Six thousand years of history . wn forits own earnest and unselfish endeavors to fulfill a dutyto humanity by ending a situation, the indefinite pro-longation of which has become insufferable. This isgenerally conceded to be one of the most convincinganswers to an appeal for peace ever made. It satisfiedthe Powers, not one of which thereafter made a pro-test. On April 10, 1898, the new Spanish Minister pre-sented a long note to the State Department, making thebest of the situation from a Spanish point of view, callingattention to autonomy, the armistice, the repeal of theWeyler decree of recon
Six thousand years of history . wn forits own earnest and unselfish endeavors to fulfill a dutyto humanity by ending a situation, the indefinite pro-longation of which has become insufferable. This isgenerally conceded to be one of the most convincinganswers to an appeal for peace ever made. It satisfiedthe Powers, not one of which thereafter made a pro-test. On April 10, 1898, the new Spanish Minister pre-sented a long note to the State Department, making thebest of the situation from a Spanish point of view, callingattention to autonomy, the armistice, the repeal of theWeyler decree of reconcentration, and the fact that Gen-eral Blanco, who had succeeded Weyler, w^as trying todo the best he could for humanity. It w^as too late. Warwas already certain, and the only question was as to thepreliminaries. There were many members in bothHouses who wanted to recognize the existing CubanRepublic, but the President opposed this, and, after along struggle, the administration won. On April 19th both Houses passed resolutions. THE CALL FOR TROOPS 361 declaring the people of Cuba free and independent,demanding that Spain relinquish authority in Cuba,directing the President to use all the land and navalforces to carry the resolutions into effect, and specificallystating that this country entered upon the task not forits own aggrandizement, but expecting to leave the con-trol and government of the island to its people as soonas it was pacified. The President signed these resolu-tions April 20th and sent, by cable, a copy to our Min-ister to Spain, General Woodford, who was to wait twodays for a reply. The Spanish Government already hadreceived a copy from its Minister, Polo y Bernabe, inWashington, and, without waiting to hear from Wood-ford, sent him his passports. He turned over the legationto the British Embassy and left on the same day forhome. Thus Spain actually began the war. On the22d the President issued an order blockading nearlyall the ports of Cuba. At daylight on th
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