Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1897-10-09
THE CASE OF SANCULLY
Discussed BY the Released Cuban
Prisoners Counsel.
CLEVELAND AND oLNEY PRAISED

Their Attitude In ignoring the Bel
1igerent Attitude OF Certain Sena-
tors, Says Senior Rodriguez, Pre-
vented an Armed Conflict With Spain
Washington, Oct. THE celebrated
case of Julio Sanguilly is presented in
semi-official form in a pamphlet is
sued by Sanguilly's counsel here, Jose
I. Rodriguez. 1t tells the story in de-
tail, and gives a number of letters pass
ing between Secretary Olney Senator
Sherman. Consul General Lee and the
United States minister at Madrid, Mr..
Hannis Taylor. AS a whole, the docu-
ment upholds the course of President
Cleveland and Secretary Olney, and
points out that the agitation in San
guilly's behalf in congress served only
to prejudice his case.
After stating that the attention OF
congress was not attracted to Sanguilly
until the very moment In which,
through skillful diplomatic manage
ment, the release of Sanguilly from i'm
prisonment without further suffering
or humiliation had been secured" the
writer says.
But that moment was one of ex-
IRENE perplexity, which the friends of
Sanguilly will not easily forget.
Through an exuberant effusion of pa
triotic zeal and most commendable
humanitarian feelings on the part of GER
tain members of the United States sem
ate; through noble, although misguided
sentiment of generous compassion, in
dustriously worked up in their minds
and in the minds of the kind hearted
people of this country by wilful mis-
representation of the facts of the case,
and by stories propagated by false
friends and intruders about wrongs
and sufferings and indignities perpe-
trated upon the prisoner, which in fact
were never perpetrated or attempted
to be perpetrated; through the desire
of certain Cuban agitators, without au-
thority to speak for the prisoners, of
posing as his friends urging extreme
measures and precipitating, If possible,
conflict between the United States
and Spain, aiming at no other end and
seeking no other things than the adj
vance of the cause in the advocation
of which they were engaged; through
the temptation into which many dis
tinguished public man Of this country
seemed to have been led of converting
a case which involved the liberty and
perhaps the life of a citizen of the
United States of America into an in
strument of opposition to the ideas and
principles represented by President
Cleveland and his secretary of state,
Mr.. Olney; though the vociferation
of certain part of the press, and
through many other causes and cir
cumstances, a condition of things which
might have proved fatal was created
at once.
"a measure of doubtful justice, and
of more than questionable efficiency,
calculated perhaps more to irritate
Spain and embroil the United States
of America in a war with that nation
than to save Sanguilly, and grounded
upon an imperfect knowledge Of the
facts of the case, was attempted to
be rushed through the United States
senate exactly at the same time in
which the determination already reach
ed by Spain to comply with the wishes
of the United States of America and
set Julio Sanguilly at liberty was be-
ing carried into execution.
1.-THE Sanguilly case reveals the fact
that all attempt, no matter how much
ular support, to force upon the adj
ministration an undesired attitude, or
to dictate to it the manner and the
form in which it's duty must be per-
formed, is foolish to the extreme, and
dangerous, even If it Is sincere.
Had it not been for this giant who
is called the American government,
had it happened for it's executive and
diplomatic department to be entrusted
to less faithful hands or to persons of
less supreme manliness and political
honesty than President Cleveland and
his secretary of state, Mr.. Olney, the
fate of Sanguilly would have been very
different. Thanks to the courage of
those two great Americans. Julio San
gully is not still lingering inside of
a Spanish fortress or serving a sentence
as cruel as ignominous.
1.-THE Intervention of the Achilles Of
the Cuban war of 1S6S-1S7S saved San
gully upon the field of battle. The in
tervention of the Achilles of the Amer
lean diplomacy saved him now from
his enemies and perhaps also from his
friends"