The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-04-15

TODAY sent tine following IleSSdSe W III
congress of the United States:
Obedient to that precept of the con-
stitutiOn which commands the presi-
ident to give from time to time to the
congress information of the state Of the
union, and to recommend to their con-
sfderation 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
ha ragged i'm the neighboring island or
Cuba. 1 do so because of the intimate
connection OF the Cuban question with
the state of our union and the grave
relatlon OF the course which it is now
incumbent upon the nation to adopt
must be needs pear to the traditional
policy of our government, If it is to
accord with the preceptS laid down by
the founders of the republic and re-
ligiously observed by succeeding add
ministrations to the present day.
The present is but the successor 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 subjected the
United States to great fr~nrt and eX-
pense in enforcing it's neutrality laws,
caused enormous losses to American
TRADE and caGsed irritation,
annoyance and disturbance amOng our
citizens and 10y the exercise %f cruel,
fbarDarious and unciviliZed practice of
warfare, shocked the sensibilitiesA and
offended the humane sympathiesN of
our people.
HISTORYSOF THE REVOLUTION.
Since the present revolution, began
in FEBRUARY, 1895, this country has
seen THE fertile domain ait our thresh-
hold ravaged by fire and sword in the
course of "a struggle unequalled I'M
the history of the island and rarely
~paralleled as to the number of the COM
batants and the bitterness of the con-
test by any revolution of modern times
where a dependent people, striving to
be free, rave been opposed by the pow
er of the sovereign state. Our people
have beneld a Once prosperous COM
munity reduced to comparative want,
it's lucrative virtually para
lyZed, it's exceptional prOductiveness
diminished, it's fields laid waste, its mills
in ruins and it's people periShing by
LOAhO vi ans WIZ
restitution. We have found ourselves
constrained, in the observance of that
strict neutrality which our laws en-
Join and which the law OF nations COM
mands, to police our own coasts and
watch our own SeapOrts in prevention
of any unlawful act in aid of the Gu
bans. Our trade has suffered; the cap
ital invested by our citizens in Cuba
has been largely lost and the temper
and fOrbeardnce of our peOple
zens, which has inevitably found it's
expression from time to time in the ma
tional legislature so that issues wholly
external to our own body polite en-
gross attention and stand in the way
of that CLOSE devotion to domestic ad-
vancement that becomes a self-con-
tained 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 we'll during my prede-
cessor'S term as in my own.
In April, 1896, the evils from which
our country suffered through the Cuban
war became SO onerOus that my pre-
decessOr made am effort to bring about
peace through the mediation of this
government in any way that might
tend to an honorable adjustment of the
contest between Spain and her revolt
~ ~ III bAC CtSoAD III OllI liz
tive scheme of self-Zovernment for Gu
Jba under the flag and sovereignty OF
Spain. 1t failed, through the refusa.
or the Spanish government then in
power to consider any form of media.
tion or, indeed, any plan of settlement
which did. not begin with the actua,
submission of the insurgents to the
mother country, and then only ON sucf
terms las Spain herself might see fit TX
grant. The war continued nabat
The resistance of THE insurgents wa.
In no wise diminished.
HORRORS OF REORGANIZATION
The efforts of Spain were increased
both by the dispatch of fresh levie.
to Cuba and by the addition to tn,
horrors of the strife of a new and in
human phase, happily unprecedentet
in the modern history OF civilized Chris
tian peoples. The policy of devasta
tion and concentration, inauguratet
10Y the captain generals bando of DC
tober q, 1896. in the province of Pima,
del Rio was thence extended to EN-
brace all of the island to which TIN
power of the Spanish arms was able t.
reach by occupation or by military op
Grafton. The peaSantry, including al
dwelling i'm the open agricultural in
terror, We're driven into the garriso1
towns or isolated places held by th
lIOcpS. IIIc IdlSFItS LII lIfON cIiIeIEl U
provisions of all kinds We're interdict
ed. The fields were laid waste, dwell
ings unroofed and fired. mills destroy
ed, and, in short, everything that coul
desolate the land and render it unfi
for human haTbitation or support, wa
commanded by one or the other o
the cOntending parties, and execute.
b y all the powers at their disposal.
by the time the present administra
tion took office, a year ago, reconcen
tration-so-called-had been made ef
fective over h better part of the fou
central and western provinces, SAINT
Clara, Matanzas, Havana and Pima
del Rio. The agricultural population
to the estimated rumble of 800. 900 @
more, was herded Within the towns an
their immediate vicinage, deprived c
the means of support, rendered destt
1tute of shelter, left poorly clad and es