The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-05-17

WASHINGTON, May 16.-An enthu-
siastic audience of men and women,
many of them well known in Wash
ington, packed the Columbia theater
to it's doors this afternoon at monster
mass meeting held in behalf of the
cause of Cuban insurgents. The thea
ter was appropriately decorated. Seat
ed on the platform and participating
in the exercises were Senators CALM
ger and Allen, ex-senator Butler, Of
South Carolina; Rev. Hugh Johnson,
pastor of the Metropolitan Methodist
church; Rev. Howard Wilbur Ennis
and a number of others identified with
the interests Of the insurgents. Gen.
William Henry Brown, president of the
Cuban league. called the meeting to
order and introduced Senator Gallinger
as the presiding officer. The latter
made brief address and read num-
Der Of letters and kilograms Of re-
grets among them being those from
Senators Frye and Burrows and Com
mander Clarkson, of the G. A. r. Sen
ator Chandler sent the following letter
Of regrets:
Washington, D. c., May 1s.-senor A. A..
Agu1rre, Washington-Dear Sir: Although
unable to attend the meeting tonight send
few words of sympathy, and of hops for the
relief and independence of Cuba.
AS I wish to see the United States declare
and maintain the independence Of the island
as France did that of the American colonies
and made the United States nation, of course
l shall, as friend, vote for every minor
method tending to the same benefcent end
I hope and believe that congress and the pres
1dent Will soon formally recognize a state Of
war and Cuban belligerency. This step, fol-
lowed as 1t will be by all the other inde-
pendent nations Of the Western hemisphere
cannot fail to ensure the Cuban independ-
ence which is sought for. Moreover. with
out delay we ought to send a fleet to enter
the harbor and an army to land upon the
soil of Cuba, first to protect the lives and
property of American citizens, and secondly
to stop the atrocities and uncivilized meth
DDS OF warfare adopted by the Spanish gen.
erals.
In advocating all these measures I am
conscious Of no passionate hostility to Spain
In 1861 she recognized the Southern Con-
federacy within less than three months after
Its military struggle began; and surely il
she cannot hold Cuba without making it one
vast desert and graveyard by driving the in
habitants into starvation and by hanging,
shooting and garroting Cuban officers and
she ought to lose the island. IT, between
1861 and 1866, one Confederate general had been
thus put to death all the powers of Europe,
with one accord, would have sent their fleets
and armies 600 miles across the ocean to, end
such barbarous warfare and to establish and
maintain the Southern Confederacy Yet Gen.
Robert E. Lee and all his generals were as
truly guilty of rebellion and incendiarism as
was Theodore Menendez Gonzales, who was
shot for that offense at Cabanas fortress in
Havana Monday last.
We blame England for abandoning the
harmless and peaceful Armenian Christians
to massacre by the Moslems, and for sub
mitting the iberty-loving Greeks to slaughter
by the Turkish despot. England retorts that
we dare not stop the methods of uncivilized
warfare applied at our very doors in the
American Crete-the fair island of Cuba; and
both charge and countercharge are Justly
made.
In helping to make Cuba Independent we
are observing a traditional and universal
American policy; the duty to promote at the
first good opportunity the severance of Cuba
and Spain. In 1896 also the Democrats
pledged themselves to do this by their dec
laration of sympathy "for the people of
Cuba in their heroic struggle for liberty and
independence" and the Republicans by their
promise that the United States should en-
deavor to restore peace and give independ-
ence to the island"
There need be little fear that these pledges
will be violated. President Mckinley will
ingly recognizes the binding force of the plat
form upon which he was elected and will