d have been averted
had not the _Maine_ been destroyed in Havana harbor. The country
forced us into it after that appalling catastrophe.

The entire Nation stood behind the President, and so did Congress.
One of the most dignified and impressive scenes I ever witnessed
since I became a member of the Senate was the passage of the bill
appropriating fifty million dollars to be expended under the
direction of the President, in order to carry on the war. The
Committee on Appropriations, of which I had long been a member,
directed Senator Hale to report the bill. It was agreed in committee
that we should endeavor to secure its passage without a single
speech for or against it. Some of the Senators who seemed disposed
to talk, were prevailed upon to desist, and it was passed without
any speeches. The ayes and nays were called, and amid the most
solemn silence the bill was passed. The galleries were crowded;
a great many members of the House were on the floor, and it reminded
me of the days when the great Reconstruction legislation was being
enacted, in the sixties. It was a demonstration to the country
and the world of our confidence in the President, and the determination
on the part of Congress to do what was necessary to uphold the
dignity and honor of the United States. The vote for the bill in
the Senate was unanimous.

The war came on immediately afterwards. The history of it is yet
too fresh in the minds of the people to need repetition here. It
was soon over, and with its conclusion came new and greater
responsibilities. Whether it was wise for the United States to
assume these new responsibilities, I am not prepared to say. Time
alone can determine that.

I have always had great sympathy for General Russell A. Alger, of
Michigan, who was in President McKinley's Cabinet as Secretary of
War. It was not his fault that conditions in the War Department
were as they existed in 1897, when he assumed office. We must
remember that the country had enjoyed a continuous period of peace
from 1865 to 1898. We were unprepared for war, and in the scramble
and haste the Department of War was not administered satisfactorily,
the whole blame being laid upon General Alger. It had been the
policy of the Democratic party in Congress to oppose liberal
appropriations for the maintenance of the War Department and the
Army. Many Republicans thought that the best means of limiting
appropriations was in cutting down the es