The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-12

HE OPPOSES RECOGNITION
UNTIL CUBANS SHOW THEY CAN
MAINTAIN A GOVERNMENT.
Blowing Up of the Maine Evidence
that spain Cannot Guarantee the
Safety of Foreigners.

WASHINGTON, April 11.-President Me-
Kinleys long expected message on the Gu
ban question was transmitted to Congress
at noon to-day. 1t follows:
To the Congress- of the United States:
Obedient to that precept of the Consttu-
ton which commands the President to give
from time to time TO the Congress infor-
nation of the state of the Union, and to
recommend to their consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary and
expedient it becomes my duty now to ad-
dress your body with regard to the grave
crisis that has arisen in the relations of
The United States to Spain by reason of
the warfare that for more than three years
has ragged in the neighboring island of Cuba.
l 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 on the
Nation to adopt must needs bear to the tra-
ditional policy of our government If it is
to accord with the precepts laid down by
the founders of the Republic and religious
ly observed by succeeding administrations
to the present day.
The present revolution is but the sue
cessor of other similar instructions which
have occurred in Cuba against the domin-
ion of Spain, extending over a period of
nearly half century, each of which, dur
ing its progress, has subjected the United
States to great effort and expense in en-
forcing It's neutrality laws. caused enor-
nous losses to American trade and COM
merce, caused annoyance and disturbance
n11r oil
of cruel, barbarous and uncivilized prac-
tices of warfare, shocked the sensibilities
and offended the humane sympathies of our
people.
RAVAGED BY FIRE AND SWORD,
Since the present revolution began, in
February 1895, this country has seen the
fertile domain at our threshold 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 con-
test by any revolution of modern times,
where a dependent people, striving to be
free, have been opposed by the power of
the sovereign state. Our people have be-
held once prosperous community reduced
to comparative want, it's lucrative COM
merce virtually paralyzed, it's exceptional
productiveness diminished, its fields laid
waste, its mill in ruins and its people per-
iShing by tens of thousands from hunger
and destitution. We have found ourselves
constrained, in the observance of that strict
neutrality which our laws enjoin, and which
the law of nations commands, to police our
own waters and watch our own seaports
to prevent any unlawful act in aid of the
Cubans. Our trade has suffered, the capi-
tai invested by our citizens in Cuba has
been largely lost, and the temper and for
bearance 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
wholly external to our own body polite
gross attention and stand in the way of
that close devotion to domestic advancement
that becomes self-eontained common
wealth whose primal maxim has been the
avoidance of all foreign entanglements.
All this must needs awaken, and has, in
deed, 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 from which our
country suffered through the Cuban war
became SO onerous that my predecessor
made an effort to bring about u 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. IT failed, through the refusal of the
Spanish government then in power to con-
slider any form of mediation, or, indeed any
plan of settlement which did not begin with
the mother country, and then only on such
terms as Spain herself might see lit to
grant.
CRUEL CONCENTRATIONS.
The war continued unabated. The resist
ance of the insurgents was in no wise di-
minished The efforts of Spain were in
creased, both by the dispatch of fresh levies
TO cuba and by the addition TO the horrors
of the strife of q new and inhuman phase
happily unprecedented in the modern his
tory of civilized Christian people The poll
icy of devastation and concentration in
augurated by Captain General Bando of
Oct. IL 1896, in the province OF Pinar del
Rio was thence extended TO embrace all of
tho island to which the power of the Span
ish arms was able to reach by occupation
or by military operations. The peasantry
including all dwelling in the open agricul-
tural interior, were driven into the garrison
towns or isolated places held by the troops.
The raising and movement of provisions of
all kinds were interdicted. The fields were
laid waste, dwellings unroofed and fired
mills destroyed and. in short, everything
that could desolate the land and render 1t
unfit for human habitation support was
commanded by one or the other of tho con-
tending parties and executed by all the
powers at their disposal
BY the time the present administration
took Office a year ago, reconcentration-so-