n referred the question as
one "probably leading to war," and therefore a proper subject for
"a previous understanding with that body by whom war can alone be
declared and by whom all the provisions for sustaining its perils must
be furnished," left the matter of the recognition of Texas to the
discretion of the Executive, providing merely for the sending of a
diplomatic agent when the President should be satisfied that the
Republic of Texas had become "an independent state." It was so
recognized by President Van Buren, who commissioned a charge d'affaires
March 7, 1837, after Mexico had abandoned an attempt to reconquer the
Texan territory, and when there was at the time no _bona fide_
contest going on between the insurgent province and its former
sovereign.

I said in my message of December last:

It is to be seriously considered whether the Cuban insurrection
possesses beyond dispute the attributes of statehood, which alone
can demand the recognition of belligerency in its favor.

The same requirement must certainly be no less seriously considered
when the graver issue of recognizing independence is in question, for
no less positive test can be applied to the greater act than to the
lesser, while, on the other hand, the influences and consequences of the
struggle upon the internal policy of the recognizing state, which form
important factors when the recognition of belligerency is concerned, are
secondary, if not rightly eliminable, factors when the real question is
whether the community claiming recognition is or is not independent
beyond peradventure.

Nor from the standpoint of expediency do I think it would be wise
or prudent for this Government to recognize at the present time the
independence of the so-called Cuban Republic. Such recognition is not
necessary in order to enable the United States to intervene and pacify
the island. To commit this country now to the recognition of any
particular government in Cuba might subject us to embarrassing
conditions of international obligation toward the organization so
recognized. In case of intervention our conduct would be subject to the
approval or disapproval of such government. We would be required to
submit to its direction and to assume to it the mere relation of a
friendly ally.

When it shall appear hereafter that there is within the island a
government capable of performing the duties and discharging the
functions of a separate nation, and having