The record-union., 1898-04-12
THE MESSAGE.
Full Text of the Paper Sent to Con-
gress by the President.

gress by the President.
WASHINGTON, April 1.-THE full
text of the Presidents message on the
Cuban question, sent to Congress to-
day, is as follows:
Obedient to that precept of the Con-
stitution which commands the Presi-
| dent to give from time to time the
I Congress information of the state OF
/ the Union, and to recommend to their
| consideration on such measures as he
shall judge necessary and eXpedient, ii
! becomes my duty now to address your
! body with regard to the grave condi-
! tiOn that has arisen in the relation of
! the United States to Spain by reason
of the warfare that for more than three
years has ragged in the neighboring ISL
and of Cuba. | do so because of the
| intimate connection of the Cuban ques-
| ton with the state of our own Union,
and the grave relation the course which
! is now incumbent upon the nation to
adopt must needs bear to the tradi-
| tional policy of our Government, if 1t
| is to accord with the precepts laid
down by the founders of the republic
and religiously observed by succeeding
Administrations to the present day.
BARBAROUS WARFARE.
| The present revolution is but the sue
! cessor of other similar instructions
which have occurred in Cuba against
/ the dominion of Spain extending over
! a period of nearly half a century each
of which, during it's progress, has sub
| jected the United States to great effort
| and expense in enforcing it's neutrality
laws caused enormous losses to the
| American trade and commerce, caused
/ irritation, annoyance and disturbance
among cur citizens, and by the exer-
! else of cruel. barbarous and uncivilized
practices of warfare. shocked the sensi-
bilities and offended the humane sym,
pathies of our people.
Since the present revolution began in
February, 1895, this country has seen
the fertile domain at our threshold raw
aged 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 by any revo-
| luton of modern times where a de-
pendent people, striving to be free, have
been opposed by the power OF the SOW
| ereign state.
Our people have behed once pros
/ porous community reduced to compara-
tive want, it's commerce virtually para
| lyzed. it's exceptional productiveness
diminished, its fields laid waste, its
mills in ruins and its people perishing
by tens OF thousands from hunger and
destitution.
! GREAT LOSS TO AMERICAN TRADE
We have found ourselves constrain-
I Il +J,a C1oc pf hot ,.;n
trality which our laws enjoin, and
which the law of nations commands, to
! police our own waters and watch our
own sea ports in prevention of any
/ unlawful act in aid of the Cubans
! our trade mas suffered; the capital in
vested by our citizens in Cuba has been
/ largely lost, and the temper and for
tunes of our people have been so sore
ly tried as to beget a perilous unrest
among our own citizens, which 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-contented commonwealth, whose
primal maxim has been the avoidance
| of all foreign entanglements
| All this must needs awaken, and has
| indeed aroused, the utmost concern on
! the part of this Government as well
during the term of my predecessors as
my own.
PEACE EFFORTS FAIL
In April, 1896, the evils from which
our country suffered through the Gu
ban war became so onerous that my