Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-06-14
CUBA.
Message Of President Grant In Regard to
Present Status Of Revolution.

WASHINGTON, June l3.--The President
sent the following to Congress late in the
/ afternoon:
To the Senate and House of Represents
tives:
In my annual message to Congress at
the beginning of its present session re-
ferred to the contest which had been for
more than a year existing in Cuba be-
tween portions of its inhabitants and the
| Government of Spain, and to the feelings
and sympathy of the people and the Gov
ernment of the United States for the peo-
pie of Cuba, as for all peoples struggling
for liberty and self government, and said
that the contest had at no time assumed
the condition which amounted TO war in
the sense of International law, or which
would show the existence of de (dcto
political organization of the insurgents
sufficient to justify recognition of bellig-
erency. During the six months W hich have
passed since the date of the message the
condition of the insurgents has not i'm
proved, and the insurrection itself, al
though not subdued, exhibits no sign of
advance, but seems to be confined TO an
irregular system of hostilities carried on
by small bands of armed men, without
concentration, through the woods and
the syesssely populated regions of the
Island, attacking from ambush convey
ances and small bands of troops, burn
ing the plantations and estates of
those not in sympathy with them.
General Quesada, a Cuban chief.
coolly, and with apparent unconcern, has
admitted the slaughter by his own delib-
crate order, in one day, of upward of $50
prisoners of war, and summary trial with
few If any escapes from conviction, con-
firmed by execution, is the fate
of those arrested on either side on sus-
picion of intidelity to the cause of the
Tkas
be the sympathies of the people or of the
Government of the United States for the
cause or objects for which part of the
people of Cuba are understood to have put
themselves in armed resistance to Spain,
there can be no question of a Just SYM
patby in conflict carried on by both par
ties alike in such barbarous violation of
the rules of civilized nations, and with
such combined outrages on the plainest
principles of humanity. We cannot dis
criminate in our censure of their mode of
conducting their contest between Spain
and Cuba. Each commits some atrocities
and outrages alike established by the
rules of war. The property of many
citizens has been destroyed or embargoed;
the lives of several have been sacrificed,
and liberties .of others restrained. In
every case that has come to the
knowledge of the Government an early
and earnest demand for reparation and
indemnity has been made, and a most
emphatic remoustranoe been presented
against the manner In which the strife is
conducted, and against the reckless de- |
structiOn af material wealth and the cruel |
disregard of established rules of civ |
ilized warfare. have, since the |
beginning of the present session of |
Congress, communicated to the House |
upon their request, an account of the |
Steps which l have taken in hopes of |
bringing the conflict to an end, and for |
securing for the people of Cuba the bless |
ings and rights of independence. The |
efforts thus made have failed, but not |
without .he assurance from Spain |
that the good offices of this |
might still avail for objects |
to which they had been addressed. |
During the whole contest the remarkable |
exhibition has beep made of large num-
bers of Cubans escaping from the Island |
and avoiding the risks OF war; congre- |
gatin in this country, at safe |
distance from the the scene ef danger, |
and endeayoring to make war upon our |
shores, to urge our people into a fight /
which they avoid, and to embroil this |
in complications and possi-
BILE hostilities with Spain. 1t can |
be doubted this last result |
is the real object of these par
lies, although carefully covered under |
the deceptive and apparently plausible |
demand for the recognition of belliger-