of America's inability or non desire to maintain neutrality. Nothing could be falser or more absurd, for the United States had invariably, whenever possible, stopped all filibustering expeditions to Cuba. The records will bear out this statement, without any possibility of refutation. More than two millions of dollars had been expended by the United States in Spain's interest. Certainly, gratitude or its equivalent is a word that does not appear in the Spanish lexicon.
Then came the De Lome incident which served to inflame further passions already aroused.
Senor Enrique Depuy De Lome was the Spanish minister to this country.
He wrote a letter, strongly denunciatory of the president's message, and of the president himself; with the worst taste possible, he alluded to Mr. McKinley as a low politician, one who catered, for political purposes, to the rabble.
This letter was intercepted and a copy given to the press. The original was sent to the State Department. Of course De Lome at once became persona non grata, which the Spanish government recognized, and even before Minister Woodford could make a "representation," De Lome was recalled from his position and Senor Polo appointed in his place.
President McKinley showed the most admirable self-poise through all this affair, evincing outwardly no resentment for what was a personal insult to himself.
It was declared that we ought to have a ship of war in Havana harbor to protect American citizens, and for that purpose, the Maine was sent there.
It was the visit of a friendly ship to, at that time, a friendly country.
The Maine was received by the Spanish officials with every outward show of respect, the firing of salutes and the raising of the American and Spanish flags on the vessels of different nationalities.
And yet what was the result? Once more came an exhibition of Spain's perfidy. We know it is very much like the Scotch verdict of "non proven," but still there is no doubt among fair-minded men.
A tragedy ensued, a tragedy in which Spain played the part of the villain, and such an unconscionable villain as has never been seen upon the boards of any stage.
On the night of Tuesday, February 19, 1898, the United States battleship Maine, presumably in friendly waters, was lying calmly anchored in the harbor of Havana. Suddenly, with no warning whatever, for there was no suspicion on the part of either officers or men, the magnificent battleship was blown up. Two officers and two hundred and sixty of the crew perished, but their names and memories will ever be cherished affectionately and gratefully by the American people.
All on board behaved in the most heroic manner, Captain Charles D. Sigsbee, the commander being the last to leave the fated ship. The famous naval historian, Captain Mahan, says:
"The self-control shown in the midst of a sudden and terrible danger, of which not one of the men on board knew, showed that in battle with known dangers about them, and expecting every minute the fate that might overtake them, the fellow sailors of the men of the Maine would stand to their guns and their shipto the last. It was evident that the old naval spirit existed, and that the sailors of the new navy were as good as those who manned the old-time ships."
The Maine was one of the very best vessels in the American navy; with her stores and ammunition, she represented an expenditure of close upon five millions of dollars.
The blowing up of the Maine and the loss of our brave men aroused the most intense excitement throughout the United States, but the request of Captain Sigsbee that public opinion should be suspended until thorough investigation had been made, was followed, and the people behaved with admirable and remarkable control.
A naval board of inquiry was at once organized by the United States government. This board consisted of experienced officers, who were greatly assisted in their labors by a strong force of experts, wreckers and divers.
The investigation was most searching. The 21st of March, 1898, the board presented a unanimous verdict. The report was most voluminous, embracing some twelve thousand pages.
The verdict was practically that "the loss of the Maine was not in any respect due to fault or negligence on the part of any of the officers or members of her crew; that the ship was destroyed by the explosion of a submarine mine, which caused the partial explosion of two or more of her forward magazines; and that no evidence has been obtainable fixing the responsibility of the destruction of the Maine upon any person or persons."
Although it was not possible to obtain evidence which should convict the guilty parties, there was not and never has been the faintest doubt in the mind of any fair-minded person as to who was responsible for the tragedy. When Congress afterward spoke of the crime or the criminal negligence of the Spanish officials, the words found an ardent response in the heart of every true American.
There is no doubt but that the destruction of the Maine was the lever that started the machinery of war.
Like "Remember the Alamo!" "Remember the Maine!" is a clarion cry of battle that will go echoing down the centuries.
In Cuba we were most fortunate in having a superb representative in the person of General Fitz Hugh Lee, a man of rare intellectual ability, ever courteous but ever firm, a fine specimen of Southern chivalry.
The Spaniards, as was but natural, hated him, but when his withdrawal was suggested by the Spanish government President McKinley cabled to Minister Woodford at Madrid that the services of General Lee at Havana were indispensable and his removal could not be considered.
The relations between Spain and the United States became every day more and more strained. Every effort was made by the President to bring about a peaceable solution of the Cuban question, but Spain, stiff necked and suicidal, refused to cooperate with him.
On April 11, the president sent his famous message to Congress.
In it, he alluded to the way in which we had been forced to police our own waters and watch our own seaports in prevention of any unlawful act in aid of Cuba.
He spoke of how our trade had suffered, how the capital invested by our citizens in Cuba had been largely lost, and how the temperance and forbearance of our own people had been so sorely tried as to beget a perilous unrest among our own citizens.
The President, also, made some strong arguments against both belligerency and recognition, especially against the latter.
He quoted Jackson's argument, on the subject of the recognition of Texas, concluding as follows:
"Prudence, therefore, seems to dictate that we should stand aloof, and maintain our present attitude, if not until Mexico itself or one of the great foreign powers shall recognize the independence of the new government; at least until the lapse of time or the course of events should have proved beyond cavil or dispute the ability of the people of that country to maintain their separate sovereignty and to uphold the government constituted by them. Neither of the contending parties can justly complain of this course. By pursuing it we are but carrying out the long established policy of our government, a policy which has secured us respect and influence abroad and inspired confidence at home."