CHAPTER XV

PRESIDENT MCKINLEY'S MESSAGE

PRESIDENT MCKINLEY'S long-expected message was sent to Congress on Monday, April 11. With it were transmitted the reports of the United States consuls in Cuba in regard to conditions in the island. It had been expected on both sides of the Atlantic that the message of the President would be virtually a declaration of war. The message, however, dealt with the past rather than the future. It related facts more than it mapped out a course of action.

The President declared that reconcentration was not civilized warfare and recited the efforts of the United States to aid the reconcentrados. He asserted his belief that it would not be Reasons for wise for the United States to recogIntervention nize the so-called Cuban republic. He summarized the reasons the United States had for intervening in Cuba as follows:

First, In the interest of humanity and to put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed, and horrible miseries now existing there.

Second, We owe it to our citizens in Cuba to afford them protection and indemnity for life and property.

Third, The right to intervene may be justified by the very serious injury to the commerce, trade, and business of our people.

Fourth, The present condition of affairs in Cuba is a constant menace to our peace and entails upon this government an enormous expense.

Lastly, President McKinley asserted :

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"In any event, the destruction of the Maine,' by whatever exterior cause, is a patent and impressive proof of a state of affairs in Cuba that is intolerable. That condition is thus shown to be such that the Spanish government cannot insure safety and security to a vessel of the American navy in the harbor of Havana on a mission of peace, and rightfully there."

It was to Congress that President McKinley Decision left left the final opportunity of casting to Congress the die for peace or war. In clos

ing his message, he said:

"I ask 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 preserving 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.

"The issue is now with 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."

Congress hardly knew what to make of the President's message. In both the House of Representatives and the Senate the reading of the message was listened to with silence. After adjournment Senators and Representatives gathered in groups and discussed the President's declaration. Party lines were lost in the wilds of Cuba. Democrats warmly upheld the attitude of the Republican President. Republicans indignantly assailed the utterances of the head of their party.

CHAPTER XVI

REPORTS OF CUBAN CONSULS

BOTH Senate and House of Representatives had been demanding that reports made by the United States consuls in Cuba should be submitted to them. President McKinley had withheld these reports, fearing that the information in regard to the frightful condition of affairs would precipitate action on the part of Congress. With his message, however, he sent the consular reports. The greater part of them were compiled by General Fitzhugh Lee, Consul-General, but there were also communications from Owen McGarr, Consul at Cienfuegos; Mr. Brice, Consul at Matanzas; Effects of Pulaski F. Hyatt, at Santiago de Reconcen- Cuba, and Mr. Barker, at Sagua La Grande. As to General Weyler's order of reconcentration, General Lee wrote:

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"It transformed about 400,000 self-supporting persons, principally women and children, into a multitude to be sustained by the contributions of others or to die by starvation or of fevers. Their

homes were burned, their fields and plant beds destroyed, and their live stock driven away or killed.

"I estimate that probably 200,000 of the rural population in the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas, and Santa Clara have died of starvation or from resultant causes, and the deaths of whole families, almost simultaneously or within a few days of each other, and of mothers praying for their children to be relieved of their horrible suffering by death, are not the least of the many pitiable scenes which were ever present. In the provinces of Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba, where the reconcentrado order could not be enforced, the great mass of the people are self-sustaining."

Descriptions of the horrible conditions in Horrible Cuba were given by the consuls in Conditions graphic language. General Lee in one report wrote:

"Four hundred and sixty women and children, thrown on the ground, heaped pell-mell as animals, some in a dying condition, others dead, without the slightest cleanliness or the least help, not even able to give water to the thirsty, without either religious or social help, each one dying wherever chance laid him. Among the many deaths we saw there was one impossible to forget. There is still alive, the only witness, a young girl of eighteen whom we found seemingly lifeless on the ground. On her right side