The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1898-04-21
FOR CUBA LIBRE
Presidents Message in
the Cause of HUI :
mainly.
ARMED INTERVENTION ASKED
SPANS Armistice Decree Reported
Without Recommend ation-Recogn
ton of Cuban Independence Declared
to Be Unwarranted and Inexpedient.


President Mckinley Monday sent the
following message. to the congress of
the United States:
Obedient to that precept of the consti-
tuition which commands the president to
give from time to time the congress in
formation of the state of the Union and
to recommend to it's consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary and
expedient, it becomes my duty now to
address your body with regard to the
grave condition that has arisen in the
relations of the United States and Spain,
than three years has ragged in the neigh
boring island of Cuba. do so because OF
the intimate connection Of the Cuban
question with the state of our Union, and
because of the grave relations which the
course which is incumbent upon the nation
to adopt must needs bear to the ira
ditional policy of our government, II 1t
Is to accord with the precepts laid down
by the founders of the republic and re-
ligiously observed by succeeding admins
trations to the present day.
The Cuban Revolution.
The present revolution is but the sue
cessor of other similar Instructions which
have occurred In Cuba against the do
minion of Spain, extending over period
of nearly half century. each of which,
during it's progress. has subjected the
United States to great effort and expense
in enforcing it's neutrality laws, caused
enormous loss 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 ravaged
by fire and sword in the course OF a
struggle unequaled In the history of the
island, and rarely paralleled as to the
number of the combatants and the bitter
ness of the contest by any revolution OF
modern times, where a dependent people
striving to be free have been opposed by
the power of the sovereign state. Oul
people have beheld a once prosperous
community reduced to comparative want.
its commerce virtually paralyzed. It's ex-
ceptional productiveness diminished, Its
fields laid waste, its mills in ruins and
its people perishing by tens Of thousands
from hunger and restitution.
Damage to American Interests.
We have felt ourselves constrained, In
the observance of that strict neutrality
which our laws enjoin and which the laws
of nations command, to police our own
waters and watch our own seaports In
prevention of any unlawful act in aid OF
Cuba. Our trade has suffered; the cap1-
tai invested by our citizens in Cuba has
been largely lost, and the temper and for
bearance of our people have been SO
sorely tried as to beget perilous unrest
among our own citizens, which has inevi-
! tably followed its expression from time
to time in the national legislature SO that
issues wholly external to our body poll
tic enxross attention and stand in the way
OF more close devotion to domestic ad-
yancement that becomes self-contented
commonwealth. whose primal maxim has
been the avoidance Of all foreign en-
tanelements. All this must needs awaken
and has indeed aroused the utmost con-
Germ on the part Of this government as
we'll during my predecessors as our
ing my own administration.
A Previous Effort to Restore Peace
In April, 1896. the evils from which ouI
country suffered through the Cuban wal
became so enormous that my predecessor
| made an effort to bring about peace
through the mediation Of the government
In any way that might tend to an honor
able adjustment of the contest between
Spain and her revolving colony on the ha-
I sis of some effective scheme OF self
7 government for Cuba, under the mas
and sovereignty of Spain. It failed
! through, the refusal OF the Spanish GOV.
eminent then in power to consider any
form of mediation or indeed any plar
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 ii
to grant. -
Weyler's Inhuman Policy.
| The war continued undated. The re
distance of insurgents was In no Wist
diminished. The efforts Of Spain were In
| creased both by the dispatch OF fresh
levies to Cuba and by additions to thu
! horrors Of the strife. The new and In
human phase. happily unprecedented II
| the modern history Of civilized Christian
people, the policy Of devastation and con
:, .a,tr. finn fnauRurated by the captain