THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 234 securing for Cuba a stable and efficient government. What these steps werethe Message did not state. Its concluding passages, which contained the President's request for action by Congress, ran as follows:— your just and careful attention in the solemn deliberations upon whichyou are about toenter. If this measure attains a successful result,then our aspirations as a Christian, peace-loving people will be realised ;if it fails, it will be only another justification of our contemplated action." "The only hope of relief and repose from a conditionwhichcan nolongerbe enduredisinthe enforced pacification of Cuba. In the name of humanity, in -the name of civilisation,on behalf of endangered Americaninterests, which give us the right and the duty to speak and to act, the warinCuba must stop.

The Message was accompaniedby the reports of the United States consuls in Cuba on the sufferings of theReconcentrados. The President thus put before Congress the actual condition of affairs, andleft to them theresponsibility ofa decision. The weak part of the case he had stated was that Spain had already conceded so much that it might be argued that all that he had claimedwas on thepoint of being realised without any necessity for warlike action. But granting this,it was obvious that without a vote of confidence fromCongress he could not further protract the existingstate of things in whichboth nations were armed for war, and neither fully trusted the other's professions of anxiety to preserve the peace, because inboth there was a war party that might at any moment force the hand of the executive government. In such a position the most the President could hope for was that Congress wouldleave the further conduct of affairs in his hands, after having satisfied the advocates of violent measures by empowering, though not actually directing,him to proceedif need be to armedintervention. This was the meaning of his Message. It was a compromise, and had the weaknessof allcompromises. But it was probably the best course he could have taken under the circumstances. A peace message or a further delay in communicatingwith Congress would almost inevitably have resulted in that body taking the matter forcibly into its ownhands and votingfor immediatewar.

"In view of these facts and these considerations,Iask Congress to authorise and empower the President to secure the full and final terminationof hostilities between the Government of Spain and the people of Cuba, and to secure in the island the establishment of a stable government capable of maintaining order and observing its internationalobligations,ensuring thepeace,tranquillity,andsecurity of itscitizens, as well as our own, and to use themilitary and naval forces of the United States as may be necessary for these purposes and the interest of humanity ;and, to aid in preservingthe lives of the starving people of the island,Irecommend that the distribution of food supplies be continued, and that an appropriation be madeout of the public treasury to supplement the charity of our citizens. " Yesterday, and since the preparation of the foregoing Message, official information was received by me that the latest Decree of the Queen Regent of Spain directs General Blanco, inorder to prepare and facilitate peace, to proclaim a suspensionof hostilities,theduration and details of which have not yet been communicated to me. This fact, with every other pertinent consideration, will,Iana sure, have