At the time of the beginning of the Cuban insurrection the United States was undergoing one of its quadrennial political campaigns, and March 4, 1869, saw General Ulysses S. Grant inducted to the Presidency--the man who had led the nation to victory in the Civil War and had thus maintained the union of the United States of America; a soldier of the highest character, and one whose sympathies were keenly enlisted in behalf of the Cuban revolution. When this news reached the Cuban leaders they at once addressed to him an appeal for recognition, which ran as follows: * * * * * "To his Excellency, the President of the United States: "Sir: "The people of Cuba, by their Grand Supreme Civil Junta, and through their General-in-Chief, Señor Cespedes, desire to submit to your Excellency, the following among other reasons, why your Excellency, as President of the United States, should accord to them the belligerent rights and a recognition of their independence. "Because from the hearts of nineteen-twentieths of the inhabitants of the island go up prayers for the success of the armies of the republic; and from the sole and only want of arms and ammunition these patient people are kept under the tyrannical yoke of Spain. "Because the republic has armies numbering over 70,000 men, actually in the field and doing duty. These men are organized and governed on the principles of civilized warfare. The prisoners whom they take--and so far they have taken three times as many as their enemies have taken from them--are treated in every respect as the prisoners of war are used and treated by the most civilized nations of the earth. In the hope of recognition by the United States, they have never yet in a single instance retaliated death for death, even in cases of the most provoking nature. "Because the Spanish authorities have almost invariably brutally murdered the soldiers of the armies of the republic who have surrendered to them, and have recently issued an official order requiring their military forces hereafter instantly to kill and murder any prisoner of the republic who surrenders. This is due, the order cheerfully tells us, to save trouble and vexation to the Spanish civil authorities. This is an outrage the civilized nations of the earth ought not to allow. "Because the United States is the nearest civilized nation to Cuba, whose political institutions strike a responsive chord in the hearts of all Cubans. The commercial and financial interests of the two peoples being largely identical and reciprocal in their natures, Cuba earnestly appeals for the unquestionable right of recognition. "Because the arms and authority of the Republic of Cuba now extend over two-thirds of the entire geographical area of the island, embracing a very great majority of the population in every part of the island.