The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-03-30

upon the strength of Republican insti-
tutions that do not share.
"But, Mr.. President, if annexation
cannot be accomplished, let Cuban in
dependence come. American interests
in Cuba have already suffered enough.
We have patrolled our coast in the in
terest of Spain as long as we should.
and we have spent quite too much
money in protecting our people from
epidemic diseases coming to our shores
because of the insanitary condition of
the harbor and city of Havana. Spain
has failed to meet the requirements of
an age of advanced civilization. Let
the United States or Cuba take up the
problem and solve it. The vigor shown
by our early statesmen in dealing with
Spain in relation to the acquisition of
Florida is precedent that may well be
invoked in this crisis, for no one now
hesitates to commend the action of
Monroe and Adams in dealing with
that problem. For Cuba the present is
dark and foreboding, but we must not
forget that God reigns, and that the
mighty sweep of human progress will
not rest until oppression and cruelty
are overcome and the aspirations and
hopes of all people struggling for better
conditions and higher life will be
realized. Poor Cuba, crushed and
bleeding, l commend her to the great
heart of the American people," APP
plause.
On Wednesday Senator Thurston,
who, also, with Mrs. Thurston, was of
the party of visiting American con-
gressmen, spoke on the condition of
affairs in Cuba. Mrs. Thurston, it
will be remembered, died on board the
yacht, in Cubans waters, and it is be-
lieved her death was fastened by the
distressful scenes she had witnessed
among the Cuban reconcentrados. Dy-
ing mothers, and starving and perish
ing children, appealed to her woman's
heart, and death was the answer to the
call for mothers plying help, which
she could not render. Mrs. Thurston's
dying request to her husband was to
plead for Cuba. SURPRISING his natural
desire, in his great affection, to remain
star from the madding crowd" the
senator appeared at his post in Con-
gress to obey his dying wife's last re.
quest. Following are extracts from his
speech:
"Mr. President, am here by CON-
mand of silent lips to speak once and
for all upon the Cuban situation. l
trust that no one has expected anything
sensational from me. God forbid that
the bitterness of personal loss should in
duce me to color in the slightest degree
the statement that feel it my duty to
make. shall endeavor to be honest,
conservative and just. i would shirk
this task If could, but dare not. l
cannot satisfy my conscience except by
speaking and speaking now.'
The pictures in American newspapers
of the starving reconcentrados are true.
they can all be duplicated by the thou
sands.
"The government of Spain has not
and will not appropriate one dollar to
save these people. They are now being
attended and nursed and ministered to
by the charity of the United States.
"ThiDk of the spectaclel We are
feeding these citizens of Spain, nursing
their sick, saving such as can be saved,
and yet there are those who will say it
is right for us to send food, but we
must keep our hands off; who say that
the time has not come when muskets
ought to go with food.
81 shall refer to these horrible things
no further. They are there. God pity
me, have seen them; they will remain
in my mind forever.
"And this is almost the twentieth
century. Christ died 1900 years ago
and Spain is Christian nation. She
has set up more crosses in more lands
beneath more skies, and under them
has butchered more people than all ma
tions on earth combined.
"Europe may tolerate her existence
as long as the people of the old world
wish. God grant that before another
Christmas morning the last vestige of
Spanish tyranny and oppression will
have vanished from the Western Hem
isphere."