Show 14 THE apfl MESSAGE I 1 our relations with foreign governments frankly discussed SPAIN MUST CONQUER CUBA or the united states must 1 Y interpose the rb president fully sets nets forth the lite in nud and artey pan Sup superego prego the th Web rebellion eillon or tore lone cuba treasur Tres sur Mat ement and reforms reform 4 asphaltum Pel nepo sll me elc the congress ot of the united states As representative of 0 the people in the legislative branch of 0 the government you have assembled at a time when the strength and excellence of 0 our tree free in and the fitness of our citizens to en enjoy j oy popular rule have been again made manifest A political contest it in waiving wv Iving momentous momen tou tout consequence fraught with feverish apprehension and creating aggressiveness so intense as c to approach bitterness and passion A aas been waged throughout the land and determined by the decree of 0 free and independent suffrage without disturbance tur bance ot of our tranquillity or the least sign insign of weakness in our nt national ional t eure huiea we consider these incidents and contemplate the peace peaceful ful obedience and manly submission which have succeeded a heated clash of political opinions we e discover abundant evidence of t a determination on the part ot of our countrymen to abide by every verdict of cf the popular will I 1 and tobe to be controlled at all times by an abiding falt faith in the agencies established for the direction mf at the affairs of their government thus our nr people exhibit a patriotic dis disposition which entitles entities them to demand of those who undertake to make and execute their laws such faithful and un selfish service in their behalf behalf as can only be be prompted by a serious appreciation ot of the trust and confidence which acceptance of public d duty uty invites in obedience to a re rement I 1 hereby submit to the congress certain information concerning Kit lonal affairs with ane 6 suggestion ug of uch such legislation as in my judgment Is necessary and expedient to seccie secure brevity and avoid tiresome narration I 1 shall omit many details concerning matters within federal control which by no means unimportant are more profitably discussed in departmental reports I 1 chail also further curtail this comm communication uni cation by omitting a minute recital of arty any minor incidents connected with our foreign relations which have heretofore found a place in executive messages but are now contained in a report of the secretary of state which aich is herewith submitted TURKEY at the outset of a reference to the more important matters affecting our relations with foreign powers it would afford me satisfaction if I 1 could assure the congress that the disturbed condition in asiatic turkey had during the past liast year assumed a less hideous and bloody aspect and that cither as a con sequence of the awakening of the turk ish government to the demand of humane civilization or as the result of a decisive action on the part of the great nations inactions having the right by treat treaty to interfere for the protection of those exposed to the rage of mad bigotry and cruel fanatic lem the shocking features of tat situation had been bee n mitigated instead however of welcoming Mel coming a isott softened ened disposition or protective intervention ven tion we have been afflicted by continued and not infrequent reports of the wanton destruction of homes and the moody butchery of men women and children made martyrs ta to their profession of christian faith while none of our oar citizens in fri turkey have thus far been killed or wounded though often in the midst of dreadful scenes of danger dancer their safety in the future Is by no means assured our government at home and our minister at constantinople it have left nothing undone to pro sect hect our missionaries in ottoman terri tory who constitute nearly all the individuals residing there who have a right to claim our protection on the score ol of american citizenship our efforts in direction will not ze oe relaxed but the deep reeling and sympathy that have been raised among our aur p people eople ought not to so tar far blind their reason and judgment as to lead them to demand impossible things lings ti the outbreaks of blind fury which lead to lo murder and pillage in turkey occur suddenly and without A notice and an attempt on our part to force Cor cech such a hostile Vie presence sence there as might be effective for prevention or protection would not only be resisted by the ottoman government but would be regarded as an interruption of gieir plans by the great nations who assert their exclusive right to intervene in their own time lime and method for the security of life and property in turkey several naval vessels are stationed in the mediterranean as a measure of caution and to furnish all possible relief and refuge la in case cae of emergency we have made claims against the turkish government for the pillage and destruction of missionary property at harput and marash during uprisings at these places place thus far the validity of these demands ha has s not been admired admi ted though our minister prior to such outrage and in anticipation of d danger demand protection for the persons and of our missionary citizens ln in the localities mentioned and notwithstanding that strong evidence exists of ta hi actual complicity of turkish soldiers in the work of destruction and robbery the facts as they now appear do not permit us to doubt the justice of these claims and nothing will be omitted to bring about labout their prompt settlement A number of armenian refugees hav bay ing arrived at our ports an order has lately been obtained from the turkish government permitting the wives and children of such refugees to join them here it Is hoped that hereafter no obstacle will be Interposed to prevent the escape of all those who seeks seek to avoid the perils chicz threatens them in turkish dominions our recently appointed consul to er zeroun is at his post and discharging the duties of his office though for some unaccountable reason his formal from the sultan has not been issued I 1 do not believe that the present ent somber prospect in turkey will be lonk long perriN permitted ted to offend the sight light of christendom it so mars the humane and enlightened civilization that belongs to the close of the nineteenth century that it seems hardly possible that the earnest demand of good people the christian world for its corrective treatment will remain unanswered I 1 the insurrection in cuba still continues with all its perplexities it Is difficult to perceive that any progress hat has thus far been made toward the pacification tion of the island or that the situa tion of affairs as depicted in my last annual message has in the least improved if spain still holds havana and the seaports and all the considerable towns the insurgents still roam at will over at least two thirds of the inland country if the determination of spain to put down the insurrection seems but to strengthen Agthen with the lapse of time and is evinced by her unhesitating devotion of largely increased military and naval forces to the task there Is anch reason to believe that the insurgents have gained in point of numbers and character and resources and are none the less inflexible in their resolved not to succumb without practically the great object for which they took up aims if spain has not yet reestablish establish re ed cd her authority neither have the insurgents yet made good their title to lo be re added as an independent state indeed 5 the contest has gone on the pretense that civil government exists on the island except so far as spain Is able to maintain it has been practically abandoned spain does not keep on foot such a government more or less imperfectly in the large towns and their immediate suburbs but that ahat exception being made the entire country is either elther given over to anarchy or Is subject to the military occupation of one or the other party it Is reported indeed on reliable authority that at the demand of 0 the commander ln in of the insurgent army the putative cuban government has now given up all attempt to exercise ex its functions leaving the G government 0 vern ment bonfe confessedly 66 edly what the there re Is best reason for supposing it always to have been the fact a government MERELY OS PAPER were the spanish armies able to meet their antagonists in the open or in pitched battle prompt and decisive results might be looked for and the he im mense superiority of the spanish forces in numbers number discipline and equipment could hardly fall to tell greatly to their advantage but they are arc rallied upon to face ace a foe that shur shuns S i general engagements engagement that can choose and does choose its own ground that irom from the nature of the country is visible or invisible at pleasure and that fights only from ambuscade and when all the advantages of position and numbers are on its lt tide ste in a country where all that Is indispensable to life in the way of food clothing and shelter Is so go easily obtainable es pec lall by those born and bred on the soil it is obvious that there Is hardly a limit to the time during which hostilities of this sort may be prolonged blean meanwhile while in all cases of protracted civil strife the passions of the combatants grow more and more inflamed and excesses on both sides become more I 1 tte re blent and more deplorable they are also participated in by bands of marauders who now in the name of one party and now in the name of tile the other as may best suit the occasion harrass the country at will and plunder its wretched inhabitants for their own advantage such a condition of affairs would inevitably entail much destruction of property even if it were the policy of both parties to prevent it as far as practicable but while such seemed to be the original policy of the spanish government it has apps apparently abandoned it and Is acting upon the tame same theory as the insurgents insurgent s namely that the exigencies of the contest require the wholesale annihilation of property that it may not provo prove of any use and advantage to the enemy it Is to the same end that in ance of general baders spanish garrisons are now being withdrawn Aith drawn from plantations ions and the rural population re quiren to concentrate itself in the towns the sure result would seem to be th that the industrial value of the island is fast diminishing and that unless there is a speedy and radical change in existing en isling conditions it will soon disappear alto gether that value consists largely of course in its capacity to produce sugar a capacity already already much reduced by the interruptions to tillage which have taken place during athe he past two years it II Is reliably asserted that those interruptions continue the cur rent year and practically extend asis now threaten rd d to the entire sugar sugar producing territory of the island so much time and so much money will be required to restore the land to its normal that it is ex extremely y doubtful if capital can be e induced even to make the attempt the spectacle of the utter ruin of in an adjoining country by nature one of the most fertile and charming on the whole globe would engage the serious attention of the government and the people of the united states in any stances in point of act act they have a concern with it which Is by no means of a wholly sentimental or philanthropic character it lies so near to us as asta tb be hardly separated our territory our actual pecuniary interest in it is second only to that of the people and government of st ln in it Is reasonably estimated that at least from to of american capital are invested in plantations and in railroad mining 1 and other business enterprises on the island the volume of trade between the united states slates and cuba which in 1889 amounted to about oo rose in 1893 to about obb an ani in 1894 the year before the present insurrection broke out amounted to nearly besides tilts this large pecuniary stake in the fortunes I 1 of cuba the united states staten finds itself inextricably involved in the present contest in other ways both vocations vexatious and costly many cubans reside in this country and indirectly promote the insurrection t through lr ough the press by public meetings g gy y the purchase and shipment in ent of arms by tile the raising of funds and by other means which the spirit of our institutions and the tenor of our laws do not permit to be made the subject of ct initial prosecutions some of them though cubans at heart and in all their feelings and interests have taken out papers as naturalized citizens of the united states a proceeding resorted to with a view to possible protection by this government and not unnecessarily regarded with much indignation by the country of their origin the insurgents are undoubtedly encouraged and supported all by the widespread sympathy for freedom which the people of this country always and instinctively feel for every straggle struggle for better and freer government ern ment and which in the case of the more adventurous and restless elements of our population leads in only too many instances to active and personal participation tn in the contest the result Is that this government Is constantly called upon to protect american citizens to claim damages for in furies to persons and prop property eity now estimated at many millions of dollars and ant to ask and apologies for the acts of spanish officials whose zeal aea hanche tor the repression ot of re rebellion bellio r binds them to the immunities belonging to the offending citizens citizen ot of a friendly power it 11 follows follow I 1 irom tom the same causes thattie that the united states state is compelled to actively police a long line 0 of seacoast se coast against unlawful expeditions the escape of which it the utmost vigilance will not always suffice to prevent these inevitable entanglements entangle ments ot of the united states stales with the rebellion in cuba the large arge american property interests affected and considerations of philan and humanity la in general have led to a vehement demard tn in various quarters for some to fort rt of positive intervention on the part ol of tile the united states astles it was wai at first proposed t that hat beger ent rights should be accorded the insurgents genesa a proposition no longer weighed because un untimely timily and in practical operas opera tion clearly per perilous liou and injuries to our own interests it has since been and Is now sometimes contended that tile the independence of the insurgents should be recognized but imperfect and restricted as the spanish government of the island kiy may be no other exists there unless the will of the military officer officer in temporary commend of a particular district can be dignified as a a species of government it 19 I 1 now also suggested that the united states should buy the island a suggestion possibly worthy of consideration if there were any evidences of a desire or willingness anthe on the part of spain to entertain such se a proposal it Is urged finally that all other methods tailing failing the existing internecine strife in cuba should be terminated by our intervention even at the cost of a war between the united states and shaina a war which its advocates confidently prophesy could neither be large in its proportions or doubtful in its issue the correctness of this forecast need be neither affirmed nor denied T the he united states has nevertheless a a character to maintain as a nation which plainly dictates that right and not might should be the rule of its conduct con conduct duFt further though the united states is not a nation to which peace Is a a necessity ces sity it is in truth the most pacific of powers and |