The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-08-04
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, D, G., Aug. LIST, 1898.

spanish 16elef as TO the terms upon
which We would negotiate peace,
which is now in the hands of the Span
ish Ministry, is not only liberal, it is,
under the circumstances magnanim-
Gus. 1t provides for the evacuation
of Cuba and Porto Rico, the former
to have an independent government,
under the protection of the L. s.. and
that the latter shall become our prop
erty, Spanish troops upon both to be
sent home at the expense of Spain,
and leave the question of what shall
be done with the Philippine islands,
to be settled afterwards. If Spain is
wise, she viii lose no time in accept
ing these terms, as it is very certain
that if the war is continued the terms
will grow harder and harder, but for
Spain TO display wisdom will be new
thing under the sun. The French
Ambassador, who is now also the
Spanish Minister, accepted the terms,
but, Of course, his acceptance goes for
nothing until confirmed by Spain.
Our preparations for pushing the
campaigns in Porto Rico and in the
Philippines have not been stopped to
await SPANS answer, and will not be
stopped, and if Spain refuses the
terms or attempts to gain time by
quibbling, the plans for sending Com
modore Watson's fleet to Spain, which
were deferred in order to give Spain
a chance to ask for peace, will at once
be carried out. tits doubtful whether
any other country than the L. S.
would have been so generous to a de-
feated foe as not to insist upon the
payment of large money indemnity;
it is also doubtful whether the Span
ish character is capable of appreciat
ing that generosity.
The results of the first week of the
campaign of Gen. Miles in Porto Rico,
have been more than pleasing to
President Mckinley and every mem
Der of his Cabinet, Notwithstanding
the attempt on the part of some of the
yellow journals, to create the impress
sion that the relations of Secretary
Alger and Gen. Miles had become I'M
friendly because the latter had not
conducted the campaign in accord
ance with Ayers orders. The same
sort of stories were circulated about
Secretary Alger and Gen. Shafter,
while the Santiago campaign was un-
der way, but Gen. Shafter has since
stated that he was allowed to conduct
his campaign on his own Judgment,
and was never at any time hampered
in the slightest degree by orders from
the War Department. 1t is we'll
known in Washington that Gen. Miles
has supreme control of the Porto Ric-
an campaign, which was planned by
himself, and that neither President
Mckinley nor Secretary Alger has in
terfered with him or expect to have
any cause to do so. The administra-
ton has the utmost confidence in
Gen. Miles. That confidence has
been fully justified by what he has
accomplished in a single week. The
entire southern end of the island, in
Guiding its second city and number
of smaller ones, is under our flag; and
not a single American life has been
lost. Hurrah for Miles,
Brigadier General Chas. p. Eagan,
Commissary General of the Army has
made public scathing denunciation
of Mr.. Robert p. Roosevelt, for hav-
ing written a letter to the Secretary
of the Sons Of the American Revolu-
ton, charging shameful incapacity
or infamous dishonesty in the com
missary department. The tenor of
Gen. Eagan's remarks, which make a
column of nonpareil may be. judged
from the following quotation: Motor
iety is what Mr.. Roosevelt wants, and
he is bound to have it. He deserves
1.-THE stayed at home. He did right
to stay at home. Notoriety is what
he is after; we see itin every line of
his writing. He carefully avoids Civ
ing name or date. OF course. We
know why. He could not do it and
tell the truth. But he could manu-
factnre a letter in such shape and
form as to bring misery and distress
to every father and mother, wife and
sister of the men at the front, who
did not know that the disingenious
of a lawyer for the
purpose of notoriety were what they
were reading, not a statement of facts,
not true or fair representation of the
officers, nor the truth regarding the
situation in the field, but a low, libel
lous, scandalous villification of hon
orable men,
Sickness continues to increase in
Gen. Skaters army at a rate that
would be alarming were it not for the
small number of deaths. AS it is,
there is much uneasiness, and plans
for bringing the men back to the L.
S. at the earliest possible moment are