ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY, 1897-1901.
William McKinley--Organization of "Greater New York"--Removal of General
Grant's Remains to Morningside Park--The Klondike Gold Excitement--Spain's
Misrule in Cuba--Preliminary Events of the Spanish-American War.
THE TWENTY-FIFTH PRESIDENT.
William McKinley was born at Niles, Trumbull County, Ohio, January 29,
1843, of Scotch ancestry, his father, David, being one of the pioneers
of the iron business in Eastern Ohio.
The parents were in moderate circumstances, and the son, having prepared
for college, was matriculated at Alleghany College, Meadville,
Pennsylvania, but his poor health soon obliged him to return to his
home. He became a schoolteacher at the salary of $25 per month, and, as
was the custom in many of the country districts, he "boarded round;"
that is, he made his home by turns with the different patrons of his
school. He used rigid economy, his ambition being to save enough money
to pay his way through college.
[Illustration: WILLIAM McKINLEY.
(1843-.) One term, 1897-1901.]
Destiny, however, had another career, awaiting him. The great Civil War
was impending, and when the news of the firing on Fort Sumter was
flashed through the land, his patriotic impulses were roused, and, like
thousands of others, he hurried to the defense of his country. He
enlisted in Company E, as a private. It was attached to the Twenty-third
Ohio regiment, of which W.S. Rosecrans was colonel and Rutherford B.
Hayes major. Of no other regiment can it be said that it furnished two
Presidents to the United States.
For more than a year Private McKinley carried a musket, and on the 15th
of April, 1862, was promoted to a sergeancy. Looking back to those
stirring days of his young manhood, President McKinley has said:
"I always recall them with pleasure. Those fourteen months that I served
in the ranks taught me a great deal. I was but a schoolboy when I went
into the army, and that first year was a formative period of my life,
during which I learned much of men and affairs. I have always been glad
that I entered the service as a private and served those months in that
capacity."
McKinley made a good soldier and saw plenty of fighting. Six weeks after
leaving Columbus, his regiment was in the battle of Carnifex Ferry,
Western Virginia, where the only victories of the early days of the war
were won. It was the hardest kind of work, hurrying back and forth
through the mountains, drenched by rains, and on short rations most of
the time. The boy did his work well and was soon ordered to Washington,
where he became one of the units in the splendid Army of the Potomac
under General McClellan.
At Antietam, the bloodiest battle of the war, McKinley's gallantry was
so conspicuous that he was promoted to a lieutenancy. He was sent to
West Virginia again, where he was fighting continually. As an evidence
of the kind of work he did, it may be said that one morning his regiment
breakfasted in Pennsylvania, ate dinner in Maryland, and took supper in
Virginia.
Winning promotion by his fine conduct, he became captain, July 25, 1864,
and was brevetted major, on the recommendation of General Sheridan, for
conspicuous bravery at Cedar Creek and Fisher's Hill. The title, "Major
McKinley," therefore, is the military one by which the President is
remembered.
With the coming of peace, the young man found himself a veteran of the
war at the age of twenty-two, and compelled to decide upon the means of
earning his living. He took up the study of law, and was graduated from
the Albany, N.Y., law school, and admitted to the bar in 1867. He began
practice in Canton, Ohio, and, by his ability and conscientious
devotion, soon achieved success. He early showed an interest in
politics, and was often called upon to make public addresses. He
identified himself with the Republican party, and was elected district
attorney in Stark County, which almost invariably went Democratic. In
1876, he was elected to Congress, against a normal Democratic majority,
for five successive terms, being defeated when he ran the sixth time
through the gerrymandering of his district by his political opponents.
[Illustration: GREATER NEW YORK.
On January 1, 1898, Greater New York was created by the union of New
York, Brooklyn, Long Island City, and Staten Island, into one
municipality. The city now covers nearly 318 square miles, contains over
three and one-half millions inhabitants, and, next to London, is the
largest city in the world.]
During his seven terms in Congress, Mr. McKinley was noted for his clear
grasp of national questions and his interest in tariff legislation. It
was in 1890 that he brought about the passage of the tariff measure
which is always associated with his name. In the same year he was
defeated, but, being nominated for governor, he was elected by 80,000
majority. As in the case of Mr. Cleveland, this triumph attracted
national attention, and his administration was so satisfactory that he
could have received the nomination for the presidency twice before he
accepted it.
The presidential administration of McKinley has proven one of the most
eventful in our history, for, as set forth in the following chapters, it
marked our entrance among the leading nations of the world, in the field
of territorial expansion beyond the limits of our own continent and
hemisphere. Before entering upon the history of this phase of our
national existence, attention must be given to important happenings of a
different nature. One of these was the organization of what is popularly
known as "Greater New York."
[Illustration: THE OBELISK IN CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK.]
"GREATER NEW YORK."
For a number of years, a prominent question among the inhabitants of the
metropolis and outlying cities was that of their union under one
government. The New York Legislature in 1890 appointed a committee to
inquire into and report upon the subject. After several years of
discussion, the Legislature provided for a referendum, the result of
which showed a large majority in favor of uniting the cities referred
to. A bill was carefully framed, passed both branches of the law-making
body by a strong vote in February, 1897, and was signed by the mayors of
Brooklyn and of Long Island City. Mayor Strong, of New York, however,
vetoed the bill, but the Legislature immediately repassed it, and it was
signed by Governor Black.
The expanded metropolis began its official existence January 1, 1898,
the government being vested in a mayor and a municipal assembly, which
consists of two branches elected by the people. The population at the
time named was about 3,400,000, the daily increase being 400. Should
this rate continue, the total population at the middle of the twentieth
century will be 20,000,000, which will make it the most populous in the
world, unless London wakes up and grows faster than at present.
The area of Greater New York is 317.77 square miles. Its greatest width
from the Hudson River to the boundary line across Long Island beyond
Creedmoor is sixteen miles, and the extreme length, from the southern
end of Staten Island to the northern limits of Yonkers, is thirty-two
miles. Within these bounds are the cities of New York, Brooklyn, Long
Island City, Jamaica, all of Staten Island, the western end of Long
Island, Coney Island, Rockaway, Valley Stream, Flushing, Whitestone,
College Point, Willets' Point, Fort Schuyler, Throggs' Neck,
Westchester, Baychester, Pelham Manor, Van Cortlandt, Riverdale, and
Spuyten Devil.
REMOVAL OF GENERAL GRANT'S REMAINS TO MORNINGSIDE PARK.
The removal of the remains of General Grant to their final resting-place
in the magnificent tomb on Morningside Heights, on the banks of the
Hudson, took place during the first year of McKinley's administration,
and was marked by ceremonies among the most impressive ever witnessed in
the metropolis of the country. The final tributes to the foremost
defender of the country were made by eloquent tongues, and pens, and by
the reverent affection of the nation itself.
[Illustration: JOHN SHERMAN.
Secretary of State under President McKinley; resigned 1898.]
There have been many attempts made to analyze the character of this
remarkable man. Some of his most intimate friends failed to understand
him. Among the best of these analyses is that of Lieutenant-General John
M. Schofield. In this our last reference to General Grant, the words of
his trusted confidant deserve record:
"General Sherman wrote that he could not understand Grant, and
doubted if Grant understood himself. A very distinguished statesman,
whose name I need not mention, said to me that, in his opinion, there
was nothing special in Grant to understand. Others have varied widely
in their estimates of that extraordinary character. Yet I believe
its most extraordinary quality was its extreme simplicity, so extreme
that many have entirely overlooked it in their search for some deeply
hidden secret to account for so great a character, unmindful of the
general fact that simplicity is one of the most prominent attributes
of greatness.
"The greatest of all the traits of Grant's character was that which
lay always on the surface, visible to all who had eyes to see it.
That was his moral and intellectual honesty, integrity, sincerity,
veracity, and justice. He was incapable of any attempt to deceive
anybody, except for a legitimate purpose, as in military strategy;
and, above all, he was incapable of deceiving himself. He possessed
that rarest of all human faculties, the power of a perfectly accurate
estimate of himself, uninfluenced by vanity, pride, ambition,
flattery, or self-interest. Grant was very far from being a modest
man, as the word is generally understood. His just self-esteem was as
far above it as it was above flattery. The highest enconiums were
accepted for what he believed them to be worth. They did not disturb
his equilibrium in the slightest degree. Confiding, just, and
generous to everybody else, he treated with silent contempt any
suggestion that he had been unfaithful to any obligation. He was too
proud to explain where his honor had been questioned.
"While Grant knew his own merits as well as anybody did, he also knew
his own imperfections and estimated them at their real value. For
example, his inability to speak in public, which produced the
impression of extreme modesty or diffidence, he accepted simply as a
fact in his nature which was of little or no consequence, and which
he did not even care to conceal. He would not, for many years, even
take the trouble to jot down a few words in advance, so as to be able
to say something when called upon. Indeed, I believe he would have
regarded it as an unworthy attempt to appear in a false light if he
had made preparations in advance for an 'extemporaneous' speech. Even
when he did in later years write some notes on the back of a
dinner-card, he would take care to let everybody see that he had done
so by holding the card in plain view while he read his little speech.
After telling a story, in which the facts had been modified somewhat
to give the greater effect, which no one could enjoy more than he
did, Grant would take care to explain exactly in what respects he had
altered the facts for the purpose of increasing the interest in his
story, so that he might not leave any wrong impression.
"When Grant's attention was called to any mistake he had committed,
he would see and admit it as quickly and unreservedly as if it had
been made by anybody else, and with a smile which expressed the exact
opposite of that feeling which most men are apt to show under like
circumstances. His love of truth and justice was so far above all
personal considerations that he showed unmistakable evidence of
gratification when any error into which he might have fallen was
corrected. The fact that he had made a mistake and that it was
plainly pointed out to him did not produce the slightest unpleasant
impression; while the further fact, that no harm had resulted from
his mistake, gave him real pleasure. In Grant's judgment, no case in
which any wrong had been done could possibly be regarded as finally
settled until that wrong was righted, and if he himself had been, in
any sense, a party to that wrong, he was the more earnest in his
desire to see justice done. While he thus showed a total absence of
any false pride of opinion or of knowledge, no man could be firmer
than he in adherence to his mature judgment, nor more earnest in his
determination, on proper occasions, to make it understood that his
opinion was his own and not borrowed from anybody else. His pride in
his own mature opinion was very great; in that he was as far as
possible from being a modest man. This absolute confidence in his own
judgment upon any subject which he had mastered, and the moral
courage to take upon himself alone the highest responsibility, and to
demand full authority and freedom to act according to his own
judgment, without interference from anybody, added to his accurate
estimate of his own ability and clear perception of the necessity for
undivided authority and responsibility in the conduct of military
operations, and in all that concerns the efficiency of armies in time
of war, constituted the foundation of that very great character.
"When summoned to Washington to take command of all the armies, with
the rank of lieutenant-general, he determined, before he reached the
capital, that he would not accept the command under any conditions
than those above stated. His sense of honor and of loyalty to the
country would not permit him to consent to be placed in a false
position, one in which he could not perform the service which the
country had been led to expect from him, and he had the courage to
say so in unqualified terms.
"These traits of Grant's character must now be perfectly familiar to
all who have studied his history, as well as to those who enjoyed
familiar intercourse with him during his life. They are the traits of
character which made him, as it seems to me, a very great man, the
only man of our time, so far as we know, who possessed both the
character and the military ability which were, under the
circumstances, indispensable in the commander of the armies which
were to suppress the great rebellion.
"It has been said that Grant, like Lincoln, was a typical American,
and for that reason was most beloved and respected by the people.
That is true of the statesman and the soldier, as well as of the
people, if it is meant that they were the highest type, that ideal
which commands the respect and admiration of the highest and best in
a man's nature, however far he may know it to be above himself. The
soldiers and the people saw in Grant or in Lincoln, not one of
themselves, not a plain man of the people, nor yet some superior
being whom they could not understand, but the personification of
their highest ideal of a citizen, soldier, or statesman, a man whose
greatness they could see and understand as plainly as they could
anything else under the sun. And there was no more mystery about it
all, in fact, than there was in the popular mind."
[Illustration: SPEAKER THOMAS B. REED.
Resigned as Speaker in 1899.]
To the widow of General Grant was given the right to select the spot for
the last resting-place of his remains, she to repose after death beside
her husband. She decided upon Riverside. It then became the privilege of
his friends to provide a suitable tomb for the illustrious soldier. The
funds needed, amounting to nearly half a million dollars, were raised by
subscription, ground was broken on the anniversary of Grant's birthday,
April 27, 1891, and a year later the corner-stone was laid by President
Harrison.
The tomb of General Grant, standing on the banks of the Hudson, is an
imposing structure, square in shape, ninety feet on each side, and of
the Grecian-Doric order. The entrance on the south side is guarded by a
portico in double lines of columns, approached by steps seventy feet in
width. The tomb is surmounted at a height of seventy-two feet with a
cornice and parapet, above which is a circular cupola, seventy feet in
diameter, terminating in a top the shape of a pyramid, which is 280 feet
above the river.
The interior of the structure is of cruciform form, seventy-six feet at
its greatest length, the piers of masonry at the corners being connected
by arches which form recesses. The arches are fifty feet in height, and
are surmounted by an open circular gallery, capped with a panneled dome,
105 feet above the floor. Scenes in General Grant's career are depicted
with sculpture on the plane and relieved surfaces in _alto rilievo_. The
granite of the structure is light in color, and the sarcophagus of
brilliant reddish porphyry. The crypt rests directly under the centre of
the dome, stairways connecting with the passage surrounding the
sarcophagus, where the remains of the widow of General Grant are
eventually to repose.
[Illustration: TOMB OF U.S. GRANT, NEW YORK.]
The ceremonies attending the removal of the remains on April 27, 1897,
included three impressive displays, the ceremony at the tomb, the parade
of the army--the National Guard and civic bodies--and the review of the
navy and merchant marine on the Hudson. Those who gathered to take part
in the final tribute to the great soldier included the President,
Vice-President of the United States, the Cabinet, many State governors,
prominent American citizens, and representatives of foreign nations.
From 129th Street to the Battery, and from Whitehall up East River to
the Bridge, thousands of American and foreign flags were displayed,
while the parade of men on foot included 60,000 persons.
Bishop Newman opened the exercises with prayer, and President McKinley
made one of the finest speeches of his life, the opening words of which
were:
"A great life, dedicated to the welfare of the nation, here finds its
earthly coronation. Even if this day lacked the impressiveness of
ceremony and was devoid of pageantry, it would still be memorable,
because it is the anniversary of the birth of the most famous and
best beloved of American soldiers."
[Illustration: REVIEW OF THE NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE ON THE HUDSON,
APRIL 27, 1897.]
The President concluded with the words:
"With Washington and Lincoln, Grant had an exalted place in the
history and the affections of the people. To-day his memory is held
in equal esteem by those whom he led to victory, and by those who
accepted his generous terms of peace. The veteran leaders of the Blue
and Gray here meet not only to honor the name of Grant, but to
testify to the living reality of a fraternal national spirit which
has triumphed over the differences of the past and transcends the
limitations of sectional lines. Its completion--which we pray God to
speed--will be the nation's greatest glory.
"It is right that General Grant should have a memorial commensurate
with his greatness, and that his last resting-place should be in the
city of his choice, to which he was so attached, and of whose ties he
was not forgetful even in death. Fitting, too, is it that the great
soldier should sleep beside the noble river on whose banks he first
learned the art of war, and of which he became master and leader
without a rival.
"But let us not forget the glorious distinction with which the
metropolis among the fair sisterhood of American cities has honored
his life and memory. With all that riches and sculpture can do to
render the edifice worthy of the man, upon a site unsurpassed for
magnificence, has this monument been reared by New York as a
perpetual record of his illustrious deeds, in the certainty that, as
time passes, around it will assemble, with gratitude and reverence
and veneration, men of all climes, races, and nationalities.
"New York holds in its keeping the precious dust of the silent
soldier, but his achievements--what he and his brave comrades wrought
for mankind--are in the keeping of seventy millions of American
citizens, who will guard the sacred heritage forever and
forevermore."
[Illustration: ALASKA]
General Horace Porter, president of the Grant Memorial Association, made
an address, giving the history of the crowning work of the association,
rendering acknowledgment to those who had given valuable help, and
closing with a masterly and eloquent tribute to the great citizen whom
all had gathered to honor.
THE KLONDIKE GOLD EXCITEMENT.
There was much excitement throughout the country in 1897 over the
reported discoveries of rich deposits of gold in the Klondike, as the
region along the Yukon River in Alaska is called. These reports were
discredited at first, but they were repeated, and proof soon appeared
that they were based upon truth. In the autumn of 1896, about fifty
miners visited the section, led thither by the rumors that had come to
them. None of the men carried more than his outfit and a few hundred
dollars, but when they returned they brought gold to the value of from
$5,000 to $100,000 apiece, besides leaving claims behind them that were
worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In July, 1897, a party of miners
arrived at Seattle from the Klondike, bringing with them nuggets and
gold-dust weighing more than a ton and worth a million and a half of
dollars. Besides this, other men continually came back with such
quantities of the precious metal that it was apparent that not only were
the reports justified, but, what is the exception in such cases, the
whole truth had not been told.
The natural consequence was that a rush set in for the Klondike, which
is the name of a tributary of the Yukon, and flows through the richest
gold fields, where the mining days of early California were repeated.
Dawson City was founded at the mouth of the Klondike, and in a short
time had a population of 5,000. Before the year closed, 500 claims were
located, with more taken up daily. As was inevitable, there was much
suffering, for the Yukon is closed by ice during the greater part of the
year, and the winter climate is of Arctic severity. The most productive
fields were found to be not in Alaska, but in the British provinces
known as the Northwest Territories. While many gathered fortunes in the
Klondike, the majority, after great hardships and suffering, returned to
their homes poorer than when they left them.
[Illustration: READY FOR THE TRAIL.]
SPAIN'S MISRULE IN CUBA.
The administration of McKinley occupies a prominent place in American
history because of our brief and decisive war with Spain. A full account
is given in the pages that follow, but it is proper in this chapter to
set forth some historical facts, that will serve to clear the way to a
proper understanding of the story of the war itself.
Spain may best illustrate the certain decline of the Latin race and the
rise of the Anglo-Saxon. When America was discovered, she was the
leading maritime power of the world, but she was corrupt, rapacious,
ferocious, and totally devoid of what is best expressed by the term
"common sense." So lacking indeed was she in this prime requisite that
she alienated, when it was just as easy to attract, the weaker nations
and colonies with which she came in contact. It has been shown in the
earlier chapters of this work that when her exploring expeditions into
the interior of America were obliged to depend for their own existence
upon the good-will of the natives, and when they could readily gain and
retain that good-will, they roused the hatred of the simple-minded
natives by their frightful cruelties. The chief amusement of the early
Spaniards was killing Indians. They did it from the innate brutality of
their nature, when they could have gained tenfold more by justice and
kindness.
The treatment of those poor people was precisely what on a larger scale
has been shown to her colonies. England wins and holds her dependencies
through her liberality and justice; Spain repels hers through her
treachery, falsehoods, and injustice. As a consequence, England has
become one of the mightiest nations in the world, while Spain has
steadily declined to a fourth-rate power. With the example of the
results of her idiocy, to say nothing of its dishonor, ever before her,
she has persisted in that idiocy, never learning from experience, but
always selfish, short-sighted, cruel, treacherous, and unjust.
The steadiness with which Cuba clung to the mother country won for her
the title of the "Ever Faithful Isle." Had she received any
consideration at all, she still would have held fast. She poured
princely revenues into the lap of Spain; when other colonies revolted,
she refused to be moved. It required long years of outrage, robbery, and
injustice to turn her affection into hate, but Spain persisted until the
time came when human nature could stand no more. The crushed worm turned
at last.
When Napoleon Bonaparte deposed the Bourbon King, Ferdinand VII., in
1808, and placed his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain, Cuba
declared her loyalty to the old dynasty, and the king made many promises
of what he would do to prove his gratitude when he should come to his
own. This took place five years later, whereupon the king violated every
pledge he had made.
The truth gradually worked its way into the Cuban mind that the only
thing a Spaniard could be depended upon to do is to violate his most
solemn promises. Secret societies began assuming form in the island,
whose plotting and aim were to wrest their country from Spain, on the
ground of the non-fulfillment of the pledges made by Ferdinand VII. of
what he would do when he came to the throne.
Preparations were made for a revolt, whose avowed object was the
establishment of a Cuban republic. A certain night in 1823 was fixed
upon for a general uprising, but there were traitors in the councils,
who notified the authorities, and, before the date named, the leaders
were arrested and the revolt quenched ere a blow could be struck.
These severe measures could not quell the spirit of liberty that was
abroad. It was not long before the Black Eagle Society was formed. It
included many hundred members, had its headquarters in Mexico, and
boldly secured recruits in the United States. But again the cause was
betrayed by its members, the leaders were arrested and imprisoned, and
Spain was secure for a time in the control of the island.
As an illustration of that country's course against suspected citizens,
it may be said that in 1844 a rumor spread that large numbers of the
slaves on the plantations near Matanzas were making secret preparations
to rise and slay their masters. Investigation failed to establish the
truth of these charges, but many were put to the torture to compel them
to confess, and nearly a hundred were condemned and shot in cold blood.
[Illustration: GENERAL CALIXTO GARCIA.
Hero of three wars for Cuba's freedom. Died of pneumonia in Washington,
D.C., December, 1898.]
Naturally the affairs of Cuba from its proximity were always of great
interest to the United States, and a number of filibustering expeditions
landed on the island and aided the Cubans in their futile revolts
against Spain. These attempts at their best could only keep the island
in a turmoil, and give Spain the pretext for using the most brutal
measures of repression.
In 1868 a revolution occurred in Spain itself, and Queen Isabella, one
of the worst rulers that sorely accursed country ever had, was driven
into exile. Cuba had not forgotten the lesson of the opening of the
century, and, instead of proclaiming her loyalty to the deposed dynasty,
she seized what promised to be a favorable opportunity for gaining her
own independence.
One of the fairest and most impartial publications anywhere is the
_Edinburgh Review_, which used the following language in giving the
reasons for the Cuban revolt of 1868:
"Spain governs the island of Cuba with an iron and blood-stained
hand. The former holds the latter deprived of political, civil, and
religious liberties. Hence the unfortunate Cubans being illegally
prosecuted and sent into exile, or executed by military commissions,
in times of peace; hence their being kept from public meetings, and
forbidden to speak or write on affairs of State; hence their
remonstrances against the evils that afflicted them being looked upon
as the proceedings of rebels, from the fact that they are obliged to
keep silence and obey; hence the never-ending plague of hungry
officials from Spain to devour the product of their industry and
labor; hence their exclusion from the art of government; hence the
restrictions to which public instruction with them is subjected in
order to keep them so ignorant as not to be able to know and enforce
their rights in any shape or form whatever; hence the navy and the
standing army, which are kept in their country at an enormous
expenditure from their own wealth to make them bend their knees and
submit their necks to the iron yoke that disgraces them; hence the
grinding taxation under which they labor, and which would make all
perish in misery but for the marvelous fertility of their soil."
The opportunity was a golden one for Spain to win back the affection of
Cuba by generosity and justice. What steps did she take to do so?
Although the Cubans were ground to the very dust by taxation, levied in
all cases by Spaniards, and not by their own officials, Spain proposed,
in 1868, to add to the burden. In October of that year Carlos M. de
Cespedes, a lawyer of Bayamo, raised the standard of revolt, placed
himself at the head of a handful of patriots, which were soon joined by
thousands, and in April, 1869, a republican constitution was adopted,
slavery declared abolished, Cespedes was elected president, Francisco
Aguilero vice-president, and a legislature was called together.
There never was hope of this insurrection securing the independence of
Cuba. The patriots were too few in number, too badly armed and equipped,
and not handled so as to be effective. But they caused great suffering
and ruin throughout the island. They instituted a guerrilla system of
warfare, and cost Spain many valuable lives. The wet and rainy seasons
came and went, and still the savage fighting continued, until at last
the rebels as well as the Spaniards were ready to welcome peace.
Martinez Campos was the Spanish commander, and he promised General
Maximo Gomez, leader of the insurgents, that the reforms for which he
and his comrades were contending should be granted on condition that
they laid down their arms. The pledge was a sacred one, and no doubt
Campos meant honestly to keep it. Unfortunately, however, there were
higher powers than he behind him. Gomez accepted the promises of a
brother soldier, and on February 10, 1878, the treaty of El Zanjon was
signed.
This treaty guaranteed representation to the Cubans in the Spanish
Cortes, and all who took part in the insurrection were pardoned.
Now the lesson of all this was so plain that the wayfaring man, though a
fool, had no excuse for erring. Spain had bitterly learned the temper of
the Cubans. She could not fail to see that but one possible way existed
for her to retain control of them, and, of course, that was the very way
she avoided. The Madrid authorities thought they did a wise thing when
they secured control of the polls, and made sure that the delegates
elected were their own. Schools, sewerage, roads, everything that could
help the island were neglected and taxation increased. The reforms
promised to the insurgents upon condition of laying down their arms
proved a delusion and a snare. Thus the "captain-general" had his name
changed to "governor-general," but his tyrannical powers remained the
same as before. The right of banishment was formally repealed, but the
outrages continued under another law that was equally effective, and so
on to the end of the chapter. Once again the Cubans had been fooled by
trusting to Spanish honor. They resolved that as soon as arrangements
could be effected, they would set another insurrection on foot, which
would be fought out to the death or until independence was secured.
[Illustration: GENERAL MAXIMO GOMEZ.
_The Washington of Cuba_ is the title applied to this hero, who, as
Commander-in-Chief of the patriot army, made Cuban liberty possible.]
Several important ends were accomplished by the Ten Years' War. Slavery
was abolished in 1886, and the island was divided into the present six
provinces. As in previous instances the United States was counted upon
for the greatest material assistance in prosecuting the revolution. The
spirit of adventure is always strong among Americans, and the
filibustering enterprises appealed strongly to them. The spice of danger
by which they were attended was their chief attraction. Our government
was bound by treaty to prevent them, so far as she could, and it went to
great expense in doing so. A number of expeditions were unable to get
away from New York, but others escaped the vigilance of officials, and
landed guns, ammunition, and men at different points on the island. One
of the greatest helps in this unlawful business was the dishonesty of
the officials employed by Spain to prevent the landing of supplies and
men. There was never any difficulty in bribing these officers, who
stumbled over one another in their eagerness to be bribed.
THE LAST CUBAN REVOLUTION LAUNCHED.
Meanwhile, the leaders in the former late revolt were consulting upon
the best steps to launch the new revolution. Maximo Gomez was living in
San Domingo, and, when he was offered the command of the revolutionary
forces, he promptly accepted the responsibility. The offer came to him
through Jose Marti, the head of the organization.
The grim veterans were resolute in their purpose. After studying the
situation, they agreed that a general uprising should be set on foot in
all the provinces on February 24, 1895. It was impossible to do this,
but the standard of revolt was raised on the date named in three of the
provinces.
One Spanish official read truly the meaning of the signs. He was
Calleja, the captain-general. Though the revolt in the province of
Santiago de Cuba looked trifling, he knew it was like a tiny blaze
kindled in the dry prairie grass. He wished to act liberally toward the
insurgents, but the blind government at Madrid blocked his every step.
Since it had played the fool from the beginning, it kept up the farce to
the end. They ordered Calleja to stamp out the rebellion, and he did his
utmost to obey orders.
Could the royal and insurgent forces be brought to meet in fair combat,
the latter would have been crushed out of existence at the first
meeting. But the insurgent leaders were too shrewd to risk anything of
that nature. They resumed their guerrilla tactics, striking hard blows,
here, there, anywhere that the chance offered, and then fled into the
woods and mountains before the regulars could be brought against them.
Such a style of warfare is always cruel and accompanied by outrages of a
shocking character. The Cubans were as savage in their methods as the
Spaniards. They blew up bridges and railroad trains with dynamite,
regardless of the fact that, in so doing, it was the innocent instead of
the guilty who suffered. They burned the sugar cane, destroyed the
tobacco and coffee plantations, and impoverished the planters in order
to shut off the revenues of Spain and deprive her forces of their needed
supplies; they spread desolation and ruin everywhere, in the vain hope
that the mother country could thus be brought to a realizing sense of
the true situation.
But Spain was deaf and blind. She sent thousands of soldiers across the
Atlantic, including the members of the best families in the kingdom, to
die in the pestilential lowlands of Cuba, while trying to stamp out the
fires of revolution that continually grew and spread.
The island was cursed by three political parties, each of which was
strenuous in the maintenance of its views. The dominant party of course
was the loyalists, who held all the offices and opposed any compromise
with the insurgents. They were quite willing to make promises, with no
intention of fulfilling them, but knew the Cubans could no longer be
deceived.
The second party was the insurgents, who, as has been shown, had
"enlisted for the war," and were determined not to lay down their arms
until independence was achieved. The autonomists stood between these
extremes, favoring home rule instead of independence, while admitting
the misgovernment of Cuba.
[Illustration: JOSE MARTI.
President of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. Led into ambush and killed
by the Spaniards, May 19, 1895.]
The Spaniards were determined to prevent the coming of Antonio Maceo, a
veteran of the Ten Years' War, possessed of great courage and resources,
who was living in Costa Rica. They knew he had been communicated with
and his presence would prove a tower of strength to the insurgents.
Bodies of Spanish cavalry galloped along the coasts, on the alert to
catch or shoot the rebel leader, while the officials closely watched all
arrivals at the seaports for the feared rebel.
Despite these precautions, Maceo and twenty-two comrades of the previous
war effected a landing on the eastern end of the island. They were
almost immediately discovered by the Spanish cavalry, and a fierce fight
followed, in which several Cubans were killed. Maceo fought furiously,
seemingly inspired by the knowledge that he was again striking for the
freedom of his country, and he came within a hair of being killed. He
eluded his enemies, however, and, plunging into the thickets, started
for the interior to meet the other insurgent leaders. The abundance of
tropical fruits saved him from starving, and it was not long before he
met with straggling bodies of his countrymen, who hailed his coming with
enthusiasm. Recruits rapidly gathered around him, and he placed himself
at the head of the ardent patriots.
It was just ten days after the landing of Maceo that Gomez and Jose
Marti, coming from Santo Domingo, landed on the southern coast of Cuba.
They had a lively time in avoiding the Spanish patrol, but succeeded in
reaching a strong force of insurgents, and Gomez assumed his duties as
commander-in-chief. Recruits were gathered to the number of several
thousand, and Gomez and Marti started for the central provinces with the
purpose of formally establishing the government. Marti was led astray on
the road by a treacherous guide and killed.
Fully alive to the serious work before him, Captain-General Calleja
called upon Spain for help in quelling the rebellion. She sent 25,000
troops to Cuba and Calleja was relieved by Field-Marshal Campos. This
was a popular move, for it was Campos who brought the Ten Years' War to
a close, and it was generally believed he would repeat his success.
The first important act of Campos was to divide Cuba into zones, by
means of a number of strongly guarded military lines, extending north
and south across the narrower part of the island. They were called
"trochas," and were expected to offer an impassable check to the
insurgents, who, thus confined within definite limits, could be crushed
or driven into the sea with little difficulty.
[Illustration: ANTONIO MACEO.
Lieutenant-General in the Cuban Army.]
The scheme, however, was a failure. The rebels crossed the trochas at
will, kept up their guerrilla tactics, picked off the regulars,
destroyed railroad trains, and went so far as to shoot the messengers
who dared to enter their camp with proposals for making peace on other
terms than independence.
The Cubans were full of hope. They had their old leaders with them, men
who had led them in former campaigns and proven their courage and skill.
Recruits flocked to their standards, until it has been estimated that by
the close of the year fully 20,000 insurgents were in the field. With
such strong commands, the leaders were able to attain several important
successes. Considerable bodies of the regulars were defeated with
serious losses, and, in one instance, Campos succeeded in saving himself
and command only by the artillery he happened to have with him.
Campos had prosecuted the war through civilized methods, and, therefore,
fell into disfavor at home. He was not a representative Spanish
commander, and was now superseded by General Valeriano Weyler, who
arrived in Havana in February, 1896. This man had as much human feeling
in his heart as a wounded tiger. His policy was _extermination_. He
established two powerful trochas across the island, but they proved as
ineffective as those of Campos. Then he ordered the planters and their
families, who were able to pick up a wretched living on their places, to
move into the nearest towns, where they would be able to raise no more
food for the insurgents. It mattered not to Weyler that neither could
these reconcentrados raise any food for themselves, and therefore must
starve: that was no concern of his. As he viewed it, starvation was the
right method of ridding Cuba of those who yearned for its freedom.
[Illustration]
No pen can picture the horrors that followed. The woeful scenes sent a
shudder throughout the United States, and many good people demanded that
the unspeakable crime should be checked by armed intervention. To do
this meant war with Spain, but we were ready for that. A Congressional
party visited Cuba in March, 1898, and witnessed the hideous suffering
of the Cubans, of whom more than a hundred thousand had been starved to
death, with scores still perishing daily. In referring to what they
saw, Senator Proctor, of Vermont, said: "I shall refer to these horrible
things no further. They are there. God pity me, I have seen them; they
will remain in my mind forever, and this is almost the twentieth
century. Christ died nineteen hundred years ago, and Spain is a
Christian nation. She has set up more crosses in more lands, beneath
more skies, and under them has butchered more people than all the other
nations of the earth combined. God grant that before another Christmas
morning the last vestige of Spanish tyranny and oppression will have
vanished from the western hemisphere."
The ferocious measures of Weyler brought so indignant a protest from our
country that he was recalled, and his place taken by General Ramon
Blanco, who reached Havana in the autumn of 1897. Under him the
indecisive fighting went on much as before, with no important advantage
gained by either side. Friends of Cuba made appeals in Congress for the
granting of belligerent rights to the insurgents, but strict
international law demanded that their government should gain a more
tangible form and existence before such rights could be conceded.
Matters were in this state of extreme tension when the blowing-up of the
_Maine_ occurred. While riding quietly at anchor in the harbor of
Havana, on the night of February 15, 1898, she was utterly destroyed by
a terrific explosion, which killed 266 officers and men. The news
thrilled the land with horror and rage, for it was taken at once for
granted that the appalling crime had been committed by Spaniards, but
the absolute proof remained to be brought forward, and the Americans,
with their proverbial love of justice and fair-play, waited for such
proof.
Competent men were selected for the investigation, and they spent three
weeks in making it. They reported that it had been established beyond
question that the _Maine_ was destroyed by an outside explosion, or
submarine mine, though they were unable to determine who was directly
responsible for the act.
The insistence of Spain, of course, was that the explosion was
accidental and resulted from carelessness on the part of Captain Sigsbee
and his crew; but it may be doubted whether any of the Spanish officials
in Havana ever really held such a belief. While Spain herself was not
directly responsible for the destruction of the warship and those who
went down in her, it was some of her officials who destroyed her. The
displacement of the ferocious Weyler had incensed a good many of his
friends, some of whom most likely expressed their views in this manner,
which, happily for the credit of humanity, is exceedingly rare in the
history of nations.
[Illustration: PRESIDENT MCKINLEY AND THE WAR CABINET
LYMAN J. GAGE, JAS. WILSON, C.N. BLISS,
Sec'y of the Treasury. Sec'y of Agriculture Sec'y of the Interior.
PRESIDENT MCKINLEY. JOHN W. JOHN D. WM. R. RUSSELL A. CHAS. EMORY
GRIGGS, LONG, DAY, ALGER, SMITH,
Attorney Sec'y of Sec'y Sec'y Postmaster
General. the Navy. of State. of War. General.]
The momentous events that followed are given in the succeeding
chapters.
[Illustration.]