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The Crisis in Cuba: Cuban

Mr. President, our wishes are for Cuban freedom, but can we accomplish this by mere naked declaration? Senators have condemned Spain, and have criticized her policies with severity, but all this is futile. We should appreciate the truth that we cannot peaceably, or with due respect for international obligations, go further than sympathetic expression. If the president determines to announce that the Cubans in revolt are entitled to the rights of war, they will still be subject to sections 5,283-5,286 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. This would be true if Cuban independence were recognized by us, and must remain true while war lasts. Our declaration of neutrality itself implies that we will vigorously enforce the law as against all parties to the contest. We are in honor bound to do so. It is well to keep these facts before us. All should remember that in no way can we relieve the people of Cuba from of our neutrality laws unless we boldly deny Spain's right, and ourselves take charge of the issue and declare war.

In the course of his remarks, the senator referred to the record of the president, December 8, 1885, with reference to the Colombian difficulty, and he quoted many passages of pertinent and instructive history, after which he proceeded:

To assert here by resolution that the Cuban people have accomplished their independence, when we know they have not accomplished it, when we know they are endeavoring to accomplish it, when we know they are making every effort to attain to that condition, when we know that it is an unrealized hope, would be to write ourselves down as anything but reasonable men. Certainly, a declaration of that kind would not have any satisfactory effect. It would be an announcement here in the form of a resolution of that which we should know is untrue.