The record-union., 1896-06-01
SENATOR MORGAN'S
joint RESOLUTION.
He Thinks Congress May Adjourn Before
Acting on II.
Senate Committee Willing to Shift
Responsibility on Cleveland.
He Thinks, However, That the Lat
ter Will Hardly Venture to Issue
Proclamation at This Time
SauCy Spanish Gunboats PATROL
ing the New Jersey COast-James
S. CiarkSon of Iowa Seriously iii
in New York.

WASHINGTON, May Ex-senator
Morgan of the Senate Committee ON
Foreign Relations, and author of the
joint resolution recognizing the exist
ence of a state of war in Cuba and de-
claring the neutrality of the United
States, when asked to-day concerning
the probability of securing action upon
the resolution before adjournment, said:
Unless the House shall act upon Mr..
Hydes resolution, which is identical
with the resolution offered by me in
the Senate, that is now held up in the
Committee on Foreign Relations, Con-
gress will probably disperse before any
further action is possible. That re-
sponsfbility will doubtless hasten the
departure of some Senators. The dis
position of the majority of the Senate
committee is to devolve upon the Pres
ident a responsibility which he is evil
IDENTIFY anxious to assume.
IF any British constitutional power
was destroyed in America by the RevO-
tuition of 1776, it was the prerogative
of the crown. If the President, acting
alone, can substitute the entire body
of the laws of war for the laws of peace
which now govern our relations with
Cuba, and if he can make this total
revolution of our legal status as citi-
zens and as a nation binding upon US
by his proclamation, it is in vain that
we abolished the royal prerogative in
our Federal Constitution.
And pursuing this point further, Mr..
Morgan said: In the present state of
political agitation in the country it is
dangerously apparent that a declara-
tion of war with Spain or a declaration
of the existence of d state Of war in
Cuba, made on the sole authority of
the President, would create a fever of
excitement in the country that would
remove all other questions now under
discussion in the minds of the people
and would control the Presidential elec-
tion near at hand" Mr.. Morgan de-
clared that if after such a declaration
by the proclamation of the President
Congress should refuse to sustain the
movement, a condition Of anarchy
would follow, and he is firmly con-
WINGED that the President Will not ven
ture on so dangerous a course when
Congress diSpeTses. Abiding to the
actual existence of war in Cuba, not
withstanding the paper and diplomatic
denials thereof by Spain, Mr.. Morgan
says Spain violates her treaties with the
United States for offenses (Which he
enumerates, before military tribunals
organized to convict, and the only
means to prevent such conduct is to de-
clare the existence of a state of war in
Cuba, unless we declare war and fight
j. out.
Senator Morgan, following up the
subject in a substantial reiteration OF
many of the remarks made by him in
his speeches on the Cuban question,
asserts as follows:
The President has refused to in
form Congress Of the attitude OF the
Executive Department as to the con-
viction and sentence to death Of our
citizens who were captured on the
Competitor. That is not a negotiation
No new treaty is needed to cover ouI
rights on that subject. It is an ac-
complished fact and the victims are in
prison under q, void sentence insulting
~ imposed upon them. 1t was not the
constitutional right of the President to
withhold these facts from Congress
but he availed himself of the courtesy
of the Senate to decline to give any in
formation on the subject in response
to a resolution Of the Senate. Congress
has no official information as to this
incident Of the war and the Senate ha: