himself was not personally
responsible. He boasted that he only had three individuals put to
death, and that in each of these cases he was highly justified by
martial law.

FINALLY THE ATTENTION OF THE UNITED STATES was forcibly attracted to
Cuba by the Virginius affair, which consisted in the wanton murder of
fifty American sailors--officers and crew of the Virginius, which was
captured by the Spanish off Santiago bay, bearing arms and ammunition
to the insurgents--Captain Fry, a West Point graduate, in command.

Spain would, no doubt, have received a genuine American thrashing on
this occasion had she not been a republic at that time, and President
Grant and others thought it unwise to crush out her republican
principles, which then seemed just budding into existence.

The horrors of this incident, however, were not out of the minds of
the American people when the new insurrection of 1895 broke out. At
once, as if by an electric flash, the sympathy of the American people
was enlisted with the Insurgents who were (as the Americans believed)
fighting Spain for their _liberty_. Public opinion was on the
Insurgents' side and against Spain from the beginning. This feeling of
sympathy for the fighting Cubans knew no North nor South; and strange
as it may seem the Southerner who quails before the mob spirit that
disfranchises, ostracises and lynches an American Negro who seeks his
liberty at home, became a loud champion of the Insurgent cause in
Cuba, which was, in fact, the cause of Cuban Negroes and mulattoes.

GENERAL FITZHUGH LEE, of Virginia, possibly the most noted Southerner
of the day, was sent by President Cleveland to Havana as Consul
General, and seemed proud of the honor of representing his government
there, judging from his reports of the Insurgents, which were
favorable. General Lee was retained at his post by President McKinley
until it became necessary to recall him, thus having the high honor
paid him of not being changed by the new McKinley administration,
which differed from him in politics; and as evidence of General
Fitzhugh Lee's sympathy with the Cubans it may be cited that he sent
word to the Spanish Commander (Blanco) on leaving Havana that he would
return to the island again and when he came he "would bring the stars
and stripes in front of him."

BELLIGERENT RIGHTS TO THE INSURGENTS OR NEUTRALITY became the topic of
discussion during the close of President Cleveland's administration.
The Pres