Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1898-04-14
II IL Gives the President Authority,
Expected, War VIII surely Follow
soOn--The Message Sent to Com
mIttees on Foreign Affairs
Immediately After
Being Read.

WASHINGTON, April 1.-THE Pres
ident to-day sent the following mes
sage 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 the Congress intor-
nation of the state of the union and to rec
ommend to their consideration such meas
ures as he shall judge necess airy and expe-
dent, it 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 war
fare that for more than three years has
ragged in the neighboring island Of Cuba.
A Duty to the COuntrys Traditions.
lido so because of the intimate connec-
ton of the Cuban question with the state OF
our own union and the grave relation the
course which IS now incumbent upon the
nation to adopt must needs bear to the ira
ditiOnal policy of our government, If 1t is
to accord with the precepts laid down by
the founders of the republic and religiously
observed by succeeding generations to the
present day.
FIFTY Years of InsurrectlOn.
The present revolution Is but the success
sor of other similar instructions which
have occurred In Cuba against the domln-
ion of Spain, extending over period OF
nearly half centu. !, 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 the American trade and
commerce, caused irritation, annoyance
and disturbance among our citizens and,
| by the exercise of cruel barbarious aud
uncivalized practices of warfare, shocked
the s.nsibilitles and offended the human
sympathies of our people.
Devastation at Our Threshold.
Since the present revolution began in
February, 1895, this coun ry has seen the
| fertile donna n at our threshold ravaged by
fire and sword in the course OF struggle
unequaled in the history of the island and
rarel paralleled al to the numbsr OF the
| combatants and the bi terness of the con-
| test by any revolution Of modern times
where a dependent people, striving to be
free, have been opposed by the power OF the
sovereign state
Our people have beheld once prosperous
| community reduced to comparative want
| its commerce virtually paralyzed, Its ex-
ceptional productlveness diminished, its
fields laid waste, its mills in ruins and its
people perlshing by the tens of thousands
| munger anu uGSllLullOll
The Cost to America
We have found ourselves constrained, In
the observance of that strict neutrality
which our laws enjoin and which the law
of nations comma IDS, to police our own
waters and watch our own seaports in pre-
vention of any unlawful act in aid Of the
Cubans
Our trade has suffered; the capital in
vested by our citizens in Cuba has been
argelv lost and the temper and forbear-
ance of our people have been so sorely tried
a. to begeta perilous unrest among our
own citizens, which has inevitably found
its expression from tins to time In the ma
tional legislature, so that issues wholly ex-
ternal to our own body polite engross at
tent, on and stand in the way of that close
devotion to domestic adva lcement that be-
comes a self-contented commonwealth
whose primal maxim has been the avoid
ance of all foreign entanglement@
All this must needs awaken and has, In
deed, aroused the utmost concern on the
part OF this government, as we'll during my
predecessor as my own.
Spain Refused Mr. CIeveland's OFFER
In April 1896, the evil from which our
country suffered through tna Cuban war be-
came so onerous that uIY predecessor made
an effort to bring about peace through
the mediation of this government in any
way that nigh. tend to an honorable ad-
justment of the contest between spain aud
her revolted colony, on the basis of some
effective scheme of sslf-goverh mcnt for
Cuba under the flag and sovereignty OF
Spain.
spaIn's War Unreasonable.
It fall d. through the refusal of the Span
ish government hen In power to consider
any form of mediation or indeed any plan
of ,e ttlement that did not begin with the
actual submission of the insurgents to the
mother cou TRY, and that only on such
terms as Spain herself might see at to
grant. The war continued undated. The
resistance OF the insurgents was in nowise
diminished
Weyler's Campaign OF Horror
The efforts of Spain we're increased, both
by the dispatch of fresh levies to Cuba and
by he addition to the horrors of the strife
of a new and inhuman phase happily I'M
precedented In the modern history Of civ
liked Christian peoples. The policy OF
devastation and concentration, inaugurated
by the captain generals bando of october
81, 1896. In the province of Plnar del Rio
was tuence extended to embrace all OF the
island TO which the power of the Spanish
armies was able to reach by occupation OF
by military operations.
Country Laid Waste
I The peasantry including all dwelling ir
the open agricultural i7terior, were driven
into the garrisons towns or isolated place!
( by troops. The raising and movement o
I provisions of all kinds were interdictcd
I The fields were laid waste, dwellings un'
I rooted and fred mills destroyed and II
/ short everything that could desolate thu
I land and render It unfit for human habita
I ton or support was commanded by one Of
I the other of the contending parties, ant
executed by all the powers attheir disposal
Made 100000 Destitute
BY the time the present administration
took once year ago. reconcentratton-so
eaIled-had been made effective over tn
better part Of the four central and weS.erI
, proyin es, santa Clara, Matanzas, Havani
! ana Pinar del Rio The agricultural popa
! lation, to the estimated number Of 10000
or more was herded within the towns an
} their immediate Ticinage, deprived OF IN