Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-04-11
Unable to Protect Life and Property
on the Island.
POWER TO END HOSfILIflES ASKED
Why There is No Recognition of
Cuban independence.
TEXT OF THE DOCUMENT

The President sent the following message
today: Ia
To the Congress of the United States:
Obedient to that precept OF the Constitu-
ton which commands the President to give
from time to time to the Congress informa-
ton of the state of the Unten, and to rec
ommend to their consideration such meas
ures as he shall Judge necessary and ex-
pedient, 1t becomes my duty now to address
your body with regard to hesgrave crisis
that has arisen in the relations OF the
United States to Spain by reason of the
warfare that for more than three years ha 8
ragged in the neighboring Island Of Cuba.
l do so because of the intimate connec-
ton of the Cuban question with the state
of our own Union and the grave relation
the course (which 1t is now incumbent upon
the nation to adopt must needs bear to the
traditional policy of our government IL it
Is to accord with the precepts laid down
by the founders Of the republic and relig-
iously observed by succeeding administra-
lions to the present day.
The present revolution is but the success
sor 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 irritation. annoyance and
disturbance among our citizens, and, by
the exercise of cruel, barbaroYs and UNI
civilized practices of warfare, shocked the
sensibilities and offended the humane SYM
pathies Of our people.
he o1,,At4 e.,
February, 1895, this country has seen the
fertile domain at our threshold ravaged by
| fire and sword in the course of a strug-
gle unequaled in the history of the island
and rarely paraileled as to the number of
contest by any revolution of modern tiu.cs
| where a dependent people striving to be
free have been opposed by the power of the
sovereign state. !.
People Perfshing FHom Hunger.
Our people have beheld a once prosperous
community reduced to comparative want
| Its lucrative commerce virtually paralyzed,
Its exceptional produc tivencss 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 obsery-
ance of that strict, neutrality which ou1
| laws enjoin and which the law Of nations
| commands to police our own waters an6
watch our own seaports in prevention Of
| any unlawful act in aid of the Cubans.
Our trade has suffered; the scapftal In
| vested by our citizens in Cuba has been
largely lost. and the temper and forbear-
| aDce Of cur people have been SO sorely
tried as to beget a 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 cur own body polite
engross attention and stand in the way of
that close devotion to domestic eadvance-
ment that becomes a contained COM
! monweaith, whose primal .maaimshas 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. a. wei during
| my predecessors term aa in my own.
Efforts to Bring Abost Peace.
| In April. 1896. the evils from which oul
country suffered through the Cuban wal
became SO enormous that my predecessor
made an effort to bring about a peace
through the mediation Of thia 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-govern-
ment for Cuba under tie flag and soyer-
eighty Of Spain. It fassd, through the Re.
fusal OF the Spanish government then In
power to consider anysJorm OF, mediatann
or, indeed, any plan e settlement which
did not begin with ne actusi submission
Of the insurgents to- tie mother country,
and then only ON suck terms a. Spain her
self MIGHT aoe If IA IN .,.sS,.