AMERICA, GERMANY, AND SPAIN-1897-1903 161 



Various presses indulged in malignant prophecies: the 

 Americans would find Spain a very hard nut to crack; 

 Spanish soldiers would drive the American mongrels into 

 the sea ; when Cervera got out with his fleet, the Ameri 

 can fleet would slink away; Spanish ships, being built 

 under the safeguard of Spanish honor, must win the vic 

 tory ; American ships, built under a regime of corruption, 

 would be found furnished with sham plating, sham guns, 

 and sham supplies of every sort. It all reminded me of 

 sundry prophecies we used to hear before our Civil War, 

 to the effect that, when the Northern and Southern armies 

 came into the presence of each other, the Yankee soldiers 

 would trade off their muskets to the foe. 



Against President McKinley every sort of iniquity was 

 charged. One day he was an idiot; another day, the 

 most cunning of intriguers ; at one moment, an overbear 

 ing tyrant anxious to rush into war; at another, a cow 

 ard fearing war. It must be confessed that this was 

 mainly drawn from the American partizan press ; but it 

 was, none the less, hard to bear. 



In the meantime President McKinley, his cabinet, 

 and the American diplomatic corps in Europe did every 

 thing in their power to prevent the war. Just as long as 

 possible the President clearly considered that his main 

 claim on posterity would be for maintaining peace against 

 pressure and clamor. Under orders from the State De 

 partment I met at Paris my old friend General Woodf ord, 

 who was on his way to Spain as minister of the United 

 States, and General Porter, the American ambassador to 

 France, our instructions being to confer regarding the 

 best means of maintaining peace ; and we all agreed that 

 everything possible be done to allay the excitement in 

 Spain ; that no claims of a special sort, whether pecuniary 

 or otherwise, should be urged until after the tension 

 ceased ; that every concession possible should be made to 

 Spanish pride; and that, just as far as possible, every 

 thing should be avoided which could complicate the gen 

 eral issue with personal considerations. All of us knew 



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