Our War with Spain for Cuba's FreedomWhite, Trumbull
History
Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom
White, Trumbull
Cuba -- History; Spain -- Foreign relations -- United States; Spanish-American War, 1898; United States -- Foreign relations -- Spain
Spain has been the scene of many revolutions, a fact easily
understood when the character of the government is known.
Dishonesty and oppression in an administration always breed the
spirit of rebellion. Don Carlos, who regards Alfonso as a usurper,
and believes himself the true King of Spain, issued, April 13,
from his retreat in Switzerland, a manifesto to his supporters. In
this he arraigned the government, sought to inflame the excited
Spanish populace against the Queen Regent, her son and her
ministers, and declared that they had permitted the Spanish
standard to be dragged in the mud. He said in part:
Twenty years of patriotic retirement have proved that I am neither
ambitious nor a conspirator. The greater and better part of my
life as a man has been spent in the difficult task of restraining
my natural impulses and those of my enthusiastic Carlists, whose
eagerness I was the first to appreciate, but which nevertheless I
curbed, although it rent my heart to do so. To-day national honor
speaks louder than anything, and the same patriotic duty which
formerly bade me say "Wait yet a while," may lead me to cry,
commanding the Carlists, "Forward," and not only the Carlists, but
all Spaniards, especially to the two national forces which still
bravely withstand the enervating femininities of the regency, the
people and the army.
If the glove which Washington has flung in the face of Spain is
picked up by Madrid I will continue the same example of abnegation
as before, wretched in that I cannot partake in the struggle other
than by prayers and by the influence of my name. I will applaud
from my soul those who have the good fortune to face the fire, and
I shall consider those Carlists as serving my cause who embark in
war against the United States.
But if everything leads me to fear that the policy of humiliation
will again prevail, we will snatch the reins of government from
those who are unworthy to hold them and we will occupy their
places.
While their leader was talking in this strain, his supporters were
preparing to act. They believed that the conditions for a
revolution were more favorable than they had been for years, that
the present dynasty was doomed, and that Spain would be forced to
choose between republicanism and Don Carlos. The only chance, they
said for the retention of the present dynasty, would be for Spain
to defeat the United States, and they were not so blind as to
believe that such would be the outcome of a war between the two
powers.
READY FOR ACTION.
Don Carlos himself believed that the time had come to act. He
journeyed to Ostend, where he consulted with Lord Ashburnham and
other Catholic Englishmen who were his supporters, and mapped out
a plan of campaign. He stood ready at any convenient moment to
cross the frontier and place himself at the head of his
supporters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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