pacification thereof, and asserted its determination when that was
accomplished to leave the government and control of the island to its
people. The pledge contained in this resolution is of the highest
honorable obligation and must be sacredly kept.

I believe that substantial progress has been made in this direction.
All the administrative measures adopted in Cuba have aimed to fit it for
a regenerated existence by enforcing the supremacy of law and justice;
by placing wherever practicable the machinery of administration in the
hands of the inhabitants; by instituting needed sanitary reforms; by
spreading education; by fostering industry and trade; by inculcating
public morality, and, in short, by taking every rational step to aid
the Cuban people to attain to that plane of self-conscious respect
and self-reliant unity which fits an enlightened community for
self-government within its own sphere, while enabling it to fulfill
all outward obligations.

This nation has assumed before the world a grave responsibility for the
future good government of Cuba. We have accepted a trust the fulfillment
of which calls for the sternest integrity of purpose and the exercise of
the highest wisdom. The new Cuba yet to arise from the ashes of the past
must needs be bound to us by ties of singular intimacy and strength
if its enduring welfare is to be assured. Whether those ties shall be
organic or conventional, the destinies of Cuba are in some rightful
form and manner irrevocably linked with our own, but how and how far
is for the future to determine in the ripeness of events. Whatever be
the outcome, we must see to it that free Cuba be a reality, not a name,
a perfect entity, not a hasty experiment bearing within itself the
elements of failure. Our mission, to accomplish which we took up the
wager of battle, is not to be fulfilled by turning adrift any loosely
framed commonwealth to face the vicissitudes which too often attend
weaker States whose natural wealth and abundant resources are offset
by the incongruities of their political organization and the recurring
occasions for internal rivalries to sap their strength and dissipate
their energies. The greatest blessing which can come to Cuba is the
restoration of her agricultural and industrial prosperity, which will
give employment to idle men and re-establish the pursuits of peace.
This is her chief and immediate need.

On the 19th of August last an order was made for the taki