The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-04-08
The President May Outline His
Cuban Policy.
IN A LETTER TO CONGRESS
Was Engaged In It's Prepara-
tion Yesterday.
SECRETARY oLNEY HELPED HIM
The Message Will be Based on the Re-
ports of the Consular Officers
Now Resident in
Cuba,

Washington, April THE Senate
concurrent resolutions on the Cuban
question were delivered to Private Sec
retary Thurber this morning by Mr..
Platt, one of the executive clerks of
the Senate, They viii be sent to the
State department. as the law requires
that such resolutions shall be printed
in the book of laws annually publish
ed by the department
Secretary Olney called early at the
White House and remained in close
consultation with the President until
deferred by the notice that had been
sent to the other members to the eff
feet that there would be no Cabinet
meeting to-day. There is reason to be-
lieve that the meeting would have been
postponed regardless of the appear
ance of the measles among the children
ait the White House, in order to afford
the President an opportunity for pri-
yate deliberation with the chief mem
Der of his Cabinet, for there was a sto-
ry current, and it is believed to be we'll
founded, to the effect that the two
were engaged in the preparation of a
special message to Congress. OF
course this was Immediately assumed
to relate to the Cuban situation and to
be an exposition by the President OF
the actual state Of affairs on the is
land, as revealed in the reports of the
United States Consular officers and
other trusted sources OF information.
There is a resolution before the Presi-
dent, passed at the instance of Sena-
tor Hoar, of Massachusetts,, calling for
this information.
1t is reasoned that the President in
tray shifting the information asked
for, may see it his duty, in view of the
overwhelming majority by which the
Cuban concurrent resolutions passed
both branches of Congress, to come
out with plain statement of the rea-
sons that influence him IN preserving
unmoved the position he has assumed
towards the insurrection in Cuba,
showing from the best obtainable infOr-
nation that has reached him that, re-
gardless of the sympathy he may feel
personally for the insurgents, he is
absolutely bound by the facts as he
sees them, by precedent, and by the
dictates Of the international law, TO
persist in his attitude This view Of
the matter, of course, applies only so
long as the President is left free to
decide upon the course to be followed
by the government, since it may be
that he would take an entirely differ
ent view of the matter If Congress
should send to him a joint resolution
embodying the features Of these con
current resolutions. and assumed that
by so doing the legislative branch had
taken the direction of the matter out
OF his hands.
While it is thought likely the PIesi-
dent may send a message to Congress
in transmitting the Cuban information
requesting it, it is not certain this
message will be more than a formal
letter of transmittal. There are good
reasons why the consular reports
should be handled very guardedly since
our consuls have to continue residents
in Cuba and the work on which the
President is believed to be engaged
may be in the nature of a statement
of facts or summary of the main fea-
lures Of the confidential consular re-
ports.