The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-04-12

Washington, April 1.-THE president
today sent the following message to
the congress of the United States:
Obedient to that DreceDt of the con-
stitution which commands the president
TO give from time TO time the congress
information of the state of the Union.
and to recommend to their considera-
ton such measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient, it becomes my
duty row to address your body with
regard TO the grave condition that has
arisen in relation 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. I do
SO because of the intimate connection
of the Cuban question with the state
of our own Union. and the grave rela-
ton the course which is now incum-
bent upon the nation to adopt must
needs bear to the traditional policy of
cur government, if it is to accord with
the precepts .ai6 down by the founders
of the republic, and religiously observ-
&c by succeeding administrations to the
present day.
The present revolution is but the sue
cesso- of other similar instructions
which have occurred in Cuba against
the dominion OF Spain, extending over
a period of nearly half q century, each
of which. during its progress. has sub
jected the United States to great effort
and expense in enforcing its neutrality
Is MS, caused enormous loss to the
American trade and commerce, caused
irritation. annoyance and disturbance
among our citizens, and, by the eXer-
else of cruel, barbarous and uncivill2ed
practice of warfare. shocked the sensi-
hilities and offended the humane SYM
pathies of our people.
Since the present revolution began,
liz February. 1895. this country, fertile
domain at our threshold. has been raw
aged by fire and sword in the course
of a struggle urequalled in the history
of the island, and rarely paralleied as
To the number of combatantS and the
bitterness of the contest by any revolu-
ton of modern times. where a depend
ent people, striving to be free, have
been opposed by the power of the sover-
eign state. Our people have beheld a
once prosperous community reduced to
comparative want, its commerce viz
tualiy paralyZed, its exceptional pTOduc-
tiveness diminished, its fields laid
waste. its mills in ruins and its people
perishing by tens of thousands from
hunger ana restitution. We have found
ourselves constrained, in the observ-
ance of that strict neutrality which our
laws enjoia and which the law of ma
tions commands, to police our own wat
tiers and watch our own seaports 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 inevitably found its express
sion from time to time in the national
legislature. 50 that issues wholly OK
ternal to our own body polite engross
attention. and stand in the way of that
close devotion to domestic advancement
that becomes a self-contented common
wealth, whose primal maxim has been
the avoidance of ali foreign entangle-
ments All this must needs awaken,
and has, indeed, aroused the utmost
concern on the part Of this government
as we'll during my predecessors as my
own.
CLEVELAND'S EFFORTS.
In April, 1896. the evils from which
our country suffered through the Gu
ban war became so onerous that my
predecessor made an effort to bring
about a peace through the mediation
Of this government, in any way that
might tend to an honorable adjustment
of the contest between Spain and her
revolving 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 consider any form Of media
ton. or, indeed, any plan of settlement
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 diminished.
WEYLER'S BARBARITY.
The efforts of Spain were increased,
both by the dispatch of fresh levies TO
Cuba. and by the addition to the hor-
rors of the strife. The new and inhu-
man phase, happily unprecedented in
tie modern history of civilized Chris
tan people the policy of devastation
and concentration. inaugurated by the
captain generals oroer Of Oct. p, 1896.
in the province of Pinar del Rio, was
thence extended to embrace all of the
island to which the power of the Span
ish arms was able to reach by occupa-
ton, or by military operations. The.
l.easantry, including all dwelling in
the open agricultural interior, were
driven into the garrison towns or iso-
lated places held by the troops. The
raising of provisions of all kinds was
interdicted. Fields were laid waste,
dwellings unroofed and fired, mills de-
stroyed, and, il short, everything that
could desolate the land and render il
unSt for human habitation or support,