The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-14
mo" THAT MADE HISTORY.
Spain Was offered $1OO,OOO,OOO for
Cuba, but Refused to Sell.
Washington Special to St. Louis Post Di

Washington Special to ST. Louis Post Dis
patch.
When Spain says Eyes to the American
demands she will have released herself from
the most costly fine fate ever assessed for
one fatal mo- spoken by her fifty years
ago. She paid two thousand million dol
lars and thousands of lives thus far in pen
atty for her naughty spurning of the cour-
teous proposition of the United States to
buy Cuba, and at a time, too, when the
United States was willing to pay $l00 900, goo.
How much greater this fine shall be Spain
alone can decide. The story of this no
is one of the romantic facts of history.
Spain might have been to-day great and
hourishing Kingdom, with an overlooking
treasury, first-class credit her territory
covered with railroads and with thriving
manufacturing industries if only those
words had not been spoken by her foreign
minister in the summer of 1S4S. Spain has
been paying a fine of $11 coo every day in
the year for fifty years as the penalty of
saying mo- instead of yes to a confiden-
tial question submitted to her by the
United States 1t was one of those rare OPP
portunities that to nations as to individual
men, comes once only and once passed are
gone forever.
United States, Isabella II was Queen of
Spain. r. M. Sanders was our minister at
Madrid, and to him, on June H. 1S4S, James
Buchanan. secretary of state under Polk,
wrote Sanders to sound Spain's foreign
minister on the subject of selling Cuba to
the United States. He was told that Presi-
dent Polk thought $1O0,OO0OO0 would not be
too high, but he was to negotiate the pur-
chase for much less if possible.
AT your interview with the minister for
foreign affairs wrote Buchanan, you
might introduce the subject by referring
to the present distracted condition of Cuba.
and the danger which exists that the popu-
latlon Will make an attempt to accomplish
the revolution. This must be we'll known
TO the Spanish government. You might
then touch delicately on the danger that
Spain may lose Cuba by a revolution in
the island, or that it may be wrested from
her by Great Britain should a rupture take
of the dismissal of Sir Henry Baldwin"
Mr.. Sanders did as he was instructed.
Having heard the American minister
through, Queen Isabella's minister for for
eign affairs spoke the words which, read
in the light of all that has happened since,
cost his country $1,000 100000. Il believe such
to be the feeling of the country" was his
reply. that sooner than see the island
transferred to any power they would pre-
this was said, quite in the style of the Span
ish grandee, but if he could only have
looked dne0O nifty years and counted the
cost, would he have said it so lightly?
Suppose instead of saying they would
rather see Cuba sunk in the ocean than
take S1oO, coo for it the Spanish statesman
of that time had said to Minister Sanders:
Tell President Polk that we will accent
his offer" Then the Spanish treasury would
lowed to accumulate at per cent COM
pound interest that $780, O0,0O0 would have
grown by July, 1898, to $7O0,OOO0OO. To that
Spain's loss in saying mo" to President
Folks offer, all that she has since lost in
some reliable figures furnished by Prime
Minister Sagasta himself That high Span-
ish authority declared few weeks ago that
works in the colonies had cost Spain s725.-
100000. Fully half of that vast expenditure
of $725.O00OO 600 must have been expended in
Cuba. The cost of the war against the
Cuban rebellion, carried on since February,
1895. has been officially stated in Madrid
to exceed $500, 600 The cost to Spain Of
the war with the United States, which has
been going on for over three months. is
stated by Madrid official journals at $25.-
other sum of at least $500, 100000 must be
added for the cost 30 Spain of the ten
years war" which lasted from 1868 to 1879.
a grand total is found of S2.042, 5O0O 600
Calling it two thousand million dollars in
ure by few comparsons' the enor ri1eas
penalty paid by Spain for the preferring to
see Cuba sunk Ak IN n the . ocean in 1S4S rather
than dSSSPS FAO..vos,Vo NA4SAA OilS4SQ lot
it by President Polk. Two thousand million
dollars would pay for the building of all the
nav off q the ne entire national debt Of span
81 414 900 900 as stated in 1897 and leave sur
plus of 00,O00,000 SPANS entire annual
revenue. raised by severe taxation of her
people, is $155, O00O 600 Two thousand million
! dollars is equivalent therefore, to all the
revenues Of her treasury for over thirteen
years.
How far different and infinitely better
would the history OF Spain since 1S4S have
read IT, when Minister Sanders made Uncle
Sans tender OF 500 900 900 for Cuba in that
year. If Queen Isabella's naughty minister
of foreign affairs had been blessed with the
gift of seeing fifty years ahead and an
swered Yes" he would have conferred q
greater blessing upon Spain than Columbus
to conquer.