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 INDEPENDENCE OF CUBA. 
 
 NO EECOJiTSTEirCTIOX OR CAEPET-BAG GOVERNMENT 
 UNDER PRETENSE OF PATRIOTIC M0TIVT:S. 
 
 CUBAN PATRIOTS MUST NOT BE MADE TO PAT 
 SPAIN'S WAR DEBT. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. B. R. TILLMAN, 
 
 OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 FRIDAY, APRIL IS, 1898. 
 
 "WA-SHINGrXO^r. 
 
 1898. 
 
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 68640 
 
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SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HO^. B. E. TILLMAlSr. 
 
 The Senate having under consideration the joint resolution (S. R. 140) fox 
 the recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba, demanding that 
 the Government of Spain relinquish its authority and government in the 
 Island of Cuba, and to withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and 
 Cuban waters, and directing the President of the United States to use the 
 land and naval forces of the United States to carry these resolutions into 
 effect- 
 Mr. TILLMAN said: 
 
 Mr. President: This is a grave, a solemn crisis in the nation's 
 affairs. It is not a time for words to be lightly spoken. What- 
 ever we may do, whichever of the resolutions we have under 
 consideration shall be adopted, the only possible ending to them 
 or to such action will mean war. There is to be war in any event 
 unless Spain ignominiously backs down. 
 
 We were told last night, and no doubt the American people feel 
 it is true, that this is a time for action and not for words. But, 
 Mr. President, the exigency is not so pressing but that we can 
 make the issues clear and say to the world what we mean to do, 
 and say it in words that can not be misconstrued. 
 
 I shall address myself to this question in no partisan spirit. We 
 gave an exhibition here some weeks ago of a unanimous House 
 and a unanimous Senate voting $50,000,000 for the public defense. 
 
 Popiilists, Democrats, Republicans are we, 
 But we are all Americans to make Cuba free. 
 
 I feel that I can claim this for the American people with the ex- 
 ception of a few thousand who live within the purview or within 
 the influence of boards of trade and chambers of commerce and 
 banking houses, and that that sentiment now pulsates in the breast 
 of every true American. 
 
 If I shall in my speech present facts and utter words that may 
 have the appearance of partisan bias I disclaim any such purpose, 
 but I hope I shall be able to so measure my words that I will be 
 £240 3 
 
given the credit for trying simply to present my views in a clear 
 and tinmistakable manner and have those views based on facts 
 and their necessary deductions. 
 
 I regret that I can not rise to the high and pure plane which 
 the Senator from Delaware [Mr. Gray] claimed yesterday to oc- 
 cupy. I have "suspicion" in my nature, Mr. President, and it 
 has been driven into me by the fact that my association with men 
 has led me to know that the angels in this world are very few and 
 far between, and I have heard none of their pinions fluttering in 
 this Chamber since I have been here. [Laughter.] I am frank, 
 and have always been so. I speak that which I feel, and I have 
 always judged other men so until I have been forced by sad ex- 
 perience to know that there are many who, like Talleyrand, use 
 language to conceal their thoughts. 
 
 The Senator from Delaware, after announcing in the most posi- 
 tive language his absolute confidence in the President of the 
 United States, and after proclaiming his purpose to cooperate 
 with and assist with all his official power and influence the Exec- 
 utive, seems to forget or to have forgotten that a Washington 
 evening paper of yesterday had in it an account of a conference 
 which he attended yesterday morning, which is part and parcel of 
 the facts from which I shall draw deductions. The Evening Star 
 says: 
 
 An important conference was held at tlie White House this morning, and 
 the subject is believed to have been the question of the Senate and House 
 resolutions. Those engaged were Senators Gorman, Faulkneb, and Gray 
 (Democrats), and Aldrich and Allison (Republicans). They had been 
 sent for by the President. They were with the President nearly an hour, 
 and when they left hurried away in carriages to the Capitol. 
 
 The Senators admitted that an effort would be made to have the House 
 resolution substituted for that of the Senate when it is passed. They did 
 not, however, say that the President desired this to be done. 
 
 It is perfectly legitimate and proper for Senators to confer with 
 the President. The predecessor of the present Executive very 
 rarely conferred with Senators [laughter] , and it is an improve- 
 ment in our public affairs that we have now an Executive who will 
 deign to con f er with Senators. However, the milk in the cocoanut 
 is the fact that this conference had as its purpose the substitution 
 of the House resolution for the Senate resolution. Upon that I 
 will comment later on. 
 
 Mr. President, the bone of contention here is as to the form of 
 the resolution which we shall adopt which will lead to war. We 
 are told that the House has acted with practical unanimity; that 
 the Executive is ready; and that it is time for the Senate to stop 
 talking and to act, and let slip the dogs of war. It is with no view 
 of defending the Senate— for it needs no defense — that I desire to 
 
 3240 
 
direct the attention of the country to the fact that two years a^o 
 this body, by a vote of 64 to 6, passed the following resolution: 
 
 Concurrent resolution. 
 
 Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring therein). 
 That, in the opinion of Congress, a condition of public war exists between 
 the Government of Spain and the Government proclaimed and for some time 
 maintained by force of arms by the people of Cuba; and that the United 
 States of America should-maintain a strict neutrality between the contend- 
 ing powers, according to each all the rights of belligerents in the ports and 
 territory of the United States. 
 
 Resolved further, That the friendly offices of the United States should fcs 
 offered by the President to the Spanish Government for the recognition of 
 the independence of Cuba. 
 
 There we proclaimed by a nearly unanimous vote that there 
 was a government in Cuba, and that was not the Spanish Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. STEWART. And a similar resolution passed the House of 
 Representatives. 
 
 Mr. TILLMAN. Wait, my friend. 1 will come to the history 
 of the facts if the Senator from Nevada will just allow me. 
 
 This resolution was sent to the House of Representatives, and 
 that body, by a vote of 262 to 17, passed a siibstitute, and I will 
 read it. It is as follows: 
 
 That in the opinion of Congress a state of public war exists in Cuba, the 
 parties to which are entitled to belligerent rights, and the United States 
 should observe a strict neutrality between the belligerents. 
 
 Resolved, That Congress deplores the destruction of life and property 
 caused by the war now waging in that island, and believing that the only 
 permanent solution of the contest, equally in the interests of Spain, the peo- 
 ple of Cuba, and other nations, would be in the establishment of a govern- 
 ment by the choice of the people of Cuba, it is the sense of Congress that the 
 Government of the United States should use its good offices and friendly 
 influence to that end. 
 
 Resolved, That the United States has not intervened in struggles between 
 any European governments and their colonies on this continent; but from the 
 very close relations between the people of the United States and those of 
 Cuba, in consequence of its proximity and the extent of the commerce be- 
 tween the two peoples, the present war is entailing such losses upon the 
 people of the United States that Congress is of opinion that the Government 
 of the United States should be prepared to protect the legitimate interests 
 of our citizens by intervention, if necessary. 
 
 You see that the House then, with its majority of 150 of the 
 present President's party in power, went further than the Senate. 
 The man who then stood in the way was a so-called Democratic 
 President. Both Houses of Congress by practically unanimous 
 votes declared that there was a "government" in Cuba, because 
 the House later on having failed to have the Senate accept its sub- 
 stitute, concurred in the Senate resolution and passed it. There- 
 fore we have both Houses of that Congress committed to the prop- 
 32i0 
 
/ 
 
 6 
 
 osition that even two years ago there existed a "government" 
 in Cuba. What has become of that government? I pause for a 
 reply. 
 
 But, Mr. President, the Senate did not stop there. "When the 
 President failed to act, there was some mention made in this body 
 of passing a joint resolution and sending it to the President, but 
 it did not obtain much support and di'opped out of sight. But 
 last year, after the party which at St. Louis declared in its plat- 
 form for the independence of Cuba had assumed control of the 
 Grovernment, the Senate, the citadel of liberty in America t(?-day, 
 passed another resolution, and this time it was a joint resolution. 
 May 20, 1897, by a vote of 41 yeas, to 14 nays, but 2 Democrats 
 voting in the negative, this resolution passed the Senate: 
 
 Joint resolatioii declaring tliat a Gondltion of pnlilic war exists in Cuba, and 
 that strict neutrality shall be maintained. 
 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
 America in Congress assembled. That a condition of public war exists between 
 the Government of Spain and the government proclaimed and for some time 
 maintained by force of arms by the people of Cuba, and that the United 
 States of America shall maintain a stiict neutrality between the contending 
 powers, according to each all the rights of belligerents in the ports and terri- 
 tory of the United States. 
 
 There the Senate again acted. Where has that resolution slept 
 for a year? You all know. It is not my purpose to criticise the 
 men who have their duties to perform at the other end of this 
 Capitol; but, gentlemen, let us keep the record straight. The 
 Senate has acted once, and acted twice, and we are told by the 
 committee of the Senate in its report, which is here accompanying 
 the pending resolution, that if belligerent rights had been granted 
 to Cuba two years ago all of this difficulty would have been ob- 
 viated and the Cubans would have achieved their own independ- 
 ence. The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Lodge], one of the 
 members of that committee, has announced the same proposition 
 in his speech of yesterday in the strongest possible language. 
 
 Who is responsible for the condition of war into which we are 
 fast hastening? The Executive, after exhansting diplomacy and 
 being exhausted by diplomacy— because he has got to the end of 
 his rope [laughter] — under the whip and lash of outraged public 
 opinion, after withholding his message time and again, and being 
 told by the members of the two Houses that he must act, sends a 
 message looking to intervention, and the House of Representa- 
 tives, which has had this resolution of belligerency in its keeping 
 since last May, at last decides to act, and then, with indecent haste 
 and only forty minutes' debate, as though it were the ukase of a 
 czar at the White House, passes a resolution declaring for inter- 
 vention and probable war, and sends it to this body. Are we to 
 
 SSiO 
 
sit here silent and not discuss the conditions under which this war 
 should be conducted and carried on? No, Mr. President, we have 
 waited long enough; too long. If any harm shall come by reason 
 of waiting, it does not lie with the Senate or at our door. If tho 
 Spanish flotilla and the accompanying fleet shall get into Amer- 
 ican waters and some of our battle ships shall be sent to join tho 
 Maine, it will not be our fault. 
 
 We have acted once. We have besn ready to act for a month 
 or more, but other branches of the Government have delayed. 
 Let the responsibility rest there. Now let us decently and in 
 order, and with proper elucidation of the facts and the conditions, 
 discuss this question calmly and in a spirit of patriotism, and ar- 
 rive at a just and proper conclusion; in other words, let us "be 
 sure we are right and then go ahead. " 
 
 Mr. President, what is the contention here? What are we dis- 
 cussing? Why the delay? Simply about the form of the resolu- 
 tion which we shall adopt, the results of which are so momentous 
 both to ourselves and to the people to whom we pretend, or to vchom 
 we intend, to give relief. It is whether we shall recognize a gov- 
 ernment which two years ago we declared existed, and which one 
 year ago we reiterated existed, or whether we shall, in obedience 
 to the influences at the White House, leave the matter in a nebu- 
 lous condition, so that there maybe any interpretation put upon 
 it that the Executive hereafter chooses. 
 
 The message of the President has been read so often and com- 
 mented on at such length that I hope the Senate will bear with 
 me if 1 feel constrained to read a few of these same hackneyed 
 phrases once more and give my comment on them, understand- 
 ing, gentlemen, that, being a man who means what he says, or tries 
 to — I do not always do it, because I am not immaculate; I am noth- 
 ing but a sinner, a common ordinary human being — but, as I said, 
 trying to mean what I say and say what I mean, and knowing the 
 importance in a great public paper like this, at a crisis like this, 
 of having the Executive mean what he says and of saying what 
 he means, and having this Senate in its resolutions say what it 
 means and mean what it says, I must, in the performance of a 
 duty, as I said, read some of these extracts and give my deduc- 
 tions from them. 
 
 Briefly stated, and culling out the sentences and stringing them 
 together which embrace the recommendations and the opinions 
 of the Executive, we may put it in this way: That the President 
 asked Congress to "authorize and empower him to take measures 
 to secure a full and final termination of the hostilities between 
 the Government of Spain and the people of Cuba, imposing a 
 rational compromise between the contestants by hostile constraint 
 3310 
 
'apon both parties, as well as to impose a trace to insure peace 
 and tranquillity, and for the purpose of securing in the island the 
 establishment of a stable government, and to use the Army and 
 Navy to enforce those recommendations. " 
 
 1 have culled sentences from the message and strung them 
 together in one consecutive sentence. I know the unfairness of 
 using garbled extracts; but, Mr President, study the message as 
 you may, and, interpreted according to the ordinary meaning of 
 English words, you can not make the message mean anything else 
 than what those words convey. Coupled with the facts that have 
 been brought out here and through the newspapers and in the 
 oflacial reports, I think I can say that the President of the United 
 States has, by his own words and acts, proclaimed that he is not a 
 friend to the idea of free Cuba. He does not believe in the re- 
 public, and he has not wanted a republic. It is that belief, im- 
 planted in my mind by his own language, which leads me to 
 want this Senate to make the meaning of the cause of this war 
 and its pui'pose as clear as sunlight. 
 
 What are the causes which have led the House of Representa- 
 tives to linger so long, to wait before recognizing belligerent 
 rights? What are the causes which have prevented one Execu- 
 tive elected by one party and his successor of another party, not- 
 withstanding the obligations of its platform, which he accepted 
 when he was nominated — what, I say, are the influences which 
 have made these men linger and put off the day of redemption for 
 Cuba? I wish to God that I had no "suspicion." I would that 
 ■the circumstances were not such as to compel suspicion; but I see 
 in every line of this message a purpose to impose upon the Cubans 
 a recognition of the Spanish debt owned by the American bond- 
 holders. 
 
 Why does the President want the House resolution passed instead 
 of the Senate resolution? Why, gentlemen, we are even threat- 
 ened with a veto in the event that we see proper to act according 
 to the responsibilities which have been placed upon us. I say we 
 are threatened with a veto if we dare go forward and proclaim 
 the independence of the Republic of Cuba and fix beyond cavil 
 the status of that people. It is an obligation before the world 
 which we can not shirk. 
 
 The Evening Star of yes.erday said, and the newspapers of this 
 morning repeated the statement, that — 
 
 Should Congress pass a resolution directly recognizing tlie independence 
 of the Island ot Cuba, as proposed in the Senate and House minority resolu- 
 tions, it is strongly hinted that the President might veto it as interfering 
 with his prerogative to do this. He would, it is intimated, consider it an 
 encroachment upon his functions and rights. 
 
 We have recognized the belligerency of the "government of 
 Cuba " twice in this body. Now, when we come to the crucial 
 3210 
 
9 
 
 test as to whether we shall recognize the independence of the re- 
 public, we are told that we will be met with a veto. Ai-e we to 
 be intimidated by that threat? Are we to hesitate and halt and 
 refuse to ratify our previous acts, and to put our resolution in 
 language that means only one thing, and that is that there shall 
 be no reconstruction in Cuba under the auspices of the United 
 States Government? 
 
 The newspapers told us— and the Washington newspapers, I 
 find, are nearly always correct in their news — that the House 
 and Senate Committees on Foreign Affairs, pending the send- 
 ing of the President's message, had practically agreed upon a 
 resolution which recognized the independence of the Republic 
 of Cuba. If that was not true, some member of the committee, 
 if he feels disposed to give out committee secrets— we have 
 had some of them given out, and I do not know why this one 
 should not be— if it is not true, I should be glad to have it denied. 
 [A pause.] I can not, of course, say that ' ' silence gives consent," 
 but we certainly have silence. Why did the Senate committee 
 change the phraseology of the resolution? Why did the House 
 committee come as near as possible to granting to the President 
 all he ashed except that they provide for an independent govern- 
 ment of the Cuban people by themselves? They gave everything 
 else he asked except that, and then, if that could be reached by 
 intervention, without the use of the Army and the Navy, it would 
 be permissive only; it would not be mandatory to so use them. 
 
 The Senate resolution, which we seek to amend so as to purge 
 it of the slightest ambiguity, says that the "people of Cuba are, 
 and of right ought to be, free." Who are the people of Cuba? 
 The President, under his recoustruction policy, which we grant 
 him if this resolution be adopted, will have the right to determine 
 who are the people of Cuba. The Army of the United States once 
 in possession of the island and Spain expelled, we will have the 
 necessity imposed upon the Executive 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 
 boards? Who is to count the votes? 
 
 Mr. President, perhaps the fact that the State which I have the 
 honor in part to represent has been through that mQl once causes 
 me to be more suspicious in regard to the possible outcome of 
 this action and to look forward to a repetition of the scenes which 
 we had in our State when we were reconstructed. God forbid 
 that I 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 
 maintained their independence and kept the Spanish soldiers out 
 for three years during this last war and for ten years during the 
 3340 
 
10 
 
 previous war, whether they have a government which is station- 
 ary or not, have a government such as we have declared existed 
 once, which we have recognized as having the rights of bellig- 
 erents once, and which we can now well afford to recognize again. 
 
 Is it possible that in all the western half of that island, which 
 has been so cruelly devastated, a great many thousands, and pos- 
 sibly hundreds of thousands, of refugees have not escaped death 
 by starvation within the trochas? Did they not escape and flee to 
 the east and scatter throaghout that country which has been always 
 held by the patriots? I am almost sure that many of the younger 
 and abler men — in fact, almost all of them — are to-day in the east- 
 ern end with rifles in their hands, and they have sworn by the 
 Almighty God to avenge the wrongs of their starving wives and 
 children and of their outraged daughters; and yet yoti propose to 
 have those gallant soldiers told ' ' Y o;i 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 have burned your houses and 
 destroyed yotir industries — in truth, they are to be brought in and 
 recognized as the people of Cuba." 
 
 The question appears to be whether we shall recognize the ex- 
 isting government, whatever may be its obligations, 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 a govern- 
 ment of our making. Will that government have any carpetbag- 
 gers among its officers? 
 
 For the President of the United States I have a profound respect 
 as a man. His pirsonal record is as clean as that of any man in 
 this country and his honor is above suspicion. But, Mr. Presi- 
 dent the President of the United States is surrounded by men 
 whom I do suspect, whom I do mistrust. He has, so to speak, 
 some very "wicked partners" [laughter], and I have seen proof, 
 to my mind absolutely conclusive, that the Spanish bondholders 
 have kept down, through their influence in New York and else- 
 where, any action by the Executive or by the two bodies of 
 Congress — by the House when it had an opportunity to act in ah 
 effective way, and it only acts now because obliged to. I say, hav- 
 ing seen evidence of these things, I am compelled to have "suspi- 
 cions." 
 
 The issue appears to be whether the Cuban bonds, issued by 
 that government 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. I do not want, and, 
 so help me God, I will never vote for any proposition which even 
 winks at proposing to impose upon that bleeding island a debt 
 issued by Spain to secure its conquest. We have been told by the 
 
 3343 
 
o 
 
 11 
 
 Senator from Massaclmsetts [Mr. HoarJ that bonds are things 
 which now come around babies' necks when born, and it seems 
 that the people of the whole world are becoming slaves to bond- 
 holders of one kind or another; that international syndicates pos- 
 sess more influence than governments; that governments declare 
 peace or levy war at theii- 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 
 such a syndicate exists and our own action is predicated upon 
 their demand, Armenia has been left to the tender mercies of 
 the brutal and fanatical Turk. Greece was struck down and lies 
 bleeding at every pore while the CHRISTIAN POWERS stand 
 idly by held back by the bondholders who hold the Turkish debt. 
 Is this great Republic to be thus disgraced? God forbid that it 
 should sink so low! 
 
 Mr. President, this is the first time in our history that we have 
 ever interfered with any of the colonies of a foreign power in the 
 Western Hemisphere except to recognize their independence. 
 We fought the Mexican war more as a war of conquest than a 
 necessity, because Texas had successfully defended her liberty, 
 and it was not doubtful as to whether or not she could continue to 
 maintain it. While men proclaim that there is no suspicion or 
 purpose or intent to annex Cuba the world outside, which does 
 not judge men by any other code than that which obtains in this 
 day and which is the essence of greed, will say that "you do not 
 mean that when you pass this resolution without recognizing the 
 government now in existence." If we go down there and set up a 
 carpetbag government of our own, or if there are no carpetbag- 
 gers among them and we set up a Cuban government, what do we 
 entail upon ourselves? 
 
 I desire first to lay down the proposition— the clear, unmistak- 
 able docti-ine— and let it be recalled to the minds of Senators as 
 to what Monroe meant and said and what we are contending for 
 as the true American policy. I read from President Monroe's 
 famous message: 
 
 We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing be- 
 tween the United States and those powers to declare that we should con- 
 sider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this 
 hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies 
 or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not 
 interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence 
 and maintained it, and whose independence we have on great consideration 
 and on just principles acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for 
 the purpose of oppressing them or controlling in other manner theii- destiny 
 by any European power ia any other light than as a manifestation of an un- 
 friendly disposition toward the United States. 
 
 There we proclaimed that we would not interfere with the col- 
 onies of other powers, and yet we are now going to interfere and 
 32i0 
 
-»12 
 
 we are going to interfere without first having recognized the 
 independence of the men who brought on the war and maintained 
 it for thirteen years. 
 
 I am not going to get into a discussion with well- trained law- 
 yers as to what would be oiir international obligations under the 
 conditions which they suggest, but I contend that if we do not 
 recognize the independence of the Cuban Government in some 
 form, though that government may be peripatetic, may be moving 
 about, £0 to speak, we lay ourselves open to the accusation of the 
 European powers of intending something else besides the mere 
 setting up of an independent, stable government of the Cuban 
 people for themselves. The President says: 
 
 Such recognition is not necessary in order to enable the United States to 
 intervene and pacify the island. To commit this country now to the recog- 
 nition of any particular government in Cuba might subject us to embarrass- 
 ing conditions of international obligation toward the organization so recog- 
 nized. In case of intervention our conduct would be subject to the approval 
 or disapproval of such government. We would be required to submit to its 
 direction and to assume to it the mere relation of a friendly ally. 
 
 He speaks further down in his message of the ' ' attributes of 
 nationality" and of the "interests and relations of the United 
 States with such a government." 
 
 We were told by the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Foraker] that large 
 numbers of these Spanish bonds, for which the Cuban revenues are_ 
 hypothecated as security, are held in America. Are the holders 
 of those Spanish bonds, who bought them in the open market 
 knowing the danger of their being repudiated or lost by war, here 
 with their agents on this floor and in the other end of the Capitol 
 trying to saddle this debt upon those people? I can not believe it; 
 but what am I to believe? 
 
 The papers have told us— I do not know how true the story is— 
 that there have been midnight conferences between Senators and 
 the Spanish minister. There is nothing in the President's mes- 
 sage which seeks to make clear his purpose to recognize the inde- 
 pendence of these people at all except the brief sentence at the 
 end, which I will now read: 
 
 In view of these facts and of these considerations, I ask the Congress to 
 authorize and empower the President to take measures to secure a full and 
 final termination of hostilities between the Government of Spain and the 
 people of Cuba, and to secure in the island the establishment of a stable gov- 
 ernment, capable of maintaining order and observing its international obli- 
 gations, insuring peace and tranquillity and the security of its citizens as 
 well as our own. 
 
 There is the only possible sentence in the message that looks to 
 Cuban independence at all, and here we have to strain the mean- 
 ing of his language and take as a fact what can only be implied 
 as to his meaning. All of his other language leads us inevitably 
 to a contrary opinion, and the message must be construed as a 
 
 S240 
 
13 
 
 wliole. He speaks about " hostile constraint," and "rational com- 
 promise," and so on, all looking to some species of psendo- 
 independence or autonomy or some otker humbng by which the 
 Spanish bonds may be saddled npon this sorely distressed island 
 and its people. For the benefit of •whom? The bond is stronger than 
 the man; money talks; men are cheap. The sinister influence of 
 tlie dollar appears to be i^aramount in this Capitol, and we are to 
 put ourselves on record as to whether we indorse the proposition 
 that the Spanish bonds can by any possibility be saddled on these 
 people under the reconstruction government which is proposed. 
 
 But, Mr. President, aside from the m.oral and legal obligations 
 to other nations which would be imposed on us in the event that 
 we go there and set up a government, taking the island, the corpus, 
 so to speak, and setting up a " stable " government of our own— to 
 which the President himself alludes— even if we recognize such 
 government, with that recognition will go the demand that they 
 must pay our American bondholders, and if we demand that they 
 shall pay bonds held by our citizens, in God's name will not 
 Germany and France and England demand that they shall pay 
 theirs? Suppose that condition of affairs arises, what will be the 
 result? 
 
 We expel the Spaniards. We will pa,cify the island. We will 
 go there ignoring the present Cuban government. We will order 
 an election; we will say it will be an honest election; that there 
 shall be no cheating; no counting in or counting out; no military 
 interference, except to see a free vote and a fair count. And when 
 the representatives of that government meet, who can recognize 
 it as a stable government? Can this Congress do it? Will this 
 Congress act? Under the hypnotic influences which seem abroad 
 in this land, is it at all probable that anything will be done here- 
 after, after that settlement has been made, except that there will 
 be dicker and barter and trade and coercion on the part of this Gov- 
 ernment to force a recognition of a part at least of this debt? 
 
 Then suppose that we force it, and it becomes one of the infamies 
 for which we will be responsible to God, who is going to collect 
 the interest? The Cubans who are to-day in arms, and most of 
 whom have been for thirteen years, have been driven to the moun- 
 tains and fastnesses of the forests of Cuba by oppression which 
 meant for them either to become robbers and guerrillas, so to 
 speak, or slaves. They had no alternative. They have resisted 
 oppressive taxation and tyranny in the same manner that the 
 American people resisted it in 1775 and 1776. We will say that 
 you set up a reconstruction government under this scheme which 
 we have coming here from the House, and which is permissible 
 even under the Senate joint resolution as reported by the commit- 
 tee, then what follows? 
 3310 
 
14 
 
 For a time the debt will be recognized and the interest collected, 
 but so sure as men are men like we are and the Cubans believe that 
 debt is dishonest and oppressive and ought never to have been 
 saddled on them, there will be a revolution and that government 
 will be overthrown, and the refusal to pay the interest and the obli- 
 gation which will have been imposed on them under this proposition 
 of reconstruction and infamy will entail on us the necessity of 
 entering upon the island and enforcing the obligation just as 
 Egypt has been seized by England to collect the interest on the 
 bonds which her citizens hold as the result of loaning money to 
 the Khedive. Then we will have a nice situation. 
 
 The island for a quarter of a century, almost, has been in a state 
 of chronic insurrection, with the Spanish Government trying to 
 maintain supremacy. We propose to take Spain's place and be- 
 come the policeman of the Western Continent and keep in order 
 on that island the Latin races that have settled there. We can 
 not afford it. Duty demands that we expel the Spanish robbers 
 and tyrants. There our duty ends. We can not afford, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, to set up any government there. We can not afford to do 
 anything except to recognize the existing government and let them 
 work out their own redemption, as the other Spanish- American 
 Republics have had to do. 
 
 They have had their revolutions and counter revolutions. I do 
 not believe the people of that race are capable of self-govern- 
 ment. While Mexico has under the great and magnificent states- 
 man who now dominates her affairs had tranquillity and peace 
 and a stable government for a long time, and is moving forward 
 rapidly in progress, we can not undertake to say that the Cuban 
 people must have a stable government, and that we will make for 
 them a stable government, if we are going 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 existing condition and the gov- 
 ernment which we have already recognized once, we will approach 
 those people in a spirit of amity and friendliness and fairness and 
 justice which will appeal to them, and we can have influence 
 with them — even with bandits and mulattoes, and the worstele- 
 ment of those struggling for liberty — and we can appeal to them 
 by moral obligation, if nothing else, to be law abiding and civi- 
 lized. But if we undertake to say that we will set up a " stable 
 government " loaded down with the Spanish debt, and enforce sta- 
 bility by maintaining peace, then we will have to increase our 
 standing Army, and we will have to maintain an army there time 
 out of mind to enforce the collection of an unjust obligation put 
 upon those people. In a word, we will take Spain's place as the 
 oppressor and tyrant. 
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15 
 
 Mr. President, recognition is an Executive act. It is ti-ne we 
 are undertaking now, and I understand that is what the President 
 objects to, to recognize independence which he has reftised to 
 recognize. He even refuses to recognize belligerent rights, which 
 would carry with it the legal right to refnse to pay this debt. 
 Through every line of the message and the policy outlined in it 
 there appears nothing to me btit bonds, bonds, bonds. And it is 
 because we of Sonth Carolina have had so many bonds of that 
 kind foisted on us in the dreary years of the past, during the era 
 of reconstruction, that I, for one, stand here an-d protest in the 
 name of American freemen, in the name of decency, of Christian- 
 ity, of fairness and justice and peace, which can not be maintained 
 on any other basis, against any policy, against the adoption of 
 any resolution, against the leaving out of any word which ought 
 to go in to make it absolutely plain and clear and unmistakable 
 that we do not intend to annex the island; and that we do not in- 
 tend to interfere with their internal affairs, other than to expel 
 Spain and enable the Cuban patriots to inaugurate, under their 
 own auspices and under their own machinery, a government of 
 the people, by the people, and for the people. 
 
 I say I will not vote for any proposition which does not contain 
 these declarations. I will even reject and vote against, in my 
 bounden duty to my people, the Senate joint resolution, unless 
 there is incorporated in it the amendment proposed by the mi- 
 nority, or unless the Senate shall supplement those resolutions 
 for free Cuba by a declaration on our part — and I do not see why 
 we can not do that — that the Spanish debt shall be settled by the 
 Cuban people of their own volition and in their own way, with- 
 out any coercion on our part. We can not afford to do less. If 
 we recognize the independence, the question of bonds need not 
 arise. We have recognized it once, not independence, but the 
 fact that a government exists there. If we meant what we said 
 then, why not go forward and repeat those words? 
 
 Mr. President, I said that whatever happens here, it did not 
 matter what resolution was passed, we are going to have war. I 
 do not want any war. I have not wanted it at all. My people do 
 not want it. The North has had war and had thousands and hun- 
 dreds of thousands of the flower of its manhood sent home to be 
 buried as the result of that war. We of the South had our own 
 jewels sent back to us in the same waj^ Both in the Revolution- 
 ary war, when my State was overrun from sea to mountain and 
 when her people suffered untold wrong and villainy and oppres- 
 sion, such as no other colony endured, and fought more battles 
 for liberty than were fought in almost all the other States put to- 
 gether; and in the last war, when we passed beneath the harrow, 
 
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 16 
 
 we have had otir fill of bloodletting and of war in its most dread- 
 ful form. 
 
 We do not want any war. But while the feeling among our 
 people was that of sympathy for the suffering Cubans, such as 
 existed almost everywhere, it could not take shape and did not 
 assume form until that flaming fuse was sent abroad throughout 
 this land which followed the explosion of the torpedo or mine 
 under the Maine. That fuse flamed and flared and si^ed while 
 the people held their breath. There was no bomb attached at 
 the time. The Senator from Vermont [Mr. Proctoe], by his 
 calm, dispassionate, and almost judicial statement of facts, which 
 appealed to the sentimentality and Christian charity and philan- 
 thropy and sympathy and mercy of every man worthy the name, 
 furnished the bomb. 
 
 The bomb is here, the fuse is attached to it and lighted, and it 
 is approaching an explosion. The explosion will come whether I 
 vote for the pending joint resolution or not. I hope to God I will 
 be able to get the Senate to incorporate something in it or to 
 amend it so as to allow me to vote for it. But, as I said, whether 
 I vote for it or not, the people I represent are to-day a unit, the 
 American hearts within us throb and pulsate with the sense of 
 wrong and indignation, and the blood which we inherited from 
 Revolutionary sires tingles with the demand for justice upon the 
 assassins who sent those American sailors to their death. 
 
 In the war that is now inevitable South Carolinians will not be 
 laggards in upholding the flag of our country or in carrying it to 
 Victory in so righteous a cause. 
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