Year: 1876

the two nations and we believe that if this
war had been declared by US the ultimate
opinion Of the world would have justified
our action, and might have held that we
could not honorably have otherwise re-
sponded to the provocation given. Every
treaty made between the two governments,
as well as every general principle Of interna-
tional law, has been violated TO our
cost in the island of Cuba but
our demands for redress have been
always referred to Madrid for, though
Havana might Insult US, it was Madrid that
must make reparation. At Madrid we COM
monty found an auditor incredulous of our
statements, and we were put in position
which seemed to admit that we were parties
to case in which the Cuban functionaries
were the opposing parties and the Spanish
government was simply the judge between
us. From that false position our maladroit
diplomacy never saved u.s. and we were
always constrained to retire from our ap-
peals to Madrid none the better for our ac-
ton. With this experience several times
repeated almost any Power inspired by the
notions which prevail in European politics
would have refused to make the journey to
Madrid, but would have sent its frigates to
Cuba and there have exacted reparation, or
have given a lesson that would have secured
a delicate attention to its dignity for the
future.


With an old score of grievances of our own,
and with new reasons ON our hands that are
human as well as national in their obliga-
ton, the conscience of the nation and the
opinion of the world would justify at the
present time such action as must necessarily
result in war On several occasions war
might have been made by us when our right,
though not based on broader grounds, would
have been more satisfactorily perceptible to
our peope. Miscreants intrusted with the
government of Cuba might have been taken
red-handed with the blood of our citizens
over and over again, when, in addition to the
murder of our people, our appeal for redress
was treated with opprobrium and contempt,
and this even under our existing administra-
ton. At those periods our government pre-
ferred to take all with pacific demeanor, but
though we did not fight then we may fight
now. Our case is clear and the war would
be just but would it be polite? 1t appears
to be case in which this consideration may
properly be weighed. If the blood of the
nation we're on fire at the thought that fifty
or hundred sailors taken from under our
flag had been shot in Cuban town this con-
sideration might be out of place. If one of
our ships taken on the high seas had Just
been surrendered to us with holes bored in
her bottom so that she should go down be-
fore she could reach a port, that Spanish
villany might cheat us of the justice we had
demanded and that Spain had seemed to ac-
cord, the proper sensibilities of the country
would require that we should forego some
merely polite reasons but there is no case
of that sort before us now.


Is it wise, therefore. to make at this mo-
ment war that might have been made with
equal or with greater propriety two or three
years since, or for which the occasion will
be equally good next year? Untimely wars
are the greatest sources of calamity TO ma
tions. From mere defeat, however disas-
trous, any people RECEIVERS in generation at
most. Waterloo, to its material effects,
passed away like summer shower by COM
parison with some other conflicts in French
history that were more fortunate in the mill
tary sense, but that politically considered,
were untimely France has not yet recov-
cred from the effects of that great blunder,
the war declared against Austria in 1892
But for that war the passions it engendered,
the excesses it made possible, and the OPP
portunity it gave for personal ambition to
present itself in the guise of patriotic devo-
ton, the French revolution would have re-
suited in the successful regeneration of the
country and reorganization of the govern
ment. For every monstrous evil of the old
system an effective remedy had been con-
triyed; and a new system, set in operation
under favorable auspices, needed only time
and peace to secure good government and
prosperity. So far the revolution had been
patriotic labor, if ever there was one But
they who were dissatisfied to have tranquil
lty so near while their fortunes were still
unmade, and they who did not admire the
new order made the war, and out Of that war
came all the rest, from Robespierre to Napo-
leon. Eighty years of turmoil have been the
remote consequences Restorations and
barbados, red republics and reactions
coupS d'ftdt and communes-all these and
similar evils have followed one another in
bloody procession through the history of
country that might have been, for these
eighty years at least as tranquil as England
has been since 1858, but for the blunder of
one untimely war.


1t is for Congress to weigh this side of the
case calmly; TO consider before they supply
the means to carry on war whether all that
it can secure is not pitiful by comparison
with what it would imperil. Every one per-
ceiYes TINT the intention is 10 mt nnnn q