nditure of close upon
five millions of dollars.

The blowing up of the Maine and the loss of our brave men aroused the
most intense excitement throughout the United States, but the request of
Captain Sigsbee that public opinion should be suspended until thorough
investigation had been made, was followed, and the people behaved with
admirable and remarkable control.

A naval board of inquiry was at once organized by the United States
government. This board consisted of experienced officers, who were
greatly assisted in their labors by a strong force of experts, wreckers
and divers.

The investigation was most searching. The 21st of March, 1898, the board
presented a unanimous verdict. The report was most voluminous, embracing
some twelve thousand pages.

The verdict was practically that "the loss of the Maine was not in any
respect due to fault or negligence on the part of any of the officers or
members of her crew; that the ship was destroyed by the explosion of a
submarine mine, which caused the partial explosion of two or more of her
forward magazines; and that no evidence has been obtainable fixing the
responsibility of the destruction of the Maine upon any person or
persons."

Although it was not possible to obtain evidence which should convict the
guilty parties, there was not and never has been the faintest doubt in
the mind of any fair-minded person as to who was responsible for the
tragedy. When Congress afterward spoke of the crime or the criminal
negligence of the Spanish officials, the words found an ardent response
in the heart of every true American.

There is no doubt but that the destruction of the Maine was the lever
that started the machinery of war.

Like "Remember the Alamo!" "Remember the Maine!" is a clarion cry of
battle that will go echoing down the centuries.

In Cuba we were most fortunate in having a superb representative in the
person of General Fitz Hugh Lee, a man of rare intellectual ability,
ever courteous but ever firm, a fine specimen of Southern chivalry.

The Spaniards, as was but natural, hated him, but when his withdrawal
was suggested by the Spanish government President McKinley cabled to
Minister Woodford at Madrid that the services of General Lee at Havana
were indispensable and his removal could not be considered.

The relations between Spain and the United States became every day more
and more strained. Every effort was made by the President to bring about
a peaceab