During this stirring period the calm equipoise and splendid intellectuality of Governor McKinley stood him in good stead. He kept to his modest home in Canton, Ohio, and there received millions of people who called upon him. They came from all walks in life—manufacturers, business men, professional men, teachers, mechanics and laborers—and to each delegation he made an apt address, always broad-minded, always touching the peculiar concerns of his hearers, and always breathing a high note of patriotism and fidelity to principle. The speeches made by Governor McKinley on the lawn at Canton during the memorable summer of 1896 rank him as one of the most thoroughly informed men of his generation, and as possessing all the elements of highest statecraft. When election day came, McKinley was triumphant, receiving 7,061,142 votes, against 6,460,677 for Bryan. In the electoral college, Mr. McKinley had 271 votes, and Mr. Bryan, 176. CHAPTER XX. THE SPANISH WAR CLOUD. There were but very few Americans whose warmest sympathies did not go out to the gallant Cuban patriots who for decades struggled to throw off the galling yoke of one of the most tyrannical governments that ever held despotic sway over a people or devastated their country. The several attempts at revolution were pathetic beyond words and the war for independence that eventuated in American assistance that made Cuba free resembled in many respects the sufferings, hardships and sacrifices of our own forefathers in the dark days of the Revolution. The atrocious rule of Spain in America, when she once overshadowed all the other nations, caused her colonies, one by one, to writhe from her grasp, until Cuba, “The Queen of the Antilles,” and Porto Rico were the only ones of importance left. Cuba is a very large island, being 720 miles long with an average width of 60 miles and an area equal to more than one-half of all the other West India Islands together. Being so near to the United States geographically and of such close importance commercially and socially, a widespread feeling had long existed in this Republic, and especially in the Gulf States that the “Ever Faithful Isle” should be associated with this government as a part of the Republic, but as there would have been no excuse for such annexation under international law, without the consent of Spain, of course the matter had never been officially considered. Nevertheless Cuba became a favorite field for American filibusters, and from 1849 to 1852 three such expeditions were made from this country, incited by Narcisso Lopez, a South American adventurer, who led Governor Dintman of Mississippi and other Southerners to believe that Cuba was ready for revolt and annexation to the United States. All these expeditions failed and Lopez was captured and executed by the Spanish authorities in Cuba.