Whereas a joint resolution of Congress was approved on the 20th day of
April, 1898,[25] entitled "Joint resolution for the recognition of the
independence of the people of Cuba, demanding that the Government of
Spain relinquish its authority and government in the island of Cuba and
to withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters, and
directing the President of the United States to use the land and naval
forces of the United States to carry these resolutions into effect;" and
Whereas by an act of Congress entitled "An act to provide for
temporarily increasing the military establishment of the United States
in time of war, and for other purposes," approved April 22, 1898, the
President is authorized, in order to raise a volunteer army, to issue
his proclamation calling for volunteers to serve in the Army of the
United States:
Now, therefore, I, William McKinley, President of the United States, by
virtue of the power vested in me by the Constitution and the laws, and
deeming sufficient occasion to exist, have thought fit to call forth,
and hereby do call forth, volunteers to the aggregate number of 125,000
in order to carry into effect the purpose of the said resolution, the
same to be apportioned, as far as practicable, among the several States
and Territories and the District of Columbia according to population and
to serve for two years unless sooner discharged. The details for this
object will be immediately communicated to the proper authorities
through the War Department.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 23d day of April, A.D. 1898, and of
the Independence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-second.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
By the President:
JOHN SHERMAN,
_Secretary of State_.
[Footnote 25: See p. 155.]