The Springfield herald., 1898-04-15

| To the Congress of the United states:
! Obcdlent To that precept of the con
| stitution which commands the fresi-
| dent to give from time 10 time to the
! Congress information of tae state OF
! the Union and TO recommend 10 theli
| consideration such measures as he
| shall Judge necessary and cNpedleht,
1t becomes my duty 10 address your
body with regard 10 the grave crisis
that has arisen in the relations OF the
United States to Spain, brought about
by the warfare that for more thah
three years has ragged in the neighbor-
ing island of Cuba. | do so because of
the intimate connection of the Cuban
question with the states of this L sion
and the grave responsibility which II
is now incumbent upon the nation to
adopt, must needs bear to the tradi-
tional policy of our government. 1t is
in accord with the prcccpts laid down
by the founders of the republic and re-
ligiously observed by succeeding
Americans to the present time.
The present revolution is successor
to other similar ones which occurred in
Cuba under the dominion of Spain. en-
tending over Il period of nearly half
century. each of which, during its
progress. has subjected the United
States to great effort and expense in
enforcing its neutrality laws, caused
enormous losses to American trade and
commerce, caused agitation and dis
turbance among our citizens and by the
exercise of cruel, barbarous and unciv-
iliZed practices of warfare. shocked
the sensibilities and offended the hui
man sympathics of our people.
Since the present revolution began,
in EnI, 1,fl liz. ,,i N
has at every threshold been ravaged
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.
All this must needs awake and
has indeed aroused the utmost concern
on the part of this government. as well
during my predecessors term, as in
my own.
In April, 1896. the evils by which
our country suffered through the Cuban
war became so onerouS that my prede-
cessor made an effort to bring about Il
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. The war continued unabat-
ed and the army of the insurgents in
no wise lessened. A once prosperous
community has been reduced to COM
parative want and its people have per
ished by tens of thousands from hun
ger and desttuton. Our trade has
fol
citizens in Cuba has been entirely lost
and the temper and forbearance of our
people have been so sorely tried as to
beget perilous unrest among our own
citizens which has inevitably found Its
expression from time to time in the
national Legislature, so that issues
were not wholly external to our own
body polite, demanding attention and
standing in the way of that close devo-
tion to domestic advancement.
The policy of devastation and con
centration inaugurated by the captain
generals order to Pando of October 81
1896, in the province of Pinar del Rio
was extended to embrace all of the
island to which the power of the Span
ish arms was able to reach. Every
thing that could desolate the land and
render it unfit for human hnbitation oil
support was commanded by one or the
other of the contcnding parties and ex
ecuted by all the powers at their dis
posal.
BY the time the present adminiStra
ton took office II year ago, the agricul
tural population, to the estimated nun
ber of 100000 or more. was herdet
within the towns and their immediat,
vicinity, deprived of the means of sup
port. rendered destitute of shelter. lef
poorly clad and exposed to tn,
most unsnnitary conditions. BY Marcl
1, 1897, n conservative estimate iron
Spanish sources. the mortality anon.
the reconcentrados from starvation
and the diseases thereto incident. eX
ceedcd 30 per cent. of their total nun
ber So-cnlled zones of cultivation
established within the immediate are;
of effective military control about tn
cities and fortified camps proved illu
sorry.
The unfortunates. being for the mos
part women and children, with age,
and helpless men. enfeebled by hun
ger. could not have TILED the soil with
out tools, seed or shelter for their owl
support or for the supply of the cities
Recommendation, adopted avowedly n
| n war measure in order to cut off tn
| resources of the insurgents, worked it
predestined results.
/ AS | said in my message of last De
! cember, 1t was not civilized warfare
/ 1t was determination. The only peac
| it could begct was that of the wilder
ness and the grave.
| Meanwhile the military situation il
the island had undergone noticeabl
change. The extraordinary activit
that characterized the second year o
war, when the insurgents invaded tn
hitherto unharmed fields of Pinar dc
Rio and carried havoc and destruction
up to the walls of the city of Havan
itself, had relapsed into n dogge
struggle in the central and easter
provinces.
Even thus partially restricted, III
revolutionists held their own and thei
conquest and submission. put forwar
by Spain as The essential and sole ba
sis of peace, seemed us far distant a
at the outset. In this state of affair
my administration found itself COZ
fronted with the grave problem of it
duty. My message of last Decembe
reviewed the situation and narrate
steps taken TO open the way for som
form of honorable settlement.
The assassination of the prime mir