CONGRESS. (PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



145 





gold. If they arc put out in any other way, they 

 may return again to be followed by another boi.d 

 issue to redeem them another interest-bearing 

 debt to redeem a non-interest-bearing debt. 



In my view it is of the utmost importance that 

 the Government should be relieved from the burden 

 of providing all the gold required for exchanges 

 and export. This responsibility is alone borne by 

 the Government without any of the usual and 

 necessary banking powers to help itself. The 

 banks do not feel the strain of gold redemption. 

 The whole strain rests upon the Government, and 

 the size of the gold reserve in the treasury has 

 come, to be, with or without reason, the signal of 

 danger or of security. This ought to be stopped. 



If we are to have an era of prosperity in the coun- 

 try. with sufficient receipts for the expenses of the 

 Government, we may feel no immediate embarrass- 

 ment from our present currency ; but the danger 

 still exists and will be ever present menacing us so 

 long as the existing system continues. And be- 

 sides, it is in times of adequate revenues and busi- 

 ness tranquillity that the Government should pre- 

 pare for the worst. We can not avoid without 

 serious consequences the wise consideration and 

 prompt solution of this question. 



The Secretary of the Treasury has outlined a 

 plan in great detail for the purpose of removing 

 the threatened recurrence of a depleted gold re- 

 serve and save us from future embarrassment on 

 that account. To this plan I invite your careful 



msideration. 



I concur with the Secretary of the Treasury in 

 is recommendation that national banks be allowed 

 to issue notes to the face value of the bonds which 

 they have deposited for circulation, and that the 

 tax on circulating notes secured by deposit of such 

 bonds be reduced to one half of 1 per cent, per 

 annum. I also join him in recommending that 

 authority be given for the establishment of national 

 banks with a minimum capital of $25,000. This 

 will enable the smaller villages and agricultural 

 regions of the country to be supplied with currency 

 to meet their needs. 



I recommend that the issue of national-bank 

 notes be restricted to the denomination of $10 and 

 upward. If the suggestions I have herein made 

 shall have the approval of Congress, then I would 

 recommend that national banks be required to re- 

 deem their notes in gold. 



The most important problem with which this 

 Government is now called upon to deal pertaining 

 to its foreign relations concerns its duty toward 

 Spain and the Cuban insurrection. Problems and 

 conditions more or less in common with those now 

 existing have confronted this Government at vari- 

 ous times in the past. The story of Cuba for many 

 years has been one of unrest, growing discontent, 

 an effort toward a larger enjoyment of liberty and 

 self-control, of organized resistance to the mother 

 country, of depression after distress and warfare, 

 and of ineffectual settlement to be followed by 

 renewed revolt. For no enduring period since the 

 enfranchisement of the continental possessions of 

 Spain in the Western Continent has the condition 

 >f Cuba or the policy of Spain toward Cuba not 



.used concern to the United States. 



The prospect from time to time that the weakness 

 Spain's hold upon the island and the political 

 icissitudes and embarrassments of the home gov- 

 rnment might lead to the transfer of Cuba to a 

 continental power called forth, between 1823 and 

 I860, various emphatic declarations of the policy 

 of the United States to permit no disturbance, of 

 Cuba's connection with Spain unless in the direc- 

 tion of independence or acquisition by us through 

 purc-hase; nor has there been any change of this 



VOL. XXXVIII. 10 A 



declared policy since upon the part of the Govern- 

 ment. 



The revolution which began in 1868 lasted for ten 

 years despite the strenuous efforts of the successive 

 peninsular governments to suppress it. Then, as 

 now, the Government of the United States testified 

 its grave concern and offered its aid to put an end 

 to bloodshed in Cuba. The overtures made by 

 Gen. Grant were refused and the war dragged 

 on, entailing great loss of life and treasure and 

 increased injury to American interests, besides 

 throwing enhanced burdens of neutrality upon this 

 Government. In 1878 peace was brought about by 

 the truce of Zanjon, obtained by negotiations be- 

 tween the Spanish commander, Martinez de Campos, 

 and the insurgent leaders. 



The present insurrection broke out in February, 

 1895. It is not my purpose at this time to recall its 

 remarkable increase or to characterize its tenacious 

 resistance against the enormous forces massed 

 against it by Spain. The revolt and the efforts to 

 subdue it carried destruction to every quarter of 

 the island, developing wide proportions and defy- 

 ing the efforts of Spain for its suppression. The 

 civilized code of war has been disregarded, no less 

 so by the Spaniards than by the Cubans. 



The existing conditions can not but fill this Gov- 

 ernment and the American people with the gravest 

 apprehension. There is no desire on the part of 

 our people to profit by the misfortunes of Spain. 

 We have only the desire to see the Cubans prosper- 

 ous and contented, enjoying that measure of self- 

 control which is the inalienable right of man. pro- 

 tected in their right to reap the benefit of the 

 exhaustless treasures of their country. 



The offer made by my predecessor" in April, 1896. 

 tendering the friendly offices of this Government 

 failed. Any mediation on our part was not accepted. 

 In brief, the answer read : " There is no effectual 

 way to pacify Cuba unless it begins with the actual 

 submission of the rebels to the mother country." 

 Then only could Spain act in the promised direc- 

 tion, of her own motion and after her own plans. 



The cruel policy of concentration was initiated 

 Feb. 16, 1896. The productive districts controlled 

 by the Spanish armies were depopulated. The 

 agricultural inhabitants were herded in and about 

 the garrison towns, their lands laid waste, and 

 their dwellings destroyed. This policy the late 

 Cabinet of Spain justified as a necessary measure of 

 war and as a means of cutting off supplies from the 

 insurgents. It has utterly failed as a war measure. 

 It was not civilized warfare. It was extermination. 



Against this abuse of the rights of war I have 

 felt constrained on repeated occasions to enter the 

 firm and earnest protest of this Government. There 

 was much of public condemnation of the treatment 

 of American citizens by alleged illegal arrests and 

 long imprisonment awaiting trial or pending pro- 

 tracted judicial proceedings. I felt it my first duty 

 to make instant demand for the release or speedy 

 trial of all American citi/ens under arrest. Before 

 the change of the Spanish Cabinet in October last 

 twenty-two prisoners, citizens of the United States, 

 had been given their freedom. 



For the relief of our own citizens suffering be- 

 cause of the conflict the aid of Congress was sought 

 in a special message, and under the appropriation 

 of April 4. 1897, effective aid has been given to 

 American citizens in Cuba, many of them at their 

 own request having been returned to the United 

 States. 



The instructions given to our new minister to 

 Spain before his departure for his post directed 

 him to impress upon that Government the sincere 

 wish of the United States to lend its aid toward the 

 ending of the war in Cuba by reaching a peaceful 



