The San Francisco call., 1896-02-29
Spain's Tyrannical Rule Over
the Island Denounced in
Telling Style.
CHAMPI0NED BY SHERMAN
Friendly Offices of the United States
to Be Offered for the Indepen-
dence of Patriots.

~,
vote of 81 TO 6 the Senate of the United
States pnt on record to-day its views and
policy in relation to the existing reyolu-
tion in Cuba. UD to the hour of O'Clock
the debate went on, the Senators vieing
with each other in praise of the Cuban
patriots and in denunciation of Captain
General Weyler. Senator Sherman char
acterized him rather as demon than as a
general. The cruelties of Pizarre and
Cortez in Mexico and Peru and of the Duke
of Alba in the Netherlands were not over
looked, and there ran through the debate
a hardly concealed contempt for the power
of Spain.
The debate closed at P. NJ, and then
the voting began. Various amendments
were voted down or laid on the table by
large najorities, and finally came the reso-
luton of the Committee on Foreign Rela-
tious as amended by the addition to it of
Senator Cameron's resolution for the rec
ognition OF Cuban independence.
These terms of the concurrent resolu-
tion are that in the opinion of Congress a
condition of war exists between the Gov
ernment of Spain and the government
proclaimed and maintained by force of
arms by the people of Cuba; that the
United States should maintain strict
neutrality between the conteDding powers,
according TO each of them all the rights OF
belligerents in the ports and territory OF
the United States, and that the friendly
Offices of the United States should be
offered by the President to the Spanish
Government olxthe recognition of the in
dependence of Cuba.
The six Senators who voted against the
resolution were: Cafferv (D.) of Louisiana.
Chiffon (D.)o Texas, George CD of Miss
issippi, Hale (R.) Of Maine, Morrill, fR. J
OF Vermont and Wetmore (R.) of Rhode
Island.
When the vote on the resolution was an
nounced there was no demonstration
INDUCED in by the galleries, which were
overflowlng all day, but quickly emptied,
and soon after the Senate adjourned unit il
Monday.
On motion OF Sherman of Ohio, the
business of the morning hour was dis
pensed with and the resolution for the
recognition of Cuban belligerency was
taken up, and Lindsay Cd of Kentucky
addressed the Senate. He did not thi nix
that in the present emergency the subject
ought to be controlled in any way by the
..
1t was IN one sense a question of hu-
manity. War was being carried on at the
very doors of the United States between
the people of Cuba and the Spanish Gov
ernment, and it would result either in the
independence of Cuba or in the utter de-
struction of her people. Expressions of
sympathy would avail nothing to the
Cuban insurrectionists. If the United
+oly
about condition of affairs in Cuba differ
ent from that which had existed during
the last seventy years that step should be
in the direction of the ultimate independ-
ence of Cuba.
1t might be true-it was true-that af-
fairs had not yet reached a point that
would justify the United States in ac-
knowledging the independence of Cuba.
There was state of things in Cuba that
would Justify the Government of the
United States in considering proposition
for active interference in the struggle, for
the reason that it seemed highly probabl
that without such interference, either
public order could never be restored in
Cuba, or could only be restored after such
suffering by humanity and such injustice
to surrounding States as would obviously
overbalance the general evil OF all iuterfer-
ence from without. But the pending
resolution proposed no such active inter
ference. The United States had become
sponsor to the world seventy years ago
that Spain should continue to dominate
the island of Cuba, and could not escape
the responsibility of saying to Spain that
she must treat the island with some kind
of Justice. Spain owed to Cuba as much
as Turkey owed to Armenia, as much as
the United States owes to Venezuela.
If Spain did not pay the obligations
resting on her. and if her necessities pre-
vented her doing so, then the time had
come for steps to be initiated. and they
could be properly initiated only by the
Government of the United States. Over
lures should be made TO Spain for the sale
of the islands to the Cubans, the United
States to guarantee the payment OF the
sum to be agreed upon.
Sherman (R.) o. Ohio, Chairman OF the
Committee on Foreign Relations, ad-
dressed the Senate in advocacy OF the
resolution reported from that committee.
He said that he did not disguise from him.
self the danger and possibility OF hostile
movements following the action OF Con-
gress. Spain was sensitive, proud ana
gallant nation and would not submit TO
what she considered an injustice. At the
same time his convictions were strong
made stronger every day-that the con-
dition of affairs in Cuba was such that the
intervention of the United States must be
given sooner or later to put an end 10
crimes almost beyond description.
He qaoted from a pamphlet, written, he
said, IN temperate style. to show what