VIDA DEL DOCTOR JOSÉ MANUEL 3IESTEE 349 



This government has felt itself constrained to remonstrate against a 

 certain proclamation that was issued by the Captain General of Cuba in the 

 course of this contiict, and which it appeared to the President would, if 

 carried into eftect, infringe upon the rights of our people, in the pureuit of 

 lawful commerce, and under the protection of the recognized laws of nations, 

 freely to navigate the high seas. We also felt ourselves called upon to re- 

 monstrate against another proclarnations that threatened a mode of warfare 

 that varied with the recognized customs of civilized nations. — Assurances 

 have been received orally from the representative of Spain at Washington 

 that the former of these proclamations has been revoked. We therefore have 

 good reason to think that no further cause of coruplaint will issue therefrom. 

 It is true that one of our vessels was illegally and violently arrested on the high 

 seas, and two passengers forcibly taken therefrom, for which we have 

 demanded atonement. The passengers were, however, returnedto the cónsul, 

 and the Spanish minister here has assured me that the passengers will 

 be indemnified, and that a suitable apology will be made to the govern- 

 ment for the aflront to its flag. It is hoped that a satisfactory adjustment 

 of this veiy injustifiable outrage may be eífected through the representative 

 of Spain to this government, without the necessity of your intervention at 

 the court of Madrid. 



The proximity of the Island of Cuba, the constant intercourse between 

 its inhabitants and our citizens, and its extended and increasing commerce 

 with this country, all tend to awaken an earnest interest in our people in 

 what concern its inhabitants. Many citizens of the United States are large- 

 ly interested in property there; many reside there, and many visit the 

 island more or less frequently either on business, or to enjoy the benefit of 

 the climate. Even more numerous, possibly, are the Cubans who own prop. 

 erty, or who visit, or who reside, in the United States, and thus there 

 have grown up cióse personal relations, both business and social, between the 

 inhabitants of Cuba and of the United States. A strong political sympa- 

 thy also exists and the civil strife now raging in the island thus appeals with 

 unusual power to the sympathy which Americans feel for all people striving 

 to secure for themselves more liberal institutions, and that inestimable 

 right of self government which we prize as the foundation of all progress 

 and achievement. 



During the nine months that the insurrection in Cuba has existed this 

 government has, in the utmost good faith, and with great success, exerted 

 its powers to perform all its duties and obligations toward Spain, and to 

 maintain its friendly relations with that power. It has been no easy task 

 to restrain our citizens, within the bounds prescribed by the obligations of 

 one friendly power to another, and to repress the spirit of adven ture and 

 enterprise from entering the field of an extended and prolonged contest, 

 where the cry was in favor of liberty, emancipation, and self-government, 

 especially when all the claims of neighborhood, of personal intimacies, and 

 of political sympathies were tendiug in the directions of material aid to the 

 insurrection, and when these tendencies were warmed into lifeby the person- 

 al presence and the appeals of the Cubans who were either resident 

 among us, or whom the desolation of their country had brought to our shores. 



