Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-04-14

the United States TO Bring Peace to
Cuba-Adheres to His Policy That
the War Must Cease-He Refers at
Length to the sufferings of The Re-
concentrates and Makes Brief Ref
erence to the Maine Horror.
Washington, April 1.-THE president
today sent the following message to
congress:
The Congress of the United States:
Obedient to that precept of the con-
stitution which commands the presi-
dent to give from time to time
to the congress information of the
state of the Union, and to rec
ommend to their consideration such
measures as he shall judge nec-
essary and expedient, it becomes
my duty now to address your body with
regard to the grave crisis that has
arisen in the relations of the United
States to Spain by reason of the war
fare that for more than three years has
ragged in the neighboring Island of
Cuba. do so because of the intimate
connection of the Cuban question with
the state of our own Union and the
grave relation the course which it Is
now incumbent upon the nation to
adopt must needs bear to the tra-
ditional policy of our government If it
by the founders of the republic and re-
ligiously observed by succeeding adj
ministrations to the present day.
The present revolution is but the sue
cessor of other similar Instructions
which have occurred in Cuba against
the dominion of Spain. extending over
period of nearly half century, each
of which, during it's progress. has sub
iected the United States to great effort
and expense in enforcing it's neutral
ity laws. caused enormous losses to
American trade and commerce, caused
irritation, annoyance and disturbance
among our citizens, and by the exer-
else of cruel, barbarous and uncivilized
practices of warfare, shocked the sem
sibilities and offended the humane SYM
pathies of our people.
Rayaged by Fire and Sword.
Since the present revolution began in
February, 1885, this country has seen
the fertile domain at our threshold raw
aged by fire and sword in the course
of a struggle unequaled in the history
of the island and rarely paralleled as
to the number of the combatants and
the bitterness of the contest by any
revolution of modern times where u
dependent people striving to be free
have been oppressed by the power of the
sovereign state. Our people have be-
duced to comparative want, its lucra-
tive commerce virtually paralyzed, its
exceptional productiveness diminished,
its fields laid waste, it's mills in ruins
and it's people perishing by tens Of
thousands from hunger and destitu-
tion. We have found ourselves con-
strained, in the observance of that
strict neutrality which our laws en-
join and which the law of nations
commands, to police our own waters
and watch our own seaports in preven-
tion of any unlawful act in aid of the
Cubans. Our trade has suffered, the
capital invested by our citizens in Gu
ba has been largely lost and the tenn
per and forbearance of our people
have been so sorely tried as to beget q
periIous unrest among our own cit
liens, which has inevitably found its
expression from time to time in
the national legislature, SO that is
sues wholly external to our body
polite engross attention and stand
in the way of close devotion to
domestic advancement that becomes
a self contained commonwealth
whose primal maxim has been the
avoidance of all foreign entangle-
ments. All this must needs awaken,
and has indeed aroused, the utmost
concern on the part of this govern
ment, as well during my predecessors
term as in my own.
President Cleveland's Peace Efforts.
In April, 1896. the evils from which
our country suffered through the Gu
predecessor made an effort to bring
about a peace through the mediation Of
this government in any way that
might tend to an honorable adjustment
of the contest between Spain and her
revolted colony, on the basis of some
effective scheme of self government for
Cuba under the flag and sovereignty of
Spain. 1t failed, through the refusal
of the Spanish government then in
power to consider any form of media
ton, or indeed any plan of settlement
which did z.ot begin with the actual
submission of the insurgents to the
mother country, and then only on such
terms as Spain herself might see fit
to grant. The war continued unabated.
The resistance of the insurgents was in
no wise diminished.
The efforts of Spain were increased.
both by the dispatch of fresh levies to
Cuba and bv the addition to the hor-
rors of the strife of new and inhuman
phase happily unprecedented in the
modern history of civilized Christian
peoples. The policy of devastation and
concentration. inaugurated by the cap
tain generals bando of October, 1896,
in the province of Pinar del Rio, was
thence extended to embrace all Of the