The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1898-04-14
THE MESSAGE.


WASHINGTON, d. c., April 1.-THE
President to-day sent the following
message 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 the
Congress information of the state of the
Union, and to recommend to their con
sideratiOn such measures as he she II
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
ragged in the neighb0rlng island of
Cuba. do so because of the intimate
connection of the Cuban question with
the State of our own Union and the
grave relation the course of which it
is now incumbent upon the nation TO
adopt must needs bear to the tradition
e! policy of our government lift is to &C.
cord with the precepts laid down by the
founders of the republic and religious
ly observed by succeeding administra
tiOns to the present day.
The present revolution 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 SUBJ
jected the United States to great ef-
fort and expense in enforcing its neu-
trality laws, caused enormous loses to
American trade and commerce, caused
irritation, annoyance and disturbance
among our citizens and by the exer-
else of cruel, barbarOus and uncivilizad
practice of warfare, shocked the sensi-
bilities and offended the human SYM
pathies of cur people.
The Struggle in Cuba.
Since the present revolution began
in February. 1895, this country has
seen the fertile domain at our thres-
hold rayaged by fire and sword in the
course of struggle unequalled in the
history of the island and rarely paral.
leled as to the number of comb atlantis
and the bitterness of the contest by
any revolution of modern times where
q dependent people, striving to be free
have been opposed by the power of the
sovereign State. Our people have be-
held q once prosperous community re
duced to comparative want, its lucra-
tive commerce virtually paraly zed, its
exceptional productiveness diminish
ed, its fields laid Waste, its mills in
ruins and its people perishing by tens
of thousands from hunger and destitu-
ton. We have found ourselves con.
strained, in the observance of that
strict neutrality which our laws enjoin
and which the law of nations com.
mands, to police our own waters and
watch our own seapOFts in prevention
of any unlawful act in aid of the Gu.
bans. Our trade has suffered; the
capital invested by our citizens in Gu
b has been largely lost and the tenn
per and fOrbeaFance of our people have
been 50 sorely tried - to beget q per-
ilOus unrest among our own citizens
which has inevitably found its expires.
sion from time to time in the national
legislature, 80 that issues wholly ex.
ternal to our own BODY polite enRrOss
ate 1tion, and stand in the way of that
close devotion to domestic advance
ment that becomes . self-containet
commonwealth whose primal maxim
has been the avoidance of all foreign
entanglements. All this must needs
awken and has indeed aroused the ut
most concern on the part Of this gov.
eminent, - we'll during my predeces
sor's term - in my own.
An AttemPt for Peace.
In April, 1896, the evils from which
our country suffered through the Gu.
ban war became 30 onepous that M
predecessor made an effort to brins
shout peace through the mediation o.
this government in any way thai
might tend to IN honorable adjust
ment Of the contest between Spain and
her revOlted colony, on the basis Of
some effective scheme Of self-govern.