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ACTION IN CONGRESS.

sisting of the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Puerto Principe and half of Santa Clara, had fallen into the possession of the Cubans.*

The progress of the insurrection was watched with great interest by the people of the United States, not only because the constant struggle through many years by the Cuban patriots had aroused their sympathy, but because it was apprehended that the vast commercial and industrial interests held by American citizens would become involved and possibly ruined in the course of the strife. Approximately $50,000,000 of American money had been invested in Cuban plantations, mines and railroads and the annual commerce was valued at about $100,000,000.†

The United States maintained a position of strict neutrality, though the executive branch of the government was severely criticized in and out of Congress. Several resolutions favoring recognition were introduced in both Houses. On June 30, 1895, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations presented a majority report, asking the President to "use in a friendly spirit the good offices of this government, to the end that Spain shall be requested to accord to the armies with which it is engaged in war the rights of belligerents. The minority offered this resolution:

*Lee and Wheeler, Cuba's Struggle, pp. 122128; Charles Morris, The War with Spain, pp. 69-72.

+A. C. Coolidge, The United States as a World Power, pp. 121-133. See also President Cleveland's message of December 7, 1896, Richardson, Messages and Papers, vol. ix., pp. 716-722.

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"That the President is hereby requested to use his friendly offices with the Spanish government, for the recognition of the independence of Cuba.”

On February 5, 1896, the Senate recommended direct recognition of the belligerent rights of the insurgents, with a declaration of the neutrality of the government.* These resolutions were warmly debated in the Senate. The House amended them and they went to a conference committee, in their final form being adopted in the House on April 6, by a vote of 245 to 27. "In his annual message of December 7, 1896, President Cleveland declared that, when Spain's inability to suppress the insurrection had become manifest, and the struggle had degenerated into a hopeless strife involving useless sacrifice of life and the destruction of the very subject-matter of the conflict, a situation would be presented in which the obligation to recognize the sovereignty of Spain would be superseded by higher obligations."

In the meantime the United States government had experienced much difficulty in preventing filibustering expeditions from leaving American ports in aid of the insurgents. Under the provisions of international law the United States, while at peace with Spain, was obliged to prohibit and

*On the rights of belligerents and the consesuch action see Theodore S. quences under Woolsey, America's Foreign Policy, pp. 25-34. Lee and Wheeler, Cuba's Struggle, p. 163.

Moore, American Diplomacy, pp. 140-141. See also Moore, Digest of International Law, vol. vi., pp. 56-239; Lee and Wheeler, pp. 164170; Morris, War with Spain, p. 105 et seq.; Callahan, Cuba and International Relations, p. 470.

prevent the use of American ports to Cubans and their sympathizers for the purpose of fitting out these armed expeditions but while the government faithfully observed its obligations of neutrality and arrested several of the promoters of these schemes, still some successfully eluded the authorities and landed men and arms in Cuba.*

The Cubans were almost uniformly successful in their engagements with the Spaniards, and although large reinforcements had been sent from Spain, the Spanish authorities in the island had not even, with 200,000 men, been able to make headway against the insurgents. On December 4, 1896, the Cubans suffered a severe loss in the death of Antonio Maceo, but they became more determined than ever. By the end of 1897 the island was completely desolated, for canefields were burned and plantation buildings destroyed in a strenuous attempt to render the island absolutely valueless to Spain and unable even to support her troops quartered there.†

General Campos had been superseded February 10, 1896, by a more cruel and energetic captain-general, Valeriano Weyler, who at once proceeded to promulgate some brutal and tyrannical measures which soon brought his name into reproach and caused him to be generally execrated throughout the island. In 1896 Weyler issued a decree requiring the rural

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population to abandon their homes and concentrate themselves in the fortified towns.* The Spanish authorities then began a war of extermination on the pacificos, or Cuban noncombatants, on the pretext that they had not obeyed the terms of this decree, though the time allowed for the removal was insufficient and though many of them had not the slightest knowledge of the issuance of the de

cree.

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Those who had escaped trados they were called - and had settled in the fortified towns received a treatment which beggars description. The Spanish authorities were not even able to feed their own troops and much less the newly-acquired population; cultivation of farm lands outside the towns practically ceased and consequently no crops came to the town markets; and the people were forced to depend upon foreign countries even for the barest necessities of life. As a consequence an appalling state of destitution, starvation and death soon became general, and sickening and almost incredible reports of outrage, starvation, imprisonment, massacre and death were sent to the United States by American newspaper correspondents.† Even American citizens were not exempt, as shown by the consular reports of Consul-General Lee and others, but suffered arrest, imprisonment without trial, and death from exposure, starvation and disease in Weyler's reconcentrado camps.

*Lee and Wheeler, Cuba's Struggle, p. 92.

† Morris, War with Spain, p. 92 el seq. Senate Doc. No. 405, 55th Congress, 2d session.

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By courtesy of Collier's Weekly.

1. WAITING FOR FOOD AT HAVANA.

2. RECONCENTRADOS AT MATANZAS, THOMAS ESTRADA PALMA'S HOUSE IN DISTANCE. 4. REFUGEES FROM EL CANEY.

3. SICK RECONCENTRADOS AT MATANZAS.

SPAIN GRANTS AUTONOMY TO CUBA.

These reports soon aroused the fury of the American people who demanded that some definite action be taken to suppress the awful spectacle and to protect the rights, property and the lives of American citizens in Cuba. On May 17, 1897, President McKinley asked Congress for an appropriation of $50,000 to relieve destitute and suffering American citizens in Cuba,* and both Houses of Congress granted his request, the bill being signed by the President May 24. The food, clothing and medicine distributed by Consul-General Lee and other American consuls for a time greatly alleviated the distress existing among the Americans, but during the summer the state of affairs gradually became worse and the United States government felt called upon to insist that the Spanish authorities increase their efforts or pursue some method by which normal conditions might be restored.

The American minister to Spain at Madrid was instructed in September, 1897, to inform the Spanish government that the situation in Cuba had become so dreadful that the United States authorities could not promise to maintain strict neutrality permanently and that something must be done to stop the enormous injury to American industrial and commercial interests which the war in Cuba was inflicting. But this communication received scant notice by the Conservative ministry then holding the reins of

* Richardson, Messages and Papers, vol. x.,

P. 127.

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government in Spain, and it was not until a Liberal ministry headed by Señor Sagasta came into power in October, 1897, that the Cuban situation received the attention it deserved. Shortly after assuming the premiership Sagasta announced that a law had been signed by the Queen Regent granting autonomy to Cuba under Spanish suzerainty.* As an indication of good faith, Captain-General Weyler was recalled on October 9 and Marshal Blanco sent in his place, reaching Havana October 30.

But this did not suit either party in Cuba, for the Spanish people there thought the measures were too lenient and granted too much, while on the other hand the Cubans would not be satisfied with anything less than complete independence, and so opposed the measures as granting too little.†

President McKinley was inclined to give Spain every possible chance to redeem her promises of reforms and still adhered to the policy outlined in his annual message to Congress on December 6, 1897, when he said that Spain "should be given a reasonable chance to realize her expectations and to prove the asserted efficacy of the new order of things to which she stands irrevocably committed."

Blanco's administration, however, was no improvement upon that of his

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