APPENDIX C

PEACE PROTOCOL OF AUGUST 12, 1898, AND CORRES

PONDENCE.

MESSAGE

OF THE

GOVERNMENT OF H. M. THE QUEEN REGENT OF SPAIN, SUBMITTED BY H. Exc. MR. J. CAMBON, AMBASSADOR OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, TO WILLIAM MCKINLEY, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

MR. PRESIDENT:

MADRID, July 22, 1898.

Since three months the American people and the Spanish nation are at war because Spain did not consent to grant independence to Cuba and to withdraw her troops therefrom.

Spain faced with resignation such uneven strife, and only endeavored to defend her possessions with no other hope than to oppose, in the measure of her strength, the undertaking of the United States, and to protect her honor.

Neither the trials which adversity has made us endure nor the realization that but faint hope is left us could deter us from struggling till the exhaustion of our very last resources. This stout purpose, however,

does not blind us, and we are fully aware of the responsibilities which would weigh upon both nations in the eyes of the civilized world were this war to be continued.

This war not only inflicts upon the two peoples who wage it the hardships inseparable from all armed conflict, but also dooms to useless suffering and unjust sacrifices the inhabitants of a territory to which Spain is bound by secular ties that can be forgotten by no nation either of the old or of the new world.

To end calamities already so great and to avert evils still greater, our countries might naturally endeavor to find upon which conditions the present struggle could be determined otherwise than by force of arms.

Spain believes this understanding possible, and hopes that this view is also harbored by the Government of the United States. All true friends of both nations share no doubt the same hopes.

Spain wishes to show again that in this war, as well as in the one she carried on against the Cuban insurgents, she had but one object: the vindication of her prestige, her honor, her name. During the war of insurrection it was her desire to spare the great island from the dangers of premature independence; in the present war she has been actuated by sentiments inspired rather by ties of blood than by her interests and by the rights belonging to her as mother country.

Spain is prepared to spare Cuba from the continuation of the horrors of war if the United States are, on their part, likewise disposed.

The President of the United States and the American people may now learn from this message the

true thought, desire, and intention of the Spanish nation.

And so do we wish to learn from the President of the United States upon which basis might be established a political status in Cuba and might be terminated a strife which would continue without reason should both Governments agree upon the means of pacifying the island.

In the name of the Government of H. M. the Queen Regent I have the honor to address this message to your excellency, with the expression of my highest consideration.

DUC D'ALMODOVAR DEL RIO,

Ministre d'Etat.

EXCELLENCY:

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

WASHINGTON, July 30, 1898.

The President received on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 26th instant, from the hand of his excellency the Ambassador of France, representing for this purpose the Government of Spain, the message signed by your excellency as minister of state in behalf of the Government of Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, and dated the 22d instant, as to the possibility of terminating the war now existing between the United States and Spain.

The President received with satisfaction the suggestion that the two countries might mutually endeavor to ascertain the conditions on which the pending struggle may be brought to an end, as well as the expres

sion of Spain's belief that an understanding on the subject is possible.

During the protracted negotiations that preceded the outbreak of hostilities the President earnestly labored to avert a conflict, in the hope that Spain, in consideration of her own interests, as well as those of the Spanish Antilles and the United States, would find a way of removing the conditions which had, for half a century, constantly disturbed the peace of the Western Hemisphere and on numerous occasions brought the two nations to the verge of war.

The President witnessed with profound disappointment the frustration of his peaceful efforts by events which forced upon the people of the United States the unalterable conviction that nothing short of the relinquishment by Spain of a claim of sovereignty over Cuba which she was unable to enforce would relieve a situation that had become unendurable.

For years the Government of the United States, out of regard for the susceptibilities of Spain, had by the exercise of its power and the expenditure of its treasure preserved the obligations of neutrality. But a point was at length reached at which, as Spain had often been forewarned, this attitude could no longer be maintained. The spectacle at our very doors of a fertile territory wasted by fire and sword, and given over to desolation and famine, was one to which our people could not be indifferent. Yielding, therefore, to the demands of humanity, they determined to remove the causes in the effects of which they had become so deeply involved.

To this end the President, with the authority of Congress, presented to Spain a demand for the withdrawal

of her land and naval forces from Cuba, in order that the people of the island might be enabled to form a government of their own. To this demand Spain replied by severing diplomatic relations with the United States, and by declaring that she considered the action of this Government as creating a state of war between the two countries.

The President could not but feel sincere regret that the local question as to the peace and good government of Cuba should thus have been transformed and enlarged into a general conflict of arms between two great peoples. Nevertheless, having accepted the issue with all the hazards which it involved, he has, in the exercise of his duty, and of the rights which the state of war confers, prosecuted hostilities by land and sea, in order to secure at the earliest possible moment an honorable peace. In so doing he has been compelled to avail himself unsparingly of the lives and fortunes which his countrymen have placed at his command; and untold burdens and sacrifices, far transcending any material estimation, have been imposed upon them.

That as the result of the patriotic exertions of the people of the United States the strife has, as your excellency observes, proved unequal, inclines the President to offer a brave adversary generous terms of peace.

The President therefore responding to your excellency's request, will state the terms of peace which will be accepted by him at the present time, subject to the approval of the Senate of the United States hereafter.

Your excellency in discussing the question of Cuba intimates that Spain has desired to spare the island the