PATIENCE AT THE VANISHING POINT.
Our Former Troubles with Spain Recalled--The Verdict of the
People--Spanish Rule a Blot on Civilization--The Attitude of
Other Nations--The Necessity for Delay--The Message to Congress--
"The War in Cuba Must Stop!"
The American people did not wait for the report of the Naval
Board to form an opinion as to the cause of the tragedy. The
masses think in events, and not in syllogisms, and this was an
event. This event provoked suspicions in the public mind. The
thought of the whole nation was instantly directed to Cuba. The
fate of the sailors on the Virginius, twenty-five years ago, was
recalled. The public curiosity about everything Cuban and Spanish
became intense. The Weyler method of warfare became more generally
known. The story of our long diplomatic trouble with Spain was
recalled. Diplomacy was obliged to proceed with doors less
securely shut. The country watched for news from Washington and
from Madrid with eagerness. It happened to be a singularly quiet
and even dull time in our own political life--a time favorable for
the concentration of public attention on any subject that
prominently presented itself.
Leslie's Weekly voiced the popular sentiment in its issue of April
14 in the following language:
"If the report of the board of inquiry is accepted as final, then
the destruction of the Maine was an act of war. The Maine was in a
Spanish harbor on a peaceful errand. Its location was fixed by the
Spanish authorities, and if a mine was planted in the harbor, it
could only have been planted by the Spaniards. To think otherwise
is to discredit the official report. The verdict may be challenged
by the Spanish government. Spain may insist on the raising of the
wreck and upon an expert examination. If such an examination is
made, and if the weight of evidence controverts the verdict, our
position will be humiliating. We take it, therefore, that our
government is entirely satisfied with the examination, and that it
accepts the verdict of the court of inquiry as final and without
appeal. This verdict makes Spain responsible for the loss of the
Maine, the sacrifice of the lives of 266 heroes, and for all the
consequences involved. The indictment must be answered. Any other
nation than this would have demanded an immediate answer. We can
wait. On the answer made by Spain the issues of the future must
depend. No policy of evasion such as Spain has pursued in all her
dealings with us will enable her to escape. She is at the bar of
judgment with bloody fingers, and must plead guilty. No other plea
can be accepted. And the punishment must fit the crime."
CAUSES LEADING TO STRIFE.
The better the condition of Cuba was understood, the more
deplorable it was seen to be; the more the government of the
island was examined, the wider seemed the divergence between
Spain's methods and our own; the more the diplomatic history of
the case was considered, the plainer became Spain's purpose to
brook no interference, whether in the name of humanity or in the
name of friendly commercial interests. The calm report of the
naval court of inquiry on the blowing up of the Maine and Senator
Proctor's report on the condition of Cuba put the whole people in
a serious mood.
These and more made their contributions to the rapidly rising
excitement. But all these together could not have driven us to war
if we had not been willing to be driven--if the conviction had not
become firm in the minds of the people that Spanish rule in Cuba
was a blot on civilization that had now begun to bring reproach to
us; and when the President, who favored peace, declared it
intolerable, the people were ready to accept his judgment.
Congress, it is true, in quiet times, is likely to represent the
shallows and the passing excitement of our life rather than its
deeper moods, but there is among the members of Congress a
considerable body of conservative men; and the demand for war was
practically unanimous, and public opinion sustained it. Among the
people during the period when war seemed inevitable, but had not
yet been declared--a period during which the powers of Europe
found time and mind to express a hope for peace--hardly a peace
meeting was held by influential men. The President and his Cabinet
were known to wish longer to try diplomatic means of averting war,
but no organized peace party came into existence. Except
expressions of the hope of peace made by commercial and
ecclesiastical organizations, no protest was heard against the
approaching action of Congress. Many thought that war could be
postponed, if not prevented, but the popular mood was at least
acquiescent, if not insistent, and it eventually became
unmistakably approving.
Not only was there in the United States an unmistakable popular
approval of war as the only effective means of restoring
civilization in Cuba, but the judgment of the English people
promptly approved it--giving evidence of an instinctive race and
institutional sympathy. If Anglo-Saxon institutions and methods
stand for anything, the institutions and methods of Spanish rule
in Cuba were an abomination and a reproach. And English sympathy
was not more significant as an evidence of the necessity of the
war, and as a good omen for the future of free institutions, than
the equally instinctive sympathy with Spain that was expressed by
some of the decadent influences on the continent; indeed, the real
meaning of the American civilization and ideals will henceforth be
somewhat more clearly understood in several quarters of the world.
American character will be still better understood when the whole
world clearly perceives that the purpose of the war was only to
remove from our very doors this cruel and inefficient piece of
medievalism which was one of the great scandals of the closing
years of the century.
Notwithstanding the fact that we were on the very verge of war,
with all its horrors, all its possibilities of destruction to life
and happiness, the nation pursued its accustomed way, transacted
its business by day, and slept peacefully at night. Upon the
shoulders of the Chief Executive rested the gravest of all
responsibilities, and the nation trusted to him to carry it
safely. Rash and impetuous demands for hasty and hostile action
were heard. Congressmen, under the pressure of their constituents,
filled the air with cries for speedy action, but amid all the
tumult the President stood serene. He realized, what the country,
strangely enough, had not comprehended, that we were drifting into
a conflict with a nation that was on a war footing. He knew that
we were totally unprepared for war. Munitions, ships, stores,
supplies, of vast amount and infinite variety, were absolutely
required before a step could be taken. Harbor defenses, a closer
connection between exposed points, and the installation of modern
armaments--a thousand things had to be done, and done at once.
Modern guns required supplies of modern ammunition, of which there
was scarcely any to be obtained on this side of the water. This
was the situation, as the President, the heads of the army and the
navy, and the Cabinet saw it, and it was left discreetly
undisclosed to the world.
They understood the necessity of delay as well as the necessity
for statesmanship of the highest quality in dealing with the Cuban
question. We lost nothing by their delay. We gained untold
advantages by their prudence, a prudence that never forsook them,
even when the preparations for war were completed. The message to
Congress was a calm, dispassionate, judicial presentation of the
case, and upon that presentation of facts and of evidence we went
before the jury of the nations of the world. There could be but
one verdict rendered that the American people could accept, and
that verdict, whether it came by peace or war, was, in the
language of the President's message, that "the war in Cuba must
stop!"