The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-03-30
The Situation.

lntelllgence ana unDlasseu |
Judgment, who has been fairly obser-
want and has made use of the usual
sources of information, and whose rea-
soning faculties are equal to the task of
putting two and two together and ar
irving at the conclusion that the result
is four, has been prepared for the find
ings now officially promulgated.
Whether or not the public has been
given all the evidence that was found
by the board of inquiry is matter OF
speculation. There is current belief
that the opinion of the board that the
Maine was destroyed by the explosion
of submarine mine rests on something
stronger than the theory of naval ex-
perts-that it is, in fact, based on d.
rect or circumstantial evidence Of the
most conclusive character, and that this
evidence duplicates subjects of Spain in
the dastardly deed. What the American
people want, and what they are entitled
to have, is all the light that the long in
vestigation has shed on the cause of the
destruction of the ship and the slaugh.
ter of 266 American sailors. This is
government of the people, and this
people are not children that must be
hoodwinked by their rulers, or an in
temperate and unreasoning mob into
whose mouth bit must be put for its
restraint. They can be trusted with
the full facts of the situation, and If
those facts are" inflamm atory" the cause
of peace that is worth copper will
not be imperilled by their publication.
Apparently Spain is still pursuing
its tactics of delay, and the President is
looking for some settlement, in accord
ance with Sagasta's prayer, on the ba-
sis of autonomy for Cuba. If anything
were needed to show how entirely illu-
sorry are any hopes of ending the war
by the offering of autonomy in any dis
guise, or by it's acceptance by the in
surgents, or by the Spaniards them
selves, that thing was supplied by SEN
ator Proctor in his report of his obser-
vations on the island, and by Senators
Gallinger and Thurston who speak
from personal contact with the ele-
ments of the problem of real and
abiding pacification of Cuba. The time
for autonomy, in any form or in any
disguise, is long past. Gomez and his
compatriots would be fit only for slav-
cry or utter extincsion if after their
long and oft-repeated experience of
Spanish duplicity and barbarity, and
after their many battles and heroic suf-
ferings, they could now be tricked into
peace with their old and hardened
oppressor on any other basis than alb
solute independence. The insurgents
will not have autonomy in any form.
Spain has no purpose of granting, and
no understanding of, what an Ameri-
can or Englishman Imeans by auton-
omy. If she promised it to-day to tie
over this present crisis, she would
break the promise tomorrow, when
the crisis was past, just as she did the
treaty of 1878, under whose pledges the
rebels of that time laid down their arms,
and freedoms battle, now brought to
the verge of successful achievement,
would be again begun. 1t is hoped that
the Presidents plans for action do not
contemplate any longer temporizing
with autonomy.
1t is currently understood that Presi.
dent Mckinley has decided on some
plan Of action; that the plan contem-
plates an appropriation of $4,000 for
carrying official relief to the Cuban
reconcentrados, and insistence that
Spain shall bring the war to an end;
that some sort of guaranty shall be
given that the Cubans shall ultimately
be free and independent, but somehow
the idea of Spanish suzerainty, a term
conveying more or less real subjec-
ton to the government of Spain, shall
be maintained. Congress, nor the PEG.
pie represented in Congress, have any
idea Of settlement on any other basis
than the immediate and uncondi-
tional surrender of the island by Spain
to the Cubans. The terms Grant gave
the Confederates at Donelson are good
enough, in the judgment of the Ameri-
can people, for the Spaniards in Cuba.
And the American people would like
to see put into the adjustment of the
Cuban and related questions something
of the resolution exemplified by Old
Hickory, and later by Grant, in dealing
with questions of vital moment.
As prelude to the final settlement
of the Cuban question on the basis of
immediate peace, and the immediate
and perpetual retirement of Spanish
authority from Cuba, Congress and the
people at large would give millions in
place of hundreds of thousands, but
not one dollar if, meantime, while the