Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1898-04-14
PRESIDENTS
MESSAGE
McKinley's Advice on the Gu
ban Question.
HOSTILITIES MUST CEASE.
Peace Must Be Restored In Cuba at
Once at Any Cost

Him to Take Measures to Secure This
Object and Establish . Stable Govern
mont In Cuba and to Uss the Military
and Naval Forces OF the United States
as May BE Necessary For This Pur-
pose-He Says the Only Hepe or Re
lief Il the Enforced Psoiaoation OF the
Isiand-The Issue Is New with Con-
gross and the President Assures That
Body That He Stands Ready to Garry
Out Every Obligation Imposed Upon
Him by the Constitution,
WASHINGTON. April 1.-THE Prcsi-
dent today sent the following message
to Congress-
To the Congress of the United States:
Obedient to that precept of the con-
stitution which commands the presi-
dent to give, from time to time. to con-
gress information Of the state OF the
union and to recommend to their con-
sideration such measures as he shall
Judge necessary and expedient, it be-
comes my duty now to address 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 ehe Heighbo-ing
island 'of Cuba. do so because OF the
Intimate connection Of the Cuban cues
ton with the state Of our own union
ana In6 rQIa finn hn
which 1t Is now incumbent upon the
nation TO adopt must needs bear to the
traditional policy of our government IL
1t fe to accord with the precepts laid
down by the founders of the republic
ano religiously observed by succeeding
administrations to the present day-
The present revolution is but the sue
ce-ssor of other similar Instructions
which have occurred In Cuba against
the dominien of Spain, extending over
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 its neutrality
laws, caused enormous losses to Ameri-
can trade and commerce, caused irri-
taIion, annoyance and disturbance
among our citizens, and by the exer-
else OF cruel, barbarous and uncivilized
practices of warfare, shocked the SEN
sibilities and offended the human 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 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
revolution of modern times where
dependent people, striving to be free,
have been opposed by the power OF the
sovereign state.
Our people have beheld a once pros-
porous community reduced to compar-
ative want, it's lucrative commerce
virtually paralyzed. it's exceptional
productiveness diminished, it's fields
laid waste, it's mills in ruins and it's
people perishing by tens of thousand
from hunger and destitution. We have
found ourselves constrained, in the OBJ
Servance of that strict neutrality which
our laws cntoin and which the law of
nationE commands, to police our own
waters and watch our own seaports in
prevention of any unlawful act of the
Cubans.
Our trade has suffered; the capital in
vested by our citizens in Cuba has been
largely lost and the temper and for
bearance of our people have been Sc
verely tried as to beget perilous un-
rest among our own citizens, which
has inevitably found expression from
time to time in the national legisla-
ture. 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-contained COM
monwealth, whose primal maxim has
been the avoidance of all foreign en-
tanglements. All this must needs
awaken and has indeed aroused the
utmost concern on the part of this
government, as we'll during my prede-
ceSSor'S term as in nv own.