The San Francisco call., 1896-02-28
ence. But whether she has done so or not

ence. The question is Can Spain CONQUER
Cuba? Can Spain continue to hold Cuba
as province? l deny 1T. | saw that the
ten long years of successful resistance to
Spain by Cuba shows that Cuba to-day has
the power to and will maintain succe ssfuI
resistance. This thing year ago was what
the French call an emeute-a mere handful
of men called brigands on the east coast.
some of whom were hung as pirates
-hostes humani generis-to-day it is an
insurrection. Every Cuban is patriot.
The Cubans have given up homes, fami-
lies, everything, through the hope of lib
erty. Tell me that people like that can
be conquered. Never, never never will
they be again willing subjects to the throne
of Spain.
Lindsay (D.) of Kentucky-What pro-
portion if any, OF the people OF Cuba are
in sympathy with Spain?
Vest-None. Even from the Spanish
press in Cuba, under the espionage of the
Spanish authorities, it can be proved that
every Cuban is in sympathy with the
patriotic endeavor TO achieve indepen-
dence and government for that island.
No instance can be found in which mil
lion and half of people, mbined and
confederated so unanimously as they are,
has ever been subjugated except by ex-
termination. What American boy does
not remember the burning oration of
Henry Clay, when he spoke Greece in 1924,
and when he predicted that so long as
Thermopyle and Marathon were remem-
bered, no Greek would lay down his arms
before the Turkish power? We are told
that these Cuban insurgents are negroes,
mulattoes, Indians. So much the more
reason why we should sympathize with
them and say: God help them in their
dire extremity
Liberty lives with the poor and op-
pressed, not with the wealthy and power
ful. 1tthrobs in the breast of the i'm
prisoned bird; it has gone with the mar
tyr 70 the stake and has taken its flight
with his soul to God. Liberty cannot be
extiuguished when the people are unan-
imous in defense of the rights which God
has given them. And if these people,
ignorant and poor, struggling against des-
potism, have initiated US should we con-
tent ourselves with a bare exposition of
sympathy with their cause? 1t is a mere
farce for us to do anything else than to de-
clare our belief to the world that the
Spanish cause is hopeless in the island of
Cuba. l deny and repudiate the doctrine
that all yestige of Spanish power must be
eliminated from Cuba before we can recog-
nize the independence OF that people.
Are we to wait until the island is made
| desolate by fire and sword? Are we to
stand silent and dumb while a Spanish
! Governor-called a general-declares his
| intention to bayonet the people OF Cuba
and to butcher them into subsection to
the Spanish Queen? I say that if we do
| God will curse us. / say that if we do,
and sit here idle until desert has been
made in that splendid island, we may be
sure that the time will come when there
will be retribution- upon us q people be-
cause we have not been true to the task
assigned Us by providence, because we
have not cherished the legacy OF self
government bequeathed to us by our
fathers.
Vests splendid rhetoric was listened to
with rapt attention and great admiration
by full Senate and crowded galleries, and
his peroration was applauded on all sides.
He was followed by Gray CD of Della
ware, who complimented him with the re-
mark that if the independence of Cuba
could be achieved by eloquence it had
been achieved by the burning words that
had fallen from the lips of the Senator
from Missouri. No one could have heard
them, he said, without sympathizing with
the feeling with which the Senator's heart
was throbblng, and without giving favora-
bic response to every. aspiration which he
had uttered for that unhappy island.
Gray went on to argue the futility OF
declaring Cuban independence when
every Senator knew that the struggle for
it had not yet succeeded.
Lodge (R.) of Massachusetts gave notice
| that he would offer as a su bstiture for the
pending resolution the resolutions re-
ported in the House from the Committee
on Foreign Affairs.
The Cuban debate is to be continued to-
morrow, Senator Sherman of Ohio being
one of those present to take part in it.
| The voting on the resolution and amend
/ p1eDtS is IN hepip at o'c