The Cuban Question Settled.
The wretches who blew up the Maine. America is slow to anger
but terrible in punishment. Cuban native government not a
success. Joins our Union in 1910.
Cuba became part of the United States in 1910. The direct cause of the
war of 1898 was the blowing up of the Maine. Through this premeditated
and diabolical act, no less than 266 of our brave American sailors
were murdered in cold blood.
The Madrid authorities were innocent parties to this lamentable
transaction and their representative in Havana, Captain-General Blanco,
has been acquitted of the heinous charge of participation in that
fearful piece of butchery. The guilty men, the assassins who blew up
the Maine on the night of the 15th of February, 1898, were Weylerites,
whose chief, the infamous Gen. Weyler, had been removed from office
by the Sagasta government. To resent this slight upon their chief;
to embroil their home government in a war with the United States,
and to gratify their thirst for American blood, these Weylerites,
(who themselves located the mines in Havana harbor,) watched their
opportunity and exploded the mine that destroyed our gallant vessel,
hurling into eternity 266 of as brave men as ever trod a deck.
But the vengeance that was meted out to Spain for the treachery
of her murderous [The Maine was Avenged.] sons, was sweeping and
most complete in its character. Our martyrs of the Maine have been
avenged. Spain has learned along with the rest of the nations, that
America is slow to anger but swift and terrible in her vengeance;
from the punishment of Spain the world has learned a Yankee lesson
that will be remembered in all time to come.
Apart, however, from the castigation of Spain, America had a duty
to perform in the liberation of Cuba. From the date of the arrival
of the first shipload of Spaniards in 1492 to the departure of the
last load of Spanish officials and soldiers in 1899, Cuba had rested
under a cloud. Prosperity under Spanish rule, from Valesque in 1510
to Blanco in 1898, appeared to be an impossibility. From Christopher
Columbus to Admiral Cervera, the first and the last Spanish navigators
dispatched by the crown of Spain to Cuba, the life-blood of that
fair isle had been wasted away. Its history may fitly be written in
blood. Such condition of affairs could not be endured always at the
threshold of a vast, liberty-loving Republic and Cuba's loud appeals
for aid stirred America to action. War was declared after a formal
demand upon Spain for the liberation of Cuba. The result of the war
of 1898 was that Spain stood up to the front just long enough to get
kicked into tatters.
On the 1st day of January, 1902, the military occupation of Cuba by
the troops [A Civil War in Cuba.] of the United States terminated
and the government passed into the keeping of the Cubans. The Cuban
government, under President Gomez, was beset with difficulties from
the start. It was found difficult to bridle and keep down jealousies
and partisan feelings among the Cubans themselves. They appeared to
detest one another under their native government as cordially as they
did their former task-masters, the Spaniards. As soon as the Cubans
established their own government, love of country vanished from among
them; there appeared to be no unity of purpose.
In 1907 a civil war broke out in the fair but unfortunate isle,
and during the summer of that year the terrible scenes of the last
struggle with Spain, under Weyler, were again re-enacted. During that
year and the two following years of 1908-09, the gleaming machette
once again performed its deadly work.
This fratricidal war came to an end early in 1910, when the Cubans
by a plebicite, or popular vote, rendered an almost unanimous vote in
favor of the annexation of Cuba to the United States. This important
decision was ratified by Congress and received the official signature
of President George Dewey, the hero of Manila, at noon on the 24th
day of December, 1910.