378 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



as the conditions seemed to warrant the United States in 

 recognizing the independence of the island, intervention 

 was looked to as the only means left for ending a hopeless 

 conflict. In his note of November 5, 1875, to Mr. Gushing, 

 the American Minister in Madrid,* the Secretary of State, Mr. 

 Fish, had already anticipated these suggestions of the Presi- 

 dent. He wrote : - 



In the absence of any prospect of a termination of a war, or of 

 any change in the manner in which it has been conducted on either 

 side, he [the President] feels that the time is at hand when it may 

 be the duty of other governments to intervene, solely with a view 

 of bringing to an end a disastrous and destructive conflict, and of 

 restoring peace in the island of Cuba. No government is more 

 deeply interested in the order and peaceful administration of this 

 island than is that of the United States, and none has suffered as 

 the United States from the condition which has obtained there 

 during the past six or seven years. He will, therefore, feel it his 

 duty at an early day to submit the subject in this light, and ac- 

 companied by an expression of the views above presented, for the 

 consideration of Congress. 



Copies of this note were sent to the American ministers at 

 the various European courts for the purpose of ascertaining 

 the attitude of these governments toward intervention in 

 Cuba. It seems also to have been Mr. Fish's desire to 

 secure Great Britain's cooperation. The replies of all the 

 governments which had thus been approached, were unfavor- 

 able, and the matter was put aside. In a short time, how- 

 ever, the fact that Mr. Fish had seen fit to admit indeed, 

 to invite European councils upon a matter so essentially 

 American in all its bearings, brought upon him the odium 

 of having neglected the proper observance of his country's 

 traditions, and to having violated the principles of the Monroe 

 Doctrine. Mr. Fish appears to have been sensitive to this 

 accusation, and to have evaded an explanation of his course 

 in seeking aid from abroad to oust Spain from Cuba. 



Intervention in behalf of Cuba in 1898 was not predicated 

 directly upon the Monroe Doctrine, although the Senate 

 Committee on Foreign Affairs in April of that year, sub- 



