The Story of Cuba

“The Story of Cuba is a tragedy.” Murat Halstead wrote it while the insurrection was still burning — four centuries of Spanish rule, the sugar and slave economy, Weyler’s camps, and an America deciding whether to intervene.

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Outline History of Cuba from May, 1896, to January, 1897: Cleveland

I see in Mr. Cleveland's message all the splendor of international humanity, and I deduce from it that he will stand as defender of his own theory not to recognize the belligerency of the Cubans, least of all to accord their independence or approve of intervention, even peaceful intervention--to say nothing of intervention by force of arms, since he feels that the eyes of the world are on him at this moment.

It is necessary that liberty should walk hand in hand with peace; for cruel war overthrows all principles of justice, crushing the laws of human nature, by putting force against force, violence against violence, despotism against despotism.

From external conquest it is but a step to internal oppression. That would be to do away with the work of Washington, and substitute for it the power of the Caesars, whose inevitable establishment drives and hastens us towards slavery and barbarism.

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