Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1898-04-11

eyitably found its expression from
time to time in national legislation, Sc
that issues wholly external to our own
body polite engross the attention and
stand In the way of that close devotion
to domestic advancement that becomes
self contented commonwealth, whose
primal maxim has been 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 predecessors as my own adminis-
tration.
The message goes on to ask Congress
to authorize the President to take
measures TO secure a termination OF
hostilities in Cuba, and 10 secure the
establishment of a stable government
there, and to use the military aud naval
forces of the United States as may be
necessary for those purposes. The
President says that only the hope OF
relief from condition which can no
longer be endured. is the forced pacifi-
cation of the island. The
ISSUE IS NOW WITH CONGRESS
and he awaits its action, standing pre-
pared to carry out every obligation Inn
posed on him by the constitution.
Spain's decree for suspension Of hostili-
ties is submitted to Congress for a just
and careful attention with the 0bserva-
tion that if the measure shall attain a
successful result, "then our aspirations
as a peace-loving people will be real~
ized. Ii it fails, it will be only an.
other justification for our contemplat.
ed action The
MAINE" INCIDENT FIGURES PROM
INENTLY
in the message. The President argues
that the wreck of the "Maine" in
Havana harbor shows that Spain is not
able 10 guarantee security to foreign
vessels. Spain has disavowed any con-
nection with that disaster. and offered
to submit to arbitration all differences
which may arise from that affair.
The President reviews the futile
efforts which this government made in
1896 to bring about peace; and the
policy of devastation and concentra-
tion inalgurated and cruelty pursued
by Spain. In the provinces of Santa
Clara, Matanzas, Havana and Pinar del
Rio, the agricultural population. esti>
mated to number 100000 or more, was
herded within towns and their imme-
diate vicinity, derived of means of
support, rendered destitute OF shelter,
left poorly clad, and exposed to the
most unsatisfactory conditions. by
March. 1884, according to con>.
servative estimates, from off,
cials and Spanish sources the NOR
tallty among the commentaries from
starvation and disease exceeded 30 per
centum OF their total number. No
practical relief was accorded to the des-
tltute. The President says: "The
reconcentration, adopted avOwedly as
war measure in order to cut off the re-
sources of the insurgents, worked its
result. AS | said In my
message of last December, it was not
civilized warfare, it was an extermina-
tion. The
ONLY PEACE 1T COULD BECET
Was that of the wilderness and the
rave
The President reviews his negotia-
ions with Spain for the ameliorati0n
If the conditions in Cuba, and the eff
forts made for the relief of the recon-
following the successful
efforts in, behalf of Americans in the
island. saying that thousands of lives
have been thereby saved. He says:
War in Cuba is of such a nature,
that.
SHORT OF SUBJUGATION OR EXTER-
MINATION,
4 final military victory for the other
side seems impracticable. The pros
psct of such protraction and conelu-
sion of the present straine is contin-
eency hardly to be contemplated with
by the civilized world, and
least of all by the United States, eff
fected and injured as we are deeply
and intimately by its very existence.
this, it appeared to be my
duty, in a special of true friendlf
ness, no less to Spain than
to the Cubans, who have SO much to
lose by the prolongation Of the strug
gle to seek to bring about an immedi-
ate termination of the war. 10 this
end I-submitted, on the 27Gh ultimo, as
a result of much. representation and
through the United
States Minister at Madrid, propositions
to the Spanish government, looking to
an armistice until October, for negoti-
alton of peace with the good offices of
the President. In addition, asked
revocation of the order of
reconeentration, so as to permit the