Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1898-03-30
FREEDOM FOR CUBA.


delivery of q speech on tbs Cutan
situation by Senator Thurston, OF
Mel aska, who has recently returned
from a trip to Havana.
his first sentence, in which he said
lie spoke by command of silent lips-a
, delicate AID touching reference to the
| loss of his wife on his memorable trip
to Cuba-com napded instant attention.
A h-sh fell YER The great audience,
which hung with almost breathless
attention and interest upon every
word.
Mrs. Thurston's dying request to her
husband was that he should lose no
time on account of her death to do his
utmost to save and free Cuba and its
people. In accordance with this request,
therefore, Senator Thurston sacrificed
his personal feeling and delivered his
speech-a speech thai was his tribute
to the memory of his wife.
Staid and digni6ed Senators turned
away and wept and in the galleries
tears welled to hundreds of eyes. 1t
was a remarkable scene and the still
ness until the last word had been pro-
nounced was as of death itself.
"Under The inhuman policy of Wey-
Ter not less than 100000 self-support-
ing, simple, peaceable, defenseless
country people were driven from their
homes in the agricultural portions OF
the Spanish provinces to the cities and
imprlst ned upon the barren waste out
side the residence portions Of the cities
aud within the lines Of intrenchmen
established little way beyond. Their
humble homes were burned, their fields
laid waste, their implements OF hus-
bandry destroyed, their live stock and
food supplies for the most part confs-
Gated. Most of these people were old
men, women and children. Slow star
walton was their inevitable fate. A
conservative estimate indicates that
100000 OF these people have already
persisted from starvation
Mr.. Thurston then recounted the
horrors of the Cuban suffering and
So id that the pictures in the American
newspapers Of the starving reconcen-
trades are correct
"They Can all be duplicated by the
thousands. l never saw. and please
| God may never again see, so deplor-
able a sight as the reconcentrados in
the suburbs Of Matanzas. 1 can never
forget to my dying day the hopeless
anguish in their despairing eyss. Hud-
died about their little bark huts, they
raised no voice of appeal to us for aims
as we went among them. Men, women
land children stand silent, furnishing.
Til cir only appeal comes from their sad
eyes. through which one looks as though
an open window into their agonizlns
souls.
| The g,Sernment of Spain has not
and will not appropriate o dollar to
cave these people. They are now be-
ing attended and nursed and admins
tered to by The charity of the United
States. Think of the spectacle! We
are feeding these citizens of Spain; we
are nursing their sick; We are saving
sue h as can be saved, and yet there are
thos who still say it is right for us to
send food, bnt we must keep hands off,
I say that the time has come when
/ muskets ought to go with the food
Mr.. I'll urston briefly referred to the
| propositions recognizing the belliger-
ency or independence only to say that
| it was too late for either. AS to annexa-
ton, he said: 81 would oppose annexa-
ton with my latest breath. The
people of Cuba are not our people; they
cannot assimilate with us; and, beyond
all that, am utterly and unalterably
opposed to any departure from the
declared policy Of the fathers, which
would start this republic for the first
time upon q career of conquest and
dominion utterly at variance with the
declared purposes and the manifest
destiny Of popular government. Let
the " orld understand that the United
States does not propose to annex Cuba;
that it is not seekiug foot OF Cuban
soil or dollar Of Spanish treasure. "