Our War With Spain For Cubas Freedom | Page 9

those who were
not killed outright by the explosion being penned between decks by the
tangle of wreckage and drowned by the immediate sinking of her hull.
In spite of the fact that the American public was urged to suspend
judgment as to the causes of this disaster, and that the Spanish
authorities in Havana and in Madrid expressed grief and sympathy, it,

was impossible to subdue a general belief that in some way Spanish
treachery was responsible for the calamity. With the history of Spanish
cruelty in Cuba before them, and the memory of Spanish barbarities
through all their existence as a nation, the people could mot disabuse
their minds of this suspicion.
One month later this popular judgment was verified by the finding of
the naval court of inquiry which had made an exhaustive examination
of the wreck, and had taken testimony from every available source.
With this confirmation and the aroused sentiment of the country
concerning conditions in Cuba, the logic of events was irresistibly
drawing the country toward war with Spain, and all efforts of
diplomacy and expressions of polite regard exchanged between the
governments of the two nations were unable to avert it.
For a few weeks, history was made rapidly. Conservative and eminent
American senators visited Cuba in order to obtain personal information
of conditions there, and upon their return, gave to Congress and to the
country, in eloquent speeches, the story of the sufferings they had
found in that unhappy island. The loss of the Maine had focused
American attention upon the Cuban situation as it had never been
before, and though there were no more reasons for sympathetic
interference than there had been for many months, people began to
realize as they had not before, the horrors that were being enacted at
their thresholds.
The sailors who died with the Maine, even though they were not able to
fight their country's foes, have not died in vain, for it is their death that
will be remembered as the culminating influence for American
intervention and the salvation of scores of thousands of lives of
starving Cuban women and children. Vessels were loaded with supplies
of provisions and clothing for the suffering and were sent to the harbors
of Cuba, where distribution was made by Miss Clara Barton and her
trusted associates in the American National Red Cross. Some of these
vessels were merchant steamers, but others were American cruisers,
and Cubans were not permitted to forget that there was a flag which
typified liberty, not far away. The strain upon the national patience
increased every day, and was nearing the breaking point.
PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS ACT.
After a period of restlessness in Congress which was shared by the

whole country, the President finally transmitted an important message.
It included a resume of the progress of the Cuban revolution from its
beginning and considered in some detail the workings of that
devastating policy of General Weyler, known as reconcentration. The
message related the progress of diplomatic negotiations with Spain, and
disclosed a surprising succession of events in which the Spanish
government had submitted to various requests and recommendations of
the American government. The message ended with a request that
Congress authorize and empower the President to take measures to
secure a full and final termination of the intolerable conditions on the
island of Cuba. Having exhausted the powers of the executive in these
efforts, it was left to the legislative authority of the American people to
establish such policies as would be finally efficient.
Congress rose to the occasion. The facts were at command of both
houses, their sympathies were enlisted at the side of their reason and
there was little time lost in acting. The House and the Senate, after
mutual concessions on minor details, passed as a law of the land for the
President's signature, an act directing him and empowering him to
require Spain to withdraw her troops and relinquish all authority over
the island of Cuba. The President was authorized to employ the army
and navy of the United States for the purpose of carrying into effect this
instruction and the interference was directed to be made at once. Best
of all, from the point of view of the Cuban patriots, the act declared that
the people of Cuba are and ought to be free and independent. But a few
days more of diplomacy, and war was to begin.
SPAIN DEFIES AMERICA.
It was hardly to be expected that the Spanish government and the
Spanish people would yield to the demands of the United States
without a protest. So feeble is the hold of the present dynasty upon the
throne of Spain, that it was readily understood that any concession
upon the part of the Queen Regent would arouse Spanish indignation
beyond