The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-05-21
Cuba Heard at Last.

tor MoRGAN's resolution recognizing the
Cuban patriots as belligerents, indicates
that the almost universal desire of the
American people to stop the hellish
atrocities which for two years ave gone
on in Cuba will presently be gratifed. The
suspicious resistance encountered by the
dictates Of the national conscience, from
q little knot Of New Englanders in Con-
gress, who would have found congenial
spirits among the Tories of the Revolution
and among the skulkers Of the Hartford
Convention, seems likely not to ~scandalize
us longer. Either these men are not incapa-
BILE of shame, or they shrink betimes from
exposure of their motives.
Next to Senator MORGAN, who intro.
duced the bill recognizing the Cuban revo-
%lutionists as belligerents, and who, during
fifty ensuing days, mid treachery, obstruc-
tion, and evasion, has stood forth the un-
finching protagonist of a righteous cause,
the honors of the debate thus far belong to
Senator FORAKER, Senator LINDSAY, and
Senator CANNON, to whose extended argu-
ments Senator VEST appended n pungent
and decisive question. which struck the
target in the centre. To the assertion, that
~ ioaShiCho Va ~ Suodh iCOCA5
as belligerents would be a violation Of in
ternational law, Senator FORAKER retorted
that, on the contrary, it would be strictly
in harmony and cons!stence with 1t. Spain,
as we'll as France and England, recog.
nized the bclligerency of the Confederates
before the first battle of Bull Run, yet
we never claimed that thereby they com.
mitted a breach Of the law of nations. To
other p~retensions raised by the p~ro-Spanish
Senators, Mr.. FORAKER replied by sub
hitting copies of official correspondence,
hitherto unpublished, from the files of the
State Department, in one of which the
Spanish Government admits that the larg.
est of the six provinces is in the possession
of the insurgents, and that, as regards
others, WEYLER's claim of qualification"
has no foundation. In another document
the existence of the Cuban Government is
established on Spanish authority. Migra-
tory that Government may be. but so was
the Continental Congress, when after the
fall of Philadelphia it fled to the interior
Of Pennsylvania. But, a. Mr.. FORAKER
well said, were 1t true that the Cuban
revolutionists rave no civil government
at all, they would be no worse off than
the Cuban ~loyalists. "What civil gov
ernment," he asked, "has Spain in CubaG
She has nlymartial law and military force
she has no pretence of any other kind of
government" 1t is not, manifestly, by the
DEGREES of any civil court that plantations
arc laid waste, hospitals fired, and non.
combatants murdered or starved to death.
The proof of u starvation being de.
manded by Senator ELKIHs, one of the Re.
publican backsliders who processes to know
less about Cuba than he knew a year ago,
Mr.. FORAKER answered that the proof was
on the files of the State Department, to
which as amember of the Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations he had access. Pass
ing to the legal effects of an acknowledge.
ment of belligerency. Mr.. FORAKER said
that, as a matter of course, it would
give Spanish gunboats the right to
search American vessels. T%hereupon SEN
ator ELKINs interjected that "the right
of search means war;" thereby disclos-
ing his ignorance of history. Did the
right Of search acquired by Spain as
against the United States mean wal dur
ing the ten years preceding our recogni-
ton Of the independence of Spanish-Ameri-
can republicsf Nevertheless, as President
MADISON points out In one of his messages,
his predecessor had acknowledged their
belligerency from the outset of their upris-
ing. We were then q small and feeble ma
tion, but stock operators could not handcuff
us from doing a righteous act. In conclu-
sion Mr.. FORAKER declared that during the
last two years, through the disgraceful at
titude of the Cleveland Administration, our
Government, which will not brook inter.
ference with Cuba by European powers, had
been forced to play the odious part of con-
niver at the crimes of Spain. 1t was high
time, he thought, that the United States
should cease to police it's waters in the in
terests of an Internal despotism, and should
take up the just and humane position of
absolute neutrality. No longer, he said,
should the American republic stand before
the world as a quasi accomplice with Spain
in a ferocious war. II was time to put an
end to such q covenant with sin and such q
league with hell.
For the horrors perpotrated In Cuba dur
ing the last twelvemonth Senator LINDSAY
placed q large part of the responsibility,