unable
to subdue the Cubans, and that the Cubans were unable to expel the
Spanish, and that the war was therefore nothing but a campaign of
destruction and extermination, which would end only when one side was
exhausted or extirpated. It was impossible that a civilized and humane
nation should regard such a spectacle at its very doors with
indifference. We have hitherto quoted the significant remarks of
President Cleveland on the subject in his message of December, 1896,
clearly foreshadowing intervention. His successor, President McKinley,
in his message of just a year later, in December, 1897, expressed in
slightly different language the identical convictions and purposes. He
said:

[Illustration: WILLIAM MCKINLEY]

"The near future will demonstrate whether the indispensable conditions
of a righteous peace, just alike to the Cubans and to Spain, as well as
equitable to all our interests so intimately involved in the welfare of
Cuba, is likely to be attained. If not, the exigency of further and
other action by the United States will remain to be taken. When that
time comes, that action will be determined in the line of indisputable
right and duty.... If it shall hereafter appear to be a duty imposed by
our obligations to ourselves, to civilization, and to humanity, to
intervene with force, it shall be without fault on our part, and only
because the necessity for such action will be so clear as to command the
support and approval of the civilized world."

If McKinley, a less aggressive and more conciliatory man than Cleveland,
spoke a little less positively than his predecessor, in that he employed
the hypothetical form, the purport of his words was the same. The one a
Democratic President, the other a Republican President, long before that
incident of the _Maine_ which has incorrectly been regarded by some as
the cause of the American war with Spain, openly and in the most
explicit manner contemplated the prospect of forcible intervention in
Cuba and of consequent war.

Meantime Spain herself passed through a political crisis, which made a
change in her Cuban administration. Loud protests were made there
against the ruthless and inhuman policy of Weyler, but the Prime
Minister, Canovas del Castillo, was deaf to them and persisted in
retaining Weyler in command. But on August 8 Canovas was assassinated by
an Anarchist, and was succeeded by General Azcarraga, Minister of War,
who continued his policy unchanged. But