The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1898-04-15
But Advises Against Recognizing
the Insurgent Government
at the Present Time.
Cites Many IllustriOus Precedents for
This Recommendation "The
War Must Stop"
Refers to the BattIeshfp Maine Ex-
pIOsiOn as u Sign of Spanish
Weakness.

Washington, April 1.-THE president
Monday sent the following message to
the congress of the United States:
Obedient to that precept of the constitu-
ton which commands the president to give
from time to time to congress information
of the state of the union, and to recon-
mend to their consideration such measures
as he shall judge necessary and eXpedient,
1t becomes 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 warfare
that for more than three years has
ragged in the neighbOring island of Cuba.
I do so because Of the intimate connection
Of the Cuban question with the state OF our
own union and the grave relation the
course which it is now incumbent upon
the nation TO adopt must needs bear to
the traditional policy or our government
if it is to accord with the precepts laid
down by the founders of the REPUBLIC and n
istrationS to the present day.
UnciviIized Warfare.
The present revolution is but the sue
cessOr of other similar instructions which
have occurred in Cuba against the do
of nearly half a century, each of which
during its progress has subjected the Unit
ed States to great effort and expense in
enforcing its neutrality laws, caused enOr-
NOUS losses to the 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.
Ravaged by Fire and Sword.
Since the present revolution began in
February, 1895, this country has sen the
fertile domain at our threshold raVaged
by fire and sword in the course of a
struggle unequaled in the history OF the
islands, and rarely paraIleled as to the
number Of the combatantS and the bitterness
of the contest by any revolution of mod
ern times where dependent people, strlV-
ing to be free, have been opposed by the
power of the sovereign state. Our peo-
pie have beheld a once prosperous cOmmu-
nifty reduced to comparative want, its COM
merce virtually paragyZed, its exceptional
productiVeneSS diminished, its fields laid
waste, its mills in ruins, and it's 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 waters and watch our
own seaportS in prevention o. any unlawful
act in aid Of the Cubans. Our trade has
suffered; the capital invested by our cit
lZens IN Cuba has been largely lost, and
the temper and TOrbearauce of our peO-
pie has been so soreiy tried as to beget a
peflIouS unrest among our own citizens,
which has inevitably found it's express
sion 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-
ton to domestic advancement that be-
COlHGS d S0Il-CODIeQJeQ 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 of this gov
erEment as well during my predecessors
administration as my own.
Efforts for Peace.
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 neaca
through the mediation Of this government
IN any way that might tend to an honor
9ple adjustment of the contest between
Spain and her revolted colony, on the
basis OF some effective scheme of self-gov-
eminent for Cuba under the flag and
sovereignty of Spain. 1t failed, through
the refusal of the Spanish government then
IN power to consider any form of mediation
or indeed any plan Of settlement which did
not begln with the actual submission Of
the Insurgents to the mother country, and
tnen only on such terms as Spain herself
might see 1T TO grant. The war continued
undated. The resistance of the insurgents
was N no wise diminished.
New Horrors Added.
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 a new and inhuman phase happily un-
precedented in the modern history of civ
lliZed Christian peoples. The policy of
devastation and concentration, inaugu-
rated by the c2ptain-generarS banGo of De-
tober y, 1896, in the province of Pinar del
Rio, was thence extended 30 embrace all of
the island to which the power CT the Span
ISL arms was able to reach by occUpa ton or
by military operations. The peasantry, in
Guiding all dwellings in the open agricul-
turaI interior, were driven into the garrison
towns or isolated places held by the troops.
The raising and movement of provisions of
all KINGS were interdicted. The fields were
laid waste, dwellings unroofed and fired,
mills destroyed and, in short. everything
that could deSolate the land and render it
unfit for human habitation or support was
commanded by one or the other of the con-
tending parties, and executed by all the
powers at their disposal.
Conditions Year Ago.
BY the time the present administration
took office year ago, recOncentration-sO-
caHed-h9d been made effective over the
better part OF the four central and west
4arn provinces Santa Clara MatanZas. Ha-
vana and Pinar del Rio. The agricultural
population. to the estimated number of
300.000 or more, was herded within the
towns and their immediate Vicinage, de-
priVed of the means of support, rendered
destitute of shelter, left poorly clad and
exposed to-the most unsanitary conditions.
AS the scarcity of food increased with
the devastation of the depopulated areas
of production, restitution and want be
came misery and starvation. Month by
month the death ra increased in ar
alarming ratio. BY March, 1897. according
TO conservative estimates from official
Spanish sources, the mortality among the
reconcentrados from starvation and the
diseases thereto incident, exceeded so per
centum of their total number. No prac-
.ical relief was accorded TO the destitute.
ne Overburdened towns, already suffering
m the general dearth, could give no aid.
ralled zones of cultivation, established
in the immediate az "a of effective mill
control about the cities and fortified
proved illusCry as a remedy for the
hg The unfortunates, being for the
art women and children with aged
pless men, enfeebled by disease and
could not have titled the SOIL with
Is seed or shelter for their own
or for the supply of the cities.
ntration, adopted avowedly as a
asure IN order TO cut off the re-
OF the insurgents, worked it's
ed result. AS 1 said in my mes
st December, ii was not civilized
~ MaR eXter nination. The only