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MURAT HALSTEAD.
[Cuba, the largest and richest island of the West Indies, has had a history singularly in accord with the ill-fortune her superstitious people associate with the gem after which it has been named, the Pearl of the Antilles. On discovering it in 1492 Columbus christened it Juana, after Prince John, son of the Spanish monarchs. This was changed to Fernandian on the King's death. Later on the name of the patron saint of Spain was substituted and it figured on the maps as Santiago (St. James). Again its official name was changed, this time to that of Ave Maria, in honor of the Blessed Virgin. The natives called it by the name which has prevailed. They were an interesting people, enjoying a peaceful and contented existence before the foreigner introduced the mixed blessings of European civilization, as known in those turbulent days. Havana was founded in 1519 as a Spanish settlement, but was destroyed twenty years later by a French force, and again in 1554. The culture of tobacco, sugar, and slavery dates from 1580. After nearly two centuries of assaults by pirates and foreign adventurers Havana was captured by an English fleet under Lord Albermarle, backed up by fourteen thousand soldiers. Their booty amounted to over three and a half million dollars. In a few months Cuba was restored to Spain, and a new era of peace with great prosperity was inaugurated under the sagacious guidance of Captain-General Las Casas, who entered upon his duties in 1790. The Cubans remained loyal to Spain despite the deposition of the Spanish royal family by Napoleon.
If Spain had treated its subjects in Cuba with anything like reasonable consideration that loyalty need not have turned to hate. By using the island as a means for enriching rapacious court favorites it created the conditions which inevitably ended in the loss of its richest possession. The Cubans are a mixed race and difficult to govern, but timely concessions of moderate liberties, safeguarded, might have developed the qualities which have made other crown colonies the pride of the mother country. Generations of serfs are not to be lifted to the plane of freemen by any instantaneous stroke of fortune. Cuba has weltered in blood, bondage and ignorance too many decades to come to its right mind in a day. Certain of its natives, inspired largely from without, have risen again and again in desperate hope of ridding their country of its old oppression. During the first half of the nineteenth century there were five vigorously conducted insurrections. Many pioneer victims were sacrificed but their cause flamed up the more.
A party of moderates was formed, whose aim was to induce Spain to come to terms granting civil and religious rights to Cuba without impairing its subjection to Spain. This effort ended in a heavier taxation. President Polk expressed American sympathy by his proposal to buy Cuba for a million dollars. In 1858 the Senate raised our bid to thirty million dollars. From 1868 until the interference of the United States over the loss of the Maine the island was in a state of chronic revolt, involving incalculable loss to the people and to Spain, ill to be borne by an impoverished population but unmistakably foreshadowing their speedy ejection of the fool-tyrant. It was admitted in the Spanish Cortes in 1876 that the employment of 145,000 soldiers in eight years in trying to stamp out the revolt had been an utter failure. So it continued until the end. Our selections are taken from " The Story of Cuba" by Murat Halstead, who recorded his studies of the whole question during various sojourns on the island.]
GENERAL MARTINEZ CAMPOS had great celebrity for his success in closing the war of 1868-1878 by the convention known as the Treaty of Zanjon. He is conspicuous in the gallery of the captains-general that is an attraction in the Spanish palace at Havana. He was the first man thought of in Spain when the rebellion broke out in Cuba in February, 1895, to put it down; but he found it a much more serious affair than he had before encountered, and he so far recognized the belligerency of the Cuban insurrectionists as to attempt carrying on war in a civilized way. The struggle gradually assumed far greater proportions than he had imagined possible, and his enemies charged that his tenderness in dealing with rebels was the great fault that filled insurgent ranks. That, however, was a gross injustice to a competent soldier. There is a good deal of intense politics in Havana, and soon all the politicians, except a few moderates, were against him. Then he was recalled, and his successor, General Weyler, is believed by all Cubans to have been indebted for the appointment to his reputation for severity, but Campos does not deserve his good name for benignity, nor Weyler the fulness of his fame for brutality and barbarism. They have had a greater task assigned them than is understood, for the Spaniards have not realized that they have lost Cuba and that all the captains-general henceforth are foredoomed failures.
[The war between the Cuban forces, numbering about 60,000, and the 130,000 soldiers from Spain, reged furiously during 1897. There were loud demands from the American people, voiced by the Senate, that the government should in some way intervene, in the interests of justice. It was proposed to recognize the insurgents as belligerents, and demand independence for the island, as Spain had completely failed, after two years of vigorous effort to suppress the rising, to reduce the country to subjection. On the contrary, her methods had inflicted terrible sufferings and industrial ruin upon the non-combatant population.]
The most distressing feature of the struggle is the concentration of the Cuban small farmers within the Spanish military lines, where they are perishing of famine and pestilence. Captain-General Weyler invented the policy of making the peasantry leave their humble homes and fields and put themselves under the protection—that is, within the power—of the Spanish forces, because the assistance the country people gave the insurgents was constantly obvious. A Spanish column could not move an hour's march without full reports reaching their enemies, with endless facilities for ambuscades, while it was impossible for the regular troops to get news of rebel movements. No persuasion or threats could prevail with the islanders to aid by giving information to those attempting their subjugation. This fact is itself proof of the desperate resolution of the Cubans to fight Spain to the last. They feel that Spanish rule is intolerable—that it is martial law modified by corruption, and not, under any conditions, to be endured. The information of the terrible sanitary conditions of the camps in which the Cubans are penned, reached President McKinley very early in his administration. Special reports were ordered from all our representatives in the Island, and these confirmed the narratives of the privation and perishing of those children of Spain who would not serve her and aid in extinguishing their own hopes of liberty.
The Cubans have been intensely anxious, from the first, as to the position of the United States, and had hopes that our presidential election in 1896 would turn upon the Cuban question. The form in which the policy of the islanders was presented in Congress, and through the organs expressing the sentiments of the insurgents, was that of obtaining recognition of their rights as belligerents; but the real question was whether the rebellion should be aided by our action. Senator Morgan's joint resolutions, so warmly debated, in May, in the Senate, was in these terms:
Resolved, etc., That a condition of public war exists between the government of Spain and a 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 strict neutrality between the contending powers, according to each all the rights of belligerents in the ports and territory of the United States.
It was anticipated that this resolution, vehemently discussed, would make necessary a declaration of the Cuban policy of the McKinley administration. The leadership of the movement was in the hands of the Southern Democratic Senators, aided by the Populists, and a few Republicans took advanced ground on the same side, passing the resolution May. 30. The vote was: years, 41; nays, 14; not voting, 33.
[Senator Fairbanks moved to amend the Morgan resolution by substituting a request that the President offer to mediate between Spain and Cuba on the suggested basis of independence for the latter.]
President McKinley was from the first profoundly impressed by the seriousness of the Cuban situation, and anxious to preserve "peace with honor." He has been painstaking in procuring information, and his influence has been constantly conservative. His solicitude to perform humane offices has been conspicuous. His first official act in the affairs of Cuba was to ask an appropriation to buy medicines and food and transportation out of the land for Americans stranded there. He has availed himself fully of consular reports and the observations of travellers in whom he had confidence. He has refused the call in Congress for the full reports of consuls, for if they were written with a view to immediate publicity their value would be destroyed. He has studied every phase of all the questions involved. He has witnessed with clear intelligence the efforts of the filibusters to involve this country in a war with Cuba, that they might appropriate the usufruct of the conflict. We presume that he understands perfectly that there are two classes of American citizens in Cuba—one the actual Americans, who are engaged in various Cuban industries that have been annihilated by the war; and the other the Cubans, who have sought American citizenship for the purpose of using it in their political relations.
The administration has been under filibuster fire from the first. It seemed to the President to be his duty to assume that Spain was a civilized nation, and that if we were forced into war with that country, it would be on such grounds that she could not find friends to protest against our action or interfere with it, even with a demand for arbitration.
It seemed to the President that if General Blanco could in a humane way pacify the Island, he should have reasonable time, and our disturbing intrusion would be unfortunate; at the same time, our interests in Cuba were enormous, and we certainly had a right to put out the fire, if it did not speedily burn itself out. In his first annual message to Congress, the President candidly declared himself—gave impressively the record of our relations with Cuba—spoke plainly of the peculiar horrors of war in the Island, and indicated that the time might come when we must interfere.
This, the announcement of an ultimatum, was in terms that were without asperity and without date, and yet had in them the substance of things known to both parties. The President closed his recital of the Cuban situation in his message, after stating efforts would be continued to bring about a peace honorable and enduring, with these words: "If it shall hereafter appear to be a duty imposed by our obligations to ourselves, to civilization and humanity, to intervene with force, it shall be without fault on our part, and only because the necessity for such action will be so clear as to command the support and approval of the civilized world." The American people will not entirely understand the situation, if they do not contemplate the presence here and in Cuba of a filibuster party, the object of whose existence is to bring about a war between Spain and the United States. The extravagances of the filibusters have harmed, in the judgment of all enlightened people, the cause of Cuba. One of the most frequent and the loudest outcries of the filibuster was that we should have a ship of war in Havana, and the pretence was to protect American citizens. The real object to get a ship there was always to increase the chances of war, by causing a sharper friction between the Spanish and American officials.
In reply to an inquiry by the present writer, General Weyler said that a civil call by one of our ships of war would, of course, be cordially responded to. The horrible pollution of Havana Harbor causes yellow fever all the year round. We would sacrifice many lives by making a naval station of Havana. This is a fact that could not force an impression upon the public mind until recent experiences imparted information. There was no end of the clamor for a war-ship, but it was disregarded until the turbulent elements in Havana became riotous against the Blanco administration. The hostility the disorderly people manifested was divided about evenly between the Autonomists and the Americans. It was essentially a manifestation of the implacable character of the volunteers, who have been guilty of bloody work that has darkly stained Cuban history.
These disturbances marked the degeneracy of the rioters and the decadence of the fortunes of Spain, A reactionary revolution was narrowly escaped, and the Maine, ordered to Havana, was received by the Spanish officials with outward marks of respect. The firing of salutes by the forts attracted great crowds to the water front, and later the Maine ran up the Spanish royal ensign and saluted the flag- ship with thirteen guns. In response the Alfonso hoisted the Stars and Stripes and returned the salute, gun for gun. There was a great deal of feeling behind the show of civilities, and the exertion of politeness only emphasized the fact of strained relations. The Spaniards were at once active in naval demonstrations, sending the Vizcaya, one of their best ships, to make a call at New York, where the first news she got was the explosion of the Maine.
JOSEPH M. ROGERS.
[The warlike trend of affairs and of public opinion was suddenly brought to a climax when the mysterious destruction of the Maine was reported. The following narrative, taken from "American History," by Joseph M. Rogers, is interspersed with official and personal records.]
THE administration resolved to maintain friendly relations, and, as an earnest of its good intentions, sent the battle-ship Maine (Captain Charles D. Sigsbee) in January, 1898, to the harbor of Havana, on a friendly visit; and the Spanish cruiser Vizcaya was ordered to New York. Neither ship was received with enthusiasm, and the relations were formal and strained, On February 8 a sensation was created by the publication of a letter purporting to have been written by the Spanish Minister at Washington, Dupuy de Lome, to Senor Canalejas, a Spanish official at Havana. In this letter McKinley was called "a low politician," "weak and catering to the rabble," "who desires to leave a door open to me and to stand well with jingoes of his party." Canalejas was urged to agitate commercial relations even if "only for effect," and to send a man to Washington" to make a propaganda among the Senators." When de Lome saw the letter was published, he immediately cabled his resignation to Madrid, and, when questioned by the State Department, blandly acknowledged it and left the country. This caused a storm of excitement. Just how the Cuban Junta secured the letter is not known, but it proved a powerful weapon. The excitement had not cooled down on the morning of February 16, 1898, when the country was driven wild with excitement on learning that, at 9:40 o'clock the evening previous, the battle-ship Maine had been blown up in Havana harbor, killing or mortally wounding two officers and 264 men. Captain Sigsbee, who was on board, was saved, and immediately wired the Secretary of the Navy, asking suspension of judgment pending an investigation. Despite his manly appeal for judicial patience the dominant impression was that treachery had been at work and there was no particular hesitancy in expressing that opinion.
Writing after the first excitement had subsided, Captain Sigsbee told the story as follows: "On that dreadful night I had not retired. I was writing letters. I find it impossible to describe the sound or shock, but the impression remains of something awe-inspiring, terrifying, of noise-rending, vibrating, all-pervading. There is nothing in the former experience of any one on board to measure the explosion by.... After the first great shock—I cannot myself recall how many sharper detonations I heard, not more than two or three—I knew my ship was gone. In a structure like the Maine, the effects of such an explosion are not for a moment in doubt.. I made my way through the long passage in the dark, groping from side to side, to the hatchway and thence to the poop, being among the earliest to reach that spot. As soon as I recognized the officers, I ordered the high explosives to be flooded, and then directed that the boats available be lowered to the rescue of the wounded or drowning.. Discipline in a perfect measure prevailed. There was no more confusion than a call to general quarters would produce—not as much.. I soon saw, by the light of the flames, that all my officers and crew left alive and on board surrounded me. I cannot form any idea of the time, but it seemed five minutes from the moment I reached the poop until I left, the last man it was possible to reach having been saved. It must have been three-quarters of an hour or more, however, from the amount of work done.. I remember the officers and men worked together lowering the boats, and that the gig took some time to lower. I did not notice the rain of debris described by Lieutenant Blandin or others who were on the deck at the time of the first explosion, but I did observe the explosion of the fixed ammunition, and wonder that more were not hurt thereby.. Without going beyond the limits of what was proper in the harbor of a friendly Power, I always maintain precautions against attack, and the quarter-watch was ordered to have ammunition for the smaller guns ready so that in the improbable event of an attack on the ship it would have been found ready. It was this ammunition which exploded as the heat reached it."
The affair loses none of its horrors when described by eye-witnesses from the outside. The Maine was moored near the Ward Line steamer, City of Washington, one of whose passengers recorded his impressions of the explosion. He says:
"A party of us were sitting in the cabin engaged in idle conversation. It was nearly as I can recall, between nine and ten o'clock. Suddenly we were startled by a loud report. As by a single impulse our little group rushed to the port- holes and saw an immense flash shoot up in the air with a horrible, grinding, hissing noise that might have been an earthquake or a cyclone. Debris of all kinds and a large number of bodies were thrown upward. It was at first believed that the Maine was being fired upon, but afterwards, as the City of Washington was struck by what turned out to be falling debris and she careened, it was thought she was the ship attacked. A second explosion took place, and following it we heard groans and cries of `Help,' `Help us.' The boats of the City of Washington and those of the Spanish cruiser Alfonso XII. were hurriedly launched and went to the rescue. I went into one of the boats of the City of Washington, and the scenes I witnessed were heartrending beyond description.. Two of the small boats on board the City of Washington were stove in by the debris from the Maine. The battle-ship sank even with the water in about thirty minutes after the explosion. The City of Washington was converted into a hospital. Many of the rescued men were brought on board almost nude, and the passengers gave them clothing. The officers of the City of Washington did all in their power to make the rescued men comfortable.. About half an hour after the explosion Consul- General Lee, the Civil Governor of Havana, and Captain-General Blanco's chief of staff came on board. General Lee remained with us all night.
"When all was over, and the casualties were estimated, it was found that 266 seamen, including two commissioned officers, had lost their lives."
Spain asked to be allowed to join in the investigation we set afoot, but, being refused, started one of her own in a desultory manner.
A Court of Inquiry, composed of Captain William T. Sampson, of the Iowa; Lieutenant-Commander Adolph Marix, Captain French E. Chadwick, and Lieutenant- Commander W.P. Potter, began an investigation, February 26, which lasted twenty- three days. All the survivors were closely questioned; the Maine was examined by divers; the fullest testimony was obtained and sifted.
These were the conclusions of the court:
"That the loss of the Maine was not due in any respect to negligence on the part of any of the officers or members of the crew.
"That she was destroyed by the explosion of a submarine mine, which caused the partial explosion of two or more of her forward magazines and that no evidence has been obtainable fixing the responsibility for the destruction of the Maine upon any person or persons."
The Spanish Court of Investigation reported that the explosion was from the inside of the Maine.
The President sent the report of our Court of Inquiry to Congress, saying he had referred it to Spain, expecting that nation to do what was right in the premises. Under orders of the President, Consul-General Fitzhugh Lee left Havana April 9, 1898, by which time nearly all our consuls and citizens were already gone. On April 7 an unusual event took place at the White House. The diplomatic representatives of Great Britain, Germany, Austro-Hungary, France, Italy, and Russia, headed by Sir Julian Pauncefote, handed the President a joint note expressing the hope that further negotiations would bring about peace. The President replied that he was anxious for peace, and concluded: "The Government of the United States appreciates the humanitarian and disinterested character of the communication now made on behalf of the Powers therein named, and for its part is confident that equal appreciation will be shown for its own earnest and unselfish endeavors to fulfil a duty to humanity by ending a situation, the indefinite prolongation of which has become insufferable." This is generally conceded to be one of the most convincing answers to an appeal for peace ever made. It satisfied the Powers, not one of which thereafter made a protest.
On April 10, 1898, the new Spanish Minister presented a long note to the State Department, making the best of the situation from a Spanish point of view, calling attention to autonomy, the armistice, the repeal of the Weyler decree of reconcentration, and the fact that General Blanco, who had succeeded Weyler, was trying to do the best he could for humanity. It wastoo late. War was already certain, and the only question was as to the preliminaries. There were many members in both Houses who wanted to recognize the existing Cuban Republic, but the President opposed this, and, after a long struggle, the administration won.
On April 19 both Houses passed resolutions declaring the people of Cuba free and independent, demanding that Spain relinquish authority in Cuba, directing the President to use all the land and naval forces to carry the resolutions into effect, and specifically stating that this country entered upon the task not for its own aggrandizement, but expecting to leave the control and government of the Island to its people as soon as it was pacified. The President signed these resolutions April 20 and sent, by cable, a copy to our Minister to Spain, General Woodford, who was to wait two days for a reply. The Spanish Government had received a copy from its Minister, Polo y Bernabe, in Washington, and, without waiting to hear from Woodford, sent him his passports. He turned over the legation to the British Embassy and left on the same day for home. Thus Spain actually began the war. On the 22d the President issued an order blockading nearly all the ports of Cuba. At daylight on the 23d the fleet which had collected at Key West, under command of acting Rear-Admiral Sampson, sailed for Cuba, and the blockade was begun. On the way the Spanish merchant steamer Buena V entura was captured by the gunboat Nashville. Other captures were soon made. On the 25th, in reply to message of the President, Congress passed a resolution declaring that war existed with Spain and had existed since the 21st of April, the day Spain broke off diplomatic relations.
On the 23d the President issued a call for 125,000 volunteers for the war. While the negotiations were in progress the country had not been idle. On February 1 this country was in no condition for war; there were few reserve supplies of ammunition and equipment, and an immediate declaration of war would have found the country badly handicapped. The administration needed some time and much money to prepare for war. The President asked for $50,000,000, to be used at his discretion, for the public good. The House, on the 8th, and the Senate, on the 9th, unanimously voted the money.
Great were the preparations to be hurriedly made. The financial question was easily settled. Stamp taxes were laid intended to raise over $100,000,000 per year, and a popular loan of $200,000,000 in 3 per cent bonds was offered. Most of this was taken in subscriptions of $500, or less, and no subscription of $5,000 or over was accepted. The loan was subscribed many times over. The bonds sold at a premium long before they were ready for delivery.
The army problem was much more difficult to solve. Ever since the Civil War the army had been neglected, in spite of recommendations and protests from army officers and the War Department. Although the officers were as fine a body as ever wore uniform, Congress never looked upon them and the men as much more than ornamental police. Only in the last few years had the army been equipped with the modern small calibre rifle with smokeless powder cartridges, and there was not a large enough reserve supply at first for the regular recruits. The fear of militarism being ever before the eyes of Congress, some little good was done by a small appropriation to the various States for the National Guard. Nominally these organizations aggregated about 125,000 officers and men. In one State only was the organization perfected and used to duty. Pennsylvania's National Guard was a division of three brigades, each of five regiments of infantry, one troop of cavalry, and one light battery. These were accustomed to brigade evolutions, and had experience in division drill. In other Eastern States, and in some central States, the organization was more or less perfected, but in none of them was it adequate for war. The material was there, but it lacked the necessary training. The National Guard was equipped with Springfield rifles and black powder cartridges. Most of the tentage and material was drawn from the regular army, but the equipment was seldom complete.
When the call for 125,000 men was issued, the States furnished their quota usually by using the National Guard regiments as a basis. Those who desired to stay at home did so, and their places were quickly taken by volunteers. The new law provided for a regiment of three battalions of four companies, each company consisting of 106 men. Few militia regiments were so large, and they were consolidated or filled up to meet the requirements. It took but a short time for the States to raise the quotas in local camps. As they were filled the regiments were sent to camps of instruction in the South, so as to become acclimated, except a few which were detailed to guard powder-mills and public property. The principal camps were near Washington (Camp Alger), at Chickamauga (Camp Thomas), at Jacksonville (Camp Cuba Libre) and at Fernandina. Later there was a large camp near Middletown, Pa., and many smaller ones in Alabama and Georgia. On May 25 the President issued a call for 75,000 more men, making 200,000 volunteers, in addition to the volunteer cavalry, engineers, and immunes, not apportioned among the States. The First Volunteer Cavalry was commanded by Surgeon Leonard Wood, of the army, who had been advanced to the rank of Colonel, with Theodore Roosevelt as Lieutenant-Colonel, who left the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy to assume the position. This regiment was nicknamed the "Rough Riders," because it was largely recruited from cowboys and frontiersmen in Texas, Arizona, and adjacent territory. It also included a large number of college athletes and clubmen from New York. Nearly every race and religion were represented, as well as nearly every State. It gained more reputation than any other volunteer organization.
This army was organized into eight corps, only seven of which were completed. Each corps was supposed to consist of two divisions, each of three brigades of three regiments—nominally about 24,000 officers and men. To officer this army, whose maximum reached about 275,000 men, all the brigadier-generals in the regular army, as well as some other officers, were made major-generals of volunteers. There was inevitable confusion and some discontent over the welding of new masses of soldiers into a compact body ready for active service. Camps of instruction and recruitment for the volunteers were opened in every State, from which regiments, after mustering, were mobilized at Chickamauga National Park, Tennessee, at Camp Alger, Virginia, and Tampa, Florida. The regular troops were collected at New Orleans, Mobile, and Tampa.
On May 4 the President appointed the army staff, including the following as major-generals: Promoted from the regular army— Brigadier-Generals Joseph C. Breckinridge, Elwell S. Otis, John J. Coppinger, William R. Shafter, William M. Graham, James F. Wade, Henry C. Merriam. Appointed from civil life—James H. Wilson, of Delaware; Fitzhugh Lee, of Virginia; William J. Sewell, of New Jersey, and Joseph Wheeler, of Alabama.
Of the civilians, General Wilson and General Sewell had been distinguished Federal commanders during the Civil War, and General Fitzhugh Lee and General Joseph Wheeler served with corresponding distinction upon the Confederate side. General Sewell did not accept the appointment, however. He was serving as United States Senator from New Jersey, and it was held that his acceptance of a commission in the army would vacate his seat in the Senate. General Wheeler, who was representing his Alabama district in the lower house, entered the service immediately without regard to the point.
It took a long time for green officers to learn the rules, and in the mean time the men were often on short rations, while few companies at first had good cooks. In spite of all drawbacks, by July 1 there was an army of over 200,000 men, nearly all equipped, and all eager to fight. In spite of all complaints made by persons ignorant of war, this army was assembled and equipped in a shorter space of time than had ever been known before.
An effective auxiliary navy was more easily constructed. Four of the American Line steamers, the St. Louis, St. Paul, New York, and Paris (the latter two were re-named the Yale and Harvard), were turned into armed cruisers. The Morgan line contributed four more, and many yachts were turned into scout and fighting boats. Within two weeks there were eighty-eight effective fighting ships in active service, and Congress authorized the building of fifty-one new ships of war.
HENRY WATTERSON.
[The first act in the opening of hostilities was the withdrawal of our Minister to the court of Spain, General Woodford, which took place on April 21. He was given his passports before he could present the ultimatum with which he was entrusted by the President. The United States Government announced its intention to blockade Cuban ports, and Admiral Sampson sailed with his fleet on the 22d. The blockade was maintained for a long time without any gratifying results. Meanwhile the Asiatic squadron under Commodore Dewey, then lying in the harbor of Hong-Kong, was ordered to leave that port, to avoid a breach of the neutrality laws. How and where he moved his little fleet, and what it accomplished, are told in our selection from Henry Watterson's "History of the Spanish-American War."]
DURING the first ten days of the war attention was centred upon the naval field of operations in Cuban waters or upon the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, the great cities along which, it was expected, would invite swift attack from the Spanish ships. Meanwhile in Asiatic waters an event was preparing that was to fill the world with wonder and admiration, and to render American arms glorious in the very first collision with the enemy. This was the enterprise of the American squadron on the Asiatic station against the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands, colonies of Spain in the Pacific not less valuable and productive than Cuba and Porto Rico in the Atlantic. The Philippines had been first discovered by Spanish adventurers and had been in the possession of the Spanish crown for more than four hundred years, during all of which time the cruelty and rapacity of the sovereigns and of the Governors sent out to administer colonial affairs, had provoked many revolutions and uprisings. The archipelago, which consists of from 1,200 to 1,800 separate islands, only a few of which are of considerable size, contains mixtures of the most savage and intractable populations in the world. These occupy the principal islands of Luzon, Mindanao, Samar, and Panay. Luzon has an area of about 43,000 square miles, nearly equal to the State of Illinois; Mindanao covers about 38,000 square miles, nearly the area of the State of Kentucky. The land area of the archipelago is estimated at 114,000 square miles, equal to the whole of New England and New York.
In order to comprehend the problems that confronted the American forces in the Philippines, the peculiar contradictions of tribal prejudice and the oppression of the Spanish Government must be considered. The colonial government was administered by a Governor-General, invariably selected in Spain. The place was used to reward crown favorites who could return home after a few years of service with enormous fortunes wrung from natives and foreign immigrants alike by a system of taxation that savored of blackmail and confiscation. The Governor-General had a junta or cabinet composed of the Archbishop of Manila, the Captain-General of the army and the Admiral of the navy stationed in the colonies. The administrative power lay with the Governor-General and the Archbishop, and the religious orders of the Spanish Catholic Church were the practical controllers, under their superiors, of the fortunes and the fate of every locality and village that Spanish power had been able to subjugate to its iron rule. The first permanent settlement of the islands had been made by the missionaries, and Philip II. had conferred upon the succession of these peculiar and most regorous powers of civil and religious government, which have been little changed. The result through four centuries was the acquisition of vast wealth by the religious orders, the possession of well-defined incomes from monopolies and collections, and the perfection of a system of espionage that deprived the inhabitants of refuge from the rapacity of the conquerors. The persistence and intolerance of the system had been secured by excluding all native-born persons from appointment under either the civil or church branches. All civil servants and priests were native-born Spaniards sent out for the purpose of taking their instructions from those already adept in oppression, and ambitious to surpass their predecessors in the fortunes to be accumulated for the home churches or by the court favorites who returned to Spain to dazzle the supporters of the crown with the glories of a short term abroad in the service of their country. The trying climate of the Philippines, which is tropical, subjected to violent monsoons, seasons of drenching rains, and an almost intolerable heat lasting from March to July, has made it necessary to change continually the Spanish administrators. From the Governor-General down to the private soldier, five years was the average length of service possible, so that the native population, estimated at from 8,000,000 to 15,000,000 in numbers, was always under the rule of transient strangers, having no continuing interest in their welfare. There have been, of course, individual instances of honorable and just governors. Among those recognized in recent times was General Blanco, who was afterwards selected to establish the weak experiment of autonomistic government in Cuba. It was, however, the rule, under the very nature of the colonial system, that temptation to oppress, rob, and enslave the natives was held out to every administration in succession, and such temptations are not long resisted by those appointed over uncivilized and ignorant people.
The population of the Philippines was especially difficult to hold in orderly government. Naturally a heterogeneous mass, the problem of assimilating the different tribes and races would have been one difficult to accomplish by the most patient and industrious government, with years of application. The fiercest and most primitive savages inhabit the scattered islands, sometimes two or more antipathetic races occupying the same island and ceaselessly waging war against each other and the government alike. The aborigines are called "Negritos," or little negroes, dwarfs rarely exceeding five feet in stature, intractable and wary mountaineers, indulging in the cruelest pagan rites of sacrifice, including cannibalism. They have resisted conquest by retiring to mountain fastnesses where they have been slowly diminishing in numbers by self-extinction.
The Manthras, an equally wretched but more contemptible tribe, are very nearly as numerous as the Negritos. They are a cross between the Negritos and Malays and are now more degenerate than either, though at one time they were warlike and aggressive. The great body of population is Malayan, with some Chinese and a few Japanese.
A historical writer in the French Revue des Deux Mondes has described the condition of the endless conflict in the archipelago in a manner to exhibit the spirit of Spanish colonial government as it is displayed in the capital of Manila and in the restless and unconquered provinces. There, as in Europe and America, Spain set upon every locality she occupied the indelible mark of her sinister and unchanging intolerance and pride. In Manila, as well as in Mexico, Panama, and Lima, was the severe and solemn aspect, the feudal and religious stamp, which the Spaniard impresses upon his monuments, his palaces, his dwellings in every latitude. Manila appeared like a fragment of Spain transplanted to the archipelago of Asia. On its church and convents, even on its ruined walls, time has laid the sombre, dull-gold coloring of the mother country. The ancient city, silent and melancholy, stretches interminably along gloomy streets, bordered with convents whose flat facades are only broken here and there by a few narrow windows. It still preserved all the austere appearance of a city of the reign of Philip II. But there was a new city within the ramparts of Manila, sometimes called the Escolta, from the name of its central quarter, and this city is alive with its dashing teams, its noisy crowd of Tagal women, shod in high-heeled shoes, and every nerve in their bodies quivering with excitement. They are almost all employed in the innumerable cigar factories whose output inundates all Asia. The city contained 260,000 inhabitants of every known race and color.
From Manila throughout the archipelago the religious fanaticism of the Spaniards radiated, coming into collision with manners, traditions, and fanaticism fully as fierce as those of Spain — that rooted in the fatalism of the Mussulman. At a distance of 6,000 leagues from Toledo and Granada, the same ancient hatreds have brought European Spaniard and Asiatic Saracen into the same relentless antagonism that swayed them in the days of the Cid and Ferdinand the Catholic. The Sulu archipelago on account of its position between Mindanao and Borneo, was the commercial, political, and religious centre of the followers of the Prophet, the Mecca of the extreme Orient. From this centre they spread over the neighboring archipelagoes. Merciless pirates and unflinching fanatics, they scattered terror, ruin, and death everywhere, sailing in their light proas up the narrow channels and animated with implacable hatred for those conquering invaders, to whom they never gave quarter and from whom they never expected it. Constantly beaten in pitched battle, they as constantly took again to the sea, eluding the pursuit of the heavy Spanish vessels, taking refuge in bays and creeks where no one could follow them, pillaging isolated ships, surprising the villages, massacring the old men, leading away the women and the adults into slavery, pushing the audacious prows of their skiffs even up to within 300 miles of Manila, and seizing every year nearly 4,000 captives.
Between the Malay creese and the Castilian carronade the struggle was unequal, but it did not last the less long on that account, nor, obscure though it was, was it the less bloody. On both sides there was the same bravery, the same cruelty. It required all the tenacity of Spain to purge these seas of the pirates who infested them, and it was not until after a conflict of several years, in 1876, that the Spanish squadron was able to bring its broadsides to bear on Tianggi, a nest of Suluan pirates, land a division of troops, invest all the outlets, and burn the town and its inhabitants, as well as the harbor and all the craft within it. The soldiers planted their flag and the engineers built a new city on the smoking ruins. This city was then protected by a strong garrison.
For a time, at least, piracy was at an end, but not the Moslem spirit, which was exasperated rather than crushed by defeat. To the rovers of the seas succeeded the organization known as juramentados. One of the characteristic qualities of the Malays is their contempt of death. They have transmitted it, with their blood, to the Polynesians, who see in it only one of the multiple phenomena and not the supreme act of existence, and witness it or submit to it with profound indifference. Travellers have often seen a Kanaka stretch his body on a mat, while in perfect health, without any symptom of disease whatever, and there wait patiently for the end, convinced that it is near, and refuse all nourishment and die without any apparent suffering. His relatives say of him: "He feels he is going to die," and the imaginary patient dies, his mind possessed by some illusion, some superstitious idea, some invisible wound through which life escapes. When to this absolute indifference to death is united Mussulman fanaticism, which gives to the believer a glimpse of the gates of a paradise where the excited senses revel in endless and numberless enjoyments, a longing for extinction takes hold of him and throws him like a wild beast upon his enemies. The juramentado kills for the sake of killing and being killed, and so winning, in exchange for a life of suffering and privation, the voluptuous existence promised by Mohammed.
The laws of Sulu make the bankrupt debtor the slave of his creditor, and not only the debtor, but the debtor's wife and children are enslaved also. To free them there is but one means left to the husband — the sacrifice of his life. Reduced to this extremity, he does not hesitate — he takes the formidable oath. From that time forward he is enrolled in the ranks of the juramentados, and has nothing to do but await the hour when the will of a superior shall let him loose upon the Christians. Meanwhile the panditas, or Mohammedan priests, subject him to a system of excitement that will turn him into a wild beast. They madden his already disordered brain, they make still more supple his oily limbs, until they have the strength of steel and the nervous force of the tiger or panther. They sing to him their impassioned chants, which show to his entranced vision the radiant smiles of intoxicating houris. In the shadow of the forests, broken by the gleam of the moonlight, they evoke the burning and sensual images of the eternally young and beautiful companions who are calling him, opening their arms to receive him. Thus prepared, the juramentado is ready for everything. Nothing can stop him, nothing can make him recoil. He will accomplish prodigies of valor, borne along by a buoyancy that is irresistible, until the moment when death seizes him. He will creep with his companions into the city that has been assigned to him; he knows that he will never leave it, but he knows, also, that he will not die alone, and he has but one aim — to butcher as many Christians as he can.
When to such natural antipathies of race and religion are added the iron oppression which Spain has always laid upon peaceful commerce and production, it will be seen that the colonies were in perpetual unrest and that the colonial authorities had little sympathy from even the most peaceful classes. The native Spaniards resident in the country never exceeded 10,000 in number, except on a few rare occasions when large bodies of troops were sent out for specific service. There were about one hundred thousand mixed descendants of Spaniards, who were held in contempt by the natives of Spain, as Spaniards of Cuban birth were regarded in Cuba. These 10,000 Spaniards were the civil servants and religious orders, and the favored owners of concessions in manufacturing and planting that conferred monopolies. About 4,000 were soldiers garrisoning Manila and the arsenal forts at Cavite, situated upon a point eight miles south of Manila in the bay and intended to render the defence of the city unquestionable. In addition to the soldiers there were 2,000 sailors and marines, manning a squadron of fourteen war-ships and gunboats. When war with America was begun these forces were just recovering from the hardships of a fierce revolution, headed by General Emilio Aguinaldo, a native half-breed of great popularity and activity. After bloody uprisings for independence, without money, arms, or supplies, the Spanish had resorted to their usual tactics of bribing the leaders and massacring the disordered followers, duped into surrender by promises of amnesty. The hatred of the natives was still fierce and only awaited opportunity and leadership to blaze with renewed fury.
DEWEY SAILS TO MANILA.
When Congress issued its ultimatum to Spain on April 20, the condition of our Pacific defences and naval force was such as to cause uneasiness. San Francisco, San Diego, and other seaports were nominally in a state of defence, but no more. The United States naval squadron in Asiatic waters, commanded by Commodore George Washington Dewey, was assembled at Hong-Kong. In preparation for events it had been well supplied with ammunition, stores, and coal. It consisted of six ships, as follows: The Commodore's flag-ship Olympia, a protected cruiser of 5,900 tons, of high speed and with heavy armament, regarded as one of the best fighting cruisers among the navies of the world; the protected cruisers Baltimore, 4,400 tons, Raleigh, 3,200 tons, Boston, 3,000 tons; the gunboats Concord, 1,700 tons, Petrel, 890 tons. The despatch-boat McCulloch and steamers Zafiro and Nanshan (both emergency colliers), were attached to the squadron. The six fighting ships were 7,000 miles from the nearest American port base, since the United States possessed no coaling station in the Pacific nearer than California available for purposes of war. On the California coast were the first-class battle-ship Oregon, the gunboat Marietta, and the monitors Monterey and Monadnock, all purely coast defenders and all unable to cross the Pacific upon their own coal supply. The lack of American merchant steamers in the Pacific rendered it difficult to obtain the requisite transports and auxiliary vessels.
The Spanish naval force available at Manila bay, under command of Admiral Montojo, consisted of fourteen ships and gunboats. Four were protected cruisers, one, the flagship Reina Cristina, well armed and equipped, though of only 3,500 tons displacement. The Castilla, Don Juan de Austria, and Velasco were smaller cruisers, and the remaining eight were gunboats. While the Spaniards had more vessels, they were not as powerful in size or armament combined as the six ships of the American squadron. They were, however, assembled in Manila harbor, under the guns of the forts at Manila and Cavite, with batteries on Corregidor Island, at the entrance to Manila Bay, a position apparently impregnable if properly maintained, especially as the approaches were covered with mines to render entrance dangerous.
If the Spanish fleet remained at Manila the safety of our Pacific coast against attack was assured; but if a declaration of war were made the American fleet would be forced to leave the neutral harbor of Hong-Kong, and, with its supply of coal, stores, and ammunition limited, its effectiveness would also be limited to the period of consumption of these articles, without any available source of fresh supply. It was plain that the American squadron must either sail for American waters and act upon the defensive, or seek out the Spaniard in the bay of Manila under the guns of his own fortresses and abide the issue of battle. To Americans, eager to test the enemy, to authorities fully confident of the intelligence, courage, skill, patriotism, and readiness of our sailors, there was but one thing to do.
On April 25, when the declaration of war was formally made, Commodore Dewey received orders by cable from the President to "seek the Spanish fleet and capture or destroy it." The same day the British authorities at Hong-Kong, after receiving notice of the declaration of war, notified Commodore Dewey that as Great Britain was neutral in the conflict, his squadron would be expected to leave Hong-Kong within twenty-four hours under the rules of international agreement. The Commodore immediately set sail without consuming the time remaining to him under the rule, and rendezvoused at Mirs Bay on the Chinese coast to strip his ships for action and communicate his plans to the officers of his ships. The plan was simplicity itself. It was to obey orders by seeking the Spaniard, finding him as quickly as possible and, without hesitating a moment, to "smash him" with all the might of projectiles that the American ships could deliver. The details of the line of battle and order of ships were also arranged and the preparations aroused the sailors to great enthusiasm.
George Washington Dewey was born in Vermont of good old Puritan stock. When he was ordered against Manila he was in his sixty-second year. A graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1858, he had served with courage and distinction in the Civil War. He was a junior officer on the Hartford under Admiral Farragut when that commander, entering Mobile Bay and finding the bay mined with explosives that had already destroyed a ship ahead of him, had cried out to the ship's captain, who seemed to hesitate: "Go right ahead, Captain, damn the torpedoes!" The same laconic style of expression was in Commodore Dewey's language thirty-three years later when in Mirs Bay he told his men, "We are to seek the Spaniard and smash him as soon as we find him." To sailors imbued with patriotic pride, far from home, and who cherished a determination to "Remember the Maine," the promise of quick battle was full of exciting recompense.
But Commodore Dewey's plan went further than one of mere battle. The Philippine revolutionary leader, Aguinaldo, who had found refuge at Hong-Kong, had been invited to co-operate. Supplied with money, arms and ammunition, he and his influential followers were to be transported to Luzon and landed. In the event of a protracted siege or the miscarriage of plans, the Americans would thus have allies in the rear of the Spanish army and navy, and the revolutionists, under the encouragement of new and powerful allies in front, would be able to reduce the Spanish power to impotence for offensive action. These arrangements were perfected in one day, and on Friday, April 29, the American squadron sailed for Manila, distant about 700 miles, requiring three days' steaming.
The Spaniards awaited the approach of the Americans with a display of exultation. Governor-General Augusti announced that after the expected battle Spanish cruisers would be despatched against San Francisco. The capture of an American trading bark by a Spanish gunboat was made an occasion of popular rejoicing. The means adopted to excite native hatred against the Americans by inspiring dread of them seems incredible and would only be possible in a country where press censorship and general ignorance combined to leave the people at the mercy of unscrupulous rulers. The Governor-General issued a bombastic address in which, after declaring that "the hour of glory had arrived," herevelled in abuse of the Americans:—
"The North American people, constituted of all social excrescences, have exhausted our patience and provoked war by their perfidious machinations, their acts of treachery, their outrages against the laws of nations and international conventions. .
"Spain, which counts upon the sympathies of all nations, will emerge triumphant from this new test, humiliating and blasting the adventurers from those United States that, without cohesion, offer humanity only infamous traditions and ungrateful spectacles in her chambers, in which appear insolence, defamation, cowardice, and cynicism.
"Her squadron, manned by foreigners, possessing neither instruction nor discipline, is preparing to come to this archipelago with ruffianly intention, robbing us of all that means life, honor, and liberty, and pretending to be inspired by a courage of which they are incapable.
"American seamen undertake as an enterprise capable of realization the substitution of Protestantism for the Catholic religion, to treat you as tribes refractory to civilization, to take possession of your riches as if they were unacquainted with the rights of property, to kidnap those persons they consider useful to man their ships or to be exploited in agricultural and industrial labor.
"Vain designs, ridiculous boastings! Your indomitable bravery will suffice to frustrate the realization of their designs. You will not allow the faith you profess, to be made a mockery, or impious hands to be placed on the temple of the true God. The images you adore, thrown down by the unbelief of the aggressors, shall not prove the tombs of your fathers. They shall not gratify lustful passions at the cost of your wives' and daughters' honor, or appropriate property accumulated in provision for your old age.
"They shall not perpetrate these crimes, inspired by their wickedness and covetousness, because your valor and patriotism will suffice to punish a base people that is claiming to be civilized and cultivated. They have exterminated the natives of North America instead of giving them civilization and progress."
As if the defence of Manila were a theatrical spectacle the authorities sent daily to Madrid rhetorical assurances of their security and the preparations to destroy the Americans; of the impregnability of their fleet and forts and the patriotism of the Spaniards and volunteers. Yet it was well known at Manila that the forts alone mounted good modern guns, that the fleet was poorly equipped, that the insurgents beleaguered the city ready to fall on it when the American ships arrived, that the harbor contained few really effective mines to prevent entrance. During these days thousands of refugees left for Hong-Kong on passing ships and the price of food increased alarmingly. Terror was felt by the whole population. The Spanish admiral, Montojo, whose reputation for courage was unchallenged, took his vessels to Subig Bay, a harbor at the northern entrance to Manila Bay, with the intention of assailing the American fleet unexpectedly as it passed. He found only worthless defences at Subig and brought his ships back under the guns of Cavite, to give battle inside the bay and support the capital defences. The Admiral, who was called "The Fighting Montojo" by the Spanish sailors, was at one and the same time to prove his dauntless courage and to demonstrate his utter incompetence to provide against surprise or to make adequate preparation for combat.
The morning of Saturday, April 30, the American squadron was sighted off Cape Bolinao and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon it rounded to off Subig Bay on the sea side of the Peninsula that encloses the great bay of Manila on the west. The distance to the city of Manila was about fifty miles. The cruisers Boston and Concord were detailed to search Subig Bay for the enemy, the crews of all ships standing to their guns ready to engage. There was no trace of the Spaniard in Subig. It was then that Commodore Dewey for the first time made known to the commanders of his ships his intention to force the entrance of Manila Bay under cover of night, and to engage the enemy under the fire of the forts. Slow headway was made down the coast and at 11 o'clock at night the squadron entered the Boca Grande, the larger of the two entrances to the bay.
The bay of Manila is one of the largest and deepest harbors of the world. It has an area of 125 square miles, with a depth approximating the ocean itself. The entrance is twelve miles wide on the south and almost midway rise the rocky islands of Corregidor and Caballos. Corregidor was strongly fortified, armed with heavy modern guns and equipped with searchlights that would have enabled competent defenders to render entering it a hazardous feat. The channel to the north of Corregidor is called the Boca Chica, or small mouth, and the Boca Grande is on the south.
More than twelve hours earlier the appearance of the Americans at Cape Bolinao had been reported to the Spaniards, yet when the squadron in order, with all lights out, and every man at his station, turned Corregidor and headed up the Boca Grande towards the city of Manila, there was not a Spanish patrol to give warning of its approach, and apparently no watch on Corregidor fortress or tower. On board the American ships every man was at his post, and had been for eighteen hours, as he was to be for eighteen hours longer, except for brief moments of rest. Down in the engine and furnace rooms the heat was from 125 to 160 degrees; but no engineer or stoker left his place, save the engineer of the despatch-boat McCulloch, who dropped dead from heart disease superinduced by the heat. This happened as the ships were passing in.
Realizing the preparation that could be made by a warned foe, expecting floating mines, torpedo attacks, and a plunging fire from the lofty fortress on Corregidor, the Americans, hidden only by darkness, slowly and silently as possible filed into the channel, led by the flag-ship, and began to run the terrible gauntlet of unknown dangers without hesitation.
Half the squadron had passed when sparks escaping from one of the funnels were observed by the watch on Corregidor. Instantly the guns on the fort opened fire upon the squadron, to which the Boston and McCulloch replied with a few shots, and then silence again reigned. Past the fort the ships slowed down to bare steerageway and, all hands resting by their guns, the squadron waited for day to dawn to begin the terrible work that lay before it in the splendid amphitheatre of the mountain-locked bay.
At 5 o'clock in the morning the Olympia was five miles from Manila, the spires of whose churches and the towers of whose fortresses could be dimly seen through the glasses of the lookouts. The city lies on the east side of the bay, about twenty-five miles from the entrance, situated upon a low plateau, divided by Pasig River. Volcanic mountains enclose the coasts at varying distances. Eight miles south of Manila, on the same side of the bay, is a low point of land projecting into the water, eked out by the construction of a breakwater, upon which stand the arsenal and fortress of Cavite, commanding the Spanish navy- yard. Thus Manila and Cavite were within sea view and gun range of each other, and the theatre of battle was so designed that the combat might be witnessed by the 300,000 people dwelling within range.
The American ships and the Spanish guard at Manila discovered each other at 5 o'clock. As the light increased the Spanish ships were revealed lying under the guns of Cavite, in line of battle almost east and west. At 15 minutes past 5 the light permitted action, and three batteries of heavy guns at Manila and two at Cavite, together with the long-range guns of the Spanish ships, opened fire on the Americans. The shots were harmless. Two guns were fired at Manila from our ships, but Commodore Dewey signalled orders not to reply to Manila. It was not his intention to subject the helpless non-combatants of that crowded city to a bombardment, but to "smash the Spanish fleet." So that, while the Manila batteries kept up a continuous fire upon our ships for two hours, without effect, no shells were thrown into the city, which must have been a thing greatly marvelled at by those who had described the Americans as pitiless destroyers and cruel cowards.
Under the cross-fire of the enemy Commodore Dewey formed his squadron for attack as coolly as if for target practice. His flag-ship Olympia led, followed at regular intervals in line by the Baltimore, the Raleigh, the Petrel, the Concord, and the Boston, in the order named, which formation was preserved without change. Notwithstanding the furious fire of the enemy, our ships moved steadily without replying for twenty-six minutes, steaming directly for Cavite, which was some miles distant. Commodore Dewey, with his officers, was on the bridge of the Olympia, and Captain Gridley, who was fighting the ship, was in the conning-tower. The day was clear and the heat intense. On every ship the fighters were stripped to the waist, waiting with natural impatience for firing orders, and eager for close collision in fighting. As the Olympia steamed to the attack in the lead two torpedo mines were exploded in her path by the Spaniards, but too far ahead to affect her. The explosions threw enormous columns of water to a great height. The power was sufficient to have destroyed the vessel if it had been successfully managed. In spite of these dangers, and of more to be apprehended, the Olympia kept steadily on. No other mines were exploded, however, if any existed.
At 41 minutes past 5 o'clock Commodore Dewey, the Olympia then being bow on, 5,500 yards or about three miles, from the fortress at Cavite, called out to Captain Gridley: "You may fire when ready." A few moments later the huge 8-inch guns in the forward turret belched forth flame and steel at the flag-ship of Admiral Montojo. At this signal to engage the enemy an eye-witness with the squadron reports that from the throats of the Americans on all the ships rose a triumphant cheer and the cry, "Remember the Maine." And then, from every ship that could train guns on the enemy, poured a rain of shot and shell directed by men who were as deliberate and cool as if they were at play. The deadly accuracy of American marksmanship was exhibited under circumstances so extraordinary that it was destined to stand without precedent or comparison in all naval history.
Sheltered under the guns of Cavite the Spanish cruiser Castilla lay anchored by head and stern, broadside to our fire. On either side Admiral Montojo's flag- ship, the Reina Cristina, the Don Juan de Austria, and the Velasco moved into action, while the gunboats behind the breakwater were sheltered to some extent. The Americans at 5,500 yards filed in line past the enemy and, countermarching in a circle that extended closer to the Spaniards at every turn, sent in a crushing rain of fire from each broadside as it was presented.
Lieutenant L. J. Stickney, a former naval officer who was on the bridge of the Olympia as a volunteer aide to Commodore Dewey and who wrote an account of the battle as a press correspondent, thus describes the combat after the first fire of the Americans:
"The Spaniards seemed encouraged to fire faster, knowing exactly our distance, while we had to guess theirs. Their ships and shore guns were making things hot for us. The piercing scream of shot was varied often by the bursting of time fuse shells, fragments of which would lash the water like shrapnel or cut our hull and rigging. One large shell that was coming straight at the Olympia's forward bridge fortunately fell within less than one hundred feet. One fragment cut the rigging; another struck the bridge gratings in line with it; a third passed under Commodore Dewey and gouged a hole in the deck. Incidents like these were plentiful.
"Our men naturally chafed at being exposed without returning fire from all our guns, but laughed at danger and chatted good-humoredly. A few nervous fellows could not help dodging mechanically, when shells would burst right over them, or close aboard, or would strike the water, or pass overhead with the peculiar spluttering roar made by a tumbling rifle projectile.
"Still the flag-ship steered for the centre of the Spanish line, and as our other ships were astern, the Olympia received most of the Spaniards' attention.
"Owing to our deep draught, Commodore Dewey felt constrained to change his course at a distance of 4,000 yards and run parallel to the Spanish column.
"`Open with all guns,' he ordered, and the ship brought her port broadside bearing. The roar of all the flag-ship's 5-inch rapid-firers was followed by the deep diapason of her turret 8-inchers. Soon our other vessels were equally hard at work, and we could see that our shells were making Cavite harbor hotter for the Spaniards than they had made the approach for us.
"Protected by their shore batteries and made safe from close attack by shallow water, the Spaniards were in a strong position. They put up a gallant fight.
"One shot struck the Baltimore and passed clean through her, fortunately hitting no one. Another ripped the upper main deck, disabled a 6-inch gun, and exploded a box of 3-pounder ammunition, wounding eight men. The Olympia was struck abreast the gun in the wardroom by a shell, which burst outside, doing little damage. The signal halyards were cut from the officer's hand on the after bridge. A sailor climbed up in the rain of shot and mended the line.
"A shell entered the Boston's port quarter and burst in Ensign Dodridge's stateroom, starting a hot fire, and fire was also caused by a shell which burst in the port hammock netting. Both these fires were quickly put out. Another shell passed through the Boston's foremast just in front of Captain Wildes, on the bridge.
"After having made four runs along the Spanish line, finding the chart incorrect, Lieutenant Calkins, the Olympia's navigator, told the Commodore he believed he could take the ship nearer the enemy, with lead going to watch the depth of water. The flag-ship started over the course for the fifth time, running within 2,000 yards of the enemy, followed by all the American vessels, and, as even the 6-pounder guns were effective at such short range, the storm of shot and shell launched against the Spaniard was destructive beyond description."
Two small launches were sent out from the Castilla and boldly advanced towards the Olympia. They were supposed to be provided with torpedoes to be discharged against the flag-ship. No sooner was their purpose suspected than the small guns of the Olympia were turned upon the two boats with deadly effect. One was riddled and sunk at the first fire and the other, badly damaged, turned back and sought safety.
The enemy fought with desperation. Admiral Montojo with the Reina Cristina, sallied forth from his line against the Olympia, but was met with a concentrated fire from our ships so frightful that he could not advance. The Reina Cristina turned and was making for the breakwater, when an 8-inch shell from the Olympia was sent whizzing through her stern, penetrating the whole extent of the ship to her engine-room where it exploded with awful destruction, setting fire to the vessel and rendering her unmanageable.
The fire made such headway that Admiral Montojo abandoned his vessel and taking his flag in an open boat, was transferred to the gunboat Isla de Cuba, whence he continued to issue his orders. It was an act of personal bravery so marked that it elicited admiration from all the Americans and was especially commented upon by Commodore Dewey in his report of the battle. Captain Cadarso, of the Reina Cristina, a Spaniard of noble family at Madrid, was mortally wounded with many others on his ship, but refused to be carried off. He remained with his men and went down with his ship. A shell entered the magazine of the Don Juan de Austria and that vessel was blown up. The Castilla at her moorings was also on fire by this time, but the firing from the other vessels and the forts was maintained with wild desperation.
The heavy guns from Manila were also keeping up their attack. Commodore Dewey sent a flag messenger to the Governor-General bearing notice that if the firing from that quarter did not instantly cease he would shell the city. The message at once silenced the batteries.
It was now 7:35 o'clock and the men had been in suspense or in exhaustive action for nearly thirty hours. During the two hours of fighting they had been served with only a cup of coffee each. Observing the destruction in the enemy's ranks and desiring to give him time for reflection, but mainly to give his own men refreshment and new strength, Commodore Dewey ordered action to cease and the ships to retire beyond range. This they did, the squadron filing past the Olympia with triumphant cheers and steaming across the bay, followed by the sullen fire of the enemy. The Olympia brought up the rear, and orders were issued to-serve breakfast bountifully on all the ships.
While the men were refreshing themselves, the commanders of the ships were summoned aboard the Olympia to make reports of their condition and for conference. It was then the discovery was made—almost incredible—that no material casualty had occurred to the Americans during an engagement filled with such disaster to the enemy. It seemed miraculous to have gone through a hail of fire without one man being killed or a ship disabled. Meanwhile the Spanish had viewed the withdrawal of our ships with exultation. With the fatuity of overconfidence in their own courage they had construed the American pause for rest as a retreat. To that effect they cabled the Spanish Government, where the news caused excited rejoicings. The Minister of Marine cabled a message of bombastic compliments to Admiral Montojo upon the glory of Spanish sailors. While these messages were yet passing under the ocean the second attack was in progress that was to turn exultation to despair and set the Spanish populace at Madrid on fire with angry protests of deception and betrayal.
After three and a half hours of recuperation, the American squadron got under way at a quarter past eleven o'clock and advanced again to attack the enemy. Buoyed up by the early morning results, the gunners aimed with perfect deliberation and, under orders for "close action," the line steamed up as near as the water-depth permitted, and poured a remorseless fire into the enemy's ships that were now replying slowly. But the guns of Cavite were hard at work and the Baltimore was ordered to silence the arsenal. The bay was filled with smoke, and into this the Baltimore steered straight for the point of attack. When close up she opened all her batteries, and in a moment the powder magazine of the arsenal blew up with a deafening roar, and the battery of Cavite was destroyed.
The Boston, Concord and Petrel were ordered to enter the bay and destroy the ships there. The Petrel being of very light draught was able to penetrate behind the breakwater up to the gunboats. The Spaniards on board made haste to surrender, and their ships were then scuttled and fired. The only ship left was a transport belonging to the coast survey, and she was taken possession of by our forces. At 40 minutes past 12 o'clock, the Spanish flag had been hauled down from Cavite and the white flag of surrender was flying. The Olympia stood off towards Manila, leaving the other vessels to take care of the wounded on shore.
In this battle the Spanish lost the following vessels: Reina Cristina, Castilla, Don Antonio de Ulloa, sunk; Don Juan de Austria, Isla de Luzon, Isla de Cuba, General Lezo, Marquis del Duero, El Correo, Velasco and Isla de Mindanao, burned; the Manila and several tugs and launches captured. There were 1,000 Spaniards killed in the engagement and more than 600 wounded, among the latter Admiral Montojo and his son, a lieutenant, both slightly. The wounded were removed to the arsenal in Cavite, where they were attended by the American surgeons, who gave their skill, science, and labor to succor the unfortunate. Yet while this work of humanity was in progress the Archbishop of Manila was issuing a pastoral letter to his flock in which he called upon all Christians in the island to defend the faith against heretics who designed to erect an insuperable barrier to salvation, intending to enslave the people and forbid the sacraments of baptism, matrimony, and burial, and the consolation of absolution. He declared that if the Americans were allowed to possess the islands, altars would be desecrated and the churches changed into Protestant chapels. Instead of there being pure morality, as then existed, examples of vice only would be inculcated. He closed by appointing May 17 as a day of rejoicing over the renewed consecration of the islands to "the Sacred Heart of Jesus."
Commodore Dewey sent a message to Governor-General Augusti in Manila proposing to be permitted to use the submarine cable to Hong-Kong for the purpose of communicating his reports to the government at Washington. Augusti refused the permission and Commodore Dewey cut the cable, thus rendering impossible all communication with the world except by mail, by way of Hong-Kong, three days' sail distant. He then anchored before Manila to await reinforcements and orders, the revolutionists under General Aguinaldo cutting off all supplies from the landside, and investing the city in effective siege.
The impression made upon the United States and upon Europe by the battle of Manila was in an unexpected degree momentous. The extraordinary nature of the victory won by Commodore Dewey's squadron,—in which the enemy had 1,600 men killed and wounded, lost fourteen ships, valued at millions of dollars, vast stores of coal, supplies, guns, and equipments, together with a great colonial possession of enormous wealth and resources, without the loss of one man or one ship by the victors,—filled the world with amazement and admiration, and caused the United States to ring with enthusiasm for the cool and intrepid commander and his brave sailors. The first news received was through distorted sources at Madrid, where reports came from Manila speaking of glorious action by the Spaniards and confessing by piecemeal Spanish losses. Accustomed to the mendacity of Spanish reports and the duplicity of the officials discharging the function of supervising all information concerning the war, the English-written press of the world eked out from an involved mass of incoherent exultation and evasion the central fact of a sweeping American victory. The moment this was recognized all possibility of obtaining details was destroyed by the cutting of the cable. For a week there was suspense, during which the fact of American victory was confirmed by desperate rioting in Madrid caused by the Spanish people discovering that their losses were greater than Senor Sagasta and his advisers had admitted.
On May 8 the despatch-boat McCulloch arrived at Hong-Kong from Manila with the first official reports from Commodore Dewey. They consisted of two brief messages, but no commander every conveyed to his country in fewer words so much information in detail of such a wonderful achievement. The first message, dated Manila, May 1, but sent only when the second was forwarded, was as follows:—
Squadron arrived at Manila at daybreak this morning. Immediately engaged the enemy and destroyed the following Spanish vessels: Reina Cristina, Castilla, Don Antonio, Isla de Ulloa, Isla de Luzon, Isla de Cuba, General Lezo, Marquis del Duero, Correo, Velasco, Isla de Mindanao, a transport and a water battery at Cavite. The squadron is uninjured and only a few men are slightly wounded. Only means of telegraphing is the American consul at Hong-Kong. I shall communicate with him.
The second, dated at Cavite, May 4, completed his record of the action:—
I have taken possession of the naval station at Cavite and destroyed its fortifications. Have destroyed fortifications at the bay entrance, paroling the garrison. I control the bay completely, and can take the city at any time. The squadron is in excellent health and spirits. The Spanish loss is not fully known, but very heavy; 1,500 killed, including the captain of the Reina Cristina. I am assisting in protecting the Spanish sick and wounded; 250 sick and wounded in hospital within our lines. Much excitement at Manila. Will protect foreign residents.
With these came columns of press reports of the victory. The suspense of a week to Americans accustomed to the procurement and immediate publication of all news at every hazard and at any cost, found relief in a national outburst of praise of the victorious commander and the officers and men of his squadron. In every city and hamlet the news fired the popular imagination. "Dewey day" was set apart in many cities and towns, and school children rehearsed patriotic speeches and songs. Naval authorities of the world testified to the completeness of the demonstration of American fighting ability and to the unprecedented annihilation of an adversary in his own fastness without the slightest loss in return. It was conceded that the name of Dewey should be enrolled among the names of immortal heroes. The Secretary of the Navy, upon the receipt of Commodore Dewey's reports, cabled to him and his men, in the President's name, the thanks of the American people for the "splendid achievement and overwhelming victory," in recognition of which the President appointed Commodore Dewey an acting admiral. On the following Monday the President sent a message to Congress recommending the adoption of a vote of thanks. "The magnitude of this victory," said the President in his message, "can hardly be measured by the ordinary standards of naval warfare. Outweighing any material advantage is the moral effect of this initial success. With this unsurpassed achievement, the great heart of our nation throbs, not with boasting or with greed of conquest, but with deep gratitude that this triumph has come in a just cause, and that by the grace of God an effective step has thus been taken towards the attainment of the wished- for peace. To those whose skill, courage, and devotion have won the fight, the gallant commander and the brave officers and men who aided him, our country owes an incalculable debt."
To the American people the victory at Manila was indisputable proof of the superiority of American training, discipline, intelligence, mechanical skill, and courage, to the ignorant and undisciplined bravery of the Spaniard. The capacity of the free volunteer in the regular branches of armed science as against the forced conscription of the continental systems was again emphasized, and the people now looked confidently to see the same spirit exhibited in the army organizing to occupy Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines. To those countries that believed the American navy to be manned by foreigners and mercenaries disinclined to stand up at the critical moment, the lesson was startling.
The practical results of the combat at Manila were thus stated in a letter by Mr. Beach, an engineer officer on the Baltimore during the battle:
We feel that we have had a great victory here, which we ascribe to several causes. First, the Spaniard is always behind the times. He knew that an American fleet was expected and was so sure of his tremendous superiority that he took absolutely no precautions. The night we ran by the forts (in the early morning of the engagement) the Spanish officers were all at a grand ball. The entrance to the harbor was planted with torpedoes; he thought that was enough, and had no patrol, picket-boats or torpedo-boats on watch. The result is that we ran by their magnificent guns guarding the entrance to Manila Bay, and were out of range inside before the Spaniards knew it.
Another reason for our success was due to Commodore Dewey's orders. Not one of the ships had any intimation that we would run by the forts as we did until thirty miles away. We were by the Spanish forts and at the fleet by 5:30 a. m. on Sunday, May 1. They were ten fighting ships strong, carrying 116 modern guns, to which we opposed a superior fleet of six ships carrying 135 guns. Two of their ships were over 3,200 tons displacement, and the rest were modern gunboats. This fleet was assisted by batteries on shore armed with modern guns, which made their guns superior in number to ours. In number of men engaged they were undoubtedly far superior to us. The Spaniards were absolutely confident of victory. No other outcome was anticipated by them; no preparation was made for a different result. I think that their ships, combined with their forts, made them equal to us, so far as powers of offence and defence were concerned. They had as many modern guns approximating to the same size as we had, and more men to fire them. They should have been able to fire as much weight of shot in a specified time as we did.
The whole result, in other words, lay in the fact that it was the American against the Spaniard. Every shot fired from our fleet was most deliberately, coolly and pitilessly aimed. The Spaniards fired an enormous number of times, but with apparently the most impracticable aim. Shells dropped all around our ship; we were in action for over four hours; hundreds of shot and shell fell close to us. Only five or six pierced us, and they did no damage.
The damage done by our ships was frightful. I have visited all of the sunken Spanish ships, and had I not seen the effects of American marksmanship I would hardly give credit to reports of it. One smokestack of the Castilla, a 3,300-ton Spanish ship, was struck eight times, and the shells through the hull were so many and so close that it is impossible that a Spaniard could have lived on her deck. The other large ship, the Reina Cristina, was perforated in the same way. We disregarded tactics because there was little use therefor. There were our opponents and we went for them bullheadedly and made them exceedingly sick.
The lesson I draw from the fight is the great utility of target practice. The Spaniard has none; we have it every three months. Strengths of navies are compared generally ship for ship; the personnel is just as important. I am confident that had we manned the Spanish ships and had the Spaniards manned our fleet, the American side would have been as victorious as it was. The Spaniard certainly was brave, for he stuck to his guns to the last.
The effect of such a crushing defeat upon Spain was correspondingly disheartening. The riots that ensued in her principal cities compelled the government to proclaim martial law in several provinces. In the Cortes the opposition taunted the government with incapacity and supineness, and recrimination became both bitter and loud. The government had not counted upon nor made plans in the event of defeat any more than had its officials in the Philippines. Yet, with the usual methods of influencing the Spanish people through its power of suppressing or manipulating information in the press, the Cabinet turned to Admiral Cervera's squadron, yet lingering at the Cape Verde Islands, and made ostensible preparations for reprisal.
The threat of sending to the Philippines a new Spanish fleet, much stronger in fighting power than Commodore Dewey's, awoke the Americans to immediate action. The President assigned General Wesley A. Merritt to the command of an army corps of occupation to proceed at once to the support of our fleet at Manila. The forces were to consist of 4,000 regulars and 16,000 volunteer troops, to be accompanied by the cruiser Charleston, and the monitors Monterey and Monadnock. Upon General Merritt was conferred also the supreme power of Military Governor of the Philippines, and an establishment of aides was created to seize and administer the government of those islands under the military laws of the United States as applied to conquered territory. The preparations were carried forward with utmost speed and in a few weeks the first division of the new army was upon the Pacific, preceded by the Charleston with supplies of ammunition and stores in convoy.
DESTRUCTION OF ADMIRAL CERVERA'S FLEET.
ADMIRAL SAMPSON'S REPORT.
[The blockade of Cuba was enlivened by captures of Spanish merchantmen and several minor fights, but was wearisome to the splendid fellows on our ships, who were pining for a chance to show their quality. It came in due course. The bombardment of Matanzas opened the ball. The first American officer to sacrifice his life for his country was Ensign Bagley, who, with four of his men, met death in the engagement of Cardenas bay. Other sailors lost their lives in destroying the Spanish cables. There was peril in this coast-service all along the line, as the enemy had fortified the important points with rapid-fire guns.
The supposedly formidable Spanish fleet that had sailed from Cadiz as far back as March was causing our navy no little worry. It was deemed necessary to establish a complete patrol of our coast in case of isolated attempts to damage our great cities. Others suspected that Cervera's mysterious voyage was towards Manila, to overcome Dewey before his reinforcements could arrive, or to intercept the Oregon in its memorable rush from San Francisco round Cape Horn to Cuba. Admiral Sampson scoured the seas in search of his invisible foe, ending with his bombardment of San Juan, Porto Rico, by way of leaving his official message for the Spaniard who had not as yet arrived.
Cervera was actually wandering vaguely in search of coal, and had got to Martinique, where, to his sorrow, he learned that the neutrality of France prevented the local authorities from according him that favor. From the 12th until the 19th of May the Spanish fleet defied the vigilant efforts of Sampson's captains to locate, much more to capture, it. When at last Cervera was discovered he was in the snug harbor of Santiago, into which he had quietly sailed, with a cleverness worthy — as a feat of seamanship — of a happier ending than was in store for him. It was not until ten days later that Commodore Schley was able to certify the fact from personal investigation. He at once commenced a bombardment of the land forts, as a challenge, but a few saucy shots from the safe retreat was all the reply. When Admiral Sampson brought up his squadron all that was possible was to secure the enemy in his water-prison and await the results of other forces. No American ship could enter the well-mined narrow neck of Cervera's fatal "bottle." Those other measures included the sending of a land-force to co-operate with the navy. Major-General Shafter received orders, on the day that Schley reported his discovery of Cervera, to prepare some 20,000 troops for transport to Santiago. On June 1, Admiral Sampson arrived, took command of the whole fleet, and instituted a close blockade. Sampson now resolved to execute his plan for blockading the harbor with a collier, and asked Naval Constructor Richmond P. Hobson to draw up the plan. This he did, and received permission to execute it. This plan was simply to take in the collier Merrimac, until he reached a narrow place in the channel, anchor one end of the vessel, let the other swing with the tide, and, just as the collier was lengthwise across the channel, sink her with small torpedoes controlled by electricity. This was one of the most hazardous enterprises ever undertaken, yet when volunteers were called for nearly every man in the fleet wanted to go, and there were many heart-burnings over the refusals. Hobson chose only six men, picked for courage, physical and technical skill. They were Osborn Deignan, George F. Phillips, Francis Kelly, George Charette, Daniel Montague and J. C. Murphy. Randolph Clausen, a coxswain of the New York, determined to share in the work, concealed himself in the Merrimac, and when discovered at the last moment, refused to leave his self-chosen post, making the eighth man of the party. The first attempt was made June 2, but it was getting light, and the enterprise was postponed until the next night, when it was carried out, but not to a complete success. The Spanish batteries opened on the Merrimac, and the crew escaped death by a miracle. Unfortunately, the rudder chains were shot away, part of the torpedo wires cut, and when the collier sank it did not close the channel. Hobson and his men sank with the vessel and swam to a catamaran, from which they were taken at daylight by Admiral Cervera, who was out looking for an American war-ship he supposed he had sunk. On hearing Hobson's story Cervera was so impressed with his bravery that he sent an officer to Admiral Sampson under a flag of truce, to allow clothes and money to be sent to the American prisoners, who were the only ones captured by Spain during the war. This touch of kindness pleased the American people so much that, later, the Spanish Admiral received many attentions in this country.
The Morro Castle and batteries along the mouth of the harbor were repeatedly bombarded, and the men driven from the guns, but the permanent damage was small. A part of the fleet attacked the batteries at Guantanamo Harbor, east of Santiago, and on June 10, 600 marines landed and made a camp. They were attached by Spaniards for two days, and lost four men. The navy shelled the hills, and the marines held their ground. Admiral Sampson now believed that an army could capture the batteries at the mouth of the harbor, and wired the President that with 10,000 men he could take Santiago in twenty-four hours. An army, principally of regulars, had been collected at Tampa under General Shafter, and this was hastily embarked on a fleet of transports. There were two divisions of infantry under Generals Lawton and Kent and one of cavalry under General Wheeler, but the latter left their horses behind and fought as infantry. The only volunteers were two squadrons of First Cavalry (Rough Riders), the Seventy- first New York and the Eighth Massachusetts. Owing to a false alarm, raised by the report of Spanish cruisers in the Nicholas Channel, the sailing was delayed several days for more war-ships as convoys, but on June 13 the expedition sailed, about 16,000 strong, and was off Santiago on the 20th.
There was a difference of opinion between Admiral Sampson and General Shafter over the order of procedure, the latter declining to sacrifice his men in an assault which, if successful, would give the fleet a safe path to victory, but if a failure, as was quite probable, owing to the terrible conditions of heat, disease, and peril, would be blamed on his generalship. The details of the land- war follow on another page. Recurring to the Spanish vessels in the harbor: Cervera might have strengthened his cause by remaining where he was until the climate had further weakened our forces on land and time had enabled the Spanish army to send reinforcements to the defenders of Santiago. Instead of this, orders had been given to the Spanish admiral to make his escape to the harbor of Havana. He knew it was a fatal blunder, in the condition of his ships and the impossibility of breaking through the cordon guarding the harbor mouth. Early on July 3 General Shafter sent a summons to General Toral, commanding at Santiago, to surrender.
On that morning occurred the second great naval event of the war. General Shafter desiring to consult with Admiral Sampson as to the shelling of Santiago by the navy, the latter left on his flag-ship, New York, to meet the General. Not long after he had left, Cervera's fleet made a sortie out of the harbor. It was a surprise to the Americans. Being Sunday, many of the vessels had steam under only a few boilers, and some had their engines uncoupled. Commodore Schley, the ranking officer, set the signal to close in and fight. The Maria Tercsa, Almirante Oquendo, and Vizcaya were soon riddled with shot, set on fire and beached, the officers and crew surrendering. The torpedo-boat destroyers Pluton, and Furor were quickly sunk, while the Cristobal Colon managed to get started well to the west, followed by the Brooklyn, Oregon, Texas, and Iowa. The last two were sent to look after the three beached cruisers, and the others kept up the chase for about forty miles. The large guns seem to have done little damage, but the havoc of the smaller calibres was frightful. The Colon was overtaken, and ran on the beach just as the New York was coming up with Admiral Sampson on board. Admiral Cervera and all his surviving crew, amounting to 1,300, surrendered. Several hundred were killed or drowned. The Americans lost but one man. The Spanish officers were sent to Annapolis, and afterwards paroled. The sailors were sent to Portsmouth, and were finally allowed to go home.
On July 5, Toral, who had declined the first summons, was again ordered to surrender, and refused; but a truce was agreed on to allow foreigners and women and children to leave the city. As it was rumored that Shafter was in a dangerous situation, reinforcements had been rushed to him, and on July 11 General Miles arrived. Hobson and his crew were exchanged for Spanish prisoners. The navy bombarded the city on the 10th and 11th, and was preparing to do more execution when negotiations were opened by which, on the 14th, General Toral surrendered not only Santiago but the entire eastern end of Cuba, and about 23,000 men, on condition that they be sent back to Spain at the expense of the United States. This was agreed to and the Santiago campaign was over.
Owing to a wide difference of opinion as to whether Admiral Schley or Sampson was entitled to the credit for the victory off Santiago, the Senate confirmed none of the President's naval promotions for gallantry during the war. This controversy aroused much feeling. Admiral Schley was the popular hero, but officially Sampson was given the chief credit. It is about the only controversy over naval matters during the whole war.]
UNITED STATES FLAG-SHIP "New York," FIRST-RATE, OFF SANTIAGO DE CUBA, July 15, 1898.
SIR: I have the honor to make the following report upon the battle with, and the destruction of, the Spanish squadron, commanded by Admiral Cervera, off Santiago de Cuba, on Sunday, July 3, 1898:—
The enemy's vessels came quickly out of the harbor between 9:35 and 10 a. m., the head of the column appearing around Cay Smith at 9:31, and emerging from the channel five or six minutes later.
The positions of the vessels under my command off Santiago at that moment were as follows: The flag-ship New York was four miles east of her blockading station, and about seven miles from the harbor entrance. She had started for Siboney, where I intended to land, accompanied by several of my staff, and go to the front to consult with General Shafter. A discussion of the situation and a more definite understanding between us of the operations proposed had been rendered necessary by the unexpectedly strong resistance of the Spanish garrison of Santiago. I had sent my chief-of-staff on shore the day before to arrange an interview with General Shafter, who had been suffering from heat prostration. I made arrangements to go to his headquarters, and my flag-ship was in the position mentioned above when the Spanish squadron appeared in the channel. The remaining vessels were in or near their usual blockading positions, distributed in a semi-circle about the harbor entrance, counting from the eastward to the westward in the following order:—
The Indiana about a mile and a half from shore; the Oregon, the New York's place; between these two the Iowa, Texas, and Brooklyn, the latter two miles from the shore, west of Santiago. The distance of the vessels from the harbor entrance was from two and one-half to four miles — the latter being the limit of day blockading distance. The length of the arc formed by the ships was about eight miles. The Massachusetts had left at 4 a. m. for Guantanamo for coal. Her station was between the Iowa and Texas. The auxiliaries, Gloucester and Vixen, lay close to the land and nearer the harbor entrance than the larger vessels, the Gloucester to the eastward, and the Vixen to the westward. The torpedo-boat Ericsson was in company with the flag-ship, and remained with her during the chase until ordered to discontinue, when she rendered very efficient service in rescuing prisoners from the burning Vizcaya. I enclose a diagram, showing approximately the positions of the vessels as described above.
The Spanish vessels were coming rapidly out of the harbor at a speed estimated at from eight to ten knots, and in the following order: Infanta Maria Teresa (flag-ship), Vizcaya, Cristobal Colon, and the Almirante Oquendo. The distance between these ships was about eight hundred yards, which means that from the time the first one became visible in the upper reach of the channel until the last one was out of the harbor, an interval of only about twelve minutes elapsed. Following the Oquendo at a distance of about 1,200 yards, came the torpedo-boat destroyer, Pluton, and after her the Furor. The armored cruisers, as rapidly as they could bring their guns to bear, opened a vigorous fire upon the blockading vessels, and emerged from the channel shrouded in the smoke from their guns.
The men of our ships engaged in blockading the port were at Sunday "quarters for inspection." The signal was made simultaneously from several vessels, "Enemy's ships escaping," and general quarters was sounded. The men cheered as they sprang to their guns, and fire was opened probably within eight minutes by the vessels whose guns commanded the entrance. The New York turned about and steamed for the escaping fleet, flying the signal, "close in towards harbor entrance and attack vessels," and gradually increasing speed, until towards the end of the chase she was making sixteen and one-half knots and was rapidly closing on the Cristobal Colon. She was not at any time within the range of the heavy Spanish ships, and her only part in the firing was to receive the undivided fire from the forts in passing the harbor entrance, and to fire a few shots at one of the destroyers, thought at the moment to be attempting to escape from the Gloucester.
The Spanish vessels upon clearing the harbor at once turned to the westward in column, increasing their speed to the full power of their engines. The heavy blockading vessels, which had closed in towards the Morro at the instant of the enemy's appearance, and at their best speed, delivered a rapid fire, well sustained and destructive, speedily overwhelmed and silenced the Spanish fire. The initial speed of the Spaniards carried them rapidly past the blockading vessels, and the battle developed into a chase in which the Brooklyn and Texas had, at the start, the advantage of position. The Brooklyn maintained this lead. The Oregon, steaming with amazing speed from the commencement of the action, took first place. The Iowa and the Indiana having done good work and not having the speed of the other ships, were directed by me, in succession, at about the time the Vizcaya was beached, to drop out of the chase and resume blockading stations. These vessels rescued many prisoners. The Vixen, finding that the rush of the Spanish ships would put her between two fires, ran outside of our own column, and remained there during the battle and chase.
The remarkably skilful handling and gallant fighting of the Gloucester excited the admiration of every one who witnessed it, and merits the commendation of the Navy Department. She is a fast and entirely unprotected auxiliary vessel — the yacht Corsair — and has a good battery of light rapid-fire guns. She was lying two miles from the harbor entrance, to the southward and eastward, and immediately steamed in, opening fire upon the large ships. Anticipating the appearance of the Pluton and Furor, the Gloucester was slowed, gaining more rapidly a high pressure of steam, and when the destroyers came out she steamed for them at full speed and was able to close to short range, where her fire was accurate, deadly and of great volume. During this fight the Gloucester was under the fire of the Socapa battery. Within twenty minutes from the time they emerged from Santiago harbor, the careers of the Furor and the Pluton were ended and two-thirds of their people killed. The Furor was beached and sunk in the surf; the Pluton sank in deep water a few minutes later. The destroyers probably suffered much injury from the fire of the secondary batteries of the battle- ships Iowa, Indiana, and the Texas, yet I think a very considerable factor in their speedy destruction was the fire, at close range, of the Gloucester's battery. After rescuing the survivors of the destroyers, the Gloucester did excellent service in landing and securing the crew of the Infanta Maria Teresa.
The special method of escape attempted by the Spaniards — all steering in the same direction and in formation — removed all tactical doubts or difficulties, and made plain the duty of every United States vessel to close in, immediately engage and pursue. This was promptly and effectively done. As already stated, the first rush of the Spanish squadron carried it past a number of the blockading ships, which could not immediately work up to their best speed; but they suffered heavily in passing, and the Infanta Maria Teresa and the Oquendo were probably set on fire by shells fired during the first fifteen minutes of the engagement; it was afterwards learned that the Infanta Maria Teresa's fire main had been cut by one of our first shots, and that she was unable to extinguish fire. With large columns of smoke rising from the lower decks aft, these vessels gave up both fight and flight and ran in on the beach — the Infanta Maria Teresa at about 10:15, at Nima, six and one-half miles from Santiago harbor entrance, and the Almirante Oquendo at about 10:30 a. m., at Juan Gonzales, seven miles from the port.
The cruiser Vizcaya was still under the fire of the leading vessels; the Cristobal Colon had drawn ahead, leading the chase, and soon passed beyond the range of the guns of the leading American ships. The Vizcaya was soon set on fire and at 11:15 she turned in shore and was beached at Aserraderos, fifteen miles from Santiago, burning fiercely, and with her reserves of ammunition on deck already beginning to explode. When about ten miles west of Santiago the Indiana had been signalled to go back to the harbor entrance, and at Aserraderos the Iowa was signalled to "resume blockading station." The Iowa, assisted by the Ericsson and the Hist, took off the crew of the Vizcaya, while the Harvard and the Gloucester rescued those of the Infanta Maria Teresa and the Almirante Oquendo.
This rescue of prisoners, including the wounded from the burning Spanish vessels, was the occasion of some of the most daring and gallant conduct of the day. The ships were burning fore and aft, their guns and reserve ammunition were exploding, and it was not known at what moment the fire would reach the main magazine. In addition to this, a heavy surf was running just inside of the Spanish ships. But no risk deterred our officers and men until their work of humanity was complete.
Of the Spanish ships there now remained afloat only the Cristobal Colon — but she was their best and fastest vessel. Forced by the situation to hug the Cuban coast, her only chance of escape was by superior and sustained speed. When the Vizcaya went ashore, the Colon was about six miles ahead of the Brooklyn and the Oregon, but her spurt was finished, and the American ships were now gaining upon her. Behind the Brooklyn and the Oregon came the Texas, Vixen and New York. It was evident from the bridge of the New York that all the American ships were gradually overhauling the chase, and that she had no chance of escape. At 12:50 the Brooklyn and the Oregon opened fire and got her range — the Oregon's heavy shell striking beyond her — and at 1:20 she gave up without firing another shot, hauled down her colors, and ran ashore at Rio Tarquino, forty-eight miles from Santiago. Captain Cook, of the Brooklyn, went on board to receive the surrender. While his boat was alongside I came up on the New York, received his report, and placed the Oregon in charge of the wreck to save her, if possible; and directed the prisoners to be transferred to the Resolute, which had followed the chase. Commodore Schley, whose chief-of-staff had gone on board to receive the surrender, had directed that all their personal effects should be retained by the officers. This order I did not modify. The Cristobal Colon was not injured by our firing and probably is not much injured by beaching, though she ran ashore at high speed. The beach was so steep that she came off by the working of the sea. But her sea-valves were opened and broken, treacherously, I am sure, after her surrender, and despite all efforts she sank. When it became evident that she could not be kept afloat, she was pushed by the New York bodily upon the beach. The New York's stem was placed against her for that purpose, the ship being handled by Captain Chadwick with admirable judgment. She sank in shoal water and may be saved. Had this not been done she would have gone down in deep water and would have been, to a certainty, a total loss.
I regard this most complete and important victory over the Spanish forces as the successful finish of several weeks of arduous and close blockade, so stringent and effective during the night that the enemy was deterred from making the attempt to escape at night, and deliberately elected to make the attempt in daylight. That this was the case I was informed by the commanding officer of the Cristobal Colon.
It seems eminently proper briefly to describe here the manner in which this was accomplished. The harbor of Santiago is naturally easy to blockade — there being but one entrance, and that a narrow one, and the deep water extending close up to the shore line presenting no difficulties of navigation outside of the entrance. At the time of my arrival before the port, June 1, the moon was at its full, and there was sufficient light during the night to enable any movement outside of the entrance to be detected; but with the waning of the moon and the coming of dark nights, there was opportunity for the enemy to escape, or for his torpedo-boats to make an attack upon the blockading vessels. It was ascertained, with fair conclusiveness, that the Merrimac, so gallantly taken into the channel on June 3, did not obstruct it. I therefore maintained the blockade as follows: To the battle-ships was assigned the duty, in turn, of lighting the channel. Moving up to the port at a distance of from one to two miles from the Morro — dependent upon the condition of the atmosphere — they threw a searchlight beam directly up the channel and held it steadily there. This lighted up the entire breadth of the channel, for half a mile inside of the entrance, so brilliantly that the movement of the small boats could be detected. Why the batteries never opened fire upon the searchlight ship was always a matter of surprise to me, but they never did. Stationed close to the entrance of the port were three picket launches, and, at a little distance farther out, three small picket vessels — usually converted yachts — and, when they were available, one or two of our torpedo-boats. With this arrangement there was, at least, a certainty that nothing could get out of the harbor undetected. After the arrival of the army, when the situation forced upon the Spanish admiral a decision, our vigilance increased. The night blockading distance was reduced to two miles for all vessels, and a battle-ship was placed alongside the searchlight ship, with her broadside trained upon the channel in readiness to fire the instant a Spanish ship should appear. The commanding officers merit the greatest praise for the perfect manner in which they entered into this plan and put it into execution. The Massachusetts, which, according to routine, was sent that morning to coal at Guantanamo, like the others, had spent weary nights upon this work, and deserved a better fate than to be absent that morning. I enclose, for the information of the department, copies of orders and memorandums issued from time to time, relating to the manner of maintaining the blockade.
Since all of the above-mentioned work was done so well, it is difficult to discriminate in praise. The object of the blockade of Cervera's squadron was fully accomplished, and each individual bore well his part in it — the Commodore in command on the second division, the captains of ships, their officers and men. The fire of the battle-ships was powerful and destructive, and the resistance of the Spanish squadron was, in great part, broken almost before they had got beyond the range of their own forts. The fine speed of the Oregon enabled her to take a front position in the chase, and the Cristobal Colon did not give up until the Oregon had thrown a 13-inch shell beyond her. This performance adds to the already brilliant record of this fine battle-ship, and speaks highly of the skill and care with which her admirable efficiency has been maintained during a service unprecedented in the history of vessels of her class. The Brooklyn's westerly blockading position gave her an advantage in the chase, which she maintained to the end, and she employed her fine battery with telling effect. The Texas and the New York were gaining on the chase during the last hour, and, had any accident befallen the Brooklyn or the Oregon, would have speedily overhauled the Cristobal Colon. From the moment the Spanish vessel exhausted her first burst of speed, the result was never in doubt. She fell, in fact, far below what might reasonably have been expected of her. Careful measurements of time and distance give her an average speed — from the time she cleared the harbor mouth until the time she was run on shore at Rio Tarquino — of 13.7 knots. Neither the New York nor the Brooklyn stopped to couple up their forward engines, but ran out the chase with one pair, getting steam, of course, as rapidly as possible for all boilers. To stop to couple up the forward engines would have meant a delay of fifteen minutes — or four miles in the chase.
Several of the pursuing ships were struck, the Brooklyn more often than the others, but very slight material injury was done, the greatest being aboard the Iowa. Our loss was one man killed and one wounded, both on the Brooklyn. It is difficult to explain this immunity from loss of life or injury to ships in a combat with modern vessels of the best type, but Spanish gunnery is poor, at the best, and the superior weight and accuracy of our fire speedily drove the men from their guns and silenced their fire. This is borne out by the statements of prisoners and by observation. The Spanish vessels, as they dashed out of the harbor, were covered with the smoke from their own guns, but this speedily diminished in volume and soon almost disappeared. The fire from the rapid-fire batteries of the battle-ships appears to have been remarkably destructive. An examination of the stranded vessels shows that the Almirante Oquendo, especially, had suffered terribly from this fire. Her sides are everywhere pierced, and her decks are strewn with the charred remains of those who had fallen.
The reports of Commodore W. S. Schley and of the commanding officers are enclosed.
A board appointed by me for the purpose several days ago has made a critical examination of the stranded vessels, both with a view of reporting upon the result of our fire and the military features involved, and of reporting upon the chance of saving any of them and of wrecking the remainder. The report of the board will be speedily forwarded.
Very respectfully, W. T. SAMPSON, Rear-Admiral United States Navy, Commander-in-Chief United States Naval Force, North Atlantic Station. To THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, NAVY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.
[The following account of the battle-ship Oregon's remarkable voyage around Cape Horn was given by the vessel's chief engineer.]
UNITED STATES SHIP "OREGON," BLOCKADING SANTIAGO DE CUBA, June 22, 1898.
The Oregon is a first-class coast defence battle-ship of about 10,000 tons' displacement at the so-called normal draught. In this condition, however, she has only a certain limited amount of stores on board and only four hundred tons of coal. When she goes to sea, with her bunkers full of coal, with all stores and all ammunition on board, her actual displacement is something over 12,000 tons, and her draught of water is then over twenty-seven feet. She was, of course, in this latter condition when we started out from San Francisco, having on board at that time about 1,500 tons of coal, all bunkers being practically full.
We all knew, of course, that we had a remarkably fine ship, but before starting out we felt some little anxiety as to our ability to keep the machinery fully up to its work during such a long cruise. Nothing approaching it had ever before been attempted by a heavy battle-ship. Fortunately, we had just come out of dry dock in Bremerton (and our trip should really be considered as starting from that point rather than from San Francisco) and were only nine or ten days in San Francisco before starting for Callao — just long enough to fill our bunkers and magazines. Our machinery, both engines and boilers, were then in excellent condition, everything having been thoroughly overhauled by our own people while in dry dock, so it was not necessary to do any great amount of work in San Francisco.
Having finally filled up with coal, ammunition and stores, we left on March 19, and proceeded under three boilers direct for Callao, which port we reached on the morning of April 4, having expended, during this run of sixteen days, nine hundred tons of coal, leaving six hundred tons still in our bunkers. This we consider a remarkably efficient performance, having averaged 4.24 knots perton of coal. The revolutions of the engines during this run were remarkably steady, averaging at least seventy-five per minute, day after day without a variation of a tenth of a revolution.
On the afternoon of March 27 smoke and gas were discovered to be coming out of one of the coal bunkers. This bunker was over half full at the time, having probably between sixty-five and seventy tons in it. There was nothing to do but dig for the fire, as it was evidently down somewhere in the body of the pile. So we started in, working a couple of men in the bunker for about ten minutes at a time and then sending in a couple more to relieve the first. After about two hours' work the fire was reached, only about a shovelful of live coal being found, but probably a couple of tons so hot that it was giving off smoke and gas. After about four hours' steady work all the dangerous coal had been removed, and no further trouble was encountered.
On arriving at Callao we found that our coal had been ordered for us by the Marietta. The lighters had all been loaded, and were brought alongside as soon as we let go the anchor.
Then began some real work. I started in on the starboard engine and Reeves on the port engine, and we overhauled connections, scraped in brasses where necessary, examined, cleaned, and repaired air-pumps, circulating pumps, wiped out and oiled all the main cylinders and valve-chests. Fortunately for me, my engine was in pretty good shape, needing only a slight amount of keying up here and there. Reeves, however, found one of his main cross-head slippers so badly cut and scored that it was deemed best to remove it and put in place a spare one, which we carried on board. This sounds easy, but it required twenty-four hours' continuous work, as it had to be fitted exactly, the face carefully scraped to a true surface; and, finally, the guides nicely adjusted.
When we arrived here it was evident that war with Spain was inevitable, but it had not yet broken out. However, every precaution was taken to guard against any treachery on the part of Spanish sympathizers. The ordinary number of sentries was doubled and these men were armed with ball cartridges, ammunition was gotten up for the rapid-fire guns, and the steam launches were manned with armed crews and kept patrolling around the ship all night, to warn off and prevent any strange boats from approaching. These precautions were observed whenever we were at anchor in any port during the whole trip.
All our coal was finally on board by the afternoon of April 7, and out we started again, using three boilers and averaging something over eleven knots per hour until the evening of the 9th, when the fourth boiler was put on and the average speed increased to about thirteen knots, and this was kept up until the evening of the 16th, when we reached Port Tamar, just inside the entrance of the Straits of Magellan. We had a few leaky tubes in one boiler a day or so after leaving Callao, and, of course, stopped them as soon as possible. Soon after this, in some way which we have never been able to determine, a small amount of salt water got into our boilers, just enough to cause the density of the water to become about what it would be if one-quarter of it were sea water. This, of course, meant a certain amount of scale, but fortunately the amount was so small that it merely served to make our tube ends tight, without being enough to cause any bad effects on the boilers. At all events, from that time until long after our arrival off Santiago we did not have another leaky tube.
We spent the night at anchor in Port Tamar, and the next morning started out with the intention of making Sandy Point by dark. This, of course, required a semi-forced draught run, what is known technically as "assisted draught"; that is to say, the forced draught blowers are run, but the firerooms are not closed up air-tight, as under full forced draught. We ran our boilers at such a speed as to give an air-pressure of one-quarter of an inch of water, and were thus able to run the engines at a speed of 107.3 revolutions per minute, giving the ship a speed through the water of 14.6 knots per hour. As a matter of fact our speed from point to point along the shore was much greater, as there was a very strong current running through the straits in our favor.
While at Callao we had heard that a Spanish torpedoboat was at Montevideo, and we thought it just possible that she might attempt to intercept us in the straits, lying behind one of the numerous high points and darting out on us. So the rapid-fire gun crews were kept at their guns ready for instant work. However, we saw nothing of her.
Sandy Point was reached in the evening, and the next morning (April 18) began our usual work — coaling ship, cleaning, repairing and overhauling machinery. Of course, the only way to keep the ship going, was to turn to at every opportunity and do everything possible in the time allowed; but it was beginning to tell on all of us. We all had to stand watch at sea, and as soon as port was reached, all hands of the engineer's force had to go at the work and keep it up, going for every little thing that showed the least sign of wear, and not waiting even for it to show, but hunting for things of which there was the least probability of their becoming out of order. But all hands stood the strain well.
We remained at Sandy Point until the morning of April 21, leaving with about 1,200 tons of coal in our bunkers. The Marietta accompanied us from Sandy Point to Rio, or rather until the morning of the 30th, when we increased our speed to about fourteen and a half knots an hour, in order to arrive in port during the afternoon, leaving the Marietta to follow in later. The run from Sandy Point to Rio was without incident, and was at a lower speed than our previous runs, on account of the Marietta.
It was at Rio that we received the news that war was on with Spain, and at the same time a rumor of Dewey's victory at Manila reached us. We also received a long cablegram from Washington, informing us that Admiral Cervera's squadron of four heavy armored cruisers and four sea-going torpedo-boats had left for Cuban waters, and we were advised to avoid them if possible. We remained at Rio until May 4, doing what repairing we could and filling up with coal, taking something over a thousand tons. During our stay in this port we were not allowed to visit the shore. Here, too, we found the Nichteroy, which had been bought by an American firm and was flying our flag, and which was to be convoyed by us to the United States. However, she was not allowed to leave port with us, so we stood up the coast a few miles to wait for her. She joined us the following evening, but her boilers were in such bad condition that it was decided not to waste time with her, so she was left in charge of the Marietta, and we went ahead, arriving at Bahia on the evening of the 8th. Here we put on our war-paint and made arrangements for refilling our bunkers, but on the evening of the 9th a cablegram was received from Washington, ordering us to leave, so out we went immediately, headed for Barbadoes, which was reached at about 3 o'clock on the morning of May 18. Here we took 240 tons of coal and left the same evening, standing well to the eastward, and finally reached the Florida coast at Jupiter Light on the evening of the 24th, reporting our arrival to Washington. Orders came back to proceed to Hampton Roads if in need of repairs, otherwise to Key West. There was no hesitation as to which direction to take under these orders, and, finally, Key West was reached on the morning of the 26th, thus completing the most remarkable and successful performance ever undertaken by a battle-ship.
I have since heard that there was great anxiety among our own people at home on account of this ship, and that foreign nations were watching our run with great interest, while many doubted our ability to successfully accomplish it.
In the first place the machinery of the vessel was beautifully and strongly built, and, above all, was set in position with the greatest care and thoroughness. Great credit is therefore due to her builders and to the inspectors who supervised the work. From the day she went into commission the greatest care has been taken to keep everything up as nearly to perfection as possible. On the discovery of the least defect in any part, it has been remedied immediately. Whenever a run has been made, no matter how short it may have been, on reaching port again the cylinders and valve-chests, air-pump valves, etc., have been carefully examined, cleaned and oiled. The most careful attention has been paid to the condition of the boilers, and every endeavor has been made to avoid the use of salt water in them; that, indeed, is the point to which our success is largely due. Every leak, however small, in the boilers themselves, in the steam-pipes, in the engines or in the condensers has been stopped just as soon as possible, and thus only has it been possible to keep down the amount of water necessary for make-up feed to such a point that our evaporators have been able to furnish it, in addition to the water required for all other purposes.
The following is a summary, in tabular form, of our runs, showing at a glance the number of knots run, the speed of the ship in knots per hour, the consumption of coal, and the knots run per ton of coal. The data in this table are taken from the time of getting fairly under way, the time while entering and leaving port being eliminated. The coal, of course, does not include that used while lying in port, but includes coal consumed for all purposes while at sea.
Distance, Time, Speed, Coal, Knots Knots. Hours. Knots Tons. Run per Hour. per Ton of Coal. Bremerton to San Francisco 827.7 72 11.49 221.0 3.74 San Francisco to Callao 4,076.5 371 10.99 962.0 4.24 Callao to Port Tamar 2,529.9 212 11.93 785.0 3.22 Port Tamar to Sandy Point 132.0 9 14.55 66.0 2.00 Sandy Point to Rio de Janeiro 2,247.7 223 10.08 657.0 3.42 Rio to Bahia 700.0 (Speeds variable. Data unreliable.) (Speeds variable. Data unreliable.) 288.0 .. Bahia to Barbadoes 2,229.0 193 11.55 620.0 3.59 Barbadoes to Jupiter 1,683.9 142 11.86 478.5 3.3 Jupiter to Key West 280.0 27 10.37 77.9 3.6 Totals 14,706.7 4,155.4
C. N. OFFLEY.
GENERAL SHAFTER'S NARRATIVE.
[The story of the siege of Santiago by the regulars and volunteers is one of heroic endurance of dangers more terrible than the ordinary perils of battle. Tropical heat and rain-storms, miasma in the moist air, hordes of repulsive land-crabs and creeping things in the reeking vegetation, wet clothing and scanty food—these were the trials our inexperienced soldiers had to withstand, stimulated as they were to reckless bravery by the ring of the Spanish bullets that kept hailing on them from the bewildering distance where the enemy fired with smokeless powder. Our ships were pouring shells into the enemy's centre while three grand assaults were being made by the forces under General Shafter. The right wing was under General Lawton, who met his death two years later in the Philippines. The centre was near El Caney, under Generals Wheeler and Kent. Its purpose was to capture the high hill of San Juan, not far from Santiago city. From the conflicting accounts, as to details, of those fierce struggles, it is certain that the Spanish resistance was stronger than General Shafter had counted on. His plan of a sharp, quick attack and victory had to be changed before the successful tactics of the brave enemy, whose concealed sharpshooters laid low many a soldier whose life might have been saved under more cautious tactics. At the "bloody bend" of San Juan, where our raw fighting men received that deadly baptism of fire, there quickly fell Colonel Wikoff and Lieutenant- Colonels Worth and Liscum, the former killed, the last two wounded—three commanding officers down in ten minutes. It was a critical military situation, and for the Americans a deadly one. Then Brigadier-General Hawkins advanced up the hill with the Sixth and Sixteenth regiments, as the brigade under Colonel Ewers came up on another track. Hawkins led the charge. The Spaniards were driven from the trenches, but at a severe cost to our forces. At another point Roosevelt, heading the Rough Riders, asked and got the consent of General Wheeler to charge up the hill. Aided by some of the Twenty-first Infantry and the Ninth and Tenth (black) Cavalry, the Rough Riders tore ahead up that first hill and then up another one, capturing the deserted intrenchment.
Meantime General Lawton was attacking El Caney, on the top of a near-by hill. General Chaffee, Colonel Miles and General Ludlow were in the fight, backed by the field-guns operated by Capron. After a long, desperate struggle, the fort was captured at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Its defenders had made a brave stand. The scene of carnage was dreadful when our men entered. The town remained to be captured. The struggle was even fiercer here. Our force suffered severely, but conquered before nightfall of that terrible 1st of July. Our men were 5,000 against 8,000 at San Juan, well placed for defence, and we numbered about as many at El Caney. Generals Shafter and Wheeler had been incapacitated for several days by the heat and malaria, from which they recovered sufficiently to earn their full share of the glory of a famous campaign. Our selection is taken from the graphic address delivered by General Shafter in the Armory of the First Illinois Volunteers at Chicago, during the Peace Jubilee.]
WE were twice embarked and twice taken back to Tampa and disembarked. On the first occasion the cause was the appearance of Admiral Cervera's fleet, it requiring the entire navy that was disposable to go after that fleet; and the second time by a report that afterwards turned out to be incorrect, that in the Nicholas channel, through which we would have to go, some Spanish cruisers had been seen.
When ordered to Tampa to command the first Cuban expedition, I took the troops that I thought best fitted and prepared for that service. There were some magnificent regiments of volunteers, but to part of them I had issued arms only two or three days before. They were not properly equipped, and lacked experience. As I had the choice, I took all of the regulars that were there, and with them three regiments of volunteers. They were magnificent men, as perfect as men could be, as you who served in '61 know, poorly prepared to take care of themselves at first. You recollect it was months before we were prepared, and we made numerous mistakes that led to sickness and death. The same things have occurred again, and they always will continue with troops that are not used to the field, and in this campaign men were taken directly from their camps immediately after being mustered in, and put into the most difficult campaign of modern military history.
I had practically the entire regular army of the United States, twenty of the twenty-five regiments of infantry, five of the ten regiments of cavalry, and five batteries of artillery, with three regiments of volunteers, the Seventy- first New York, the Second Massachusetts, and the regiment known as Roosevelt's rough riders. The last were practically seasoned soldiers. They were men from the frontier, men who had been accustomed for years to taking a little sack of corn-meal on their saddles, and a blanket, and used to sleeping out of doors for a week or a month at a time. Of course, they knew how to care for themselves in camp.
Early in June I was called to the telephone in Tampa and told from the President's mansion in Washington to proceed immediately with not less than 10,000 men to Santiago. The news had been received that day that the fleet of Cervera was surely within the harbor, and that if 10,000 men could be placed there at once, the fleet and the city could be captured in forty-eight hours. The horses and mules, as well as the men, had been taken off from the ships, and the time consumed in reloading the horses and mules allowed me to embark 17,000 men nearly. That was very fortunate for me and our cause.
On arriving off Santiago, with Admiral Sampson, I went down the coast about twenty miles, and saw General Garcia, and asked him his opinion of the country, what his force was, and whether he was disposed to assist. I found him very willing and very glad to offer his services at once, with 3,000 men that he had with him and another thousand that he had up the country a little farther, which were to join us immediately. In sailing along the coast, looking for a landing- place, I selected two places—Siboney, a little indentation in the coast about twelve or thirteen miles east of Santiago, and another little bay about eight miles farther east, where small streams emptied into the sea, making a valley and a sand-bar about 150 to 200 yards in extent. All the rest of the coast is abrupt, perpendicular walls of rock from ten to thirty feet high, against which the waves were dashing all the time, and where it is utterly impossible to land.
We had the earnest and able support of the navy and its assistance in disembarking, and the next morning were bombarding the two little places and driving away the few hundred Spanish soldiers who were there. We began disembarking, and before the end of the day the men were on shore with the artillery and 2,000 horses and mules that we had to throw overboard to get ashore.
I knew that my entire army would be sick if it stayed long enough; that it was simply a question of getting that town just as soon as possible. I knew the strength, the courage, and the will of my men, or I thought I did, and the result shows that I was not mistaken. It was a question of starting the moment we landed and not stopping until we reached the Spanish outposts, and, therefore, as soon as a division was put on shore it was started on the march.
On the 24th the first engagement took place, in which there were between 800 and 900 men on the American side and probably 1,000 or 1,200 on the Spanish. The enemy was strongly entrenched, showing only their heads, while the American forces had to march exposing their whole bodies to the fire of the enemy.
It is announced by military experts as an axiom that trained troops armed with the present breech-loading and rapid-firing arms cannot be successfully assailed by any troops who simply assault. Of course you can make the regular approaches and dig up to them. The fallacy of that proposition was made manifest that day, when the men composing the advance, marched as deliberately over those breastworks as they ever did when they fought with arms that could be loaded only about twice in a minute, and had a range of only 200 or 300 yards.
This army was an army of marksmen. For fifteen years the greatest attention had been paid to marksmanship, and I suppose four-fifths of all the men in that army wore on their breasts the marksman's badge. I had given orders, knowing that the noise of firing is harmless and that shots put in the air are harmless—I had given the strictest orders to all officers that their men should be told not to fire a shot unless they could see something moving, and the firing was to be by individuals, what is called file firing, individual firing. The Spanish troops, not so well drilled in firing as ours, used volley firing, which is very effective against large bodies of troops massed and moving over a plain, but utterly inefficient when used against skirmishers moving over a rough country. In that battle, which lasted two hours, less than ten rounds of ammunition per man was fired by my men, and the losses, notwithstanding my men had exposed their whole bodies, while the enemy were in trenches where only their heads could be seen, were about equal.
I saw the commander of that force a few days later in Santiago, and in talking about it he said to me: "Your men behaved very strangely. We were much surprised. They were whipped, but they didn't seem to know it. They continued to advance and we had to go away." He was quite right about it. They did have to go away.
On the 29th we had reached the immediate vicinity of the peaks in front of Santiago, about a mile and a half from the city. On the 30th I carefully reconnoitred the ground as much as one could in the dense undergrowth, and determined where I would make my attack, which was simply directed in front, and to make a direct assault. There was no attempt at strategy, and no attempt at turning their flanks. It was simply going straight for them. In that I did not misjudge my men, and that is where I succeeded so well. If we had attempted to flank them out or dig them out by regular parallels and get close to them, my men would have been sick before it could have been accomplished, and the losses would have been many times greater than they were.
The only misfortune, as I judged it, of the first day's fight, but which I have since learned was for the best, was that immediately on our right, and what would be in our rear when we attacked the town, was a little village called El Caney, four miles and a half from Santiago, and whence the best road in the country connected with Santiago. I did not know the exact force there, but it was estimated to be 1,000, and perhaps a little more, and it would, of course, have been very hazardous to have left that force so near in our rear.
Instead of finishing the affair by 9 o'clock, as we expected, it took until 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon before the last shot was fired, and then after a loss of nearly a hundred killed and 250 wounded on our side and the almost total annihilation of the force opposed to us. They had an idea that they would be killed, and when men believe that it is hard to capture them. Just at the close of the battle three or four hundred did attempt to escape, but ran out in front of a brigade that they did not see, and in the course of about three or four hundred yards most of them were dead or mortally wounded, so that probably not more than twenty men on the other side escaped from that battle. It was a most desperate struggle.
Men were killed in the trenches by being knocked on the head with muskets, and two days later I was shown one man with what would be called a tremendous head on him. When the interpreter asked him how that had occurred he doubled up his fist and spoke of the soldier who had hit him, as a black man who had dropped his gun and hit him in the head with his fist. That was pretty close work.
Meanwhile the battle in front of Santiago progressed, with three divisions on our side, one of dismounted cavalry and two of infantry. It was beautifully fought. Every man knew what he had to do, and so did every officer. The orders were that immediately upon being deployed they were to attack. They did it. Every man kept going, and when one's comrade dropped the rest kept going. The result was that in less than two hours the line was taken, and practically that afternoon the battle of Santiago was ended, for those men never advanced beyond that point.
During the night I brought up the soldiers of General Lawton that had been on the right at Caney and put them on the extreme right, where I had intended to have them the day before. Had they been there we should probably have taken the town and have gotten only the men who were there, and not the 12,000 who were far beyond our reach and surrendered a few days later.
On the morning of the 2d a weak attempt was made upon our lines. In that the Spaniards had to expose themselves, while my men were covered. The fight lasted but a little while and they retreated.
On the morning of July 3 I thought we had so much of an advantage that I could notify the enemy, first, that I wanted a surrender and, second, if they declined to surrender that they could have twenty-four hours to get the women and children out of town. Of course, civilized people do not, if they can avoid it, fire on towns filled with women and children if they will come out. The Spanish commander declined very promptly to surrender, but said he would notify the women and children and those who desired to go, but he wanted twenty-four hours more, and said there were a great many people to go out. They began to stream out at once, and for forty-eight hours old men, women and children poured out until it was estimated that at least 20,000 people passed through our lines and out into the woods in the rear. Of course, there was an immense amount of suffering, and numbers died, especially of the old. Fortunately we were enabled to give them some food, enough to sustain life, but at that time, with the Cuban forces that I had, I was issuing daily 45,000 rations. Forty-five thousand people are a good many to feed when you have such fearful roads and food could only be carried on the backs of mules.
On that morning of the 3d, about an hour after the time for surrendering, Cervera's fleet left the harbor, and went out, as you know, to total annihilation. It was not more than twenty or thirty minutes after it left the mouth of the harbor before, so far as we could hear, the firing had ceased, and 1,700 men were prisoners, 600 were killed and three or four battle-ships and some torpedo-boats were either on the rocks or in the bottom of the sea—a most wonderful victory, never equalled before in naval history, and due mainly to the magnificent marksmanship of our men, who covered the Spanish decks with such a hail of iron that no sailors on earth could stand against it.
Two days after this I saw General Toral, and I was convinced from conversation with him that he was going to surrender. I had no one but myself to take the responsibility, in fact, I did not want anyone else to do it, but while I was convinced myself it was hard to convince others. I knew that we could capture the town at any time, that we had it surrounded so that the garrison could not get away, although on the night of July 2, 2,800 men marched in. I had understood there were 8,000, but when we counted them a few days afterwards there were only 2,800. I knew that if we carried that town by assault, a thousand men at least would be lost to the American army. One thousand American soldiers are a good many to expend in capturing a Spanish town, and I did not propose to do it if I could talk them into a surrender.
General Toral knew just as well as I did that I knew just what he had — that he was on his last rations, and that nothing but plain rice, that we had his retreat cut off, that we had the town surrounded, that he could not hurt us, while we could bombard him and do some little damage, perhaps, and that it was only a question of a few days.
I found out a few days later what the hitch was which caused the delay, for General Toral had told me that he had been authorized by Blanco, the Captain- General, to enter into negotiations and make terms for surrender. In Cuba, you know, General Blanco was in supreme command. His authority was such that he could even set aside a law of Spain. Knowing that, I felt sure that after very little delay they would surrender. They desired to get permission from the Madrid government to return to Spain. That is what delayed them. Immediately upon receiving the permission to return to Spain they surrendered.
I had in line when the fighting was going on, about 13,000 men — not more than that at any time. Inside the Spanish trenches there were about 10,000. There were 11,500 surrendered, and I think about 1,500 of them were sick. The disproportion, considering the difference of situation, is not very great. In fact, I think that 10,000 American soldiers could have kept 100,000 Spaniards out, had they been in the same position, although I do not wish to disparage the bravery of the Spanish troops. They are gallant fellows, but they have not the intelligence and do not take the initiative as do the American soldiers; and they have not the bulldog pluck that hangs on day after day.
Toral made the first proposition to surrender. He said if I would let him take his men and such things as they could carry on their persons and on a few pack- mules that they had, and guarantee him safe-conduct to Holguin, which was fifty- two miles away to the north and in the interior, they would march out. I told him, of course, that that was out of the question; that I could not accept any such terms as those, but I would submit it to the President. I did so, and was very promptly informed that only unconditional surrender would be received, but I was at liberty to say to General Toral that if they would surrender they would be carried, at the expense of the United States government, back to Spain. When that proposition was made to him I could see his face lighten up and the faces of his staff, who were there. They were simply delighted. Those men love their country intensely, they had been brought to Cuba against their will, and had stayed there three years, poorly clad, not paid at all, and not well fed, and the prospect of going back to their homes had as much to do with conforming their views to our wishes as anything that was done during the campaign.
Meanwhile ten or twelve days had elapsed and I had received quite a number of volunteer regiments — two from Michigan, the First District of Columbia, a Massachusetts regiment, and an Ohio regiment, the Eighth Ohio — all splendid troops and well equipped, and while they were not there at the hardest of the fighting they were there during the suffering, and everything that soldiers were called upon to do they did like men. It is a great deal harder to stand up day after day and see companions die from sickness and disease than it is to face the perils of battle. When I told General Toral that we would carry his men back he said: "Does that include my entire command?" I said: "What is your command and where are they?" He replied, the Fourth Army Corps; 11,500 men in the city, 3,000 twenty miles in the rear of us; 7,500 he said were up the coast less than sixty miles, and about 1,500 who were 125 to 150 miles off on the northeastern coast.
There were 3,440 odd, and at a place less than sixty miles east there were over 7,500, I know, as we counted them and took their arms. The result of that surrender was probably as unexpected to us as it was to every person in the United States. There was simply a little army there, which had gone down to assist the navy in getting the Spanish fleet out and capturing that town. Then we expected no other result from it than victory on the spot at the utmost, but in attacking the limb we got the whole body. It was expected that, beginning about the first of October, the objective point of the campaign was to be Havana, where we knew there were from 125,000 to 150,000 men. It was also expected that about the first of October a large army would be sent over there, and the battle that would decide the war would be fought in the vicinity of Havana. I think that was the universal feeling, but the loss of Santiago and of those 24,000 men — 23,376, to be accurate — so dispirited the enemy that within a week the proposition of Spain to close the war was made, and, happily, the war was ended.
The difficulties of that campaign were not in the fighting. That was the easiest part of it. The difficulties were in getting food and medicine to the front. There was but a single road, a muddy and terrible road, and with five or six wagons going over it the sixth wagon would be mired up to the axle-tree. In taking up some artillery I had fourteen horses to one battery that was usually drawn by four. Even with that number it went out of sight. We had to leave it and dig it out after the water had subsided.
HENRY WATTERSON.
[The following review of and reflections upon the great victory described in the foregoing pages is taken from the "History of the Spanish-American War," by Henry Watterson.]
THE land fighting before Santiago was dwarfed by the spectacular glory of the naval engagement that followed swiftly upon its heels. The ocean is the perfect battlefield, offering no natural advantage to either combatant. On land, the limitless opportunities for defence, concealment, and surprise require most patient investigation both of the original plan of a battle and its variations in execution, in order that the action may be comprehended and explained. All that is known at first are the general results and the confused mass of individual experiences and incidents that indicate the fighting temper of the forces engaged. The fighting before Santiago on July 1 and 2 was without precedent, and was involved in more confusion than any other modern battle of respectable scale. The destruction of Cervera's squadron was achieved amid all the surroundings of a magnificent theatrical display. Its opening, swift progress, and final tragedy, possessed a dramatic completeness of effect that could not have been surpassed if the details had been designed and rehearsed in advance.
Yet, splendid as the achievement was, the heroism displayed by the soldiers in the obscurity of the inland jungles was of a quality that equalled the courage and skill by which our ships were brought out victorious. And, at the moment when the observers of the land battles were preparing to analyze the incidents and construct the great story, the naval engagement intervened and relegated the army's achievements to second place. It was not until two weeks had elapsed and Santiago had surrendered, that the world understood the significance of the American fighting at San Juan and El Caney.
The discovery was momentous. Upon a larger field 16,000 men, against the same odds and with the same determination of unprecedented courage, devoid of any quality of desperation, had repeated the achievement of the 950 at Las Guasimas. As Sampson's fleet demonstrated that Dewey's victory was the fruit of national character and system, and not chance, the forces at San Juan and El Caney enforced with equal thoroughness the lesson of Las Guasimas.
It established the quality of manhood developed by free government, which the monarchical systems had persistently denied. The very blunders of forecast called out triumphantly the individual resource of each soldier, apart from the combination in bodies. It is doubtful if the desperate courage of the Spaniards had been underestimated; but certainly the deadly Cuban climate, with its alternation of burning heat and nightly chill, its drowning tropical rains, the rankness of vegetation, the tangled jungles, and the absence of foundations for road-building — certainly these were all underestimated or not prepared for. Yet, if it had been determined to overcome these obstacles before attacking, the purpose of the government to push the war to a quick conclusion could not have been achieved. Cuba could not have been scientifically invaded and the war ended short of twelve months.
It was thoroughly characteristic of the American idea of "business" that when Shafter perceived the heat and the impending of the rainy season he determined without hesitation to "beat the rains to Santiago," and do the necessary fighting while the health and spirits of the men were good. It cannot be said that the losses in battle were greater because of the impetuous advance. The losses by disease later demonstrated the wisdom of haste.
The three battles on the journey were characteristic of what Europe has sarcastically called "American enterprise." Disregarding tradition and precedent, the army of the United States, provided with no field artillery of sufficient power, plunged into a jungle and marched against a fortified city — leaving all supplies behind, and throwing away, on the march, every pound of clothing and equipment that was not necessary for actual fighting.
The extreme advance-guard of 950 cavalrymen, marching and fighting for the first time dismounted, half of them volunteers of two months' training, charged an enemy two or three times greater in numbers, intrenched, provided with artillery, protected by barbed wire entanglements, in a familiar jungle, and drove them back after an hour's fighting. It was called an "ambush," and at home amateur critics of war attributed to desperation the valor of our troops. It was to be discovered later that from Las Guasimas to Santiago the same ambuscade confronted all our troops.
Halting only to fight, rest, and permit the main body to come up, cut off from provisions and hospital relief, with quarter rations for empty stomachs, the half-nude and weary, but determined army reached the outposts of Santiago and assaulted them with a spirit that would not be denied. The outposts that were to be taken in two days were stormed and captured against overwhelming odds of defence in one day, after ten hours of ceaseless fighting. The night was spent in making intrenchments and resisting attempts at recapture, and the next day in the blazing sunlight, without tents, without food, without relief, they fought the enemy back to his last ditch and held the city.
Of the 15,000 troops engaged, three regiments were volunteers practically useless, not for lack of fighting qualities — the stubborn march disproved that — but because their rifle ammunition carried black powder and the smoke menaced our troops by revealing their position at every discharge. Of the remainder, one regiment was of volunteers with smokeless powder ammunition, and the remainder regulars, one-third of whose ranks had been recruited within sixty-five days. One-third of that army was practically composed of volunteer recruits.
The military observers present, representing foreign nations, were unanimously of the opinion before the attack on Friday the 1st, that the storming of San Juan and El Caney, without the aid of heavy artillery, was a military feat impossible of accomplishment. The intrenchments of the enemy, his position, his advance defences, his artillery and numbers, rendered him impregnable against enormous odds. Yet all this was swept away by infantry alone, by troops thrown into regimental confusion in the jungle, some without brigade or regimental commanders, yet all welded into substantial cohesive formation by the instinct of self-reliance, springing from intelligent knowledge of the value of combination and organization.
Captain Lee and Captain Paget of the British army declared that the United States troops had performed the impossible in warfare. Count von Goetzen, the German attache, whose opinion will scarcely be suspected of too much leaning to the side of the United States, said the fighting of the Americans was wonderfully well done, and that the storming of the outposts was a wonderful feat of war. The fighting was creditable, he declared, to both sides, but he did not dream how formidable San Juan was until after it had been taken. The American marksmanship was surprising. The vigorous way in which our troops sprang to the deadly work was a tremendous lesson to other nations. The volunteers, he heard from other expert observers who had watched them, were fully up to the regulars, and the dash and spirit exhibited were marvellous. Major Grandprey, of the French service, who has been quoted elsewhere, declared that some of the best-grounded theories adopted in Europe were overturned by the achievements of the American soldiers. The Frank-furter Zeitung, a leading newspaper authority of Germany, in a well-considered article from a military contributor, declared that the United States troops before Santiago had surpassed all precedents, and that the susceptibility of the American citizen to quick training had demonstrated that our volunteer militia was a much more reliable force than the compulsory reserves of Europe, an utterance astonishing in the light of past beliefs.
It may be said that our military operations against Santiago were marred by blunders or misfortunes, without raising the question of cause or responsibility for them. But through all, the intelligence, tenacity, and strong character of the American citizen found an unerring way to victory against the odds of the enemy in front and the failure or impossibility of support behind.
The courage of our soldiers was matched by the skill of our seamen. The naval battle of Santiago was most extraordinary in its contrasts of methods and men. For eighty-six years American seamen had engaged no foreign adversaries. Our ships were regarded as too light in armor, or too heavy in armament, and too delicate in interior mechanism. It had been predicted by foreign experts that our battle-ships would be capsized by the recoil from the delivery of full broadsides from the great and small guns. These theoretical doubts were dissipated. The battleships, in bombarding, were "listed," or careened to one side by running the heavy guns out of the ports and turrets, in order to gain elevation sufficient for the guns on the other side to throw shells over the hills. Not a gun exploded, not a piece of delicate machinery failed, not one gloomy prediction was realized.
Our methods of fighting, like our methods of diplomacy, were startling to the enemy. Europe has clung to the conventions. In diplomacy, Europeans proceed by the tortuous paths of tradition and the etiquette of precedent. They pronounced the American directness of procedure by going to the heart of the subject in a business-like manner as "brutal" and "irritating." At San Juan the Spanish complained that our troops charged, when, under all the conventions of warfare by accepted tactics they should have run away!
In the naval battle our commanders wasted no time in vain technical parade and manoeuvre. They fell upon the adversary with all the weight of metal that could be discharged, pounding the amazed and breathless Spaniards to destruction before they could recover from the shock. The European gunner is trained to shoot on the upward roll of his side of the ship, with the result that most of the Spanish shots were hurled harmlessly over our ships. United States gunners are trained to fire on the downward roll, so that the missile may go straight to the enemy's hull, or reach it on ricochet. The hulls of the Spanish cruisers testified to the deadly efficacy of the method. The three battles of this century, preceding Santiago, that were enormously greater in political significance than important as mere military operations, were Waterloo, Gettysburg and Sedan. The effect of Waterloo was the destruction of Napoleon's personal power and threatened political supremacy in Europe. The effect of Gettysburg was to presage the downfall of the institution of slavery in the United States, and the denial, by force of arms, of the political theory of the right of any State to withdraw peacefully from the Federal Union. The effect of Sedan was the ushering into immediate power of the German Empire, that Bismarck had patiently constructed from the petty German states, the solidarity of which was committed with its crown to the keeping of William I., of the new imperial dynasty. In no military sense are these battles comparable, but in significance they are. They were of momentous effect upon the nations and continents whose interests were directly concerned. But to the round world they were, after all, more or less incidents of locality. Waterloo was, perhaps, greatest of all; but the world of 1814 was much smaller than the world of 1898.
In respect of the importance of the forces engaged on land and the display of recognized scientific military operations, the land battles before Santiago were mere skirmishes beside Waterloo, Gettysburg and Sedan. But in respect of the revelation resulting from measuring the fighting and enduring qualities of the American soldier by the standard obtaining in the standing army of Spain, the result was of the highest significance. Among the people of the United States it confirmed and established the confidence they had long cherished in the efficiency of their race. It was more important to us than Gettysburg, in that, while it erased every jarring memory of Gettysburg itself, it sanctified and heightened the one glorious — of the valor of all Americans who met on that field of heroic struggle; and that the reunited devotion to one country and one flag was sealed in sacrifice of blood and life by North and South together fighting side by side. It revealed to us, as by inspiration, the strength and character of our population, and the resourceful intelligence springing from liberty restricted only by the rights of man. That this revelation was understood by all foreign observers was confessed. They were sent to observe both sides; not merely the tools of war, but the nature and power of the men who wielded them. It is for the purpose of studying forces as possible adversaries that such observations are made.
When the combined operations of the army and navy at Santiago are considered, it is not improbable that the Spanish defeat will prove, by future results, to have been more significant than any other battle of the century.
The overwhelming and quick defeat of Spain was confidently prepared for and expected by the United States. The progress of the war did not appreciably interrupt the regular course of our every-day life or business.
It was also conceded by all other nations that Spain must be defeated, if the prosecution of the war was not averted by the intervention of European powers. But some grave authorities abroad did not dream that it was possible for Spain in a hundred days to be stripped of all her colonies, her splendid fleet annihilated, her ocean commerce paralyzed, her finances demoralized, her population maddened to the point of revolution, an important body of her army captured within its own fortified places by a smaller army, and the prisoners transported back to Spain, at the expense of the conquerors, as an act of compassionate charity, founded upon good "Yankee" economy.
And all this without the enemy being able to strike a single blow in return, or to disarrange in any particular the ordinary course of life in this country.
The significance of Santiago lay in this: that those who had considered Dewey's action at Manila to be a miracle of good fortune, saw it repeated at Santiago, at Manzanillo, at San Juan de Porto Rico, and at Nipe. Those who thought the 95 deg at Las Guasimas were reckless daredevils, who won out of sheer audacity, saw the same quality of indomitable courage repeated by increased forces, with equal success, at San Juan and El Caney.
When Santiago surrendered, the republic of the United States, so long scorned by Europe as a nation of money-getters and sordid adventurers, with no traditions of dignity or glory; so long treated with contempt by Europe in its accredited representatives as being a government of ignorance and corrupt politicians and mercenaries — that republic, after Santiago, stood before the world suddenly revealed in its real strength, taking undisputed place in the first rank of nations, unsurpassed in its practical ability to provide for offence or defence, and with a capacity for future influence in the whole world, and for the increase of its strength restricted only within the national purpose, whatever that might be.
The surrender of Santiago was the death-blow to Spain, and sudden warning to Europe.
Even after the destruction of the Maine the Spanish government did not expect war with the United States. That act of cruel perfidy was so well shrouded in mystery, as Spain viewed it, that it might be made the subject of endless diplomacy, or, if put to it, the "mercenaries" of America could be pacified with a money indemnity. No allowance was made for the existence of a profound public sentiment in the United States aroused by the murder of our seamen. Once before Spanish authorities had shot to death the crew of the Virginius, filibusters from this country going to aid Cuban revolutionists, and nothing had come of the outrage. The idea that the United States possessed any actual sympathy for Cubans who perished under Spanish cruelty, neither Canovas nor Sagasta could comprehend as anything more than rhetorical declamation covering a pretence to forward some scheme of sharp practice that our government was preparing to present. They frankly admitted that Spain could not be victorious in a war with the United States, but they did not expect war — diplomacy, and money indemnity, at the proper time, would dispose of American protestations of honorable purpose and humane motives.
Curiously enough, England, the European nation best able to know and understand the spirit and power of the United States, underrated the situation at first. Her naval and military authorities did not hesitate to prophesy that the Americans were sure to be victorious in the end, because, although the national spirit rose slowly, it rose surely under adversity, and was then irresistible. They were ready, however, to expect the first successes for Spain, whose standing army and excellent navy, equipped according to European standards, would be superior to the overloaded and lumbering ships of our fleet and the handful of soldiers composing our standing army, which would have to be laboriously recruited from raw volunteers, these, naturally, of the lowest classes of our population.
Even after Manila, the London Times, that recognized channel of sound conservative opinion in England, took a gloomy view of our outlook. "In time, of course," it said, "the United States will be able to bring out their immense, almost inexhaustible resources of military and naval strength, but for the moment nothing decisive can be looked for so long as Admiral Cervera's fleet is in being, and while the American army is in process of manufacture." All that had then been gained, it believed, was the knowledge that European intervention was no longer practicable.
"Intervention by the powers" was, in fact, the trump card that Spanish statesmen believed they held for use when all other resources should prove futile. It was not possible to admit that a republic of "pig-stickers," "railroad builders" and "tradesmen" would dare resist the dignified wishes of the "Concert of Europe," whose mission was the maintenance of the balance of power, the custodianship of the secrets of diplomacy by circumlocution, and the division of the estates of deceased governments among heirs to be selected for the decedent.
It was to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy, and the Franco- Russian League that Spain looked for assistance. Great Britain was, as usual, independent of alliances, a solitary among nations, more powerful and much more feared than the United States, but yet a solitary, as we have always been.
When Congress had taken steps that left no doubt of immediate war, Spain recognized that her own diplomacy was ended. She turned immediately to Austria (whose emperor was the uncle of the queen-regent and granduncle of Alfonso XIII.), to the pope and to France. The mighty mystery of the "intervention of the powers" was thus solemnly invoked. The venerable Leo XIII., representing in his pontifical character and personal virtues the loftiest mission of religion, made overtures to the President that were acknowledged with interest and respect and replied to with open frankness of explanation. Then the aged pontiff suddenly learned that even in this effort to preserve the curious national pretence called her "honor," Spain had not hesitated to ascribe his action to the wrong initiative and to represent his motives in such a manner as to cover his high office with indignity and to reflect insult upon the United States. Overcome with grief and feeling deep humiliation, Leo XIII. withdrew, not the less respected by our government and the world that recognized his greatness of mind and nobility of purpose.
During this time, also, the powers of the continent had agreed to make united "representations" to the government of the United States through their ambassadors and ministers in a body. The note was intended to have the appearance of disinterested anxiety for peace and the effect of a menace from combined Europe, if we persisted in the determination to make war on Spain, and to destroy her sovereignty in Cuba. Italy did not join in the action.
The continent having agreed upon the plan, application was made to Great Britain to join in the remonstrance. The continent relied upon the ancient feeling of jealous dislike between England and the United States, and the recent embroilment over the Anglo-Venezuelan boundary, as causes sufficient to move the queen's ministers.
Much to Europe's surprise Great Britain declared a purpose to take no step unfriendly to Spain or the United States, which countries were presumed to be capable of managing their own affairs. But Mr. Balfour, in the premier's absence, went further and consented to an action, the significance of which the powers did not then probably fully perceive. He desired peace, but he could not interfere. He would, however, unite with the powers in presenting to the President of the United States an address expressing the hope that war might be averted, and offering friendly offices. But the nature of the address must first be communicated to the President and his consent obtained for its public presentation.
The text of the original note as determined upon by the powers is not known, but when the British ambassador at Washington entered the White House, at the head of the delegation of foreign representatives, it was notice to the world that the President had dictated the terms of the joint address and that the British ambassador presented it as the friendly and courteous suggestion of the greatest European power, and that his presence estopped the representation from being construed as a menace, upon peril of its repudiation by the British government, and the danger of provocation that might attach.
A vivid and pathetic account of the horrors of war was given in several issues of McClure's Magazine, in the diaries kept during the last days at Santiago by Mr. Ramsden, British Consul in that city. He had lived among its people a number of years and was cordially esteemed by all. The editorial note which follows the extract from the last diary, gives a pitiful tragic touch to its story of devotion to duty.
Tuesday, 5th July. At 5:30 a. m. I started with two carts which Willie had found, provisions, and people for Caney, with flag. Three hours and a half on the road. The scene was terrible; people flocking out, sick carried in chairs or as they could, children getting lost by the way, etc. Through a son of Diego Moyas in the American army, I obtained a room, such a one, in a house just chockfull of blacks, and put my wife's mother and sisters in there, while Willie pitched our tent in an empty piece of ground where a house had stood, and also managed to obtain a small room in a house close alongside. The entrance to Caney was stinking with half-buried corpses of men and horses, as three days before there had been a tremendous battle there.
Wednesday, 6th July. Visited by war correspondents of papers, etc. About 18,000 to 20,000 in Caney; houses, of which there are 300, full of people, in most of them not leaving room enough to lie on the floor, but having to pass the night in a sitting posture. I wrote to General Shafter about provisions for the British subjects, of which I have thirty odd on the list.
Thursday, 7th July. Akers and other correspondents arrived. He has no horse. I received 100 pounds of flour from General Shafter for Britishers, and had it made into bread, which they brought to my tent at midnight, and made me get up to cool it down and put away till morning. General Toral wrote me asking me to send in the English cable clerks if I could, and I sent in poor Cavanagh, Frume and Booney. Toral said he had important telegrams for Madrid, and I knew it was with regard to capitulation. Musgrave, correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, turned up, and was very kind. I wrote by him to my girls at Jamaica and to the Commodore, having also done so two days before. Captain Arthur Lee, of Royal Artillery, and military attache, turned up.
Friday, 8th July. More correspondents, etc. Distributed biscuit, or rather bread, I had made. Got Edwards to take charge of distributing provisions for British subjects. The people are starving. The Red Cross Society cannot get provisions up in time for want of means of transportation, nor can the army. The people, thinking they had come out for but a couple of days and not being allowed to bring animals of burden with them, have now no provisions left, and round here the only thing obtainable is mangoes, of which there is a profusion. The streets are filled with the remains of these thrown down by the people, and they are in a state of ferment. The place is one big pigsty, and soon there must be a frightful epidemic, with the people bathing and washing dirty clothes in the river, from which the drinking water is obtained and to which any quantity of filth and refuse finds its way. In some houses you will find fifty in a small room, and among them one dying of fever, another of diarrhoea, and perhaps a women in the throes of childbirth, and all that with not a chair to sit on or a utensil of any kind, and all in want of food. You cannot buy anything for money, though I know one man lucky enough to buy five biscuits of about two ounces each for a five-dollar piece, and another who bought a small chicken for seven dollars, but he did not take it right off, and the bargain was refused. People will exchange mangoes or other things for food, such as rice, biscuit, or pork, the things mostly looked for. Twenty-five good sized biscuits were paid for three small chickens by a Red Cross man. The country is absolutely bare, and money will buy nothing, and it is useless. Children dying for want of food; in fact, the situation is indescribable. We now hear that the bombardment has been postponed until Saturday, 9th, at noon. Elwell turned up in the afternoon; had been in Kingston, Jamaica, the previous day, and had seen the Brooks and Douglas families at the hotel, and said that my people had also arrived safely, though he had not seen them. Elwell is chief of Miss Clara Barton's Red Cross work, and prevailed on Willie to take charge to run the distribution, in place of poor old Bangs, who works like a mule. Captain Finlay had arrived the day before, and went off to-day. Major Allen also arrived, and two wagons of food.
Saturday, 9th July. I insisted on Willie giving up the distribution business, as I foresaw what was bound to happen with no provisions to distribute, and I might want him at any time to clear out, as indeed did happen. Lieutenant Noble came. People starving. Major Allen turned up and Captain Lewis is appointed governor of Caney. Captain Mendoza arrived with a letter from Andreini, and a cow from General Lawton, which cow I made over to old Bangs to make soup with, which he did. Mendoza told me that Linares had offered to surrender the town if the troops were allowed to go with arms. Shafter cabled Washington about this. "World" and "Harper's Weekly" correspondent turned up; also Rawson Rhea, of "Journal," returned and was very kind. At 6 p. m. Mendoza came with an aide of General Shafter, saying the Americans would enter the town to-morrow, and all would be back there in forty-eight hours. Great rejoicings. I wrote to General Shafter to know if families of Spanish officers would be allowed to go in before their husbands left, etc. General Ludlow sent me a cow, which I made over as before.
Sunday, 10th July. Went round for distribution of provisions just arrived. The whole afternoon with people begging sugar or milk or rice or something to keep them from starving, or a sick child of a person from dying. I have now very little left, having been giving away what I could. At 5 p. m. Americans began to cannonade from field and siege batteries, with a few from fleet, until dark. Frightful scenes; children crying for food and nothing to give them; a few provisions arrived this afternoon, but not one-twentieth enough.
The weather so far had been fine, but this afternoon it began to rain, thus adding misery to people without shelter; 300 houses in town, without counting ranches run up with branches and leaves and sheets. Rough census taken estimates population at eighteen to twenty thousand. At Cuavitas, Dos Bocas, Siboney, and Firmesa there are also people, and probably 35,000 have left Santiago.
Monday, 11th July. American shore batteries and fleet cannonading town until midday, also with some rifle fire. One shell burst here in Caney. Busy all day with Major Allen, dividing up the provisions. Misery increasing, Americans sent flag of truce at noon to see if town would surrender. Rained heavily, and at 11 p.m. a terrific thunderstorm and rain.
Tuesday, 12th July. Rained heavily nearly all night and until noon to-day. Truce continued. Americans offer to convey troops to Spain with arms, and now await Blanco's answer. They say 5,000 men are now on the way from Holguin. General Miles has landed with more troops and six batteries of artillery, and comes to the front this afternoon. They placed a few more siege guns to-day. The town is now surrounded except on the Guao side. People continue to starve, and fevers are taking hold after the rains. Smallpox was reported to me last night, but on investigation I found that it was only chicken-pox. Cavanagh, who returned from Santiago on Saturday, is completely off his head, and I much fear for him. Today I got hold of a chair, and find it a luxury. Several ladies wanted permission to return to Santiago, preferring to die at once by shells rather than slowly by starvation. Siboney burned, owing to some cases of yellow fever there.
Wednesday, 13th July. Conferences yesterday between lines with American generals and Toral about capitulation. Archbishop told Akers, who interpreted, that several houses in town had been damaged, but no one killed. Wanted to send nuns out, but refused. General Lawton was ordered to take Caney on the first day, and then proceed with the rest to Santiago, but he found it a tougher job than expected, and only got through with artillery by four in afternoon. Americans lost 436 men at Caney, included in the 1,800. Starvation and sickness increasing. Willie gone to Siboney to try for food. Rained at intervals, and everything awfully damp and muddy. Cavanagh is very bad with bilious fever, and no medicine to be had. I fear he will die. A purge might save him, but it is not to be had. I don't feel at all well. When rain began we moved at night to a small room Willie managed to get, a filthy place.
Thursday, 14th July. Cavanagh died at 2:15 this morning, and I have been ailing with sore throat, chest oppression, and fever all night, and have to remain in bed, or rather hammock. Got a coffin for Cavanagh, and buried him in the afternoon. I could not go. In afternoon Sir Brien Leighton turned up, and gave me two pastilles of Eaggis consomme, which came in well in my state. He told me capitulation had been agreed upon. Spanish troops here and 8,000 more under Toral's command to be shipped to Spain, and Santiago, Guantanamo, and Baracoa to be included in capitulation. Ladies made memorial to General Shafter to be allowed to go to town, preferring death by bomb to starvation. Willie returned from Siboney without provisions, but got a little sugar on the road from a Cuban. I wrote Shafter, asking when we could go in.
Friday, 15th July. Passed a bad night, fever and diarrhoea. At 9 a. m. round came Major Allen with a note from General Shafter asking me to go in, as there were some difficulties which he hoped my influence would fix, as otherwise there might still be more fighting. I was still in bed, but got up, packed, and started. Was detained at Spanish lines till I could get a note to Toral, and I found that he and generals were between lines negotiating. Therefore, being nearly 2 p. m., went on home, The city was like a deserted place, and with soldiers on the outskirts and trenches, no one in the streets. Some houses gutted and pillaged, others hurt by shell; not a shop of any kind open, trenches and barricades in the streets down to Plaza de Dolores, made since I left. Found my house intact. Changed, and went to see Toral, who was in his hammock done up, just returned from conference. He told me everything had been arranged and preliminary bases signed. Madrid's approval to capitulation, asked for three days previous, is wanting, but he said, if not approved, he would capitulate even if courtmartialled after. Bob Mason has been running it, and is one of the commissioners who signed the articles. Eulogio brought us a piece of meat and some bread, his share of rations, for nothing can be bought. Moran and Espejo also came, and Barruecos. A shell burst in latter's house, twenty yards from mine, and fragments came on my roof. Did a lot of damage. Several fell around store, and one bursting in front broke roof titles. It is said fifty-nine houses have been damaged, including three utterly demolished. A large piece in my drawing-room knocked down and some bric-a-brac broken. No one killed. Linares's wound has been painful, affected the radial nerve, but not dangerous.
Saturday, 16th July. I was writing until half-past two, and then could not sleep, and was up at 4:30. Some families have come in to-day, and this afternoon everything has been settled, without Madrid, and to-morrow at nine the city, Guantanamo and Baracoa will be handed over. Thank God! Seventeen thousand five hundred troops surrendered, and will be sent to Spain. I have not had a moment all day long, and am done up and sick, and shall now try to get a little sleep, but I have a frightful lot of work before me. Santiago de Cuba has made a heroic defence, and the Americans have learned to admire the pluck of the Spaniards. On the first attack there were, including 1,000 men from the squadron, 3,500 men of all arms, with volunteers. Aldea had a column of 600 on the other side of the bay, and there were about 200 more between Morro, etc., and Aguadores. From Manzanillo 3,500 men arrived after the attack, and helped to replace the killed and wounded. At Caney there were 500 men. There are now here and along the railway, etc., 10,500 men. At Guantanamo 5,000, and Baracoa and others scattered 2,000, making a total of 17,000. Santiago had no defences, but they ran up some earthworks, and made trenches after the fleet began to blockade and the United States army to besiege them. The Spanish soldiers are half-starved, have very little ammunition left, and are sick. Linares would have surrendered the place a week ago had he been in command, but Toral has been delaying, while Blanco and Madrid were against it.
Sunday, 17th July. The American generals came in this morning, and have taken formal possession, and the troops are being marched out to encamp somewhere round San Juan until the ships come to take them off to Spain. The Red Cross boat "Texas" has come in, and also Sampson in a yacht. I saw Shafter and all the American generals this morning, but went off home with a strong fever, and I feel bad.
Monday, 18th July. Fever of thirty-eight odd degrees, and sweated during the night; took quinine, but still bad. Obtained a cart to bring me up home and to bed today; no carriage obtainable. Several American ships now in port.
[EDITOR'S NOTE.— The fever which Mr. Ramsden's exposure and heroic labors throughout the siege of Santiago had brought upon him grew gradually worse. By August I he was so ill that he started for Kingston, Jamaica, where his wife and daughters were, going by H. M. S. Alert, so often named in his diary; he was too weak to walk, and had to be carried to and from the ship. He reached Kingston on the morning of August 2. But under his rare sense of duty, he had deferred going until too late to derive any benefit from the change; he grew only worse, and on the afternoon of August 10 he died. His wife and daughters were with him at his death, but not his sons. Mr. Ramsden was as much a martyr of the war as if he had been killed in battle, and no man in the war rendered a nobler service.]
HENRY WATTERSON.
[The story of the invasion of this island is taken from the "History of the Spanish-American War," by Henry Watterson. The victory so easily won by General Miles brought a series of troubles in its train, in the solution of which the keen qualities of congressional statecraft have been conspicuously displayed. In view of the vital importance of the questions involved, which tax the patriotic and judicial reasonings of the nation not less than the trained faculties of their statesmen, it is necessary to consider the physical, economic and political conditions of Porto Rico. An impartial summary of the discussion upon the status of the island under the American Constitution will follow the story of its capture.]
SWIFTLY following up the Spanish collapse at Santiago, General Nelson A. Miles, general-in-chief of the army, sailed with part of the Fifth Army Corps from Santiago to Porto Rico nine days after the surrender. He was accompanied by Major-General James H. Wilson, of volunteers, and was reinforced later with fresh troops from Newport News under Major-General John R. Brooke, U. S. A. No opportunity was to be permitted for Spain to recover from the shock of her losses.
The squadron under Commodore Watson, intended to pursue Camara's ships, was now enlarged to a fleet, which Admiral Sampson was to command, with orders to prepare for immediate attack upon the Canary Islands and a descent upon the Spanish fortified seaports; to find Camara's hiding ships and destroy them. The announcement caused great fear throughout Spain, and once again her cabinet sought to arouse Europe to combine against the entrance by American ships upon European waters for war purposes — urging the step as a retaliatory act against the Monroe Doctrine. But the European Powers did not display any intention to act after an exchange of notes. The appearance of a British Squadron at Gibraltar was considered ominous to the proposed interference.
The island of Porto Rico, which was discovered in 1493, and has ever since been under Spanish rule, is one hundred and eight miles in length and about forty miles wide. It is a most healthful and delightful country, with mountain ranges and many streams. Forty of these are navigable for a short distance from the coast. The climate in the interior is particularly mild and salubrious. It contains an area of about 3,600 square miles and 800,000 inhabitants. It is fourth in rank, according to size, of the Greater Antilles group, but in prosperity and density of population it is first. It is one of the few tropical islands and countries where the white population out-numbers the black. The commercial capital and largest city is Ponce, situated three miles inland from the port of the same name on the southern coast. The city rests on a rich plain, surrounded by gardens and plantations. There are hot springs in the vicinity, which are much frequented by invalids. Along the beach in front of the port are extensive depots, in which the products of the interior, forwarded through Ponce, are stored for shipment. The last enumeration gave to Ponce a population of 37,545, while San Juan, the capital on the north coast, had only 23,414 inhabitants. Ponce has a number of fine buildings, among which are the town hall, the theatre, two churches, the Charity and the Women's asylums, the barracks, the Cuban House, and the market. The road between the city and the seaside is a beautiful promenade. Cuba is thirteen times larger than Porto Rico, but its population was not more than double the latter before Weyler exterminated a third of the native Cubans. Besides Ponce and San Juan, the largest towns on the Island are Arecibo (30,000 inhabitants), Utuado (31,000), Mayaguez (28,000), San German (20,000), Yauco (25,000), Juana Diaz (21,000), and there are some ten other towns with a population of 15,000 or over. In the past fifty years about half the population has gravitated into and about the towns, particularly those of the seaboard. The inhabitants live in comfortable houses, and many have sufficient means to purchase all the comforts of the world.
Porto Rico has always been lightly touched by the blighting hand of Spain. It has been regarded as a part of Spain rather than a colony, and for the past twenty years it has been politically a province of the Spanish Kingdom. The Spanish Government has had little to do directly with internal improvements in the island, and kept her heavy hand off the people, so that there was opportunity for the spirit of enterprise to develop. As a consequence Porto Rico has about one hundred and fifty miles of railroad, and as much more under construction; and a system of wagon roads leading to all the important trading centres that surpasses anything of the sort seen in most parts of Spain itself. The portions of railroad parallel to the coasts are long sections of a line that will ultimately make the entire circuit of the island, with short branches to all the seaports and the inland market towns.
This beautiful island abounds in sugar, coffee, tobacco, honey, and wax, which have enriched the people. A very large part of the trade has been with the United States, whose corn, flour, salt meat, fish, and lumber were imported in return for sugar, molasses, and coffee. The natives have little taste for the sea, and most of the foreign trade has been carried in foreign bottoms. Porto Rico is rich in natural blessings, and, for a tropical region, very healthful.
The capital, San Juan, was the best fortified city of Porto Rico, occupying there the relative position that Havana occupied in Cuba. When General Miles started his expedition the expectation was that it would effect a landing at Fajardo, on the northeastern coast. After this ostensible purpose had been well published, his convoys and transports suddenly arrived off the harbor of Guanica on the southwestern cost at daylight on the morning of July 25.
The small Spanish garrison in a blockhouse on the beach was utterly surprised when Commander Wainwright of the Gloucester ran into the harbor and with his small guns opened fire. the Spaniards attempted to reply but were soon driven off, and a party of marines landed and hoisted the American flag over the blockhouse. None of the Americans was injured, but the Spanish lost several killed and wounded.
The troops of the expedition, numbering some 3,500, were disembarked in the afternoon without difficulty or opposition. The harbor is the best in the island, although the country about is low and swampy. Guanica is the port outlet for several towns near the coast. That part of Porto Rico has never been entirely loyal to Spain, perhaps because it was in sympathy with the eastern province of Cuba. East of Guanica are the towns of Yauco and Ponce, the former not more than five miles distant, and thence a railroad leads to Ponce.
Marching towards Yauco on the 26th there was a skirmish with the enemy, in which the Americans had four men wounded and the Spaniards lost sixteen killed and wounded. When our troops entered Yauco they were received with enthusiasm and joy, not wholly unmixed, however, with some anxiety. Francisco Megia, alcalde, or mayor, of the town, had issued in advance a proclamation to the public, to prepare the population for the crisis. It was in these terms, which accepted annexation as an accomplished fact:
CITIZENS: To-day the citizens of Porto Rico assist in one of her most beautiful festivals. The sun of America shines upon our mountains and valleys this day of July, 1898. It is a day of glorious remembrance for each son of this beloved isle, because for the first time there waves over it the flag of 4he Stars, planted in the name of the government of the United States of America by the Major-General of the American army, General Miles.
Porto Ricans, we are, by the miraculous intervention of the God of the just, given back to the bosom of our mother America, in whose waters nature placed us as people of America. To her we are given back, in the name of her government, by General Miles, and we must send her our most expressive salutation of generous affection through our conduct towards the valiant troops represented by distinguished officers and commanded by the illustrious General Miles.
Citizens: Long live the government of the United States of America! Hail to their valiant troops! Hail Porto Rico, always American!
Yauco, Porto Rico, United States of America.
On the same day the Massachusetts, Dixie, Annapolis, Wasp, and Gloucester had appeared before Ponce to blockade the port and prepare to bombard it when the troops arrived from Guanica, ten miles west. Instead of meeting with resistance, the city authorities sent a delegation to call on Commander Higginson of the Massachusetts, and welcome the American forces to peaceful occupation. The population was enthusiastic over the Americans, and when General Miles and his soldiers arrived by rail from Guanica he entered an American city from which the Spanish garrison had fled without stopping to look back. In the streets the whole population had assembled as for a patriotic celebration. The buildings were decorated with the flags of all nations except Spain's. The ceremony of welcoming the conquerors was interesting and unusual.
General Miles, who had come with the army from Guanica, and General Wilson, who had come on the warships, were met at Ponce port by arrangement, and a delegated escort drove them in carriages into the city proper, to the Casa del Rey, where the civil governor, Toro, and the mayor, Ulpiano Colon, awaited them. A guard in front of the building forced a way for the American generals, and through the cheering crowd they walked into the building, where they were presented to the local officials.
Governor Toro said the citizens of Ponce were anxious to know if the municipal officers and system that had been in vogue would be continued temporarily. He was assured that municipal affairs would not be disturbed for the time being, and that the same local officers would serve. But it was explained that the local authorities would be responsible to General Wilson as military governor, who would keep the city under a form of martial law that would be oppressive to none.
After the conference, Mayor Colon said he was glad the Americans had come, because the island would now enjoy prosperity and peace, and the best citizens wanted the Americans to take possession.
The political prisoners were released at once. Rodolfo Figeroa was saved in the nick of time from being shot by the Spaniards. He was charged with having cut the telegraph wire between Ponce and San Juan the previous night. His purpose was to prevent the authorities in Ponce from sending to San Juan for reinforcements. He had been led from his cell to be executed, but when our ships entered the harbor the Spaniards, in their excitement, let him go, and Figeroa escaped. Some men who had been political prisoners for years were released.
The popular demonstrations continued all day. The natives were all in gala dress, and "open house" was kept for all Americans. Kindness and hospitality were unbounded. This outburst was not entirely the artifice of fear.
Three days before, Captain-General Macias, the Spanish commander-in-chief, had cabled to the Madrid cabinet that Porto Rico could not be defended. He said the populace was inclined to the Americans and could not be depended upon, and that his handful of 12,000 or 15,000 troops could not make an effective resistance.
This information caused the Sagasta government's pretences of war to collapse. Its most favored possession, Porto Rico, favorable to the enemy, Cuba inevitably lost, its fleet destroyed, its treasury bankrupt, and its expected friends in Europe unable to take a step, there was but one thing to do, if the Philippines were to be saved by hook or by crook. That one thing necessary was to sue for peace.
On the 26th of July, therefore, the Spanish government made overtures for peace. While General Miles was waiting in Ponce peace negotiations were pending, but there was to be no halt in the prosecution of his campaign.
The great central trans-Porto Rico highway runs from Ponce northeasterly to San Juan, through the towns of Juan Diaz, Coamo, and Aybonito, where it goes almost eastward to Cayey, there to take a winding course to the north as far as Caguas, where it turns west to Aguas Buenas, and then goes decidedly north to San Juan through Guayanabo and Rio Piedras, making in all a distance of about eighty-five miles. The distance from Ponce to San Juan in a straight line is only forty-five miles. The highway is a fine military road. Major-General Wilson was appointed Governor of Ponce, and the troops started next day for Juana Diaz. In two days, under American tariffs, the custom-house at Ponce yielded a revenue of $14,000. The natives were asking for American flags to hoist over the large buildings, a clear indication of the state of settled feeling about the new relations.
The campaign in Porto Rico lasted nineteen days, and was conducted upon military lines which were impossible at Santiago. When the Spaniards withdrew along the line of the great military road between Ponce and San Juan, they destroyed the bridges, obstructed the roads, and fortified strong positions in the mountain passes, and then were surprised to find that one column of our army was sweeping around the west end of the island, capturing the municipalities and towns, while another had passed over the mountains by a trail which the Spaniards had supposed impassable, and, therefore, had not fortified or guarded. The first the Spanish knew of the march of the American army was the appearance of a strong brigade within twenty miles of the northern coast, at the terminus of the railroad connecting San Juan with Arecibo. The actual objective of both movements was to capture San Juan, where the greatest force of the enemy gathered by retreat. There were not more than half a dozen encounters with the enemy, all mere skirmishes. The troops on the west coast, under General Brooke, were all regulars, while the main column that moved along the military road was composed of volunteers. These acted with courage and spirit throughout the whole march, and displayed the temper that would quickly convert them into veteran soldiers.
The campaign was ended without either movement being completed. But both were well in hand, and there is no doubt that they would have been thoroughly carried out to success. A few days more and General Schwan and General Henry, with their divisions, would have effected a junction at Arecibo, ready for a flank movement on the capital in the rear of the Spanish forces operating around Aybonito. These would have been driven from the latter position by General Wilson; and while there might have been found many points for a stand by the enemy, the only possible outcome would have been precipitate retreat by the Spanish to San Juan, or their capture.
"The island of Porto Rico," said General Miles, on his return, "was fairly won by the right of conquest, and became a part of the United States. The sentiment of the people was in no sense outraged by the invaders, but, on the contrary, was successfully propitiated. A people who have endured the severity of Spanish rule for four centuries hail with joy the protection of the Great Republic. One of the richest sections of country over which our flag now floats has been added and will be of lasting value to our nation, politically, commercially, and from a military or strategic point of view. The possession of that island also rendered any further resistance of the Spanish forces in Cuba hopeless."
General Miles remained in Porto Rico as long as he deemed his presence necessary for carrying out his instructions, and returning brought with him nearly 5,000 troops no longer required. There were about 12,000 troops left on the island for garrison purpose, a number considered ample for the duty.
The remarkable welcome given to Americans in this island might well be considered the death-blow to Spanish colonial rule. The least harassed of all Spain's possessions, the people were glad to escape her clutches. It was not surprising that Spanish soldiers in Cuba were eager to surrender and autonomist officials in some towns begged to have their municipalities included in Toral's surrender. At Manila it was not so much surrender to Americans that was dreaded, as the expectation of terrible retaliations from the insurgent natives who had been so cruelly oppressed. There had been no Porto Rican revolutions in recent times. But Cuba and the Philippines had written their histories in their own blood.
[When Spain perceived the hopelessness of further struggle overtures were made for peace. A protocol was drawn up, which through the medium of France, resulted in the formal submission of Spain to the terms ultimately stated in the treaty. The United States were in possession of Manila, which Spain contended should be restored to its former status. The destiny of the islands as fixed by the Peace Commissioners is sufficiently detailed in the final draft of the treaty of Paris, signed in December, 1898, which is given below in full, as frequent references to its terms occur in the pages which follow. General Merritt was ordered from Manila to Paris, as representing the United States army. Our Peace Commissioners were William R. Day, Cushman K. Davis, William P. Frye, George Gray and Whitelaw Reid. The Spanish Commissioners made a long struggle, and protracted their unhappy task for more than two months, using all arts of procrastination and persuasion, claiming that the United States should pay the Cuban debt, and striving for allowances of indemnity, but they yielded at last to the inevitable.]
Article I. — Spain renounces all right of sovereignty over Cuba. Whereas said isle when evacuated by Spain is to be occupied by the United States, the United States, while the occupation continues, shall take upon themselves and fulfil the obligations which, by the fact of occupation, international law imposes on them for the protection of life and property.
Article II.— Spain cedes to the United States the Island of Porto Rico and the other islands now under her sovereignty in the West Indies and the Isle of Guam in the archipelago of the Marianas or Ladrones.
Article III. — Spain cedes to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, which comprise the islands situated between the following lines: A line which runs west to east near the twentieth parallel of north latitude across the centre of the navigable channel of Bachi, from the 118th to the 127th degrees of longitude east of Greenwich, from here to the width of the 127th degree of longitude east to parallel 4 degrees 45 minutes of north latitude. From here following the parallel of north latitude 4 degrees 45 minutes to its intersection with the meridian of longitude 119 degrees 35 minutes east from Greenwich. From here following the meridian of 119 degrees 35 minutes east to the parallel of latitude 7 degrees 40 minutes north. From here following the parallel of 7 degrees 40 minutes north to its intersection with 116 degrees longitude east. From here along a straight line to the intersection of the tenth parallel of latitude north with the 118th meridian east, and from here following the 118th meridian to the point whence began this demarcation. The United States shall pay to Spain the sum of $20,000,000 within three months after the interchange of the ratifications of the present treaty.
Article IV.—The United States shall, during the term of ten years, counting from the interchange of the ratifications of the treaty, admit to the ports of the Philippine Islands, Spanish ships and merchandise under the same conditions as the ships and merchandise of the United States.
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Article V.— The United States, on the signing of the present treaty, shall transport to Spain at their cost the Spanish soldiers whom the American forces made prisoners of war when Manila was captured. The arms of these solders shall be returned to them. Spain, on the interchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, shall proceed to evacuate the Philippine Islands, as also Guam, on conditions similar to those agreed to by the commissions named to concert the evacuation of Porto Rico and the other islands in the Western Antilles according to the protocol of August 12, 1898, which shall continue in force until its terms have been completely complied with. The term within which the evacuation of the Philippine Islands and Guam shall be completed shall be fixed by both Governments. Spain shall retain the flags and stands of colors of the war-ships not captured, small arms, cannon of all calibres, with their carriages and accessories, powders, munitions, cattle, material and effects of all kinds belonging to the armies of the sea and land of Spain in the Philippines and Guam. The pieces of heavy calibre which are not field artillery mounted in fortifications and on the coasts shall remain in their places for a period of six months from the interchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, and the United States may during that period buy from Spain said material if both Governments arrive at a satisfactory agreement thereon.
Article VI. — Spain, on signing the present treaty, shall place at liberty all prisoners of war and all those detained or imprisoned for political offences in consequence of the insurrections in Cuba and the Philippines and of the war with the United States. Reciprocally the United States shall place at liberty all prisoners of war made by the American forces, and shall negotiate for the liberty of all Spanish prisoners in the power of the insurgents in Cuba and the Philippines. The Government of the United States shall transport, at their cost, to Spain, and the Government of Spain shall transport, at its cost, to the United States, Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines, conformably to the situation of their respective dwellings, the prisoners placed or to be placed at liberty in virtue of this article.
Article VII. — Spain and the United States mutually renounce by the present treaty all claim to national or private indemnity, of whatever kind, of one Government against the other, or of their subjects or citizens against the other Government, which may have arisen from the beginning of the last insurrection in Cuba, anterior to the interchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, as also to all indemnity as regards costs occasioned by the war. The United States shall judge and settle the claims of its citizens against Spain which she renounces in this article.
Article VIII.— In fulfilment of Articles I., II. and III. of this treaty Spain renounces in Cuba and cedes in Porto Rico and the other West Indian isles, in Guam and the Philippine archipelago, all buildings, moles, barracks, fortresses, establishments, public roads and other real property which by custom or right are of the public domain, and as such belong to the crown of Spain. Nevertheless, it is declared that this renouncement or cession, as the case may be, referred to in the previous paragraph, in no way lessens the property or rights which belong by custom or law to the peaceful possessor of goods of all kinds in the provinces and cities, public or private establishments, civil or ecclesiastical corporations or whatever bodies have judicial personality to acquire and possess goods in the above-mentioned, renounced or ceded territories, and those of private individuals, whatever be their nationality.
The said renouncement or cession includes all those documents which exclusively refer to said renounced or ceded sovereignty which exist in the archives of the peninsula. When these documents existing in said archives only in part refer to said sovereignty, copies of said part shall be supplied, provided they be requested. Similar rules are to be reciprocally observed in favor of Spain with respect to the documents existing in the archives of the before-mentioned islands. In the above-mentioned renunciation or cession are comprised those rights of the crown of Spain and of its authorities over the archives and official registers, as well administrative as judicial, of said islands which refer to them and to the rights and properties of their inhabitants. Said archives and registers must be carefully preserved, and all individuals, without exception, shall have the right to obtain, conformably to law, authorized copies or contracts, wills and other documents which form part of notarial protocols or which are kept in administrative and judicial archives, whether the same be in Spain or in the islands above-mentioned.
Article IX.-Spanish subjects, natives of the peninsula, dwelling in the territory whose sovereignty Spain renounces or cedes in the present treaty, may remain in said territory or leave it, maintaining in one or the other case all their rights of property, including the right to sell and dispose of said property or its produces; and moreover, they shall retain the right to exercise their industry, business or profession, submitting themselves in this respect to the laws which are applicable to other foreigners. In case they remain in the territory they may preserve their Spanish nationality by making in a registry office, within a year after the interchange of the ratifications of this treaty, a declaration of their intention to preserve said nationality. Failing this declaration they will be considered as having renounced said nationality and as having adopted that of the territory in which they may reside. The civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territories hereby ceded to the United States shall be determined by Congress.
Article X.-The inhabitants of the territories whose sovereignty Spain renounces or cedes shall have assured to them the free exercise of their religion.
Article XI.-Spaniards residing in the territories whose sovereignty Spain cedes or renounces shall be subject in civil and criminal matters to the tribunals of the country in which they reside, conformably with the common laws which regulate their competence, being enabled to appear before them in the same manner and to employ the same proceedings as the citizens of the country to which the tribunal belongs must observe.
Article XII.-Judicial proceedings pending on the interchange of the ratifications of this treaty in the territories over which Spain renounces or cedes sovereignty shall be determined conformably with the following rules: First, sentences pronounced in civil cases between individuals or in criminal cases before the above-mentioned date, and against which there is no appeal or annulment conformably with the Spanish law, shall be considered as lasting, and shall be executed in due form by competent authority in the territory within which said sentences should be carried out. Second, civil actions between individuals which on the afore-mentioned date have not been decided, shall continue their course before the tribunal in which the lawsuit is proceeding or before that which shall replace it. Third, criminal actions pending on the afore-mentioned date before the supreme tribunal of Spain against citizens of territory which, according to this treaty, will cease to be Spanish, shall continue under its jurisdiction until definite sentence is pronounced, but once sentence is decreed its execution shall be intrusted to competent authority of the place where the action arose.
Article XIII.-Literary, artistic and industrial rights of property acquired by Spaniards in Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philippines and other territories ceded on the interchange of ratifications of this treaty shall continue to be respected. Spanish scientific, literary and artistic works which shall not be dangerous to public order in said territories shall continue entering therein with freedom from all customs duties for a period of ten years dating from the interchange of the ratifications of this treaty.
Article XIV.-Spain may establish consular agents in the ports and places of the territories whose renunciation or cession are the object of this treaty.
Article XV.-The Government of either country shall concede for a term of ten years to the merchant ships of the other the same treatment as regards all port dues, including those of entry and departure, lighthouse and tonnage dues, as it concedes to its own merchant ships not employed in the coasting trade. This article may be repudiated at any time by either Government giving previous notice thereof six months beforehand.
Article XVI.-Be it understood that whatever obligation is accepted under this treaty by the United States with respect to Cuba is limited to the period their occupation of the island shall continue, but at the end of said occupation they will advise the Government that may be established in the island that it should accept the same obligations.
Article XVII.-The present treaty shall be ratified by the Queen Regent of Spain and the President of the United States, in agreement and with the approval of the Senate, and ratifications shall be exchanged in Washington within a period of six months from this date or earlier if possible.
In faith whereof we, the respective plenipotentiaries, have signed this treaty and have hereunto affixed our seals.
Done in duplicate at Paris, the tenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight.
WILLIAM R. DAY. CUSHMAN K. DAVIS. WILLIAM P. FRYE. GEORGE GRAY. WHITELAW REID. EUGENIO MONTERO RIOS. B. DE ABARZUZA. J. DE GARNICA. W. R. DE VILLA URRUTIA. RAFAEL CERERO.
The treaty was signed in Paris December 10, 1898, and President McKinley transmitted it to the Senate January 4, 1899, where it was read in executive session and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. The committee reported it favorably January II, and after long and exhaustive discussion it was ratified (February 6) by a vote of sixty-one to twenty-nine.
The Queen Regent attached her signature March 17, 1899.
[The island of Porto Rico, over which the flag of the United States was raised in token of formal possession on October 18, 1898, is the most eastern of the Greater Antilles in the West Indies and is separated on the east from the Danish islands of St. Thomas by a distance of about fifty miles, and from Hayti on the west by the Mona passage, seventy miles wide. The island is 108 miles from the east to the west, and from 37 to 43 miles across from north to south, the area being about 3,600 square miles. The population in 1887 was 798,656, of whom 474,933 were whites, 246,647 mulattoes and 76,905 negroes. An enumeration taken by the United States Government in 1900 showed a population of 953,243. Porto Rico is unusually fertile, and its dominant industries are agriculture and lumbering. In elevated regions the vegetation of the temperate zone is not unknown. There are more than 500 varieties of trees found in the forests, and the plains are full of palm, orange and other trees. The principal crops are sugar, coffee, tobacco, cotton, and maize, but bananas, rice, pineapples, and many other fruits are important products. The largest article of export from Porto Rico is coffee, which is over 63 per cent. of the whole. The next largest is sugar, 28 per cent. The other exports in order of amount are tobacco, honey, molasses, cattle, timber, and hides. The principal minerals found in Porto Rico are gold, carbonates and sulphides of copper and magnetic oxide of iron in large quantities. Lignite is found at Utuado and Moca, and also yellow amber. A large variety of marble, limestone, and other building stones are found on the island, but these resources are very undeveloped. There are salt works at Guanica and Salinac on the south coast, and at Cape Bojo on the west, and these constitute the principal mineral industry in Porto Rico. There are 137 miles of railway, with 170 miles under construction, and 470 miles of telegraph lines. These connect the capital with the principal ports south and west. Submarine cables run from San Juan to St. Thomas and Jamaica. The principal cities are Ponce, 27,952 inhabitants; Arecibo, with 30,000, and San Juan, the capital, with 32,048.]
A writer in the Forum thus describes the condition of the people:
"The school system in Porto Rico has been utterly worthless. With few schools and no schoolhouses, and with the Roman Catholic catechism as the principal text-book, it is not strange that not exceeding 10 per cent. of the population can read or write. Other disadvantages of living in Porto Rico can also be enumerated. The tax for making and recording deeds is so high as to be well-nigh prohibitive; while the charge for recording wills is not definitely fixed by law, but is in proportion to the value of the estate. It not infrequently happens that excellent properties are entirely dissipated in fees, leaving nothing for the widow or other heirs. Most remarkable of all, however, is the fact that over one-half of the children of Porto Rico are illegitimate-not because of the wanton immorality of their parents, but because the expense connected with a marriage in a church made the formal ceremony impossible among the poorer classes. While thus placing the barrier of money at the church door, the priests discouraged any form of civil marriage; so that the poor, and some of the rich, cut the Gordian knot by simply living together in the marital state. There was not, in this mode of living, a deliberate desire to offend against recognized custom; nor were the relations thus informally assumed regarded as lacking force. On the contrary, both men and women, compelled by poverty to live together without legal or religious sanction, remained true to each other."
The act providing a civil government for Porto Rico was passed by the Fifty- sixth Congress and received the assent of the President on April 12, 1900, and came into force in May. In his annual message delivered to Congress on the 5th day of December, 1899, the President said: "The markets of the United States should be opened up to her (Porto Rico's) products. Our plain duty is to abolish all customs tariffs between the United States and Porto Rico and give her products free access to our markets." A later proposal was successfully made to impose customs duties equal to 25 per cent. of the rates provided for in the tariff laws of the United States, applying the sum so raised to local government. There was much suffering and stagnation of trade in the island, through bad seasons and general unrest. In March a special bill was passed authorizing the President to apply to internal improvements the two millions of customs revenue received on importations by the United States from Porto Rico since the evacuation of the island by the Spanish forces on the 18th of October, 1898, to the 1st of January, 1900. In the language of the bill, this sum "shall be placed at the disposal of the President, to be used for the government now existing and which may hereafter be established in Porto Rico, and for public education, public works, and other governmental and public purposes therein; and the said sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated for the purposes herein specified, out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated."
The nation is deeply interested in the operation of the new civil government. The island is recovering its prosperity. Its people are beginning to make up their heavy losses by the cyclone of October, 1899. They are now marketing a heavy coffee crop. The sugar-cane will soon be ready for thousands of laborious hands in the fields and mills. Fruit is plentiful. More ships laden heavily are coming into the ports, and in turn take heavy cargoes back to the States. The new steamer lines have seen the wonderful outlook in Porto Rico, and are on regular routes. The island is practically at rest. Every man who cares for work and is fit for his desired place has work. The insular police system is the best thing the island has ever had to subdue the bad elements, the bandit robbers and maintain order. Churches of many denominations are sending down from the States money and missionaries for opening of private schools and mission chapels. Railroad, electric light and telephone franchise are being considered and each of these concerns has ample capital.
A sugar combine from New Jersey with $1,600,000 capital is here purchasing large tracts of land and will erect central factories. The sanitary conditions of the island are being improved daily. There is but little sickness among the soldiers. Those who are ill are well cared for in the United States barracks, which are equipped with the finest of hospital service.]
Vigorous objections are made against the extension of the territorial system of government to Porto Rico. It is urged that admission as a Territory implies ultimate admission to statehood; and statehood for islands separated as Hawaii and Porto Rico are by from 1,200 to 2,500 miles from the United States should not be thought of for a moment. Further, territorial organization involves the relinquishment of customs duties, and the cane and tobacco growers of our West India possessions would have free access to the markets of the United States, and thus come into injurious competition with our farmers. Third, the people of Porto Rico are not competent for the measure of self-government which the territorial system provides. These arguments are met by such pleadings as those urged in the Forum by Mr. H. K. Carroll, who claims that if we buy freely from the Porto Ricans they will quickly attain a greater prosperity than the island has ever known.
"Give the agricultural producers good markets, and they will be able to pay better wages. The area of production would be vastly increased; and with better and more economical methods, the fertile soil will yield such crops of cane, coffee, tobacco, fruits, and vegetables that there will be a demand for labor, and idle peasants will be few and far between. The peones will not then be satisfied with the poorest cotton fabrics and with an almost exclusive vegetable diet; they will not wear pacotilla or shoddy shoes, or go barefoot; they will not shelter themselves from the rains with banana leaves instead of umbrellas; they will have plates for their food instead of taking it direct from their one cooking vessel; they will have knives and forks, metal spoons and ladles, instead of pieces of gourd; chairs in their houses instead of rude boxes or nothing at all; houses instead of thatched huts; when they are sick they will not be deprived of medical care, but will have the service of doctors; and when they die they will not be tumbled into the grave without even a box, but in coffins. We shall get our winter vegetables from Porto Rico instead of Bermuda; our oranges, when the frosts kill the crop in Florida, from a country where the orange-tree never fails, unless injured by the hurricane, which comes about once in a generation. If we deal generously with Porto Rico we will get liberal returns; if in a niggardly spirit, we must not expect prosperity or profit.
"As a matter of fact, free Porto Rican sugar and tobacco will not greatly disturb the market, if the entire crop comes in free. The island's export of sugar is to our production of cane and sorghum sugar as one to six; and its export of tobacco as one to one hundred and eighty-two. As to the tobacco, it is very different from that which is raised in this country; and if we get it we shall manufacture it and send much of it back to Porto Rico in that form. Formerly the bulk of the crop went to Cuba to be made into cigars. Our farmers will not be hurt by allowing Porto Rican produce to come in free. They were not hurt when Oklahoma was opened to extensive agriculture."
The question whether or not the legislation of 1900 made Porto Rico an integral part of the United States came before the Supreme court in the form of a group of commercial cases which turned on points testing the validity of the new colonial policy.
The first case was the suit of De Lima Co., New York, sugar brokers, who imported sugar from Porto Rico during the latter half of 1899 and were made to pay duty thereon. In this case the duty was paid under the tariff fixed by the President after the signing of the treaty of peace. It does not bring into question the constitutionality of the civil government law in any respect, but merely the broad general question as to whether the Island of Porto Rico became an integral part of the United States upon the ratification of the treaty of peace.
This firm sued Collector Bidwell of New York to recover the duties. The case was dismissed in the lower court on a demurrer and from this an appeal went to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Counsel contended that while the form of the government in territory belonging to the United States might be either military or civil, the territory is for that reason none the less a part of the United States, and therefore, according to the Constitution, the duties must be uniform throughout. They must be kept so uniform throughout the United States, and it is a matter of entire indifference under what particular form of government any portion of the United States may be. It was further claimed that the Constitution strictly limited Congress, and the President as well, so that neither of them could lay duties between the mainland and the Island of Porto Rico any more than either, or both of them, could lay duties between the District of Columbia and Virginia, and he closed with the declaration that if it was desirable to change this state of affairs, the only possible method of procedure would be by the people themselves, who have it in their power to amend the Constitution, and who could, if they so desired, relax some of the limitations they had themselves for their own protection put upon the power of the general government. It was further agreed that it had been sufficiently demonstrated that the term United States had been meant by the framers of the Constitution to include both States and Territories, or the entire outlying domain, under the jurisdiction of the United States, and that the Constitution itself showed that the term was used in this sense in the clause regarding the uniformity of taxation. Chief Justice Marshall so interpreted it as the equivalent of "the great American empire," and this meaning is the ordinary and general one in which the term is understood not only by American citizens but by people throughout the world. The American nation is sovereign. It can go where it wishes, act where it wishes, acquire territory where it wishes, treat inhabitants as it wishes, and its powers are only limited by the physical force which may be brought to bear against it by other sovereigns.
But the government is not sovereign. The great salient fact, which those who contend for the government's position now do not recognize, is that the people of the United States are sovereign and that the government is not, which is the great fact that distinguishes the constitutional law from that of most of the civilized nations of Europe. It did not make the United States a crippled nation, as the Attorney-General suggested, but a nation which has permanently protected itself against usurpations against its own agents.
In another of these test cases Ex-Secretary Carlisle appeared in support of the following contentions:
First, at all time since of the ratification of the treaty Porto Rico has been a part of the United States.
Second, as a consequence of the treaty the entire sovereignty over Porto Rico has become vested in the United States, but the executive and legislative departments of the Federal government have only such power in relation to Porto Rico as is granted to them by the Constitution.
Third, the President had not the power, under the Constitution, to make or enforce the order of January 20, 1899, in so far as it imposed duties upon articles brought into Porto Rico from other parts of the United States.
Fourth, Congress had not the power, under the Constitution, to impose the taxes or duties provided by the act of April 12, 1900, upon articles of merchandise brought into Porto Rico from other parts of the United States or into other parts of the United States or into other parts of the United States from Porto Rico. The second point, relating to sovereignty, is elaborated as follows:
It does not follow that because Spain has yielded her sovereignty Congress has unlimited sovereign powers. Congress has no powers whatsoever derived from any other source than the Constitution. It does not derive any additional powers from internal law or from "the fact that the United States is a sovereign nation," or from the fact that the exercise of such power may be deemed necessary in order to carry out the policy of a particular administration.
Ex-President Harrison took this or a substantially similar position in public address.
Replying on the general question, Attorney-General Griggs reviewed the action of the framers of the Constitution in dealing with the territory belonging to the United States.
He showed that when the Constitution was framed the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory had been in effect three years; that the first Congress ratified that ordinance with modifications, only providing that reports should be made to the President instead of to Congress, and that appointments should be made by the President. It was not until 1790 that North Carolina ceded to the United States the territory not forming a part of North Carolina but belonging to North Carolina. This cession was made by a deed containing stipulations which were accepted by Congress in an act. One of these stipulations was that the government should be executed not in accordance with the Constitution of the United States but in accordance with the Constitution of the United States but in accordance with the government established for the Northwest Territory.
Mr. Griggs then quoted Thomas Benton's historical and legal examination of the Dred Scot case, in which Mr. Benton, referring to the history of the formation of the Constitution, showed that at no time were "Territories" referred to as parts of the United States, but always as property of the States, to be managed and dealt with accordingly. The laws, the administration, and the revenue of the Territories are subject to the absolute control of Congress, which may repeal the whole form of government existing in a Territory, may destroy the Legislature, vacate all the offices, and take over all the public funds and absorb them into the common treasury. It may appropriate out of the Federal Treasury all the money necessary to carry on a Territorial government, omitting all local taxation.
"Has Congress the right to go so far as to decree non-intercourse with a territorial possession?" asked Justice Harlan.
"Yes," replied the Attorney-General, who went on to show that Congress had repeatedly done so, by setting off parts of territory belonging to the United States as Indian reservations, and that in the case of the Prybiloff Islands a line has been drawn around them and they had been made a government reservation to which no one could go without a license from the government.
Taking up the argument of the appellants as to the rule of uniformity of taxation, the Attorney-General pointed out that if the rule applied to tariff taxation in the territory belonging to the United States it applied as well to the internal revenue laws. Aside from the obvious practical impossibility of extending the internal revenue laws of the United States to the newly acquired insular possessions, he claimed that if the contention of the appellants was correct the Porto Rican law had operated to render the whole body of internal revenue laws of the United States void by destroying the uniformity required by the Constitution.
The Attorney-General denied that an act of the treaty-making power conferring vested vested rights on individuals could be repealed by act of Congress. He contended that territories must be governed differently according to different conditions.
[The decision of the Supreme Court in the Neely extradition case should be noted in this connection. It is given in the pages dealing with Cuba, following this.]
[Major General Brooke was appointed Governor-General of Cuba after the withdrawal of the Spanish army. This office he held until the close of 1899, when General Wood was appointed to succeed him. General Wood's Cabinet consisted of the following Cubans: Secretary of State, Diego Tamayo; Secretary of Justice, Luis Estevoz; Secretary of Education, Juan B. Hernandez; Secretary of Finance, Enrique Varona; Secretary of Public Works, Jose R. Villalon, and Secretary of Agriculture, etc., Ruis Rivera.]
A NUMBER of radical reforms were instituted. The prisons were overhauled and put into a sanitary condition. Many prisoners were released or had their terms shortened in proportion to the venial nature of their offences. A joint commission was appointed, consisting of American and Cuban lawyers, charged with the task of codifying the laws and insuring prompt trials. Inefficient public officials were removed and a working scheme devised by which civil and military authorities could live in harmony. A census was taken, showing a total poulation of 1,572,797.
The area of Cuba is approximately 44,000 square miles and the average number of inhabitants per square mile 35.7, about the same as the State of Iowa. The areas of the six provinces and the average density of population in each are as follows:
Area Pop. per Province. Sq. miles. sq. m. Havana.. 2,772 153 Matanzas.. 3,700 55 Pinar del Rio.. 5,000 35 Puerto Principe.. 10,500 8 Santa Clara.. 9,560 37 Santiago.. 12,468 26
Havana, with the densest population is as thickly populated as the State of Connecticut, and Puerto Principe, the most sparsely populated, is in this respect comparable with the State of Texas.
The President of the United States, in his message to Congress, December 3, 1900, in touching upon the relations of Cuba with the United States, stated that on July 25, 1900, he directed that a call be issued for the election in Cuba for members of a Constitutional Convention to frame a Constitution as a basis for a stable and independent government in the island. In pursuance thereof the Military Governor after citing the joint resolution of Congress April 28, 1898, said:
"Therefore, it is ordered that a general election be held in the Island of Cuba on the third Saturday of September, in the year 1900, to elect delegates to a convention to meet in the City of Havana at 12 o'clock noon on the first Monday in November, in the year 1900, to frame and adopt a Constitution for the people of Cuba, and as a part thereof to provide for and agree with the government of the United States upon the relations to exist between that government and the government of Cuba, and to provide for the election by the people of officers under such Constitution and the transfer of government to the officers so elected. The election will be held in the several voting precincts of the island under and pursuant to the provisions of the electoral law of April 18, 1900, and the amendments thereof." The election was held on the 15th of September, and the convention assembled on the 5th of November, 1900. In calling the convention to order, the Military Governor of Cuba made the following statement: "As Military Governor of the island, representing the President of the United States, I call this convention to order. It will be your duty, first, to frame and adopt a Constitution for Cuba, and when that has been done to formulate what in your opinion ought to be the relations between Cuba and the United States. The Constitution must be adequate to secure a stable, orderly, and free government. When you have formulated the relations which in your opinion ought to exist between Cuba and the United States, the government of the United States will doubtless take such action on its part as shall lead to a final and authoritative agreement between the people of the two countries for the promotion of their common interests. When the convention concludes its labors I will transmit to the Congress the Constitution as framed by the convention for its consideration and for such action as it may deem advisable."
The voters in whose capacity for self-government we are experimenting, number some 140,000 natives, and about 50,000 Spanish citizens. Native whites make up a little more than half the population, the negroes and mixed races being less than one-third.
A system of municipal government has been established, as the safest method of preparing the Cubans for home rule when we hand back the island for administration by them as an independent State. The municipal district is the political and administrative unit in Cuba. There are six provinces, thirty-one judicial districts and 132 municipal districts in the island. A municipal district is the territory under the administration of a municipal council, and may be established, increased, diminished, annexed to other municipal districts or abolished by the Governor-General. It corresponds, in a measure, to the American county or township, and as prerequisites to establishment must contain not fewer than 2,000 inhabitants and be able to meet the necessary expenses of the local government. Each district is divided into subdistricts, and the latter into wards, or barrios. These are further divided into electoral districts, and these again into electoral sections.
Each municipal district has a municipal council and a municipal board. The council governs the district, subject to the supervision of the Governor of the province and Military Governor of the island, and is composed of a mayor, a certain number of deputy mayors, and aldermen taken from the members of the council.
The census of the population determines the number of councillors to which each municipal district is entitled, as follows: Up to 500 inhabitants, five; 500 to 800, six; 800 to 1,000, seven; between 1,000 and 10,0000, one additional councillor for every additional 1,000 people; and between 10,000 and 20,000, one for every additional 2,000 people. For more than 20,000, one for every additional 2,000 inhabitants until the municipal council has the maximum number of thirty councillors.
The number of deputy mayors is determined on the same principle. Municipal districts of less than 800 inhabitants have no deputy mayors; between 800 to 1,000, one; 1,000 to 6,000, two; 6,000 to 10,000, three; 10,000 to 18,000, four; 18,000 or more, five. Up to 800 inhabitants there is but thereafter the number of subdistricts corresponds to the number of deputy mayors. Each deputy mayor is in charge of a subdistrict as the representative of the mayor, discharging such administrative duties as he may direct, but having no independent functions.
Up to 3,000 inhabitants there is but one electoral district; between 3,000 and 6,000, three; 6,000 to 10,000, four; 10,000 to 18,000, five; 18,000 or more, six.
The councillors are elected from the municipality at large by the qualified voters of the district, one-half being renewed every two years, the councillors longest in service going out at each renewal. They are eligible for re-election. The regular elections are held in the first two weeks in May, but partial elections are held when, at least six months before the regular election, vacancies occur which amount to a third of the total number of councillors. If they occur after this period they are filled by the Governor of the province from among former members of the council.
All male citizens over 25 years of age who enjoy their full civil rights and have lived at least two years in the municipality are entitled to vote, provided they are not disqualified by sentence for certain criminal offences, bankruptcy or insolvency, or are not delinquent taxpayers or paupers.
The mayors and deputy mayors are appointed by the Military Governor from among the councillors on the recommendation of the council. But while under the law the deputy mayors must be selected from the council, the Military Governor may appoint any person as mayor whether he belongs to the municipality or not.
Each ward has a mayor, who is appointed by the municipal mayor and discharges various minor duties. Each council has a secretary, appointed by the Governor of the island, and one or more fiscal attorneys, but the municipal mayor and the secretary are the only salaried officials, the offices of deputy members of the municipal board and mayor of a ward being described in the law as "gratuitous, obligatory and honorary." The duties of the municipal council do not differ materially from those that devolve upon similar bodies in European countries. The sessions of the municipal board are determined by the body itself, but they cannot be fewer than one in each week, at which every member is required to attend punctually or pay a fine. Neither the mayor, the deputies, aldermen nor ward mayor are permitted to absent themselves without permission, each from the next highest official above him.
A strong party in Cuba, headed by General Gomez, has been hostile to the military force accompanying the Governor-General, and much discontent existed throughout the island, but the fitness of the legislative assembly and of the voters could only be tested by time. There were 6,000 troops stationed in Cuba for an indefinite term.
The almost unanimous decision of the Cuban constitutional convention, as expressed in secret session in Havana to insert in the Constitution a clause providing for universal suffrage, brought the question of Cuba's future government into prominence again. It is believed that this particular provision was incorporated owing largely to the efforts of General Maximo Gomez's adherents, and that the proposed clause in the Constitution making eligible to the Presidency of the new republic not only native-born Cubans, but also any citizen who took part for ten years in the revolutionary war against Spain, was formulated for Gomez's special benefit. Some American sympathizers applauded this selection, on the ground that no less commanding and resourceful chieftain than he could have held the revolutionary forces together for half so long a time, and inspired them with courage and with hope. A very different view of Gomez was taken by others, who regarded him as the least fitted to hold the office to which he notoriously aspires.
The constitutional convention passed the universal suffrage measure on January 30, 1901. The clause in the Constitution providing for universal suffrage was finally adopted by the convention, after a keen debate. Senor Aleman said that suffrage was a constitutional question, and the undisputed right of all Cubans. Senor Berriel said if universal suffrage were granted an enormous number of naturalized foreigners would be given a right which would be a serious menace to Cuba.
Senor Sanguilly said without universal suffrage Cuba would be exposed to the domination of alien votes. There were 96,083 Spaniards and 6,894 other foreigners in the island, all of whom might have the right to vote against 112,000 Cubans who could read and write.
The third section of the constitutional project, dealing with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, was considered, and two additions were made providing that the laws dealing with these rights shall be null when they tend to restrict or diminish them. This was inserted to guard against a selfish and unscrupulous legislature or executive.
It was peculiarly unfortunate, considering our position as instructors of the Cubans in the art of good government, that a series of frauds was discovered in the post-office department at Havana, early in 1900. The postmaster, the chief financial agent, named C. W. Neely, and four other officials, were arrested for systematic thefts of stamps to the value of about $500,000. Neely managed to place himself in what he hoped would be the safe shelter of the State of New York. He was there charged before a court with the larceny and his extradition was demanded, that he might be tried where the offence was committed. Through his attorneys Neely set up a plea in opposition to this demand for extradition, which occupied the lower court for some time, and on its being decided against him, he took an appeal to the Supreme Court. The moral importance of the case was equalled by its legal and constitutional importance. The chief point at issue was, whether the special act of June 6, 1900, passed by Congress to cover this instance and extending the extradition law of this country to a foreign country, "occupied or under the control of the United States," was constitutional, and whether Cuba is a "foreign country."
[The decision of the Supreme Court was rendered on Jan. 14, 1901. Justice Harlan read the finding of the court, substantially as follows:]
The court said that the first duty of the United States under its pledge to secure for the Cubans the freedom to which they are entitled is to protect them by every just and legal method. When the United States postal code superseded that of Cuba and Neely became an officer under that code it was the duty of the United States to protect the citizens of Cuba against the citizens of its own government. It was further asserted that Neely cannot object to submitting to the same modes of trial as would apply if he were under similar charges in the United States.
The court in the course of its decision made clear the point that Cuba is a foreign country now occupied by and under control of the United States, but is in no way a part of it.
After the Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, to which an application for a writ of habeas corpus had been made, had rendered a decision adverse to Neely's claims, Justice Harlan said he had then appealed to this court on the ground that the act of June 6, 1900, was unconstitutional. Entering then upon his reasoning on the case, Justice Harlan said that there was no dispute that on the 6th of June, 1900, when the act under which this proceeding is brought became a law, Cuba was "under the control of the United States" and "occupied by this government." "This court," he said, "will take judicial notice that such were at the date named and are now the relations between this country and Cuba. So that the applicability of the above act to the present case—and this is the first question to be examined—depends upon the inquiry whether, within its meaning, Cuba is to be deemed a foreign country or territory."
Justice Harlan then reviewed the legislation preceding the war with Spain, quoting the joint resolution of April 20, 1898, and the declaration of war which followed on the 25th of the same month. The protocol between the United States and Spain and the Paris treaty were reviewed for the purpose of showing not only the relation of the United States to Cuba but Spain's relinquishment of sovereignty over the island. Notice was taken of the establishment of a military government over Cuba and Governor Brooke's proclamation of January 1, 1899, was quoted.
The Justice then referred to the Governor's establishment of various departments in order to promote the civil government of the island. He also called attention to the promulgation of the postal code, superseding all other Cuban laws relating to postal affairs, and related that on the 13th of June, 1900, Governor Wood had made his requisition upon the President for Neely.
Announcing the court's conclusions on the status of Cuba, Justice Harlan said:
The facts above detailed make it clear that Cuba is foreign territory within the meaning of the act of June 6, 1900. It cannot be regarded in any constitutional, legal, or international sense a part of the territory of the United States. While by the act of April 25, 1898, declaring war between this country and Spain, the President was directed and empowered to use our entire land and naval forces as well as the militia of the several States to such extent as was necessary to carry the act into effect, that authorization was not for the purpose of making Cuba an integral part of the United States, but for the purpose only of compelling the relinquishment by Spain of its authority and government in that island and the withdrawal of its forces from Cuba and Cuban waters.
The legislative and executive branches of the government, by the joint resolution of April 20, 1898, expressly disclaimed any purpose to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over Cuba, "except for the pacification thereof," and asserted the determination of the United States, that object being accomplished, to leave the government and control of Cuba to its own people. All that has been done in relation to Cuba has had that end in view, and, so far as the court is informed by the public history of the relations of this country with that island, nothing has been done inconsistent with the declared object of the war with Spain.
Cuba is none the less foreign territory within the meaning of the act of Congress because it is under a Military Governor appointed by and representing the President in the work of assisting the inhabitants of that island to establish a government of their own, under which, as a free and independent people, they may control their own affairs without interference by other nations.
But, as between the United States and Cuba, that island is territory held in trust for the inhabitants of Cuba, to whom it rightfully belongs, and to whose exclusive control it will be surrendered when a stable government shall have been established by their voluntary action.
The court also outlined the power of Congress to legislate in the premises, saying:
It cannot be doubted that when the United States required and enforced the relinquishment by Spain of her sovereignty in Cuba it succeeded to the authority of the displaced government so far at least that it became its duty under international law and pending the pacification of the island, to protect in all appropriate legal modes the lives, the liberty, and the property of all those who submitted to the authority of the representatives of this country.
What legislation by Congress could be more appropriate for the protection of life and property in Cuba, while occupied and controlled by the United States, than legislation securing the return to that island, to be tried by its constituted authorities, of those who, having committed crimes there, flee to this country to escape arrest, trial, and punishment?
No crime is mentioned in the extradition act of June 6, 1900, that does not have some relation to the safety of life and property. And the provisions of that act requiring the surrender of any public officer, employe, or depositary fleeing to the United States, after having committed, in a foreign country or territory occupied by or under the control of the United States, the crime of embezzlement or criminal malversation of the public funds have special application to Cuba in its present relation to this country.
The court declined to enter upon the question as to what the obligations of the United States would have been in the matter of protecting life and property in Cuba if not required to do so by the obligations of the treaty of Paris. "That question," he said, "is not open on this record for examination and upon it we express no opinion. It is quite sufficient in this case to adjudge, as we now do, that it was competent for Congress, by legislation, to enforce or give efficacy to the provisions of the treaty made by the United States and Spain with respect to Cuba and its people."
It was also argued on behalf of Neely that as peace now exists in Cuba, and has existed there since the Spanish forces evacuated the island, the occupancy and control of that island under the military authority of the United States is without warrant in the Constitution and is an unauthorized interference with the internal affairs of a friendly power.
"Apart from the view that it is not competent for the judiciary to make any declaration upon the question of the length of time during which Cuba may be rightfully occupied and controlled by the United States in order to effect its pacification—it being the function of the political branch of the government to determine when such occupation and control shall cease, and therefore when the troops of the United States shall be withdrawn from Cuba—the contention that the United States recognized the existence of an established government known as the Republic of Cuba, but is now using its military or executive power to displace or overthrow it, is without merit. The declaration by Congress that the people of Cuba were and of right ought to be free and independent was not intended as a recognition of the existence of an organized government instituted by the people of that island in hostility to the government maintained by Spain. Nothing more was intended than to express the thought that the Cubans were entitled to enjoy—to use the language of the President in his message of December 5, 1897—that measure of self-control which is the inalienable right of man, protected in their right to reap the benefit of the exhaustless treasure of their country.
"Both the legislative and executive branches of the government concurred in not recognizing the existence of any such government as the Republic of Cuba. It is true that the co-operation of troops commanded by Cuban officers was accepted by the military authorities of the United States in its efforts to overthrow Spanish authority in Cuba. Yet from the beginning to the end of the war the supreme authority in all military operations in Cuba and in Cuban waters against Spain was with the United States, and those operations were not in any sense under the control or direction of the troops commanded by Cuban officers."
The final conclusion of the court was announced as follows:
"We are of the opinion, for the reasons stated, that the act of June 6, 1900, is not in violation of the constitution of the United States, and that this case comes within the provisions of that act. The court below having found that there was probable cause to believe the appellant guilty of the offence charged, the order for his extradition was proper, and no ground existed for his discharge on habeas corpus. The judgment of the Circuit Court is therefore affirmed."
Discussing the advisability of the United States at some future time annexing Cuba, a prominent writer in the North American Review said: "It is impossible not to look back without regret on our wasted opportunities. In view of our pledge, it was as certain on January 1 as it is to-day that we could gain annexation only through the will of the Cuban people. What have we done to gain it? What should have been our policy?
"The most logical course would seem to have been to give Cuba, as far as commerce is concerned, the rights and privileges of an American State; that is to say, to form with Cuba a customs union; our tariff being applied in Cuba, but with free trade between Cuba and the United States. In a word, we should have appealed to them through their own pockets.
"The immediate result of such a policy would have been to increase largely the profits to be derived from Cuban sugar and tobacco. As was the case in Hawaii, large amounts of American capital would have been brought in for investment. Deserted plantations and mills would have been again in operation, and money and work plentiful.
"Nothing of this kind was done. The opposition of a few of our tobacco and sugar men seems to have prevented reciprocity. Cuba's tariff and other laws are still Spainsh. She still levies a tax on our products, and pays to us taxes on her imports.
"In addition, as a result of our military occupation, capital finds the island in a state of transition; the laws in a state of uncertainty. The ordinary opportunities for investment are absent. And so the plantations remain grass- grown, the sugar-mills silent, the wharves rotting and deserted, and the people, poor creatures, with haggard faces, still starving, still asking, `How long, O Lord, how long?' And, worst of all, we who control the destinies of the unhappy island cannot answer them. The administration waits for the action of Congress. But it is doubtful if Congress will be more merciful than the administration.
"What was our pledge?
"The United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or control over said island, except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and the control of the island to its people.
"This is our solemn pledge. It matters not that it may have been unwise to make it. It matters not if all the nations of the earth should urge us to break it. We must keep it. We have, what few nations have, a national conscience. We must keep our pledges or else our word will be forever valueless, our professions of right doing forever disqualified, our pride in our integrity forever wounded. Cuba is not worth such a price.
"There can be no doubt that the `pacification' of the island is now accomplished. City for city, the towns of Cuba are more peaceful and orderly than those of the United States. There never was a more docile, quiet people."
There are observers, familiar with the island and its people, who are hopeful of the development of the self-governing spirit and methods. One writes:
"That the Cubans will form an ideal government I do not say; but that the island will be better governed than other Spanish-American republics is a foregone conclusion. The negro problem is not a difficult one. The proportion of the colored element is much less than in the Southern States, and the Cuban negroes, for the most part, are an ignorant, indolent, happy-go-lucky race, not eleven years freed from slavery and still greatly influenced by their former owners. The white Cuban of the small farming class is entirely uneducated, but hospitable, honest, and frugal. In the scattered districts of the interior education has been beyond his reach. But it is in the planter class, the once wealthy sugar and tobacco growers, that the hope of Cuba lies. Lacking educational facilities in the island for many years past, all who could afford it sent their children to the United States schools and colleges. Here they have drunk in Anglo-Saxon ideas, and though bred at home in luxury and indolence, the war has taught them lessons that will be invaluable in the future. The Cuban is no longer a Spaniard. Reared under entirely different conditions and its blood recruited by refugees from the French Revolution, by Americans, and by sons of Jamaica planters, chiefly of Scotch descent, who have settled and intermarried with the colonials, a new race has arisen, more refined and cultured, and perhaps more effeminate, than the swarthy bull-fighting sons of Spain, who swarm to Cuba for a season and retire to the peninsula after a few years' toil."
The Cuban Constitutional Convention opened its session with signs of a determination to test the declaration of Congress, in its resolutions of April, 1898, that the people of Cuba, "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent." After pronouncing for universal suffrage the members discussed the proposition to make any foreigner who served on the Cuban side in the ten years' war eligible to the presidency. This proposal was made by the friends of General Gomez, who is not a Cuban, but whose sword has always been out of its sheath whenever the Cubans were fighting for their independence.
A large and influential body of Cubans unquestionably desire to honor Gomez with an election to the presidency. He was the most prominent man in the Island, and it was feared in many quarters the most dangerous. His patriotism and his love for the Cubans have never been called in question, but many have doubted his ability to assume control of the new republic.
Maximo Gomez y Baez was born in San Domingo in 1826. He was a soldier of Spain until he became commander of the insurgents in the ten years' war, 1868 to 1878. His name has been bracketed with that of Weyler for severity in fight and rule of terror. He showed no enthusiasm over America's intervention. He is popularly regarded as the man who showed the greatest military capacity on the Cuban side in the war, and that will give him a permanent place among the great captains. He is, of course, charged by the Spaniards with selling out to them when Campos played pacificator at Zanjon, but his little farm in San Domingo and his wife and children earning their living as music-teachers and seamstresses, while his son, at the command of the father, protects mother and sisters, and holds a clerkship, does not look like enrichment by bribery — to say nothing of returning to plunge again into war in Cuba against, as he well knew, tremendous odds.
The constitutional convention practically completed its work by February 11, 1901. As the charter then stood, Maximo Gomez was made eligible to the presidency, although not a native of the Island.
The various committees were instructed to appoint one member of a central committee, to draw up a plan of the relations which should exist between Cuba and the United States. This plan, if satisfactory to the delegate body, was to be incorporated in the Constitution.
The clause in the Constitution regarding the qualifications of candidates for the presidency was accepted as presented in the project, which allows foreigners who fought for Cuba ten years to become candidates for the office. This clause was adopted by a vote of 15 to 14.
Upon the Cubans, through their representatives, being prepared to demand the withdrawal of the United States government, the general question of policy came before Congress for settlement. Washington correspondence reflected the sentiments of legislators, as follows:
"The President, according to prominent Senators, is absolutely unwilling to take the responsibility of hauling down the flag and of withdrawing the troops from Cuba without specific instructions from Congress. He does not care to have Congress lay down certain general principles and then expect him to become the judge as to whether the necessary conditions have been complied with by the Cubans.
"Most of the Senators take the ground that the President is wise in assuming this position. They say that if he should take the entire responsibility and the Cubans later on should get into some difficulty he would be blamed for intrusting them with self-government without the proper safeguards.
"It is recognized that inasmuch as Congress made the pledge that Cuba should be free and independent, it becomes the manifest duty of the legislative body to determine exactly where, when, and how the Cuban republic should be recognized as independent.
"Several Senators have endeavored to formulate certain conditions on which the President is authorized to recognize Cuban sovereignty, but it is invariably found that this leaves far too much responsibility upon one man, and his friends in the Senate as well as in the Cabinet feel that Congress itself must by positive enactment approve or disapprove of the Cuban Constitution."
It was felt that a special session would be necessary, as the Cuban Constitution had not been received by Congress, and in three weeks the inauguration would take place. Time was imperatively necessary to deliberate upon the serious question as to whether the United States, under its obligations to the whole world, could properly recognize the Cuban republic as an independent power, or whether it should insist on further guarantees.
It was stated that repeated hints had been conveyed semi-officially to the Cubans regarding the points which probably would have to be covered in the Constitution to make it acceptable to the United States. Several of the Havana papers published an outline of these hints, but the convention had ignored them. Finally Secretary Root wrote to Governor-General Wood and it was decided to make this public, both here and in Havana, so as to give the Cubans some idea of the President's views on the relations between the two countries.
"What is desired is a permanent independence for Cuba, and not the recognition of a mushroom government which would live for a day and then degenerate into anarchy or be swallowed by some greedy European nation. The United States desires to protect Cuba if possible from the mistakes of Mexico and the other Spanish-American republics. Besides that, the United States, having taken the trouble to go to war to free Cuba, has assumed responsibility for the good conduct of that country.
"The United States is prepared to guarantee independence in every direction which does not infringe upon the moral obligations owed to the rest of the world. Hence it is deemed indispensable that the organic act of Cuba should contain certain pledges acceptable to Congress, which made the original pledge of independence."
February 21 the Cuban Constitution was signed in duplicate by the delegates in the convention. On the 27th it adopted a declaration of relations between Cuba and the United States, and March 28, by a vote of 15 to 14 the convention accepted the majority report of its committee on relations, putting "the Platt amendment" and Secretary Root's explanations in the form of an appendix to the Cuban Constitution. April 25 the Cuban commissioners appointed by the constitutional convention met President McKinley and Secretary Root in Washington for conference on matters not yet fully settled; and June 12 the adoption of the Platt amendment was voted by the convention. This amendment, adopted February 27 by the United States Senate, and by the House March 1, set forth in eight articles the suggestions and wishes of President McKinley's Cabinet, and of a majority of Congress, as to the conditions, to be clearly understood and definitely agreed upon, for the launching of Cuba as a free and independent Republic. Secretary Root wrote in further explanation of the Platt amendment recital of conditions, and acceptance following by the Cuban convention cleared the way for final Cuban action in setting up the Republic, and the withdrawal thereupon of the provisional rule of the United States, the wisdom, justice, and success of which had been so conspicuous and complete.
It had been provided in the 25th section of the Cuban Constitution that ninety days after the promulgation of the electoral law that might be prepared and adopted by the convention, the election of the functionaries provided for in the Constitution should be proceeded with. October 3 General Wood dissolved the convention, upon the final completion of its preparation of a Constitution for Cuba, and December 31 the election of Presidential electors took place, with the success of a ticket bearing the name, as candidate for President, of Tomas Estrada Palma. The electors met February 24, 1902, and formally elected Palma as First President of the Cuban republic and Senor Estevez, Vice-President. At the same time Senators were elected. March 4 orders were issued to United States naval and marine officers in Cuba to transfer all shore property to Governor- General Wood, to be by him transferred to the incoming Cuban administration. April 17, President-elect Palma sailed from the United States to Cuba. Born in Bayamo, Cuba, Palma studied at the university of Seville, in Spain. He was active as a leader in the insurrection of 1867-78, and during the latter part of the period served as President of the patriots, organized as the Republic of Cuba. He had resided at Central Valley in the State of New York since 1878, in charge of a school, and greatly esteemed for his accomplishments and character. During the last revolution he represented the Cuban cause in the United States.
At Havana, on the morning of May 5, 1902, two large Cuban flags, floating over two government buildings, were the first official recognition of the flag as the emblem of the new republic. Both were raised by order of General Wood as United States military governor. They marked the opening of the Cuban Congress, met upon General Wood's call, to verify the election of the Cuban president and vice-president, preparatory to their inauguration May 20th, the day fixed for the surrender of the government to the Cuban administration.
[The history of the Polynesian islands, which Captain Cook named in honor of the Earl of Sandwich, is an extraordinary example of the transforming powers of modern civilization. Physically, the natives were splendid specimens of humanity, morally they ranked below other races who were their intellectual inferiors. After Captain Cook's visit the natives quickly developed modern ideas. First they paid the white man homage as if to a god, afterwards they killed him, though the religious leaders continued to venerate his bones. A powerful chief, Kamehameha, became king by conquering the chiefs of the lesser islands, making Hawaii the seat of power from the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Kamehameha encouraged the visits of ships from England and other countries. The voluptuous charms of the women of Owhyee, as the name of the island was at first written, the beauty of the scenery, and its salubrious climate, soon made it a favorite stopping place. The king gladly traded with the foreigners, and welcomed American and English missionaries, to whose labors the present high level of native civilization are mainly due. Cannibalism was discontinued, the licentiousness that used to prevail has been minimized, education soon began to show good results and the people were not slow to avail themselves of every advantage offered. Nevertheless the race Captain Cook introduced to civilization is doomed to extinction. The sins of their ancestors have been slowly but surely sapping the vitality of the later generations. The colony of hopeless lepers tells a pitiful tale, the barbarian cannot fight against the law which awards the future to the fittest among men and nations.
For many years the Hawaiian Islands have been drifting by natural law under the American flag. The transformation of semi-savages into a remarkably progressive people was mainly accomplished by the efforts of American missionaries early in the century, who taught the growing generation to read and write, and become proficient in the domestic arts. Former customs have rapidly died out before the march of American civilization. To all intents and purposes Honolulu has been an average American city for a quarter of a century past.
The inhabited islands of the group are eight in number, and their total area in square miles is rather more than that of Connecticut. They are Hawaii, the largest, and the one on which the great volcanoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa, are situated; Maui Kauai; Molokai, famous for its leper settlement; Lanai; Kahulawi; Niihau, and Oahu, on which is Honolulu, the capital and principal city. The area of Hawaii island is 4,210 square miles, and the total area is 6,740 square miles.
The first discoverers were Spaniards in the sixteenth century. When visited by Captain Cook in 1778 the native population was about 200,000. The natives are dying out at a rapid rate, the last census, that of 1896, putting the total at 31,019, out of a total of 154,000. The total in 1866 was only 63,000. Besides the 31,019 Hawaiians there were in the islands 8,485 part Hawaiians, 24,407 Japanese, 21,616 Chinese, 15,191 Portuguese, 5,260 Americans, 2,257 British, 1,432 Germans and 1,534 of other nationalities — a total population of 109,020, of whom 72,517 are males. Divided in respect to occupation, agriculture accounts for 7,570, fishing and navigation 2,100, manufacturers 2,265, commerce and transportation 2,031, liberal professions 2,580, laborers 34,437, miscellaneous pursuits 4,310, without profession 53,726.
Honolulu is 2,089 miles from San Francisco, a voyage of five and a half days.
In both the census of 1890 and that of 1896 the pure Hawaiian percentage of survivors was the lowest of all nationalities represented in the islands. An encouraging outlook for the Hawaiians exists in the fact that out of 6,327 owners of real estate in 1896, 3,995 were pure Hawaiians and 772 part Hawaiians. The facts are significant as showing the ownership of homes by so large a number of pure Hawaiians and the evident tendency of the race to acquire homesteads.
The total valuation of real and personal property in Hawaii subject to ad valorem assessment in 1900 was $97,491,584. The receipts from taxes are estimated at $1,341,650.
The commerce of Hawaii is shown for the period between January 1 and June 14, 1900, as follows: Imports, $10,683,516; exports, $14,404,496; customs revenues, $597,597. With the exception of the production of sugar, rice, fire-wood and live stock, and the promotion of irrigation, the development of the natural resources of the Hawaiian Islands is stated to have scarcely begun.
The present aggregate area of public lands is approximately 1,772,713 acres, valued at $3,569,800.
The grand argument for annexing these islands was the fact that possession of Hawaii will "definitely and finally secure to the United States the strategical control of the North Pacific."
Of seven trans-Pacific steamship lines plying between the North American continent and Japan, China, and Australia, all but one call at Honolulu. When a canal is made either at Panama or Nicaragua, practically all of the ships that pass through bound for Asia will be obliged to stop at Honolulu for coal and supplies.
The problem of labor perplexes the local authorities. Chinese and Japanese field laborers threaten to increase too rapidly for the welfare of the people. The question of self-government was taken up by Congress soon after the annexation by a joint resolution of Congress, July 6, 1898. Queen Liliuokalani had been deposed and a republican administration set up in place of the monarchy, but the American flag was allowed to float over the islands, despite the petitions of the people.
The President appointed a commission in July, 1898, consisting of Senators Cullom and Morgan, Representative Hitt, with President Dole and Justice Frear, of Hawaii, to investigate and report on the form of local government most desirable. Their recommendations were not acted upon by Congress for over a year, chiefly because they contained provisions for granting to Hawaii a delegate in Congress, as allowed to our Territories. It was objected that this would lead to the admission of Hawaii as a State. The labor problem was the source of other objections. The Supreme Court of Hawaii had stopped the immigration of Chinese into the island. After prolonged discussion an act providing a government "for the Territory of Hawaii" was signed by the President on April 30, 1900.
Section 3 of the Act declares that "A Territorial Government is hereby established over said Territory, with its capital at Honolulu, on the Island of Oahu." All persons who were citizens of Hawaii August 12, 1898, are declared to be citizens of the United States. The Constitution, except as in the act otherwise provided, and the laws of the United States not locally applicable, shall have force and effect in the Territory. The Constitution of the Republic of Hawaii and its laws which are not in conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States shall continue in force, except a large number which are repealed, and those remaining are subject to repeal by the Legislature of Hawaii or the Congress.
General elections, beginning in 1900, were provided for, also the election, qualifications, powers, and duties of members of the Legislature.
The Legislature shall be composed of two houses—the Senate of fifteen members, to hold office four years, and the House of Representatives of thirty members, to hold office two years. The Legislature will meet biennially, and sessions are limited to sixty days.
The executive power is lodged in a Governor, a Secretary, both to be appointed by the President and hold office four years, and the following officials to be appointed by the Governor, by and with the consent of the Senate of Hawaii: An Attorney-General, Treasurer, Commissioner of Public Lands, Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry, Superintendent of Public Works, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Auditor and Deputy, Surveyor, High Sheriff, and members of the Boards of Health, Public Instruction, Prison Inspectors, etc. The duties of these officials are defined in the act. They hold office for four years, and must be citizens of Hawaii.
The judiciary of the Territory is composed of the Supreme Court, with three judges, the Circuit Court, and such inferior courts as the Legislature shall establish. The judges are appointed by the President. The Territory is made a federal judicial district, with a District Judge, District Attorney, and Marshal, all appointed by the President. The District Judge shall have all the powers of a Circuit Judge.
The election of a Delegate in Congress is provided for, and the Territory is made an internal revenue and customs district.
Provision is made for the residence of Chinese in the Territory, and prohibition as laborers to enter the United States as follows:
Sec. 101. That Chinese in the Hawaiian Islands when this act takes effect may within one year thereafter obtain certificates of residence as required by "An act to prohibit the coming of Chinese persons into the United States," approved May 5, 1892, as amended by an act approved November 3, 1893, entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to prohibit the coming of Chinese persons into the United States,' approved May 5, 1892," and until the expiration of said year shall not be deemed to be unlawfully in the United States if found therein without such certificates: Provided, however, That no Chinese laborer, whether he shall hold such certificate or not, shall be allowed to enter any State, Territory, or district of the United States from the Hawaiian Islands.
It was provided that the act should take effect June 14, 1900.
The regulation of the traffic in alcoholic liquors is left to local option.
The qualified voter must be able to speak, read, and write the English or Hawaiian language, and must have lived one year in the Territory.
The peculiar conditions of the labor question, which, in view of the liberal provisions in the matter of the suffrage, is likely to continue a trouble for a long time to come, are set forth in the following extract from a report by W.W. Taylor, Secretary of the Bureau of Immigration in Hawaii.]
"THE ordinary manual work on a plantation is performed by unskilled labor, which may be divided into two classes—contract and free.
"Contract labor, consisting of Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, Hungarian, Hawaiian and others, is held under contract for three years when coming direct from foreign countries under agreement, and for the same or a shorter period when contracting after a previous sojourn in this country.
"Free labor, consisting of the same nationalities mentioned above, is employed by the day or month, without contract, and has come into the country as free labor or has fulfilled a previous three-years' contract and is then free to work where employment may be obtained.
"This free-labor contingent is a fluctuating and uncertain quantity - here to- day and there to-morrow—working at will, and seeking the places where most favorable conditions and highest wages are in vogue. The laborers receive higher pay than contract men, but may be discharged at a moment's notice, and the plantation owes them nothing but shelter and wages for work done.
"The contract man occupies quite a different position with reference to his employer. He is assured of steady work at a fixed sum per month. He can claim and receive not only unfurnished lodging for himself and family, but fuel, water, taxes paid, medical attendance and certain other privileges; and for this he must work, when able, a certain number of days per month, wherever it pleases the employer, and fulfil in other respects the terms of his contract.
"When contract laborers are needed from abroad, application is made to the government for permission to import laborers of the desired nationality. If permission is granted, the order to recruit them is given to immigration companies authorized by law, who employ recruiting agents in the localities whence the men are to be drawn. These companies are then responsible for the delivery of the required number of men to the final employer.
"In obtaining European labor the planters have the benefit of the authority, forms and official connection of the board of immigration; and, while all expenses are met by the planters in the first instance, afterwards a sum, not to exceed $130 for each family, is paid by the government to cover recruiting expenses and passage of women and children accompanying the immigrants. In this case the immigrant contracts with the board of immigration and signs his agreement before the Hawaiian consul at the port of departure in his own country. In this case, also, steerage passage, food and medical attendance are furnished free to his destination, and oftentimes a money advance is given— this to be repaid in small monthly installments. The board of immigration assigns these laborers to their several employers, and they are at no expense until they reach their field of labor.
"The quarters furnished by the plantation are grouped together in camps, located with reference to convenience to work, and for the most part with regard to drainage and sanitary conditions.
"The kind of building varies with the class of labor. European labor has for a family, or for two single men, two rooms in a four-room cottage. Chinese, being single men, are housed in barracks with from six to forty men in a room. Single Japanese are often provided for in the same way—sometimes, however, only two occupying the same room. Married Japanese are furnished with a small room for each family.
"These houses are rough frame buildings, shingle or iron roofed, with covered porches six feet wide, extending their whole length. All lately erected buildings are well raised from the ground. Most have walls eight to ten feet high from floor to roof-plate. The height of ridge-pole above this is from four to six feet. Beneath the roof there is no ceiling, and when divided into rooms these are all open at the top, with a clear space above from end to end of the building. Cottages have partitions reaching to the roof. All walls are whitewashed. Often the space between the rafters above the roof-plate is left open for ventilation.
"These quarters furnish only a shelter and a place of rest. Nothing more is attempted. In barracks where many single men are collected a platform six to eight feet wide and raised two feet above the floor runs the length of the building, and each man has about three feet in width of space for himself to sleep on. The floor space is common property. Again, tiers of shelves three feet wide along the sides of the room, sometimes three or four tiers high, with some slight, low partitions, give about three by six feet for a man.
"In the family rooms is a platform two feet above the floor taking up about two- thirds of the floor space. On this the family sleep and live when at home. The above is for the Japanese. The European cottages are often supplied with rude box bedsteads and perhaps a table and bench. All else must be furnished by the laborer. Generally a piece of straw matting serves for a mattress, a blanket or quilt for covering and a hard neck rest, common to Japan and China, answers for a pillow. Mosquito nettings are a necessity and are found everywhere. The European fills a tick with hay, and a pillow of the same with a blanket convinces him that this is all that a healthy man needs for a bed. Comforts and conveniences very with the ambition and tastes of the laborer, and are of course measured generally by the length of the purse.
"Contract laborers are expected to do agricultural and mill work. The former comprises clearing land, cutting wood and brush, grubbing out roots, moving rocks and brush, teaming and plowing, care of horses, ditching, hoeing, irrigating, fertilizing, planting, stripping and cutting cane, loading and unloading cane cars and any other necessary farming operations. In and about the mill they are occupied in feeding the cane carriers and furnaces, tending any of the mill machinery, handling sugar, loading cars, etc.
"From the contract-labor class the carpenter, blacksmith, engineers and sugar boilers select their assistants, and these, as they learn and become competent, obtain higher wages and often command from $30 to $60 per month.
"When the profit-sharing system is in practice contract men, if deserving, are allowed to take these special contracts and have made from $25 to $35 per month. In a few places men have been allowed to take small pieces of land and cultivate them at their leisure. In order to do this, they are compelled to work early and late, Sundays and holidays, and the mill buys the cane at a fixed rate per pound.
"Between one-third and one-half of the women work in the field and about the mill at the lighter kinds of labor. There is no compulsion. They have many ways of earning money in the camp.
"The number of hours is settled in the contract, being usually ten hours in the field and twelve in the factory.
"The day begins at an hour varying with the season, taking advantage of the light in the early morning. A rising bell or whistle wakes the men at, say, 4:30 a.m. At 5:30 they are ready to proceed to the field, and at 6 o'clock the work- day commences. From 11:30 to 12 noon there is an intermission for lunch in the field; then they work till 4:30 p.m.
"The mill man begins at 5:30 a.m. and is relieved by the night shift at 6 p.m. Overtime is paid for at a contract rate. In some cases time is counted from the time of departure for the field.
"Wages vary according to the supply of labor, and in many instances are governed by the price of sugar. The contract price is now $15 per month for oriental and $18 for European laborers. Old contracts call for only $12.50 for oriental; but in most cases a $2.50 bonus is given to these latter, conditioned on good behavior. Women receive $7.50 to $10 per month. Only actual time spent in labor is paid for. A man receives no pay for enforced idleness, whether caused by sickness or anything else. A plantation official, called a timekeeper, keeps strict account of working time and the pay-roll is made out from his report.
"Generally the wages are paid on a fixed and convenient day between the 3d and 15th of every month, for the previous calendar month. The individual presents his identifying tag and receives the amount that is to the credit of that number.
"Whether in the field or in the mill the men work in gangs varying in number and supervised by an overseer, who directs their work, corrects mistakes, instructs the ignorant and stimulates the lazy. He leads them out in the morning and gives them the signal for cessation at the proper times. The overseers are generally white men, and a successful one must be patient, firm, fair, energetic and judicious. Often he is timekeeper and always a monitor. The character of the overseer frequently determines whether there is contentment or trouble among the laborers.
"Force, in constraints, is not allowed and is fast giving place to other methods. Tact, a withdrawal of privileges and recourse to legal fines and imprisonment are the means used. Rewards for good behavior are not uncommon."
The total number of laborers is reported at 35,987, of whom 20,641 were contract and 15,346 day laborers. According to nationality they are divided as follows: Japanese, 25,654; Chinese, 5,969; Portuguese, 2,153; Hawaiians, 1,326. They are divided according to sex thus: Men, 33,201; women, 2,534; minors, 252.
The skilled laborers number 2,019, divided according to race: Americans, 405; Hawaiians, 219; British, 252; Germans, 218; Portuguese, 305; Scandinavians, 71; Austrians, 16; Japanese, 416; Chinese, 94; other nationalities, 23.
The President appointed Sanford B. Dole, ex-President of the Hawaiian Republic, to be Governor of the Territory of Hawaii.
[A highly important discussion arose over the legal interpretation of the status of Hawaii under its new government with respect to this country. The difficulty arose on similar grounds to those stated in the section on Porto Rico, and the cases went up to the Supreme Court in January, 1901. The particular point in that case was on the right to exact customs dues. The New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company also raised the question of pilotage, claiming exemption from pilot-boat charge in New York harbor on the ground that Porto Rican ports had ceased to be foreign. Another case was one covering the entry of goods from Hawaii, consisting of whiskey, brandy and jam, at the customhouse at New York on April 26, 1900, and was the only Hawaiian case in the list. Duty was assessed under the provisions of the Dingley law. The importers protested against collection of duty on the ground that the Hawaiian Islands were a part of the United States; that the provision of the annexation resolution, which continued the customs laws of the Republic of Hawaii in force until Congress should legislate, was unconstitutional.
In his argument for the government, the Solicitor-General asserted that it was obviously the intention of Congress as soon as practicable to treat the territory as part of the United States for legislative purposes, so that the revenue and commercial laws which apply in the United States should operate there. But before these laws could be put in operation in the Hawaiian Islands it is necessary that a period of preparation should intervene after the passage of the resolution of annexation. It is obvious that if the resolution of annexation immediately abrogated the customs laws of the islands the territory would have been left without any customs law, open to the ships of the world. If, then, the resolution of annexation threw open the ports of Hawaii to the world, at the same time, according to the contention of opposing counsel, it threw open the ports of the United States to ships coming from Hawaii.
The Solicitor-General argued that this sort of the should not be permitted, and he expressed the opinion that if Congress had believed that such a consequence would ensue, the resolution of annexation would not have passed when it did, not until arrangements could have been made to put in operation customs and commerce regulations immediately. He called attention to the act of annexation, saying that it did not make the Hawaiian Islands a part of the United States, but a part of the territory of the United States. "It is," he said, "obvious that territory annexed or ceded to the United States becomes a part of the territory of the United States, but does not become 'part of the United States' either in a constitutional or legislative sense until Congress shall so determine."
It was not until the passage of the act of April 30, 1900, that the islands became a part of the United States for customs purposes by the extension of our laws to them.
In the discussion of the Hawaiian question the opponents of annexation made much of the argument that the acquisition of the islands would involve this country in immense expenditures for fortifications and naval defense. Mr. Schurz contended that the annexation of Hawaii would present to hostile powers a vulnerable point such as it is inadvisable to present to any foreign nation which may wish us ill.
"The Hawaiian Islands are 2,000 miles distant from our nearest coast. If we acquire them we cannot let them go again without great humiliation, for, after all that has happened, they will appear as an especial object of our desire, to be held at any cost. In their present unfortified condition they would be an easy prey to any hostile power superior to us in naval force. But even if well fortified, their defense would oblige us to fight on a field of operations where the superiority of our land forces would be of no avail, unless we had a navy strong enough to protect the communication between our western coast and Hawaii against any interruption. Our situation would be somewhat like that of Russia during the Crimean war. The allied armies would have had little, if any, chance of final success had they attempted to invade the interior of Russia. But, forcing Russia to a fight at an exposed point, the communications of which with the interior of the empire were at that time so imperfect as seriously to impede the use of Russia's vast resources, they succeeded in forcing Russia to submit to a humiliating peace. For similar reasons the possession of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States would not serve to deter a foreign power from attacking us, but rather be calculated to invite attack, for it would offer to a foreign enemy the possibility, not now existing, of forcing us to a fight on ground on which we cannot bring the superiority of our resources into play, and of gaining by a rapid stroke at the beginning of a war an advantage extremely embarrassing to us. In this respect, we shall by annexing Hawaii simply acquire a vulnerable point.
"It may, indeed, be said that, if annexed, Hawaii would not remain in an unfortified state. That is true. But, as the history of our harbor and coast defense shows, it will require years to put those distant islands into a reasonably secure condition. And then it will require a big war fleet to make those fortifications really tenable, and to keep the communication between Hawaii and our continent safely open in case of war. Such a big fleet we can build, too. We can do all these things. If the people are willing to pay the bills and to endure the effects to that sort of policy, we can do this, and much more. But is not the really important question whether as a sensible people we should do it? Should we adopt a policy obliging us to do it, instead of maintaining the safe ground on which we now stand?"
So far as the commercial advantages promised by the annexationists, the coaling stations, etc., are concerned, it was argued that these benefits might have been had without annexation just as well as with it.
In the North American Review, Mr. Arthur C. James sets forth on the other side of the question what he conceives to be certain advantages of annexation.
He states that before his visit to Hawaii he was strongly opposed to annexation, but that he returned to this country an ardent annexationist. He has become convinced that the Hawaiian Islands would bring to the United States great commercial and industrial advantages. They are situated in the most fertile part of the world, and are capable of producing all the sugar and coffee that this country can consume, besides large quantities of rice and tropical fruits. They have three excellent harbors, and would control the cable communication of the Pacific. Even more significant than the commercial importance of Hawaii is her strategic position in relation to the protection of the Pacific coast of the United States, and this Mr. James regards as another reason why we should desire annexation. To the objection that annexation would be a radical departure from our traditional policy Mr. James replies by citing the cases of Alaska, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas, California, and other States, whose value at the time of their annexation was less apparent than is Hawaii's value to-day. Even now Alaska is farther away and less accessible than Honolulu.
To the question, "Have the natives been consulted?" Mr. James replies:
"No, but were the American Indians consulted in the early days here, or the natives of Alaska in later times? The natives have proved themselves to be incapable of governing and unfitted for the condition of civilization, as is shown by their rapid decline in numbers and their inability to adapt themselves to changed conditions; and the importance of their supposed opinions on annexation has been greatly exaggerated. Numbering 500,000 in the time of Captain Cook, they are now reduced to about 30,000, and occupy much the same relation to the white population as our Indians do here. Indolent and easy- going, they are perfectly content with any form of government which allows them to sun themselves, bedecked with flowers. This view is borne out by the failure of the recent mass-meeting in Honolulu, organized solely for the purpose of proving that the native Hawaiians are actively opposed to annexation. It is natural that the white man should become the governing power; and in the exercise of this power it is equally natural that he should wish to turn over his territory to a strong civilized nation for protection and advancement, since, if they rely solely on their ability to defend themselves, it is impossible for the islands to maintain their independence for any length of time."
The question is, to what country shall Hawaii be annexed—to Japan, to England, or to the United States? Annexation to one or the other is inevitable.
That the mixed character of the Hawaiian population is a real drawback Mr. James admits, but the difficulties, he holds, are not insuperable.
"The Chinese are not yet dangerous. Their numbers are large; but they are a peaceable people, without cohesion, and would give no more trouble than the same race does in our Western States, where the battle has been fought and the question is now practically settled. If annexed, they would be readily amenable to our laws. The Japanese element is by far the most serious difficulty. Since the war with China these people have become exceedingly arrogant and self- assertive, and the spirit of national aggrandizement extends from the Mikado to the lowest coolie. From the standpoint of the Japanese, this spirit may be most commendable, but it will have to be firmly met by the United States when our own interests are at stake. The Portuguese are a harmless element. I can see no reason why we should not expect people of the Anglo-Saxon or German race to become dominant, not only in power, but also in numbers, as soon as the question of government is finally settled."]
Mr. Townsend, Inspector-General of Schools in Hawaii, stated in an article we are unfortunately unable to identify, that as plantation laborers the Portuguese were entirely satisfactory when first they arrived. They numbered over 15,000 in 1896, but most of them took to the mechanical crafts and many are now prosperous overseers, merchants and property owners.
Mr. Townsend admits that some of the objections urged against the Chinese population have validity, but he believes that as a rule the Chinese of Hawaii are superior to those of California, while economic conditions are essentially similar. The Japanese are more troublesome. The objection to them, however, is not that they are Japanese, but that so large a percentage of them is of the lower classes. Have not similar complaints against the immigrants coming into the United States from Europe resounded for the past twenty years? And are not such complaints well founded? The Japanese are reasonably industrious and well disposed. As a class they are law-abiding, though individuals of this nationality commit a fair percentage of our crimes. Yet the officers of the law have never encountered any serious resistance to their authority at the hands of the Japanese. Sudden outbursts of temper have caused a number of them to commit the most serious crimes during the past year. These crimes have been directed against their own countrymen, and in most instances have been attributable to the disparity of the sexes, there being four times as many men as women. In all such cases the law takes its even course, being scarcely resisted by the criminal himself and never meeting with any organized resistance on the part of the Japanese. Men sleep in safety of property and person in houses unlocked, and women travel unattended and without fear in every district of the islands.
The Americans, British, Germans, and Norwegians who constitute the remainder of the population number only about 7,000 men, women and children, of whom 2,200 are of island birth. These people control the destinies of Hawaii.
OLIVER H. G. LEIGH.
THE momentous victory at Manila, and the subsequent acquisition of the Philippine Islands by purchase, marked the opening of an era of new responsibilities, new national greatness and power, and new constitutional problems, for twentieth-century patriotism to grapple with and carry through, to the permanent peace and prosperity of the American people. The entire history of our military and civil relations with the inhabitants of the archipelago since the battle Manila Bay has been so complicated with issues, varying in their nature, but almost equally important to the United States, that a full statement of the case is imperative. Only by a dispassionate survey of the broad facts, and a careful consideration of their bearing upon each other, can we hope to arrive at a position enabling us to form just conclusions, or at least obtain an impartial view of the situation as a whole. The following statement is compiled from authentic sources of information accessible to the public:
The Philippine Islands, numbering in all some 2,000, large and small, lie off the southern coast of Asia between longitude 120 and 130, and latitude 5 and 20 approximately. They have a land area of about 140,000 square miles, with an estimated population of from 7,500,000 to 10,000,000, the majority being principally Malays, not yet brought under control.
The six New England States, New York, and New Jersey, have about an equivalent area. The island of Luzon, on which the capital city (Manila) is situated, is the largest member of the group, being about the size of the State of New York. Mindanao is nearly as large, but its population is very much smaller. The latest estimates of areas of the largest islands are as follows: Luzon, 44,400; Mindanao, 34,000; Samar, 4,800; Panay, 4,700; Mindoro, 4,000; Leyte, 3,800; Negros, 3,300; Cebu, 2,400.
The islands have belonged to Spain since 1565. The friars of the Roman Catholic church have largely dominated the various communities in the more civilized districts. There are thirty different races, speaking thirty dialects.
By an oversight the islands of Cibitu and Cagayan were overlooked in the treaty of peace between the United States and Spain in 1898. They are situated at the southern end of the Philippine archipelago, and have a population of 7,000. The omission was discovered in 1900, and to avoid the embarrassment of having the islands fall into the possession of some other power than Spain, to be used as a naval station, the United States agreed by treaty to pay Spain $100,000 for them.
The thermometer during July and August rarely goes below 79 degrees or above 85 degrees. The extreme ranges in a year are said to be 61 degrees and 97 degrees, and the annual mean 81 degrees. There are three well-marked seasons, temperate and dry from November to February, hot and dry from March to May, and temperate and wet from June to October. The rainy season reaches its maximum in July and August, when the rains are constant and very heavy The total rainfall has been as high as 114 inches in one year.
Yellow fever appears to be unknown. The diseases most fatal among the natives are cholera and smallpox, both of which are brought from China Low malarial fever is brought on by sleeping on the ground or being chilled by remaining without exercise in wet clothes; and diarrhoea is produced by drinking bad water or eating excessive quantities of fruit. Almost all of these diseases are preventable by proper precautions even by troops in campaign.
The mineral wealth of the islands is unknown.
Although agriculture is the chief occupation of the Filipinos, yet only one- ninth of the surface is under cultivation. The soil is very fertile, and even after deducting the mountainous areas it is probable that the area of cultivation can be very largely extended and that the islands can support population equal to that of Japan (42,000,000).
The chief products are rice, corn, hemp, sugar, tobacco, cocoanuts, and cacao. Coffee and cotton were formerly produced in large quantities—the former for export and the latter for home consumption; but the coffee plant has been almost exterminated by insects and the home-made cotton cloths have been driven out by the competition of those imported from England. The rice and corn are principally produced in Luzon and Mindoro and are consumed in the islands. The rice crop is about 765,000 tons. It is insufficient for the demand, and 45,000 tons of rice were imported in 1894, the greater portion from Saigon and the rest from Hong-Kong and Singapore; also 8,669 tons (say 60,000 barrels) of flour, of which more than two-thirds came from China and less than one-third from the United States. The cacao is raised in the southern islands, the best quality of it at Mindanao. The sugar-cane is raised in the Visayas. The crop yielded in 1894 about 235,000 tons of raw sugar, of which one-tenth was consumed in the islands, and the balance, or 210,000 tons, valued at $11,000,000, was exported, the greater part to China, Great Britain, and Australia. The hemp is produced in Southern Luzon, Mindoro, the Visayas, and Mindanao. It is nearly all exported in bales. In 1894 the amount was 96,000 tons, valued at $12,000,000. Tobacco is raised in all the islands, but the best quality and greatest amount in Luzon. A large amount is consumed in the islands, smoking being universal among women as well as the men, but the best quality is exported. The amount in 1894 was 7,000 tons of leaf tobacco, valued at $1,750,000. Cocoanuts are grown in Southern Luzon and are used in various ways.
The following statement of the trade between various countries and the Philippines covers the fiscal year 1890-1897, and it should be carefully studied by all interested in trade expansion:
Countries. Imports from Philippines. Exports to Philippines. Great Britain. $6,223,426 $2,063,598 France 1,990,297 359,796 Germany 223,720 774,928 Belgium 272,240 45,660 Spain 4,819,344 4,973,589 Japan 1,332,300 92,823 China 56,137 97,717 India 7,755 80,156 Straits Settlements 274,130 236,001 New South Wales 119,550 176,858 Victoria 180 178,370 United States 4,383,740 94,597
Total $19,702,819 $9,174,093
In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1900, the exports from the United States to the Philippines had increased to $2,640,499, and the imports from the Philippines to $5,971,208. The total imports in the island in the fiscal year were $12,670,436, and exports $8,305,530.
In February, 1899, commenced the militant protest of the Filipinos against the retention of Manila and surrounding districts by American troops. An attempt was made to burn the city and destroy our garrison. From the end of March there has been a ceaseless guerrilla war between the American and native troops, under the lead of Aguinaldo, who is general in the field and claimant of the presidency of the native government to be formed when the United States decides to withdraw.
The fortunes of war have distributed victories and losses evenly between the combatants, allowing for the inequality of their resources. Aguinaldo was forced to take refuge in the hills and swamps, with his portable court and toy army, and was repeatedly reported to have been killed. His military and diplomatic vitality are in evidence after two years of alleged continuous defeats and extinctions. Despite the ever vigorous efforts of our troops, under a succession of brave and experienced commanders, the Filipinos still hold the field and an appalling catalogue of casualties and expenditures has been steadily recorded.
In accordance with a Senate resolution, in May, 1900, the War Department gave certain information relating to the cost of shipping troops and supplies for the army to and from the Philippines since May 1, 1898. The reply states that the expenditures incurred for the transportation by sea of the officers, men, animals and supplies to the Philippine Islands, and from those islands to the United States, since May 1, 1898, were as follows:
At San Francisco $11,114,320.24 At Seattle 1,159,250.00 At Portland 568,330.00 $12,841,900.24 At New York 2,795,196.21
Total $15,637,096.45
The accounts of officers of the quartermaster's department show that since May 1, 1898, to June, 1900, there was paid out for passage through the Suez Canal of the United States transports with troops, on account of tolls, fares, etc., the sum of $81,901.18. Accompanying the reply is a statement showing that the War Department saved over $9,000,000 by owning its transports, as follows:
Estimated cost for services by commercial
lines from San Francisco to Manila $18,268,208.83 Cost by transports 10,918,868.24 Saving on account of transports $7,349,340.59
Conservative estimate of cost of transportation by commercial lines from New York to Manila $1,092,400.00 Cost of same service by transports 278,668.77 Saved on account of transports $813,731.23
Conservative estimate of cost of transportation by commercial lines between New York and Cuba and Porto Rico during the Spanish War and since $6,091,272.00 Cost of same service by transports and chartered vessels 5,167,188.50 Saving on account of transports $924,083.50 Total saving to the Government $9,087,155.32
It is also officially reported that the losses of United States troops in the Philippines from July 1, 1900, amounted to a total of 69 officers and 2,187 men, killed in the field, and in deaths from disease contracted in service.
President McKinley appointed a commission, hereafter referred to as the first Philippine Commission, in January, 1899, to visit the islands and report, that the government might have reliable data upon which to base its policy in dealing with the inhabitants. The chairman was President J. G. Schurman, of Cornell University; Admiral Dewey, General Otis, Hon. C. Denby, formerly minister to China, and Professor Dean C. Worcester, of Michigan University. They arrived there in April, and in a few days two Filipino officers approached General MacArthur under a flag of truce, asking a conference with the commander-in- chief. They were sent to Manila, where they asked General Otis for a suspension of hostilities, to allow time for the assembling of the Filipino congress, to consider the policy of continuing or giving up the war. General Otis refused to recognize a Filipino government, but, in the presence of President Schurman, listened to their assurance that Aguinaldo wished to give up if he might do so without humiliation. He offered "a written guarantee of amnesty to all insurgents who shall lay down their arms." Three weeks later commissioners from the insurgents, two military men and two civilians, again visited Otis, who granted nothing further than an audience with the Philippine Commission, as they claimed to be charged with an errand to that body.
Professor Schurman, president of the commission, submitted to the Filipino envoys propositions in writing, formally approved by President McKinley. These propositions outlined a form of government for the Philippine Islands, subject to the action of Congress; but the envoys regarded them as so unsatisfactory that the conference terminated without definite results.
Aguinaldo withdrew to inaccessible hills, and the press censorship grew so strict that our correspondents signed a protest against the new rules enacted by General Otis. Meanwhile our troops were suffering extremely from the climate, the terrible country they had to fight in, and from the bullets of the foe. President McKinley called for twenty new regiments for Philippine service between July 6 and August 26. Hundreds of troops came back incapacitated for duty.
A second Philippine Commission was appointed by the President, in March, 1900, "with a view to establishing a stable government in the Philippine Islands. It consisted of William H. Taft, of Ohio; Prof. Dean C. Worcester, of Michigan; Luke I. Wright, of Tennessee; Henry C. Ide, of Vermont, and Bernard Moses, of California. The secretary of war was ordered to instruct them as follows:
To devote their attention in the first instance to the establishment of municipal governments in which the natives of the islands, both in the cities and in the rural communities, shall be afforded the opportunity to manage their own local affairs to the fullest extent of which they are capable and subject to the least degree of supervision and control which a careful study of their capacities and observation of the workings of native control show to be consistent with the maintenance of law, order and loyalty. Whenever the commission is of the opinion that the condition of affairs in the islands is such that the central administration may safely be transferred from military to civil control, they will report that conclusion to you (the secretary of war), with their recommendations as to the form of central government to be established for the purpose of taking over the control.
Beginning with the first day of September, 1900, the authority to exercise, subject to the President's approval, through the secretary of war, that part of the power of government in the Philippine Islands which is of a legislative nature is to be transferred from the military governor of the islands to this commission, to be thereafter exercised by them in the place and stead of the military governor, under such rules and regulations as the secretary of war shall prescribe, until the establishment of the civil central government for the islands contemplated in the last foregoing paragraph, or until Congress shall otherwise provide. Exercise of this legislative authority will include the making of rules and orders having the effect of law for the raising of revenue by taxes, customs duties and imposts; the appropriation and expenditure of the public funds of the islands; the establishment of an educational system throughout the islands; the establishment of a system to secure an efficient civil service; the organization and establishment of courts; the organization and establishment of municipal and departmental governments, and all other matters of a civil nature for which the military governor is now competent to provide by rules or orders of a legislative character. The commission will also have power during the same period to appoint to office such officers under the judicial, educational and civil service systems, and in the municipal and departmental governments as shall be provided.
Until Congress shall take action these inviolable rules must be imposed upon every branch of the government:
That no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation; that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence; that excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted; that no person shall be put twice in jeopardy for the same offence, or be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself; that the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated; that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist except as a punishment for crime; that no bill of attainder or ex-post-facto law shall be passed; that no law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the rights of the people to peaceably assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances; that no law shall be made respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and that the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference shall forever be allowed.
It will be the duty of the commission to promote and extend, and as they find occasion, to improve, the system of education already inaugurated by the military authorities. In doing this they should regard as of first importance the extension of system of primary education which shall be free to all, and which shall tend to fit the people for the duties of citizenship and for the ordinary avocations of a civilized community. Especial attention should be at once given to affording full opportunity to all the people of the islands to acquire the use of the English language.
Upon all officers and employees of the United States, both civil and military, should be impressed a sense of the duty to observe not merely the material but the personal and social rights of the people of the islands, and to treat them with the same courtesy and respect for their personal dignity which the people of the United States are accustomed to require from each other.
That all might share in the regeneration of the islands, and participate in their government, General MacArthur, the military governor of the Philippines, who had succeeded General Otis, retired at his own request, was directed to issue a proclamation of amnesty. This was substantially as follows:
MANILA, P. I., JUNE 21, 1900.
By direction of the President of the United States the undersigned announces amnesty, with complete immunity for the past and absolute liberty of action for the future, to all persons who are now, or at any time since February 4, 1899, have been, in insurrection against the United States in either a military or civil capacity, and who shall, within a period of ninety days from the date hereof, formally renounce all connection with such insurrection and subscribe to a declaration acknowledging and accepting the sovereignty and authority of the United States in and over the Philippine Islands. The privilege herewith published is extended to all concerned without any reservation whatever, excepting that persons who have violated the laws of war during the period of active hostilities are not embraced within the scope of this amnesty.
In order to mitigate as much as possible consequences resulting from the various disturbances which since 1896 have succeeded each other so rapidly, and to provide in some measure for destitute Filipino soldiers during the transitory period which must inevitably succeed a general peace, the military authorities of the United States will pay thirty pesos to each man who presents a rifle in good condition.
In his message of December, 1900, the President refers to the work of this second commission, quoting his previous message as follows:
Our forces have successfully controlled the greater part of the islands, overcoming the organized forces of the insurgents and carrying order and administrative regularity to all quarters. What opposition remains is for the most part scattered, obeying no concerted plan of strategic action, operating only by the methods common to the traditions of guerrilla warfare, which, while ineffective to alter the general control now established, are still sufficient to beget insecurity among the populations that have felt the good results of our control, and thus delay the conferment upon them of the fuller measures of local self-government, of education and of industrial and agricultural development which we stand ready to give to them.
By the spring of this year the effective opposition of the dissatisfied Tagals to the authority of the United States was virtually ended, thus opening the door for the extension of a stable administration over much of the territory of the archipelago.
Desiring to bring this consummation about, he appointed the second commission as aforesaid.
We quote from the message of December, 1900:
The articles of capitulation of the city of Manila on the 13th of August, 1898, concluded with these words:
"This city, its inhabitants, its churches and religious worship, its educational establishments and its private property of all descriptions are placed under the special safeguard of the faith and honor of the American army."
I believe that this pledge has been faithfully kept. A high and sacred obligation rests upon the government of the United States to give protection for property and life, civil and religious freedom and wise, firm and unselfish guidance in the paths of peace and prosperity to all the people of the Philippine Islands. I charge this commission to labor for the full performance of this obligation, which concerns the honor and conscience of their country, in the firm hope that through their labors all the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands may come to look back with gratitude to the day when God gave victory to American arms at Manila and set their land under the sovereignty and the protection of the people of the United States.
This commission, composed of eminent citizens representing the diverse geographical and political interests of the country and bringing to their task the ripe fruits of long and intelligent service in educational, administrative and judicial careers, made great progress from the outset. As early as August 21, 1900, it submitted a preliminary report, which will be laid before the Congress and from which it appears that already the good effects of returning order are felt; that business, interrupted by hostilities, is improving as peace extends; that a larger area is under sugar cultivation now than ever before; that the customs revenues are greater than at any time during the Spanish rule; that economy and efficiency in the military administration have created a surplus fund of $6,000,000, available for needed public improvements; that a stringent civil service law is in preparation; that railroad communications are expanding, opening up rich districts, and that a comprehensive scheme of education is being organized.
Later reports from the commission show yet more encouraging advance towards insuring the benefits of liberty and good government to the Filipinos, in the interest of humanity and with the aim of building up an enduring, self- supporting and self-administering community in those far eastern seas.
I would impress upon the Congress that whatever legislation may be enacted in respect to the Philippine Islands should be along these generous lines. The fortune of war has thrown upon this nation an unsought trust, which should be unselfishly discharged. Upon this government has devolved a moral as well as material responsibility towards these millions whom we have freed from an oppressive yoke.
I have upon another occasion called the Filipinos "the wards of the nation." Our obligation as guardian was not lightly assumed; it must not be otherwise than honestly fulfilled, aiming first of all to benefit those who have come under our fostering care. It is our duty so to treat them that our flag may be no less beloved in the mountains of Luzon and the fertile zones of Mindanao and Negros than it is at home; that there, as here, it shall be the revered symbol of liberty, enlightenment and progress in every avenue of development.
The Filipinos are a race quick to learn, to profit by knowledge. He would be rash who, with the teaching of contemporaneous history in view, would fix a limit to the degree of culture and advancement yet within the reach of those people if our duty towards them be faithfully performed.
The insurgents, as the Filipinos are termed, kept the war alive just the same notwithstanding the pacific tone of the message.
Congress had many excited debates upon the general question of proclaiming our intention to retain the Philippines and assume a protectorate over the archipelago. The war of words between expansionists and anti-expansionists has not yet ended, as principles are at stake. The Friars had caused considerable trouble all round, and General Otis met certain demands of theirs by issuing a decree granting individual religious liberty in Luzon. Their power may be gauged by the following statement copied by an American journal, the Catholic World from the Etudes, dated July, 1898:
"With Legaspi, founder of Manila, in 1571, came a band of Augustinianmonks. They were followed some five years later by a body of Franciscans, and before a dozen years had passed Manila had a Dominican bishop and an addition of missionaries of the Order of Preachers and the Society of Jesus. To-day the spiritual charges of the various communities are represented by the following table:
1892-Augustinians. 2,082,131 souls 1892-Recollects. 1,175,156 souls 1892-Franciscans. 1,010,753 souls 1892-Dominicians. 699,851 souls 1895-Jesuits. 213,065 souls 1896-Secular Clergy. 967,294 souls
"Most significant in the above table is the comparative fewness of souls cared for by the secular or native clergy. The work is all done, the power all possessed by the monks.
Whatever the reason-we may be able to guess-this is most unfortunate. Antagonize religious sentiment and patriotism, and you have done much to uproot the in- fluence of the spiritual authority."
These Friars were a thorn in the flesh of the Spaniards when owners of the islands. It appears that there is one Friar to every 5,000 native Filipino Catholics, who are only about one-half of the native population. Yet the Friar counted for more than all his flock in both ecclesiastical and secular affairs. It is recorded that Governor-General Blanco, before he left the Philippines in 1896 to rule Cuba, had found the situation so intolerable there that he had demanded either the immediate expulsion of the religious orders or reinforcements of an army of 80,000 men to crush the insurrectionary movement against the Friars. Failing to secure either the expulsion of the Spanish monks, or the Spanish army for the enforcement of their obnoxious rule, he resigned.
The Friars were put under subjection, virtually deposed from their secular thrones, under American rule. An anti-Catholic or anti-Friar movement has developed, with indications that their day is over. Archbishop Chapelle has stated that they will not henceforth be sent into districts where the people object to them. It is only fair to note that it is generally admitted that the Friars are to be credited with many excellent qualities, not only in their spiritual capacity but as administrators in civic affairs. They were often the only persons qualified by education and training to guide the practical conduct of local commercial business.
Now, having presented the case against the insurgents from the government standpoint, it is proper to place the reader in possession of such facts and utterances of responsible persons as may exhibit the other side of the controversy. The vital thing to know is the truth about the Filipinos, the insurgents, who presume to resist our philanthropic efforts to coerce them to accept our aid in raising their standard of civilization to the level of ours. We do not need to go outside the ranks of the eminent Americans who, as soldiers, sailors, diplomatists, and statesmen, have spoken from personal knowledge, gained on the spot, as to the character and qualities of the native race we have not yet reconciled nor subjugated.
The first commissioners to the Philippines gave frank testimony to the character of the Filipinos as prospective rulers of their native land. They stated as follows in their official report:
The commission, while not underrating the difficulty of governing the Philippines, is disposed to believe the task easier than is generally supposed. For this confidence..it has the following among other grounds:
First-The study by educated Filipinos of the various examples of constitutional government has resulted in their selection, as best adapted to the conditions and character of the various people inhabiting the archipelago, of almost precisely the political institutions and arrangements which have been worked out in practice by the American people; and these are also, though less definitely apprehended, the political ideas of the masses of the Philippine people themselves. This point has been frequently illustrated in the course of the preceding exposition, and it must here suffice to say that the commission was constantly surprised by the harmony subsisting between the rights, privileges and institutions enjoyed by Americans and the reforms desired by the best Filipinos.
Secondly-In addition to the adaptation of the American form of government to the Filipinos, the Filipinos themselves are of unusually promising material. They possess admirable personal and domestic virtues; and though they are uncontrollable when such elemental passions as jealousy, revenge or resentment are once aroused, most of them, practically all of the civilized inhabitants of Luzon and the Visayas, are naturally and normally peaceful, docile and deferential to constituted authority. On the suppression of the insurrection the great majority of them will be found to be good, law-abiding citizens.
Thirdly-Though the majority of the inhabitants are uneducated, they evince a strong desire to be instructed, and the example of Japan is with them a cherished ideal of the value of education. A system of free schools for the people, another American institution, it will be noted, has been an important element in every Philippine programme of reforms.
Fourthly-The educated Filipinos, though constituting a minority, are far more numerous than is generally supposed, and are scattered all over the archipelago; and the commission desires to bear the strongest testimony to the high range of their intelligence, and not only to their intellectual training but also to their social refinement as well as to the grace and charm of their personal character. These educated. Filipinos, in a word, are the equals of the men one meets in similar vocations-law, medicine, business, etc.-in Europe or America.
The unique personality of Aguinaldo is the subject of two interesting utterances, one by Admiral Dewey, the other in the Philadelphia Press, partly owned and formerly edited by Postmaster-General Emory Smith. In the newspaper it is stated that Pancho Aguinaldo is the son of a prominent native chief and was born in 1871. Anxious that his boy should be educated, this chief confided the lad to the Spanish priests, who thought that Aguinaldo's influence, when he grew up, would help to maintain Spanish authority among the Malay population. The father is rich, for a native, and Pancho Aguinaldo, after being taught in the local schools, was sent to Madrid to study theology and qualify for the priesthood. After a year or two of study the young man boldly declared he would not be a priest, but a soldier. So he was drafted into one of the native regiments, in which a few of the subalterns are Manila men, but all the captains and field-officers are Spaniards. It is reported that he upset his whole university career by joining the Masons. Soon afterwards he went to Hong-Kong and knocked around for several years, practically a political refugee because of his Masonic affiliations.
In his despatch to Washington of June 27, 1898, Admiral Dewey made the following report:
Aguinaldo, insurgent leader, with thirteen of his staff, arrived May 19, by permission, on Nanshan, establishing himself at Cavite, outside the arsenal, under the protection of our guns, and organized his army. I have had several conversations with him, generally of a personal nature. Consistently I have refrained from assisting him in any way with the force under my command, and on several occasions I have declined requests that I should do so, telling him the squadron could not act until the arrival of the United States troops. At the same time I have given him to understand that I considered insurgents as friends, being opposed to a common enemy. He has gone to attend a meeting of insurgent leaders for the purpose of forming a civil government. Aguinaldo has acted independently of the squadron, but has kept me advised of his progress, which has been wonderful. I have allowed to pass by water recruits, arms and ammunition, and to take such Spanish arms and ammunition from the arsenal as he needed. Have advised frequently to conduct the war humanely, which he has done invariably. My relations with him are cordial, but I am not in his confidence. The United States has not been bound in any way to assist insurgents by any act or promises, and he is not, to my knowledge, committed to assist us. I believe he expects to capture Manila without my assistance, but doubt ability, he not yet having many guns. In my opinion these people are far superior in their intelligence and more capable of self-government than the natives of Cuba, and I am familiar with both races.
Admiral Dewey repeated this in his communication to the Paris Peace Commissioners, dated August 9; "further intercourse with them has confirmed me in this opinion."
The Rev. Clay Macauley, a missionary in Japan, visiting Manila in July, 1899, wrote an account of interviews he had held with Admiral Dewey and General Otis. The former said to him: "Rather than make a war of conquest upon the Filipino people I would up anchor and sail out of the harbor." General Otis, he reports, "expressed regret that there was not a better knowledge of the situation among the Washington legislators than there seemed to be. He impressed me deeply by his declaration, `I was ordered to this post from San Francisco. I did not believe in the annexation of these islands when I came here, nor do I believe in their annexation now.'"
General Joseph Wheeler, in an interview in San Francisco March 7, 1900, upon his return from the Philippines, said:
"So far as their capacity for self-government is concerned, I think that the Filipinos are capable of it under certain restrictions.
"The few experiments already made in civic governments throughout the provinces have been very successful, and I think they ought to have authority to make their own laws and govern themselves under a system similar to that known as our territorial system.
"This they practically had under the Spanish regime, and they did very well. There are a great many more intelligent and educated men among them than is generally supposed."
As every utterance of the conqueror of Manila Bay has peculiar significance in this connection, we quote this from the interview between the Naples correspondent of the London Daily News and Admiral Dewey, dated August 21, 1899:
Conversation then, after some remarks from Admiral Dewey on the United States navy and on the various episodes of the battle of Cavite, turned to the question of the Philippines. "Do you think, Admiral, that the islands are likely to be pacified soon?" The admiral replied as follows:
"I have the question of the Philippines more at heart than any other American, because I know the Filipinos intimately, and they know that I am their friend. The recent insurrection is the fruit of the anarchy which has so long reigned in the islands. The insurgents will have to submit themselves to law after being accustomed to no form of law. I believe and affirm, nevertheless, that the Philippine question will be very shortly solved. The Filipinos are capable of governing themselves. They have all the qualifications for it. It is a question of time; but the only way to settle the insurrection and to assure prosperity to the archipelago is to concede self-government to the inhabitants. That would be the solution of many questions and would satisfy all, especially the Filipinos, who believe themselves worthy of it, and are so."
"Self-government for the Philippines has, however, not many partisans in America, "I remarked.
"I have never been in favor of violence toward the Filipinos," replied, or rather continued the admiral. "The islands are at this moment blockaded by a fleet, and war reigns in the interior. This abominable state of things should cease. I should like to see autonomy first conceded, and then annexation might be talked about. This is my opinion, and I should like to see violence at once suppressed. According to me, the concession of self-government ought to be the most just and the most logical solution."
The admiral spoke with an air of frank conviction.
President Schurman, chairman of the first Philippine Peace Commission, and Professor Dean C. Worcester, of both the Commissions, give the highest testimony to the ability to the Filipinos and their fitness for self-government.
Striking testimonies are given to the soldierlike qualities of the Filipinos. General Lawton, who fell while leading his men, spoke of them as "the bravest men I ever saw." He is quoted by the Rev. P. McQueen, chaplain of the First California Volunteers, as having said as follows:
The Filipinos are a fine set of soldiers. They are far better than the Indians. The latter never fight unless they have the absolute advantage. The Tagals are what I would call a civilized race. They are good mechanics, imitative-they manufacture everything. They have arsenals and cartridge factories and powder- mills. They can manufacture everything they need.
Taking everything into consideration, the few facilities they have, the many drawbacks, they are an ingenious and artistic race. And taking into account the disadvantages they have to fight against in arms, equipment and military discipline without artillery, short of ammunition, powder inferior, shells reloaded until they are defective, inferior in every particular of equipment and supplies, they are the bravest men I have ever seen.
Among the Filipinos there are many cultured people who would ornament society anywhere in the world-women who have studied and travelled, men highly educated and of fine mentality. Take them as a class, there can as many of them read and write as the inhabitants in many places in America. As for their treachery, you would not have to come so far as this to find that. There is plenty of it in North America. All nations are treacherous, more or less. Some men and nations have treachery trained out of them more than others.
What we want is to stop this accursed war. It is time for diplomacy-time for mutual understandings. These men are indomitable. At Bacoor bridge they waited till the Americans brought their cannon to within thirty-five yards of their trenches. Such men have the right to be heard. All they want is a little justice.
Our Consul in Manila, Oscar F. Williams, put in writing his opinion that if we were going to annex the Philippines to-day, they are probably worth $100,000 more than they would have been if Aguinaldo had not prevented the Filipinos from burning all Spanish and Roman Catholic church property.
In Senate Document No. 62 of the Fifty-fifth Congress is a letter from Mr. Wildman to Mr. Moore of the State Department, dated Hong-Kong, July 18, 1898, containing these words:
"In conclusion, I wish to put myself on record as stating that the insurgent government of the Philippine Islands cannot be dealt with as though they were North American Indians, willing to be removed from one reservation to another, at the whim of their masters.
"ROUNSEVELLE WILDMAN, Consul-General."
These will suffice as examples of the arguments and facts on which the opponents of the Philippine war of subjugation rest their case. In the North American Review of January, 1900, is an article entitled "A Filipino Appeal to the People of the United States," by Apolinario Mabini, formerly premier in Aguinaldo's cabinet. It professes to correct mis-statements of fact prejudicial to the Filipino cause, and it concludes thus:
The facts which I have related clearly disprove the assertion by Americans that the Filipinos provoked the hostilities.. The truth is that the Filipino people have never felt disposed to measure their strength with powerful America, otherwise Aguinaldo could not have put up with so many infamous actions at the hands of the American generals. They have always considered themselves little and insignificant beside the American people and hence they never thought of provoking the Americans, for they have always been aware that, even if they should gain a few victories, the fortunes of war would necessarily change as soon as reinforcements arrived from America.
And it is still more true that the Filipino people, educated by long sufferings during the protracted dominion of Spain, have learned to reflect and to judge things calmly, even in the midst of great excitement. They know that, no matter how great and civilized a people may be, it contains bad men as well as good men; and, therefore, they do not condemn all. For the same reason they admire the bravery shown by the American army in the recent fights; they still entertain, unalterably, that friendship towards the American people which places them above all other nations; they trust that the popular government of America will not sink to the level of the theocratic government of Spain, and that the spirit of justice, now obscured by ambition, will again shine in their firmament, as the civic virtues of their ancestors shine in their history and traditions.
The Filipino people are struggling in defense of their liberties and independence with the same tenacity and perseverance as they have shown in their sufferings. They are animated by an unalterable faith in the justice of their cause, and they know that if the American people will not grant them justice there is a Providence which punishes the crimes of nations as well as of individuals.
The report of the second Commission, of which Judge Taft was chairman, was laid before Congress in January, 1901. It has much to say about the Friars, and the information is here quoted in substance:
Ordinarily, the government of the United States and its servants have little or no concern with religious societies or corporations and their members. With us the Church is so completely separated from the State that it is difficult to imagine cases in which the policy of a church in the selection of its ministers and the assignment of them to duty can be regarded as of political moment, or as a proper subject of comment in the report of a public officer. In the pacification of the Philippines by our government, however, it is impossible to ignore the great part which such a question plays.
By the revolutions of 1896 and 1898 against Spain all the Dominicans, Augustinians, Recoletos and Franciscans acting as parish priests were driven from their parishes to take refuge in Manila. Forty were killed and 403 were imprisoned and were not all released until by the advance of the American troops it became impossible for the insurgents to retain them. Of the 1,124 who were in the islands in 1896 only 472 remain. The remainder either perished, returned to Spain or went to China or South America.
The burning political question, discussion of which strongly agitates the people of the Philippines, is whether the members of the four great orders of St. Dominic, St. Augustine, St. Francis and the Recoletos shall return to the parishes from which they were driven by the revolution. Colloquially the term "friars" includes the members of these four orders. The Jesuits, Capuchins, Benedictines and the Paulists, of whom there are a few teachers here, have done only mission work or teaching, and have not aroused the hostility existing against the four large orders to which we are now about to refer.
The truth is that the whole government of Spain in these islands rested on the friars. To use the expression of the provincial of the Augustinians, the friars were "the pedestal, or foundation, of the sovereignty of Spain in these islands," which, being removed, "the whole structure would topple over." The number of Spanish troops in these islands did not exceed 5,000 until the revolution. The tenure of office of the friar curate was permanent. There was but little rotation of priests among the parishes. Once settled in a parish, a priest usually continued there until super-annuation. He was, therefore, a constant political factor for a generation. The same was true of the archbishop and the bishops. The civil and military officers of Spain in the islands were here for not longer than four years, and more often for a less period. The friars, priests and bishops, therefore, constituted a solid, powerful, permanent, well organized political force in the islands which dominated politics. The stay of those officers who attempted to pursue a course at variance with that deemed wise by the orders was invariably shortened by monastic influence.
Of the four great orders, one, the Franciscans, is not permitted to own property, except convents and schools. This is not true of the other three. They own some valuable business property in Manila, and have large amounts of money to lend. But the chief property of these orders is in agricultural land. The total amount owned by the three orders in the Philippines is approximately 403,000 acres.
In the light of these considerations it is not wonderful that the people should regard the return of the friars to their parishes as a return to the conditions existing before the revolution. The common people are utterly unable to appreciate that under the sovereignty of the United States the position of the friar as curate would be different from that under Spain.
This is not a religious question, though it concerns the selection of religious ministers for religious communities. The Philippine people love the Catholic Church.
"The feeling against the friars is solely political. The people would gladly receive as ministers of the Roman Catholic religion any save those who are to them the embodiment of all in the Spanish rule that was hateful. If the friars return to their parishes, though only under the same police protection which the American government is bound to extend to any other Spanish subjects in these islands, the people will regard it as the act of that government. They have so long been used to having every phase of their conduct regulated by governmental order that the coming again of the friars will be accepted as an executive order to them to receive the friars as curates with their old, all-absorbing functions. It is likely to have the same effect on them that the return of General Weyler under an American commission as governor of Cuba would have had on the people of that island.
"Those who are charged with the duty of pacifying these islands may, therefore, properly have the liveliest concern in a matter which, though on its surface only ecclesiastical, is, in the most important phase of it, political, and fraught with the most critical consequences to the peace and good order of the country in which it is their duty to set up civil government. We are convinced that a return of the friars to their parishes will lead to lawless violence and murder, and that the people will charge the course taken to the American government, thus turning against it the resentment felt towards the friars.
"The friars have large property interests in these islands which the United States government is bound by treaty obligations and by the law of its being to protect. It is natural and proper that the friars should feel a desire to remain where so much of their treasure is. Nearly all the immense agricultural holdings have been transferred by the three orders — by the Dominicans to a man named Andrews, by the Recoletos to an English corporation and by the Augustinians to another corporation; but these transfers do not seem to have been out-and-out sales, but only a means for managing the estates without direct intervention of the friars, or for selling the same when a proper price can be secured. The friars seem to remain the real owners."
President Schurman, of the first Philippine Commission, writing in Munsey's Magazine after his return, expressed his personal view as follows:
"We are not to make the Philippines a dumping-ground for politicians. It must be realized that there is no harder work and none nobler, after that of the President of the United States, than the administration of the Philippine Islands. Think of the Filipino as a negro or as an Indian, and you will never rule him. The men who rule in the Orient must have a genuine regard for humanity, behind whatever features or beneath whatever skin it may look out upon you.
"I believe the only hope of an eventually free, self-governed and united Filipino people is under the flag of the United States. I suppose that three years ago we would not have taken the Philippine Islands if they had been offered to us; but they have come into our hands, and we must do our duty. Nothing worse could happen to the Filipino than our withdrawal, for if we do, one of two things is bound to happen, either of which would be fatal to the aspirations of the Filipinos themselves. They will either fall a prey to domestic dissensions, so great and bitter are the tribal rivalries, or else aliens who have property in Manila and Subig and Iloilo and other places will find their lives and property insecure and ask protection from their own governments, and when once the great European powers begin to protect their citizens in the Philippine Islands the archipelago will be divided among them.
"I fully believe that when the scheme of government is put in execution by the commission which is now in the islands, headed by Judge Taft, the educated Filipinos will be satisfied and the United States will appear to them for the first time in a correct light — no longer merely as an irresistible power, but as champions of justice, of freedom, and as dispensers of blessings through the entire archipelago."
A well known authority on the Philippines, Mr. John Foreman, an Englishman who has lived there a long time, wrote in an English review upon the future of the islands. He speaks well of Aguinaldo but predicts that an experiment of a native government would surely end in disaster. It would not last one year.
"If the native republic did succeed, it would not be strong enough to protect itself against foreign aggression. The islands are a splendid group, well worth picking a quarrel and spending a few millions sterling to annex them. I entertain the firm conviction that an unprotected united republic would last only until the novelty of the situation had worn off. Then, I think, every principal island would, in turn, declare its independence. Finally there would be complete chaos, and before that took root America or some European nation would probably have interfered; therefore it is better to start with protection. I cannot doubt that General Aguinaldo is quite alive to these facts; nevertheless I admire his astuteness in entering on any plan which, by hook or by crook, will expel the friars. If the republic failed, at least monastic power would never return. A protectorate under a strong nation is just as necessary to insure good administration in the islands as to protect them against foreign attack. Either Great Britain or America would be equally welcome to the islanders if they had not the vanity to think they could govern themselves. Unless America decided to start on a brand-new policy it would hardly suit her, I conjecture, to accept the mission of a protectorate so distant from her chief interests. England, having ample resources so near at hand, would probably find it a less irk-some task. For the reasons given above the control would have to be a very direct one. I would go so far as to suggest that the government should be styled `The Philippine Protectorate.' There might be a Chamber of Deputies, with a native President. The protector and his six advisers should be American or English. The functions of ministers should be vested in the advisers, and those of President (of a republic) in the protector. In any case, the finances could not be confided to a native. The inducement to finance himself would be too great. All races should be represented in the Chamber."
Under such rule as this, he says, capital would flow into the islands and civilization would rapidly grow. The legal aspects of the general question have been long under discussion by the ablest authorities, statesmen and scholars. In an elaborate paper in the Review of Reviews, Professor Judson of the University of Chicago, examines the precedents for the acquisitions of territory and the leading decisions of the Supreme Court. This is his summary:
"In brief, then, these seem to be the essential facts so far as the constitutional implications of a colonial policy are concerned. The power to acquire territory is no longer seriously questioned. The purposes of annexation are not limited by the Constitution, but are at the discretion of the political branch of the Government. It is not necessary, therefore, that annexed territory should be destined for statehood. It may be held permanently as a colony, for purposes of national defense or from economic considerations. It may be held in trust for the inhabitants, with the expectation of ultimately turning it over to them should they so desire and should they prove themselves capable of orderly government. Meanwhile the government of such territory is subject to the control of Congress.
"The inhabitants of annexed territory do not by virtue of annexation necessarily all become citizens of the United States — it is not beyond question that any of them do so become. The fourteenth amendment is not of necessity so to be construed as to make birth in annexed territory result in American citizenship. The fourteenth amendment relates to the `United States.' That is a term which has two meanings: in the larger sense it includes all that is within the national boundaries — `the whole American empire,' as Chief Justice Marshall calls it; in the more restricted sense it includes only the States, but excludes all federal territory. It is in the second — the restricted — sense that the term is used in the Constitution as denoting the sovereign power whose governmental agencies are therein provided — a sovereign power in which the Territories have no share: `We, the people of the United States, . . . do ordain and establish this Constitution.' It is by no means proved that the term occurs anywhere in the Constitution in any other sense. Territories are not `States' within the meaning of the Constitution, and the `United States' in its restricted governmental sense is merely the `States' federally united. From these considerations it follows that some constitutional inconveniences apprehended from annexation of lands over sea and inhabited by inferior races are not likely to occur. Congress may lay a direct tax on such Territories, subject only to the constitutional limitation of proportion to population.
"The limitation of uniformity placed by the Constitution on the power to lay indirect taxes is confined to `the United States,' which may well mean the States. Thus there would be no such limitation so far as Territories are concerned, and hence Congress would be quite free to maintain therein such system of duties and excises as circumstances may warrant, irrespective of the policy controlling the `States.' The navigation laws are constitutionally limited also with reference only to the `States.' Thus Congress may, if it seems expedient so to do, establish the `open door' in over-sea Territories without let or hindrance from the Constitution. Such personal rights as the Constitution guarantees within the whole jurisdiction of the national government — both in States and in Territories — are on the whole such as would not materially impede adequate control of federal territory, and at the same time such as we would wish to extend to all people under the American flag.
"The acquisition of tropical territories may or may not be in accordance with sound policy. The control of such territories presents few serious constitutional difficulties."
With this judicial opinion our survey of the leading features of the Philippine question and state documents closes. The careful perusal of the arguments and facts on both sides yields a strikingly interesting view of history in the making.
LATER DEVELOPMENTS IN PHILIPPINE AFFAIRS.
The situation in the Philippines give brighter promise from month to month. There appears to be a fair prospect of compromise, honorable to both sides. Early in February, 1901, an insurgent Colonel, Simon Techon, seven insurgent officers and seventy men, with sixty guns, surrendered unconditionally to Captain Cooles, of the Thirty-fifth regiment at San Miguel de Mayumo. Other voluntary surrenders were reported from outlying districts. From the province of Pampanga in Luzon, the following cheering news was received within the week:
"Bacolor and all the towns adjacent to the railroad whose names are historic on account of the fierce battles of the earlier periods of American occupation turned out to welcome the United States Philippine commission as it proceeded northward on its first trip to organize provincial governments. At every station, including the hamlets where the train did not stop, there were bursts of music from the native bands and cheers for the Americanos-Filipinos commission and the Partido Federal. The crowd at Malolos, the former seat of the insurgent government, was smaller, in proportion to the population, than at the villages. At all stops addresses were delivered by natives and responses were made by Judge Taft, the president of the commission; Professor Worcester, General Flores, Chief Justice Arellano and Dr. Tavera, president of the federal party. The natives repeatedly declared the people were beginning to understand the purposes of the Americans, adding that the commission's acts showed their promises will be kept."
Senator Spooner had in preparation an amendment to the Army Appropriation bill, being a resolution giving the President authority to govern the islands. A former resolution provided that the President should establish a civil government whenever the insurrection was put down, but this amendment omitted the proviso as to the suppression of the insurrection and leaves it entirely to the discretion of the President.
All the conditions of the problem were suddenly changed by the capture, on March 14, of Aguinaldo. The incident can be told in the words of General Funston, whose Official report was filed in May. His daring feat won him the rank of Brigadier-General.
"On Jan. 14 a special messenger from Aguinaldo's headquarters at Palanan, bearing letters to different generals of his command and to insurgent chiefs, asking for reinforcements to be sent him, gave himself up to Lieutenant Taylor of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, who immediately sent him to me at San Isidro. He also had valuable correspondence, which gave us information as to the whereabouts and the strength of Aguinaldo's band at that time. We found among them one in which Baldomero Aguinaldo was ordered to take command of the provinces of central Luzon and requesting him to send as soon as possible 400 armed men to Aguinaldo's camp.
"Then and there I conceived the idea of arming and equipping a number of native tropps to pass off as these expected reinforcements and to make an endeavor to trap Aguinaldo in his lair. The expedition was made up of four Tagalas, who were formerly commissioned officers in Aguinaldo's army, and we selected seventy- eight men of the Macabebe scouts, all of whom could talk Tagala fluently. I obtained a number of captured insurgent uniforms, and ten Macabebes were equipped with rifles.
"We embarked on the gunboat Vicksburg and landed on March 14 at 2 o'clock in the morning. The expedition was nominally placed in command of Hilario Placido, ex- insurgent colonel. After marching twenty miles we reached the town of Casiguran. We had sent word to the Presidente of the town through native messengers that reinforcements for Aguinaldo were on the way through his town, so that when we arrived there food and quarters had been provided for us. This notification had been signed by the supposed commander of the expedition. The Presidente was completely deceived. My troop had captured, some months ago, some official paper of General Lacuna, bearing his official stamp and seal. In order to make the deception all the more complete, we succeeded in forging the signature of Lacuna to letters to Aguinaldo. These letters were sent ahead and we followed.
"The trip to Aguinaldo's camp was a most severe one upon the men. Our food supply was entirely exhausted, and my men were so weak that when we reached within eight miles of Aguinaldo's camp we could go no farther. We therefore sent a messenger ahead to Aguinaldo's camp, informing him of our plight and requesting that he send us food before we could go further. This was supplied us, and the disguise and ruse adopted by us had been complete. As we had told Aguinaldo that we had American prisoners, he sent word that they be given their liberty.
"As the Macabebes approached the town the troops of Aguinaldo's bodyguard, consisting of fifty men, were drawn up in parade to receive the supposed reinforcements. The men who posed as officers of our expedition marched into the camp and paid their respects to Aguinaldo, who received them in a large house built on the bank of the Palanan river. After the exchange of courtesies the officers excused themselves from Aguinaldo and his staff, for a moment, stepped outside, and ordered their Macabebe troops drawn up into line and commanded them to commence firing into Aguinaldo's troops.
"The rout of the insurgents was complete. The ex-in-surgent officers, the five Americans, and several Macabebe scouts immediately made a rush for the house which was used as Aguinaldo's headquarters and took him prisoner. Aguinaldo, when taken prisoner, at first raved and swore at the deception practised upon him, but later accepted the situation with dignity."
Aguinaldo was treated as a distinguished prisoner of war, and within a few weeks he issued a manifesto to his people, demonstrating the hopelessness of further resistance and urging them to accept the protection of the United States. He renounced "all allegiance to any and all so-called revolutionary governments in the Philippine Islands," and formally swore allegiance to this country.
Since Aguinaldo's capture many regiments have been recalled. The Government consider a reserve force of 40,000 sufficient to maintain peace. A large number of former insurgent leaders have surrendered with their men, and the prospects for conciliation and permanent peace are brighter than they have been for years.
As to the fitness of the people for self-government, sooner or later, it is stated that the number of those who can read and write has been estimated by various authorities at from 70 to 90 per cent. of the entire population. This compares very favorably with the 58 per cent. of Italians, 31 per cent. of Russians, and, according to the census of 1887, the 281/2 per cent. of Spaniards who can read and write. The percentage is more creditable than in some of the States in America, and very much higher than in any of the South American States. There was a university in Manila several years before the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, and there are many other colleges now existing in Manila and in other parts of the archipelago, and the funds for the foundation and maintenance of every one of these colleges have been provided exclusively by the Filipinos themselves.
[The Samoan Islands have an area of only a little over fifty square miles, and a population of about 5,000. They are not of much commercial importance, but the harbor of Pago Pago is the finest in the Pacific, and so situated as to be invaluable to the United States. Owing to the internal strife of rival kings, it was decided by Great Britain, Germany and the United States to acknowledge the right of the Chief of Tutuila to share in the settlement made between the powers. Great Britain withdrew its claim, for a consideration. In December, 1899, the three parties concerned signed an agreement, of which the second article is as follows:
"Art. 2. Germany renounces in favor of the United States of America all her rights and claims over and in respect to the island of Tutuila and all other islands of the Samoan group east of longitude 171 degrees west of Greenwich. Great Britain in like manner renounces in favor of the United States of America all her rights and claims over and in respect to the island of Tutuila and all other islands of the Samoan group east of longitude 171 degrees west of Greenwich. Reciprocally, the United States of America renounce in favor of Germany all their rights and claims over and in respect to the islands of Upolu and Savaii and all other islands of the Samoan group west of longitude 171 degrees west of Greenwich."
The harbor of Pago Pago is on the coast of our newly acquired island of Tutuila, which affords a valuable station in the Pacific, especially in view of the proposed isthmian canal and consequent growth of our trade in the East. We had the treaty right to use the harbor as a coaling depot as far back as 1878. Our representative, Mr. Goward, reported that "The capacity of this harbor is sufficient for the accommodation of large fleets; landlocked, it is safe from hurricanes and storms and could easily be defended from land or sea attack at a small expense. In a naval point of view it is the key position to the Samoan group and likewise to central Polynesia, and is especially well located for the protection of American commerce. The Samoan archipelago is by reason of its geographical position in central Polynesia, lying in the course of vessels from San Francisco to Auckland, from Panama to Sydney and from Valparaiso to China and Japan, and from being outside the hurricane track, the most valuable group in the south Pacific. Situated half way between Honolulu and Auckland, Pago Pago would be a most convenient stopping place or coaling station for vessels or steamers either for supplies or the exchange of commodities. With the Pacific mail steamers making it a port for coaling, it would necessarily become the controlling commercial place in that part of Polynesia."
Guam, the largest island of the Ladrone group, has an area of about 150 square miles, with 10,000 inhabitants. The island was ceded by Spain in the settlement of 1898. General Joseph Wheeler was sent in 1900 to make a report upon the working of the new government established by Captain R. P. Leary, U. S. N., the previous year. His account was highly favorable, the people were happy under the new conditions, and were disposed to observe the disciplinary regulations that had been instituted by Captain Leary. That the natives of Guam are in a somewhat primitive stage of civilization, though an inoffensive people, is evident by these specimen rules which General Wheeler quotes:
Orders issued Aug. 16, 1899, prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors to any person not a resident of Guam previous to Aug. 7; regulate the importation and sale of intoxicating liquors; prohibit the transfer of land without the consent of the government; regulate the celebration of church and other holidays; prohibit concubinage and require marriage rites between persons so co-habiting; prohibit the exportation of certain articles in common use among the people; require persons without a trade or regular employment to plant specified commodities and keep certain live stock; regulate the keeping of dogs and other animals running at large; abrogate the Spanish system of taxation and provide a new one; establish a public system of nonsectarian education; require each adult to learn to write his or her own name within a specified time. Early in the summer of 1900 Captain Leary was recalled and Commander Seaton Schroeder, U. S. N., was appointed governor of the island.
The land is fertile, and should produce enough sugar, rice, coffee, and fruits to work up a profitable export trade.
The Sulu Archipelago lies east of the Philippines, with an area of about 1,000 miles and a population of about 100,000, all Mohammedans. The United States took over the Sultanate on the same terms as those negotiated by Spain. General Otis empowered General J. C. Bates to effect the transfer, giving him these instructions:
"The United States will accept the obligations of Spain under the agreement of 1878 in the matter of money annuities and in proof of sincerity you will offer as a present (?) to the Sultan and datos $10,000, Mexican, with which you will be supplied before leaving for Jolo-the same to be handed over to them respectively in amounts agreeing with the ratio of payments made to them by the Spanish government for their declared services. From the first of September next and thereafter, the United States will pay to them regularly the sums promised by Spain in its agreement of 1878, and in any subsequent promises of which proof can be furnished * * * and will declare all trade of the Sultan and his people with any portion of the Philippine islands, conducted under the American flag, free, unlimited and undutiable."
The result was the following treaty:
Article 1.—The sovereignty of the United States over the whole archipelago of Jolo and its dependencies is declared and acknowledged.
Article 2. -The United States flag will be used in the archipelago of Jolo and its dependencies, on land and sea.
Article 3. -The rights and dignities of His Highness the Sultan and his datos shall be fully respected; the Moros shall not be interfered with on account of their religion; all their religious customs shall be respected, and no one shall be persecuted on account of his religion.
Article 4. -While the United States may occupy and control such point in the archipelago of Jolo as public interest seems to demand, encroachment will not be made upon the lands immediately about the residence of His Highness the Sultan, unless military necessity requires such occupation in case of war with a foreign power; and where the property of individuals is taken, due compensation will be made in each case. Any person can purchase land in the archipelago of Jolo, and hold the same by obtaining the consent of the Sultan and coming to a satisfactory agreement with the owner of the land, and such purchase shall immediately be registered in the proper office of the United States Government.
Article 5.—All trade in the domestic products of the archipelago of Jolo, when carried on by the Sultan and his people with any part of the Philippine islands, and when conducted under the American flag, shall be free, unlimited and undutiable.
Article 6.—The Sultan of Jolo shall be allowed to communicate direct with the governor-general of the Philippine islands in making complaints against the commanding officer of Jolo, or against any naval commander.
Article 7. -The introduction of firearms and war material is forbidden, except under specific authority of the governor-general of the Philippine islands.
Article 8. -Piracy must be suppressed, and the Sultan and his datos agree to co- operate heartily with the United States authorities to that end, and to make every possible effort to arrest and bring to justice all persons engaged in piracy.
Article 9. -When crimes and offences are committed by Moros against Moros, the government of the Sultan will bring to trial and punishment the criminals and offenders, who will be delivered to the government of the Sultan by the United States authorities, if in their possession. In all other cases, persons charged with crimes or offences will be delivered to the United States authorities for trial and punishment.
Article 10. -Any slave in the archipelago of Jolo shall have the right to purchase freedom by paying to the master the usual market value.
Article 11. -In case of any trouble with subjects of the Sultan, the American authorities in the island will be instructed to make careful investigation before resorting to harsh measures, as in most cases serious trouble can thus be avoided.
Article 12. -At present, Americans or foreigners wishing to go into the country should state their wishes to the Moro authorities and ask for an escort, but it is hoped that this will become unnecessary as we know each other better.
Article 13. -The United States will give full protection to the Sultan and his subjects in case any foreign nation shall attempt to impose upon them.
Article 14. -The United States will not sell the island of Jolo or any other island of the Jolo Archipelago to any foreign nation without the consent of the Sultan of Jolo.
Article 15. -The United States Government will pay the following monthly salaries:
To the Sultan.. 250 Mexican Dollars. To Dato Rajah Muda.. 75 Mexican Dollars. To Dato Attik.. 60 Mexican Dollars. To Dato Calbi.. 75 Mexican Dollars. To Dato Joakanain.. 75 Mexican Dollars. To Dato Puyo.. 60 Mexican Dollars. To Dato Amir Hussin.. 60 Mexican Dollars. To Hadji Butu.. 50 Mexican Dollars. To Habile Mura.. 40 Mexican Dollars. To Serif Saguin.. 15 Mexican Dollars.
J. C. BATES, Brig.-Gen. United States Volunteers. SULTAN OF JOLO. DATO RAJAH MUDA. DATO ATTIK. DATO CALBI. DATO JOAKANAIN.
Objections were raised to this treaty as sanctioning slavery and polygamy. The native Moros have also a firm belief that the man who dies in the act of killing Christians earns the best place in paradise.
The Paris Peace Commissioners' official report gives the evidence of Claes Ericsson, who described a recent visit he paid to Palawan island, in the Sulu Archipelago, where the ex-Sultan is supreme. He illustrates the kind of regal rule in those parts by this story:
"Unable to lodge the whole of his wives in the `palace,' his Highness boarded a few of them-not the prettiest, I suspect-in the houses of his followers. One of these peris, an outcast from the Palawan paradise through want of room, consoled herself in the usual way-quite innocently, I was assured. The news reaching the Sultan, he sent for the venturesome lover and smilingly bade him be seated opposite himself. Not being altogether an idiot, the man had come armed. From his sarong the jeweled handle of his kris protruded, plain to see. After a few complimentary commonplaces had been exchanged his Highness remarked the weapon:
"`Allah has been good to you, S'Ali,' he said. `Those emeralds are very fine, and the diamonds are as stars in the heavens. If the blade match the hilt, you have a treasure. Show it to me.'
"Thrown off his guard, S'Ali drew his kris from its sheath, and holding it by the wavy blade, presented it to the Sultan. Instantly half a dozen of his Highness' attendants threw themselves upon the unfortunate fellow. He was overpowered in a moment and his hands securely tied behind his back.
"`Take him out,' said the Sultan, still smiling.
"S'Ali was led away and lowered to the ground. Not a word did he utter. It was Kismet. Why waste his breath? I did not learn the manner of his death, by kris or bowstring. Let us hope it was the first. In the hands of a skilful executioner the kris is a merciful weapon. He was buried in the jungle behind the Sultan's `palace.'"
President Schurman writes of these Sulu chiefs as follows:
"On the other hand, as I have explained, in the south the tribal Indians are governed by hereditary datoes, sultans, or chieftains, and still remain almost unaffected by Spanish civilization. I visited the Sultan of Sulu, who is the most important of them. I told the Sultan I was the first American official to arrive there, and that we succeeded to Spanish authority in the archipelago; that we proposed to exercise all of our rights. On the other hand, I told the Sultan that I was instructed to declare that the United States would respect his rights and have regard for his religion and the customs of his people, and that I foresaw no circumstances which by any possibility could lead to the interruption of the friendly relations which I thought subsisted between us at the time. He reciprocated this expression of sentiment, and when I suggested further that we might have an agreement with him along the line of the Spanish agreement, a copy of which I had with me, and under which he lived before, he immediately acquiesced.
"I recommended to the President that the plan be adopted with the Sultan of Sulu and with the sultans, datoes, and chieftains of Mindanao and all these southern islands, and I recommended it because these chieftains could swing their people. The people render them obedience; they look up to them with reverence, and I know it would be vastly easier to deal with the individual hereditary rulers than with half a million or a million of semi-civilized barbarians. Shortly afterwards, General Bates went to the archi-pelago and made such an arrangement with the Sultan of Sulu and another chief. The problem, therefore, so far as these southern islands are concerned, is, for the time being, settled, but there still remains the vast majority of the people of the Philippine islands to deal with-the 6,500,000 of more or less civilized people occupying Luzon and the Visayan islands."
By a convention with Spain, signed at the Department of State, Washington, November 7, 1900, the United States became the owner of two more islands in the Pacific. They are the islands of Cagayan and Sibutu, near the Philippine Archipelago, and by some authorities regarded as part of the group. They were intentionally omitted from the treaty of Paris in the enumeration of Spain's possessions, which she was to turn over, because her title to them was not altogether clear. A thorough examination was made by eminent geographers, and it was decided that these two islands did not clearly belong to Spain. The United States authorities, after gaining possession of the Philippines, took a look at these two waifs in the ocean, and concluded to adopt them, especially as one of them, the island of Cagayan, furnished a fine harbor and a commanding naval base from which a maritime power could threaten the whole Philippine Archipelago. So the American flag was raised and the islands were annexed. Spain then discovered that she did have some title to them and claimed them. To avoid any complications, however, and more in the nature of a gratuity than of a purchase, this Government agreed to pay $100,000 for them.]
GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER.
[General Joseph Wheeler's striking personality gives distinction to his utterances whether on military or general affairs. From his opportunities as commissioner to investigate and report upon the conditions of our acquisitions in the East, and his long experience as a legislator and man of business, his views here expressed have a special value.
General Wheeler joined the Confederate army on April 22, 1861. He was attached to General L. P. Walker's staff with the rank of Colonel; but after a short service on the staff, he went back to Alabama and raised a regiment. When it was proposed to make him a Brigadier-General in the Confederate army, objection was offered on account of his youth, but the objection was overcome, and the wisdom of the appointment was justified by his results. He became a daring and skilful commander of cavalry, dividing with General Forrest the honors of that arm of the service on his side.
Since his disabilities were removed after the close of the Civil War, General Wheeler has been continuously in Congress from the Eighth Alabama district. He left his seat to accept a commission as Major-General of Cavalry in the war with Spain. In his absence the Governor of Alabama, acting upon the rule prohibiting any member of Congress from holding employment under the government, declared his seat vacant, and ordered an election to be held to fill the vacancy. General Wheeler's constituents met in convention and promptly nominated him to fill the vacancy by unanimous action.
He has been an interesting, active, and respected Congressman. He is but five feet two inches tall and weighs one hundred and ten pounds. His nervous vitality and physical restlessness made him a marked personage. One of the characteristic stories of this peculiarity is told of the Hon. Thomas B. Reed, then Speaker of the House, who cherished high respect for General Wheeler's unswerving integrity of character and firmness of purpose. After the death of an old member of the House, a group was discussing those left alive. General Wheeler was present, an old member, and one of the group observing him, remarked, "Well, we have General Wheeler left." "Yes," remarked the Speaker quickly, "the Almighty has never been able to find the General long enough in one place to lay His finger upon him." Nobody enjoyed the epigrammatic comment more than the subject of it. He was one of the strongest men of the Ways and Means Committee. When asked by Mr. Dingley if he would like to go to Manila as Military Governor, he replied that he wanted to go to Cuba, where he could more readily help to bring things to a close. He had been a student of the operations of the Cuban insurgents. At sixty-two General Wheeler displayed at Santiago the same indomitable spirit that distinguished him in the Civil War. He left his sick bed and went on horseback to the front of the line all day at San Juan, and, though burning with fever after twelve hours of fierce battle and exposure, interposed before discouraged officers who were suggesting retirement from the positions already won and that could only be held by unflinching bravery, and indignantly refused to hear of retreating one foot. He warned General Shafter against the proposal and by his splendid and fearless courage of heart and determination turned the disheartened ones the other way about, by infusing his own tenacity of purpose into them.
At San Juan, during the hottest fighting, it is told that General Wheeler forgot his whereabouts on the calendar of time for a moment, and, as the enemy showed signs of weakening, cried out impulsively to his troops: "Give those Yankees h- ll now, boys!" His aides and those standing near, burst into laughter and told him what he had said. "Oh, well," he explained with a smile of deprecation, "I just forgot a moment—but you all know I meant the Spanish. I'm a Yankee myself, now, wearing the uniform and following the old flag of the country where Yankee and Dixie are the same words to the whole land."
General Wheeler's military experience did not cease with the campaign in Cuba, for he was among those who sought and obtained further work in the Philippines. He arrived too late to take any prominent part in the war with the insurgents, but his advice regarding the use of cavalry (his favorite arm of the service) contributed materially towards the suppression of the insurrection. When the war degenerated into a guerrilla contest, offering no further opportunities except to those in command of small scouting parties, General Wheeler returned home, maintaining his connection with the army, it is said, in deference to the wishes of President McKinley, who wished to nominate him for a rank in the regular army commensurate with the importance of his services.]
DECISIVE events in American history seem to have been thrust upon us by a power which has come unheralded, unfelt and unseen. There appears to have been an impelling something quite akin to elective force and the laws which govern everything in nature. For thousands of years the light of progress and civilization has been travelling westward, growing brighter and brighter at every step of its steady and measured advance.
Our wonderful country was the home of savage Indians for forty or probably fifty or more centuries during which the vast populations in that part of Asia adjacent to the Pacific Ocean enjoyed many elements of high civilization.
The often repeated expression "Westward the star of Empire takes its flight," which as generally accepted only referred to this country, in reality applies to the progress of all enlightened nations of which we have any positive information.
Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome successively felt the light and blessing of civilization, perhaps not precisely, but nearly so in their order of western longitude, and finally the Mediterranean became the field of the world's commerce, and the countries washed by its waters became the seat of progress, arts and civilization, England, then barbaric, soon felt the dawn of a new life, and the Atlantic, up to that time unexplored, except near European shores, was crossed and the American continent made known to the world. Settlements upon the Atlantic coast of this new country, and the gradual but steady expansion westward did not result from a matured plan, emanating from a human mind, but it was rather the logical course of events, impelled forward by an unseen hand.
Nearly four centuries were occupied in populating and bringing this country to a high state of civilization, and in establishing a system of government which has become the pride and glory of mankind.
The constant and rapid creation of new and unexpected conditions have always been met by inventive genius, and discovery and development of new elements and resources.
When oil from the whale no longer supplied the needs of mankind, petroleum and gas, either natural or manufactured, took its place. The necessity for rapid travel and communication was answered by steam and electricity. The timber of the forests became inadequate to supply the demand to create heat and to build edifices and ships, and the deficiency was met by the use of coal and iron. The industry, thrift and inventive genius of Americans developed so rapidly that American production became far in excess of the possible consumption of the people of our home market, and those foreign markets to which we enjoyed easy access.
From statistics, some of which are more than two years old, I have prepared the following table showing the world's production of iron ore, coal, pig iron and steel, and specially illustrating the commanding industrial position of the United States.
WORLD'S PRODUCTION OF IRON ORE, COAL, PIG IRON AND STEEL, ACCORDING TO LATEST STATISTICS. COUNTRIES. Iron Ore, Tons. Coal, Tons. Pig-Iron, Tons. Steel, Tons. United States.. 25,000,000 230,838,973 13,620,703 10,639,831 Great Britain.. 14,176,938 202,054,516 8,609,719 4,665,986 Germany and Luxemburg.. 15,893,246 130,928,490 7,232,988 5,779,570 France.. 4,582,236 32,439,786 2,534,427 1,473,100 Belgium.. 240,744 22,075,093 979,101 653,130 Austria-Hungary.. 3,335,005 35,939,417 1,308,423 880,696 Russia.. 4,107,470 12,862,033 2,222,469 1,145,758 Sweden.. 2,302,914 236,277 531,766 265,121 Spain.. 7,125,600 2,526,600 261,799 213,015 Italy.. 200,709 314,222 8,393 63,940 Canada.. 51,929 3,725,585 68,755 21,540 Other countries (about).. 2,374,810 23,312,028 125,226 15,287 Totals.. 79,391,631 697,258,020 37,503,769 25,816,974
These figures present a comparison with other countries of which every American should be proud, but our progress during the last two years has been such that even this gratifying condition is far exceeded by American production at this time.
We now produce almost one-half of the steel, nearly one-half of the coal, nearly one-half of the iron ore and finished iron of the world, and more than one-third of the pig iron. We produce one-quarter of the wheat, one-ninth of the wool, three-fourths of the corn, four-fifths of the cotton, two-thirds of the petroleum and three-fifths of the copper, and I can safely say that upon an average the United States now produces very nearly one-half of the staple products of the world. This condition has been reached within the last few years and the increase in American productions is advancing with rapid strides and the productive capacity of our mines, factories and farms will in a few years far exceed what they are to-day.
We have but one-twentieth of the earth's population, and it is evident that we must either seek new markets for the products of American toil, or else our progress in agriculture and manufactures must be checked or curtailed. I feel confident that no American can contemplate any such condition for a single moment.
Heretofore the rapidly developing west has been a wonderful consumer of the products of our growing industries, but now that section of our country is changing from being a valuable consumer to an aggressive competitor, and all thoughtful minds have realized that new markets would soon be essential for the products of American factories and farms.
When the heart of the American people was touched by the cruelty and terrors which were being enacted in the island of Cuba, and when added to this came the distress caused by the harrowing tidings of the destruction of the battleship Maine, and the instant death of 267 of her gallant crew, but one thought pervaded the American heart, and a demand came from every city, town and hamlet that this great Republic do its duty to suffering humanity, and strike a decisive blow in defence of national honor.
War with Spain followed, and the banner of free America led to prompt and glorious victories upon both land and sea, and almost at the same time in both hemispheres of the world. The treaty of peace which was concluded at Paris placed upon our country the responsibilities with which we are now confronted, and as an incident thereto new conditions were presented, with which it has become the duty of the American Republic to deal.
Very frequently during the century and a quarter of our existence as an independent sovereignty diplomatic complications have arisen, all of which have been settled in a manner in every respect creditable to us as a nation. There is no question but that the problem now confronting us will be solved so as to advance the cause of civilization, and work out results not only to our advantage, but also to benefit materially all who are brought under American control and influence. The early completion of the Nicaragua canal, bringing as it will all American ports nearer to oriental markets than those of any other civilized nation, will hasten the realization of this much to be desired end.
The wonderful progress of our country has been due to the individual incentive enterprise and indomitable energy of our people. It is that which has erected manufactories, constructed railroads, and changed forests and trackless prairies into fields of smiling plenty. A people endowed with these characteristics will be prompt to avail themselves of the opportunities which are offered to them.
The Preamble to the Constitution tells us that one of the purposes of the framers of that instrument was to "promote the general welfare." Much has been said and written in the discussion of the purport of these words, the contentions as to the power meant to have been conferred by the framers of the Constitution often taking a wide range, but I believe all concur that it is the duty of the government, so far as possible, to adopt policies which will develop our industries. Certainly one of the best methods to accomplish this is for us to shape our policy so as to give the products of American toil easy access to the markets of the world.
Of course such action should be in strict conformity with the limitations of the Constitution and should be consistent with our system of government. It must protect individual enterprise in its commendable efforts at development, and much can be accomplished by a diplomacy which brings our people nearer those of other nations and establishes between them friendly and commercial relations.
What was the best policy a century or even a half-century ago would not apply to the condition of our country to-day. During the days of Washington, Jefferson and Jackson we were essentially an agricultural country. The question of manufacturing for a foreign market had hardly been considered, and it was years before our farm products were exported to any considerable extent.
Now all is changed; now we far out-rival all nations in the products of both our farms and factories. Our production of cotton, corn, coal, steel, pig iron, finished iron, iron ore, wheat, copper and petroleum far exceeds the production of those staple articles by any other nation.
It must certainly be assumed that those in authority and power will seize every opportunity to assist our people in seeking and entering all markets where American products are in demand.
I have as much respect as any American for the traditions of our country and the expressions of the great statesmen to whom we are indebted for the creation of our present form of government; but we must construe all their expressions in conformity with the great changes that have taken place. We must remember that from the least we have become the greatest producing country, and from one of the weakest the most powerful, wealthy and influential. Half the population of the world is in what we call the Orient. Its productions are very largely articles which the world needs, and which can be produced only under its favoring skies, or at least can be better produced there than elsewhere. This gives a great purchasing power to this vast population. We are among the nations which produce the articles their changed condition will demand.
The needs of all people increase as they advance in civilization. Sewerage systems will be constructed in all their great cities. This alone means the sale of sewerage pipe to the value of many thousands, or rather, many millions, of dollars. This is but one single item.
These people will also want piping and machinery for water-works, electric and gas-works for lighting their cities and houses. Railroads and locomotives will be needed in numbers far beyond our present conception. Then come electric street railroads, telegraphs, telephones, agricultural implements, sewing- machines, typewriters and the thousands of other articles which we manufacture and these people will purchase. American capital will find very profitable investments in the various permanent improvements, such as railroads, including those for city streets, water-works, telegraph and telephone lines, and pipes for sanitary purposes. These newly opened countries will also need structural steel for building. Those who exercise the most energy and good judgment will secure the largest proportion of this trade. Probably the greatest advantage to our country would be the market we would secure for cotton goods. We now produce nearly seven-eighths of the raw cotton which finds its way to the world's markets. The selling price of the annual crop of this raw cotton is about $300,000,000. If made into cloth and thread, its increase in value would be enormous. Even when transformed into the cheapest cotton cloths, its value is greatly enhanced, and when manufactured into thread and fine goods, its increased value would be ten, twenty or even thirty fold.
The southern states produce the articles needed in the far East more cheaply than they can be produced anywhere else on earth. With the Nicaragua Canal completed, our Gulf ports will be nearer to these markets than those of the Atlantic Coast, and far nearer than any of the ports of Europe. The effect of such a condition upon the Gulf states, it seems to me, almost surpasses our comprehension.
Other nations are exercising every means within their command to secure favorable commercial relations with these people, and certainly we will not neglect an opportunity where such advantages are possible to be attained. The question as to whether the war with Spain should or should not have been avoided, and whether or not it was good judgment to provide in the treaty of peace for the cession of the Philippine Islands, are now matters of the past.
While the trade with the Philippines will be valuable, if by no means measures the advantages we can legitimately seek. When we once obtain a foothold in that part of the world, we can successfully compete for a large share of the trade of the vast population of Asia. The superiority and the cheapness of our products give us advantages, but in order to successfully compete with rival nations, it is necessary to establish depots near their great centres of trade.
The conditions in China are interesting, and to many people perplexing. The Chinese have a government with a history extending back 4,700 years. Some writers can see in them no virtues. They denounce them as odious and their religions as abominations. Other writers extol their religious devotion, commend their worship at the tombs of their ancestors, speak in praise of their industries, their endurance, and even write of their soldierly qualities in battle. We have certainly evidence that they possess some of these qualities, and the lack of individual incentive may account for the little progress China has made, when considering her wonderful resources.
I do not hesitate to say that the unlocked mineral wealth of that empire is greater than that found in any other country. Coal is found in limitless quantities, and is worked so easily that in Shansi it sells at thirteen cents per ton at the mines. Iron ore of many varieties, including the best, abounds, and lead, tin, zinc, copper and gold are found in many different localities.
Notwithstanding that these elements of wealth are bountifully possessed by China, her people have not seemed to be disposed to develop resources and encourage industries which would compete with ours, and their principal articles of export appear to be those which we do not and cannot produce.
The same is in a measure true regarding the Philippine Islands. Rice, their great staple, is all consumed in supplying food for that vast population of some 11,000,000 people, and although the soil and climate are adapted to cotton, the inhabitants prefer to produce other articles, and nearly all the cotton used in the one cotton-mill in Manila is imported, and much of it comes from New Orleans.
Sugar is produced in large quantities, but the largest export any year was some eight years ago when it reached 261,000 tons.
It is true that cotton to the amount of one and a half to two million bales is raised in the Chinese empire, but it is substantially all manufactured in the localities where it is grown.
At present the principal imports into China from America are cotton goods, flour and coal-oil. In 1897 the United States exported to China cotton goods to the amount of $7,500,000, coal-oil to the amount of $5,000,000, and last year China took $4,000,000 worth of flour from the United States. This is but a small fraction of the foreign trade of this empire. The exports to and imports from Great Britain alone were $200,000,000 during one year, four years ago, and they have increased steadily ever since that time.
We should send wise and conservative agents among the people with whom we seek to establish trade relations. The importance of using every possible effort to avoid antagonizing prejudices cannot be overrated.
It is true that within certain limitations human nature has been found to be the same in all places and during all ages, but the important question in dealing with these people is to realize in the beginning that their training and the training of their ancestors running back for centuries has been different from ours. Ignoring this truth accounts in a great measure for the difficulties in our dealings with the people of China. This is well explained by A. R. Colquhoun in his work entitled "China in Transformation."
On page 265, he says:
"Almost every conceivable action of a Chinaman's life is prescribed by a minute etiquette which no one dreams of disregarding. Being unintelligible to foreigners, this necessarily creates friction in their mutual relations. But in addition to this the Chinese, even the most reasonable and most practicable, are under the dominion of sorcerers and fortune-tellers and the reign of luck to such an extent, that they are in constant apprehension of doing or saying things at the wrong time, the wrong place, in the wrong way, or in company with the wrong people. A promising combination may be spoiled by some occult warning, and a Chinaman may often have bad faith imputed to him when he is really under the constraint of some influence which he dare not avow, and which causes him to make a shuffling and mendacious excuse."
So it is, in a measure, with the Filipinos. We must consider that for years these people have been constant sufferers from Spanish duplicity, and for two years they have been repeatedly told that Americans have come to the Islands to inflict hardships and impose burdens far more unendurable than anything they had suffered under the Spaniards. Constant efforts have been made to convince them that the only purpose Americans have in view is to rule the islands for their own benefit and to the detriment of the Filipinos.
No greater mistake can be made than to attempt the enforcement of American ideas and customs upon our new people. France has been very unfortunate in her late efforts at colonization. Her possessions in Asia are rich and prosperous countries. She has Cochin-China with an area of 22,000 square miles and nearly 2,000,000 people, Cambodia with 62,000 square miles and 1,000,000 people, Annam, including Tongking, with 250,000 square miles, and 20,000,000 population; and yet the total trade is only about 250,000,000 francs, and much of this is monopolized by England. Colquhoun gives one reason.
He says, pages 330-331:
"But they have not the power of adapting themselves to new peoples and to new countries.
"The majority of the colonial officials, according to Chailley-Bert, set about the work of governing by bringing with them that passion for uniformity, that mania for routine, that love of making regulations, that dread of initiative and of responsibility which crush the mother-country as well as the most vigorous of her colonies. The French codes are applied without change in every quarter of the world, and in the modern Eastern possessions exactly as they were in the old colonies of France."
The Spanish war though brief in its duration has been momentous in its results. During a third of a century of peace we had become the leading of all nations in material progress, and in a war of less than one hundred days our victories on both land and sea demonstrated to the world that we were superior to all nations in martial prowess, and in maintaining the highest order of military and naval skill.
It has made us all prouder that we are Americans. The newest yet the richest country on earth—a country which has always sought to remain at peace with all the world, yet when forced into war, startled mankind by the courage, endurance and heroism of her soldiers and the victories they won; a country which has always sought to avoid entangling alliances or interference with other nations. Yet our fair, honorable, just and wise diplomacy has won for us the respect and admiration of all civilized people.
The Spanish war has also resulted in a marvellous extension of our commercial and trade relations, and in the spreading of American civilization.
While civilization is in the abstract utterly opposed to warfare, yet strange as it may seem it has been its great forerunner and promoter. It may be described as the exercise of force in brushing away the impediments which have stopped or retarded the advance of civilized ideas and customs.
Another effect of wars has been to call into action, in all their strength and breadth, the energies and resources of a people, and though at the close of such struggle the country seems prostrated, the latent influences that were evoked have always rendered the work of rehabilitation easy.
A great war also demonstrated to the world the resources of a nation, and after it is over greatly assists in the enlargement of its commercial relations, and in its material progress and prosperity. We all recall the prosperity enjoyed by England during the period following her triumph in her wars with Napoleon. Napier, in his history of the first fifteen years of this century, shows how thoroughly the British people appreciated the fact that their greatness and power were due to the glory achieved by British arms. He says: "Wellington was victorious; the great conqueror (Napoleon) was overthrown; England stood the most triumphant nation of the world, but with an enormous debt, a dissatisfied people, gaining peace without tranquillity, greatness without intrinsic strength, the present time uneasy, the future dark and threatening, yet she rejoices in the glory of her arms, and it is a stirring sound."
The rapidity with which England emerged from this condition of "debt, dissatisfaction and despondency," is an interesting chapter of history. Her commerce followed the flag borne by her navy into all the corners of the earth, her manufacturing industries attained a prosperity never dreamed of, and in a few years England became the wealthiest country on earth, the mistress of the sea and the pride and glory of the world.
The enjoyment of peace is a blessed boon to humanity and all Christian people deprecate war with its train of miseries and suffering, and it is to be earnestly hoped that civilization will soon make war a thing of the past.
The cable tells us that the last request of the great and good Queen to her son and grandson was a pledge upon their knees that the two powerful empires which they rule should always remain at peace with each other, and that their efforts should be exerted to maintain peace throughout the world. If this be true, and I hope and pray that it may be so, the possible effect may be all that the most ardent advocate of universal peace could desire. If these great rulers were to bend their powerful influence in that direction, they could readily count upon being joined in so laudable an effort by both Russia and the United States; and if these four great powers were to combine to attain that end, truly we might hope that the peace and good will on earth prayed for by Jesus of Nazareth nineteen centuries ago was to be the crowning blessing of the twentieth century of the Christian era.
We are informed that Queen Victoria often referred with sorrow to the suffering caused by the war in Cuba, and also by that which so soon followed in South Africa. It was these thoughts which caused the request to her offspring that they would seek to prevent armed contests.
Can we not hope that our blow for mercy and humanity in 1898 may include in its results the bringing about of a condition of universal peace?
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.
[At the merging of the old and new eras, marked by events as plainly as by the calendar, it is the historian's duty to gather together the records of accomplished progress, and by their light forecast the probable direction of the great forces which are transforming the world we know into the marvellous cosmos our posterity will inherit. The retrospective reviews which follow contain the materials of which the history proper of our country will be made when it comes to be written in the fulness of time. The first article is Senator Depew's contribution to the work entitled "American Supremacy: Industrial; Commercial; Financial; by One Hundred American Writers."]
OUR own country is peculiarly the pride of the nineteenth century. It has been the most complete example ever presented of the working out under favorable conditions of the principles and opportunities of civil and religious liberty. The marvellous development of the United States cannot be attributed solely or mainly to climate, to soil, to the virgin forests, or to unlimited and unoccupied territory. South America, Central America, and Mexico were as well, if not better, equipped in these respects. The garden of Eden, that fertile and fruitful portion of Asia, which for ages was the seat of empire, civilization, art, and letters, and for centuries the hive from which swarmed the conquerors of Europe, has returned to aboriginal conditions of desert and wilderness. Every industry whose growth is a feature of our progress is the expression and witness of the beneficent principles of our freedom and liberty of individual action.
The stories of battles and conquest, of the founding of dynasties and the dissolving of empires, of the sieges of cities and the subduing of peoples, which constitute the body of written history from the beginning of recorded time, are in ghastly contrast to the glorious, beneficent, and humanitarian picture of the achievements of the nineteenth century.
A philosopher has said that he is a benefactor of mankind who makes two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before. We celebrate harvests in inventions and discoveries where existed only Saharas. We find that the nineteenth century has not only added enormously to the productive power of the earth, but, in the happiness which has attended its creative genius, it has made the sunlight penetrate where the sunbeam was before unknown.
A little more than a hundred years ago the first cotton-mill was running with 250 spindles. Whitney invented the cotton-gin, which created the wealth of the Gulf States and made the cotton industry over all the world tributary to them. Other inventors improved the machinery, and the single mill of that period has expanded into 1,000, and the 250 spindles have increased to 21,000,000. In 1794 the first wool-carding machine was put in operation, mainly under the impulse of American invention. There were in 1895 2,500 wool manufactories. The production of textile fabrics in this country supports about 600,000 employes. At the beginning of the century a few thousand tons of iron were manufactured. In 1899 the United States produced over 13,000,000 tons of pig iron, being more than any other country; while in the manufactured products of iron and steel we are also in the advance of nations.
These astonishing figures give only the basic results of production, for from them collaterally flow car-building, the miracles of the sewing-machine, of the vast employment and earnings of machinery manufacturing, of building and building materials, of the manipulation and composition of other metals, as silver and gold and copper and brass, of the singularly rapid rise of American glass interests, of the incalculable demands made upon furnace and mill and shop for railway appliances, of the immense production of utensils useful in domestic life and in agriculture, of the great supplies of material comprehended under the name of dry-goods, and of the machinery required for the telegraph, the telephone, and the creation of electrical energy.
The twentieth century will be a truth-seeking century. The nineteenth has been one of experiment. Invention and discovery have made the last fifty years of the nineteenth century the most remarkable of recorded time. Nature has been forced to reveal her secrets, and they have been utilized for the service of man. Lightning drawn from the clouds, through the experiments of Franklin, has become the medium of instantaneous globe-circling communication through the genius of Morse, of telephonic conversation by the discoveries of Bell, and the element of illumination and motive power by the marvellous gifts of Edison. Steam, which Fulton utilized upon the water and Stephenson upon the land, has created the vast system of transportation which has given the stimulus to agriculture and manufacturing products by which millions of people have been enabled to live in comfort where thousands formerly dwelt in misery and poverty. The forces of destruction, or rather the powers of destruction, have been so developed that, while the nations of the earth are prepared for war as never before, the knowledge of its possibilities for the annihilation of life and property is so great that peace has been maintained among the great powers of Europe, and our war with Spain was shortened by the scientific perfection of weapons and the skill of those who used them. Physical progress and material prosperity have led to better living, broader education, higher thinking, more humane principles, larger liberty, and a better appreciation in preaching and in practice of the brotherhood of man over all the globe.
The nineteenth century has closed with civilization more advanced in the arts and in letters than in the best days of Greece or Rome or the Renaissance; with the development in mechanical arts, in chemistry and in its appliances, in agriculture and in manufactures, beyond the experience of all preceding centuries put together. The political, social, and productive revolutions and evolutions of the period mark it as unique, beneficent, and glorious in the story of the ages. It has been the era of emancipation from bigotry and prejudice, from class distinctions and from inequalities in law, from shackles upon the limbs and padlocks upon the lips of mankind. It has been conspicuously the century of civilization, humanity, and liberty. As its presiding and inspiring genius looks proudly over the results, he may well say to the angel of the twentieth century, "You can admire, you can follow, but whither can you lead?"
The imaginary line drawn on the thirty-first day of December, 1900, between the past and the future cannot stop the wheels of progress nor curb the steeds, instinct with the life of steam and electricity, which are to leap over this boundary in their resistless course. The twentieth century will be pre-eminently the period for the equitable adjustment of the mighty forces called into existence by the spirit of the nineteenth century, and which have so deranged the relations of capital and labor, of trades and occupations, of markets and commercial highways. There will come about a oneness of races and nationalities by which the moral sense of civilization will overcome the timidity of diplomacy to prevent or to punish the repetition of such atrocities as have been perpetrated in Armenia. The Turk will either adopt the laws and recognize the rights of life, liberty, and property commonly recognized among Christian nations, or his empire will be dismembered and distributed among the great powers of Europe. Militarism, which is crushing the life out of the great nations of the Continent, will break down because of the burdens it imposes and the conditions it exacts. The peoples of those countries, groaning under this ever-increasing and eventually intolerable load, will revolt. They will teach their rulers that that peace is not worth the price which can only be maintained by armaments which are increased on the one side as rapidly as on the other, so that peace depends upon an equilibrium of trained soldiers and modern implements of war. They will discover closer ties of international friendship, which will strengthen year by year, and in the camaraderie of international commerce they will come to maintain amicable relations with one another before tribunals of arbitration and under the principles of justice. The world will discover, as we found in our own country in our Civil War, and again in 1898, that a free people quickly respond to the call of patriotism to meet every requirement of war in defence of their nation, and that armies of citizen soldiers, when the danger is past, resume at once their places in the industries of the land. The twentieth century will realize the prophecy, "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks."
The pessimist has proved with startling accuracy that with the exhaustion of fuel supplies in the forests and in the coal mines, the earth can no longer support its teeming populations, and that we are rushing headlong into anarchy and chaos. The twentieth century will find in the methods of the production of electrical power an economy of fuel and an increase of force which will accelerate progress and conserve our storage of supplies. Transportation both by land and by sea will be done solely by electricity. The same power will run the mills, the furnaces, and the factories. It will revolutionize and economize the processes of domestic life. It will shift and alter centres of production to places where electrical power can be more cheaply evolved, and that power will be utilized at long distances from its sources.
The hospitals of the world reached their highest and best conditions in the nineteenth century for the care and cure of the sick and the injured. The hospitals of the twentieth century will perform this work as well, if not better, but they will also be schools of investigation and experiment. It is the peculiarity of each generation that it accepts as a matter of course that which was the astonishment and wonder of its predecessor. The antiseptic principle, which has made possible modern surgery—the discovery of a surgeon still living,- is the commonplace of our day. So are the wonderful revelations which came through the trained brains and skilled hands of Pasteur and of Koch. Systematic and scientific research under liberal and favorable conditions will make the hospitals of the twentieth century the very sources of life. As the Gatling gun and the mitrailleuse enable the explorer in central Africa to disperse hordes of savages and open up unlimited territories for settlement and civilization, so will the leaders of the hospital laboratory produce the germicides which will destroy the living principles of consumption, of tuberculosis, of cancer, of heart, nerve, brain, and muscular troubles, and of all the now unknown and incalculable enemies which give misery and destroy life.
Continuing concentration and centralization of capital in great enterprises and in every field of production will be compelled by small margins of profit and the competition of instantaneous and world-wide communication. At the same time labor, more skilled, better educated, more thoroughly organized, finding a larger purchasing power in wages, and intelligently commanding its recognition by international compacts, will improve its condition, will find the means of quick and peaceable settlement with capital, and the relations of these two great forces will be much more beneficent and friendly.
Artists, whether with brush or chisel, or upon the lyric or dramatic stage, will require for success profounder study, broader experience, and more universal masters; but they will secure these essentials in schools at convenient centres, not only of countries, but of territorial divisions of countries. The great artist who can produce a picture which will rank with the works of Raphael or Titian and of the best exponents of modern schools will receive as adequate reward as ever for his masterpieces, and at the same time the processes of copying by the assistance of nature and chemistry will be so accurate that, with a copyright, his revenues will be increased, and his picture, perfect in every detail and expression, as well as in its general effect, and cheaply reduplicated, can be the delight, the inspiration, and the instruction of millions of homes.
Then there will be an increase in socialistic ideas and tendencies. The aim will be for a full and complete experiment of the principles of State paternalism and municipal communism. As we face the future we have no doubts as to the result, nor do we doubt that the inherent vigor of nations is greater as their institutions rest upon the liberty of the individual; yet, like the French Revolution and the theories and experiments which carried away the best thought and the highest aspirations of our own country in the earlier years of the century, the popular tendency is for the trial of these methods of escape from ever-present poverty and misery and old-age disability. Human nature, however, has in all ages manifested itself in the social organization according to its lights and its education. Light and intelligence both accompany opportunity and experiment, and control them; and the twentieth century will close with the world better housed and better clothed, its brain and moral nature better developed, and on better lines of health and longevity. It will also exhibit increased and more general happiness, and the relations of all classes and conditions with one another will be on more humane and brotherly lines than we find them as we look back.
Let us reckon American manufacturers from the infancy of the cotton and wool production in 1794 at practically zero on the one side, and on the other Europe, with the accumulated capital of over a thousand years and the accretion of the skill of all the centuries. The race-course of progress was open to the Old World and the New. Father Time kept the score, and Liberty said, "Go." To-day, after one hundred years, the American farm has become the granary of the world; the American loom and spindle and furnace and factory and mill supply the wants of 76,000,000 people in our land, and we exported in the fiscal year ending in June, 1900, domestic merchandise to the enormous value of $1,370,000,000. Europe, pushing forward on a parallel course, finds herself outstripped at the close of the century by this infant of its beginning in agricultural production, in manufactured products, in miles of telegraph and of railway, and in every element of industrial and material production and wealth. She finds one after another of her industries leaving her to be transplanted to this country, even with the conditions of labor, which makes up ninety per cent. of the cost of all manufactures, nearly fifty per cent. in her favor. American inventive genius has cheapened the cost of production on this side of the Atlantic to the advantage of American wages, and the principles of the Declaration of Independence have done the rest. Our population has grown from 3,000,000 to 76,000,000; our accumulated wealth, from less than $100,000,000 to about $70,000,000,000; the number of our farms, from probably about 100,000 to 5,000,000; our agricultural products, from just sufficient for the support of 3,000,000 people to an annual commercial value of $4,000,000,000. The workers upon our farms have increased from about 400,000 to 9,000,000; the operatives in our factories, from a handful to 5,000,000; and their earnings, from a few thousand dollars to $2,300,000,000. The increase in wages has been correspondingly great. Ever since 1870, it has been sixty per cent., and the purchasing power of money has enhanced about the same. Our public school system was very crude at the beginning of the century, and the contribution of the States for its support very small. Now we spend for education annually $156,000,000, as against $124,000,000 for Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy combined.
It is easy to see that Europe, with its overcrowded populations, its more difficult and almost insoluble problems, and with the limitations imposed upon development and opportunity by its closely peopled territories, must advance in wealth and material prosperity and the bettering of the condition of the masses by destructive revolutions or by processes which are painfully slow. The United States, with a country capable of supporting a population ten times in excess of that with which the new century opens, with its transportation so perfected that it can be quickly extended as necessity may require, with its institutions so elastic that expansion strengthens instead of weakening the powers of the government and the cohesion of its States, will advance by leaps and bounds to the first place among the nations of the world, and to the leadership of that humanitarian civilization which is to be perfected by people speaking the English tongue.
[The great dominating fact that forces itself upon the attention of the outer world when America is mentioned is our commercial progress. It stares every commercial nation in the face like a haunting spectre. The foreign trader, economist, or statesman cannot read his local newspaper without being startled by new proofs of the irresistible invasion of his markets by American merchants. The great powers that have lived in the comfortable delusion of everlasting security against the inroads of harmful trade competition, have these few years been rudely awakened from their repose. Wars for territorial conquest have not ceased, but the weapons and aims have taken on a new and pacific-looking aspect. Where kings used to fight for kingdoms and keep shifting the frontier lines on maps, the captains of industry and princes of trade now cross the seas on grand crusades of commerce, with national markets and new fields in the remotest quarters of the most primitive old world for their battle-fields, and the practical civilization of neglected races for their aim and reward. What may be the chief stimulating causes of this striking expansion of American commercial mission-work it is not our province to ascertain. The chronicles of progress are our present concern. Enough for the immediate purpose that the broad field be fairly surveyed, not microscopically, for that would be as unprofitable as it is impracticable, but surveyed from the standpoint of an observant patriot, proud to see how the throbbing inventive and productive activity of his country—the youngest in the family of great nations - is astounding the elder branches by the boldness of its triumphal march along the highways of the old world.
Statistics may be uninviting to the general reader, though they can be so presented as to unfold the real fascination existing in the simple facts of our progressive life. It is only by comparing past and present data that we can rightly see and comprehend our progress, or retrogression. To attempt to convey an adequate realization of our commercial advance during the decade between any two censuses without citing figures, would fail in the main object of the effort, which is to enable the reader to get a firmer grasp of the situation by working out for himself the salient facts.
The first broad view of recent trade growth is best gained by a deliberate study of the following statistical statement, showing the increase of our export sales of manufactured goods in foreign markets. Two points are to be kept in mind; first, the increase of population from sixty-two millions in 1890, to seventy- six millions in 1900; and, second, note that foodstuffs are not included in the statement, unless the single item of malt liquors may come under that head.
This table shows the exportations of principal manufactures, arranged in the order of magnitude, in the fiscal year 1900, including all whose value in that year exceeded $1,000,000, and compares the exports of 1890 with those of 1895 and 1900:
Articles Exported from the United States. 1890. 1895. 1900. Iron and steel and manufactures of $25,542,208 $32,000,989 $121,858,344 Oils, mineral, refined 44,658,854 41,498,372 68,246,949 Copper manufactures 2,349,392 14,468,703 57,851,707 Leather and manufactures of 12,438,847 15,614,407 27,288,808 Cotton manufactures 9,999,277 13,789,810 23,890,001 Agricultural implements 3,859,184 5,413,075 16,094,886 Chemicals, drugs, etc 5,424,279 8,189,142 13,196,638 Wood manufactures 6,509,645 6,249,807 11,230,978 Paraffine and paraffine wax 2,408,709 3,569,614 8,602,723 Fertilizers 1,618,681 5,741,262 7,218,224 Scientific instruments 1,429,785 2,185,257 6,431,301 Paper and manufactures of 1,226,686 3,953,165 6,215,559 Tobacco manufactures 3,876,045 Not stated 6,009,646 Fibres, vegetable, manufactures of 2,094,807 2,316,217 4,438,285 Bicycles Not stated 1,912,717 3,551,025 Books, maps, and engravings 1,886,094 1,722,559 2,941,915 Carriages and horse-cars 2,056,980 1,514,336 2,809,784 Starch 378,115 366,800 2,604,362 Cars for steam railways 2,689,689 868,378 2,554,907 India rubber and gutta percha manufactures 1,090,307 1,505,142 2,364,157 Spirits, distilled 1,633,110 2,991,686 2,278,111 Vegetable oils (except cotton and linseed) 326,227 491,436 2,162,759 Malt liquors 654,408 558,770 2,137,527 Clocks and watches 1,695,136 1,204,005 1,974,202 Musical instruments 1,105,134 1,115,727 1,955,707 Glass and glassware 882,677 846,381 1,933,201 Paints and colors 578,103 729,706 1,902,058 Gunpowder and other explosives 868,728 1,277,281 1,888,741 Brass manufactures 467,313 784,640 1,866,727 Soaps 1,109,017 1,092,126 1,773,921 Marble and stone manufactures 729,111 885,179 1,677,169 Zinc manufactures 156,150 237,815 1,668,202 Wool manufactures 437,479 670,226 1,253,602
Here are the total imports for the same years, important to consider alongside the above statement. In 1890 we imported, value in round numbers, $789,000,000, our exports being $68,000,000 in excess of our imports. In 1895 we imported $732,000,000, our exports being $75,000,000 in excess. In 1900 we imported $850,000,000, and our exports were $1,394,000,000, being $544,000,000 in excess of our imports.
The immense export trade in foodstuffs matches that in manufactures. Fewer manufactured goods come from Europe in payment of its annual debt to us for the means of life. How deep an inroad the United States has been making into European markets may be estimated by the increasing rumors of retaliatory measures, and the time will undoubtedly come when our traders will have to encounter new obstacles to progress. Meanwhile American makers of steel rails and bridges have triumphed over English and all other competitors in every part of the world. American contractors have constructed electric street railways in England, and various American manufactures of iron and steel are underselling British products, not only in neutral markets, but also in the United Kingdom. Recent reports of the rapid exhaustion of England's coal supply have added to the prevailing alarm. The advantage which American manufacturers have gained is due not merely to the superiority of our natural resources as respects the deposits of iron ore and coal, but also to the vast scale upon which our industries are organized, and the superiority of their appliances.
While the old world is growing alarmed at the prospect of diminished natural resources, we possess literally inexhaustible riches in mines, quarries, and the yield of the earth's surface. Of iron alone our store passes comprehension. Its importance is eloquently stated by a recent writer, who shows that "in the dependence of civilized man upon iron, he is but following nature, in whose realm nothing lives, moves or exists without it. It is in the water which bubbles from the earth; it is in every drop of blood which flows through the veins of life; it is in the rocks and soil under our feet, in the vegetation about us, and in the heavens above us. The meteors which fall from the skies are composed almost entirely of iron. It is known to exist in large amounts in the heavenly bodies, and the gases of which iron is composed are found to make up largely the masses of vapor which float in the firmament, and which, by the forces of nature, are solidified into worlds.
"The use of iron in the United States is in its infancy. Its consumption is progressing each decade with a cumulative force. Fifty years ago, one hundred pounds were consumed in the United States annually, for each one of its inhabitants; ten years ago, there were three hundred pounds for each person, and to-day we are consuming iron at the rate of four hundred pounds yearly for each one of our seventy-six millions of inhabitants."
Great Britain has been a great producer of iron ore, supplying many of the world's markets with the raw material and manufactures of iron. It now furnishes about seventeen per cent. of the world's output, and the United States produced nearly thirty per cent. Germany comes next with twenty-one per cent.
The well-worked coal-field of Great Britain cover 9,000 square miles; those of Germany, 3,600; Russia, 27,000; India, 35,000; France and Belgium, 3,200; those of the United States, 194,000. They are exceeded only by the coal-fields of China and Japan, which are estimated at 200,000 square miles.
The State of Pennsylvania produces more coal than any state or country in the world, with the exception of Great Britain. There were 73,066,943 tons of bituminous coal mined in 1899, and 54,034,224 tons of anthracite. A great deal of the bituminous coal was made into coke, so that 12,196,570 tons of coke were produced, and 52,895,383 tons of coal shipped to market.
Cotton is another staple product with a gratifying record. From 1870 to 1880 the crop ayeraged about four million bales per annum, which has been more than doubled since 1890.
"The cotton belt covers 24 degrees of longitude and 10 degrees of latitude. Excluding from the count the greater part of Virginia, more than 100,000 square miles of western Texas and the whole of Kentucky, Kansas, Missouri, Utah, California, Arizona, and New Mexico, the cotton-growing region measures nearly 600,000 square miles, almost one-third of the total area of settlement in 1890 of the United States. The 20,000,000 acres planted in cotton occupies barely five acres in every 100 of this extensive region. Scarcely fifty per cent. of this territory is in farms, and not more than one-fifth has at any time been tilled. This section contained in 1890 a population of over 8,000,000 whites, and something over 5,000,000 negroes, in all 13,651,006, every 100 of them producing 53 bales of cotton,"
The value of the cotton crop in 1897 was nearly $320,000,000, and each year we are manufacturing more of it for our domestic trade, while our exports continue enormous. The cotton-seed industry has grown rapidly, a hundred new mills having been erected during nine months of 1900.
The total corn crop of the world in 1898 was 2,634,000,000 bushels, of which the United States produced 1,924,000,000. We grew in the same year 675,000,000 bushel of wheat towards the whole world's total of 2,725,000,000. Our area for growing cereal crops is unlimited. The vast Northwest has been experiencing a period of low prices, yet it shows a yearly average market value of about $900 for each farm in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, in cereal crops, exclusive of cattle and dairy products.
"Half of Minnesota's nearly 40,000,000 acres are still unfarmed. Of the two Dakotas, only 19,000,000 acres are occupied, with four times that extent still waiting the further advance of civilization. Not a tithe of the mineral wealth of the Mountain States has been developed. Alaska, reached by numerous steamship lines from Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland, with its boundless wealth of auriferous rivers and mountains, is an outpost of this Northwest belt. Large areas of fertile but arid land in Montana, Washington, and northwestern Dakota, now useful only as pastures for cattle and sheep, may easily be converted into fruitful fields by a scientific system of irrigation, for which nature affords abundant facilities in the mountain streams and in the artesian basins which underlie the Dakota plains."
Our exports of flour promise to exceed the exports of wheat.
The American farmer is cheered by the assurances of competent authorities that he has now a new money-making crop at hand if he cares to seize the opportunity. He is urged to cultivate sugar. As the subject is interesting from various points of view, we quote from a striking article in the Forum written by Secretary Wilson, of the Department of Agriculture.]
"The importance of this subject to the people of the United States may be seen from the fact that during the past five years the average amount paid out by them for imported sugar has been $101,575,293. The refined product from imported sugar during the year 1897 was 1,760,607 tons, while the production of sugar from all sources in the United States during 1897 amounted to 335,656 long tons, as follows: 41,347 tons from sugar-beets; 289,009 tons from ribbon cane; 5,000 tons from maple trees, and 300 tons from sorghum cane. Thus the total consumption in the United States for the year was 2,096,263 tons. .
"The farmers of our country produce from the soil grains, cotton, tobacco, vegetables, fruits, horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, various animal products, and the like; and if we can add to our farm systems any crop that yields an article of common use, is not exhaustive of plant-food, and whose by-product is valuable in making meat and dairy products, it will find favor with producers. There are very few crops or manufactures of them of which this can be said so emphatically as it can be said of sugar-beets. The grains are well-known soil-robbers. They carry from the soil nitrogen, potash, phosphoric acid, lime, magnesia, and the other elements of plant-food. Tobacco is peculiarly severe in this regard because none of its by-products are fit for animal food; and what is sold from the farm carries away so much mineral plant-food that most soils are soon exhausted if not replenished by commercial fertilizers, the purchase of which is out of the question in many parts of the United States. Meats take away comparatively little plant-food from the soil compared with their money value. The cotton-plant is not exhaustive if the stalks are plowed under and the seed is returned to the soil, either directly or through the instrumentality of domestic animals. The oil of the cotton-seed may be sold without taking any plant-food from the farm, as it comes from the atmosphere through the leaves of the plant. Butter is also harmless in this respect, and does not impoverish the land on which the cow grazes. Sugar is as harmless as oil and butter; it comes from the carbonic dioxide of the atmosphere. If the sugar-beet is hauled to the factory and the pulp taken back to the farm, no plant-food is lost to the soil."
[As certain sugar-producing countries threaten a tariff war, the writer advocates a change of farm policy.]
"Instead of sending our mill-feeds abroad in the shape of oil-cake, bran, cotton-seed meal, gluten meal, and similar by-products, we should ourselves convert them into live stock, meats, and other animal products, in which form they can be sold in foreign markets to greater advantage. When we make our own sugar and divide $100,000,000 among our farmers, laborers, and capitalists, we can afford to that extent to keep our raw materials at home."
[The deeper meaning of the statistics of our recent exports is perceived when we ask where all these swelling totals of merchandise find their destination. The old-established markets are not consuming all the excess of our later annual output. We are finding new markets, and when we do not readily find them we are making them. Old countries are being explored, and tight markets opened up. The financiers of Europe have been eagerly seeking more profitable fields for the investment of capital than their own countries have afforded of late. The great colonies of England have employed much of this. Her efforts to establish new territory in Africa have the same end in view. Russia is pushing her powerful interests in almost every direction, quietly dominating where she does not openly annex. France and Germany are trying their hands at colonization, and so the game goes on, with greater or less success to the adventurers. The extent to which the leading countries of Europe have been absorbing territory in Africa and Asia is indicated by a recent report of the United States commercial agent at Weimar regarding the colonial possessions of European states. He shows that, outside the mother country, Great Britain holds 16,662,073 square miles of territory, with a population of 322,000,000; France, 2,505,000 miles, with a population of nearly 50,000,000; Germany, 1,615,577 miles, with a population of 7,450,000; Holland, 783,000 miles, with a population of 34,210,000; and Portugal, 809,914 miles, with a population of 10,215,000.
One writer of weight, in the Forum, Prof. T. H. Gore, of Columbia University, gives a warning to those who may rest too confidently in the continuance of our present rising scale of exports. Germany, he says, is already a great industrial and manufacturing country. She has to buy our cereals and meats to the value of about forty millions a year, which alone must be a powerful stimulus to her agricultural production.
"It is true we are a great people, but we are not independent of the rest of the world. It is true we have a country with unparalleled natural facilities for manufactures and agricultural pursuits, with an ingenious people utilizing machinery in every possible direction, with a territory so vast as to include soil and climate adapted to all the forms of food demanded by man and beast, and with mines to yield many sorts of ores as well as the coal for their reduction. But with these blessings—blessings in abundance—there may be a limit to our industrial advance. Under normal conditions two causes can arrest our progress; viz., scarcity of labor and a loss of our agricultural exports. With the immigration we have had in such abundant measure, together with our increase in native population, it would seem impossible that labor should ever be scarce. In quantity, perhaps, this may be true; but for the manufactories some skill is required, and intelligence above the ordinary is needed. Then, for each additional five or six families whose heads are engaged in the shops or factories, one farmer must start his plough for their support, or else our exports must be diminished by a corresponding amount. This farmer must take up new lands, less productive than those now formed, or else a subdivision of lands now under cultivation must take place. Both these steps have been taken. The size of farms has decreased from 199 acres in 1860 to 137 in 1890, and the number of farms has increased a great many fold in this period."]
Recent calculations show that the capital invested in farming is not less than $16,000,000. The farm animals of the United States are valued at $2,300,000. The unreclaimed and unwatered lands of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma comprise about five hundred million acres. Our average annual exports of agricultural products are worth about $664,000,000.
The commercial consequences of the Spanish-American war cannot yet be grasped, even in imagination. With the West Indies virtually knocking at our door, and the East Indies now within touch, it is not possible for American trade to suppress the instinct of expansion, subject to the controlling conditions which the higher patriotism shall ultimately establish. Our export business is not confined to manufactured goods, or food-stuffs, or raw materials. We export men also. American missionaries have prepared the way for many a coming army of civilizing agents, teachers of industries and arts, ingenious devisers of railways, canals, and other necessities of development among primitive peoples. American capitalists have been scouring the wide world for places and interests in which to embark their money. American diplomatists and consuls have been educating foreigners to understand us and accept our co-operation in lifting their lands to a higher social and commercial plane. All these agencies are now conspiring to open the great door of the Eastern Hemisphere to our trade and to keep it open for ever. Our unlooked-for hold on the Philippines formed the first stepping-stone to the Chinese wall which we, with other powers, are going to surmount. With the origin and lamentable features of the complicated quarrel between the allied powers and the rulers of China, we have no concern in this place. Its bearings on our commercial future are pertinent to the topic in hand.
The official statistics of the Chinese Government show the value of the total imports from the United States in 1898, the latest year for which reports have been received, equal to $12,016,318. This, however, does not include all of the United States merchandise entering China, since our exports to Hong-Kong are equal to about one-half of those exported direct to China, and, presumably, a very large proportion of the exports to HongKong is destined ultimately for Chinese markets. During the early years of the decade ending with 1899, exports to Hong-Kong were larger than those to China direct; but the Chinese ports have been steadily gaining upon Hong-Kong, and in the fiscal year 1899, the shipments from the United States to ports of China were double the amount of shipments to Hong-Kong, being, for China, $14,493,440, and to Hong-Kong, $7,732,525. It appears, therefore, that the total value of goods entering China from the United States is now about $20,000,000 annually, while our imports in 1899 from China and Hong-Kong combined amounted to $21,098,542.
The port of New Chwang is in the extreme northeast, and while the volume of American goods has not been great, the consular report for 1899 throws light on the probable extensive growth of our trade throughout the whole empire. It states that "the value of this trade during the year was 176 per cent. more than ten years ago. American kerosene oil has increased from 89,000 gallons to 1,730,000 gallons. Russian oil was not known ten years ago, so that the 92,000 gallons of this oil which were imported this year cannot be set against any figure of 1888. The American oil is naturally in most favor. Cotton cloth has increased in ten years from 40,000 haikwan taels in value to 677,000; and raw cotton, from 239,000 haikwan taels to 1,045,000. Both American drills and American sheetings have come into great favor here, the demand for them having became quite phenomenal. Ten years ago American drills were valued at 219,000 haikwan taels; in 1898 their value had reached 1,270,000, and American sheetings had grown in the same period from 426,000 to 2,154,000. On the other hand, English drills, which were valued in 1888 at 70,000 haikwan taels, had dwindled to 5,000, and English sheetings had declined in value from 70,000 haikwan taels to 52,000."
There is sharp competition among several nationalities to get concessions for the laying of railways through China. Americans stand well with the authorities, and are pushing these and other interests which are to open the way for ever- expanding business between our merchants and the Chinese people. On the other hand, it is probable that China will realize before long her own vast latent power as a producer and competitor in markets. In view of this Americans are getting their hand in by establishing improved means of developing the resources of the country. A friendly co-operation offers a happier outlook than rivalry from the outside. A population of four hundred million in an area of four million square miles offers a market for other besides material wares. About 386,000,000 of these people are crowded into about one and a quarter million square miles. When we have gridironed their country with railways and taught them our high farming, the Chinese may easily prove to be our dangerous rivals in food production for the nations. The outcome of the wholesale thrusting of modern Western ideas and methods upon this ancient and unprogressive people is yet to be tested, and American industry must regard the commercial invasion of China as one of the great problems of the new century, fraught with momentous issues to our domestic welfare.
Africa is four times as large as the United States, with a population supposed to be more than double our own. Its long-unexplored interior has quickly been divided up by the great powers of Europe. Great Britain, whose sons first made its wonderful possibilities known to the world, controls an area larger than that of the United States; France, and area almost equal in extent but comparatively unprofitable, and other nations hold smaller tracts. The Transvaal and Orange Free State, nominally annexed before actually conquered by Great Britain, comprise an area of about 170,000 square miles. Our export trade with Africa is as yet small, some $18,000,000 a year; but it has increased over three-fold in ten years, and would have reached its highest point but for the Boer war. America is interested in the diamond and gold enterprises over which the quarrels arose, by capital invested, by the export of mining machinery, and the local establishment of commercial agencies and employment of American civil engineers.
American capital has gone out to many nations during the later years of the century. Independent of the $80,000,000 loaned by this country to Russia, England, Germany, and Mexico within the last year, there have been about $30,000,000 of American capital invested abroad since 1890.
Among the other securities of foreign governments now held by Americans are those of Sweden, Switzerland, Wurtemberg, Servia, Bulgaria, Hungary, South Australia, and Tasmania. One of the New York insurance companies held $100,000 of Transvaal bonds when the recent war began, and another company held $50,000 of the same loan. Both these companies also held $100,000 of Cape of Good Hope government bonds.
Canadian bonds have always found favor in this market. A recent compilation by one of the Montreal banks developed the fact that $4,250,000 in bonds of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia governments, and of the cities of Toronto, Quebec, and Winnipeg, were the property of New York City investors.
The great business combinations popularly called trusts are a sign of the times. Whatever may be their economic significance, there is no mistaking the enormous progressive transformation going on in the realms of trade and finance when it is possible within five or six years to form about four hundred large combinations, with an aggregate capital of something like $6,000,000,000.
The haulage and water transport of the immense volume of merchandise is a distinct problem, affecting very closely the welfare of the industrial and trading classes. There is a cry from all quarters for wise legislation to regulate railway rates, and put an end to what is claimed to be unjust discrimination in favor of the larger shippers against the smaller. When an equitable adjustment is effected, whatever it may be, it is sure to give a fresh impetus to national commerce. The demand for a system of ship subsidies has influential and indefatigable advocates. It is based, putting the case broadly, on the claim that without a sliding scale of government payments to owners, it will be impossible to secure a sufficient supply of American vessels to carry our merchandise to markets in foreign lands. We do not here enter into any details of fact or argument. The proposal that the United States should pay $9,000,000 a year for twenty years, in certain proportions among selected ships, was met by the objection that the great American steamers that now ply between Europe and America would receive more than the poorer ships which ought to be making regular trips to markets in South and Central Americas. Great Britain pays about seven million dollars a year in ship subsidies, thereby securing the regular carriage of the mails, the construction of passenger ships quickly transformable into men-of-war at need, and the frequent fixed sailing periods induce a large passenger patronage. In whatever direction the wise decrees of our law-makers may operate, it is not open to doubt that the new century will see the rise of a mercantile marine adequate to the carrying of our commerce to the new markets we are opening all over the globe, without our having to employ the vessels of any commercial competitor.
The whole question of commercial expansion is involved in the long-pending discussion upon the policy of constructing a canal at Nicaragua or Panama. Such a water-way would facilitate the transport of merchandise between the United States and the South American republics. It is stated that the proposed Nicaragua canal would have a traffic from the proposed Nicaragua canal would have a traffic from the start of three million tons a year. The commercial wants of South America are at present supplied by Europe. The only manufactures bought from us are those which Europe cannot make. The new route will save nearly ten thousand miles of sea journey between New York and San Francisco, and will save, it is said, $35,000,000 a year to the United States in trade. Great Britain's commercial interests are so seriously imperilled by the bare contemplation of the canal that diplomatic objections have been raised to the proposal to fortify the approaches, in our own interest, in case of future war. The matter will be disposed of as every grave question has been, that has closely touched the pride and the strength of a nation which has hitherto succeeded in managing its affairs from the standpoint of patriotism.
This rapid survey of the trend of American commerce bears out the claim, that, if we do not actually lead the world in the century's opening years, only a few years will elapse before we shall occupy that proud position. London, Paris, and Berlin are borrowing gold from New York; Europe, Asia, and Africa seek in American markets for food they cannot or do not themselves produce, and for the products of more highly skilled brains and muscles than those which find employment in their workshops. These simple facts contain the promise and potency of early and lasting supremacy.
WILLIAM MATTHEWS HANDY.
[History, in the school-books of our forefathers, was mainly the chronicles of kings and warriors, statesmen, and the militant political factions they played for power. The history of the grander and more beneficent conquests of our day and the days to come is fitly written with the pen, and not the sword. The constructive and wholly progressive achievements of the great era which is marked by the dividing line between the centuries, happily make up the most glorious part of our national history during the later years. The following review of our brilliant contribution to scientific progress is taken from "Achievements of the Nineteenth Century," by William Matthews Handy.]
WONDERFUL has been the part that the United States has taken in the multitude of astonishing achievements of the nineteenth century,— always abreast of the times, often leading. Yet in 1800 the Republic was less than twenty-five years old, so that her greatness and eminence of themselves are a growth of a century. In 1800 a country with only 5,308,483 inhabitants, hugging the seacoast, the United States has grown to an immense area and to a population of over 76,000,000. Struggling during the period with grave domestic problems, many of them entirely new, learning, growing, building, organizing,— to-day the United States leads the world in wealth, mining, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, transportation, education, and almost every field of endeavor. Her own development chiefly an achievement of a century, she has led in making the nineteenth century the age of greatest achievement.
While the period between 1825 and 1830 was pregnant with railway movements, it can scarcely be said that any railway was successfully operated in the Americas before 1830, when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad opened its first section of fifteen miles from Baltimore to Ellicotts Mills. The first genuine locomotive in use in the United States was the "Stourbridge Lion," which made its trial trip several months before the opening of the Baltimore and Ohio road, on a railway connecting the coal mines of northeastern Pennsylvania with the Delaware and Hudson Canal. From 1830 to 1835 many lines were projected, and at the end of 1835 there were over a thousand miles of railway in use in the United States.
Necessity was the mother of invention; the money which Great Britain lavished on deep cuts and expensive tunnels was not forthcoming in the young republic, so the engineers of the United States put their wits to work and devised flexible locomotives which will round any curve, and ascend steep grades without difficulty. The chief and most important of these inventions is the swivel truck, which, placed under the front of the car, enables the driver to make a sharp turn with perfect safety. The American locomotive is exported in larger quantities every year. The first street railway was laid in New York in 1831, the first cable car was used in San Francisco in 1873. In 1851 an electric locomotive was tested on the Baltimore and Washington line, which ran nineteen miles in an hour, but the trolley did not become commercially successful until 1893. In other modes of locomotion, as those of the bicycle and horseless carriages, American ingenuity has kept ahead of foreign competition.
Robert Fulton built the first practicable steamboat, the Clermont, in 1807. In order of construction it was the sixteenth, but it was the first to be used permanently on the Hudson River. Two similar boats ran regularly within a year between New York and Albany, taking thirty-two hours each way. The first steamboat in England did not appear until 1812. At Pittsburg in 1811 the first boat for Western rivers was built, and she made the trip to New Orleans. Great enthusiasm was aroused when, with the construction of the Enterprise in 1815, St. Louis was reached in twenty-five days from New Orleans.
The first steamer to cross the Atlantic was an American-built ship, the Savannah. The vessel had been built in New York as a sailing-ship. She was of 350 tons' burden, clipper-built, full-rigged, and propelled by one inclined, direct-acting, low-pressure engine, similar to those now in use. She had paddle- wheels that could be taken out and put on deck. The Savannah steamed to the city in whose honor she was named, and from there started for Liverpool May 24, 1819, making the voyage in twenty-five days, being under steam eighteen days. She used pitch-pine as fuel, the use of coal in American steamers not having been introduced at that day. From Liverpool she went to St. Petersburg. For some years she ran between Savannah and New York, and finally ran aground in a storm off Long Island, and went to pieces.
England's first vessels to make regular trips across the ocean, were the ships, Sirius and Great Western, in 1838, each averaging seven and a half knots an hour. It was not until 1847 that the first American steamer, the United States, was built expressly for the transatlantic trade, making the voyage in thirteen days. The Britannia, owned by Samuel Cunard, had been running between Liverpool and Boston since 1840, a fourteen-day trip. It is needless to speak of the wonderful achievements in ship-building and sailing in recent years. Submarine navigation is the latest development of American inventiveness and daring.
The invention of the first practicable telegraph by Samuel F. B. Morse, aided by Alfred Vail and Professor Gail, dating from 1836, is a familiar story. It did not come into general use until 1844. The first duplex system was invented by Joseph B. Stearns, of Boston, in 1872. Thomas A. Edison improved on this in 1874, enabling two messages to be sent the same way on the same wire. In 1875 Elisha Gray extended this into a multiplex system, when the Stearns and Edison systems were combined to form the quadruplex, by which four messages, two each way, can be sent simultaneously along a single wire. In 1898 Prof. Rowland, of Johns Hopkins University, perfected a method by which twelve messages can be sent at once. By the wonderful ingenuity of a young Italian electrician, Guiglielmo Marconi, a system of wireless telegraphy is being brought into practical use. Messages are being received from ships several miles out at sea. The spread of submarine cables has enabled the day's doings of the whole world to be reported in the evening papers of that day.
Various devicesare being perfected by which the familiar miracle of the telephone can be used for a nominal charge. Paris and London, 297 miles apart, were enabled to converse with each other in April, 1891. New York and Cleveland were connected, though 650 miles apart, in 1883, and the superiority of the long-distance telephone to the telegraph was clearly shown during the great blizzard of 1888, when for several days the only direct means of communication between Boston and New York was a long-distance telephone wire, which withstood the storm that destroyed all other lines. Chicago was brought into communication with New York in October, 1892; and now conversation is carried on as easily over this distance of a thousand miles as if between two residents in the same place. Conversations have been carried on between Texas and Maine, 2,600 miles apart.
America produced the first practicable type-writing machine, and still leads in all new improvements.
In great feats of engineering, America has won a unique record. The Erie Canal, 351 miles long, was opened in 1825. When the Nicaragua Canal is commenced, the world will be amazed at the celerity and ingenuity with which it will be completed, so continuously are our skilled engineers devising new methods and setting up new principles. Office buildings of eighteen and twenty stories have ceased to be uncommon. They have been made necessary by the congestion of the great cities. There was a limit beyond which structures of brick and wood might be built; but the use of iron and steel made it possible to build taller structures, two or three times the height of those possible by the old method. The new method of construction known as the skeleton frame construction does away with the use of brick and masonry except as a thin shell. Steel beams support the walls of each story, and these are framed between columns, permitting thin walls even at the base. The framework of iron and steel being erected, the masons and carpenters can work on all floors at once, and build from top and bottom. Great as have been the improvements in construction, the erection of these buildings calls for the highest engineering skill. The Manhattan Life building in New York, which is twenty-three stories high, weighs 21,000 tons, and there is a pressure of wind estimated at 2,400 tons against its exposed sides, and the total weight is over 30,000 tons.
The utilization of water-power has been an accomplished fact for centuries; but the modern turbine wheel owes its high repute to the improvements effected by an American, A. M. Swain, in 1851. The development of electricity as a propelling force may be recurred to in this connection. The germ of the electric motor is found in the invention of Joseph Henry, an American, who, though little known to the public, was one of the most prolific electrical inventors the world has seen. Many improvements were made by him in the magnet. Exhaustive research was made by him into the subject of the battery as a source of energy and the efficiency of galvanic batteries, and in 1831 he constructed an electric motor, the first of the kind the world had ever known.
A great step was made in the increased utilization of electricity when the problem of the transmission of power over long distances was solved. Now a current cannot only be distributed through a workshop with the utmost convenience and economy, but it can be sent to a workshop from an engine or waterwheel many miles away. The Niagara Falls is yoked to the wheels and lamps of Buffalo. This in itself is typical of all the achievements of the century, and is the crowning glory of electrical development.
The first experiments in this direction were made by Marcel Deprez, at Creil, in 1876 to 1886, and Deprez succeeded in transmitting mechanical power thirty-five miles for industrial purposes in the latter year. Many inventors busied themselves along these lines, and on February 3, 1892, Nikola Tesla, at the Royal Institution, exhibited his alternate-current motor, by which currents are transformed, by continually reversing the direction, into mechanical power. By means of Tesla's apparatus the force of 77 horse-power was transmitted from the rapids of the Neckar to Frankfort-on-the-Main, 110 miles, September, 1891.
Possibilities of the utilization of waterfalls for the transmission of power electrically immediately attracted attention to the world's greatest waterfall, that of Niagara. At Niagara River and Falls, about 18,000,000 cubic feet of water flow per minute through a descent of more than 300 feet, including both falls and rapids; this represents something like 7,000,000 horse-power. Engineers had been aware that the enormous power which goes to waste over the Niagara was sufficient to turn the wheels of every factory in the United States, but there seemed to be no possibility of its utilization. While a few paper- mills and flour-mills had been established near there, the expense of the direct application of the power was too great to make the attempt desirable. But when dynamos had been perfected and electricity made commercially available, attention became attracted to the waste of power. Siemens, the great German inventor, in 1877 prophesied that a few more years would see the great water- courses like that of Niagara utilized in part to generate electricity and to transmit by its means electric light and power to surrounding industrial stations. It seemed a wild dream then; but before twenty years had passed, it had been realized, and to-day the power of Niagara is tuning machinery and running street-cars in Buffalo, twenty-six miles away. Power from the falls has been used to operate machinery in New York, being thus employed at the electrical exposition.
When a waterfall is to be used for power the ordinary method is to dig a canal from a point above to a point below the waterfall, this canal being called a mill-race. The water in this canal is so directed as either to fall upon or to flow under a wheel, and the revolution of this wheel furnishes the motive power of the mill with whose machinery it is connected, by means of shafts and belts. Aesthetic reasons alone would have prevented the employment of these means at Niagara, and would merely have resulted in building a canal which would be lined with mills. An entirely different method was proposed by Thomas Ever-shed, state engineer of New York, and his suggestion was adopted by the company. At a point about a mile above the falls, 1,200 acres of land were bought, and here a short canal was dug and an enormous pit, 140 feet in length, 18 feet in width and 178 feet deep was excavated. From the bottom of this pit a tunnel was also made to the river tunnel level some distance below the falls. This tunnel is 6,807 feet (over a mile and a quarter) in length, and it took a thousand men more than three years to dig it, even with the improved tunnelling appliances of this generation. Enough limestone rock was dug out of the tunnel to make some twenty acres of new land worth $5,000 an acre along the shore of the Niagara, and the construction of the tunnel and mainwheel pits cost twenty-seven lives. The tunnel is shaped like a horse-shoe, 18 feet 10 inches wide at its broadest part, and 14 feet wide at the bottom. It is 21 feet high, and has a downward pitch varying from 4 to 7 feet in 1,000. It is lined at the lower end with heavy steel plates, and the rest of the way with from four to six rings of brick, especially prepared to withstand the wear and tear of water for generations to come.
This tunnel is the "tail-race," as the millwright would call it. The water drawn from it falls a distance of 154 feet to the bottom, where, by its fall, it may revolve ten enormous horizontal or turbine wheels. These in turn may revolve ten dynamos in the power-house above, each capable of furnishing 5,000 horse-power; only three of these turbines have as yet been built. The water having thus given its power to the company, which has transferred it into electricity, runs off through the tunnel, and is discharged into the river below.
The turbine wheels, placed at the bottom of that mighty pit cut straight down for 200 feet into the solid rocks, are the monarchs of their kind. The force of the volume of water that each of the three now in place receives is so great that it would sweep away a considerable structure made as strong as man could build it with stone and masonry.
Tesla's alternating current is employed. A wire no thicker than a man's thumb transmits the power that runs the street railways of Buffalo. It is believed that the power of Niagara will some day run machinery is New York and Chicago. Water-power by long-distance transmission is being used in California on a large scale.
So many and varied are the uses of electricity that it enters into every science. To barely enumerate these devices would require a volume. It stores speech in the phonograph and executes condemned criminals, both devices being American. The induction balance has been used as a sonometer, or machine for measuring hearing, and the bottom of the sea has been explored by sonometers for sunken treasure. Leaks in water-pipes have been localized by the microphone, and the story is told of a Russian woman who was saved from premature burial because the microphone made audible her feeble heart-beats. The peculiar sensitiveness of electricity makes it a means of surpassing delicacy in measuring heat, light, or chemical action. By the bolometer, invented by Prof. S. P. Langley, a change of temperature of one-millionth of a degree Fahrenheit has been recorded, a refinement scarcely approached by any other means of scientific detection.
American inventiveness is largely occupied in the constant multiplication of labor-saving machines. Patents are being applied for and issued daily on mechanical constructions designed either to aid or supplant man-power. There is no field of industry, however unimportant, which has not been invaded by the inventor with a view to minimizing the human effort required therein to produce its quota of material. The sewing-machine, patented by Elias Howe in 1846, may stand as the best known illustration. Nearly a million are made every year. The shoe-making industry has been revolutionized by the American sewing-machine, and its exported product is playing havoc with the shoe trade of Europe. The first machine for sewing on soles was brought out in 1861. It sewed 900 soles in ten hours. A shoe factory in Lynn, Mass., made a pair of ladies' boots for the Paris Exposition of 1889 in just twenty-four minutes. For this feat the pair of shoes went through the usual routine of the shop. Forty-two machines and fifty-seven different operators contributed to the operation, which included the cutting up and stitching of twenty-six pieces of leather, and fourteen pieces of cloth, the sewing on of twenty-four buttons, the working of twenty-four button-holes, and the insertion of eighty tacks, twenty nails, and two steel shanks. Since that time still more perfect machinery has been introduced into the industry, and a pair of ladies' shoes may now be turned out in twenty minutes.
Equally marvellous is the history of cotton-spinning and weaving machinery, from the invention of the gin by Eli Whitney in 1793. The same is true of the wool- weaving industry. It is difficult to name a single mechanical trade that has not been literally revolutionized by American skill and genius during the nineteenth century. The industrial history of the period is one long tribute to the ceaseless painstaking efforts of American scientific thinkers and practical workers to lessen the burden of labor and improve its output. From tallow to oil, and from gas to electricity, the progress of artificial illumination has been slow but steady. It is amusing now to look back at the opposition to gas- light. Philadelphia fought for more than twenty years against its introduction as a means for lighting the city. Peale, in his museum in the State House, had as early as 1816 or 1817 produced a fine illumination through the use of gas obtained from a private plant belonging to a man on Lombard Street, whose dwelling was probably the first in America to be lighted with gas. Peale was immediately enjoined from continuing his luminous exhibition, as it was declared to be a menance not only to the historic old State House, but to the entire city as well.
The United States Gazette declared it a folly and a nuisance, and insisted that common lamps would "take the shine off all the gas-lights that ever exhaled their intolerable stench." All manner of objections were brought against the obnoxious fluid. The newspapers dwelt emphatically on the dire warning that the introduction of gas would result in terrific carnage and destruction, and that the refuse of the works would kill the fish in adjacent streams. Even from the University of Pennsylvania came the voice of Professor Hare, protesting, that, even if gas were the good thing which its supporters declared it to be, tallow candles and common oil lamps were good enough for him. On March 23, 1833, a formal petition of remonstrance, signed by twelve hundred of the wealthiest citizens of Philadelphia, was carried to the State House. Gas triumphed, nevertheless.
Photography, the biograph, and the many wonderful branchings out from these processes, owe much to American skills, both of invention and perfecting.
From the gold days in California to the discovery of deposits in the Klondike region, American mining processes and machinery have commanded the world's markets. The machinery for collecting, refining, and carrying petroleum, and its product, natural gas, tells the same tale of progressive endeavor.
In agricultural machinery, American genius has won world-wide honors and rewards. In 1831, Cyrus McCormick, of Virginia, invented a successful grain- harvesting machine, containing the essential elements of every reaping-machine built from that day to this. It was first successfully operated on the farm of John Steele, near Steels's Tavern, Virginia. Two years later Obed Hussey built a machine which was much like the McCormick reaper, except that it had no reel and no divider and no platform on which the cut grain could accumulate. Both of these machines were shown in 1851 at the Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in London. Under the auspices of the Royal Agricultural Society of England they were tested in the field, and the "Grand Council Medal" was awarded to the McCormick one, which was referred to by the judges as being worth to the people of England "the whole cost of the exposition." Subsequently the French Government decorated its inventor with the Legion of Honor for "having done more for the cause of agriculture than any living man."
American skill and courage have been conspicuously exhibited in the healing art and science. In the invention and operation of surgical instruments, in appliances for the relief of pain, and minimizing the inconvenience caused by the loss of limb or organ, our surgeons stand in the front rank among the benefactors of humanity. So do our physicians, whose contributions to medical science are the pride of the profession the world over.
The United States has led the way in the ligation of the larger blood-vassels, some of the Americans who have gained distinction by the performance of such feats—each one of which was a triumph of surgery—are Amos Twitchell (1781- 1850), first to tie the primitive carotid artery; John Syng Dorsey (1783-1818), first American to tie the external iliac artery; William Gibson (1784-1868), first to tie the common iliac artery; Valentine Mott (1785-1865) tied the arteria innominata; J. Kearney Rodgers (1793-1857) tied the left subclavian artery between the scaleni in 1846; John Murray Carnochan (1817-1887), ligation of the femoral artery in 1851; Hunter McGuire tied the abdominal aorta in 1868. This had been accomplished, in 1817, by Sir Astley Cooper. Not only are such wonders wrought with blood-vessels and frightful haemorrhages prevented, but cases of internal aneurism which were formerly thought hopeless are now cured. The later names of Gross, Jacobi, and Marion Simms, are familiar in every centre of learning.
The American dentist has led the way in the perfection of his art, and he is justly celebrated all over the world. The first native dentist in the United States in supposed to have been John Greenwood, who began to practise in 1788. Thirty-two years after there were one hundred follwers of his calling in the United States; in 1892 there were 18,000. So important has the science of the teeth grown that from 1800 to 1892 there were published two hundred volumes devoted to that subject alone. The first dental school in the United States was chartered by the Maryland Legislature in 1839. Since then colleges and schools of dentistry have sprung up all over the land. If there are as good dentists in other countries as there are in this, it is largely due to the fact that they have been trained in American schools. Men come from all over the civilized world to the United States for higher education in dentistry. American ingenuity has invented numerous mechanical aids to the practice of the art. From 1880 to 1890 over 500 dental instruments were patented. Horace Wells first used "laughing-gas" or an anaesthetic. Dr. Younger, of San Francisco, made the first artificial socket for a tooth.
A hundred additional examples of American progressiveness might be culled from the scientific records of the century, but space forbids. Wherever we search, we shall find our country nobly represented. In the achievements of astronomy, geology, anthropology, chemistry; in the triumphs of explorers in the Polar region, in Africa, and the far East, and in the unknown expanses of our own West, some of the most glorious discoveries are credited to American "Pathfinders."
The science of war gained much from our experiences in the sixties. In the matter of battle-ships the lesson changed the old-world system entirely. There had been iron-clad vessels in Europe for several years before our war; but they had not stood the test of action. The first effective vessel of this kind was the Confederate ram Merrimack, and her famous conflict with the Monitor has been called the most important naval battle in the world. The Merrimack was a wooden frigate that had burned to the water's edge and sunk. The Confederates raised and rebuilt her, enclosing her vitals with iron plates two inches thick. A bulwark was built, and similarly covered, and a cast-iron ram was attached to the bow about two feet under water. The Monitor had been built after a design of John Ericsson, who for twenty years had been endeavoring to secure its adoption. It was an iron-plated hull, 172 feet over all, 41 feet beam, and 11 1-3 feet depth, and with a revolving iron turret containing two guns. The target surface was reduced to a minimum, the hull being less than two feet high and plated with five inches of iron. The turret was nine inches high, and covered with eight inches of iron. It was a floating fortress. The story of the fight needs no telling here. Its moral revolutionized the navies of the world.
Not only have battle-ships changed, but their guns and ammunition have been radically modernized, chiefly by American inventors, of whom Gatling and Maxim are probably the most famous. The heliograph first demonstrated its efficiency and utility for field intercommunication in the Indian wars of the Western frontier, beginning in 1886. There years later Major W. J. Volkman, U. S. A., demonstrated in Arizona and New Mexico the possibility of carrying on communication by heliograph over a range of 200 miles. The network of communication begun by General Miles in 1886, and continued by Lieutenant W. A. Glassford, was perfected in 1889 at ranges of 85, 88, 95, and 125 miles, over a country inconceivably rugged and broken, the stronghold of the Apache and other hostile Indian tribes.
In 1862 General McClellan organized a balloon corps, with Thaddeus S. C. Lowe at its head. The innovation soon became a component part of the Army of the Potomac, as it did good service in disclosing the military operations of the Confederates. Now all the leading military nations of the world have their balloon corps, specially trained and equipped for reconnoitering purposes. At the battle of Santiago, on July 1, 1898, the movements of the enemy were observed from a balloon by Sergeant Thomas Carroll Boone. A telegraph wire connected the basket of the balloon with the ground, and observations were transmitted in that manner to the officers below.
The use of compressed air is one of the latest developments of science, to which Americans have contributed their full share. Rocks are tunnelled by compressed air. It operates hoists and travelling cranes. The great drainage canal in Chicago had fifty air-compressors at work excavating a channel 160 feet wide, 35 feet deep, and containing over 12,000,000 cubic yards of solid rock. The noise and dust of the steam-engine are done away with.
The same principle as that used in the rock-boring machine is employed in the little tool with which the dentist compacts the films of gold-leaf in a tooth. In these machines the part which holds the actual tool is not operated directly by the air, but just above it lies a plunger, which is vibrated back and forward by the air, and this strikes blows on the head of the working tool when the tool is pressed back against it. Tools moved in this manner are used to set up the rivets which hold together steam-boilers, the iron work of bridges and " sky- scrapers " and in many shops hand-riveting has been abolished by their use.
A pneumatic breast-drill, weighing 18 pounds, with 80 pounds air-pressure, will drill a 5-16 inch hole through cast iron one inch thick in one minute. Air strikes 20,000 blows a minute, a man averages thirty. In England and France pneumatic tubes carry postal matter from suburbs to the central office as rapidly as the money-carriers fly in the department stores of our cities. There is a probability that cable- and trolley-cars may yet be superseded by compressed air motors.
The latest outcome of investigation into the properties of air is the discovery of a new force, more marvellous in its possibilities than either steam or electricity, though hardly yet completely harnessed for practical service. This force is liquefied air. That air might be liquefied if the temperature were made low enough has long been known to scientists. In 1878 air was liquefied by Raoul Pictet, of Geneva, and by Calletet, of Paris; and on June 5, 1885, Professor James Dewar exhibited liquid air obtained at a temperature of 316 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit, before the Royal Institution, London. But the possibilities of its commercial use were not conceived until twenty years later. In March, 1897, a mysterious explosion occurred at the Endicott Hotel, in New York, which, being inquired into, developed the fact that Professor Tripler, of that place, had been experimenting with the new force for several years, with a view to its manufacture upon a scale and at a price which would allow of its use for practical purposes. Almost simultaneously, Professor Linde, of Berlin, announced that he had succeeded in producing liquefied air at a cost which would allow of its use as a motive power for engines of different kinds. Liquid air furnishes a clean, dry cold, which produces no dampness, and renders the transportation of meats, fruit, etc., to any distance an easy matter. In a large hotel, where the liquid air is used as the motive power for driving the dynamos and running the elevators, it might be made to serve for all kinds of refrigeration. Its discoverers claim, that, by its use, it is quite as easy to cool a house in summer as to heat it in winter, and much less expensive, while the gas produced would purify the air, being equivalent to the purest mountain air. The temperature of a hospital ward could at any time be lowered, even in the tropics, to any desired degree, and in cases of yellow fever the "white gift of the frost" might be had at any moment. It can be handled as a motive force with perfect safety, in an ordinary engine, without requiring the intense heat which makes the duties of the engineers and stokers, on an ocean steamer, so arduous; and in submarine boats the motor itself would, in place of exhausting the air, furnish all that was needed for healthy respiration. Moreover, it is claimed that it will render the problem of aerial navigation a simple one, since all that is needed is a motor, strong, light in weight, and safe. Indeed, if one- tenth of what is claimed for the new force be true, its possibilities are revolutionary.
A few facts may appropriately be added showing the vast improvements and new inventions that have given the printing-press its tremendous power for good and ill. It is impossible to mention all the innumerable devices which have brought printing machines to their present perfection; but the wonderful typesetting contrivances demand notice. In 1875 Ottmar Mergenthaler, a Swiss mechanic and inventor, living in Baltimore, constructed a machine that has been an immeasurable revolutionizing factor in the composing-room. The linotype is a machine controlled by finger-keys, like a typewriter, which creates the type matter as demanded, ready for the press, to be used once, and then melted down. Instead of producing single type of the ordinary character, it casts type-metal bars or slugs, each line complete in one piece, and having on the upper edge type characters to print a line. These bars are called linotypes, and are assembled automatically in a galley side by side, in proper order, so that they constitute a form, answering the same purpose and used in the same manner as the ordinary forms consisting of types set singly. After being used, the linotypes, instead of being distributed at great expense, like type forms, are simply thrown into the melting-pot attached to the machine and are recast into new linotypes. The linotype is operated by a single attendant sitting at the keyboard. The manipulation of the finger-keys by this single operator results in the production, delivery, and assemblage of the linotypes in the galley ready for use. In the hands of a skilful operator it will do the work of five men "at the case," or setting type by hand, and will make better wages for him, without half the wear and tear of bone, and blood, and muscle. Within two hours the operator on the machine is able to cast as much new type as the fastest printer can set in seven or eight hours' hard and steady work by the old method.
The only formidable rival of the linotype is the typesetting machine. While the former is a line-casting machine, the latter actually sets the type.
The first great step towards facilitating the production of the modern newspaper was made by Colonel Robert Hoe, of New York, in 1840, when the first of the type-revolving presses was built. This invention marked the beginning of an epoch in the history of the printing industry. The Hoe press embodied a new principle, the type being placed on the circumference of a cylinder which rotates about a horizontal axis. Among the first of the multiple cylinder presses erected by Robert Hoe was one for the Philadelphia Ledger, in 1846; and one for the Parisian daily paper, La Patric, in 1848. The first eight-cylinder press was built for the New York Herald, in 1857. The printed matter is cast in a solid stereotype plate, from which, bent into cylinder shape, the paper is printed.
The perfecting of the stereotyping process gave a great impetus to the development of the newspaper as we know it to-day. The type-revolving printing- presses, with their capacity of from 10,000 to 20,000 sheets an hour, were the marvel of their time, and did good service during the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865. Effective as they were, their supremacy was short-lived, and they are now only a memory. In 1863, the first web perfecting press was erected by Bullock, and the printing industry experienced another great revolution, whose ultimate results are the marvellous machines now in use, capable of turning out from 50,000 to 100,000 papers, perfected and folded, in an hour. The Hope octuple press of the present day is indeed one of the modern mechanical wonders of the world. This press prints, folds, and cuts 96,000 complete eight-page papers per hour, or 1,600 every minute, or 48,000 sixteen-page papers, the size of the page being that of the ordinary newspaper. Colored supplements are a recent feature.
These new devices have given an equal impetus to the book trade. Publishing developed to an amazing extent in the closing decade of the nineteenth century. This development has been distinctly along two lines, and represents two extremes. In the first place, there was never a time when so many fine books were made. There is absolutely no limit to the sumptuousness of the editions de luxe. The demand for costly books increases year by year. What makes it more surprising is that while the trade in fine books increases year by year the demand for cheap ones likewise grows. Within recent years the publication of books for sale by subscription only has become an important branch of the business. This kind of publication is becoming more and more popular every year, and justly so, for it is the only means whereby a large portion of the reading public are enabled to purchase books, and by the proportionately smaller cost of large editions reducing the selling price.
Thus we learn that the means by which history is being recorded for future ages have kept pace with the other mighty forces of which history is made.
JOHN PORTER LAMBERTON.
[No chapter of any nation's history has greater interest than that which recalls the beginnings of its literature. The story of American books and writers includes the early output of Puritan theologians and chroniclers, and a striking picture it gives of the struggle against hostile Indians, an adverse climate, and, we might almost add, the evolution of new ideas. The preceding volumes have dealt with that period. Our present concern is with the modern pioneers of a literature known the world through by its national characteristics, a literature still in the making, but with abundant promise of a future worthy of American genius. Our selection is taken from "The Literature of the Nineteenth Century," by Prof. John P. Lamberton.]
NEWSPAPERS appeared early in the eighteenth century. In 1704 the first American newspaper, The Boston News-Letter, was established. The second, The New England Courant, was started by James Franklin, in 1720. His troubles in connection with it are well known from his younger brother Benjamin's famous "Autobiography." In 1765, at the time of the Stamp Act, there were forty news-papers in the Colonies.
In the year 1800, the gateway to a century of almost magical national development, the population of the free States was 2,684,616, of the slave States 2,621,316, making a total of 5,305,932. Philadelphia was the chief city of the country. It had been the national capital during the Revolution, though it fell for a time into possession of the British army. Here the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederaton, and the Federal Constitution had been framed and signed. Here the Federal Congress met and Washington held his Republican court. Here were the American Philosophical Society, which had grown out of Franklin's Junto; the Philadelphia Library, mother of all institutions of that kind; and the University of Pennsylvania, likewise the outgrowth of Franklin's matchless genius for public enterprise. The first American monthly magazine had been issued here by Franklin in 1741. After the establishment of peace in 1783, other magazines were issued, the principal being the American Museum. The city, therefore, was the literary centre of the new nation, though the political capital was in 1800 removed to Washington. Foreigners of distinction still resorted to Philadelphia, whither they came to visit or to settle in the New World. It boasted itself to be the American Athens. Noah Webster was a pioneer of note. As a student of Yale he played the fife as one of Washington's escort. He produced his Compendious Dictionary in 1805. The state of the literary profession may be judged by this epigram by Joseph Dennie, "the American Addison:" "To study with a view to becoming an author by profession in America is a prospect of no less flattering promise than to publish among the Esquimaux an essay on delicacy of taste or to found an academy of sciences in Lapland." Among the earlier writers whose names survive are those of Trumbull, the satirist; Joel Barlow, William Dunlap, Philip Freneau; Joseph Hopkinson, writer of "Hail, Columbia!" and Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star Spangled Banner." Charles Brockden Brown came later, and may be regarded as America's first professional man of letters and writer of romance.
Washington Irving was the first to gain for American literature the recognition of European critics. He was born in New York city in 1783. His indeed was an international mission—to heal to some extent, by the sympathetic charm of his style and his personality, the breach between the two countries, aggravated by the second war of 1812. He became "the first literary Ambassador of the New World to the Old." Like a loyal son of the soil, he breathed the breath of literary immortality into the traditions of his own country, as well as voyaged to England in order to write about English scenes and associations. Professor Richardson has remarked that he was "the first conspicuous American author who was neigher a Puritan nor a southron; his local tone was that of New York city and the Hudson." Quick to assimilate the customs and characteristics of other lands, he was the first to make distinctly American themes familiar to the world of letters. Returning to New York after a long residence in England, Irving gathered around him a group of friends now known as the Knickerbocker school, which comprised James Kirke Paulding (a connection of Irving by marriage, who afterwards became Secretary of the Navy, under Van Buren), and the poets Drake and Halleck. All four were Knickerbockers to the bone. Irving served as minister to Spain from 1842 to 1846. His " Life of Columbus" and other writings on Spanish themes were followed by the "Life of Washington," and sundry minor works.
Associated in memory with Irving are the poets Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) and Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790-1867). These two comrades made their debut in the Irving style in the "Croaker Papers," a series of humorous and satirical verses contributed to the New York Evening Post. In the year that Irving in Europe published "The Sketch Book" (1819), Drake gave America "The Culprit Fay." Three years before this, Bryant had produced his unique "Thanatopsis;" and Drake's "Fay," a delicate fairy tale of the Highlands of the Hudson, was the second best' poem then produced in America.
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), who in early youth wrote anonymously a political satire, "The Embargo," was the first American poet of note. His stately hymn in blank verse, "Thanatopsis," which appeared in the North American Review in 1817, was a wonderful masterpiece of precocity, and won him an audience in England. Wordsworth is said to have learned the poem by heart, and in dignity of verse and majesty of style it is still to be recognized as one of the poetical masterpieces of the time.
As Bryant may be regarded as the pioneer American poet, and Irving as the pioneer essayist and man of letters, so James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) may be styled the first American novelist of true distinction. He is one of the world's great story-tellers, whose defects of style are abundantly compensated by the invention of his narrative in plot and incident. He became, furthermore, the first voice of primeval America, of her virgin wilderness, and her aboriginal children. He created the Indian as a life-size figure of literature, impressive even if idealized. And as he originated the novel of the forest, so to a certain extent he originated the novel of the sea. In those days it was necessary for professional men of letters to adopt, as Bryant did, the bread winning employment of the newspaper. Literature as a profession did not really exist, and such giants of literary genius as Poe and Hawthorne, not to mention Lowell and others, belonged to a generation of poorly paid Bohemians. In the early forties two Philadelphia magazines began to pay their contributors with what was then thought to be a princely munificence. Godey's Lady's Book, which had the chief financial success among the Philadelphia magazines, had succeeded Dennie's Port Folio in the fine personnel of contributors. It began in July, 1830, and its circulation grew several years later to 150,000 a month, largely due to its colored fashion plates. Some-what dimmed by the prismatic colors of the fashions, some of the earliest compositions of Poe, Holmes, Lydia H. Sigourney, Frances S. Osgood, Longfellow, Bayard Taylor, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, appeared in this magazine. Its chief rival was the Gentleman's Magazine, which George R. Graham, in 1841, purchased from William E. Burton the actor, and renamed simply Graham's Magazine. "There is one thing more," said Burton, after concluding the sale. "I want you to take care of my young editor." The "young editor" was Poe. Later Rufus Wilmot Griswold, of unpleasant notoriety later, sat in the editorial chair, and Lowell assisted Poe. Longfellow's "Spanish Student," Cooper's "Jack Tier," and some of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Twice-told Tales" appeared in its pages. The Cary Sisters, Charles Fenno Hoffman, Thomas Dunn English, N. P. Willis, W. W. Story, E. P. Whipple contributed to it. Among the last were Bayard Taylor and C. Godfrey Leland. N. P. Willis established the American Monthly Magazine and wrote popular books of verse and society sketches.
In the Bohemian world of literary newspapers and magazines, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) found his destiny cast. He was born in Boston, but he never belonged there, though his first volume, "Tamerlane and Other Poems," bore on its title- page the words, "By a Bostonian." His father was a penniless actor, and had married an actress. Early deprived of both parents, Poe was adopted by Mr. Allan, a wealthy merchant of Richmond, Va. He drank and gambled, ran in debt, indulged in perverse pride, and was finally disowned by his adoptive father, who had tried to make a soldier of him at West Point. Turning to literature for support, Poe won a prize of $100 offered by a weekly paper for a story. His contribution was "The Manuscript Found in a Bottle." Being brought to the notice of John P. Kennedy, he was made editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, at Richmond. He married his cousin, Virginia Clenn, in 1836, and a year later went, first to New York, and then to Philadelphia, where he was editor of the Gentleman's Magazine, afterwards Graham's Magazine. He published "Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque" (1839), which gave him renown as a prose writer. They were soon translated into French, and since that time Poe's popularity in France has exceeded that of any other American writer. Such combination of mathematical and imaginative powers is unknown elsewhere in all the range of literature. There is an exquisite fascination and enchanting melody in his verse that seems beyond the reach of calculating art.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a classmate with Longfellow in Bowdoin College. His first books were warmly received. These half-weird but felicitously told tales marked an epoch in American literature. They were followed by his delightful tales for children from "Grandfather's Chair," in which he first treated New England history. Meanwhile Bancroft, the historian, then collector of customs at Boston, appointed him a weigher and gauger, a place which the Whigs permitted him to retain but two years. He also embarked in the Acadian Brook Farm experiment. "I went to live in Acadia," he said, "and found myself up to my chin in a barn- yard." Deserting Brook Farm, he married and took the historic gambrel-roofed house at Concord, from whence issued the tales collected in the "Mosses from an Old Manse." His second series of "Twice-told Tales," with their Legends of the Province House, added a fresh romantic interest to Revolutionary Boston. Almost noiselessly his shy genius had made itself recognized as a new literary force. He returned to Salem for four years as surveyor in its old Custom House. After leaving this berth, he gave forth his masterwork, "The Scarlet Letter," in the preface to which he has told the story of that old Salem institution (1850). Hawthorne afterwards observed that "no author without a trial can see the difficulty of writing a romance about a country where there is no shadow, no antiquity, no mystery, no picturesque and gloomy wrong, nor anything but a commonplace prosperity in broad and simple daylight." Yet in "The Scarlet Letter" he had touched even the gloom of Puritanism with the glamour of romance, as well as achieved a world's masterpiece of psychology. He now retired to Lenox, Massachusetts, with Herman Melville, author of "Typee," as almost his sole companion, and wrote the "House of Seven Gables." In 1853 President Pierce appointed him consul at Liverpool. His Notebooks contain his observations on life in England, France, and Italy.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was a lineal successor to Irving, whom he also resembled in his equal treatment of foreign and native themes and legends alike. Such an academic influence as his, broadened and deepened by generous travel abroad to prepare him for his Harvard chair, was certainly needed in the decade after 1830. By his "Poets and Poetry of Europe" he familiarized Americans with the literature and lore of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, and even of old Anglo-Saxon days. His "Outre Mer," a book of travel, has kept a place for itself until to-day. When he came to write his Indian legend of "Hiawatha," his familiarity with the then little-known literature of the Northland enabled him to borrow the curious metre, style of imagery, and treatment of the Finnish epic "Kalevala." As a critic proper, Longfellow possessed more learning than Poe, but was less truly critical, nor had he the satire and penetration of Lowell. But it is as the great poet of sympathy, as America's most popular poet, that Longfellow must be chiefly considered; and, in the scope of this brief sketch, it is unnecessary to give a systematic account of his familiar poems. Long-fellow's conspicuous note as a poet was from the heart, and not the head. He touched his readers with tender poems of common sentiment and elevating tendency. Perhaps his most scholarly achievement in poetry was his translation of Dante's "Divina Commedia," published in 1867. How deeply he lingered throughout this long labor of love under the spell of the stern Florentine, may be seen in those sonnets inspired by his work and effectively mirroring on their surface this "mediaeval miracle of song." Long- fellow's translation is, in many respects, such as the metrical and onomatopoetic, superior to that of Carey. He was universally regarded with affection, and England paid her first tribute of memorial honor to an American writer by placing his bust in Westminster Abbey.
James Russell Lowell (1819-1888) succeeded Longfellow in his chair at Harvard. If not of Longfellow's rank as a poet, he was a greater critic and essayist, and had great influence for good in critical times. He was appointed Minister to England by President Hayes, where he won high and lasting favor, and received flattering degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. His "Fable for Critics," and the "Bigelow Papers" sparkled with homely humor, wit, satire, patriotism, and idyllicism, the latter being unique in literature. It is, however, chiefly as critic and essayist that he is best known. In his three books of literacy criticism and fancy, "Fireside Travels," "Among My Books," "My Study Windows," he proved himself to be America's most scholarly critic. The old English authors Chaucer, Spenser, the dramatists of Elizabeth's reign, attracted his attention particularly. But his catholicity of taste was also accompanied by a catholicity of subjects. In "My Garden Acquaintance," and "A Good Word for Winter," he displayed notable graces of style; and his paper "On a Certain Condescension of Foreigners," was a capital "retort courteous" to the woes inflicted upon America by foreign critics, and continues to be a compensating solace even to this day.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was the most potent force in New England thought. In 1832, after his wife's death, he gave up the Congregational ministry, for reasons of conscience, and travelled in Italy, France, and England, where began the lifelong friendship with Thomas Carlyle. His transcendental writings attracted wide attention, and he retained his popularity as a lecturer during forty-six years.
He smiled approval on the Brook Farm experiment, but took little part in it except to contribute to the Dial. But he did assist with voice and pen in the anti-slavery agitation. In 1847 he went on a second visit to England, which was rich in observation and effect on his mind. After his return his lectures on Plato, Shakespeare, Napoleon, Swedenborg, and others, were published under the title, "Representative Men" (1850). This proved popular, and still more so was his "English Traits" (1856). More readers could appreciate his judgement of great men and nations than could understand his sublime philosophy of the universe.
Emerson had but rarely contributed to periodical literature; but in 1857 a group of his friends—Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes—arranged in his parlor for the publication of the Atlantic Monthly, Lowell being editor. For some years Emerson contributed to it regularly prose and verse. His essays were collected in "The Conduct of Life" (1860); "Society and Solitude" (1864), and "Letters and Social Aims" (1876); his poems in "May-Day" (1867). He edited a collection of poetry by other authors in "Parnassus" (1874), and a selection of his own "Poems" (1876). Thereafter he wrote but little, though he revised and edited his former publications. The projected "Natural History of the Intellect," on which he had labored for many years, was never put into a form suitable for publication. In the latter years of his life his mind and memory failed. After his death his correspondence with Carlyle was edited by Professor Charles Eliot Norton (1883).
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), born at Haver-hill, Massachusetts, was not only the chief Quaker poet, but the clearest voice of New England country life. Bred on a farm, he found his first poetic inspiration in reading the poems of the inspired Scotch ploughman, Robert Burns. At the age of twenty he had earned enough by farm chores and shoemaking to secure some instruction at Haverhill Academy, and then became a district school-teacher. He contributed verse to the Free Press and found a lasting friend in the editor, William Lloyd Garrison, who enlisted him in the anti-slavery crusade. In 1835 Whittier was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature. From 1837 to 1839 he edited the Pennsylvania Freeman, at Philadelphia, where his office was sacked and burnt by a mob. His delicate health obliged him to return to Amesbury, Massachusetts, where with his sister he led a frugal life, contributing chiefly to the National Era, published in Washington. Gradually his books of poems made their way, and when the struggle for Kansas came, in 1856, he was recognized as the poet of freedom. These militant poems of a peace-loving Quaker helped to prepare the Northern people for the Civil War. When the Atlantic Monthly was founded,. Whittier was a frequent contributor. His verse celebrated there the emancipation of the slaves; but in his lallad of "Barbara Frietchie" he told effectively the story of the old woman of Frederick, Maryland, who waived the Union flag over the troops of Stonewall Jackson, and was gallantly spared by him. This tribute to Northern loyalty and Southern chivalry has become a national classic. His masterpiece is "Snow-Bound," a characteristic American poem. He ranks next in popularity to Longfellow.
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) was the last survivor of the Cambridge poet- group. He was the son of Rev. Abiel Holmes, a Harvard pastor, who wrote "The Annals of America." Having graduated from Harvard in 1829, he studied law and medicine, and spent three years in Europe. He was but twenty-one years old when he made his famous protest, "Old Ironsides," which saved the frigate Constitution from destruction, and not much older when in "The Last Leaf" he combined humor with the deepest pathos. Holmes was professor of medicine at Dartmouth College for a year, but settled in Boston in 1840, and seven years later was made professor at Harvard. Besides lecturing there and on the lyceum platform, he wrote patriotic and entertaining poems for occasions, and became the laureate of his Alma Mater, inditing forty poems in her honor. One of these, "The Boys," is the jolliest class poem ever written. Holmes was also the bard of Boston, whose state-house he pronounced to be "the hub of our solar system." But his lasting fame was due to the founding of the Atlantic Monthly, in 1857. His contribution was in the form of a serial, "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table." The series was renewed, in 1859, in "The Professor," and continued, in 1873, as "The Poet at the Breakfast Table." Novels and books of verse appeared during these years. In 1884 he published "Our Hundred Days in Europe," telling of his observations there fifty years after his first visit. Then, in his eightieth year, the veteran renewed his conversational contributions to the Atlantic in a series called "Over the Tea-Cups," full of the same shrewd sense and tender sentiment as "The Autocrat." He lived to be a "Last Leaf," yet without losing his geniality and optimism, preserving to the last the fresh spirit of youth.
Other New England writers of note were Margaret Fuller, Bronon Alcott, Lydia Maria Child, Mrs. Sigourney, philosophic and progressive teachers. The North American Review was founded in 1815, and gathered around it a brilliant circle of writers, of whom Edward Everett (1794-1865) was one of the strongest. Everett unloaded his treasures of German thought. More than a hundred articles came from his pen. In 1824 his address before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard on "The Circumstances Favorable to the Progress of Literature in America," was a prophetic precursor of Emerson's dissertation on "The American Scholar," delivered before the same society thirteen years later. Everett was noted for his high classical scholarship and for the careful finish of his prose style. But he was not merely a literary man; he was active in public affairs. He represented Boston in Congress for ten years, was governor of Massachusetts for three years, United States minister to England for four years, president of Harvard for three years, secretary of state in President Fillmore's cabinet for one year, and United States senator for one year, when he resigned on account of impaired health. Yet afterwards he delivered in various parts of the country an oration on Washington for the purpose of raising a fund to purchase Mount Vernon and preserve it intact as a national memorial. His final service was in delivering the oration at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, in November, 1863. His speeches were polished to the perfection of classical oratory, and were full of admiring contemplation and thoughtful admonition.
William Ellery Channing was a great name in the early days of liberal religious thought. The Brook Farm experiment grew out of the transcendental movement. It lasted from 1840 until 1847. Among its members were George William Curtis, Charles Anderson Dana, John Sullivan Dwight, Margaret Fuller, and George Ripley.
A new view of history was developed, as an outgrowth of the transcendental philosophy inaugurated by the German Kant, and carried out more fully by his successors. History was no longer regarded as a gathering of isolated arbitrary facts, but as the study of the progress of mankind. National history could not be properly considered apart from its relation to the general movement. Each nation was an actor in a great world's drama. Its contribution was best understood when properly presented in its true connection. The first group of historians is headed by George Bancroft (1800-1891). The progress of his famous work was interrupted by periods of service to the country. After a term as collector of the port of Boston, he was called by President Polk to his cabinet, as secretary of the navy, in 1845. He then founded the Naval Academy at Annapolis. He also, in anticipation of the Mexican War, issued orders which helped to secure possession of California. In 1846 he was sent as minister to England. Returning three years later, he fixed his residence in New York, and devoted his time to the history, but occasionally ventured in other fields. During the Civil War he was a firm friend of the Union; and after its close, he was sent by President Johnson as minister to Germany, where he remained until 1874. His later residence was at Washington, though his summers were spent at Newport, where his rose-garden was celebrated.
His great history was the result of conscientious research, careful consideration of authorities, and enthusiasm for the subject. Its style is brilliant, though in the early volumes sometimes discursive and declamatory. Probably the best part of his work is the last, written after the Civil War and the discussion of questions of reconstruction had shed new light on the fundamental principles of the Union and the Constitution. Though the author had not historical genius of the highest order, he was eminently fitted for his task by a liberal education, by his capability and disposition to take pains, and by his judicial insight, which was only occasionally distorted by partisan bias. Perhaps improperly called the "History of the United States," the work in its utmost extent tells only the story of the foundation of the nation, but it does point out the sources of its greatness, and sets forth the virtues of democratic government in a vehement, oratorical way, which rather provokes than disarms criticism. Yet the whole work, showing at first the exuberant enthusiasm of youth, and finally and cautious wisdom of age, is a grand epic of democracy.
Richard Hildreth's "History of the United States" is dry in style, judicial in tone, never aiming at brilliance or entertainment.
William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859) was not a profoundly philosophical historian, yet he became the most brilliant and famous of our historical writers. This was owing no less to his selection of romantic themes in which the American people felt an interest, as belonging to the New World, than to his artistic arrangement of the events, and to his captivating style.
The first instalment of Prescott's life-work appeared in 1837, having cost him more than ten years' assiduous labor. It was the "History of Ferdinand and Isabella," printed at his own expense. The romantic nature of the subject, enhanced by the author's dignified yet charming style, gave it a popularity which it has retained to the present day. It was soon translated into several European languages, and caused the author to be ranked as the foremost of American historians. In 1843 appeared the "Conquest of Mexico," which had an unparalleled reception, both from the general public and from the highest authorities. It won special praise from Wilhelm von Humboldt, who had visited that country. Four years later the "Conquest of Peru" was published.
John Lothrop Motley was a man of high scholarship and varied attainments, but was late in concentrating his labor on the historical work which was to give him fame, the "Rise of the Dutch Republic." He also wrote the "History of the United Netherlands," and was minister to Austria and England.
Another historian, who, like Prescott, labored under the affliction of partial blindness, and yet achieved memorable results, was Francis Parkman. Descended from the earliest settlers of Massachusetts, he was born in Boston in 1823, and was educated at Harvard College. He studied law, but he had already determined to devote his life to an adequate presentation of the great conflict between the French and English for the possession of North America. In order to understand the background of the subject fully, he resolved to examine the manners and customs of Indians as yet unaffected by contact with the whites. For this purpose, in 1846, he explored the wilderness towards the Rocky Mountains, and lived for several weeks among the Dakota Indians in that region, then just becoming known. Although previously strong and fond of exercise, the privations which he endured rendered him an invalid for life. The immediate results of his observations and experiences were given in his picturesque series of historical writings, of which "Montcalm and Wolfe" is the splendid climax. This list of writers may include the name of Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had so great a reception among the opponents of slavery.
The growing commercial and political importance of New York, its increase of wealth, and the enterprise of its publishers, both of books and periodicals, tended to make it a literary centre before the close of the first half-century. George William Curtis is better known by his "Easy Chair" essays in Harper's Weekly than by his books, graceful though they are. Bayard Taylor wrote much, travelled widely, and translated Faust in the original metres. He was appointed minister to Germany in 1878, and died there soon after.
In the South, before the Civil War, literature was not generally favored. Men of intellectual ability there became statesmen, ministers, orators, and jurists. Yet some of these gave occasional attention to literary work, and a few devoted themselves to it almost entirely.
The principal literary figure of the Old South was William Gilmore Simms (1806- 1870), who was born in Charleston, South Carolina, where his father had come from the North of Ireland, shortly after the Revolution. He wrote historical, geographical, and didactic works; but he lives only in his romances, which are numerous and stirring. Albert Pike (1809-1891) studied law, commanded a force of Cherokee Indians on the Confederate side at the battle of Pea Ridge. His "Hymns to the Gods" and other poems showed high lyric power. John Esten Cooke undertook to do for Virginia what Simms had done for South Carolina. He published the novel "Leather Stocking and Silk," which was soon followed and surpassed by "The Virginia Comedians," probably the best Southern novel written before the war. Others of his early stories were "The Last of the Foresters" and "Henry St. John, Gentleman." During the Civil War Cooke served on the staff of various Confederate generals. Afterwards he retired to his farm near Winchester, and wrote biographies of Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and several novels relating to the great conflict. Among those were "Mohun: or, the Last Days of Lee and His Paladins," and "Hilt to Hilt: or, Days and Nights in the Shenandoah."
Paul Hamilton Hayne (1831-1886), bearing a name famous in the annals of South Carolina, was the finest poet of the South. He was a native of Charleston, and edited literary periodicals there until the war, when he served on the staff of General Pickens. His house and property were destroyed in the bombardment of Charleston, and, after the war, he settled at Copse Hill, Georgia, where he pursued literary work till his death. Among his best poems are "The Pine's Mystery," the ballad "The Battle of King's Mountain," "The Lyric of Action." His war lyrics are thrilling, and his descriptive and meditative verses are exquisite in music and thought.
Henry Timrod (1829-1867), also born in Charleston, suffered from ill-health and poverty, yet wrote poems full of ardent devotion to the South and its lost cause. His war lyrics, grand and impetuous, won for him the title of "the Tyrtaeus of the South." His poems were edited by P.H. Hayne.
Abram Joseph Ryan (1840-1886), born of Irish parents, at Norfolk, Virginia, was equally devoted to the Southern cause. He was a Catholic priest, and served as chaplain in the Confederate army. After the war he edited religious and literary papers in New Orleans and Knoxville, and had charge of a church at Mobile. In 1880 he published his "Poems, Patriotic, Religious, Miscellaneous." He died at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1886. He is best known by his lament over the defeat of the Confederacy, "The Conquered Banner," and the spirited tribute to the Southern leader, "The Sword of Robert Lee."
The most remarkably original singer of the South was Sidney Lanier (1842-1881), who was chosen to write the cantata for the opening of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. He was descended from a long line of musicians, and distinguished his poetry by the intermingling of musical effects. He was born at Macon, Georgia, and studied at Oglethorpe College, until the war broke out, when he entered the Confederate service. He was captured on a blockade-runner, and held prisoner for five months. The hardships of war developed consumption, and the rest of his life was a courageous struggle with that disease. Though his art was too fine and high for general appreciation, Lanier is by many regarded as one of the greatest American poets.
Of minor poets, whose name is legion, it is not possible to make even a passing mention. The test of time will sift them according to their quality.
Perhaps the first of our nature-essayists was Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), who was born at Concord, Massachusetts, and died there. The son of a farmer, he was educated at Harvard, and for a time taught school. But after a while he took up his self-appointed work of minute observation of nature. He attached himself to Emerson, who always showed him friendly regard. In 1845 he built himself a hut on the shore of Walden Pond, and lived as a recluse in communion with nature. His experiences and observations were embodied in "Walden, or Life in the Woods" (1854). He had already published "A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers" (1848). Thoreau was an apostle of plain living and high thinking, and practiced what he preached. His life was a protest against all forms of superfluous comfort, and an effort to reach harmony with nature, as the basis of true happiness.
Wilson Flagg (1805-1894) also deserves a place among the American nature- essayists. Born at Beverly, Massachusetts, he was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, and studied medicine. He was a keen observer of outdoor life and natural phenomena. His writings were contributed to Boston newspapers and to the Atlantic Monthly. His best-known works are "Halcyon Days," "A Year with the Trees," and "A Year with the Birds."
Another man who took delight in the portrayal of outdoor nature with the pen was William Hamilton Gibson (1850-1896). He was also an artist and book-illustrator.
The most startling and debatable contribution to American literature is that made by Walt Whitman (1819-1892). It claimed to be the true voice of Democratic America; and, while the claim has been admitted by a scholarly; few here, and acknowledged by an equal number of scholarly poets in Europe, there is no evidence that it has been so accepted anywhere by the people.
Under the initials "H. H." an American woman won high regard as a poet, and afterwards showed brilliant descriptive power in prose. Later, when her name was fully disclosed, she took up the cause of the Indian, and in history and a popular novel pleaded in his behalf with the Government and the people of the United States. Helen Fiske was born in 1831, at Amherst, Massachusetts, where her father was professor in the college. At twenty-one she was married to Captain Edward Hunt of the United States army, and wandered with him in different parts of the country. When he was killed by the explosion of a mine and her daughter died, Mrs. Hunt was plunged in the deepest grief. After some time she began to write meditative and descriptive poems, which attracted attention by their strong feeling and vivid fancy. Sometimes they took the form of parable or allegory, but they were best when they painted out-door nature. Mrs. Hunt then wrote prose descriptions, which were collected under the title "Bits of Travel," and proved attractive to even a wider circle of readers. They abound in humor as well as pathos, and show the delicate insight of women. Other books of the same class followed. Two novels in the "No Name" series are known to have been from her pen,-"Mercy Philbrick's Choice," and "Hetty's Strange History." The stories published under the pen-name "Saxe Holme" have also been ascribed to her. After she was married to Mr. William Jackson, in Colorado, she became fully aware of the gross wrongs done to the Indians, and exerted herself to secure justice for them from the nation. For this purpose she studied the full history of Government dealings with the red men, and summed it up in "A Century of Dishonor," making a passionate appeal for removal of the national disgrace. This was followed by the powerful story "Ramona," written shortly before her death, in 1885. This expiring effort of her genius is perhaps its fullest illustration.
THE great social forces that have wrought the marvellous transformation in our national life show no signs of slackening. On the contrary, their momentum seems to increase with the years. Each new step forward impels to swifter strides. History is being made at a speed that would bewilder the Fathers of our country, who were themselves no laggards when love of freedom indicated patriotic duty. In the very stress and eagerness of our ambition to hasten the millennial era that seems so temptingly within reach, it is possible that complex schemes and worthy aims that clash with each other are sometimes fated to confuse rather than promote the end in view. Our progress has surpassed the dreams of the seers; but in its wake have followed a multitude of problems hard indeed to solve, often baffling to simplify or diagnose aright. Side by side with education still stalks ignorance; increased wealth has not yet out-paced the poverty that defies extinction; disease and pain tread in the footprints of the fortunate well-born; with unexampled lavishness the fast multiplying temples of religion and learning are being endowed, though the appalling voices of hunger, savagery, and depravity still echo in the darkness. Material prosperity coexists with material misery, and spiritual ideals are sorely racked by the seeming failure of life-long self-sacrifice and devotion to the noble task of radically reforming the conditions under which these social ills continue to flourish.
What gives the touch of divine grace and hope to our glorious but incomplete civilization is the universal sympathy that reaches out to help the weak and ill-developed and the ill-born. The history of the century glows with the benign flame of practical philanthropy, not in its almsgiving manifestation only, but in its efforts to prevent social evils by legislative and other feasible means. No stone can be justly cast at the religious and other organizations of the period on the charge that they labor only in cloudland. The second half of the last century saw a great, genuine revival throughout Christendom, a resolute determination to have works keep pace with faith, to see to it that creeds should be expressed in deeds. The stimulus given by the churches to secular philanthropies, and by lay agencies to the churches, has been one of the most cheering facts of recent history. Its good results can never be summed in dollar totals. Statistics are unable to reveal the unseen influences of this vast tidal wave of Good Samaritanism, which, as we have said, is gaining rather than slackening its beneficent force.
The sense of personal rights to liberty and prosperity has developed a powerful movement that has permeated society, leavening and levelling, controlled only by the natural checks of civilization. The poor prisoner dwells in a paradise compared with the unfortunate inmate of the old-time jails. The golden mean of penal treatment has perhaps not yet been attained. Excesses of vindictive punishment, even with fatal torture, are reported together with prison laxities that mock the name of justice. Relics of Puritanism here and there dull the beauty of life, while elsewhere the accepted proprieties of a seventh-day of rest are openly discarded in favor of a Parisian Sunday. Contrasts flourish on all hands, which at least denotes an era of rapid progress; and where this prevails, the greatest good of the greatest number is sure to be attained, sooner or later.
Education for all has been one of the grand causes of national progress. Less than a century ago comparatively few of the working folk could read.
" One of the reasons for the growth of popular education has been the spread of democratic ideas and of the application of industry to science. It began to dawn upon the people how profitable it would be for each inhabitant of a country to be able to communicate with or receive communications from others through ability to read and write. This ability, once gained and used, would break down the barriers which cut off a large part of the people from the influence of the current of the intellectual life of the nation, and also in a measure would efface the inequality which is caused by the neglect to provide any kind of instruction for the masses. There were charity schools supported by the churches or other charitable organizations before the beginning of the last century, but these were few and far between. Whatever education was given was granted as a boon. To-day education is regarded as a right in a civilized country, and an enlightened government appreciates the fact that the illiterate cannot become good citizens. Mental development leads to moral development, and influences physical improvement."
Governments have taken measures to insure public education, assisted or free. If the United States was not the first, it has made the most progress, until now there are about 17,000,000 children enrolled in the common schools. The normal schools have multiplied fast. "These schools have trained the teachers to make the best of their opportunities for the education of the young, and nowadays the important duty of teaching is not left to men who can do nothing else, as was the case not much longer than a half-century ago. These normal trained teachers have brought the best methods to their aid in their work. The methods are so numerous that we cannot go into detail here. The comfortable, well-lighted school-room of to-day and the excellent school-books are among the results. It is difficult to make easily appreciable comparisons in a few words; but it may be said that the schools are more carefully graded, fewer pupils assigned to each teacher, much oral instruction, scientific study, and physical exercise introduced, so that, while the school year has been shortened, holidays multiplied, and the hours of school attendance lessened, yet in the short school year of to-day more than double the ground is covered that was covered in the long school year of the olden time. Colleges and universities have grown up in all quarters, not a few of them with very rich endowments.
"Another development of the century has been the establishment of agricultural, commercial, scientific, and industrial schools.
"Civil engineers had to go abroad to study before the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was established at Troy, N. Y., in 1824, with no dead or foreign language in its curriculum. In 1826, twenty-five students were registered there, while now more than 20,000 are attending similar courses in this country. The Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University was established in 1847, the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard in 1848, and the Chandler Scientific School of Dartmouth in 1852. The land grants of 1862 by Congress encouraged this system of education, and scientific courses were added to the State universities; while Columbia organized its School of Mines, Washington University of St. Louis its School of Engineering, and in 1861 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology opened its doors. In 1871 the Stevens Institute of Technology was founded at Hoboken, and the Green School of Science was established as a branch of Princeton College. The growth from that day has been steady, until now, in practical scientific education, the United States ranks with the best in the world.
"Women were not admitted to university examinations in England until 1867, when the doors of the University of London were thrown open, and, in 1871, Miss Clough opened a house for women students in Cambridge, which in 1875 became Newnham College. Women were formally admitted to Cambridge in 1881, and somewhat similar privileges were given at Oxford in 1884. The two earliest women's colleges in the United States are generally reported to be Mount Holyoke, which dates from 1836, and was organized by Mary Lyon; but it had for its curriculum merely an academic course, and this is true of the Georgia Female College, opened at Macon, Georgia, in 1839. The first institution in the world designed to give women a full collegiate course was founded at Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1861, by Matthew Vassar, and it was opened in 1865. The first co-educational institutions were Antioch and Oberlin Colleges; but during the last generation co-education has met with growing favor, until now more than half the colleges of the United States admit women as well as men. Having gained a collegiate education the women sought admission to the professional schools, which they have gradually secured, until now women lawyers and physicians are quite common in the larger cities, and women legislators and mayors win public favor in Colorado and Iowa."
The colleges have their difficulties in the matter of discipline, there being a tendency on the part of students in some seats of learning to assert a degree of independence utterly at variance with the traditions of school-life. Exposures of childish and brutal "hazing" of juniors by seniors, inflicted generally by gangs upon individual victims, have aroused public indignation. Respect for authority will doubtless be re-established in these places. Another unpleasant feature in college discussion is the occasional discovery of an illicit sale of examination questions, procured in some surreptitious way through the printing office. It is reassuring to note that the majority of college professors agree in thinking that an appeal to the students' word of honor will effectually stamp out the temptation to cheat.
A strong and active movement for reform in city government gives promise of the coming end of corrupt rule. In each large city, organizations eagerly scan every act of the professional politicians who may misuse their powers to the public detriment. Against strongly intrenched foes, progress must be slow; but the fact that the people are bestirring themselves has a wholesome effect on wrongdoers.
Labor and capital have not yet made their peace with each other, though a spirit of conciliation is in the air. The decrees of the trades-unions are hard to deal with. Great strikes occur, a truce is patched up, adjustments are made for the sake of each side equally, as both are heavy losers. How it fares afterwards with the weaker in the fight is not usually made known. The condition of general unrest is thus described by Professor Albion W. Small in the American Journal of Sociology. He discusses "the social movement," as it is called. In his view it comprehends something more than the impulse among men to better themselves, for men have always had that impulse; but now there is a new note in their purpose, a new force and a changed outlook. By the new note in men's purpose is meant this: men used to accept the situation, and tried to make themselves as comfortable as possible in it-to-day they propose to change the situation. Besides trying to better themselves in the condition to which they were born, they now try to better the condition itself.
" They are not content with trying to get better wages. They want to overthrow the wage system. They do not stop with plans to provide for a rainy day. They want to abolish the rainy day. They are not content with conjugal fidelity. They want to reconstruct the family. They are not satisfied with improvements in the working of governments. They want to eliminate governments. They look with contempt upon adjustment of relations between social classes. They want to obliterate social classes. The emphasis to-day is on change of conditions rather than upon adjustment of conditions. Consequently too much of the labor problem is simply the problem of avoiding labor. Instead of feeling a pride and obligation in service, men and women through all the grades are debauched by the vision of escape from service, or, what amounts to the same thing, exchange of work for a state that seems to require less work. Not how to do well the work of our present condition, but how to get into a condition which seems to promise release from work, is the question which teases the least respectable and sometimes the more respectable of those who make the social movement. In the older countries Americans are constantly surprised by evidences of pride in being the latest of several generations in the line of fathers and sons who have succeeded to the same lowly occupation and still find satisfaction in conducting it well. With us the rule is discontent unless the occupation of the children promotes them to conditions supposed to be more dignified than those of their parents."
A factor of the first importance in estimating national progress is the striking industrial advance made by the Southern States since 1880. Between 1880 and 1890 the true valuation of real and personal property in the South increased from $6,448,000,000 to $9,621,000,000, a gain of $3,173,000,000, or fifty-one per cent.; while the New England and Middle States combined gained only $3,900,000,000, or an increase of but twenty-two per cent. The per capita wealth of the South increased during the same period twenty-two per cent., while the increase in New England for the same period was but one and eight-tenths per cent., and in the Middle States but three per cent. The value of farm property in the South in 1880 was $2,314,000,000; in 1890, $3,182,000,000, a gain of thirty-seven per cent. The increase in farm values in all other sections was about thirty per cent. The total value of farm products in the South in 1880 was $666,000,000, against $1,550,000,000 for the remainder of the country. In 1890 the South produced $773,000,000, a gain of sixteen per cent., while the gain of the rest of the country was only nine per cent. A comparison of these figures discloses the fact that in the South there was a gross revenue of twenty-four and one-tenth per cent. on the capital invested in farm interests, while in all other sections of the country the gross revenue was thirteen and one-tenth per cent. In 1880 the South had $257,244,000 invested in manufacturing. In 1890 she had $657,288,000, a gain of 156 per cent., while the gain of the entire country was about 121 per cent. The value of the manufactured products of the South in 1880 was $457,454,000. In 1890 it was $917,589,000, a gain of 100 per cent. In 1880 the factory hands alone in the South received $75,917,000 in wages. In 1890 they received $222,118,000. In 1880 the South had invested in cotton manufacturing $21,976,000; in 1890, $61,100,000, and now about $125,000,000. In 1880 the South had $3,500,000 invested in the cotton-seed-oil industry. It has now more than $30,000,000 so invested. The railroad mileage of the South has been increased since 1880 more than twenty-five thousand miles, at a cost in building new roads and in the improvement of old ones of over $1,000,000,000. In 1880 the South made 289,816 tons of pig iron. In 1897 it made 1,796,712 tons. In 1880 the value of the product was $7,269,050. In 1897 its estimated value was $26,592,719. In 1880 the South's output of coal was 3,756,144 tons. Last year it was 32,852,630 tons, and has exceeded 25,000,000 tons each year since 1891. The resources of the national banks of the South increased from $29,337,700 in 1880, to $287,594,604 in 1897, and the amount of individual deposits from $69,846,500 to $160,875,309 in the same period. These figures are exclusive of savings banks, the deposits in which increased proportionately. These figures are taken from Presby's "Empire of the South." The negro laborer is reported as being fairly contented with his lot as a mill-worker, and so are the whites. Wages are about ten per cent. lower than in the East, and the hours are longer, but "the operatives have so vastly improved their condition by working in the mill, not on the farm, that they are little inclined to ask for shorter hours or increased wages. They are the most uniformly contented and prosperous class in the South." The factory at High Shoals, for example, has been in operation forty years with labor drawn from the vicinity, and "no strike has ever occurred, not even a misunderstanding arisen." Trion factory, in northern Georgia, established by the Allgood family, affords another instance. It has been running fifty-five years, and "no strike, friction of any kind, or demand for change of hours or pay ever occurred at this large mill." Practically all the operatives are white, the blacks acting as servants in the operatives' households or draymen at the mill. (Some leaders among the Southern blacks have organized cotton-mills to be operated by negro labor, but this interesting phase of the Southern industrial situation is still in the experimental stage.) It is Mr. Smith's opinion that "the negroes are going to return to farming when the whites come to the mill." He adds: "A negro can't work in a mill. The hum of the machinery would put him to sleep, and if he even got a dollar ahead he would loaf a week."
The Indian problem still awaits a practical solution. Dr. Lyman Abbott offers his advice, through the North American Review, in frank terms. He blames the reservation system for the evils that exist and the problem as it stands. To reform our Indian administration the essential thing to do is to abolish that system. This involves placing the Indian on an equality of privilege and opportunity with the Caucasian and the negro. "Cease to treat the Indian as a red man," says Dr. Abbott, "and treat him as a man. Treat him as we have treated the Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Scandinavians. Many of them are no better able to take care of themselves than the Indians; but we have thrown on them the responsibility of their own custody, and they have learned to live by living. Treat them as we have treated the negro. As a race the African is less competent than the Indian; but we do not shut the negroes up in reservations, and put them in charge of politically appointed parents called agents. The lazy grow hungry; the criminal are punished; the industrious get on. And though sporadic cases of injustice are frequent and often tragic, they are the gradually disappearing relics of a slavery that is past, and the negro is finding his place in American life gradually, both as a race and as an individual. The reform necessary in the administration of Indian affairs is: Let the Indian administer his own affairs and take his chances. The future relations of the Indians with the Government should be precisely the same as the relations of any other individual, the readers of this article or the writer of it, for example. This should be the objective point, and the sooner we can get there the better. But this will bring hardship and even injustice on some individuals! Doubtless. The world has not yet found any way in which all hardship and all injustice to individuals can be avoided. Turn the Indian loose on the continent, and the race will disappear! Certainly. The sooner the better.
"There is no more reason why we should endeavor to preserve intact the Indian race than the Hungarians, Poles, or Italians. Americans all, from ocean to ocean, should be the aim of all American statesmanship. Let us understand once for all that an inferior race must either adapt and conform itself to the higher civilization, wherever the two come in conflict, or else die. This is the law of God, from which there is no appeal. Let Christian philanthropy do all it can to help the Indian to conform to American civilization; but let not sentimentalism fondly imagine that it can save any race or any community from this inexorable law."
The population of the United States, as shown by the official returns of the census of 1900, is 76,295,220. In 1890 it was 63,039,756, thus showing an increase of nearly twenty-one per cent. in ten years. A total Indian population of 134,158 is included in the above total for 1900. The cost of the census up to October 30, including enumeration and supervision, was $6,361,961, of which sum over $4,000,000 was expended in enumeration.
One of the most terrible calamities that has befallen any American city in recent times was that of the great hurricane of September 8 and 9, which literally wrecked the city of Galveston, Texas. The loss of life and property and the scenes of horror were appalling. It was estimated that about 7,000 were killed. Many other towns lying in the path of the cyclone were also wrecked; but Galveston, both on account of its size and its situation on a low, exposed island, was the chief sufferer. More than half of the city was wrecked by the wind and the big waves which swept over it from the Gulf. The catastrophe was overwhelming; but by the prompt aid of the Government, and generous contributions of money, food and clothing from all parts of the United States, everything possible was done for the relief of the survivors.
The United States made the largest display at the Paris Exposition of 1900 of any foreign nation, exhibiting in 101 out of 121 classes; and the exhibits were awarded: Grand prizes, 240; gold medals, 597; silver medals, 776; bronze medals, 541, and honorable mentions, 322,-2,476 in all, being the greatest total number given to the display of any exhibiting nation, as well as the largest number in each grade.
"This significant recognition of merit," said President McKinley in his message, "in competition with the chosen exhibits of all other nations, and at the hands of juries almost wholly made up of representatives of France and other competing countries, is not only most gratifying, but is especially valuable, since it sets us to the front in international questions of supply and demand, while the large proportion of awards in the classes of art and artistic manufacture afforded unexpected proof of the stimulation of national culture by the prosperity that flows from natural productiveness joined to industrial excellence."
Despite occasional differences over fisheries, canals, and in national points of view, there has been a marked disposition on the part of the United States and Great Britain to establish a fraternal understanding, for mutual good. It is worth remarking, as a sign of the times. The feeling was strengthened on this side by the friendly attitude of England at the time of our war with Spain.
" The Spanish diplomats were busy misrepresenting our intentions and plans respecting Cuba, and stirring up the holders of Spanish bonds, especially in France and Germany, as well as other interests and influences friendly to Spain, and notably the Pope of Rome and the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, in the attempt to get sympathy and support. This produced a division between the great powers, which became sharper as the prospect increased that the future disposition of the Philippines would be determined by the impending war. Europe became very distinctly divided into two hostile camps; and, by the time the war became imminent, Great Britain was the only great power which sympathized with the United States, even Russia and France, our traditional friends, siding more or less openly with Spain, together with Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, each from mixed and different motives. But Great Britain's friendship, even though it may have been largely due to enlightened self-interest, and although it undoubtedly hurt our cause in Russia, France, and Germany, was invaluable to us in many ways; and the good understanding brought about between the two governments by Secretary Day and Ambassador Hay was a most important achievement. There was no suggestion of a formal alliance with or without a treaty, for that was at once unnecessary and undesirable under the circumstances, and the benevolent neutrality of Great Britain was much more useful. But the informal and unwritten understanding between the two governments, based on a temporary coincidence of interests and backed by popular good-will, was recognized by the other great powers as of the first importance, and at once prevented them from combining to support Spain, secured their co- operation in trying to make Spain yield, and compelled them to maintain neutrality in more or less good faith. No formal attempt was ever made to combine Europe in alliance against the United States, for the simple reason that it was well known that Great Britain would not join in such a movement, but, on the contrary, would take her stand beside the United States against any European combination."
The obvious grounds for sympathy with England are familiar,- community of language, kinship in race, similarity of institutions, fellowship in religion. Then there is the commercial argument, scarcely less familiar. She is by far our best customer.
The number of English and American families who are united by personal ties is far greater than is the case with any other two nations. We may jest about the marriages of American girls to the scions of prominent English houses; but the fact remains that these alliances, and many others that are not chronicled, have their effect. How deep may be the sentiments so earnestly uttered on both sides of the Atlantic of recent years, it is not important to inquire. The remarkable manifestations of regard that went out from every large American city on the death of Queen Victoria testified to a sincere appreciation of the blameless career of a good woman and sovereign, and the effect on the English people was profound. The aspirations of both nations are towards a union of sympathies and aims in the interests of the Anglo-Saxon race. Their lines lie in different directions, their national interests are not common, nor are they likely to be, so that any suggestion of a formal pact would be a mistake and possibly worse. Still, no well-wisher of his country, whichever it be, can contemplate the possibility of a closer friendship between these two great powers without wishing it godspeed.
THE curtain fell on the last scene of the nineteenth century drama to the ominous music of the bugle and cannon. The echoes only faintly reached our ears, for the Transvaal is remote; and, though the Philippine Islands are linked to us by vocal wires, the rude noise of insurgent-suppression has not the familiar thrilling note of war. The Republic is at peace with the great powers, itself having in the last half-hundred years become one of the greatest.
Yet it begins the new century in a state of unrest. Its responsibilities and risks have multiplied and expanded proportionately to its new power. The nations of Europe have made room for a newcomer in their select circle. The American has invaded the fancied private grounds sacred to the tread of old-world potentates. He has invaded it quietly as a bearer of light, then as a distributor of civilizing merchandise, and now boldly as a conqueror. The Republic has henceforth to be reckoned with as an unknown possibility, with the probabilities indicating a sure growth of world-greatness. The startling fact has caused a general scrutiny of the situation and the drift of things. If the powers are at peace, they are inwardly ill at ease. When Europe, Asia, and Africa feel chills and fever America cannot but feel premonitory symptoms of influenza. These are the little drawbacks to the joy of belonging to a great family. With every fresh move on the international chess-board each player and interested on-looker has to forecast, as best he can, its distant possible effect on his interests. The fine art and science of high diplomacy now becomes a thing of vital moment to the nation. From an easy contentment with paragraphic items about foreign statecraft, the patriotic American newspaper reader must henceforth scan the doings and the sayings of Europe's trained statesmen and Asia's oleaginous, dual-minded handlers of policy. He must learn to distinguish between words that mean less than the spaces that separate them, and omissions that signify the essential pith of the utterance. He will come to perceive how most of what appear to be deliberate decisions prove by and by to be mere feelers, deftly and successfully contrived to elicit the views or schemings of the other party. He will learn that what on their face seem to be startling acts are often simple traps for the unwary. The play is fascinating as it grows familiar. Whether it consumes time that might be used to better advantage in the home, is another question; but certain it is that expansion of responsibilities necessitates expansion of knowledge, insight, and wisdom, qualities already possessed in high degree by the American people, as their splendid history demonstrates; yet there is more need than ever that these virtues shall be broadened and deepened. The opening of the twentieth century is not the time for resting oars or reversing telescope.
Our relations with certain powers and peoples at the close of the century call for notice in this historical survey. And it is proper to follow the order in which our foreign affairs are stated in the President's message to the LXVth Congress. China stands first.
["The dominant question," says the message, "has been the treatment of the Chinese problem. Apart from this our relations with the powers have been happy. The recent troubles in China spring from the anti-foreign agitation which for the last three years has gained strength in the northern provinces. Their origin lies deep in the character of the Chinese race and in the traditions of their government. The Taiping rebellion and the opening of Chinese ports to foreign trade and settlement disturbed alike the homogeneity and the seclusion of China. Meanwhile foreign activity made itself felt in all quarters, not alone on the coast but along the great river arteries and in the remoter districts, carrying new ideas and introducing new associations among a primitive people which had pursued for centuries a national policy of isolation. The telegraph and the railway spreading over their land, the steamers plying on their waterways, the merchant and the missionary penetrating year by year farther to the interior, became to the Chinese mind types of an alien invasion, changing the course of their national life and fraught with vague forebodings of disaster to their beliefs and their self-control.
For several years before the present troubles all the resources of foreign diplomats, backed by moral demonstrations of the physical force of fleets and arms, have been needed to secure due respect for the treaty rights of foreigners and to obtain satisfaction from the responsible authorities for the sporadic outrages upon the persons and property of unoffending sojourners, which from time to time occurred at widely separated points in the northern provinces, as in the case of the outbreaks in Szechuen and Shantung. In the latter province an outbreak, in which German missionaries were slain, was the too natural result of these malevolent teachings. The posting of seditious placards, exhorting to the utter destruction of foreigners and of every foreign thing, continued unrebuked. Hostile demonstrations towards the stranger gained strength by organization.
The sect commonly styled the Boxers developed greatly in the provinces north of the Yangtse, and with the collusion of many notable officials, including some of the immediate councils of the throne itself, became alarmingly aggressive. No foreigner's life outside of the protected treaty ports was safe. No foreign interest was secure from spoliation.]
An English diplomat gives the following account of the Boxer society and its purposes: "Of the many hundreds of secret societies of one sort and another in China but few are actively opposed to the present dynasty,-opposed to it, that is to say, to the extent of wishing to rise against it and crush it. Unfortunately, one of the most influential of those few is the brotherhood we now speak about so lightly. These Boxers are in reality a branch of the brotherhood universally dreaded in China, as well as in Singapore, Penang, northern India, and parts of the United States, and known as the Sam Hop Wui, while, among the European population of Canton, Shanghai, and Pekin, it is usually alluded to as the Great Triad Society. This society, called also the Hung League, and known by many other titles as well, has been in existence so many hundreds of years that its origin is buried in obscurity. The membership of the Boxers, roughly speaking, is rather over than under 4,000,000, for the brotherhood was believed to have 4,000,000 members some ten years ago, and the membership is known to have increased considerably since then. The society is composed of lodges, each of which has a president, whose power for good and evil is considerable. Every president has under him two or more vice-presidents, who are bound to obey his every command, or else suffer a horrible death." The Boxers' society is anti-reform, anti-foreign, and anti-Christian.
The story leading up to the intervention of the allied powers is as follows: In 1898 the Chinese Emperor, Kwang-Hsu, incurred the violent opposition of the conservative Manchu party by adopting a policy which contemplated sweeping reforms in the administration of the government and the conduct of private affairs. He issued an edict sanctioning the establishment of a great national university at Pekin, modelled after those of the United States. Virtually, he wished to adopt the main features of Western civilization.
In August of that year, however, the Empress Dowager, An, the acknowledged head of the Conservatives, relieved the Emperor of all real power, either through a conspiracy or with his consent, and began a vigorous administration of affairs by issuing a decree which practically set aside all the Emperor's reformatory proclamations. In some cases, reformers were dismissed from office; in others, arrested and executed on pretexts that were at least sufficient to satisfy the Empress and her violent councillors that they deserved death. It was reported that Kwang-Hsu had committed suicide,-leading to the supposition that he had been assassinated; but this proved a false rumor, and it seems that at some time during the ensuing two years he again assumed the direction of imperial affairs.
Rumors of the deposition of the Emperor, Kwang-Hsu, were not confirmed; but the Dowager Empress, with her bitter hatred of foreigners, soon became the power behind the throne, and matters began in February to take on an ominous appearance. Lives of missionaries were soon threatened, and the Pekin government either did not or could not restrain the anti-foreign society of Boxers, who in April and May began to show activity in various provinces, and particularly at Swatow and in the Shan-tung province in general. It was not till the early days of June, when the startling intelligence was received that the foreign ministers of all the powers, together with their families and official households and a handful of marine guards, were besieged by Boxer mobs in Pekin. A riot at Shang- hai led to the landing of a French cruiser's marines, who killed and wounded several rioters During the whole of 1899 the agitation was kept up, particular animosity being shown to foreigners.
In April, 1900, disorder and violence had become extreme, and the ministers of the several governments represented at the Chinese capital sent a joint note to the Chinese foreign office announcing, that, unless the Boxers were suppressed, troops would be landed to march into the interior and protect the foreigners.
The United States Government, informed of the condition in which American missionaries, official representatives in the various provinces, and other citizens resident there, were placed by the attitude of these fanatics, had left it to Minister Conger's judgment to frame as strong demands for the protection of American residents as circumstances might warrant, but had instructed him not to commit his Government to any combined action with the other powers. He might enforce his demands with threats, if necessary, but without pledging the Government to any policy. The Chinese authorities professed to accede to what we demanded, but the outrages continued.
One hundred and sixty native Christians were massacred in Chi-li, the Pekin province, and the insurgents burned the railway stations, pulled up the tracks within thirty miles of the capital, and routed the imperial forces. Our Government joined the allied movement to take the business of suppression in hand. "A proposal was made," says the message, "by the other powers, that a combined fleet should be assembled in Chinese waters as a moral demonstration, under cover of which to exact of the Chinese government respect for foreign treaty rights and the suppression of the Boxers. The United States, while not participating in the joint demonstration, promptly sent from the Philippines all ships that could be spared for service on the Chinese coast. A small force of marines was landed at Taku, and sent to Pekin for the protection of the American legation. Other powers took similar action, until some four hundred men were assembled in the capital as legation guards."
On the 28th of May Rear-Admiral Louis Kempff arrived at Taku, his vessel—the United States cruiser Newark—carrying sailors and marines; on the 29th he landed 100 men under Captain McCalla; on the 30th he proceeded with this force thirty-five miles up the Peiho River, to Tien-Tsin, and the next day he started McCalla and fifty men to Pekin, with other foreign troops. The first relief column was composed of about 350 men,—American, British, French, Italian, Russian, and Japanese. The consent of the Chinese government had been asked, but refused; and in view of the extreme danger of foreign legations, missionaries, and refugees at Pekin, it was determined to organize and start this column, which would endeavor to force its way. The Chinese fired on the ships as they landed their men. "The forts were thereupon shelled by the foreign vessels, the American admiral taking no part in the attack, on the ground that we were not at war with China, and that a hostile demonstration might consolidate the anti- foreign elements and strengthen the Boxers to oppose the relieving column." Two days later the Taku forts were captured. The English force had gone to Pekin. After fighting continually for fifteen days, Admiral Seymour's expedition was relieved by a force sent from Taku, and the remnants of it were brought back to the coast. June 18 Baron von Ketteler, the German minister, was murdered in the streets of Pekin, and rumors affirmed that all the legationers had shared the same fate.
Admiral Kempff asked for additional American troops, and orders were promptly sent to Manila to forward the Ninth Infantry to Taku. This regiment reached Taku in July, and was shortly afterwards sent by detachments to Tien-Tsin. On the 26th of June the Fourteenth United States Infantry and Reilly's Battery reached that city, having been ordered from Manila.
In the mean time the allied troops had stormed and taken the forts about Tien- Tsin, after heavy fighting and some loss. In this Admiral Kempff did not participate, deeming that his orders from Washington forbade it; but he was subsequently informed that his powers were ample for seizing forts, fighting battles, or acting in any other manner necessary for the promotion of the prime object in view,-the protection of Americans and American interests.
Murders of missionaries at various stations occurred early in June, and pillage and destruction were fast becoming general; so that there was a sense of insecurity and dread even in provinces remote from the capital, and particularly in the region of the treaty ports, where the citizens of other countries were more numerous, and yet not sufficiently numerous to offer effectual resistance to a frenzied populace.
Early in August the allied forces began their advance upon Pekin, and forced an entrance into the city, relieving the legations after one of the most remarkable sieges in history. The allied forces remained in China, occupying Pekin, though the greater part of the American and Russian forces were withdrawn from the capital. Negotiations between China and the powers are always slow, and the final settlement of the Chinese trouble is yet undecided. December 22 the powers agreed upon twelve demands to be submitted to the Chinese envoys. The terms demand fullest apology to Germany for the killing of its minister, the erection of a monument to him, and full indemnity to the powers for the losses they have sustained. The amount of the indemnities is not stated, the language of the terms insisting only that they shall be "equitable," the powers themselves presumably being the judges.
"The policy of the United States," says the message, "through all this trying period, was clearly announced and scrupulously carried out. A circular note to the powers, dated July 3, proclaimed our attitude. Treating the condition in the North as one of virtual anarchy, in which the great provinces of the South and Southeast had no share, we regarded the local authorities in the latter quarters as representing the Chinese people, with whom we sought to remain in peace and friendship. Our declared aims involved no war against the Chinese nation. We adhered to the legitimate office of rescuing the imperilled legation, obtaining redress for wrongs already suffered, securing, wherever possible, the safety of American life and property in China, and preventing a spread of the disorders or their recurrence. As was then said: `The policy of the government of the United States is to seek a solution which may bring about permanent safety and peace to China, preserve Chinese territorial and administrative entity, protect all rights guaranteed to friendly powers by treaty and international law, and safeguard for the world the principle of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese empire.'"
Thus the Chinese problem stands as the century opens, so far as it touches American policy.
The following from the pen of the Hon. Charles Denby, formerly United States Minister to China, in Munsey's Magazine, has value as indicating the lines on which American diplomacy may move:
["At the point of the bayonet the foreign powers in 1858 forced China to sign, seal, and conclude certain treaties. There had been treaties made before, but they were not satisfactory to England and France. The new treaties were repudiated by China, and in 1861 French and English soldiers marched to Pekin to force their ratification.
Then commenced for China the difficult lesson of learning how to manage foreign affairs. The foreign ministers came to reside permanently in Pekin. The Tsung-li Yamen was organized, and foreign affairs were controlled by this new board. The foreign trade of China began to increase rapidly. It has now reached the figure of about three hundred millions of dollars annually..
Great Britain has 75 per cent. of China's foreign trade, and two-thirds of the foreign population. It must be said that the policy of England in the far East is just to other nations. She asks nothing but equal rights, and grants equal rights to all nations. She opens treaty ports where all flags are equal. She can readily afford to do this, because she is sure of holding 75 per cent. of all the trade that is developed. Even in Cochin-China, a French province, England does nearly as much trade as France.
Much has been written about our relations with England in the far East. I am glad that those relations are friendly, and on proper and suitable occasions this country and England should act together. They should both protest against the further partition of China. It must be remembered, however, that the American merchant finds in the East no stronger competitor than the British merchant..
It is idle to say China can grant mining or railroad concessions to whom she pleases. That is exactly what she cannot do. In her unpreparedness for war, she must do whatever any other nation demands of her. The inclination of China has always been to turn to America in all industrial enterprises. The recommendations of Sheng Taotai in this regard could not be carried out because the competition of the European powers was too serious and influential.
Let the world assist the most ancient of nations in her efforts to enter worthily into the family of civilized peoples. Let the world respect her autonomy, and she will pay back its services by giving to its commerce the boundless riches of her mines, and the hoarded wealth of centuries."]
While our relations with Great Britain are officially declared to be quite friendly, a cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, is hovering in the diplomatic horizon. The commercial importance of the proposed Nicaragua canal has been alluded to in preceding pages. In this place it is to be considered in its aspect as a possible disturber of international harmony.
Omitting details, it may be stated that an inter-oceanic waterway has long been desired by American statesmen and the commercial world. Schemes have been set afoot to accomplish the work, and, from various causes, have failed. In his message to the Fifty-sixth Congress the President states the situation of affairs as follows:
["The all-important matter of an inter-oceanic canal has assumed a new phase. Adhering to its refusal to reopen the question of the forfeiture of the contract of the Maritime Canal Company, which was terminated for alleged non-execution in October, 1899, the government of Nicaragua has since supplemented that action by declaring the so-styled Eyre-Cragin option void for non-payment of the stipulated advance. Protests in relation to these acts have been filed in the state department and are under consideration. Deeming itself relieved from existing engagements, the Nicaraguan government shows a disposition to deal freely with the canal question in the way of negotiations with the United States or by taking measures to promote the waterway.
Overtures for a convention to effect the building of the canal under the auspices of the United States are under consideration. In the mean time the views of Congress upon the general subject, in the light of the report of the Commission appointed to examine the comparative merits of the various ship-canal projects, may be awaited.
I commend to the early attention of the Senate the convention with Great Britain to facilitate the construction of such a canal, and to remove any objections which might arise out of the convention commonly called the Clayton-Bulwer treaty."]
This convention, known as the Hay-Pauncefote Canal Treaty, from the names of the American and English negotiators, contained the following provisions:
[Article I. It is agreed that the canal can be constructed under the auspices of the government of the United States, either directly at its own cost, or by gift or loan of money to individuals or corporations, or through subscription to or purchase of stock or shares, and that, subject to the provisions of the present convention, the said government shall have and enjoy all the rights incident to such construction, as well as the exclusive right of providing for the regulation and management of the canal.
Article II. The high contracting parties, desiring to preserve and maintain the "general principle" of neutralization established in Article VIII. of the Clayton-Bulwer Convention, adopt as basis of such neutralization the following rules, substantially as embodied in the convention between Great Britain and certain other powers, signed at Constantinople October 29, 1888, for the free navigation of the Suez Maritime Canal. This is to say:
First — The canal shall be free and open, in time of war as in time of peace, to the vessels of commerce and war of all nations, on terms of entire equality, so that there shall be no discrimination against any nation or its citizens or subjects in respect of the conditions or charges of traffic or otherwise.
Second — The canal shall never be blockaded, nor shall any right of war be exercised nor any act of hostility be committed within it.
Third — Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not revictual nor take any stores in the canal except so far as may be strictly necessary; and the transit of such vessels through the canal shall be effected with the least possible delay, in accordance with the regulations in force, and with only such intermission as may result from the necessities of the service. Prizes shall be in all respects subject to the same rules as vessels of war of the belligerents.
Fourth — No belligerent shall embark or disembark troops, munitions of war, or warlike materials in the canal except in case of accidental hindrance of the transit, and in such case the transit shall be resumed with all possible despatch.
Fifth — The provisions of this article shall apply to waters adjacent to the canal, within three marine miles of either end. Vessels of war of a belligerent shall not remain in such waters longer than twenty-four hours at any one time except in case of distress, and in such case shall depart as soon as possible; but a vessel of war of one belligerent shall not depart within twenty-four hours from the departure of a vessel of war of the other belligerent.
Sixth — The plant, establishments, buildings, and all works necessary to the construction, maintenance, and operation of the canal shall be deemed to be part thereof, for the purposes of this convention, and in time of war, as in time of peace, shall enjoy complete immunity from attack or injury by belligerents, and from acts calculated to impair their usefulness as part of the canal.
Seventh — No fortification shall be erected commanding the canal or the waters adjacent. The United States, however, shall be at liberty to maintain such military police along the canal as may be necessary to protect it against lawlessness and disorder.
Article III. The high contracting parties will immediately upon the exchange of the ratifications of this convention bring it to the notice of the other powers, and invite them to adhere to it.
Article IV. The present convention shall be ratified by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by Her Britannic Majesty; and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington or at London within six months from the date hereof, or earlier if possible.]
The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, on March 9, 1900, reported the treaty to the Senate, with the following amendment, to be inserted at the end of Section 5 of Article II., known as the Davis amendment: "It is agreed, however, that none of the immediately foregoing conditions and stipulations in Sections Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 of this act shall apply to measures which the United States may find it necessary to take for securing by its own forces the defence of the United States and the maintenance of public order." The amendment received the vote of all the members of the Committee except Senator Morgan, who filed a minority report opposing the amendment. It became apparent before the close of the first session of the Fifty-sixth Congress that the treaty could not be ratified by the Senate, with or without the amendment, during that session.
In May, 1900, the House of Representatives passed the Hepburn bill, by a vote of 225 to 35, calling for the construction of the canal by the United States, and authorizing the Government to make "such provisions for defence as may be necessary." Ultimately, the Senate ratified the treaty as changed by "the Davis amendment."
Two sets of objections were raised against this. There were American objections and English objections. The former are illustrated by this communication, sent by then Secretary Frelinghuysen, in 1882, to then Minister Lowell, in London, as follows: "A canal across the isthmus for vessels of all dimensions and every character, under possible conditions hereinafter referred to, would affect this Republic in its trade and commerce; would expose our Western coast to attack; destroy our isolation, oblige us to improve our defences, and to increase our navy; and possibly compel us, contrary to our traditions, to take an active interest in the affairs of European nations. The United States, with their large and increasing population and wealth, cannot be uninterested in a change in the physical conformation of this hemisphere which may injuriously affect the material or political interests of the Republic, and naturally seek that the severance of the isthmus connecting the continents shall be effected in harmony with those interests."
The English objections were stated with some show of suppressed temper. The new treaty was expressly a modification of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1859, which has always stood as a menace against the building and control of a canal by the United States Government. The case for the English and Canadian objectors was summed up by the London Times, as follows: "The Hay-Pauncefote agreement gave America the right, which she does not posses under the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, to construct and control and inter-oceanic canal independently of this country. In other respects it has left that treaty unaltered. In particular it fully preserved the advantages we enjoy under the existing treaty relative to the neutrality of the canal and the protection of commerce under conditions of entire equality. We are quite alive to the value of those advantages, whatever certain members of the Senate may think or pretend to think. It is in consideration of them, and on condition only that they should be preserved, that we consented to the modifications desired by Mr. McKinley and by Mr. Hay. The two parts of the bargain are mutually dependent. We have not agreed and we are not going to agree to the proposed variation of our treaty rights save upon terms acceptable to ourselves. We shall stand upon those rights. It is not the custom of this country to conclude treaties of surrender with any nation — even with those whose friendship we value most — and that is a custom from which we have no mind to depart."
Senator Money represented a strong body of opinion when he wrote: "It is immaterial how many nations might guarantee the neutrality of a canal, or on what agreed terms any single nation might control it. The necessities of war would recognize neither treaties nor rights, and the canal would go to the strongest.
"It has been claimed that our west coast would be more easily defended by the ready transfer of our war-ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific; but it should be remembered that the fleets of Great Britain, Germany, and France could be as readily transferred by the same means, so that the attack would be as much facilitated as the defence. It is disputable, therefore, whether our security would be more assured without a considerable increase of our navy. But whatever the cost of such an increase might be to the United States, it would be preferable to the control of the canal by any foreign nation, or even a partnership with us in the control. The first would minimize American prestige in the Central and South American States, and the second would be a virtual surrender of the Monroe Doctrine, which this government cannot afford and would not make."
The time for ratification of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty was extended, to allow time for further consideration.
The United States made demands for prompt reparation by the government of the Sultan for injuries suffered by American citizens in Armenia and elsewhere. The usual interminable delays were brought into play by the Turks, and a man-of-war was sent to the Bosphorus as a reminder. The message reported that our claims "everywhere give promise of early and satisfactory settlement. His Majesty's good disposition in this regard has been evinced by the issuance of an irade for rebuilding the American college at Harpoot."
The Hague Convention of the great powers me on the initiative of the Czar of Russia for the purpose of arranging a friendly court of arbitration that should do its utmost to prevent wars. The third Article of the Convention, signed and accepted by all, runs as follows:
"Article 3. Independently of this recourse, the signatory powers consider it to be useful that one or more powers who are strangers to the dispute should, on their own initiative and as far as circumstances will allow, offer their good offices or mediation to the states at variance. The right to offer good offices or mediation belongs to powers who are strangers to the dispute, even during the course of hostilities. The exercise of this right shall never be considered by one or other of the parties to the contest as an unfriendly act."
Under this proviso the President offered the good-will services of the United States in mediation between the Transvaal Republic and Great Britain, on the outbreak of their quarrel. The latter power very courteously but emphatically declined the proposal, as "Her Majesty's Government cannot accept the intervention of any other power." This sort of reply by one of the leading signers of a scheme for amicable intervention is not encouraging for the prospects of arbitration as facilitating the millennium.
American interests in the Far East have been discussed in the light of present facts; it is interesting to view them from the standpoint of those who think they foresee a closer relationship between the United States and Russia. In the North American Review a Russian writer, Vladimir Holmstrem, pleaded on various ingenious reasonings for a Russo-American Understanding. The appeal was made in view of possibilities in China, in which country, it was suggested, the two powers have kindred interests which may be more or less pooled. The writer dwells at length on English policy in China —
"because it shows the great gulf separating the conceptions of a Chinese policy entertained on the one hand by Russia and the United States, and by England on the other. The same remark might be made about other spheres of life and thought: to a student of English and American politics, it is clear how radically different are the ideas held by these two 'cousins across the water.'"
"Our destinies, following their special lines, are developing in such harmony, are so mysteriously interwoven, that our mere existence is mutually beneficial! Facts have responded to the requirements of the time with more accuracy, more insight, and more intrinsic significance than all the lucubrations of politicians on the set theme, that 'blood is thicker than water.' At the present critical epoch for the Far East, Russia and America are again drawn to one another by invisible ties of friendship and good-will. The question of China's integrity and independence absorbs the attention of all; and it rests with Russia and America, the two countries most naturally and most vitally interested in the normal development of the Far East, to determine the fate of a nation that belongs to the same order of self-contained, self-supporting and typical communities as they themselves."
"The identity of interests between our respective countries springs from their requirements, as self-supporting communities, in the best conditions for the development of their facilities and the fulfilment of their destiny. Russia and the United States have a common interest in seeing the road they follow cleared from obstacles without their conflict with one another. The Russo-American understanding we now advocate is no alliance, no agreement on all or on some points, or indeed, on any particular point, but simply co-operation of a spiritual nature founded on mutual good-will and a strong inclination to keep the peace on every occasion. We have common foes, bent on mischief, as Americans will soon realize on their own account; it would be well for us to reach one another a helping hand when needed."
"All depends on the standpoint taken with regard to China by the powers that now come into contact with her. There are two views held with respect to China; the Russian view of friendly help to an empire tottering from outside pressure,-this is the conservative, the Asiatic, the Oriental conception; and the Anglo-German view of aggressive absorption in the name of reforms,-which is the revolutionary conception of European outsiders, the Western conception. I maintain, that, if America would be true to herself and to her noble traditions, she must come over to our side and accept the Eastern conception."
Plentiful materials thus crowd upon any who care to try their hand at forecasting the future of the Republic in its foreign relations.
THE standing army of the Republic used to consist of 25,000 men. After the Spanish war it was increased to 65,000, and at the turn of the century it was enlarged to 100,000. The United States can call out a fighting force of regulars, militia, and reserves numbering over 10,000,000 men. Increased responsibilities and expansion of area involve extra means of defence. When the newly acquired territories lie far from the centre of power, those risks and duties are intensified.
The War Department expenditures for the fiscal year 1900 were $134,774,767.78, a reduction of $95,066,486.69 from those of 1899.
In the Navy Department the expenditures were $55,-953,077.72 for the year 1900, as against $63,942,104.25 for the preceding year, a decrease of $7,989,026.53.
In this connection it is interesting to note that at the end of the fiscal year there were on the pension roll 993,225 names, a net increase of 2,010 over the fiscal year 1899. The number added to the rolls during the year was 45,344.
The amount disbursed for army pensions during the year was $134,700,597.24 and for navy pension $3,761,-533.41, a total of $138,462,130.65, leaving an unexpended balance of $5,542,768.25 to be covered into the Treasury which shows an increase over the previous year's expenditure of $107,077.70. There were 684 names added to the rolls during the year by special acts passed at the first session of the Fifty-sixth Congress.
The ever-growing cost of wars makes it of vital importance to strike swiftly and mightily when the time comes. The cost in human life and suffering is thus kept at a minimum, as well as the money outlay, which is relatively so much greater when a country is found unprepared. It has been estimated that the average daily cost of the Civil War was at least $2,000,000; while it is believed to have been $3,000,000 daily for the hundred days preceding its close. According to Mulhall the wars of ninety years, down to 1880, involved an expenditure of $14,778,000,000, besides the loss of 4,470,000 lives. The cost of our Civil War is given at $3,589,000,000. "This evidently does not include expenditures since the close of that war for property destroyed, nor the pension roll of thirty- three years,-all the direct result of the war. The Treasury accounts for these items even so long ago as June 30, 1879, amounted to $2,500,000,000. No separate accounts of such expenditures have been kept since that date, except for pension payments, which alone aggregate, for that period, $1,800,000,000, making a grand known total of nearly $8,000,000,000 to the present year, while pension payments will not cease for many years to come." So states Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Vanderlip.
The eight months' war between Germany and France is said to have cost, in all, about $1,500,000,000. The military burden under which European nations groan may be understood by the following published statement: The annual war appropriations of Russia amount to about $148,000,000; of Germany, $141,000,000; of France, $123,000,000; of Great Britain, $88,000,000; of Austria, $86,000,000; of the United States, $51,000,000; of the Italy, $45,000,000; of Turkey, $20,000,000. The army of France costs yearly $3 per capita; of Germany, $2.70; of Austria, $2.05; of Russia, $1.15; of Turkey, 59 cents; of Italy, $1.52; of England, $2.32, and of the United States, 68 cents.
Our war with Spain cost an average of $1,250,000 a day, according to the above quoted authority.
The navy of the United States has always been comparatively small but exceptionally efficient. Its record in the war of 1898 was a proud one, as has been shown in preceding pages. It was deemed necessary to add to the number of the best ships that the navy of the Republic should be commensurate with its rank as a first-rate power. Congress appropriated $50,000,000 for the national defence immediately before the outbreak of the war with Spain, of which nearly $30,000,000 was allotted to the navy. Of this over $17,000,000 was spent in the purchase of the auxiliary navy, a motley assortment of yachts, tugs, cruisers, torpedo-boats, and carrying craft. This was independent of the hire of the City of New York, City of Paris, the St. Louis and St. Paul, Atlantic liners, each costing above $2,000 a day.
The great battle-ships are expensive necessities. The bill for the Oregon was $3,791,777. Secretary Long urged the need of new docks, declaring that the most decided weakness of the United States navy is at present its inferior docking facilities. A modern war-ship should be docked every few months; but of the eleven government docks, nine on the Atlantic and two on the Pacific coast only a few are capable of docking a full-size battle-ship, and one of these is at Puget Sound. For the year ending June, 1897, before the Spanish war was on the carpet, the cost of the navy reached seventeen and a half millions, an increase of about two millions over the preceding year. Since that date we have secured a splendid docking and coaling station in the Hawaiian Islands.
The necessity for an enlarged navy was urged by Secretary Herbert when the victory in Manila Bay was undreamt of. Anticipating future possibilities, he suggested that history may repeat itself:
"The gigantic naval preparations made and making in Europe sufficiently indicate, especially if Great Britain be involved in it, that the next great European maritime struggle will be as desperate as were the long wars of the Napoleonic era. Like those, it will be a war for national existence. Commerce will henceforth be even more essential to the British Isles than it was then; for with their increased population they could not long subsist without imported food. It is idle to say that the rules of international law are more humane, or that they are better understood, or that they are better protected by treaties than they were a hundred years ago. The rights of neutrals have depended in the past, and will depend in the future, in every life and death struggle between nations, whatever treaties may say, upon the exigencies of the hour.
When Great Britain and France were at war, each preying upon the commerce of the other, the carrying trade of Europe fell naturally into American hands.
All naval powers have now prepared themselves with commerce-destroyers. The moment these are turned loose, the commerce of all the warring nations will seek the protection of some great neutral power,-which means that it will come under our flag. To illustrate, the Confederate cruisers were few in number. They destroyed altogether only about 175 vessels, most of them sailing ships, and many of small value; and yet these few enemies drove more than seven hundred American ships to the British flag, many of them never to come back.
It is no sufficient answer to say that in 1810 we were seven millions, that now we are seventy millions, that our resources for the upbuilding of a great navy are second to none in the world, and that therefore our rights would be respected. Our naval and military prestige and our wonderful physical and material resources are no doubt quite sufficient to cause any statesman not under stress of some controlling necessity to think twice before provoking us to war; but who can believe, that, in the midst of a desperate struggle, any great naval power would, for fear of retribution at some future day, imperial its existence by taking account of the rights of a neutral power which was for the time being unable to maintain them? If America is to profit by the lessons of the past, she will always have on hand a navy which can, at the moment when it is needed, take care of itself and of all the commerce which may at any time be or desire to be under our flag. This does not mean that we need a maritime force as large as that of Great Britain, or even of France; but it does mean that our navy should always be so formidable that no power could ever deem it wise, even for the moment, to offend against the rights of our flag upon the seas."
Captain A. T. Mahan makes a powerful plea in his masterly book on "The Influence of Sea-Power Upon History," for a strengthened American navy. He is no dreamer of a faerie era when swords and battle-ships will be disused and the art of war be forgotten. His conviction is that strength, and the discreet display of it, is the best insurance against troubles of the international kind.
["Our only rivals in potential military strength are the great powers of Europe. These, however, while they have interests in the Western Hemisphere, to which a certain solidarity is imparted by their instinctive and avowed opposition to a policy to which the United States, by an inward compulsion apparently irresistible, becomes more and more committed, have elsewhere yet wider and more onerous demands upon their attention. Since 1884 Great Britain, France, and Germany have each acquired colonial possessions, varying in extent from one million to two and a half million square miles,-chiefly in Africa. This means, as is generally understood, not merely the acquisition of so much new territory, but the perpetuation of national rivalries and suspicions, maintaining in full vigor, in this age, the traditions of past animosities. It means uncertainties about boundaries,-that more fruitful source of disputes when running through unexplored wilderness,-jealousy of influence over native occupants of the soil, fear of encroachment, unperceived till too late, and so a constant, if silent, strife to insure national preponderance in these newly opened regions. The colonial expansion of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is being resumes under our eyes, bringing with it the same train of ambitions and feelings that were exhibited then, though these are qualified by the more orderly methods of modern days and by a well-defined mutual apprehension,-the result of a universal preparedness for war, the distinctive feature of our own time which most guarantees peace."]
To the argument that a navy for defence is all we shall ever need, Captain Mahan replies:
"In a certain sense we all want a navy for defence only. It is to be hoped that the United States will never seek war except for the defence of her rights, her obligations, or her necessary interests. In that sense our policy may always be defensive only, although it may compel us at times to steps justified rather by expediency-the choice of the lesser evil — than by incontrovertible right. But if we have interests beyond sea which a navy may have to protect, it plainly follows that the navy has more to do, even in war, than to defend the coast; and it must be added, as a received military axiom, that war, however defensive in moral character, must be waged aggressively if it is to hope for success.
Another former Secretary of the Navy, Senator Chandler, ventures an imaginative glance at the navy of the twentieth century:
"According to my notion, it will be thought fifty years hence that six million dollars is too large a sum to risk in a single war-ship, and that it is better to build two or three of less size for the same money. I am strongly inclined to think, that, under twentieth-century conditions, two or three comparatively small fighting vessels, powerfully armed and very speedy, may do much more execution and accomplish more effective results than one huge floating fortress. One trouble about modern battle-ships is that they are apt to be obsolete by the time they are finished, and a few years hence we may find our boasted sea- fighters relegated to rust in the navy-yards, alongside of the old-time wooden frigates. It is the experience of foreign nations that any type of iron-clad vessel becomes so out of date in about ten years as to be almost useless.
"The use of the torpedo in naval warfare will be greatly developed in the course of the next fifty years. Of the employment of torpedo-boats I have always been a strong advocate; but the lessons of recent history point to the conclusion that small craft of this kind are too vulnerable to be of much practical service, unless for scouting duty, or to steal upon an unsuspecting foe at night. This latter move, indeed, is rendered almost impracticable by the detective search- light. Probably the torpedo-boat of the future will be of considerable size, and will carry a fair battery of rapid-fire guns, so as to be able to put up some sort of fight, while seeking a chance to deliver its more deadly and destructive missile.
"The ship of the future will possess an astonishing activity, traversing immense distances at a high rate of speed, and with a small consumption of fuel. A very notable point about our war-ships of the present day is their low fuel consumption on long voyages; but this has always implied slow going, the coal consumption running up with a startling multiple when speed is increased.
"If my theory be correct, the armored ship of the twentieth century will be regarded, like the mail-clad fighting man, as a relic of the past, and the war- vessel will take its chances in conflict, just as the soldier does to-day. Perhaps the war-ship may retain a light protective coat, very strong for its thickness, but the enormously heavy plates now in use will be dispensed with, simply for the reason that they interfere too much with the activity and serviceableness of the dirigible floating platform which carries the guns. Our new battle-ship, the Kearsarge, carries no less than twenty-seven hundred tons of armor, — a weight so gigantic as to render her clumsy and sluggish.
"Already our own navy department has come to realize that armor has been overdone, and the thickness of the steel plates is to be much reduced in the newly ordered war-ships. This, unquestionably, is a step in the right direction.
"The increase of our navy depends wholly upon a determination to develop our merchant marine. If the latter is revived, our fighting force on the seas must be increased proportionately, and before the end of the twentieth century we are likely to find ourselves only second in rank among the nations of the world in respect to sea power, Great Britain still holding the first place. But commerce must come before a larger navy; for, lacking the pugnacity of Germany France, and Russia, we are not likely to build up a great fighting force on the ocean merely with a view to making ourselves formidable in a martial sense. Our first duty is to revive our carrying trade in ships suitable for naval service in time of war."
Senator Chandler's last remark suggests a recurrence, not strictly out of keeping with the subject in hand, to the keenly discussed question of paying bounties, to secure the growth of a merchant marine. Mr. Alexander R. Smith, writing in the Forum, in reply to a former Commissioner of Navigation, Captain Bates, closes his argument thus:
"The present Commissioner of Navigation estimates that the bill (before the Fifty-sixth Congress) will never involve payments from the national treasury exceeding nine millions of dollars, and that the average will be from five to six millions of dollars for twelve or fifteen years. This measure conformed to the recommendations in the President's annual message, and to those in the reports of Mr. Gage, the Secretary of the Treasury, and of Mr. Chamberlain, the Commissioner of Navigation. The bill had the support of members of both the great political parties in Congress. It was reported without opposition from the Senate Committee on Commerce, and was favorably reported by the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. If it should become a law, and its provisions should be accepted by our ship-owners, present and prospective, these will be compelled to construct at least 600,000 tons of new shipping in American ship- yards within five years.
"The United States is now confronted with the fact that the ships of other nations are built more cheaply and operated for less money than are American ships. In addition, foreign nations pay to their merchant shipping subsidies, subventions, and bounties aggregating $25,000,000 a year. If American ships are to compete, their owners must be fortified to meet the unequal conditions against them; while the aid that will be given by future ships and seamen in the event of war makes compensation doubly justifiable. Such aid will give us, as Thomas Jefferson once said in a great state paper, the home-build ships and citizen seamen essential to the national defence. It will not lead us into any of those diplomatic tangles which are inevitable when the policy of discriminating duty is adopted; and the bounty system, being patterned after foreign policies, will necessarily estop foreign governments from offering objection to its adoption."
THIS retrospect of our own history would be incomplete without a glance at the movements of the great nations who are our competitors in the majestic march towards unassailable prosperity and power. Nothing can seriously impede the course of the Great Republic, but no progressive move by any strong people is without its effect on the movements of the rest. Standing grandly apart as we do from the whirl of European complications, there is yet no significant act or utterance of monarch, president, or statesman of position, that does not in some degree affect American sentiment. We, in our turn, can scarcely propose a policy without sending a disturbing thrill through every old-world council chamber or market-place.
The drift of latter-day diplomacy, and the commercial development of Europe, have a close bearing on the history we are going to make in the quarter-century now beginning. If geographically distant, we are vitally present in the family councils of the great nations. We have to be reckoned with in everything they undertake from now onward. We have hitherto been respected as the great power of the West; henceforth we shall be deferentially treated as a great potentiality in the East. Let us see how the new situation may affect our future. Jealousy is one of the first tributes fading pride pays to rising greatness. No lasting supremacy arrives smoothly. Our friendly neighbors may not create obstacles, but it is human to place those that exist more plainly in sight rather than remove them. The game now opening on the international chess-board will be intensely interesting in its shifting of kings and crafty strategy in checkmating.
Great Britain, our next-door European neighbor, aspires to a greater greatness. In so far as territorial aggrandizement is a sound definition, her ambition may yet overleap itself, as outlying possessions, once a certain strength is attained, obey the law by which filial ties change from obligatory to sentimental loyalty. In so far as her half-century of dazzling grandeur owed its being to England's having so long been the workshop and the bank of the world, that foundation of strength has been chipped away, stone by stone, in recent years. The nations no longer go hat in hand to ask the favor of her goods or gold. The aforetime underrated Colonies of America now single-handed outstrip her in inventing, in making and in selling a score of her staples, of which she used to hold almost the monopoly.
The generally cordial feelings between the American and English peoples have been ruffled over minor interests. Under stress of the conditions indicated, it may be that friction will come more frequently and perhaps more irritatingly, not from one, but from several points of the compass. Tariff skirmishes and bounty fights may precede conflicts on a larger scale. If subjugation of civilized peoples and confiscation of rich territory owned by original settlers are to be accepted as signs of grace, then deeper significance attaches to the diplomatic difficulty over the boundary line between the American and Canadian gold area in Alaska. The total product of gold of all the mines from 1890 to 1900 has amounted to nearly $20,000,000. The disputed territory comprises about 30,000 square miles in southeast Alaska, in which is a gold mine valued at $I3,000,000. The Yukon district is Canadian, with Dawson as its center.
Canada proper is divided over the policy of commercial union, a fair is not free trade arrangement with the Republic. Events not far off are likely to work a radical change in the attitude of Great Britain towards the United States. The outcome cannot be foreseen, so strangely do modern conditions modify the purposes of the strongest powers. Whether England's destiny is fixed to be that of a world-wide ocean-sundered empire, or the return of an era of compact nationality, freed from the perils of innumerable responsibilities, her influence on the future of the Great Republic cannot but be as profound as it has been and is now.
The German empire is a creation of yesterday. With boundless ambition for glory and power it is following in the wake of Great Britain, seeking to found colonies, turning from pastoral life at home to factory-work and world trade. The unification of small principalities into an imperial power was the life-work of the last of the great, strong, wise master-statesmen of the period. Whether the tie will hold or some day yield is a secret of the future. The prime fact for the American people to ponder is that the imperial bond is so far working well for the growing commercial power of Germany. Her rural districts may be deserted and her agricultural industry may languish more and more, but the cities and towns grow rapidly, mills multiply, her highly educated ambassadors of commerce have won a firm footing in every market in the world. German manufacturers have, in certain lines, cut down British exports by one-half, even in British colonial markets. If the German empire acquires a first-class navy and a gateway on the seashore, and unlikelier things happen every year, American captains of commerce will not lack opportunities to show their ingenuity and pluck.
Russia is a coming force with which the Great Republic must reckon. The footing we have won on the Philippine step of the door which may or may not remain open, brings us in touch with the great empire in the East. Again we greet a future competitor for the laurels of commercial victory. With Russia, Germany, and England, the United States competes for the favor of the domestic potentate who shall finally hold the key of China's tantalizing door. Friendly division of benefits is not unknown in the commercial operations of nations. With tact underlying the quality of perseverance miracles are always possible, and the millennium may be reached by the path of trade.
The republic of France holds its own unique and probably permanent stall in the world's market-place. It lacks the genius of colonization, tending, oppositely, to neglect in maintaining its standard of home population. Much awaits the serious consideration of its people; its sources of weakness are fickleness in self-government, and over-confidence in a prestige which has not strengthened with the years. The bonds of sincere friendship, long continued, between the American and French republics bid fair to be consolidated into a firmer attachment as the years pass.
A prominent statesman of Europe recently spoke of certain "dying nations," in contrast to those so actively engaged in colonizing and trading. The expression was ill-chosen, as applied to peoples less numerous but not necessarily less virile in their own surroundings. Spain has a noble history, broadly viewed, and a nation that has had a proud past may achieve a fine future. Italy and Rome have not lost their grandeur, nor all that makes power. Ancient China can smile at some modern claims, pointing backwards to a civilization not yet dead, and perhaps forwards to a self-assertiveness that may set the moderns staring.
It may be that the world and its inhabitants are to be reduced to subjection under three lords only, the Slav, the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon. This, or some such fancy, seems to inspire the feverish efforts of the first and the third of these races to sweep vast areas into already unwieldy empires. The assumption that the Latin peoples will somehow lose or change their characteristic qualities and develop those of their remote ancestors, fails to take adequate cognizance of physical, geographical and extraneous conditions which are not to be ignored. The opening up of Africa will mightily affect the destiny of nations and races. It may create new ones. Some of the profoundest students of history, having personal knowledge of the Eastern world, years ago committed themselves to the prediction that the cry "China for the Chinese" will yet amaze the waiters for the "open door." They foresee the possibility of a sweeping crusade of Chinese fanaticism against the bordering peoples, with the coming of a universal war between the yellow and white races. India eagerly looks forward to self-liberation from British rule. In this other nations besides the Russians, Persians and Afghans are interested. The game is playable with milder weapons than the sword. American piety has pioneered the way by moral suasion and practical exemplification of civilized life. American commerce has spread a full share of ameliorating conditions before the peoples once described as heathens and barbarians. In the winning of the Oriental races, rather than their coercion, lies the sounder policy of the future. In happy accord with the traditions of the Republic, the United States has refrained from joining the aggressive action proposed by certain other powers in the Chinese trouble. When peaceful efforts fail and force becomes necessary, the American arm strikes swiftly and with effect. May it not be necessary. Hopeless as affairs may seem in any crisis, time may be trusted to ease the situation, sufficiently at least for compromise, often the wisest solution. History is writing itself startlingly almost day by day, as we have seen in these pages. It will continue to chronicle the rise, decline, and disappearance of monarchs and dynasties, but the Great Republic is destined to see its grandest century in the one she now is entering.
ON the 14th of April, I865, five days after the surrender of General Lee closed the long drama of the Civil War, President Lincoln fell the victim of an assassin. It was to the fierce passions engendered by the war that he owed his death. On the 2d of July, I88I, President Garfield also fell before an assassin's weapon. Here, too, passion had been excited, and his death was a lamentable incident in the history of the great Civil Service Reform. On September 6, I90I, President McKinley, the third of America's rulers to fall by the hand of an assassin, suffered a similar fate. But his murder was the more flagrant and unpardonable in that there was not a shadow of warrant for the dastardly deed. He fell at the end of a career as President distinguished for its brilliant success; fell when the country had attained the most prosperous stage in its whole history; fell while attending a great celebration of the progress of civilization in America, and while surrounded by a multitude of his admiring and applauding fellow-citizens. Never was known a deeper treachery, a fouler outrage, a baser crime than that of the unmentionable wretch who shot the honored head of a great nation while grasping his hand in seeming friendship and esteem.
This fatal act occurred six months after President McKinley took his seat a second time as the executive head of the great Republic of the West, and a suitable preliminary to the story of his death will be that of the public incidents of his second administration.
We may briefly describe the election campaign of I900, whose result so strongly indicated the sentiment of admiration of the American people for the man who had held the helm of the ship of state during four years of warlike event and public excitement. In the Republican National Convention, assembled at Philadelphia on the I9th of June, I900, the feeling of the party was decisively expressed by William McKinley's unanimous nomination on the first ballot. A similar honor was paid to the candidate for Vice-President, Theodore Roosevelt, the only vote not cast for him being his own. This unanimous nomination of the candidates for both President and Vice-President on the first ballot was, we believe, the only instance of the kind in American history.
William J. Bryan, McKinley's opponent in I896, was his opponent still, his associate for Vice-President being Adlai E. Stevenson, who had served for one term in that office under President Cleveland. The election campaign was significant in the fact that the old party war-cries, so prominent in the past, now sank into insignificance, new and burning issues having risen to take their place. For forty years the tariff question had stood in the fore-ground, being for most of that period the main subject of controversy between the two great parties. Now it sank out of sight so completely that it was hardly mentioned in the campaign. The question of free silver coinage, the leading issue in I896, was now also of declining interest. The finances of the country were in such a flourishing state that no voting capital could be made out of this question. While the country was being flooded with free gold, no stringent demand for free silver could be aroused.
In this decline of the old questions, new ones came into prominence, the main points in debate being the Trusts and the policy of so-called Imperialism. The Democratic party maintained that the vast development of great combinations of capital, known as Trusts, with their threatened enslavement of the hosts of industry, had taken place under Republican auspices and support, and that their opponents were the sustainers of monopoly. Yet this allegation was difficult to prove. The Trusts were commercial, not political enterprises. No laws had been recently passed in their favor, while laws had been passed looking to their suppression. Both parties condemned them in their platforms. It was, therefore, not easy to hold the Republicans responsible for this growing evil, or to make the Trust a leading issue in the campaign, though this was strongly attempted.
A second prominent question in controversy was that of Imperialism versus Anti- Imperialism; the policy of expansion adopted by the administration in its effort to subdue and control the people of the Philippines, and the sentiment of the opponents to this policy. Opposition to the war in the Philippines had grown to such proportions that Anti-Imperialism was taken up as a leading principle of the Democratic platform, and in the campaign that followed the orators thundered, with all the eloquence at their command, upon the exciting problem of the conquest or the independence of the Filipinos.
In the election campaign President McKinley remained at home. He had his record to speak for him, and addressed only those who visited him at Canton. Mr. Bryan, on the contrary, traversed the country widely, speaking with his remarkable oratorical ability and his extraordinary powers of endurance. His favorite theme, especially towards the end of the campaign, was the trust evil and the plutocratic tendencies of the Republican government, against which he poured forth burning denunciations.
When election day came its result showed decisively the feeling of the people upon the question at issue. McKinley was chosen President by a much larger majority than in I896, he receiving the great majority of I37 electoral votes, 42 more than in I896. The popular vote was 7,206,777 for McKinley against 6,374,397 for Bryan.
William McKinley was thus a second time chosen President of the United States, and went on in the duties of his great office without a break, and with nothing to warn him of the coming fatal end to his distinguished career. And Theodore Roosevelt, who had reluctantly consented to be the candidate for Vice-President, fully expected to spend four years in honorable retirement as presiding officer of the Senate, no vision arising to notify him that within a year he would be ranked among the sovereign rulers of the earth.
Thus fate moves on, and no man can foresee what lies hidden for him on its unfolding scroll. The past spreads out behind us fully revealed; the face of the future is deeply veiled. Whether joy or sorrow, fortune or ruin, life or death await us in the coming time, no man can tell. Destiny hides its decrees until the time for their accomplishment is at hand.
On the 4th of March, I901, President McKinley was again inaugurated into his great office, with every promise before him of guiding the ship of state safely over the unstable seas of public events. Everything seemed propitious. Prosperity ruled supreme in the land. The depression which had prevailed some years before was now replaced by a magnificent activity; money poured into the national treasury much more rapidly than it flowed out; in city and country alike an extraordinary outburst of industrial energy was manifest, and on the seas a mighty fleet of merchantmen bore the product of our factories and fields to the most remote quarters of the earth. It was especially in commerce that the activity of our people displayed itself. The United States had become the granary of Europe, the generous "Lady Bountiful" who gave of her abundance to the thronging millions of the earth. And the exports of foodstuffs were closely competed with by those of manufactured goods, while imports fell off to such an extent that in the fiscal year ending June 30, I90I, the balance of trade in our favor reached the magnificent total of $664,900,011, a phenomenon unequalled and even undreamed of in the preceding history of the world.
In the political world affairs seemed equally propitious. After two years of warfare the struggle in the Philippines was practically at an end, some dregs of guerrilla resistance alone remaining, while the people were widely returning to the pursuits of quiet industry and accepting with seeming satisfaction the American rule. The Taft Commission, appointed by President McKinley to establish a liberal form of government in the islands, was meeting with great success in its work, and a large number of teachers had been sent out to carry the blessing of education to the islanders, and thus give them the highest boon in the power of this country to bestow. Thus the question of Imperialism, so prominent during the year just passed, was fast dying out before the logic of events.
The difficulties which had arisen in Cuba and Porto Rico were similarly approaching an amicable settlement; the former by the acceptance of the Platt amendment which fixed the relations between this country and Cuba; the latter by the decision of the Supreme Court, which definitely settled the commercial relations of the United States and her new dependencies. The latest notable event in President McKinley's official career was his proclamation, in July, 1901, that all import and export duties on the trade of Porto Rico with the United States were abolished, and that commercially as well as politically that island had been taken into the family circle of the United States. He had proposed proclaiming a full system of civil government in the Philippine Islands on July 4, 1901, but this was delayed awaiting a decision of the Supreme Court concerning our commercial relations with those islands. But a partial system was put in operation on that date.
Thus it was as the executive head of a nation practically at peace with the world, the most prosperous and acknowledged as one of the most prominent and commanding nations of the earth, that William McKinley took his seat on March 4, 1901. With his administration unchanged, his well-tried heads of departments still in office, the sky clear above him, the last floating clouds of the troubles which had darkened his late administration fast vanishing, all looked hopeful for a quiet and peaceful period in office, unvexed by the political cares which had made his past term anything but a bed of roses.
The principal event of his new administration was indeed a private rather than a public one. Shortly after his inauguration he projected a tour of the country far more extensive than had been undertaken by any President before him, its limits being the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans on the east and west, the great lakes and the Gulf of Mexico on the north and south. His purpose was to be present at the approaching launch of the battle-ship Ohio in San Francisco, that city being reached by a journey through the South, while the return was to be made by the northern route.
On April 29 the President and his party left Washington in a special train, the most admirably equipped one that railroad art could provide. Every convenience and luxury and all the appliances for comfort known in travel were supplied, while the utmost pains were taken to insure ease and safety upon the many lines of rail to be traversed. The early part of the route led through the Southern States to New Orleans, the President being received everywhere with a generous welcome and warm enthusiasm which spoke volumes for the growing unity of sentiment in the country. His well-chosen responses to the addresses of welcome added greatly to the kindly feeling manifested by the people, and there was no indication that there had ever been any sentiment of disunion between the two great sections of the country.
In truth, sectionalism had been rapidly dying out during President McKinley's administration. The Spanish war, with the warm rapport which it brought about between North and South, had gone far to develop the sentiment of union. The sections were drawn together by the common tie of the war and the brotherhood of the camp. The personal influence of the President had much to do with this change of feeling, which he warmly exerted himself to bring about, and his gratification at the result was shown by him in words spoken at Atlanta during the Exposition in that city:-
"Reunited-One country again and one country forever! Proclaim it from the press and the pulpit; teach it in the schools; write it across the skies! The world sees and feels it; it cheers every heart North and South, and brightens the life of every American home! Let nothing ever stain it again! At peace with all the world and with each other, what can stand in the pathway of our progress and prosperity?"
His brief addresses during his journey south were well calculated to strengthen this sentiment, and in New Orleans the warmth of his welcome spoke strongly for the feelings of the Southern people. From that city his route lay through Texas and the thinly-settled territories beyond, until the agricultural Paradise of California was reached. Here the enthusiasm of his reception in the Southern States was repeated, and his journey through that fertile land was virtually over a bed of bloom, the profuse flowery wealth of California's gardens and fields being showered at every point where the President halted in his route.
Unfortunately, the fatigue of the journey proved too much for the delicate health of Mrs. McKinley, and after San Francisco was reached she became so violently ill that for several days her life was despaired of. During this perilous interval the President, whose love for his wife was as warm then as on the day in which they were wedded, could not be drawn from her side, while his evident distress added to the respect with which he was everywhere regarded. "The world loves a lover." The people deeply sympathized with their President in an affection which had persisted undiminished during thirty years of married life, and felt for him in the affliction which now hung over him like a threat.
Fortunately the stricken woman began to mend, and her husband was able to leave her side long enough to take part in the ceremonies at the launch of the Ohio. But the projected return trip had to be abandoned, and the enfeebled "Lady of the White House" was brought back to Washington by the shortest route, attended to at every point, with the most anxious and assiduous care, by her loving husband.
Another important event of McKinley's second term-one vitally important in its effect upon his career-was the Pan-American Exposition, a great display of products of the countries of the two Americas, its purpose being to show the progress of the western continent in the nineteenth century, to bring closer together, commercially and socially, the various countries of that continent, and to promote friendly intercourse between their peoples.
The Exposition was held at Buffalo, New York, from May 1 to November 1, 1901. It covered an area of three hundred and fifty acres, the ground chosen including the most beautiful portions of Delaware Park. The grounds and buildings, when completed, presented a magnificent scene. While on a smaller scale than the World's Fairs at Philadelphia and Chicago, the buildings were unsurpassed in architectural beauty. Instead of being pure white in hue, as at Chicago, brilliant colors and rich tints were freely used, giving a glowing effect to the artistically designed buildings. The general style of the architecture was a free treatment of the Spanish Renaissance, this style being adopted in compliment to the Spanish-American countries which participated so largely in the display. There were attractive hydraulic and fountain arrangements which added greatly to the general effect of the installation.
The acknowledged leading feature of the Exposition was its elaborate and magnificent electrical display. Buffalo being in close connection by conducting wires with the enormous electrical plant at Niagara, it possessed unequalled facilities in this direction, and of these a generous advantage was taken. The Electric Tower, 375 feet high, a stately and beautiful building, was the centre- piece of the Exposition, and the effect, as the light was gradually turned on when evening approached, and finally poured out suddenly from thousands of lamps, flooding with brilliance all the buildings within view, was so over- whelmingly beautiful that no observer could put his feelings in adequate words.
This is not all. There were varied-colored electric fountains of striking beauty. There were winding canals, strange and beautiful grottoes and caverns, cascades, towers, domes and pinnacles, not the least among the objects of attraction being the Midway, a diversified collection of curious displays of varied character, such as has become an essential feature of all recent enterprises of this character.
The Pan-American Exposition needed one thing to make it complete, the presence of the nation's ruler. President McKinley was warmly invited by the Exposition authorities to pay it a visit, and with his usual warm sympathy in all the affairs of the people, and readiness to yield to any reasonable request, he accepted the invitation-unhappily so, as the event proved. In anticipation of his visit, and in accordance with the custom of setting aside certain days as special occasions, September 5 was fixed as President's Day. As usual, this fact was widely advertised, with the expectation of attracting an immense multitude of people to the Exposition on that day.
President McKinley left Canton on Wednesday, the 4th of September-exactly two weeks before his sad return to his Ohio home. In the full vigor of life and the buoyancy of health, cheered on his departure by loving friends and admiring neighbors, he set out in the best of spirits on the last journey of his life, accompanied by his wife and a number of relatives and friends.
The Exposition had from the first received the earnest support of the President, to whom it seemed a new link in the chain of friendship and mutual support that was to bind the American republics into one great family of nations. He was, therefore, glad of the opportunity to aid the enterprise by his presence and to speak words of appreciation and encouragement of the purpose to which it was dedicated.
President's Day dawned bright and clear, the air moderately cool, and the weather in all respects very promising. The city was gayly decorated with flags and bunting, and banners were stretched across the leading avenues, many of them bearing expressive words of welcome to the nation's chief. The President had been entertained since his arrival on the previous day at the house of Mr. John G. Milburn, president of the Exposition, who accompanied him when he set out at 10 o'clock on the following morning to make his visit of ceremony to the Exposition grounds. Mrs. McKinley walked by his side.
A welcoming burst of cheers greeted their appearance, the President responding by bowing and lifting his hat. He entered, with Mrs. McKinley, the first of the awaiting carriages, Mr. Milburn and Mrs. William Hammond, of the Board of Women Managers, following in the second. The two carriages, surrounded by an escort of twenty mounted police and twenty members of the signal corps, were driven briskly to the Lincoln Parkway entrance to the Exposition grounds, other carriages and tallyhoes following and the people cheering as the President passed.
At the entrance to the grounds the party was met by detachments of the United States Marines, the Seacoast Artillery and the New York State Infantry, and a President's salute of twenty-one guns was fired. A stand had been erected in the esplanade from which the President was to deliver his address. Around it was gathered the greatest throng which the Exposition had yet seen, the vast multitude filling the broad space and overflowing to the Court of Fountains. In the stands on each side of that of the President many distinguished men and women were seated, among them representatives of most of the American republics.
Ringing cheers greeted President McKinley as he was escorted to the stand, and when Mr. Milburn introduced him with the brief words, "Ladies and Gentlemen: The President," there broke out such a roar of welcome and approbation that several minutes passed before the President could speak. The address that followed was one of the highest interest, not alone as the last speech of one of America's leading orators, but for the new policy which it outlined, and which President Roosevelt afterwards promised to make the policy of the nation. We give in full this inspiring address:-
"President Milburn, Director-General Buchanan, Commissioners, Ladies and Gentlemen:-
"I am glad to be again in the city of Buffalo and exchange greetings with her people, to whose generous hospitality I am not a stranger, and with whose good will I have been repeatedly and signally honored. To-day I have additional satisfaction in meeting and giving welcome to the foreign representatives assembled here, whose presence and participation in this Exposition have contributed in so marked a degree to its interest and success. To the Commissioners of the Dominion of Canada and the British colonies, the French colonies, the Republics of Mexico and of Central and South America, and the commissioners of Cuba and Porto Rico, who share with us in this undertaking, we give the hand of fellowship and felicitate with them upon the triumphs of art, science, education and manufacture, which the old has bequeathed to the new century.
"Expositions are the timekeepers of progress. They record the world's advancement. They stimulate the energy, enterprise and intellect of the people, and quicken human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and brighten the daily life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of information to the student. Every exposition, great or small, has helped to some onward step. Comparison of ideas is always educational, and as such instructs the brain and hand of man. Friendly rivalry follows, which is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspiration to useful invention and to high endeavor in all departments of human activity. It exacts a study of the wants, comforts and even the whims of the people and recognizes the efficacy of high quality and new prices to win their favor.
"The quest for trade is an incentive to men of business to devise, invent, improve and economize in the cost of production. Business life, whether among ourselves, or with other people, is ever a sharp struggle for success. It will be none the less so in the future. Without competition, we would be clinging to the clumsy and antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century. But though commercial competitors we are, commercial enemies we must not be.
"The Pan-American Exposition has done its work thoroughly, presenting in its exhibits evidences of the highest skill, and illustrating the progress of the human family in the Western Hemisphere. This portion of the earth has no cause for humiliation for the part it has performed in the march of civilization. It has not accomplished everything; far from it. It has simply done its best, and without vanity or boastfulness, and recognizing the manifold achievements of others, it invites the friendly rivalry of all the powers in the peaceful pursuits of the trade of commerce, and will co-operate with all in advancing the highest and best interests of humanity. The wisdom and energy of all the nations are none too great for the world's work. The success of art, science, industry and invention is an international asset and a common glory.
"After all, how near one to the other is every part of the world! Modern inventions have brought into close relation widely separated peoples and made them better acquainted. Geographic and political divisions will continue to exist, but distances have been effaced. Swift ships and fast trains are becoming cosmopolitan. They invade fields which a few years ago were impenetrable. The world's products are exchanged as never before, and with increasing transportation facilities come increasing knowledge and larger trade. Prices are fixed with mathematical precision by supply and demand. The world's selling prices are regulated by market and crop reports. We travel greater distances in a shorter space of time and with more ease than was ever dreamed of by the fathers. Isolation is no longer possible or desirable. The same important news is read, though in different languages, the same day in all Christendom.
"The telegraph keeps us advised of what is occurring everywhere, and the press foreshadows, with more or less accuracy, the plans and purposes of the nations. Market prices of products and of securities are hourly known in every commercial mart, and the investments of the people extend beyond their own national boundaries into the remotest parts of the earth. Vast transactions are conducted and international exchanges are made by the tick of the cable. Every event of interest is immediately bulletined. The quick gathering and transmission of news, like rapid transit, are of recent origin, and are only made possible by the genius of the inventor and the courage of the investor. It took a special messenger of the Government, with every facility known at the time for rapid travel, nineteen days to go from the city of Washington to New Orleans with a message to General Jackson that the war with England had ceased and a treaty of peace had been signed. How different now.
"We reached General Miles in Porto Rico by cable, and he was able through the military telegraph to stop his army on the firing line with the message that the United States and Spain had signed a protocol suspending hostilities. We knew almost instantly of the first shots fired at Santigo, and the subsequent surrender of the Spanish forces was known at Washington within less than an hour of its consummation. The first ship of Cervera's fleet had hardly emerged from that historic harbor when the fact was flashed to our capital, and the swift destruction that followed was announced immediately through the wonderful medium of telegraphy.
"So accustomed are we to safe and easy communication with distant lands that its temporary interruption, even in ordinary times, results in loss and inconvenience. We shall never forget the days of anxious waiting and awful suspense when no information was permitted to be sent from Peking, and the diplomatic representatives of the nations in China, cut off from all communication, inside and outside of the walled capital, were surrounded by an angry and misguided mob, that threatened their lives; nor the joy that thrilled the world when a single message from the government of the United States brought through our Minister the first news of the safety of the besieged diplomats.
"At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a mile of steam railroad on the globe. Now there are enough miles to make the circuit many times. Then there was not a line of electric telegraph; now we have a vast mileage traversing all lands and all seas. God and man have linked the nations together. No nation can longer be indifferent to any other. And as we are brought more and more in touch with each other the less occasion is there for misunderstanding, and the stronger the disposition, when we have differences, to adjust them in the court of arbitration, which is the noblest form for the settlement of international disputes.
"My fellow-citizens, trade statistics indicate that this country is in a state of unexampled prosperity. The figures are almost appalling. They show that we are utilizing our fields and forests and mines, and that we are furnishing profitable employment to the millions of workingmen throughout the United States, bringing comfort and happiness to their homes, and making it possible to lay by savings for old age and disability. That all the people are participating in this great prosperity is seen in every American community and shown by the enormous and unprecedented deposits in our savings banks. Our duty is the care and the security of these deposits, and their safe investment demands the highest integrity and the best business capacity of those in charge of these depositories of the people's earnings.
"We have a vast and intricate business, built up through years of toil and struggle, in which every part of the country has its stake, which will not permit of either neglect or of undue selfishness. No narrow, sordid policy will subserve it. The greatest skill and wisdom on the part of manufacturers and producers will be required to hold and increase it. Our industrial enterprises, which have grown to such great proportions, affect the homes and occupations of the people and the welfare of the country. Our capacity to produce has developed so enormously and our products have so multiplied that the problem of more markets requires our urgent and immediate attention. Only a broad and enlightened policy will keep what we have. No other policy will get more. In these times of marvellous business energy and gain we ought to be looking to the future, strengthening the weak places in our industrial and commercial systems, that we may be ready for any storm or strain.
"By sensible trade arrangements which will not interrupt our home production, we shall extend the outlets for our increasing surplus. A system which provides a mutual exchange of commodities is manifestly essential to the continued and healthful growth of our export trade. We must not response in fancied security that we can forever sell everything and buy little or nothing. If such a thing were possible, it would not be best for us or for those with whom we deal. We should take from our customers such of their products as we can use without harm to our industries and labor. Reciprocity is the natural outgrowth of our wonderful industrial development, under the domestic policy now firmly established. What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have a vent abroad. The excess must be relieved through a foreign outlet, and we should sell everywhere we can and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby make a greater demand for home labor.
"The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are unprofitable. A policy of good will and friendly trade relations will prevent reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times; measures of retaliation are not. If perchance some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at home, why should they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad?
"Then, too, we have inadequate steamship service. New lines of steamers have already been put in commission between the Pacific coast ports of the United States and those of the western coasts of Mexico and Central and South America. These should be followed up with direct steamship lines between the eastern coast of the United States and South American ports. One of the needs of the times is direct commercial lines from our vast fields of production to the fields of consumption that we have but barely touched. Next in advantage to having the thing to sell is to have the convenience to carry it to the buyer. We must encourage our merchant marine. We must have more ships. They must be under the American flag, built and manned and owned by Americans. These will not only be profitable in a commercial sense; they will be messengers of peace and amity wherever they go. We must build the Isthmian canal, which will unite the two oceans and give a straight line of water communication with the western coasts of Central and South America and Mexico. The construction of a Pacific cable cannot longer be postponed.
"In the furtherance of these objects of national interest and concern, you are performing an important part. This Exposition would have touched the heart of that American statesman whose mind was ever alert and thought ever constant for a larger commerce and a truer fraternity of the republics of the New World. His broad American spirit is felt and manifested here. He needs no identification to an assemblage of Americans anywhere, for the name of Blaine is inseparably associated with the Pan-American movement which find this practical and substantial expression, and which we all hope will be firmly advanced by the Pan-American Congress that assembles this autumn in the capital of Mexico. The good work will go on. It cannot be stopped. These buildings will disappear; this creation of art and beauty and industry will perish from sight, but their influence will remain to `Make it live beyond its too short living, with praises and thanksgiving.'
"Who can tell the new thoughts that have been awakened, the ambitions fired and the high achievements that will be wrought through this Exposition? Gentlemen, let us ever remember that our interest is in accord, not conflict, and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war. We hope that all who are represented here may be moved to higher and nobler effort for their own and the world's good, and that out of this city may come, not only greater commerce and trade for us all, but, more essential than these, relations of mutual respect, confidence and friendship which will deepen and endure.
"Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of earth."
The suggestive words of the orator were frequently interrupted by applause, especially those referring to treaties of reciprocity with other countries, to the Isthmian canal and the Pacific cable, and to the work of Blaine in developing the Pan-American idea. At its conclusion hundreds of persons broke through the lines and the President held an impromptu reception for fifteen minutes, shaking hands with all who approached him.
This formal ceremony was followed by a tour round the Exposition grounds and through the buildings, in which the distinguished visitor showed a full appreciation of the beauty of the edifices and their surroundings and the excellence and significance of the display.
The earlier hours of the following day, Friday, the 6th of September, were occupied by the President and his party in a visit to Niagara. It was afternoon when the again visited the Exposition, Mrs. McKinley not accompanying him on this occasion, as the journey of the morning had wearied her. Driving to the side entrance of the Temple of Music, one of the Exposition buildings, the President, attended by Mr. Milburn, George B. Cortelyou, his private secretary, and several others, entered the building, the party being greeted with a warm outburst of applause from the throng of people that filled the structure.
The purpose of the visit was to hold an informal public reception, and with this intent the President took a position near the edge of the raised platform, on which stood the great pipe organ, at the east side of the structure. The ceremony began with a brief address from President Milburn. Preparations were then made for the reception, Mr. Milburn standing on the left and Secretary Cortelyou on the right of the President, while Secret-Service Agents Foster and Ireland stood close by, there being left a passage a few feet in width for the movement of the people who wished to grasp the hand of the Executive.
It was about 4 o'clock. The throng in the Temple of Music was in the most cheerful humor, a frame of mind which was reflected in the demeanor of the President, who laughingly chatted with Mr. Milburn and awaited with smiling face the ordeal of handshaking through which he was to pass.
A long line of people was formed, extending in circles through the hall and out upon the avenue, and at a signal the movement began. An old man with silvery- white hair was the first to reach the President, and the little girl he carried on his shoulder received a warm salutation.
The crowd had been pouring through hardly more than five minutes, when the organist brought from his powerful instrument its loudest notes, drowning even the scuffle of feet. About half of the people who passed the President were women and children. To every child the President bent over, shook hands warmly and said some kind words, so as to make the young heart glad. As each person passed he was viewed critically by the secret-service men. Their hands were watched, their faces and actions noted.
Fully a hundred persons had passed when a man approached who differed from the others mainly in having his right hand covered with a handkerchief, as if it had been injured and was bandaged. He was a rather tall, boyish-looking person, with smooth, somewhat pointed face, apparently of foreign origin. There seemed no reason to suspect him, and the secret-service men let him pass on, quite unsuspicious of the fact that a loaded pistol lay concealed by the innocent appearing handkerchief.
A young girl had just been greeted, and the President turned with a smile to the newcomer, extending his right hand to grasp the left of the man before him. At that instant the throng in the temple was startled by the sound of two pistol shots, so close together as to be almost simultaneous. At the same moment the President staggered backward, with pallid face, and a fierce commotion began at the spot where he had stood. The stranger had suddenly held a pistol almost against his breast and fired two shots in rapid succession.
Before he could fire again the secret-service men flung themselves upon him, bearing him to the floor. It was stated that a negro named Parker, who was near the assassin in the line, was the first to strike him and seize his pistol hand, but this was discredited by the evidence at the assassin's trial. In truth, the commotion and excitement were so great that the exact details of the struggle were difficult to obtain, and several conflicting stories were told. All that can be said with assurance is that the assailant was hurled to the floor, the pistol struck from his hand, and blows rained upon him by the infuriated detectives and soldiers. Then the multitude began to realize the significance of the scene, and a murmur arose, spread and swelled to a hum of confusion, then grew to a pandemonium of noises. The crowds that a moment before had stood mute and motionless as in bewildered ignorance of the enormity of the thing, now with a single impulse surged forward, while a hoarse cry swelled up from a thousand throats and a thousand men rushed forward to lay hands upon the perpetrator of the crime. For a moment the confusion was terrible.
Inside on a slightly raised rostrum was enacted within those few feverish moments a tragic incident, so dramatic in character, so thrilling in its intensity, that few who looked on will ever be able to give a succinct account of what really did transpire. Even the actors who were playing the principal roles came out of it with blanched faces, trembling limbs and throbbing hearts, while their minds were filled with a tumult of conflicting emotions, which could not be classified into a lucid narrative of events as they really happened.
While the struggle was going on the wounded President was assisted to a chair by Mr. Milburn and his secretary. His face was very white, but he made no outcry and sank back with one hand holding his abdomen and the other fumbling at his breast. His eyes were open, and he was clearly conscious of all that had happened.
He looked up into President Milburn's face and gasped "Cortelyou." The President's secretary bent over him. "Cortelyou," said the President, "my wife. Be careful about her. Don't let her know."
Moved by pain he writhed to the left, and then his eyes fell on the prostrate form of his would-be-murderer, who lay on the floor, helpless beneath the blows of the guard. The President raised his right hand and placed it on the shoulder of his secretary. "Let no one hurt him," he said, and then sank back in the chair.
Cortelyou ordered the guard to take the assassin out of the President's sight. The outer garments of the wounded man were then hastily loosened, and when a crimson stream was seen flowing down his breast and leaving its telltale stain upon the white surface of the linen, the fears of those around him were confirmed.
An ambulance from the Exposition Hospital was summoned immediately and the President, still conscious, sank upon the stretcher. Secretary Cortelyou and Mr. Milburn rode with him in the ambulance, and in nine minutes after the shooting the President lay in the Exposition Hospital, awaiting the arrival of surgeons, who had been summoned from all parts of the city and by special train from Niagara Falls.
The President continued conscious and conversed with Mr. Cortelyou and Mr. Milburn on his way to the hospital.
"I am sorry," he said, "to have been the cause of trouble to the Exposition."
The character of President McKinley was clearly conveyed in the first three remarks uttered by him. None of these referred to himself; the first having in view the distress of his wife, the second the safety of his assailant, the third the good of the Exposition. It was a manifestation of unselfishness such as has seldom been witnessed under such circumstances.
Meanwhile the assassin had been removed into a side room of the Temple. Here he was searched, but nothing of importance was found upon him. When first questioned he remained silent, but finally gave his name as Neiman and said that he came from Detroit. He further declared that he was an Anarchist and said that he had only done his duty. It was subsequently learned that his true name was Leon Czolgosz, and that he was a resident of Cleveland, of Polish descent, though born in America. The excitement of the multitude was now taking the form of a desire to lynch the murderer, and it was with no small difficulty that the police forced their way with their prisoner through the infuriated multitude, and conveyed him to a cell at the police headquarters.
While this was going on, several of the physicians summoned had hurried to the President's side. A rapid examination proved that one bullet had merely grazed the left breast, leaving an unimportant wound. The other, on the contrary, had penetrated the abdomen, inflicting a wound which the high pulse of the patient indicated to be dangerous. A hasty consultation ensued, and the physicians decided that an immediate operation was imperative. "Gentlemen," said the President, on being informed of this decision, "I want you to do whatever in your judgment you think is necessary."
Dr. M. B. Mann, an eminent physician of Buffalo, then took charge of the operation; ether was administered to the President, and as soon as he became unconscious an incision five inches long was made in the abdomen through the aperture made by the bullet, and the stomach was drawn out and examined. It was found that the bullet had passed through this organ, the forward hole being clean cut, the posterior one large and jagged. The bullet could not be found; it had apparently buried itself in the tissues beyond.
The wounds in the stomach were quickly sewn up with silk sutures, the abdominal cavity washed with a salt solution, and the operating cut closed, sewn up, and dressed with an antiseptic solution. The body was then wrapped in sheets, around which blankets were folded, and the patient, still unconscious, was placed in an ambulance and conveyed to the mansion of Mr. Milburn, on Delaware Avenue. Hardly two hours had passed since the firing of the deadly shot.
Meanwhile the news of the dastardly crime had been flashed by telegraph from end to end of the land, and the whole country was plunged into grief by the terrible news. Members of the Cabinet took early trains for Buffalo, and Vice-President Roosevelt, who was then on a hunting excursion in Vermont, and who heard of the crime with intense emotion, made all haste to reach the same centre of interest and sympathy.
The news of the assault was gently broken to Mrs. McKinley, who bore the shock with more fortitude than was hoped for. Without delay the Milburn mansion was equipped with electric wires and made the centre of a telegraph office, from which bulletins, giving the public full information of the condition of the exalted patient, were issued at frequent intervals.
From the start the news was reassuring. At noon of Saturday Dr. Parke announced that the President's chances of recovery were excellent, and all the bulletins breathed a spirit of hopefulness. The only disturbing feature was the continued high pulse and temperature, but it was hoped that these would be but temporary.
Towards noon of Sunday, Mrs. McKinley entered the sick room. The President had asked to see her. Both controlled their emotions, Mrs. McKinley displaying quite as much fortitude as her stricken husband. She seated herself beside the President's bed and took his hand. They said little. In each other's eyes they seemed to read what each would say.
The President said quietly: "We must bear up. It will be better for both."
There were tears in her eyes as Mrs. McKinley bowed her head in assent.
Soon afterwards Dr. Rixey led her gently from the room.
A critical period was expected within seventy-two hours of the shooting, and was looked for with anxiety and dread, despite the reassuring tidings which continued to come from the President's bedside. As for the patient himself, he bore up with remarkable fortitude, uttering no word of complaint, and even joking with Dr. Mann.
"I hope with all my heart the operation will prove a success," said the doctor.
"Success!" answered the President; "Why, I will be down to breakfast in a day or so."
The critical period passed and all seemed going well. On Tuesday it was asserted that convalescence had begun, and the whole country breathed more freely at the news. None was more sanguine than the President himself. There had been some slight suppuration from the wound in the chest, but this was cleansed and re- dressed, and was thought of no importance. Such was the confidence felt that the Vice-President, Senator Hanna, Secretaries Gage and Root, and Attorney-General Knox left Buffalo. Even the experienced Dr. McBurney did the same, a fact which strongly signified that all apprehension was at an end.
The story of the next two days is but an iteration and reiteration of the temperature, pulse and respiration of the President. He was fed lightly upon beef juice, as soon as his system would allow it, and on Thursday he was given a piece of toast and some weak coffee, besides the beef juice and a cup of chicken broth.
Then came a moment that was full of alarm. The bulletins announced that the President's condition was without material change except that he suffered from fatigue. "Fatigue" was a new word in the case, and it suggested the unknown to the lay mind of the great outside world. Fear was widely felt that this change presaged what many had contemplated in the privacy of their own thoughts, but would not speak aloud-the death of the President.
Friday morning the country awakened to have this thought almost realized. The earliest intelligence was that President McKinley was sinking. The members of the family and friends had been summoned and the physicians were fearful of the worst. Throughout the day the tidings were full of uncertainty. Late in the afternoon of that day, one week almost to the hour from the time when the attempt was made upon his life, it was rumored that "President McKinley is dead."
The news was untrue, but it seemed as though it must be the shadow of what was to follow. The President had been sinking rapidly, and his life was despaired of, even by those attending him.
Those who had left Buffalo in confidence on Wednesday were summoned back in all haste, especially Vice-President Roosevelt, whose return was imperative. He had received news early Friday morning that all was going well, and had left the Tahawus Club in the Adirondacks for a day's tramp over Mount Marcy. Some three hours after his start, news of the President's critical condition reached the Club and guides and runners were at once sent in all haste on the track of the Vice-President's party. It was late afternoon before he was found, near the peak of the lofty mountain. All that night a stagecoach rushed through the Adirondack woods, bearing the nation's hope to the nearest railroad station, thirty-five miles away. Not until the reached there, at 5:22 a. m., did he learn that the President had been three hours dead. With all possible railroad speed swift trains bore him to Buffalo, which city he reached at 1:40 on Saturday afternoon.
He reached there as President of the United States. President McKinley had never rallied from the sinking spell that attacked him at 2 o'clock Friday afternoon. The physicians sent out as hopeful bulletins as they could, but hope was dying in the public heart. All, indeed, that could now be done was to seek to keep up the heart's action by injections of saline solution and digitalis. Dr. McBurney arrived a little before 8 o'clock, and shortly after his arrival oxygen was administered. The patient aroused under its influence. He seemed to know that the end was at hand, and asked to see his wife.
Mrs. McKinley entered the room and sank on her knees by the side of the bed, her head bowed and both her husband's hands clasped in hers. Sobs shook her for a moment; then she turned to Dr. Rixey and pleadingly said, "I know that you will save him. I cannot let him go; the country cannot spare him."
The President was conscious of her presence and whispered his striking last words: "Good-bye, all; good-bye. It is God's way. His will be done."
Then he lapsed into unconsciousness, and the physicians led his grief-stricken wife from the room. There was no rallying after that impressive moment. As hour after hour passed the last hope fled. Two o'clock came and it was evident that life was now measured by minutes. At 2:15 Dr. Rixey bent forward and placed his ear close to the President's breast.
"The President is dead," he said.
The martyred chief had passed away from life, without a struggle or a sign of pain.
We must briefly give the succeeding events. An autopsy was held by the physicians in attendance in a few hours after the President's death. The result proved that recovery had been hopeless from the first. On examining the bullet wounds in the stomach it was found that gangrene had attacked the surrounding tissues. "There was no evidence of any attempt at repair on the part of nature, and death resulted from the gangrene which affected the stomach around the bullet wounds as well as the tissues around the further course of the bullet. Death was unavoidable by any surgical or medical treatment, and was the direct result of the bullet wound."
Such was the dictum of science. Recovery had been hopeless from the first. Instead of healing, decay had set in, and life ebbed painlessly away. The bullet was not found. It had buried itself so deeply that it could not be reached without a mutilation of the honored body that the physicians did not think justifiable.
There was one other event of that lamentable day which must be briefly told. Two hours after the arrival of Vice-President Roosevelt in Buffalo he took the oath of office as President of the United States, it being administered by United States Judge John R. Hazel. Before performing this ceremony he made the following remark to Secretary Root, one which had a quieting effect upon the whole community, and made its influence manifest by the strong tone of financial confidence that was manifested on the Stock Boards of the great cities:
"Mr. Secretary, I shall take the oath at once, at the request of the members of the Cabinet, and in this hour of deep and terrible national bereavement I wish to state that I shall continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley for the peace, prosperity and honor of our beloved country."
He further strengthened public confidence by requesting the members of the Cabinet to remain in office, and all went well with the business interests of the great Republic.
Plans for the funeral of the murdered President were made without delay. It was decided that the body should lie in state at the City Hall in Buffalo during Sunday, after a private religious ceremony at the Milburn house. On Monday it would be taken to Washington, reaching there that evening, and lying in state at the Capitol on Tuesday. It would leave for Canton on Tuesday evening, reaching there on Wednesday morning. There the final funeral services would be performed.
It was a stately procession that left the Milburn mansion shortly after noon on Sunday, the 15th of September, and passed through streets filled with a vast concourse of silent and sorrowing citizens. Reaching the City Hall, the coffin was lifted from the hearse and borne to the catafalque which lay within.
On the coffin were the national colors, on top of which lay a wreath of American Beauty Roses and one of white roses. The face of the President wore a look of perfect peacefulness and was not greatly emaciated, though a sallow hue had succeeded its usual pallor. At the right of the coffin, near its foot, stood the new President of the nation, while near by were the Cabinet officials and prominent citizens of Buffalo.
Rain had begun to fall heavily outside, but, despite this, the citizens of Buffalo and visitors to the Exposition swept in thousands through the hall, stopping to gaze in sorrow on the honored face, and passing gravely on. Between 1:30 and 10:30 of that day from 75,000 to 100,000 men, women and children passed in sadness by. Then the casket was closed, the gates were locked, and a guard of honor stood on duty through the night.
At early dawn of Monday, the body was taken to the funeral train, and started on its long journey to the nation's Capital. Up over the Alleghanies, down into the broad valley of the Susquehanna, on and on to the marble city on Potomac's shores sped the swift crape-covered train, through a long line of bareheaded and sorrowing people, who collected in thronging multitudes in every city, and gathered in thin lines at hamlet and roadside throughout the extended route. Everywhere signs of mourning were displayed and the grief of the people seemed genuine and deep. A half million of people gazed on the funeral car as it swept past.
Washington reached, the coffin was borne to the White House, escorted by soldiers and sailors and witnessed by a multitude that filled every inch of the spacious Pennsylvania avenue. It was deposited in the East Room of the executive mansion, where a guard of honor watched it through the night.
The last sad services at the nation's Capital took place on Tuesday, the 17th. The funeral casket, on a black-carved hearse, drawn by six coal-black horses, passed down the avenue towards the Capitol, followed by a procession that included high dignitaries of State, members of Congress and representatives of foreign nations, with military and civic organizations in numbers.
As the coffin was borne into the rotunda of the Capitol the band played the late President's favorite hymn, "Nearer, My God, to Thee," while every head in the vast throng was bared, and tears dimmed thousands of eyes.
The ceremonies in the Capitol were simple and dignified. There was no display of pomp or splendor, but the greatest in the land paid their tributes of respect to the dead ruler of the nation, the new President chief among them, and with him all the members of President McKinley's Cabinet.
Prayers were spoken, and the two hymns which the President had most loved, "Lead, Kindly Light," and "Nearer, My God, to Thee," were sweetly sung; the funeral address being next delivered by Bishop Edward G. Andrews, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who had come from Ohio to speak these last words over the remains of his lifelong friend and parishioner. The services over, the waiting thousands filed through the Capitol, though, as at Buffalo, drenching rain fell at intervals during the ceremony.
As evening fell a new funeral train began its long, sad journey, from Washington to the President's home and final resting place at Canton, Ohio. During this journey as during the former one thousands lined the road to gaze on the passing car of death, all night long and till noon Wednesday, when the train reached its goal.
The whole country round seemed waiting to receive it, and stood in reverent silence as the coffin was borne to the Court House, where until evening the people of President McKinley's home city passed in sorrow by his remains. In the evening the coffin was borne to the dead ruler's late residence. Here it remained until Thursday afternoon, the time fixed for the last sad rites.
The services were held in the Methodist Church which Mr. McKinley, as plain citizen and as President, had so often attended. President Roosevelt and his Cabinet occupied seats near the central aisle, and many of the dignitaries of the nation were present. The services began with prayer and music, followed by an eulogy from Rev. Dr. Manchester, the pastor and friend of the late President. The singing of the hymn, "Nearer, My God, to Thee," closed the services.
On leaving the church the remains were received by the escort of troops, and the column of march was resumed, passing between two solid lines of humanity to West Lawn Cemetery, where the body was to be deposited in a funeral vault:
Bishop Joyce, of Minneapolis, slowly but reverently read the burial service of the Methodist Episcopal Church. As his voice ceased there was a brief silence, and then eight bugles sounded out the notes of the soldier's last call — "taps." The notes of the bugles died slowly away, and as the honored body was consigned to the vault there were few dry eyes among those who stood around.
Thus ended the solemn ceremony. The martyred President had gone to his long home. Doubtless in many hearts the bugle sounds were echoed by his deep-meaning last words: "It is God's way! His will be done!"
Saturday, May 10, 1902, will long figure as a day of terror and horror in the news of the world, and notably in the United States. The press report of the matter exceeded in horror any story of battle ever told:
St. Pierre, the principal city of Martinique, the gem of the Windward Islands, has been blotted out under a storm of fire and avalanches of molten rock and ashes.
With a population of upward of 25,000 persons, the city has been totally destroyed, and the survivors are reported to number less than two score, nearly all of them burned, wounded, and suffering awful tortures.
Loss of life in Morne Rouge, and other neighboring towns and parishes, it is feared, will swell the death list to the appalling total of 40,000.
No such calamity has been chronicled in recent times. For anything approximating a parallel in horror and in the extent of the disaster one must hark back to the fate of cities of the plain or to the doom of Herculaneum and Pompeii. Even under that historic outpouring from Vesuvius the loss of life was probably not so great as that which occurred on Thursday in the sun-kissed little island of the Caribbean.
Mount Pelee, a great volcano, long ago believed to be extinct, suddenly awoke from the sleep of many years. Out of the mouth of the treacherous crater, around which nestled the summer villas and the pretty homes of the wealthier of the French West Indian residents, suddenly belched smoke and flame. Then, like the discharge from a Titanic gun, the whole crest of the mountain leaped thousands of feet into the air, and from the awful caldron's mouth poured down rivers of fire, swallowing up everything that lay in their path to the sea.
Torrents of red-hot ashes buried the country road about for miles, covering it as the blizzard blankets the earth in January. Groves, orchards, towns, and city burst into flame under the shower of death, and even the shipping in the roadstead of St. Pierre had no time to up anchor and get to sea.
The Roraima, of the Quebec line, which sailed from New York on April 26th, was lost, and it is believed that all on board perished. Most, if not all, of her passengers from the north had disembarked previously at other ports.
Of the officers and crew of the British steamship Roddam nearly all are reported dead or dying. The supercargo and ten men leaped into the sea and went down as the storm of fire enveloped them.
The Island of Martinique is a French possession and belongs to the Windward group of islands and is about thirty miles southeast of Dominica, and twenty miles north of St. Lucia, has an area of 381 square miles, and a total population of 187,692, only about 25,000 of whom are whites. Although St. Pierre is the largest town, the seat of the government is at Fort Royal, sometimes called Fort de France, which has a population of about 16,000. The disaster now reported is not the first which has occurred on the island.
It was visited in 1667, and history records that 16,000 perished. The disaster now recorded is perhaps the most appalling of the last 125 years, keeping in mind however the loss of 200,000 brown men on the coast of Sumatra and surrounding islands in 1885, when Krakatoa blew up, and the damage wrought in Spain in 1884 when 2,000 were destroyed.
Martinique is of volcanic origin, contains five or six extinct craters, and is subject to earthquakes. In the interior are three mountains, the highest of which is Mount Pelee, 4,438 feet above the sea level. Apparently it is this volcano which caused the havoc now reported.
The island has not always been French property. It was seized by the British in 1762, 1781, 1794, and 1809, and was finally restored to France by the treaty of Paris in 1814. Slavery was abolished in 1848, and since 1866 the island has legislated for itself in regard to customs duties and public works.
It was on this island that Josephine, the first empress of the French, was born, within a few miles of St. Pierre, on the plantation of her father, M. Tascher de la Pagerie, of an old French Creole family. There she met her first husband, Vicomte Alexander de Beauharnais, who had also been born on the island. Josephine died at Malmaison while Napoleon was at Elba. A beautiful statue of her was erected by the people of Martinique in one of the squares of St. Pierre.
In the naval history of this country St. Pierre will be remembered as the place where Cervera's squadron first turned up on this side of the Atlantic after leaving the Cape Verde Islands. Cervera put in there for coal, and within a few hours the Navy Department at Washington, which had been scouring the world for news of him, learned of his arrival.
The years between 1600 and 1800 were years of awful disaster by volcano, earthquake, and tidal wave. In 1793, fierce eruptions destroyed 200,000 people in Yeddo, Japan. Twenty years later volcanic forces in a few minutes extinguished 400,000 human beings in Pekin. In 1754, 40,000 were destroyed in Grand Cairo, Egypt, and in the following year 50,000 in Portugal, principally in Lisbon. Six years after the first visitation of Martinique 80,000 persons were wiped out in Guatemala, and Santiago was destroyed in toto. In 1692 a volcanic eruption killed 2,000, and in 1538 Lisston suffered a loss of 30,000. History offers the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, when the people fled from the flowing lava and were buried beneath falling ashes as were the unfortunate citizens of St. Pierre. In 446 B. C., Sparta lost 30,000 of its Greeks, and about 283, Lysimachina, a Greek city, was entirely destroyed. In 104 B. C., two cities in Greece and two in Galatia were annihilated in a few minutes. Mention might also be made of the legendary destruction of Lost Atlantis, of which volumes of numbers have been written, when a continent was submerged in a few hours by the action of fires at its foundations.
The consul at St. Pierre during the years 1895-1899, Col. J. G. Tucker, said in Washington, upon the first news of the great disaster:
It may possibly be wondered at why the people did not escape in time. When it is considered however that to one side lay the volcano, to another a steep mountain, and in front the sea, while the only avenue of escape towards Fort de France was within the radius of the volcano's power, the true situation may be seen. The people were simply like rats in a trap and had no way to turn.
We never thought of an eruption proceeding from the volcano. It seemed entirely extinct, and the fact that a little lake lay at the bottom of the crater lent strength to this supposition.
The crater lays about twelve miles to the north and west of St. Pierre, and could be climbed after hard work. It was very steep, with precipitous sides and rough rocks and lava beds. The crater proper was about 200 yards in diameter and 80 feet deep. At the bottom was the lake, containing clear, limpid water. The strange part about this lake was its unfathomable depth. All kinds of soundings were tried, but no one ever succeeded in finding the bottom.
There is only one industry on the Island of Martinique — that of sugar raising. Surprising to state no sugar is exported. It is all turned into rum, and then shipped to France. Everything necessary to the life of the inhabitants is got from the United States. But nothing is exported to this country. Despite the fact that the manufacture of rum was the principal industry the inhabitants were never drunk. I never saw a drunken native on the island during my entire stay. The only intoxicated persons I ever saw were foreigners.
A lifelong resident of St. Pierre related in the New York World of May 10th the following facts:
Many times have I been on old Mount Pelee. It was a scene of gayety for the people of the town, the place where they went for their picnics, and, forty days after every Easter, the Mecca to which all the religious people of the town repaired for the feast of Pentecost. No one feared the old mountain, the highest of the thickly-grouped chain of mountains which rise up behind the town. Older people there tell of an eruption in August, 1851, when ashes were showered upon the town. Since then a little lake has formed right where the eruption spouted out, and it was there when I was last on the mountain not long ago.
St. Pierre lies curving along the water front. There is no harbor there, just an open roadstead, and the sailing vessels coming fasten to a chain brought from shore and throw an anchor out to seaward. There are no piers big enough for big steamers to come up to and the cargoes are discharged on lighters. There are three sections of the town. The first they call colloquially "The Moorage," and the others "The Old Town," and "The New Town." The old town is built on a level with the sea. Above it rises sheer up for several hundred feet a rugged cliff, bare rock.
Further around the bend of the coast is what is called the new town. It is built on sloping ground and is the better and more modern part of the town.
Mount Pelee rises up behind the town, some two miles away. To get to the top of it you must travel over twenty miles. Circuitous roads leading around the rugged mountains climb up to a point on the mountain where the vehicles must be abandoned and the rest of the journey made on foot.
Far up on the mountain is the village of Morne Rouge, the home of the rich merchants and plantation-owners. It is a place of between 3,000 and 4,000 people. It has many pretty homes, and is very cool and pleasant in summer, the sea breezes reaching it without obstruction. It is right in the shadow of the deadly crater. It is here that persons going up to the top must leave their carriages and walk the rest of the way. It is inevitable that the beautiful village of Morne Rouge was utterly destroyed if the eruption was anything like what it is described to be.
Ah, the cool, little lake on the top of Mount Pelee. High up there, 4,400 feet above the water, set amid luxurious trees, with vistas of the sea and of the town below in the distance, there could be no more beautiful place. It was always a great place for picnics and outings and gatherings of every kind. There was plenty of room, much pretty scenery, and it was cool and delightful.
No one ever thought of fearing the volcano, which all thought to be extinct. It never smoked, and the only evidence of its activity fifty-one years ago was the placid, little lake, some sixty feet in circumference, right at the very top. The people crowded about by thousands, never dreaming that there was any danger.
A press report which reached Paris May 19th said:
Martinique mails, forwarded just prior to the disaster, arrived here yesterday. The newspapers print a number of private letters from St. Pierre, giving many details of occurrences immediately preceding the catastrophe. The most interesting of these is a letter from a young woman who was among the victims, dated May 3d. After describing the aspect of St. Pierre before dawn, the town being lit up with flames from the volcano, everything covered with ashes, and the people greatly excited, yet not panicstricken, she said:
"My calmness astomishes me. I am awaiting the event tranquilly. My only suffering is from the dust, which penetrates everywhere, even through closed windows and doors. We are all calm. Mamma is not a bit anxious. Edith alone is frightened. If death awaits us there will be a numerous company to leave the world. Will it be by fire or asphyxia? It will be what God wills. You will have our last thoughts. Tell brother Robert that we are still alive. This will perhaps be no longer true when this letter reaches you."
The Edith mentioned was a visitor, who was among the rescued. This and other letters inclosed samples of the ashes which fell over the doomed town. They are a bluish-gray, impalpable powder, resembling newly ground flour, and slightly smelling of sulphur.
Another letter, written during the afternoon of May 3d, says:
"The population of the neighborhood of the mountain is flocking to the city. Business is suspended, the inhabitants are panic-stricken, and the firemen are sprinkling the streets and roofs to settle the ashes, which are filling the air."
These and other letters seem to indicate that evidences of the impending disaster were numerous five days before it occurred.
It is difficult to understand how it was that a general exodus of the population of St. Pierre did not take place before May 8th. Still another letter says:
"St. Pierre presents an aspect unknown to the natives. It is a city sprinkled with gray snow, a winter scene without cold. The inhabitants of the neighborhood are abandoning their houses, villas, and cottages, and are flocking to the city. It is a curious pellmell of women, children, and barefooted peasants—big, black fellows, loaded with household goods. The air is oppressive; your nose burns. Are we going to die asphyxiated? What has to-morrow in store for us? A flow of lava, rain of stones, or a cataclysm from the sea? Who can tell? Will give you my last thought if I must die."
A St. Pierre paper at May 3d announces that an excursion arranged for the next day to Mount Pelee had been postponed, as the crater was inaccessible, adding that notice would be issued when the excursion would take place.
A London press report of May 23d said:
The West India Committee received by mail this morning a sample of the volcanic dust thrown out by the eruption of La Soufriere, Island of St. Vincent. A preliminary chemical examination has been made by Professor D'Albuquerque, who is of opinion that the dust, when mixed with heavy clay lands, might tend to improve the texture of the surface layers, although it has no fertilizing capacity. The dust is very minute, being almost like common flour, but is of a grayish-brown color.
Dr. Langfield Smith also examined the sample and found the dust to consist of volcanic minerals and glass, the former predominating. The minerals were chiefly silicates of iron and magnesia, there being also a considerable proportion of quartz and some potash and feldspar. He compared the volcanic iron with a sample of that which fell on the island in 1812 and found that the two differ greatly. The dust of 1812 is much finer and contains very few mineral crystals, consisting chiefly of dark-brown volcanic glass.
Hardly had the horrors of St. Pierre's destruction been told all over the world before news of a similar, though less terrible, outbreak and destruction, came from the British West Indies, Island of St. Vincent. A press report of Saturday, May 10th, from Kingston, St. Vincent, said:
After numerous earthquakes, during the preceding fortnight, accompanied by subterranean noises in the direction of the Soufriere volcano, in the northwestern part of the island, a loud explosion occurred Monday last from the crater and the water in the crater lake ascended in a stupendous cloud of steam and exploded heavily. The noises grew louder continually till Wednesday morning, when the old crater, three miles in circumference, and the new crater, formed by the last eruption, belched smoke and stones, forcing the residents of Wallibou and Richmond Valley, beneath the volcano, to flee to Chateau Belair for refuge.
The thunderous noises, which were continually increasing, were heard in neighboring islands 200 miles away.
At midday the craters ejected enormous columns of steamy vapor, rising majestically eight miles high and expanding into wonderful shapes, resembling enormous cauliflowers, gigantic wheels, and beautiful flower forms, all streaked up and down and crosswise with vivid flashes of lighting, awing the beholder and impressing the mind with fear. The mountain labored to rid itself of a mass of molten lava, which later flowed over, in six streams, down the side of the volcano, and the greater noises following united in one great, continuous roar all evening, through the night to Thursday morning, accompanied with black rain, falling dust, and favillae scoriae, attended with midnight darkness all Wednesday, creating feelings of fear and anxious suspense.
On the morning of Friday there was a fresh eruption and ejections of fiery matter, more dust covering the island, in some places two feet deep.
The crater is still active as this dispatch is sent and great loss of life is believed to have occurred. The lava has destroyed several districts, with their live stock. People are fleeing to this town; streams are dried up and in many places a food and water famine is threatened. The government is feeding numbers of sufferers from the outbreak.
Great physical changes have taken place in the neighborhood of the Soufriere.
Several districts have not yet been heard from and the scene of the eruption is unapproachable. Every hour brings sadder news. The nurses and doctors are overworked. It is impossible to give full details at present.
As a result of the disaster on this island all business has been suspended for three days. The public mind is still unsettled, fearing further disaster.
Among the deaths are whole families, whose corpses are, in several places, still lying unburied. The dead will be buried in trenches.