CONGRESS. (CUBA.) 



163 



"The air is too full of rumors as to the character 

 of the present so-called Cuban republic and as to 

 the bonds that have been floated in its name in this 

 country and said tobe.in the hands of speculators, 

 to justify us in any hasty act of recognition." 



A different phase of opinion was represented by 

 Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, who said : 



" Mr. President, I can not vote for the joint reso- 

 lution because it introduces, and I believe was 

 meant to introduce, discord and divided counsels 

 in what ought to be the act of a united country. 



" I can not vote for it because it undertakes to 

 direct, contrary to all our legislative precedents, a 

 co-ordinate branch of the Government, the Execu- 

 tive, ordering him to proceed at once when his con- 

 st it utinnal and legal duties are defined by the Con- 

 stitution, and not by the law-making power. 



" I can not vote for it because it is contrary to 

 the courtesies which prevail between the legislative 

 and Executive and undertakes to take from the 

 discretion of the Executive what ought to belong 

 to him under the Constitution itself. 



" I will not vote for it because if it pass and the 

 government of Cuba be now free and independent, 

 the forces of the army of the United States on 

 Cuban land and the navy of the United States in 

 Cuban watei's must be under the command of the 

 insurgent leader or their presence there is a war 

 against him. 



" Gentlemen have tried by refined and deluding 

 arguments to torture a sentence of the President of 

 the United States, separated from its context, into 

 a suggestion that possibly he might be expecting to 

 make war upon these insurgents. And yet, and you 

 can not escape from it, you are undertaking, in your 

 eager passion, to do something which will be un- 

 pleasant to those of your associates who support 

 the President. You are making an affirmation, I 

 repeat, which will put the army and the navy of 

 the United States under the command of Maximo 

 Gomez the moment they get into Cuban waters or 

 onto Cuban soil, or their'presence there is war upon 

 the recognized and established government of the 

 country which you say is his. 



" I will not vote for it because it violates interna- 

 tional law, and thereby in this great transaction 

 sets the sympathy of the nations of the world 

 against us. 



"Mr. President, I am not alarmed or disturbed 

 because in the vote I am about to give I am to 

 encounter the dissent of an excited, inflated, and 

 angei-ed majority. 



" I am old enough to remember another transac- 

 tion to which this is a parallel. In the beginning 

 of the Mexican war a war in regard to which the 

 feeling of the people of the United States was deeply 

 stirred it was attempted to coerce the minority in 

 the two Houses of Congress by putting into the law 

 which provided for raising troops, and supplying 

 them, a preamble, ' Whereas war exists by the act 

 of Mexico:' and some weak Whigs of that day, 

 fearing that their action would be unpopular, bowed 

 the knee and affirmed by their votes what they 

 knew and believed to be an untruth. Fourteen 

 members of the House of Representatives, with the 

 approvnl of Henry Clay, voted against that lying 

 preamble, and to his immortal honor be it said the 

 great commoner, though he was ready and eager 

 for the war, declared that he would rather have his 

 tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth than to utter, 

 by an affirmative vote, what he knew to be an un- 

 truth. 



" The men who yielded in that hour of weakness 

 and of temptation returned to their constituents. 

 One of the most eminent and brilliant citizens of 

 my own State, who was afterwards Speaker of the 

 House, went home to a doom of defeat and popular 





disapprobation. The men who recorded their votes 

 on the side of truth in the face of that excited 

 majority are known to-day in our political history 

 as the immortal fourteen. 



" I am willing to trust myself, my reputation, my 

 political character, with the people of .Massachusetts 

 when 1 stand up here and vote against what I know, 

 or think I know, to be untrue." 



The Senate amended the resolution as reported, 

 then substituted it, the title and the preamble for the 

 joint resolution passed by the House, and adopted 

 the substitute, April 16, by the following vote : 



YEAS Allen, Bacon, Baker, Bate, Berry, Butler. 

 Cannon, Carter, Chandler, Chilton, Clark, Clay, 

 Cockrell, Cullum, Daniel, Davis, Deboe, Faulkner, 

 Foraker, Frye, Gallinger, Gear, Gorman, Gray, 

 Hansbrough, Harris, Heitfeld, Jones of Arkansas, 

 Jones of Nevada, Kenney, Kyle, Lindsay, Lodge, 

 McEnery, McLaurin, Mai lory, Mantle, Martin, 

 Mason, Mills, Mitchell, Money, Morgan, Murphy, 

 Nelson, Pasco, Penrose, Perkins, Pettigrew, Pettus, 

 Proctor, Quay, Rawlins, Roach, Shoup, Smith, 

 Stewart, Teller, Thurston, Tillman, Turley, Turner, 

 Turpie, Vest, Warren, Wilson, Wolcott 67. 



NAYS Aldrich, Allison, Burrows, Caffery, Elkins, 

 Fairbanks, Hale, Hanna, Hawley, Hoar, McBride, 

 McMillan, Morrill, Platt of Connecticut, Platt of 

 New York, Pritchard, Sewell, Spooner, Wellington, 

 Wetmore, White 21. 



ABSENT Walthall 1. 



The joint resolution in its new shape was as 

 follows : 



"Joint resolution for the recognition of the inde- 

 pendence of the people and republic of Cuba, de- 

 manding that the Government of Spain relinquish 

 its authority and government in the island of Cuba, 

 and to withdraw its land and naval forces from 

 Cuba and Cuban waters, and directing the Presi- 

 dent of the United States to use the land and naval 

 forces of the United States to carry these resolu- 

 tions into effect. 



"Whereas, The abhorrent conditions which have 

 existed for more than three years in the island of 

 Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the 

 moral sense of the people of the United States, 

 have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, cul- 

 minating, as they have, in the destruction of a 

 United States battle ship, with 266 of its officers 

 and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of 

 Havana, and can not longer be endured, as has been 

 set forth by the President of the United States in 

 his message to Congress of April 11, 1898. upon 

 which the action of Congress was invited : There- 

 fore. 



" First. That the people of the island of Cuba 

 are, and of right ought to be, free and independent, 

 and that the Government of the United States 

 hereby recognizes the republic of Cuba as the true 

 and lawful government of that island. 



" Second. That it is the duty of the United States 

 to demand, and the Government of the United 

 States does hereby demand, that the Government 

 of Spain at once relinquish its authority and gov- 

 ernment in the island of Cuba, and withdraw its 

 land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters. 



" Third. That the President of the United States 

 be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to 

 use the entire land and naval forces of the United 

 States, and to call into the actual service of the 

 United States the militia of the several States, to 

 such extent as may be necessary to carry these reso- 

 lutions into effect. 



"Fourth. That the United States hereby dis- 

 claims any disposition or intention to exercise sov- 

 ereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island 

 except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its 

 determination, when that is accomplished, to leave 



