The Florence tribune., 1898-05-14
SURRENDER OF
 THE VIRGINIUS,
FIFTY-THREE BRAVE AMERICANS
 BUTCHERED.
Their Heads Carried Through the Streets on P0les-A Vivid Pen Picture of Spanish Cruelty;
 Historical Sketch.

The entire history of diplomatic diff ferences between the United States and Spain is record of Spanish arro- gance and insult which has been re. ceived and pocketed in a spirit not fiattering to'our national pride.
 The tearing down and trampling of the American flag, the stsning of our ,consulates, and other indignities heaped upon the representatives of our Government in Spain, followed by per functory and insineere official apolo- -gies, are acts which are the consistent and logical results of tame submission to insult in the past.
 The idea tn at the Yankee is com ;1nercia1 creat ure who vin under no circumstances fight, which is so firmly lodged in the Hida1go mind, got its greatest excuse for existing from the Virginius affair, in which the nominal act of reparation was an added indig- nity, carefully planned and insolently carried out.
 The following story of the surrender of the Virginius was told by Major M. F. Handy, theonly ciri1ian witness of it, in the New York Mail and Express |: "Twenty-three years ago namely HS73-American sympathy for the Gu ban struggle for freedom ran as high us it does today, !" writes Major Han ,dy, land we were apparently as near war with Spain, or even neaEer, than now. Togo farther back, 20 years be- fore, there had been proposition for the United States to buy Cuba, and it had been haughtily if not contemptn- ously rejected by Spain, That propo- sition was the outgrowth of the desire of the Southern Democratic leaders to increase the slave territory and strengthen the pro-slavery representa- ton in Congress by the manufacture of new States carved out of the Island of Cuba.
 "In 1873 the situation had changed for better iu the United States as wefl as in Cuba. The United States had re pudiated slavery. Amefica's sympathy for Cuba's aspirations for indepen asnce. and their desire.for the aequisi- ton of Cuba, 50 far as;such desire ex- isted. was sincere, sHnd inspired by loftier if not wholly disinterested i'm pulses. This sympathy animated tht American people without regard tt partisan affiliations and without accru ing benefit to either of the great DO litical parties at the expense of th' other. Singularly enough-and tn fact is now generally gotten-Spair was at that time republic under Elm lilo Castelar,. Americans believed tha the leopard was going to change it spots. They were urged to wait, tha once peace was restored Cuba woul' share the enlightening that had begun to shed it's beams over Spain and he nossessions. All Castelar's eloquenc and sophistry were employed in the ea fort to impress this view upon those | authority at Washington, and not with out effect.
 "The Cubans residing in this cour try, especially in New York and othe coast cities, nearly all of them natul alized, and all of them rich, though they knew Spain as well as Castelal and took nc stock in her conversion { Republican principles, much less in he willingness, either under Republics or monarchical form of government, f do anything for Cuba in the way { loosening the ties binding her lik whipcords, not like ties of affection, i the mother. They encouraged the brethren in chains to revolt, The sent money and men and arms for tl reinforcement of the revolutionist Filibusteriug expeditions were con mon. One Of the best ships engaged