ページの画像
PDF
ePub

land returned the liking and respect. "McKinley was distinguished, great and useful," he declared in his Memorial address at Princeton, "patriotic and faithful as a soldier, honest and upright as a citizen, tender and devoted as a husband and truthful, generous, unselfish, moral and clean in every relation of life."1

Cleveland and Olney had negotiated "a treaty for the arbitration of all matters in difference between the United States and Great Britain" which Cleveland had transmitted to the Senate during January, 1897, where it was pending when McKinley took the oath of office. Believing that politics should cease at the water's edge, he took the rather unusual course of approving emphatically a treaty negotiated by a preceding administration, which was that of a partisan opponent. "We want no wars of conquest," McKinley said in his inaugural address; "we must avoid the temptation of territorial aggression. War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed; peace is preferable to war in almost every contingency. Arbitration is the true method of settlement of international as well as local or individual differences. Since this treaty [the Olney-Pauncefote treaty of Jan. 11, 1897] is clearly the result of our own initiative, since it has been recognized as the leading feature of our foreign policy throughout our entire national history—the adjustment of difficulties by judicial methods rather than by force of arms—and since it presents to the world the glorious example of reason and peace, not passion and war, controlling the relations between two of the greatest nations of the world, an example certainly to be followed

...

'This address was delivered on Sept. 19, 1901, Andrew F. West, Century Magazine, Jan., 1909.

by others, I respectfully urge the early action of the Senate thereon, not merely as a matter of policy but as a duty to mankind. The importance and moral influence of the ratification of such a treaty can hardly be overestimated in the cause of advancing civilization." The Senate acted on the treaty but failed to ratify it, the vote on May 5, 1897, standing 43, to 26, less than the necessary two thirds. The result was a disappointment to the President and his intimate friends.

McKinley felt fully competent to deal with the tariff, which was one of the absorbing questions during his first months in the White House, and he gave efficient aid to the supporters of the Dingley Act. The Cuban question troubled him from the first. With Cleveland at the White House on the evening before his inauguration, he manifested the subject uppermost in his mind — the threatened conflict with Spain and the horrors of war. "Mr. President," he said, "if I can only go out of office at the end of my term, with the knowledge that I have done what lay in my power to avert this terrible calamity, with the success that has crowned your patience and persistence, I shall be the happiest man in the world." 2 Sherman's failure disturbed him, but during April3 he called to his aid William R. Day as Assistant Secretary of State. Day had inherited his essential qualities from his father who was of fine subtle fibre all through and a retiring nature. William R. Day was a fellow practitioner

1 Moore, International Law Digest, vii. 75 et seq.

Parker's Rec., 249.

* 1897. Day was nominated April 24. The nomination was not received in the Senate until May 3. He was confirmed on the same day. 'Riddle, Rec., 234.

of McKinley at the Canton, Ohio, bar, and was known by the President as one comes to know one's daily associates and competitors. The two now wrought together in entire harmony and, so far as one may judge by the diplomatic correspondence, foreign relations did not suffer from the defection of Sherman. Sherman, however, could not brook his relegation to an inferior place and he therefore resigned on April 25, 1898, leaving Day the nominal as well as the real Secretary of State.1 For a long while McKinley thought that he could settle the Cuban question without war and that he would have the country at his back, but he was hampered in the choice of a minister to Spain. He wanted Seth Low, and he thought that he might have persuaded him to undertake the difficult job could he have induced him to visit Washington. His next choice fell upon General J. D. Cox, an admirable appointment, who for personal reasons was obliged to decline it. McKinley would have liked John W. Foster, but finally he named Stewart L. Woodford whose work turned out much better than might have been expected.

From his inauguration to the assembling of Congress at its regular session in December, 1897, McKinley tasted the sweets of office. After the adjournment of Congress on July 24, he took a trip East, stopping at a hotel on the New York side of Lake Champlain. One day he crossed over into Vermont and was struck with the sturdy patriotism of the men of the Green Mountain State and their devotion to Republican party ideals. Returning to his own State, he paid a memorable visit to Mark Hanna,

'Day was nominated as Secretary of State and confirmed on April 26, 1898.

2 Woodford was nominated on June 16, 1897.

whose hospitality he enjoyed for a number of days, meeting men connected with his administration and Republicans whom he looked to for countenance and support. Of a genial nature and possessing attractive manners, he commended himself to all sorts and conditions of men and, at this time, might sincerely have felt that his influence was second to that of no other man in the country.

CHAPTER III

MCKINLEY'S Opinion expressed to Cleveland regarding his treatment of Cuban affairs was thoroughly sincere, and at this distance may be justified. "Patience and persistence" were well applied to Cleveland's and Olney's management. The Cuban insurrection began in February, 1895, and failed to be suppressed by a humane governor-general who conducted the war in accordance with civilized usage. He was succeeded less than a year later by Weyler, who adopted at once drastic methods, the most important of which was his proclamation requiring a concentration of inhabitants at military headquarters in the provinces still under his control. To require people to quit their plantations and villages where they might secure a living and herd together in towns subject to starvation and disease was extreme cruelty and deserved McKinley's statement that "it was not civilized warfare" but "extermination." 1

During the spring of 1896, both Houses of Congress adopted a concurrent resolution declaring that in their opinion the United States should accord to the insurgents belligerent rights but Cleveland and his Secretary

2

-

1 Annual Message, Dec. 6, 1897. "The cruel policy of concentration was initiated February 16, 1896" - ibid. See The Relations of the United States and Spain, Diplomacy, Chadwick, 431. This valuable book will be referred to as Chadwick.

2 The Resolution as finally passed, April 6, 1896, declared that the United States should be strictly neutral granting belligerent rights to both parties and that the president should offer the friendly offices of the United States to Spain for the recognition of the independence of Cuba. The resolution as passed was the Senate one. The milder one of the House was rejected by the Senate and the House receded.

« 前へ次へ »