The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1898-04-26

island Spain and expelled, we will have
the necessity imposed upon the Execu-
tive by our consent and through his
own wish of having elections held
under the auspices Of the officers of the
army. Who is going to appoint the
returning board ? Who is going to
count the votes ?
| Mr.. President perhaps the fact that
the State which | have the honor in
Part to represent has been through
that mill once causes me to be more
suspicious in regard to the possible
| outcome Of this action and to look for
ward TO repetition OF the scenes which
we have had in our State when we
were reconstructed. God forbid that
| should lend by any vote OF mine any
countenance to any such scheme.
The people who have on the
eastern end of the island Of Cuba main
tanned their independence and kept the
Spanish soldiers out for three years
during thj. last war and for ten years
during the previOus war, whethe" they
have " government which is stationary
or not, have government such as we
nave recognized as having the rights
OF belligercnts once, and which we
can now well afford to recognize again.
1T is possible that in all the western
half Of that island. which has been so
cruelty devastated, u great many thou
sands, and possibly hundreds of thou
sands, OF refugees have not been driven
| to their death by starvation within the
trochas Did they not escape and flee
to the east and scatter throughout that
country | am almost sure that many
OF the younger and abler men-in fact,
almost all of them-are today in the
eastern end with rifles in their hands,
and they have sworn by Almighty
God to avenge the wrongs OF their
starving wives and children and of
their outraged daughters and yet
you propose to have those gallant sol
diers told You are not the free
people OF Cuba but the Spaniards who
are in Havana and in the other cities,
who have ruined your homes, who
haze wiped out your prosperity and
destroyed your industries-in truth,
nlZed as the people of Cuba"
The question appears to BE- whether
we shall recognize the existing gov
ernment, whatever may be its obliga-
tions, or whether we shall recognize
no government, but declare in general
| terms that the people of Cuba are free,
and then go there and have an election
under our control and direction so as
to set up government OF our making.
VIII that government have any carpet
baggers among its officers?
For the President OF the United
| States ] have a profound respect as a
man. His personal record is as clean
as that of any man in this country and
his honor is above suspicion. But, Mr.
| Pres idcut, the President of the United
| States is surrounded by men whom |
do suspect, whom | do mistlust. He
has so to speak, some very " wicked
partners Qaughterl and | have seen
proof to my mind, that is absolutely
conclusive that the Spanish bondhold-
ers have kept down, through their in
tlucnce in New York and elsewhere,
any action by the Executive or by the
| two bodies Of CongreSs-by the House
when it had an opportunity to act in
an elective way, and it only acts now
because obliged to. | say, having seen
evidence Of these things, ! am com
PEELED to have " suspicious"
The issue appears be whether the
Cuban bonds, issued by that govern
ment through its instrumentality in
New York to secure the independence
Of the island, or the Spanish bonds
| issued by Spain to conquer the island
| shall be paid. | do not want, and, so
help me God, | will never vote for any
proposition which even winks at pro
posing TO impose upon that bleeding
island debt issued by Spain to secure
its cor quest. We have hecn told by
the Senator from Massachusetts (M..
Hoar) that bonds are things which now
come around babies neuks when born
and it seems that the people Of the
whole world are becoming slaves to
bondhOldors of one kind or another I:
that International syndicates possess
more influence than governments that
they declare peace or levy war at their
dictation, or that the governments can
not help themselves, and we are to
present the spectacle here OF leaving
the suspicion in the minds OF even our
own people that slch asyndicato exists
and our own action is predicatcd upon
| their demand.
The island for a quarter OF cen
tury, almost, has been in u state Of
chronic insurrcction, with the Spanish
government trying to maintain supre-
macy. We propose to take SPAIN
place and become the policeman Of the
Western continent and keep in order
| the Latin races that come here or have
been settled here. We can not AFFORD
it. We can not afford to run any risk
of it. We can not AFFORD, my friends,
| TO set up any government there. We
can not afford TO do anything except to
recognize tie existing government
and let them work out their own re-
dempIion, as the other Spanish -Amcri-
can Republics have had to do.
They have had their revolutions and
counter revolutions. do not believe
that people Of that race are capable
OF sclf-governmcnt. While Mexico
has under the great and magnificent
statesman who now dominates her
affairs had tranquility and peace and Il
stable government for long time and
is moving forward rapidly in progress,
we can not undertake to say that the
Cuban people must have stable gov
crnmcnt, and that we will make for
them u stable government, If we are
going to go there and say in order to
have this stable government you must
pay the Spanish debt or some part OF
| it.
If we go there recognizing the exist
ing condition and the government
which we have already recognized
once, we will approach those people in
a spirit of amity and friend iness and
fairness and justice which will appeal
to them, and we can have influence
with them, even with bandits and
mulattoCs, and the worst element OF
those struggling for liberty, and we
can appeal to them by moral obliga-
tion, If nothing else to be law abiding
and civilized. But il we undertake tC