Birmingham state herald., 1896-03-03

MT. Hltt,- repuDIcan, or llllnOlS, cnalf-
 man of the foreign affairs committee, then called up the senate Cuban resolu- | tionS, and moved to suspend the rules and pass the resolutions reported by the | house foreign affairs committee in lieu | of the senate resolutions.
 1 The house resolutions were then read | at the clerks desk. The text of them | was:
 | Resolved by the houseof representatives
 the senate concurring, That in the opin- | ion of congress a state of public war ex- | ists in Cuba, the parties to which are en- titled to belligerent rights, and the United | States should observe a strict neutrality | between the belligerents.
 | Resolved, That congress deplores the destruction of life and property caused | by the war now waging in that island, 1 and believing that the only permanent | solution of the contest, equally in the | interest of Spain, the people of Cuba and | other nat as, would be in the establish ! ment of a government by the choice of | the people of Cuba, it is the sense of con- | gress that the government of the United l States should use it's good offices and | friendly infir .sto that end.
 1 Resolved, That the United States has not intervened in the struggles between
 any European governments and their | colonies on this continent but from the l very close relations between the people
 of the United States and those of Cuba,
 Tn consequence of its proximity and the l extent of the commerce between the two l peoples, the present war is entailing such 1 losses upon the people of the United
 States that congress is of the opinion l that the government of the United States 1 should be prepared to protect the legiti- mate interests of Americans by interven- | ton if necessary
 Mr. McCreary, democrat of Kentucky, desired to know why the fourth in the above series of resolutions was not read. | This resolution pledged to the president l the support of congress in carrying out
 the foregoing resolutions.
 l MT. Hit, replying. said that the fourth
 resolution had been omitted because the l greater number of the committee had re- l quested him to drop it, since, in their
 opinion, the sense was contained in the preceding resolutions, and was, there- l fore, unnecessary.
 l MT. Boutelle demanded a second to the
 motion, and it was ordered by a vote of l 175 to 19
 1 At the request of MT. Hit thirty-five
 minutes on each side were allowed for | debate.
 | The debate was opened by MT. Hitt | The resolutions, he said, had been con-
 sidered with great care by the commit 1 tee in many meetings, passing through several months. and after consultation with many eminent ur,sts. It was the | belief of the committed that in the inter | est of peace, in the interest of the United l States and in the interest of those who were struggling in Cuba, and with whom
 the committee sympathized, the resolu- | tions presented were practical, con | servatve and effective mode of action. | The United States government. he said,
 should be prepared to protect the inter- ests of American citizens, but to inter- vene if necessary.
 All the resolutions had been carefully l considered, so that they could not, and
 certainly ought not, cause any trouble between the United States, and that any
 country was not seeking to pick trouble | with us"
 That belligerency was fact was l proved, not by newspaper reports alone, | but by the reports of United States con-
 suls in Cuba. The war in Cuba was not | a reproduction of that which prevailed l from 1868 to 1878. It was a far greater
 one, three times greater It had gone on until it had swept from one end of the
 island to the other, until to-day the | Spanish authority was not in fact exer- l cised over more than one third probab bly l not more than one-fourth of the fl 900 square miles of the surface of the island. | The Spanish minister at Washington had made statement on February 22 to the
 the effect that 125, 900 troops had been sent | to Cuba by Spain. Was not that war? | Was that a police putting down disturb
 ances? Recently the captain general of | Cuba had issued two long proclamations, which had been read. with horror. It | | the struggle in Cuba was guerrilla war | merely. Guerrilla warfare was a great | and terrible instrument. in the genius of 1 the Spanish race. One hundred and fifty | thousand of the finest soldiers of the world had marched into Spain and att 1 tempted to subdue a people which could | only exist by guerrilla warfare, and the | SpaniardS destroyed that French army. l Was not that, MT. Hit asked, war? Should any Spaniard deny that it was?
 There was not a Spaniard who was not | proud of that history. MT. Hit recalled 1 the fact that the belligerency of the | Southern Confederacy had been recog- l nized by Spain a month before the first | battle of the war-the battle of Bull Run. | The government of the United States l should now, through it's state depart ment, ask that the people of Cuba should l have government of their own choice. 1 Wherever American interests were inn 1 periled, MT. Hit declared in conclusion, | mar.nes should be landed to protect them. 1 The great arm of the republic he ex- | claimed, ON5 Int to be ready always to fol-
 low its people and protect their interests, 1 their property and their rights, anywhere i in the world. Applause on the floor and | in the galleries.)
 i MT McCreary a member of the corn 1 mittee on foreign affairs, declared himself i emphatically in favor or the pending i resolutions. He was not yet, however in l favor of annexing Cuba to the United | States. He was ready to do everything | consistent with the honor and integrity 1 of the United States to give independ-
 ence to Cuba (applause) and to free | the struggling patroits from a cruel and l relentless despotism MT. McCreary 1 spoke of the brutal outrages and bar 1 barous atrocities of the Spaniards in 1 Cuba The time had come, he declared,
 when congress should do something. The 1 time had come when the inhuman war in | Cuba should be stopped. Cuba had an !! organized government, legislature. an | organized army and her people had suc- 1 cessfully met 100000 Spanish soldiers. In i his ol ion the resolutions reported from
 the committee on foreign affairs were | proper and should be adopted. He want | ed to see Cuba free, and he believed that
 in Gods own time Cuba would be free l and independent republic. (Applause) 1 MT. Adams, republican, of Pennsyl- vania chairman of the sub committee on 1 Cuba appointed by the committee on ! foreign affairs, advocated the resolutions. i They had been drafted, he said, in the
 most conservative spirit His own opin-