The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-04-13

washington, April ll.-Ihe president
today sent the following message to
congress:
The Congress of the United States:
Obedient to that precept of the con-
stitution which commands the presl-
dent to give from time to time the 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 war
fare that for more than three years has
ragged in the neighboring island of Cuba
do so because of the intimate connec-
ton of the Cuban question with the
state of our union and the grave rela-
ton the course which it is now incum-
bent upon the nation to adopt must
needs bear to the traditional policy of
our government If it is to be in accord
with the precepts laid down by the
founders of the republic and religiously
observed by succeeding administrations
to the present day.
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 subject
ed the United States to great effort and
expense in enforcing its neutrality laws,
caused enormous losses to American
trade and commerce, caused irritation,
annoyance and disturbance among our
citizens, and by the exercise of cruel,
barbarous and uncivilized practices of
warfare, shocked the senSibilities and
offended the humane sympathies 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 unequalled in the history of
the island and rarely paralleled as to the
plumber of the combatants and the bit
terness of the contest by any revolution
or modern times, where a dependent peo-
pie, striving to be free, have been op-
posed by the power of the sovereign
state. Our people have beheld a once
prosperous community reduced to com
Parative want, it's lucrative commerce
virtually paralyzed, its exceptional pro-
ductiveness diminished, it's fields laid
waste, its mills in ruins and it's people
perishing by tens of thousands from
munger and restitution. We have
found ourselves constrained, in the OBJ
serVance of that strict neutrality which
our laws enjoin and which the law of ma
tons commands, to police our own wa
tiers and watch our own seaports in pre-
Vention of any unlawful act in aid of
the Cubans. Our trade has suffered: the
capital invested by our citizens in Cuba
has been larpaly nd
and forbearance of our people have been
SO severely tried as to beget a perilous
unrest among our own citizens, which
has inevitably found expression from
time to time in the national legislature.
so that issues wholly external to orr
own body polite engross attention and
stand In the way of that close devotion
TO domestic advancement that becomes
self-contained 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 thls government as well as during nv
predecessors term as my own
IN April, 1886, the evils from which our
country suffered through the Cuban
war became so onerous that my prede-
cessor made an effort to bring about a
peace through the mediation of this gov
eminent 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 gov
eminent then in power to consider anv
form OF mediation 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 I'm
no wise diminished.
The efforts of Spain were Increased
both by the dispatch of fresh levies ia
cuba and by the addition to the horrors
or the strife of a new and inhuman
phase' happily unprecedented in the
modern history of civilized Christian
peoples. The policy of devastation and
concentration, inaugurated by the can
tain general, Bando, of Oct. 81 1896. in
the province of Pinar del Rio, was thence
extended to embrace all of the island to
whlch the power Of the Spanish arms
was able to reach by occupation or nv
military operations.
The peasantry. including all dwelling
In the open agricultural interior. were
driven into the garrison towns or iso-
lated places held by the troops. The
raising and movement of provisions of
all kinds were interdicted The fields
were laid waste, dwellings unroofed and
fired, mills destroyed, and, in short, ev-
erything that could desolate the land and
render II unfit for human habitation or