"It is certain that, should the Cubans themselves organize an insurrection against the Spanish government, no human power could, in our opinion, prevent the people and government of the United States from taking part in such a civil war in support of their neighbors and friends."
We have quoted thus largely from the Ostend manifesto, because it seems to us, with one exception, to be so pertinent to the present status of affairs.
The one exception is: We no longer desire the annexation of Cuba. The present war is a holy war. It has been entered into wholly and entirely from motives of philanthropy, to give to a suffering and downtrodden people the blessings of freedom which we ourselves enjoy.
Moreover, the manifesto clearly shows that the causes of Cuban uprising are of no recent date; and that, before the United States rose in its wrath, it was patient and long-suffering.
Although the Senate debated the questions raised by the manifesto for a long time, nothing resulted from the deliberations.
Questions of extraordinary moment were arising in our own country, from which terrible results were to ensue, and for the time being, indeed for years to come, everything else sank into insignificance.
Meantime, the question of independence was still being agitated in Cuba.
General Jose de la Concha, in anticipation of a rising of the Creole population threatened to turn the island into an African dependency. He formed and drilled black troops, armed the native born Spaniards and disarmed the Cubans. Everything was got in readiness for a desperate defense. The Cuban junta in New York had enlisted a large body of men and had made ready for an invasion. Under the circumstances, however, the attempt was postponed. Pinto and Estrames, Cubans taken with arms in their hands, were executed, while a hundred others were either condemned to the galleys or deported. General de la Concha's foresight and vigilance unquestionably prevented a revolution, and for his services he was created Marquis of Havana.
Then ensued a period of comparative quiet, but the party of independence was only awaiting an opportunity to strike.
Long before this, Spain had entered upon the downward path. "A whale stranded upon the coast of Europe," some one designated her. She had been accumulating a debt against her, a debt which can never be repaid.