“To meet the susceptibilities of this large class of well-meaning people we provided for the battleships under the name of ‘coast defence battleships,’ meaning thereby that we did not make them quite as seaworthy as they ought to have been, or with quite as much coal capacity as they ought to have had. Then we decided to build real battleships. “But there still remained a lingering remnant of public opinion that clung to the coast defence theory, and we met this in beautiful fashion by providing for ‘seagoing coast defence battleships,’ the fact that the name was a contradiction in terms being of very small consequence as compared to the fact that we did thereby get real battleships. “Our men had to be trained to handle the ships singly and in fleet formation, and they had to be trained to use the new weapons of precision with which the ships were armed. “Not a few of the older officers, kept in the service under our foolish rule of pure seniority promotion, were not competent for the task; but a proportion of the older officers were excellent, and this was true of almost all the younger officers. “They were naturally first-class men, trained in the admirable naval school at Annapolis. They were overjoyed that at last they were given proper instruments to work with, and they speedily grew to handle their ships individually in the best fashion. They were fast learning to handle them in squadron and fleet formation; but when war with Spain broke out they had as yet hardly grasped the principles of modern scientific naval gunnery.” While bearing the title of Assistant to Secretary of the Navy John D. Long, Roosevelt’s work was soon felt in every department of the navy. He found out that many evils had grown up that would seriously handicap the department if suddenly brought face to face with the problem of preparing for war. He therefore began a thorough overhauling of the various bureaus, cutting red tape in every direction. The list of merchant vessels that could be drafted for an auxiliary navy was incomplete and full of errors. This he revised. Meanwhile the good offices extended by the United States to bring about peace between Spain and the Cubans who had rebelled against her tyranny were refused by Spain. She even refused to consider selling Cuba to the United States. The natives cried to the United States for help. The commercial interests of our country in Cuba also required protection. Public opinion began to demand armed intervention. President McKinley, a man wholly inclined to peace, hesitated. Roosevelt, however, had become convinced that the interests of humanity required a declaration of war against Spain. He felt that Spain should be made to withdraw from American soil. He cited the Monroe Doctrine as one of his chief reasons. Francis E. Leupp, in his book “The Man Roosevelt,” thus describes Roosevelt’s attitude at this time: