The Monmouth inquirer., 1898-04-14
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
His Views on the Situation In Cuba
and the Maine Disaster.

Washington, April 1.-THE preslden
today sent the following message to con
gress:
The Congress of the United States
Obedient to that precept of the consti
tuition which commands the president tt
give from time to time to the congress in
formation of the state of the Union and t'
recommend to their consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary anc
expedient, it becomes my duty now to ad
dress your body with regard TO the grave
crisis that has arisen in the relations o.
the United States to Spain by reason o.
the warfare that for more than three year:
has ragged in the neighboring island o.
Cuba. l do so because of the intimate CON
nection of the Cuban question with the
state of our own Union and the grave re-
lation the course which il is now inoum-
bent upon the nation to adopt must need!
bear to the traditional policy of our gov
ernment if it is to accord with the pre-
ceuts laid down by the founders of the re
public and religiously observed by sue
oeeding administrations to the present
day.
The present revolution is but the sue
cessor of other similar instructions which
have occurred in Cuba against the domin'
ion of Spain, extending over period OF
nearly half a century, each of which dur
ing its progress has subjected the United
States to great effort and expense in en-
forcing its neutrality laws caused enor
NOUS losses TO American trade and com
,nerce. caused irritation, annoyance and
disturbance among our citizens and by
the exercise of cruel, barbarous and unciv-
ilized 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 rayaged
by fire and sword in the course of strug-
gle 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 oil
the sovereign state. Our people have be.
held a once prosperous community reduced
to comparative want, its lucrative com
merce virtually paralyzed, its exceptional
productiveness diminished. its fields laid
waste, it's mills in ruins and its people
perishing by tens Of thousands from hun
ger and destitution. We have found our.
selves 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 waters and
watch our own seaports in prevention OF
any unlawful act in aid of the Cubans.
Our trade has suffered. the capital invest
ed by our citizens in Cuba has been large
ly lost and the temper and forbearance of
our people have been so severely tried as
TO beget perilous unrest among our own
citizens, which has inevitably found ex-
preston from time to time in the national
legislature, so that issues wholly external
TO our own body polite engross attention
and stand in the way of that close devo-
tion to domestic advancement that be-
comes a self contained commonwealth
whose primal maxim has been the avoid
ance of all foreign entanglements. All
this must needs awaken and has indeed
aroused the utmost concern on the part oil
this government as we'll during my pred
ecessors term as in my own.
In April, 1896, the evils from which our
country suffered through the Cuban 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 honora-
BILE adjustment of the contest between
Spain and her revolted colony. on the basis
of some effective scheme of self govern
ment for Cuba under the flag and SOW
ereignry of Spain 1t failed through the
rof,4 of G,,.st afsb han
in power to consider any form of media
tion or indeed any plan of settlement
which did not begin with the actual sub
mission OF the insurgents to the mother
country, and then only ON such terms as
Spain herself might see fit to grant. The
war continued unabated The resistance
of ths insurgents was in nowise dimin-
ished
The efforts of Spain were increased.
both by the dispatch of fresh levies TO
Cuba and by the addition TO the horrors
of the strife of new aid in human phase
happily unprecedented in the modern his
tory of civilized Christian peoples The
policy of devastation and concentration
inaugurated by the captain general Ban
do of Oct. 81, 1895. in the province OF
Pinar del Rio was thence extended TO am
brace all of the island to which the power
of the Spanish arms was able to reach by
occupation or by military operations. The
peasantry, including all dwelling in the
open agricultural INTERIOR were driven
into the garrison towns or isolated places
held by the troops The raising and move
ment of provisions of all kinds were inter
dicted. The fields were laid waste, dwell
ings unroofed and fired, mills destroyed
and, in short, everything that could desc
late the land and render it unfit for hui
man habitation or support was command
cd by one or the other of the contesting
parties and executed by all the powers at
their disposal.
By the time the present administration
took office year ago Recommendation, so
called, had been made effective over the
better part Of the four central and western
provinces, Santa Clara, Matanzas, Havana
and Pinar del Rio The agricultural
population TO the estimated number of
100000 or more was herded within the
towns and their immediate vieinage, de-
priyed Of the means of support. rendered
destitute of shelter left poorly clad and
exposed to the most insanitary conditions.
AS the scarcity of food increased with the
devastation of the depopulated areas of