F 1786 .M42 Copy 1 "The Cuban Patriots' Cause is Just, the Right Shah Prevail, and in God's Own Time Cuba Shall Be Free." CUu i \ I \ i > i v PHILADELPHIA ' N • > i : . GOVERNOR MATTHEWS, of Indiana. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress Wi». Hift.Wjj http://www.archive.org/details/thecubanpatriotsOOmatt * "THE CUBAN PATRIOTS' CAUSE IS JUST, THE RIGHT SHALL PREVAIL, AND IN GOD'S OWN TIME CUBA SHALL BE FREE." On Thursday evening, November 21st, 1895, Hon. Claude Matthews, Governor of Indiana, delivered an oration, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Brigade Association, in favor of Cuban independence. At the conclusion of his address certain resolutions were adopted, and the Commander of the Philadel- phia Brigade Association was authorized. to appoint a committee of fifty-six to present those resolutions to the President, the Sena- tors and Representatives in Congress, and in conformity there- with the Commander appointed the following named as the com- mittee, who in the performance of the duty assigned to them present for your consideration a copy of the preamble and reso- lutions, as passed at the meeting held at the Academv of Music, Philadelphia, on Thursday evening, November 21st, 1895, to wit: — "WHEREAS, The inhabitants of the island of Cuba have for several months last past been engaged in a warfare with the government of Spain, endeavoring to establish a Republican form of government, and "WHEREAS, On the sixteenth day of September, 1895, the citizens of Cuba, at a session of a Constituent Assembly, declared their inde- pendence of the monarchy of Spain, and announced in due form of law the establishment of a Republican form of government, and "WHEREAS, As citizens of the United States we hereby extend our heartfelt sympathy to the citizens of the Republic of Cuba, and pledge to them our influence and support in this effort of theirs to create a gov- ernment with institutions similar to our own, and in the language of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the peo- ple to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness ;' and we believe that Spain, by her government of Cuba for over a quarter ol a century, has been 'a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over' the inhabitants and citizens of Cuba, therefore be it " RESOLVED, That we request the Congress of the United States, at the opening of the coming session, to at once pass a joint resolution re- questing the President to recognize the Republic of Cuba without further delay, and " RESOLVED, That we hereby request our United States Senators and Representatives in Congress from this Commonwealth to use their influence and vote to secure the passage of a joint resolution recognizing the Republic of Cuba as aforesaid, and " RESOLVED, That the Commander of the Philadelphia Brigade Asso- ciation, as Chairman of this meeting, appoint a committee of fifty-six to carry out the purposes of this meeting, and " RESOLVED, That a copy of these preambles and resolutions be for- warded to the President, and Senators and Representatives in Congress." HON. CHAS. F. WARWICK. COL. A. K. McCLURE. HARRINGTON FITZGERALD. L. CLARKE DAVIS. COL. CLAYTON McMICHAEL. COL. CHAS. EMORY SMITH. JAMES ELVERSON. WILLIAM M. SINGERLY. JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG. WILLIAM M. TAGGART. JAMES POLLOCK. JAMES McCONNELL. REV. BENJ. T. TANNER. " JOSEPH KRAUSKOPF. t " II. S. HOFFMAN. " CHAS. II. RICHARDS. " S. W. THOMAS. " JOSEPH A. SEISS. HON. ROBT. E. PATTISON. " EDWIN S. STUART. " BOIES PENROSE. II EN BY F. WALTON. " C. WESLEY THOMAS. " S. W. PENNYPACKER. " F. AM E DEE BREGY. " JOHN L. KINSEY. " GEO. W. B. HICKS. .IOIIN GUITEKAS, M. D. . Attest: chas. s. keyser. vincent portuondo. _ james m. beck, francis dominguez. fred. middleton. j. e. brunet, m. d. h. ernest goodman, m. d. isaiah c. wears, william b. gill, henry neamand. chas. f. kindred, col. emilio nunez. " edward thompson. " james f. morrison. " william w. kek. " james Mccormick. " abraham levering " john e. reilly. " jos. r. 0. ward. " thomas furey. " paul l. levis, ma j. harry i. yoiin. jacob, wildemore. william g. mason. A. C. SHANK. ELIJAH CUNDEY. BENTON O. SEVERN. E. FRANK CARSON, Secretary. [From the Philadelphia Times, Nov. 22d, 1895. ] MATTpEW^ ON UUB$ F^EEDOHj. THE YOKE OF SPANISH TYRANNY AND MIS- RULE SHOULD BE LIFTED. GODSPEED THEIR HOLY AMBITION. At a Mass Meeting in the Academy of Music last evening, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Brigade Association, Governor Claude Matthews spoke on "Free Cuba." —He said the Question was one of the Most Perplexing Political Problems of the Day.— As a Nation, he said, we may be Conservative, but as Citizens we should hold out hopeful Sympathy to the Cuban Patriots. The little island of Cuba which is struggling so heroically to free itself from the tyranny of Spain, received the heartfelt sym- pathy of an audience composed of intelligent and patriotic citi- zens which assembled at the Academy of Music last evening. The occasion was a mass meeting under the auspices of the Philadelphia Brigade Association, which is heart and soul with the movement of the Cuban people in their fight for freedom and independence. The audience, by its looks and acts, showed precisely where it stood on the republican form of government question, and if the thousands of patriotic citizens who pressed into the Academy could have settled the matter last evening they would gladly have arisen en masse and declared independence in Cuba then and there. As it was, the auditors listened attentively to the speeches delivered by those who addressed the meeting, and at every opportunity broke out in profound and tumultuous applause. Colonel John W. Frazier presided, and prior to introducing Governor Claude Matthews, of Indiana, who was the chief speak- er, made a few remarks in which he referred to the gallant work of the Philadelphia Brigade at Antietam, and pointed to the fact that the veterans were again assembled to urge and cheer a small band of brave and heroic patriots who are trying to throw off the yoke of the monarchy of Spain. On the stage were seated Minister Plenipotentiary Palma, Cuba's representative in the United States: Col. Emilio Nunez, Senor De Sato, Richard N. Navarro, of Brooklyn ; Dr. John Guiteras, Charles S. Keyser, James Pollock, Colonel Robert B. Beatli, Captain Wm. W. Ker, Captain William Thornton, E. Frank Carson, Colonel John E. Reilly, Paul A. Levis, Colonel Jos. R. C. Ward, A. C. Shank, Charles W. Devitt, Captain Thomas Furey, Captain Edward Thompson, William G. Mason, Elijah Cundey, Fred. Middleton, Jacob Wildemore, and Benton O. Severn, of the Brigade Association. COMMANDER FRAZIER'S REMARKS. Ladies, Gentlemen and Comrades : — As many of you know, the surviving members of the old Philadelphia Brigade are earnestly engaged in the sacred duty of erecting to the memory of those of our comrades — 545 in all — who fell at the battle of Antietam, a monument upon that battle-field, — a monument that will be a lasting honor to them, to us who survive them, and to the City whose name we bore so proudly from Ball's Bluff to Appomattox. The Philadelphia Brigade is proud of its achievements in war and peace. Either as a brigade, or by regimental divisions of the brigade, we took part in forty-eight different battles for the maintenance of the American Union, and lost in killed, wounded or missing in those battles 3,015 of our comrades, or nearly three-fifths of our total enrollment and muster. One of the most historic spots upon the battle-field of Antie- tam is where stands the old Dunker Church ; it is the very centre of the battle-field, and around its sacred confines the battle ebbed and flowed with a heroism almost unparalleled in the con- flicts of war. The old Philadelphia Brigade had the honor of fighting all around that historic church, and the monument we intend to dedicate on the 17th day of September next will be within the sound of the pastor's voice of that sanctuary. If we are justly proud of our record in war, we are no less proud of.it in peace. It stands to the everlasting honor of the old Brigade that it was the first to establish soldierly fraternity between tiie sections, by a reunion of the Blue and the Gray — the Philadelphia Brigade and Pickett's Divison — at Gettysburg on July 3d, 4th and 5th, 1887, at which time and place over three hundred of the survivors of Pickett's Division were our guests — with all that the term implies — for three days; the culumination of that glorious reunion being reached when, on the last day of the reunion, seven hundred survivors of the two commands marched together across that one mile stretch over which Pick- ett's Division, on the afternoon of July 3d, 1863, made the grand- est charge ever recorded in the histories of war — reaching the stone wall of Cemetery Ridge, at the Bloody Angle, to secure which they lost over 3,000 of the 4,500 veterans who began that fatal charge, and to maintain which the old Phiadelphia Brigade lost proportionately as many of its men. Arriving at that stone wall the survivors of the Old Brigade aligned themselves on the side upon which they fought, and so many fell, the veterans of Pickett's Division remaining upon the other side, and then by a common impulse of humanity both sides advanced close to the wall and grasped hands in a loving, fraternal and soldierly embrace. Thousands witnessed that touching scene with moistened eyes and quivering lip, and if ever the angels of Heaven came close to earth to give ap- proval to the actions of men, they were around us and among us on that occasion, and to carry back the glad tidings: Peace reigns upon the earth, and good will and fraternity is established between the North and the South. Oh, we are proud of that great event in peace. And in the performance of our duty in raising funds wherewith to erect our monument on x\ntietam's field, we have had one oration bv His Grace, Archbishop Ryan, whose eloquent appeal for church unity, for a firmer faith in the religion of the Man of Nazareth, was so grand, so impressive, so free from sectarianism, so broad, so catholic as to command the hearty approval of clergymen of almost every known faith in the city of Philadelphia — Jew or Gentile — be their complexion colored or white. Proud, indeed, was the old Brigade of that occasion, when Archbishop Ryan honored us so highly and advanced the sacred cause for which he labors so nobly; and I say it with all sin- cerity, that the work so well begun by the Archbishop for a more liberal and a more united Christianity upon this little earth of ours, for a better — may I not say for a Christ-like — understand- ing among religious denominations, ought not to end with that one great, grand and glorious utterance of this Teacher of the 8 faith. Indeed, I should feel that my services as Commander of the Philadelphia Brigade Association were only half performed were I to retire without once more having Archbishop Ryan, the broadest, the sincerest, the firmest, yet withal the most gen- tle and most lovable of Christian Prelates, tell in his own masterly, sublime and convincing way what Christianity has done — what it yet must do for humanity. Scarcely less proud are we to-night that, under the auspices of the old Philadelphia Brigade, Governor Matthews, the honored Executive of a great State, will make his plea for Cuban Inde- pendence that was to have been made at Atlanta, where it should have been given in accordance with arrangements made by the Exposition Commissioners. The Philadelphia Brigade is not deeply in love with England or Spain. We are not unmindful of the fact that both of these countries acknowledged the Jefferson Davis government as a belligerent power considerably more than a month before the battle of Bull Run was fought in July, 1861 — a recognition that cost this nation thousands of millions in money and hun- dreds of thousands of American lives, and in our work and labor and duty to our heroic dead we are proud to turn aside and throw the weight of our influence in behalf of struggling Cuba, which will yet be free. Governor Matthews has come from his Indianapolis home, with a head bowed with excessive grief over the recent loss of his only son, to keep an engagement made a month ago with the Philadelphia Brigade; comes here to raise his eloquent voice for that Cuba struggling in unequal strife for law, for constitu- tion, for government, for liberty, for home, for humanity, and it is one of the highest honors of the old Philadelphia Brigade Association, and one of the proudest pleasures of its Command- er's career, to be accorded the privilege of introducing to this great audience Hon. Claude Matthews, the patriotic Governor of a patriotic State, whose every heart-beat is for American principles, policies, justice, and humanity. GOVERNOR MATTHEWS' SPEECH. I esteem it a happy privilege to meet with you, the citizens of this proud city, rich in the historic memories of the founding of our government, and under the auspices of an association whose members are moved by the noblest impulses, and the loftiest sentiments of patriotism, — an association magnanimous and brave, the first to meet the generous spirit of the American people, to rob sectional difference of its bitterness and sting, and to proclaim upon the field of Gettysburg that brave men, though once opposed in hostile strife, could mingle in friendly reunion as citizens of a common country, and together write the record of American valor and American magnanimity. The spirit there created years ago found its crowning glory in the welcoming this year of the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic on Southern soil, and in the mingling of the Blue and Gray on Chickamauga's battle-field — a reunited people, march- ing on to achieve that higher destiny which awaits us as a i nation, as one people, of one country, and under one flag. There is a significance in this meeting here to-night which passes far beyond the ordinary, in the consideration of one of the most perplexing political problems of the day. It is the assembling of citizens of a great, free Republic, who, with the memories of struggles past, and victories won in the sacred name of Liberty; with a cheering, abiding faith in representa- tive government achieved, of human rights and the universal brotherhood of man, gather here with grateful hearls beating in purest sympathy with a people struggling to be free. It is a fitting time and occasion, within the shadow of Independence Hall, the cradle of freedom in the Western world, within the sound of the old bell ringing in the grandest event in our nation's history, to '-proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." and surrounded by the mag- nificent evidences of the strength, the enterprise, the prosperity and the happiness of our people, to pause in our busy, self-occu- pying career and seeming indifference, to review the history of our past, remembering the principles for which our fathers fought, who, by deeds of valor and sacrifice threw aside the gailing yoke, and to publicly express our sympathy, with words of encouragement, for a neighboring people contending for the same rights and principles — for independence and home government. There is a moral encouragement in a sympathy thus poured out, while it may give no physical aid, which conflicts not witli the cold technicalities of international law — in itself but arbi- trary and legal fiction — nor the hampering restrictions of treaty obligations. It carries to the hearts of the oppressed the as- surance that oppression is wrong ; that tyranny is of the past ; 10 that the freedom of mankind is of the present and future; and that the cause of man's wrongs is a universal cause and of eternal justice. And the same God who gave His blessing to us in the darkest hours of our nation's trials, will continue to smile upon the aspirations of His children, in whatever land, to be free, — for the cause of human freedom is the cause of Christian civilization./ Less than one hundred miles off our extreme southern coast is the beautiful island of the sea, Cuba, "the fairest emerald in the crown of Ferdinand and Isabella," when Spain was at the acme of her glory and renown — an island of beauty beyond compare and rich in resources unmeasured ; where the sun with gentle rays makes eternal summer; where the fertile soil gives abundant response to crude and indolent tillage, and holds in its minerals a treasure of untold wealth, when developed under the patronage of just and beneficent government. Embracing over forty thousand square miles of territory, with a population of less than two millions, and capable of sustaining many times that number, with climate unsurpassed and nature bountiful in advantages — as a nation of freemen, and not of slaves, who could undertake to measure its possibilities? In that golden age of discovery, Cuba was the first in all the Western hemi- sphere to disclose her beauty to the venturesome and covetous Spaniard, and soon thereafter became the base of the various expeditions of Spain against Mexico and the southern continent. Here were fitted out her expeditions for discovery and conquests . of rapacious greed, of heartless cruelty and atrocious inhuman- ity, unequaled in the history of the world. In the early part of the present century, withering under the baneful and blighting rule, through heroic courage and undaunted patriotism, all con- tinental Spanish America rebelled against the despotism of the mother country and became free and independent nations. Our own government recognized the independence of these then weak and struggling nations. It was in connection with subsequent events arising out of that came the celebrated "Monroe doctrine" — "that the American continents should no longer be subjects for any new European colonial settlement.' 1 This was the bold, wise and patriotic manifestation when we were a. comparatively weak power, and its spirit still animates the breasts of American freemen ; and it may yet receive a broader construction by the American people, that no longer 11 should old world mediaeval governments, with despotic sway, smother the aspirations of the people, nor retard the progress of free government in all the Western world ; that the American continents, both North and South, must be under American influences alone, with nowhere place for European domination. Yet when Spain's other American dependencies, wearied with the burdens and oppressions of misrule, refused longer to re- spond to the demands of avarice and greed, and struck for freedom, — poor Cuba, lulled to sleep with false and deceitful promises of reform, and the honeyed flattery of "ever faithful," awoke to find herself deceived., bound hand and foot, her loyalty despised, robbed of her birthright, and only prey for spoils. The pages of history nowhere reveal more atrocious crimes against humanity, more cruel warfare or wicked oppres- sion, more examples of outraged truth and justice, nor greater crimes against all Christian civilization than have marked Span- ish misrule and despotism in Cuba. A gem upon the sea, it would have been a mine of wealth to its possessors through the nurturing, fostering care of humane rule, and would have well replenished the depleted treasury of a decayed and effete nation. But the reverse has been true. With but the selfish greed of revenue, Cuba has been drained and robbed and de- spoiled until in the destruction of her own prosperity, crushing out the hopes and ambitions and energies of her people, she scarcely yields a revenue to the greedy oppressor. Debt upon debt has accumulated, reaching the enormous sum of over $100 per capita. The system of taxation is the most oppressive, brutal and degrading ever instituted by government. Burden- some taxes are laid upon all trade, upon every industry and enterprise, upon public business and domestic life — upon the home, the cradle and the grave. Its exercise breeds corruption and bribery in the public official; and the inhabitant, excluded fiom holding even the humblest office, is robbed of the last remnant of political, civil and religious liberty. All revenues de- rived from taxes must flow to Spain through Spanish officials, and there the Cuban must pay for the privilege of both buying and selling. For nearly four hundred years has it been so, with nothing expended for Cuba's development — for public roads or other internal improvements — her taxes only serving to furnish means for still greater oppression, and to more firmly rivet the chains which bind her in her degradation and shame. 12 The wrongs against which we rebelled were not half so grievous, nor the barbarous cruelties nearly so great ; and yet the same great principles are involved that aroused to action our fathers in 1776. Revolution has followed revolution, but all to no avail, because from Cuba's peculiar position the armed ves- sels of Spain have closed her people in from all the world. Defeated often have they been, and put off with promises of re- form which never were kept, and with promises of representa- tion in the national Cortes; yet their representatives knocking at the door have been laughed to scorn, and the native Cuban has had no voice in the humblest affairs of government. Yet, with all disadvantages, the Cuban patriot has been brave and has fought a good fight. From the walls of every city and hamlet, from every forest and plain, the blood of her pa- triots, and of innocent women and children, cry aloud for sympathy and for justice. Her sons have inhaled the atmosphere of this liberty-loving country, and their souls have been enkindled with the fires which we have lighted. Cuba presents a long list of martyrs to 1 ib>erty — brave, self-sacrificing and undaunted heroes, who have fallen for their country's cause. Our close neighbor, we can almost hear her agonizing cry for help across the narrow chan- nel, the sounds of battle carrying the salvation of Cuba, or again sealing her defeat for years to come. Is it not time that these struggling freemen should have thrown around them the protec- tion, at least, that may come to recognized belligerents? Would it not be more fitting that a people affording the grandest ex- ample of free government which the world has ever known, should be the first to accord such rights to a people seeking that which we already have— a people geographically and through ^ every commercial and industrial interest inseparably connected with our own and the other American republics? It may be said that the conditions do not exist to warrant such action on the part of our government; that the fact of belligerency has not been established. This may be true, and no citizen should desire his government to do that which does not comport with its dignity and honor, and would have it deal justly and fairly with its treaty obligations. The public official clothed with the full responsibility must frequently discharge duties not always in accord with popular sentiment, nor with personal preference, and must bring to the consideration of every question conscien- 13 tious thought and be actuated by the highest motives. Often it is difficult to find fitting comparison on which to form judgment or base action. The struggle in Cuba is without comparison and without precedent in all surrounding conditions. It pre- sents the picture of the ruthless mother despoiling her fair daughter of every virtue, of life itself; and yet in the progress of this nineteenth century civilization, where broad humanity sways the minds of men, the child may be taken from the cruelty and injustice of the parent, and either shielded in self- support or placed under the safe protection of others. Of the extent of the war and of the actual condition in Cuba, we can have no accurate information. The insurgents can send none, the Spanish authorities give none, save that which may be dic- tated by policy or colored to serve a special purpose. Every harbor and all military points of strength are guarded and forti- fied by Spain, and these give unlimited resources for supplies. Spain, thousands of miles away, by her acts, proclaims that it is war, a revolution, not mere insurrection, nor the mad caprice of a mob. A nation of seventeen millions, with one million soldiers on a war footing, is pouring into Cuba vast armies of men, material, supplies and munitions of war — empty- ing both her arsenals and her treasury. It is officially acknowl- edged that there are already eighty thousand Spanish troops in Cuba, a greater number than the British government employed in the entire conquest of India, and these, well armed and equipped, to meet the reported small forces of ill-equipped and untrained revolutionists. And yet these patriots have proclaimed a republic, with a President appointed and a tax levied, of their own. The Cuban patriots are poor, and have been made so by centuries of usurious oppression. Though of slender resources and weak in numbers, they are fighting as only brave men can, who are animated by a great and noble purpose. They are the same men who for ten years withstood the armies of Spain, only to be defeated at last by promises of reform made to be broken. There often comes a time in the lives of nations, as well as of men, when it becomes necessary to walk in new untrodden paths; to brush aside the cobwebs of tradition which but obscure the view; to grasp great living thoughts, and meet the problems of a growing, progressive age — in short, to find a way or make it. France found a way to aid our struggling fathers in their midnight gloom, with scarce one star of hope to rift the over- 14 hanging cloud. Besides, we cannot ignore the fact that there are moral duties resting upon nations, which ofttimes rise supe- rior to fine-spun technicalities and the cold logic of law, and that these moral obligations rest more imperatively upon some nations than upon others. Indifference and inaction may dis- courage, may even delay, the coming triumph of the inevitable, but they are powerless to prevent it. There is presented to us a question which we cannot well escape — a cry coming across the waters for sympathy and for aid, to which we cannot much longer close our ears or hearts. This appeal comes direct to us as the chosen people, who have passed through the red sea of oppression and the wilderness of despair, on and out into the goodly land of freedom which we have occupied, and in which we have waxed great and strong through the priceless heritage of independence won. There are appeals for help at times when it becomes almost a crime not to stretch out the hand with needed aid — when aid and encouragement mean salvation, life, peace and happiness, and their refusal is sorrow, suffering, degradation and death. Let not my words be construed into reflection or criticism on our Government. I have an abiding faith in the eternal prin- ciples of our Government, and in the courage, the justice and the wisdom of the men whom we have chosen to direct its affairs In good time will they do that which seemeth to them right and just and wise, and recognize the duty and obligation resting upon the great republic of the world. When it is asked that belligerent rights be heartily and speedily accorded to the long suffering defenders of Cuban freedom, it is that they may have a broader opportunity to present their claims to the world and subject to the rules of civilized warfare. With these ac- corded, the question of independence will be for after consider- ation, when bravely and worthily merited. What claim, I ask, has Spain upon the further indulgence of the civilized nations of mankind? Do centuries of abuses and wrongs, of oppression and cruelty, warrant any claim? Does Spanish stewardship, which robs and guts the storehouse to sustain a crumbling mon- archy, even though the Cuban toiler, who sows and reaps, should starve? Does violent misrule, and government which extends the arm not to protect and support, but to crush in its deadly embrace? Does mere title of ownership, when the pos- sessor forgets that it is the home of human beings, and smothers the holiest aspirations in the souls of men? 15 If colonial possession is sacred and inviolable by a nation thousands of miles away, and whose only hold of power is through armed force — if arrogant and stubborn pride would rather destroy through exterminating war that which it can- not peacefully hold — if this be true, then is Spain's claim for further indulgence and toleration not to be denied. Revolu- tions seldom move backward. This revolution may go down in the gloom of defeat and despair, as have others, but from the graves of martyred patriots other sons shall rise to carry on the battle. The records of past struggles of continental America give hope of the coming triumph, and the fulfillment of the decree of the God of freedom that Cuba will yet be free. I am not of those who would weigh the doubt that the Cuban may not be prepared for self or free government. Home gov- ernment is the very foundation of national liberty and inde- pendence, and becomes strong when its privileges are exercised. It would at least be difficult to conceive that any mode of gov- ernment could be worse for Cuba than that which she would now spurn. Nor is the question of annexation to be considered at this time, nor whether Cuba may place another star upon the blue field of our national flag. It is the purer, more unselfish question of national liberty, of human rights, and of broad' human it v. We are here as American citizens, loving freedom for itself, to reaffirm our faith in American liberty by expressing a warm sympathy for a people coming up out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. There may be some to-day who doubt the propriety of giving voice to this sympathy, for fear it may offend or violate some international courtesy. Was Spain restrained by delicate scruples when in the early days of our great civil strife she interposed? The American citizen who could quench the burning sympathy in his heart for the op- pressed and down- trodden must needs be oblivious to the prin- ciples for which our fathers fought and on which our government is founded. Erase from history our own Declaration of Independence, and forget the hand which penned that immortal document, which declares "that when a long train of abuses and usurpa- tions evinces a design to reduce the people under absolute des- potism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such gov- ernment.'' Forget, too, that Washington lived; that Lafayette 16 crossed the ocean to bring aid and encouragement by word and deed to despairing patriots, and with Steuben and DeKalb shared the privations of camp and the dangers of the battle-field. Blot from memory Bunker Hill, the heroic suffering at Valley Forge and the triumph at Yorktown. Nay, forget that brave men at Antietam died, and close your eyes to the graves of sleeping heroes, from the North and from the South, all through the beautiful South-land, who fell in the cause of freedom and in maintaining what they believed to be the right. Nay, more, fold up yonder symbol of a great free nation and enshroud its stars and stripes. When Americans may suppress such sympathy, then may we listen for the death-knell of freedom, and, fearing to voice the spirit which animates our breasts, brand us cowards all. We, as a government, with high regard for national honor and na- tional dignity, may be reserved, conservative and diplomatic, but as individual citizens, we may span the dividing waters with a hopeful, generous sympathy, and bid godspeed to the Cuban patriot in his sublime hope and his holy ambition. His cause is just, the right shall prevail, and in God's own time Cuba will be free. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON. September 17th, 1895. JOHN W. FRAZIER, Esquire, Philadelphia. Sir: — Your letter of the 24th instant, asking the date when Spain recognized the Southern Confederacy as a belligerent, has been received. While it is not the general course of this Department to answer merely historical questions, I have pleasure in referring you to the col- lected " Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States" for the year 1 861, which can be found in any large public library. On page 263 will be found a Spanish Royal Decree of June 17th, 1861, proclaiming neu- trality between the parties to the contest in the United States. Such a proclamation is popularly known as a recognition of belligerency. The British proclamation of neutrality was issued May 13th. 1861, and that of France followed in June, before the Spanish proclamation was issued. I am. Sir. your obedient servant, ALVEY A. ADEE. Second Assistant Secretary. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 015 819 524