the city. General Shafter and others recommended the acceptance of this proposal, but the President insisted upon an unconditional surrender. He telegraphed to Shafter, through the War Department: "What you went to Santiago for was the Spanish army. If you allow it to evacuate with its arms you must meet it somewhere else. This is not war. If the Spanish commander desires to leave the city and its people, let him surrender and we will then discuss the question as to what shall be done with them." When General Miles reached Santiago, Toral made a second proposition and General Miles joined with Shafter and his generals in recommending its acceptance. He urged that Santiago could not be taken without the sacrifice of thousands of lives; that Toral was not likely to surrender; that the enemy's troops were in good condition; that the noncombatants were now out of the city and a burden to the Americans; that our own troops were in a distressed condition; that there was danger of yellow fever; that it was difficult to protect their health, and almost impossible to transport food to them. The President called the Cabinet together. Admitting the desperate conditions, he argued that Toral really wished to surrender but was playing for better terms; that if allowed to march out with his troops under arms, it would be necessary to fight

him again in a less favorable position; that the moral effect upon Europe of such a concession would be disadvantageous; that to yield when the enemy was in our power would only encourage the war spirit. He therefore insisted upon unconditional surrender, and the event proved his wisdom and demonstrated that the Commander-in-Chief was a better military genius than his generals.

Daily conferences were held in the White House, at which the President, the Secretaries of War and the Navy, and the Adjutant General were usually present. McKinley kept his finger upon every detail. He rarely left his office until one or two o'clock in the morning, and frequently was there until a later hour. From the war-room, adjoining his office, he kept in telegraphic touch with the front. Warmaps covered the walls of this room and tiny flags used as pins showed the positions of the armies and of the ships of the Navy. No one knew better than the President what the various maneuvers meant. He was in constant conference with the members of the Cabinet and other officials. The stream of callers increased enormously. The daily mail sometimes exceeded fifteen hundred letters. The burdens of the Executive became more and more intense and were more severe than those placed upon any other President since Lincoln.

The diary of Mr. Cortelyou during these months contains many references to the strain imposed upon the President. A few extracts will suffice to give, at least, a glimpse of the intensity of feeling: —

Saturday, April 16, 1898. The Senate is still in session and it is expected that a great many of the Senators will deliver speeches to-day on the pending question. A spirit of wild jingoism seems to have taken possession of this usually conservative body. Men who are supposed to look at current events in a calm, dispassionate way are now talking about 'war' and 'reparation' as though these were the sole thought of the American people. If one attempts to argue with such gentlemen they will tell you that you do not know what you are talking about, accuse you of unpatriotic conduct and sneer at your reasoning and conclusions. A rude awakening is in store for these self-constituted apostles of freedom and humanity.

"The President does not look at all well. He is bearing up under the great strain, but his haggard face and anxious inquiry for any news which has in it a token of peace tell of the sense of tremendous responsibility and of his devotion to the welfare of the people of this country. The vile slanders uttered

against him, and which, be it said to their shame, have not been repudiated by his so-called friends, have only tended to endear him to those of us who see him as he works here in the Executive Mansion, early and late, oftentimes in his office until one and two o'clock in the morning. The sensational newspapers publish daily accounts of conferences that never take place, of influences that are never felt, of purposes that are nothing but the products of the degenerate minds that spread them before a tooeasily-led public.

"One of the most absurd of the lies that have found currency of late is the one to the effect that the President sees only the favorable side of the correspondence which comes to the Executive Mansion. To one familiar with the actual practice in this regard the assertion is simply ridiculous. The President sees everything, whether in the shape of mail, telegrams, or newspapers, that can indicate the drift of public sentiment. I have reported to him daily the proportion of favorable and unfavorable comment in the correspondence and have shown him fair samples of each. The fact is that on a most conservative estimate ninety per cent of the entire correspondence that has come to the office since the beginning of the concluding negotiations on the Spanish-Cuban question has been an endorsement

of the President's course- an emphatic appeal for peace and for the exercise of sound reason in the handling of the whole matter. The ranters in Congress, the blatherskites who do the talking upon the street-corners and at public meetings, and the scavengers of the sensational press misrepresent public opinion when they assert that this country is for war except as a necessity and for the upholding of the national honor."

Sunday, May 15, 1898. The President is again looking careworn, the color having faded from his cheeks and the rings being once more noticeable about his eyes. The strain upon him is terrible. Uncertainty as to the whereabouts of the Cape Verde fleet; the growing unrest and threatening character of the European situation, these, coupled with the many difficulties constantly arising as a result of the short-sighted policy which for so long a time has been pursued by Congress, leaving the country poorly prepared for hostilities, make the burden upon the Executive shoulders a heavy one. Added to these things is the struggle for place among the ambitious gentlemen who desire to serve their country in high-salaried and high-titled positions. And then, too, the present conditions are attended by the usual differences and bickerings among the officers of