The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-04-12
CUBAN MESSAGE.
-
President Submits His Views to
the Congress.
He FAVORS INTERVENTION.
Cuban Insurgents Have Not Yet
Earned Recognition.
SPAIN PROVEN INCOMPETENT.
He FAVORS INTERVENTION.
SPAIN PROVEN INCOMPETENT.

SPAIN PROVEN INCOMPETENT.
President Asks Congress for Power to
Use the Lana and Naval Forces Of
the United States to Bring Peace to
Cnba-Adheres to His Policy That
the War Must Cease-He Refers at
, Length to the sun'erinas OF the Re-
concentrates ana Makes Brief Ref
eroneo 60 tho Maine Horror.
Washington, April 1.-THE president
today sent the following message to
congress:
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 rec
ommend to their consideration such
measures as he shall Judge nec-
essary and expedient. 1t becomes
my duty now to address your body with
regard to tina grave crisis that has
arisen In the relations Of the United
States to Spain by reason of the war;
fare that for more than three years has
ragged In the nelghboring 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 which 1t is
now incumbent upon the nation to
adopt must needs bear to the ira
ditional policy of our government II It
IL to accord with the precepts laid down
by the founders of the republic and re-
ligiously observed by succeeding adj
ministratIons to the present day.
The present revolution is but the sue
cessor of other similar Instructions
which have occurred In Cuba against
the dominion of Spain, extending over Q
period Of nearly half century, each
of which. during it's progress, has sub
jected the United States to great effort
and expense In enforcing its neutral
ity laws. caused enormous losses to
American trade and commerce, caused
irritation. annoyance and disturbance
among our citizens, and by the exer-
else of cruel, barbarous and uncivilized
practices of warfare. shocked the sen.
sibllities and offended the humane SYM
pathies of our people.
rI
Since the present revolution began in
February, 1895, this country has seen
the fertile domain at our threshold raw
aged by fire and sword in the course
of struggle 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 oppressed by the power OF the
sovereign state. Our people have be-
held once prosperous community re-
ducsd to comparative want, its lucra-
tive commerce virtually paralyzed, its
productiveness diminished,
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-
in the observance of that
strict neutrality which our laws en-
join and which the law of nations
to police our own waters
and watch our own seaports in preven-
ton of any unlawful act In aid of the
Cubans. Our trade has suffered, the
capital invested by our citizens in Gu
oa has been largely lost and the tenn
per and forbearance of our people
have been SO sorely tried as to beget u
perilous unrest among our own cit
zens, which has inevitably found its
expression from time to time in
he national legislature, so that is
sues wholly external to our body
polite engross attention and stand
IN the way of close devotion to
domestic advancement that becomes
= self contained commonwealth
whose primal maxim has been the
avoidance Of all foreign entangle-
nents. All this must needs awaken,
and has indeed aroused, the utmost
concern on the part of this govern
nent as well during my predecessors
ERIN as in my own.
Cleveland's Peace Efforts.
In April, 1895, the evils from which
,ur country suffered through the Gu
'an war became so onerous that my
predecessor made an effort to bring
bout a peace through the mediation of
his government in any way that
night tend to an honorable adjustment
If the contest between Spain and her
'evolted colony, on the basis of some
affective scheme of self government for
cuba under the flag and sovereignty Of
Spain. It failed, through the refusal
If the Spanish government then In
lower to consider any form of media
ion, or indeed any plan of settlement
which did not begin with the actual
submission of the insurgents to the
mother country. and then only on such
erms as Spain herself might see fit
o grant. The war continued undated.
The resistance of the insurgents was in |
10 wise diminished.
The efforts Of Spain were increased |
10Th by the }.Ispatch of fresh levies to
Cuba and by the addition to the hor-
ors Of the strife Of new and inhuman
,hase happily unprecedented in tho
modern history of civilized Christian
Peoples. The policy of devastation and
inaugurated by the cap
ain generals bando of October 1896,
n the province Of Pinar del Rio, was
hence extended to embrace all of the
,land to which the power Of the Span
III arms was able to reach by occupa-
lon or by military operations. The
easantry, including all dwelling in the
pen agricultural interior, were driven
lto the garrison towns or isolated
laces held by the troops. The raising
nd moving of provisions Of all kinds
'ere interdicted. The fields were laid
taste, dwellings unroofed and fired,
Hills destroyed, and In short everything
hat could desolate the land and rem
er 1t unfit for human habitation or
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