brought on the war.

His message to the Congress on Monday, April 11, "With this last overture in the direction of immediate peace" [his ultimatum of March 27-29], he said, "and its disappointing reception by Spain, the Executive is brought to the end of his effort." The disaster to the Maine was put in a subsidiary place in his message.2 The President said toward the end of the message: "The issue is now with Congress. I have exhausted every effort to relieve the intolerable condition of affairs which is at our doors. Prepared to execute every obligation imposed upon me by the Constitution and the law, I await your action."

To the crowning effort of his diplomacy of being able to secure peace and in all probability Cuban independence, he referred in the last two paragraphs of his message in a perfunctory manner. "Yesterday" (Sunday, April 10), he said, "and since the preparation of the foregoing message, official information was received by me that the latest decree of the Queen Regent of Spain directs General Blanco, in order to prepare and facilitate peace, to proclaim a suspension of hostilities, the duration and details of which have not yet been communicated to me." 4

Congress, the country and Spain knew that this message meant war. Congress immediately addressed itself to the subject and after certain disagreements united in the fol

1 Foreign Relations, 755.

"In any event the destruction of the Maine, by whatever exterior cause, is a patent and impressive proof of a state of things in Cuba that is intolerable. That condition is thus shown to be such that the Spanish government cannot assure safety and security to a vessel of the American Navy in the harbor of Havana on a mission of peace, and rightfully there." • Foreign Relations, 760.

'Foreign Relations, 760.

lowing resolutions, which were adopted on April 19, and signed by the President on the next day. They said: "First. That the people of the Island of Cuba are, of right ought to be, free and independent.

"Second. That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the Government of the United States does hereby demand, that the Government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and government in the Island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters.

"Third. That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States and to call into the actual service of the United States the militia of the several States to such extent as may be necessary to carry these resolutions into effect.

"Fourth. That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or control over said Island except for the pacification thereof and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the Island to its people." 2

President Taft said that the Spanish War was an altruistic war. The ground on which such a statement may be defended lies in the fourth resolution. It was offered by Senator Teller of Colorado and agreed to in the Senate without a division. It is wonderful that the United States, large and powerful, about to make war on

1 The stages which led to these resolutions and the disagreements are well told by Henry Cabot Lodge in the War with Spain, 35 et seq.; see also Chadwick, 582.

Foreign Relations, liv.

John W. Foster, l.c.

Spain, weak and decadent, should renounce solemnly any desire to get Cuba. The fertile island, the Pearl of the Antilles, Cuba, had long been coveted by America, and now when the plum was ready to drop into her mouth she abjured the wish of conquest. But it seemed impossible to convince the Spaniards that our aim was not the annexation of Cuba. This resolution had the sympathetic adhesion of the President and many, if not all, of his warmest friends. It lightens up the declaration of this unnecessary war.

CHAPTER IV

NOTHING excites a nation so much as going to war. The first few days after its declaration, tumult reigns. So it came to pass in 1898. The feeling in Congress was intense and all the more so because it had been so long suppressed, awaiting the President's action. A large majority of Congress was in favor of war to expel the Spaniards from Cuba, and most of the Democrats, assisted by some Republicans, desired, as a stage in the proceedings, to recognize the republic of the Cuban insurgents. Two days after the President's Message was sent to Congress, the members of the House met in "a state of frenzied excitement" with "partisan passion running high." During a passionate colloquy, a Republican member said to a Democrat, "You are a liar," when the Democrat seized a bound copy of the Congressional Record and hurled it at his opponent. The missile fell short; the two members rushed for one another, and the House, so a reporter wrote, "was in an uproar. Shouts of anger and indignation were heard on every hand. Members in the crush espoused the cause of the two original combatants, and there were several exciting collisions but no blows struck." At last, owing to the work of the Speaker and the Sergeant-at-Arms, the efforts of a dozen muscular members and an impassioned appeal by Dingley, the

fighters were restrained, the angry members took their seats "and a resemblance of order was restored." 1

"Beware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,

Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee."

In such wise did the McKinley administration conduct the Spanish War.

Congress formally declared that war with Spain had existed since April 21. Excitement had given way to alarm in the public mind lest the Navy might not prove equal to the job when the country learned that the first successful blow had been struck in the Orient on May 1 by the Asiatic squadron, under the command of George Dewey.2

During the autumn of 1897, Dewey thought that we were drifting into a war with Spain and, of all things, he desired the command of the Asiatic squadron. Theodore Roosevelt, in his position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, had made up his mind that Dewey was the man for the place, but political influence was pushing another officer who was his senior. "I want you to go," Roosevelt said to him. "You are the man who will be equal to the emergency if one arises. Do you know any senators?"

3

"Senator Proctor," 4 was the reply, "is from my State. He is an old friend of the family and my father was of service to him when he was a young man.'

1N. Y. Tribune, Apr. 14; Recollections of Henry S. Pritchett. "The newspapers of May 2 had a brief announcement of the victory." Dewey, Autobiography, 228. These first (May 2) announcements were from Spanish sources and gave no adequate idea of the completeness of the victory; the reading between the lines made it possible to arrive at a conclusion that made the headlines of victory justifiable. 'Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, 231.

1 Redfield Proctor, "who was very ardent for the war." Ibid.