L 
 

 WHAT OF THE HOUR? IS IT PEACE OR WAR? 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OB" 
 
 Wm. JAMES A. NORTO]^, 
 
 OF OHIO, 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 1893. 
 
 W^SFTI^STGTOISr. 
 1898. 
 
 4 
 

 
 .IV n 
 
 08526 
 
SPEECH 
 
 OP 
 
 HON. JAMES A. NORTON. 
 
 The House being iu Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, 
 and having under consideration the bill (R. B. 9008) malting appropriations 
 for the service of the Post-Offlce Department for the fiscal year ending June 
 30. 1899— 
 
 Mr. NORTON of Ohio said: 
 
 Mr. Chairman: It is not requisite that I should apologize to the 
 House for not speaking directly upon the bill before us. The dis- 
 cussion of the past two days has shown the broadest latitude 
 given, and a wide range allowed to speeches upon any subject 
 that might bear upon the best good of the American nation. I 
 do feel, however, that I should briefly state why I shall address 
 myself to the consideration of a bill that may come before this 
 House at the conclusion of the discussion of the present bill. I 
 refer to House bill No. 8618, presented by Mr. Boutelle of Maine, 
 and which is for the relief of the sufferers by the destruction of 
 the U. S. S. Maine in the harbor of Habana, Cuba. I fear that 
 it may be impossible for me to be present upon this floor when 
 the bill comes up for consideration, and I desire to place myself 
 upon record as to my attitude upon the measure. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I am heart and soul in favor of the bill and 
 any and every amendment that may perfect and liberalize it and 
 help the survivors of the Maine left to mourn the unfortunate 
 souls who have untimely gone to their God by the treachery of 
 Spain. It is a bill introduced as an act of justice to the survivors, 
 to the widows and orphans of unavenged Americans, victims of a 
 dastardly, inhtiman crime committed in the harbor at Habana, 
 from the waters of which the mingled blood of Cuban patriots and 
 American martj^rs cries aloud for vengeance. When I sit upon 
 this flooi- and look into the faces of the men upon the Republican 
 
 3132 3 
 
side, I wonder they have been so long silent under the outrages 
 and indignities that have been heaped upon this Government and 
 upon its flag. 
 
 The consideration of this measure revives memoi'ies that can 
 not but inspire wonder, amazement, humiliation, sorrow, remorse, 
 and anger in the heart of every patriotic member of this House. 
 Memory goes back through all the years of our history and recalls 
 acts and deeds that have emphasized Spanish doiible dealing, 
 forming a scarlet thread of diabolism continuous through the cen- 
 turies. On land and sea, on the soil of Spain itself, and in all her 
 present and past colonies, her history is simply a record, a horrid 
 record, of cruelties barbarous and inhuman, of treachery dark and 
 damnable. Ever opposed to human rights, the constant foe of free- 
 dom and liberty, she has ever been the buccaneer of the seas and 
 an outlaw on the land. [Applause.] 
 
 From the hour of the birth of this Republic to this day and to 
 this hour Spain has commiserated the fact that a government for 
 the people, by the people, and of the people existed. She has been 
 sore at heart that this G-overnment became an established fact, 
 because this nation of ours has stood as the embodiment of liberty, 
 of humanity, of advancing civilization, of justice, freedom, and 
 human right. In 1776, in Paris, at the time when the colonies 
 were forming this glorious Union, severing their connection with 
 the mother country, the ambassador of Charles III of Spain, Pedro 
 Pablo Abarca y Boles, Count of Aranda, in speaking of the formal 
 recognition of this republican Government, stated that he had 
 done so with severe heartachings. 
 
 It was a bitter necessity then, and ever since Spain has been 
 eager for an opportunity to do us harm. In the dark days of our 
 civil strife and fratricidal war, she hastened with utmost speed to 
 do all in her power to break down our Union, to divide the bands 
 which now, thank God, hold us iudissolubly together forever; 
 and again, when peace had dawned upon our fair land and under 
 her benignant smiles we were at one with each other and with all 
 the world, then was committed an act that, until the destruction 
 of the Maine, stood out as the deepest and most foul blot that ever 
 fell on the pages of civilization and humanity; then American 
 citizens were massacred, an American ship destroyed, and the 
 
 3132 
 
American flag trampled under foot by this same brutal and semi- 
 civilized Spanish people. 
 
 In the quiet autumnal days of October, 1873, the steamer Vir- 
 ginius, sailing under the American flag, commanded by an Ameri- 
 can captain, and bearing American passengers and crew, while 
 out upon the open waters of the blue sea was fired upon by the 
 Spanish gunboat Tornado, and without a shot in return surren- 
 dered and was taken a long four-days' voyage to the Spanish port 
 of Santiago de Cuba, where, in direct violation of all international 
 law, in contravention of solemn treaty compact, in despite and in 
 the face of all the holy sacredness of the impulses of humanity, 
 religion, justice, and civilization, the Spanish Government, by the 
 act of its authorities represented by General Burriel, committed 
 a crime "most brutal, barbarous, and an outrage upon the age," 
 but a crime wholly in keeping with Spanish history, entirely con- 
 sonant with the character of its Burriels, its Weylers, and its Blan- 
 cos. It was the massacre of brave Captain Fry, of 12 American 
 citizens, of 53 American seamen, all told, who were on board the 
 Virginius when it was captured. It was a murder without cause, 
 a slatighter without palliation or justification, save to satisfy the 
 hyena-like craving and thirst for blood on the part of Spain; and 
 this butchery was followed by the hellish act of scuttling the 
 steamer by the infamous Spaniard, so that the boat sank on its 
 homeward way. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, the horrors and atrocities of Indian warfare, the 
 utter terror of the ferocity of cannibal savages, is lifted to a plane 
 of admiration and respect when compared with the conduct of 
 Spain. I ask you to recall the course of our Government on that 
 occasion. Grant then sat in the Presidential chair, the nation's 
 Executive: Grant, the hero and patriot; Grant, God bless his 
 name, and all honor to his courage and manhood, his bravery and 
 Americanism, he was prompt to speak and act. [Applause.] 
 Not only did he denounce the act as being one of " great atrocity 
 and contrary to all the instincts of civilized humanity," but the 
 machinery of the Government was swiftly called to action. Gen- 
 eral Sickles, our representative at Madrid, was instructed to "pro- 
 test in the name of this Government and of civilization and 
 
 humanity against the act," and also to "demand the most ample 
 siaj 
 
reparation for any wrong which may have been committed upon 
 any of our citizens or npon our flag." Grant was prompt to act 
 on the behest of his own patriotic impulses; his Secretary of State, 
 Hamilton Fish, declared that "no government deserves to exist 
 which can tolerate such crimes," and that sentiment is as true 
 to-day. 
 
 Fifty-three lives were taken, and more would have perished 
 but for the interposition of Sir Lampton Lorraine, the noble Briton, 
 who hurried to Santiago and demanded an immediate cessation of 
 this butchery under threat of the bombardment of the town. 
 
 For a while the clouds of war hung ominously over the horizon 
 and the fires of patriotism blazed fierce and deep; but, Mr. Chair- 
 man, we compromised. We accepted .$80,000 blood money in ex- 
 piation and full satisfaction for those American citizens murdered, 
 and the foul insult to our flag was condoned. That compromise 
 will be a blot and stain upon our eschutcheon for a thousand years 
 to come. Why was this done? The same reason prevailed then 
 as now. Wall street and the money power directed and controlled 
 the diplomatic proceedings that governed the Administration and 
 permitted the shameful besmirching of our flag, as it controlled 
 all other departments, and controls them to-day. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, must we i-emain under the control and domination 
 of money interests? Must we sacrifice our raanhood to corporate 
 greed and insatiate avarice? We do not go as far as did our prede- 
 cessors. We do not demand reparation for the wrongs done us 
 in the slaughter of the scores of brave seamen whose mangled 
 bodies we gathered from the waters of Habana Harbor; but we 
 are proposing ourselves to grant the survivors of that dread 
 calamity, the widows, orphans, and relatives of the slain, this pit- 
 tance. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, words fail me when I allow my mind to con- 
 template the dark, damning horrors of this last awful and devilish 
 deed, and my blood boils within me in righteous anger. The 
 blood of the martyred dead cries for revenge. It is true that 
 •' Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord," but the whole 
 course of history has been a declaration of the fact that ever, in 
 all ages, the Lord has used human agencies as the instrument of 
 His divine retribution and vengeance, and, sir, I am ready, yes, I 
 
 3132 
 
believe we are all ready, to be guided by the hand of Deity in 
 the execution of His mandates of justice and punishment. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 There can be no plea offered for the preservation of Spain. Its 
 history is replete with inhuman deeds, its banner is stained and 
 tarnished with dishonor, its record is black with diabolic deeds of 
 cruelty, extending through a long-continued reign of barbaric 
 egotism, ignorant superstition, and the pride of savagery, and it 
 should be called to halt. It has ' ' no right to exist. " That man or 
 party that will stand supinely by and witness a murder without 
 an attempt to interfere or punish is a coward and a criminal. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, a few days ago we performed an act upon the 
 floor of this House that was beyond parallel in the history of this 
 Government. We voted to the President an emergency fund of 
 $50,000,000. I need not enumerate the constitutional prerogatives 
 of this body; but every member on this floor knows that if the 
 emergency of war was not upon us, then we had no right to make 
 this appropriation. If we were not threatened by a war neces- 
 sity, then it was a wrong against the American people to surren- 
 der our right. If that emergency did not exist, the President or 
 his counselors had no right to bring such a bill before this body. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, we believed it did exist, and with unanimous 
 voice and vote granted him the money, and with it full confidence. 
 And now let the President give back to this House his confidence 
 in return for that we have reposed in him without question, with- 
 out even a word of disparagement or criticism. [Applause.] No 
 man, upon this side of the House at least, has any knowledge of 
 the dangers that threaten our honor and the nation's peace, except 
 such as he gleans from the public press and his daily observation. 
 I look across to the other side and say to my honorable colleague 
 from Ohio [Mr. Grosvenor] that I grasp his hand and give him 
 my voice and vote for every patriotic act and move he may make. 
 He denies upon this floor to-day that he speaks for anyone but 
 himself, but I say that it is commonly understood throughout the 
 land by the public and among the members of this House that he 
 has the ear of the President, that he speaks the voice of the Presi- 
 dent, that he is in the counsels of the President; and yet none of 
 
 the acts that may be guiding our nation, destroying its life, or 
 3133 
 
saving its honor ever comes across tlie aisle that divides ns. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 I say to that side of the House that we are here, and ready to 
 go forward step by step to the verge of war, and into war, if need 
 be, in maintenance of national honor. We are ready to devote 
 our treasure, our blood, and our bodies in a united front in behalf 
 of our country's defense, but not one penny, not one drop of 
 blood, for tribute [Applause.] This bill is just: but, sir, the 
 necessity for it might have been prevented had our Executive 
 been surrounded by wise counselors and patriotic advisers. What 
 necessity was there for sending the Maine to Habana? What was 
 its mission to that pestilential harbor? What excuse is given for 
 its fatal voyage to the spot where it was moored over the mine of 
 death? 
 
 The only reason that has ever come from the lips of the Admin- 
 istration or from the lips of any man I have heard was that it waa 
 the act of a friendly nation to another nation equally friendly; 
 that it went there to pay our respects to the Spahish Grovernment. 
 That is why on that dark and fatal night the good steamer Maine 
 went down in the friendly waters of the Spanish harbor. Mr. 
 Chairman, how utterly imbecile, how impudent and untruthful, 
 is that excuse for sending the pride of our Navy into the harbor 
 of Habana. No foot of lajid, no drop of water, over which the pi- 
 ratical flag of Spain floats, a symbol of possession, has ever been for 
 one hour friendly to the American Government. [Applause.] 
 
 What had Spain done to merit this high honor? Nothing; but, 
 on the contrary, had done that continuously that should have sent 
 the Maine to Cuba's shores on an entirely different errand. We 
 should have sent her there, not alone, but accompanied by a fleet, 
 on a mission of protection to American citizens and American prop- 
 erty and the upholding of the dignity and honor of the American 
 flag. She should have gone there months ago, with belching can- 
 non proclaiming in thunder tones her mission to batter down 
 prison doors to liberate American citizens. She should have car- 
 ried "boys in blue" to strike down the cordon of Spanish soldiery 
 who are butchering, violating, and starving helpless American 
 women and children, confined with the reconcentrados, and set 
 
 them free in the name of justice, right, liberty, and freedom, 
 3133 
 
9 
 
 Aye, I would go further and say she should have gone there in the 
 name of outraged civilization and caused peace and prosperity to 
 once more dwell in the Q-em of the Antilles, and Cuba free to take 
 its place in the sisterhood of American Republics. [Applause.] 
 
 Comment has been made in regard to the unanimity of the ac- 
 tion of this House in voting this other appropriation. I say, sir, 
 and I say it boldly, and without fear of successful contradiction, 
 that this side of the House has not only been ready in the last 
 year to give unanimous support to any measure of the kind, but 
 has begged, pleaded, and implored for an opportunity to show 
 its readiness to stand for the defense of the flag and for the relief 
 of down stricken, suffering, and bleeding Cuba, without waiting 
 for this hideous act of treachery on the part of Spain. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 We want the same unanimity upon this floor there is through- 
 out the Union, and demand that you stretch your hand across 
 this aisle, and then we will march hand in hand in front of 
 the Speaker's chair and demand the rights guaranteed to Ameri- 
 can people, and secure what we ought to have — the right of free 
 speech, the right to search into the dangers that now threaten our 
 Government in this hour, and that we may know and ask of the 
 President, "What of the hour? Is it peace or war? " [Applause.] 
 
 We have been admonished to wait; we have been told this "in- 
 cident " may have been an "accident."' Accident? Never! No 
 person with an atom of sense believes in the accident theory. If 
 it was an accident, then the whole theory of naval architecture is 
 wrong and every naval power is criminally guilty in permitting 
 the construction of the present style of war ships, and every man 
 on board a gunboat is sent to a possible hideous doom. It was no 
 accident. I challenge the history of naval records to produce an 
 incident or occasion to equal it, a case where from an internal 
 explosion results similar to the Maine conditions were found. 
 This disaster came from without. With measured words I say, 
 this loss of the Maine and the death of many of her crew was of 
 the deliberate planning and execution of hellish and Spanish vil- 
 lainy. [Applause.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman. I love and honor the President of these United 
 
 States. He is a son of Ohio, and I know, left to himself, he would 
 3132 
 
10 
 
 exercise his judgment, his honesty, and his patriotism as perhaps 
 no other man in my country. 
 
 But, surrounded as he is by a trocha of a money power abovit 
 him that would require the strength and courage of a god to sur- 
 moimt, he must take the position of Grant and Fish, and see 
 humiliation and disgrace perch upon our banner unless the House 
 and the Senate, the representatives of the American people, shall 
 drive from his counsels the sordid knaves who prefer pelf to 
 national honor. 
 
 I believe it has been impossible for this Executive to carry out 
 the dictates of his own better judgment, the impulses of his patri- 
 otism, and the desires of his inherent honesty. If we to-day are 
 in danger of being embroiled in war with Spain, that danger arises 
 solely and only because of the sluggishness of our movements, the 
 dilatoriness of our actions, and the apparent indifference of the 
 last and the present Administration to the encroachments upon 
 the rights of this Government and its honor and the course pur- 
 sued in truckling to the money power. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, from the press and from intercourse with mem- 
 bers on this floor, we hear from day to day that this House is to 
 adjourn within a month. This House ought not to adjourn, 
 though it should remain in session until the snows shall come and 
 go and spring shall come again, until the President of the United 
 States shall advise this nation through this body of the situation 
 of affairs between this Government and Spain; and, speaking for 
 myself, I wish it might not adjourn until it has recognized the 
 absolute independence of Cuba. [Applause.] 
 
 I give all due credit to the Administration for its " calmness" 
 and its " wise course of diplomacy" preventing war. But what 
 can be said of an Administration that confessedly has spent 
 millions in patrolling our coasts, acting as police and spies for 
 Spanish pirates; that has waited until hundreds of thousands of 
 human beings have been starved to death under the inhuman 
 policy of the Spanish Government; waited while Spain has plun- 
 dered and I'obbed our own people under guise of war necessity, 
 and, yet denying that war existed in Cuba, waited until the rep- 
 resentative of Spain, here in our nation's capital, insulted our 
 President and then stole away from our shores to return to 
 
 3132 
 
11 
 
 his own land, there to be feted and praised by his fellow-country- 
 men while he boasts and glories in his shame; wait and stand idly 
 by while our brave Lee is menaced by violence and death? No;» 
 after all this, it seems to me that our action has been tardy. It 
 should have been taken long ago. Then such a bill as this might 
 not have been presented. 
 
 It is a fact our action has been tardy. Our Government, un- 
 der all its Administrations, has been negligent of duty. There 
 has not been an hour in twenty years when we ought not to have 
 been prepared for such an emergency as to-day confronts us, an 
 emergency coupled with conditions we might have expected, 
 knowing as we have the constant if not the consistent course of 
 Spain toward us. We have been remiss in our neglect of the 
 Navy. It has not been kept equipped abreast with the needs and 
 demands and with the inventive genius of the age. While we 
 have a Navy that we may justly be proud of, it should be doubled 
 in its number and strength. 
 
 The officers of our Navy lead the world in ability, courage, and 
 manly integrity, while the personal bravery of the marines is 
 without parallel: yet we have not stood by them as they deserve, 
 and have for years been niggard in our care for them and their 
 needs. Our coast defenses have been slighted, allowed to fall be- 
 low standard and sink into almost ruins. I hope that this may 
 mark the opening of a new era in our treatment of our only hope 
 in case of danger from foreign assail. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I listened with mingled feelings of admiration 
 and wonder to the words of the gentlemen on the other side of 
 this Chamber when they thanked God that they had lived to see 
 the unification of all the people North and South. I am glad to 
 hail this conversion, even if it has come late in life, that the scales 
 have fallen from their eyes, and, prejudice removed, they see 
 clearly, and not "men as trees, walking." I, too, thank God that 
 I have lived to see the day when they would admit such convic- 
 tion and conversion, and I sincerely trust I may never behold 
 them in a backslidden condition. [Laughter.] But, Mr. Chair- 
 man, this harmony, this common love of country, is no new thing. 
 Grant saw the dawn of unification the hour that Lee surrendered. 
 
 Lincoln beheld it and was glad when he spoke those noble words, 
 3133 
 
12 
 
 "With malice towards none, with charity for all," and every 
 American soldier North knew of its fulfillment when the South 
 ^laid down its arms and each went home, bearing no hatred, but 
 filled with admiration and respect for the sturdy bravery of a 
 "foeman worthy of his steel." Then, sir, were we once more a 
 united people, one common brotherhood joined in fellowship 
 under the old flag, and the differences that have been charged to 
 exist between North and South have only existed in manufac- 
 tured incidents and in distorted and perverted visions of a dis- 
 ordered, chaotic imagination. [Applause.] 
 
 I hope this bill will pass with the same unanimity as did that 
 other bill, and I. too, am proud that there is no North, no South, 
 no East, no West. I would be prouder still if the patriotic spirit 
 of the American people could have full and free range, if for long 
 months it had not been held in check and borne down by a selfish, 
 unpatriotic, and un-American money power that has kept our 
 flag below half-mast and presented only a cowardly front to an 
 arrogant and insulting nation. I am glad, Mr. Chairman, that 
 the opportunity has come to this House to take some action look- 
 ing toward the amelioration of the condition of the survivors of 
 the Maine. We can not bind up the wounds of affection, the 
 broken hearts of the wives, mothers, and orphans of these slaugh- 
 tered seamen, but we may provide something at least for their 
 necessities. 
 
 I am glad that we have done something at last; but I have seen 
 with deep humiliation this House, this American Congress, more 
 tardy than the American people. I regret that our steps have been 
 laggard, while the tread of the feet of the American people haa 
 been fleet and swift to come to the fore. In every State, in almost 
 every hamlet, the people have flocked with quick haste to give 
 expression in regard to the disastrous destruction of the Maine, 
 and not only express sympathy for the suffering ones, but giving 
 vent to their indignation at what they believe, what I believe, and 
 what you believe to have been caused by the treachery of Spain. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 I know there are a few men on this floor who will condemn my 
 
 utterances and admonish me to prudence, calmness, and docility. 
 
 I despise their prudence that permits a continuous insult to my 
 3132 
 
13 
 
 country. I hate a calmness that woiikl have us bide in waiting 
 until the dangers and horrors of war are at our door; that permits 
 the dragging of our flag through the mire of disgrace and insult; 
 and above all I hate and despise a calmness and docility that 
 springs only from the breast of sordid greed and avarice, that fears 
 not for American honor, American pride, and American patriot- 
 ism, but fears only the loss of ill-gotten gains coined out of the 
 blood and misery of a people who are struggling for liberty, hop- 
 ing for the justice of humanity and humanity's God. [Applause. ] 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I am not necessarily an advocate of war; but if 
 war be a necessity, I welcome war. I do not believe that if we deal 
 honorably and bravely we will bring upon us the horrors and dan- 
 gers, or even the glories of war. There is a higher glory, a more 
 brilliant honor than war can bring, and unto us will that meed be 
 accorded if we shall act toward struggling Cuba as patriotism in- 
 spires. 
 
 I believe that in the providence of God, it was His purpose that 
 on this American continent the light of liberty should be upheld, 
 as the beacon from which should stream forth the glorious rays 
 of fraternal friendship and advancing, enlightened civilization 
 to the ends of the world. [Applause. ] I believe that there should 
 fly over every foot of soil on this Western hemisphere the flag of 
 a Republic, that this country should stand as the realization of 
 His purpose in building up a heritage, erected on the grand foun- 
 dation principle, the chief corner stone of American institutions, 
 the rights of the people, as enunciated in the language of the Dec- 
 laration of Independence. 
 
 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 farm of govern- 
 ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter 
 or to abolish it. and to institiite new government, laying its foundation on 
 such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall 
 seein most likely to effect their safety and happiness. 
 
 And that when this declaration declares that governments 
 
 derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, it 
 
 asserts and declares the immutable and eternal truth of God. 
 
 [Applause.] 
 
 3133 
 
14 
 
 If there shall go out across the blue waters of the sea the glad 
 message to Cuba that her heroic struggles and sacrifices have 
 awakened our sympathy and aroused our love of justice and lib- 
 erty, that we recognize her right to independence, then the ebbing 
 spark of hope will rekindle and revive in despairing hearts, a glad 
 triumphant shout will echo and reecho from center to circumfer- 
 ence of the isle, the patriotic troops, with resistless energy, will 
 sweep every foe from her shores; every lover of freedom, liberty, 
 justice, and right will join in exultant paeans of praise, and Cuba 
 
 shall be free. [Applause.] / 
 
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