It is to be seriously considered whether the Cuban insurrection
possesses beyond dispute the attributes of statehood, which alone
can demand the recognition of belligerency in its favor.
The same requirement must certainly be no less seriously considered
when the graver issue of recognizing independence is in question, for
no less positive test can be applied to the greater act than to the
lesser, while, on the other hand, the influences and consequences of the
struggle upon the internal policy of the recognizing state, which form
important factors when the recognition of belligerency is concerned, are
secondary, if not rightly eliminable, factors when the real question is
whether the community claiming recognition is or is not independent
beyond peradventure.
Nor from the standpoint of expediency do I think it would be wise
or prudent for this Government to recognize at the present time the
independence of the so-called Cuban Republic. Such recognition is not
necessary in order to enable the United States to intervene and pacify
the island. To commit this country now to the recognition of any
particular government in Cuba might subject us to embarrassing
conditions of international obligation toward the organization so
recognized. In case of intervention our conduct would be subject to the
approval or disapproval of such government. We would be required to
submit to its direction and to assume to it the mere relation of a
friendly ally.
When it shall appear hereafter that there is within the island a
government capable of performing the duties and discharging the
functions of a separate nation, and having as a matter of fact the
proper forms and attributes of nationality, such government can be
promptly and readily recognized and the relations and interests of the
United States with such nation adjusted.
There remain the alternative forms of intervention to end the war,
either as an impartial neutral, by imposing a rational compromise
between the contestants, or as the active ally of the one party or the
other.
As to the first, it is not to be forgotten that during the last few
months the relation of the United States has virtually been one of
friendly intervention in many ways, each not of itself conclusive, but
all tending to the exertion of a potential influence toward an ultimate
pacific result, just and honorable to all interests concerned. The
spirit of all our acts hitherto has been an earnest, unselfish desire
for peace and prosperity in Cuba, untarnished by differences between us
and Spain and unstained by the blood of American citizens.
The forcible intervention of the United States as a neutral to stop the
war, according to the large dictates of humanity and following many
historical precedents where neighboring states have interfered to check
the hopeless sacrifices of life by internecine conflicts beyond their
borders, is justifiable on rational grounds. It involves, however,
hostile constraint upon both the parties to the contest, as well to
enforce a truce as to guide the eventual settlement.
The grounds for such intervention may be briefly summarized as follows:
First. In the cause of humanity and to put an end to the barbarities,
bloodshed, starvation, and horrible miseries now existing there, and
which the parties to the conflict are either unable or unwilling to stop
or mitigate. It is no answer to say this is all in another country,
belonging to another nation, and is therefore none of our business.
It is specially our duty, for it is right at our door.
Second. We owe it to our citizens in Cuba to afford them that protection
and indemnity for life and property which no government there can or
will afford, and to that end to terminate the conditions that deprive
them of legal protection.
Third. The right to intervene may be justified by the very serious
injury to the commerce, trade, and business of our people and by the
wanton destruction of property and devastation of the island.
Fourth, and which is of the utmost importance. The present condition of
affairs in Cuba is a constant menace to our peace and entails upon this
Government an enormous expense. With such a conflict waged for years
in an island so near us and with which our people have such trade and
business relations; when the lives and liberty of our citizens are in
constant danger and their property destroyed and themselves ruined;
where our trading vessels are liable to seizure and are seized at
our very door by war ships of a foreign nation; the expeditions of
filibustering that we are powerless to prevent altogether, and the
irritating questions and entanglements thus arising--all these and
others that I need not mention, with the resulting strained relations,
are a constant menace to our peace and compel us to keep on a semi war
footing with a nation with which we are at peace.
These elements of danger and disorder already pointed out have been
strikingly illustrated by a tragic event which has deeply and justly
moved the American people. I have already transmitted to Congress the
report of the naval court of inquiry on the destruction of the battle
ship _Maine_ in the harbor of Havana during the night of the 15th
of February.[6] The destruction of that noble vessel has filled the
national heart with inexpressible horror. Two hundred and fifty-eight
brave sailors and marines and two officers of our Navy, reposing in the
fancied security of a friendly harbor, have been hurled to death, grief
and want brought to their homes and sorrow to the nation.
The naval court of inquiry, which, it is needless to say, commands
the unqualified confidence of the Government, was unanimous in its
conclusion that the destruction of the _Maine_ was caused by an
exterior explosion--that of a submarine mine. It did not assume to
place the responsibility. That remains to be fixed.
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 can not assure safety and security to a vessel of the
American Navy in the harbor of Havana on a mission of peace, and
rightfully there.
Further referring in this connection to recent diplomatic
correspondence, a dispatch from our minister to Spain of the 26th ultimo
contained the statement that the Spanish minister for foreign affairs
assured him positively that Spain will do all that the highest honor
and justice require in the matter of the _Maine_. The reply above
referred to, of the 31st ultimo, also contained an expression of the
readiness of Spain to submit to an arbitration all the differences which
can arise in this matter, which is subsequently explained by the note of
the Spanish minister at Washington of the 10th instant, as follows:
As to the question of fact which springs from the diversity of views
between the reports of the American and Spanish boards, Spain proposes
that the facts be ascertained by an impartial investigation by experts,
whose decision Spain accepts in advance.
To this I have made no reply.
President Grant, in 1875, after discussing the phases of the contest as
it then appeared and its hopeless and apparent indefinite prolongation,
said:
In such event I am of opinion that other nations will be compelled to
assume the responsibility which devolves upon them, and to seriously
consider the only remaining measures possible--mediation and
intervention. Owing, perhaps, to the large expanse of water separating
the island from the peninsula, * * * the contending parties appear to
have within themselves no depository of common confidence to suggest
wisdom when passion and excitement have their sway and to assume the
part of peacemaker. In this view in the earlier days of the contest the
good offices of the United States as a mediator were tendered in good
faith, without any selfish purpose, in the interest of humanity and in
sincere friendship for both parties, but were at the time declined by
Spain, with the declaration, nevertheless, that at a future time they
would be indispensable. No intimation has been received that in the
opinion of Spain that time has been reached. And yet the strife
continues, with all its dread horrors and all its injuries to the
interests of the United States and of other nations. Each party seems
quite capable of working great injury and damage to the other, as well
as to all the relations and interests dependent on the existence of
peace in the island; but they seem incapable of reaching any adjustment,
and both have thus far failed of achieving any success whereby one party
shall possess and control the island to the exclusion of the other.
Under these circumstances the agency of others, either by mediation or
by intervention, seems to be the only alternative which must, sooner or
later, be invoked for the termination of the strife.
In the last annual message of my immediate predecessor, during the
pending struggle, it was said:
When the inability of Spain to deal successfully with the insurrection
has become manifest and it is demonstrated that her sovereignty is
extinct in Cuba for all purposes of its rightful existence, and when a
hopeless struggle for its reestablishment has degenerated into a strife
which means nothing more than the useless sacrifice of human life and
the utter destruction of the very subject-matter of the conflict, a
situation will be presented in which our obligations to the sovereignty
of Spain will be superseded by higher obligations, which we can hardly
hesitate to recognize and discharge.
In my annual message to Congress December last, speaking to this
question, I said:
The near future will demonstrate whether the indispensable condition of
a righteous peace, just alike to the Cubans and to Spain, as well as
equitable to all our interests so intimately involved in the welfare
of Cuba, is likely to be attained. If not, the exigency of further and
other action by the United States will remain to be taken. When that
time conies, that action will be determined in the line of indisputable
right and duty. It will be faced, without misgiving or hesitancy, in
the light of the obligation this Government owes to itself, to the
people who have confided to it the protection of their interests and
honor, and to humanity.
Sure of the right, keeping free from all offense ourselves, actuated
only by upright and patriotic considerations, moved neither by passion
nor selfishness, the Government will continue its watchful care over
the rights and property of American citizens and will abate none of
its efforts to bring about by peaceful agencies a peace which shall
be honorable and enduring. 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 for such action will be so clear as to command
the support and approval of the civilized world.
The long trial has proved that the object for which Spain has waged
the war can not be attained. The fire of insurrection may flame or may
smolder with varying seasons, but it has not been and it is plain that
it can not be extinguished by present methods. The only hope of relief
and repose from a condition which can no longer be endured is the
enforced pacification of Cuba. In the name of humanity, in the name of
civilization, in behalf of endangered American interests which give us
the right and the duty to speak and to act, the war in Cuba must stop.
In view of these facts and of these considerations I ask the Congress
to authorize and empower the President to take measures to secure a full
and final termination of hostilities between the Government of Spain
and the people of Cuba, and to secure in the island the establishment
of a stable government, capable of maintaining order and observing its
international obligations, insuring peace and tranquillity and the
security of its citizens as well as our own, and to use the military
and naval forces of the United States as may be necessary for these
purposes.
And in the interest of humanity and to aid in preserving the lives of
the starving people of the island I recommend that the distribution of
food and supplies be continued and that an appropriation be made out of
the public Treasury to supplement the charity of our citizens.
The issue is now with the Congress. It is a solemn responsibility.
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.
Yesterday, 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.
This fact, with every other pertinent consideration, will, I am sure,
have your just and careful attention in the solemn deliberations upon
which you are about to enter. If this measure attains a successful
result, then our aspirations as a Christian, peace-loving people will be
realized. If it fails, it will be only another justification for our
contemplated action.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
[Footnote 4: See pp. 127-136.]
[Footnote 5: See p. 136.]
[Footnote 6: See pp. 136-139.]
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, April 11, 1898_.
_To the Senate of the United States:_
I transmit herewith, in response to a resolution of the Senate of the
14th of February last, calling for information and correspondence in
regard to the condition of the island of Cuba and to negotiations for
commercial relations between the United States and that island, a report
of the Secretary of State, with its accompanying correspondence,
covering the first inquiry of the resolution, together with a report
of the special commissioner plenipotentiary charged with commercial
negotiations under the provisions of the tariff act approved July 24,
1897, in response to the second inquiry.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _Washington_, _April 11, 1898_.
The PRESIDENT:
The Secretary of State has had the honor to receive, by reference from
the President, a resolution adopted in the Senate of the United States
on the 14th of February last, reading as follows:
"_Resolved,_ That the President is requested, if in his opinion it
is not incompatible with the public service, to send to the Senate
copies of the reports of the consul-general and of the consuls of the
United States in Cuba written or received since March 4, 1897, which
relate to the state of war in that island and the condition of the
people there, or that he will send such parts of said reports as will
inform the Senate as to these facts.
"Second. That the President inform the Senate whether any agent of a
government in Cuba has been accredited to this Government or the
President of the United States with authority to negotiate a treaty of
reciprocity with the United States, or any other diplomatic or
commercial agreement with the United States, and whether such person has
been recognized and received as the representative of such government in
Cuba."
This resolution contemplates answer being made to two separable
inquiries: First, in relation to the present condition of affairs in
Cuba, and, secondly, with regard to the action had in view of the
overtures of the Government of Spain for a reciprocal commercial
agreement covering particularly the trade between the United States and
the island of Cuba.
The conduct of commercial negotiations under the authority and in
accordance with the conditions found in sections 3, 4, and 5 of the
existing tariff act, approved July 24, 1897, having been intrusted to a
special commissioner plenipotentiary duly empowered by the President to
that end, it has been deemed convenient to leave to the commissioner the
preparation of a report in answer to the second part of the Senate
resolution, the undersigned reserving to himself the response to the
first part thereof, which concerns the political and consular functions
of the Department of State. The separate report of the Hon. John A.
Kasson, special commissioner plenipotentiary, is therefore herewith
independently submitted to the President with a view to its transmission
to the Senate, should such a course be, in the President's judgment, not
incompatible with the public service.
The Senate resolution, while in terms calling for the submission to that
honorable body of all or of a practical selection of the reports of the
consul-general and consuls of the United States in Cuba written or
received since March 4, 1897, which relate to the state of war in that
island and the condition of the people there, appears to leave it to the
discretion of the President to direct the scope of the information to be
so reported and the manner of its communication. The undersigned, having
taken the President's direction on both these points, has the honor to
lay before him a selection of the correspondence received by the
Department of State from the various consular representatives in Cuba,
aiming thereby to show the present situation in the island rather than
to give a historical account of all the reported incidents since the
date assigned by the resolution.
Respectfully submitted.