The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-04-14

Washington, April 1.-THE president to-day
sent the following message to the congress of
the United States: -
Ohedient to the precept of the constitution
which commands the president to give from
time to time to congress the information of
the state of the Union, and to recommend to
their consideration such measures as he shall
judge necessary and eXpedient, it becomes my
duty now to address your body with regard
to the grave crisis that has arisen in the re-
lation of the United States to Spain by rea-
son Of the warfare that for more than three
Cuba.
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 traditional pol
Icy of our government if it is to accord with
the precepts laid down by the founders of the
republic and religiously observed by succeed
ing administrations to the present day.
The present revolution is but the successor
OF other similar instructions, which have &C.
CURED in Cuba, against the dominion of
spain, extending over a period of nearly half
century, each of which during it's progress
las subjected the United States to great effort
and epense in enforcing it's neutralt ylaws
caused enormous losses to the American trade
and commerce., caused irritation, annoyance
and disturbance among our citizens, and by
the exercise of cruel, barberous and
UnctviIized Practices of Warfare
shocked the sensibilities and offended the hui
name sympathes of our people Since the
present revolution began in February 1s95
thls country has seen the fertile domain at
our Threshold ravaged by fire and sword in
me me course OF struggle unequalled in the
nstory or the island and rarely paralleled as
to the number OF the combatants and the bit
terness OF the contest, by any revolution of
1nooern times, where a dependent people, striv-
> ing to be free, have been opposed by the now
er of the sovereign state. Our people have
oenelo once prosperous community reduced
TO comparative want; it's commerce virtually
paralyzed; its exceptional productiyeness d.
mlnished; its fields laid waste it's mills in
ruins, and Its people perishing by tens of thou
ap1 i%,,t;o Wy
found ourselves constrained in the observance
OF that strict neutrality which our laws enioin
ana which the law Of nations commands, to
ponce our own waters and watch, our own
seaports, in prevention of any unlawful act in
AID OF the Cubans. Our trade has suffered
the capital invested by our citizens in I,,ba
base been largely lost and the temper of for
bearance of our people have been so sorey
tired as to been a perilous" unrest among our
own citizens, which has inevitably found its
expression from time to time in the national
, legislature, SO that issues wholly external to
stand IN the way of that close devotion to
domestic advancement that becomes a self
contented commonwealth whose primal maxim
mas oeen the avoidance Of all foreign entangle-
onents. All this must needs awaken and has
lnoeed aroused the utmost concern on the part
Oh tnls government, as well during my prede-
cessors as my own.
In April, 1896, the evils from which our
country suffered through the Cuban war be-
an eHort to bring about peace through the
mediation Of this government in any way that
might lena to an honorable adjustment of the
contest between Spain and her revolted colony
on the basis of some effective scheme of self,
government for Cuba under the flag and soye--
eighty If SPAIN It failed through the refusal
Oh the Spanish government, then in power to
consider any form of mediation or indeed a.
plan of settlement which did not begin the
mother country. and then only on such terms
as spain herself might fit to grant, The
war continued unabated. The resistance of the.
insurgents is in nowise diminished. The eff
forts OF Spain were increased. both by the
despatch CT fresh levies to Cuba, and by the
aooltlon TO the horrors of the strife of
A Cruel and Inhuman Phase.
highly unprecedented in the modern history of
civilized christian peoples. The policy of de-
Capt, Gen. Pando Of Oct. 1896. in the prov
ince of Pinar Del RIO then extended to- en-
brace all of the island to which the power of
the Spanish arms was able to reach by oc-
cupation or by military operations The peas
antry. including all dwelling in the open agri-
cultural interior were driven into the garri-
son towns of insulated places held by the
troops. The raising and movement Of provis-
ions OF all kinds were interdicted. The fields
We're laid waste, dwellings unroofed and fired,
mills destroyed and, in short, everything that
could eesolate the land and render it unfit for
human habitation or support was commanded
by one or the other of the contending parties
and executed by all the powers at their dis
posal. BY the time the present administration
took office year ago, RECOMMENDATION, So ,
, called, had been made effective over the bet
ter part of the four central and western prov
inces of Santa Clara, Matanzas, Havana and
the estimated number Of three hundred thou
sand or more, were herded within three towns
and the immediate vicinity; deprived of the
left to the most unsanitary conditions AS the
scarcity of food increased with the devasta-
ton of the depopulated areas of production, the
situation became miserable. Month by month
the death rate increased in alarming ratio
BY March, 1897 according to conservative es-
Inmates from official Spanish sources, the NOR
tally among the recOncentradcs .=--
From Starvation
and the diseases thereto incidental exceeding
fifty Dercentum of their total number. No
practical relief was accorded to the destitute
The overwhelmed towns already suffering from
the general dearth, could give no aid: So
the immediate area of effective military coll
troll about the cities and fortified camps
The unfortunates being fer the most -art
women and children, with aged and helpless
men, enfeebled by disease and hunger, could
not have titled the soil without TOOLS, seed or
shelter, for their own support or for the sup
ply Of the cities. Recommendation. adopted
avowedly as q measure in order to cut
off the resources of the insurgents worked its
pedestined result. AS said in my message of
last December It was not civilized warfare:
beget was that of the wilderness and the
grave. sR,z 60 @ %@<Es> 80.
Meanwhile the military situation in the island
had undergone noticeable change. The extra
ordinary activity that characterized the second
year Of the war. when the INSURGENTS invaded
the hitherto unframed fields Of Pinar
del Rio and carried havoc and restitution up
to the walls of the city of Havana ITSELF had
relapsed into a dogged struggle in the cen
trail and eastern provinces. The Spanish arms
+re5air.ed measure of control in Pinar del
Rio and parts of Havana, but, under the ex-
listing conditions of the rural country, without
INN ediate improvement Of their productive
situation. Even titus partially restricted, the
revolutionists held their own, and their sub
mission put forward by Spain is the essential
and sole basis of peace, seemed as far distant
as at the outset. In this state of affairs, my
administration found itself confronted with
The Grave Problem of TfS
My message of last December received the
situation and detailed the steps taken with a
view Of relieving its acuteness and opening
the way to some form Of honorable settlement
The assassination Of the prime minister, Como 8
vas led to a change of government in Spain. #
The former administration pledged the SUBJ