Finally, in February, 1895, the last insurrection against Spanish rule began, and soon developed the same features as the "Ten Years' War": both sides were guilty of outrages. The policy of the insurrectionary chief, Maximo Gómez, a man of great ability and tenacity of purpose, was to fight no pitched battles, but to keep up incessant skirmishes, to devastate the country, and to destroy every possible source of revenue, with the end in view of either exhausting Spain or forcing the intervention of the United States. He ordered first the suspension of work on all plantations; and later, in his proclamation of November 6, 1895, he ordered the destruction of all plantation buildings and their railroad connections. All laborers who continued at work in connection with any sugar factories were to be considered as traitors to their country and shot.1 General Weyler arrived in Havana February 10, 1896, as governor and captain-general of Cuba, and six days later inaugurated a "reconcentration” policy: all the inhabitants of the island outside the garrisoned towns were directed by proclamation to "reconcentrate themselves" immediately in the towns occupied by troops. Any individual who should be found outside of these towns after the expiration of eight days was to be considered a rebel and tried as such.2

The United States was not a disinterested spec

1 Senate Docs., 58 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 25, p. 125.

2 Foreign Relations, 1898, p. 739.

tator to the execution of policies which paralyzed the industries of Cuba and destroyed its commerce, for American citizens owned at least fifty millions of property in the island, and American commerce at the beginning of the insurrection amounted to a hundred millions annually. By the close of 1897 the claims on file in the state department against Spain for the destruction of property amounted to sixteen million dollars. Aside from these special pecuniary considerations the American people as a whole felt a traditional interest in the Cubans and generously extended to them the hearty sympathy which they have been so quick to bestow since the days of Henry Clay upon the Latin-American races in their struggles for freedom.

From the beginning of the insurrection the authorities in Washington were seriously embarrassed by numbers of Cubans who had sought naturalization in the United States, only to return to their native isle and there to claim a privileged status under the protection of the American government. Between February 24, 1895, and January 22, 1897, seventy-four persons claiming to be citizens of the United States were arrested by the Spanish authorities on various charges, cast into prison, and in some cases very harshly treated. Fully three-fourths of those arrested were Cubans, or sons of Cubans, who had been naturalized in the United States. Some

1 Senate Com. on For. Rels., Compilation of Reports, VII., Moore, Digest of Int. Law. VI.. 121.

339;

were released as the result of investigations that showed the charges to be groundless; others were expelled from the island; and the rest, including some who had been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment or death, were released as a concession to the United States when Weyler was recalled.'

Other Cubans, including many who were still Spanish subjects, worked out their revolutionary schemes on American soil and furnished the insurrectionists with military supplies. In order to meet this situation President Cleveland issued a proclamation June 12, 1895, in which he warned all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States against taking part in the insurrection against the established government of Spain, by doing any of the acts prohibited by American neutrality laws. Notwithstanding this proclamation illegal expeditions were constantly being fitted out in the United States by Cubans or Cuban agents, and while the great majority of them were stopped by port officials or intercepted by the navy, a number did succeed in reaching the coasts of Cuba. When it is remembered that the United States had to watch more than five thousand miles of coast, from New York to Texas, and that Spain made very inadequate provision for the patrolling of Cuban waters, the number of successful expeditions was surprisingly small.

1 Senate Com. on For. Rels., Compilation of Reports, VII., 581585. Richardson, Messages and Papers, IX., 591. 3 Moore, Digest of Int. Law, VII., 1024.

In addition to the efforts of the naval and port officials several cases were successfully prosecuted in the courts at great expense. So far from Spain having any ground for complaint, the efforts put forth by the United States were very unusual for a contest in which belligerency had not been recognized. President Cleveland's proclamation recognized insurgency as a status distinct from belligerency; it merely put into effect municipal statutes; it did not bring into operation any of the rules of neutrality under international law, for such a result could be brought about only by the recognition of belligerency, and President Cleveland consistently refused to recognize the Cubans as belligerents.1 Congress, however, attemptedo force his hand: a concurrent resolution recognizing a state of war in Cuba, and offering Spain the good offices of the United States for the recognition of Cuban independence, passed the Senate February 28, 1896, by a vote of 64 to 6; and on April 6 the same resolution passed the House by a vote of 246 to 27. The president was not bound by this resolution, and, in spite of the overwhelming majority which it had received, he ignored it; it amounted simply to an expression of opinion by Congress; and no evidence of a responsible Cuban government was forthcoming."

Meanwhile the president was following another

1 Moore, Digest of Int. Law, I., 242, 243.

1 Senate Journal, 54 Cong., 1 Sess., 158; House Journal, 54 Cong., 1 Sess., 372.

line of action. Secretary Olney addressed a note to the Spanish minister April 4, 1896, in which the United States offered to mediate between Spain and the insurgents for the restoration of peace on the basis of a more complete autonomy. To this note Spain replied under date of May 22, rejecting the offer and claiming that Cuba already enjoyed “one of the most liberal political systems in the world." The note concluded with the suggestion that the United States could contribute greatly to the pacification of the island by prosecuting "the unlawful expeditions of some of its citizens to Cuba with more vigor than in the past.' In his annual message,

December 7, 1896, President Cleveland discussed the Cuban situation at length. After rejecting as inexpedient the recognition of either belligerency or independence, and holding the purchase of the island to be impracticable, he declared: "When the inability of Spain to deal successfully with the insurgents has become manifest and it is demonstrated that her sovereignty is extinct in Cuba for all purposes of its rightful existence, and when a hopeless struggle for its reestablishment has degenerated into a strife which means nothing more than the useless sacrifice of human life and the utter destruction of the very subject-matter of the conflict, a situation will be presented in which our obligations to the sovereignty of Spain will be superseded by higher obligations, which we can hardly hesitate to recognize and disSpanish Dipl. Corresp. and Docs., 7, 8.

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