After Spain's virtual acceptance of the terms of peace contained in President McKinley's note of July 30th, it was deemed unnecessary to keep all the forces unoccupied in the fever districts of Cuba and the unsanitary camps of our own country; consequently the next day after receipts of Spain's message of August 2d, on August 3d, the home-coming was inaugurated by ordering all cavalry under General Shafter at Santiago to be transported to Montauk Point, Long Island, and on the 6th instant transports sailed bearing those who were to come north. These were followed rapidly by others from Santiago, and later by about half the forces from Porto Rico under General Miles, and others from the various camps, so that by the end of September, 1898, nearly half of the great army of 268,000 men had been mustered out of service or sent home on furlough.
It is a matter of universal regret that so many of our brave volunteers died of neglect in camps and on transports, and that fever, malaria, and exposure carried several times the number to their graves as were sent there by Spanish bullets. Severe criticisms have been lodged against the War Department for both lack of efficiency and neglect in caring for the comfort, health, and life of those who went forward at their country's call.
However, it must be remembered that the War Department undertook and accomplished a herculean task, and it could not be expected, starting with a regular force of less than 30,000 men, that an army of a quarter of a million could be built up out of volunteers who had to be collected, trained, clothed, equipped, and provisioned, and a war waged and won on two sides of the globe, in a little over three months, without much suffering and many mistakes.
THE TREATY OF PEACE.
December 10, 1898, was one of the most eventful days in the past decade—one fraught with great interest to the world, and involving the destiny of more than 10,000,000 of people. At nine o'clock on the evening of that day the commissioners of the United States and those of Spain met for the last time, after about eleven weeks of deliberation, in the magnificent apartments of the foreign ministry at the French capital, and signed the Treaty of Peace, which finally marked the end of the Spanish-American War.
THE UNITED STATES PEACE COMMISSIONERS OF THE SPANISH WAR
Appointed September 9, 1898. Met Spanish Commissioners at Paris, October 1st. Treaty of Peace signed by the Commissioners at Paris, December 10th. Ratified by the United States Senate at Washington, February 6, 1899.
This treaty transformed the political geography of the world by establishing the United States' authority in both hemispheres, and also in the tropics, where it had never before extended. It, furthermore, brought under our dominion and obligated us for the government of strange and widely isolated peoples, who have little or no knowledge of liberty and government as measured by the American standards. In this new assumption of responsibility America essayed a difficult problem, the solving of which involved results that could not fail to influence the destiny of our nation and the future history of the whole world.
On January 3, 1899, the Hon. John Hay, Secretary of State, delivered the Treaty of Peace to President McKinley, who, on January 4th, forwarded the same to the Senate of the United States with a view to its ratification. Below will be found the complete text of the treaty as submitted by the President.