Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1898-04-13
THE CUBAN MESSAGE.
President Opposes Recognition
by United States.
Wants the Powers to Intervene in the
Interests of Humanity.

lOOheu-lOf message on the CUBAN SITUATION
to Congress. The galleries of both
chambers were crowded and every mem
Der of the Senate and House was in his
place when the important document was
received
The message is as follows:
0bedient to that precept of the cOnstitll-
ton which commands the President to
give from time to time to Congress the
information 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 adj
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 ] do SO because of the intimate
connection of the Cuban question with the
state of our own Union and the grave re-
lation the course which it is now incum-
bent upon the nation to adopt must needs
bear 70 the traditional policy of our gov
eminent if it is to accord with the pre-
cepts laid down by the founders of the re-
public and religiously observed by succeed
ing administrations to the present day
The present revolution is but the s. 9
cessor Of other similar insurrectioC.s
which have occurred in Cuba against to
dominion of Spain, extending over a peri
cd of nearly half century, each Of
which. during its progress. has subjected
the United States to great effort and eX-
pense in enforcing its neutrality laws.
caused enormous losses to the American
trade and commerce, caused irritation, an
nOyance and disturbance among our citi-
Zens. and by the exercise of cruel, bar
barous and unciyilized practices Of war
fare. shocked the sensibilities and offend
ed the humane sympathies Of our peo-
pie.
Since the present revolution began III
February. 1895, this country has seen the
fertile domain at our Threshold ravaged
by fire and sword in the course of q Strug
gle unequaled in the history of the island
and rarely paralleied as to the number of
the cOmbatants and the bitterness of the
contest 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
beheld a once prosperous community re-
duced to comparative want. its commerce
virtually paralyzed, its exceptional pro-
ductiveness diminished, its fields laid
waste. its mills in ruins. and its people
perishing by tens of thousands from
hunger and restitution. 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 SeaDOrtS in
prevention of any unlawful act in aid of
the Cubans. Our trade has suffered, the
capital invested by our citizens in Cuba
has been largely lost, and the temper and
forbearance Of our people have been so
sorely tried as to beget a perilous unrest
among our own citizens, which has newt
ably found its expression from time to
time in the national Legislature, so that
issues wholly external to our own body
polite engross attention and stand in the
way of that close devotion to domestic
advancement that becomes a Self-cOn-
tented commonwealth, whose primal max
i'm has been the avoidance of all foreign
entanglements. All this must needs
awaken and has indeed aroused the ut
ment as well during my predecessors as
my own.
horrors Unprecedented.
On April 4, 1896, the evils from which
our country suffered through the Cuban
war became 50 OnerOUS that my predeceS-
sOr made an effort to bring about peace
through the mediation of this government
in any way that might tend to an honor
able 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
mediation, or, indeed, any plan of settle
ment which did not 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 undated. The resistance
of the insurgents was in no wise dimin-
ished The efforts of Spain were in
creased, both by the dispatch of fresh
Ievies to Cuba and by the addition to
inhuman phase, happily unprecedented in
the modern history of civilized Christian
peoples.
The policy of devastation and concen-
traton, inaugurated by the captain-gen-
erals bandO of October y, 1896 in the
province of Pinar del Rio, was thence eX-
tended to embrace all of the island to
which the power of the Spanish arms
was able to reach by occupation or by
military operations. The peasantry. in
Guiding all dwelling in the open agricul-
tural interior, were driven into the garri-
son 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 I'M
rooted and fired, mills destroyed and, in
short, everything that could desOlate the
land and render it unfit for human habi-
tdu0n or support was commenced Dy one
or the other of the cOntending parties and
executed by all the powers at their dis
poSal.
By the time the present administration
took office 4 year ago, Recommendation, so
called, had been made effective over the
better part of the four central and west
ern provinces. Santa Clara, MatanZas,
Havana and Pinar del Rio. The agricul-
tural population, to the estimated number
of 300. 900 or more, was herded within the
towns and their immediate vicinage, de-
prived of their means of support, rendered
destitute of shelter, left poorly clad and
exposed to the most unSanitary conditions.
AS the scarcity of food increased with the
devastation of the depOpulated areas OF
production. destitution and want became
misery and starvation. Month by month
the death rate increased in an alarming
ratio.
BY March, 1897. according to conserya-
tive estimates from official Spanish
sources. the mortality among the recon
centrados from starvation and the DIS
eases thereto incident. exceeded 30 per
centum of their total number. No prac-
teal relief was accorded to the destitute.
The overburdencd towns, already suffer
ing from the general dearth. could give
no aid. Socalled zones Of cultivation. es-