“One Sunday morning in March, 1898, we were sitting in his library discussing the significance of the news that Cervera’s squadron was about to sail for Cuba, when he suddenly rose and brought his hands together with a resounding clap.
“‘If I could do what I pleased,’ he exclaimed, ‘I would send Spain notice today that we should consider her dispatch of that squadron a hostile act. Then, if she didn’t heed the warning, she would have to take the consequences.’
“‘You are sure,’ I asked, ‘that it is with unfriendly intent that she is sending the squadron?’
“‘What else can it be? The Cubans have no navy; therefore the squadron cannot be coming to fight the insurgents. The only naval power interested in Cuban affairs is the United States. Spain is simply forestalling the “brush” which she knows, as we do, is coming sooner or later.’
“‘And if she refused to withdraw the orders to Cervera’—
“‘I should send out a squadron to meet his on the high seas and smash it! Then I would force the fighting from that day to the end of the war.’”
The President’s Cabinet was divided in its opinion. The President himself, surrounded by men of different views, remained in a quandary.
One day the President learned that Roosevelt had stated what course he would pursue. McKinley sent for Roosevelt and heard his plans.
Later in the day, at a Cabinet meeting, McKinley remarked:
“Gentlemen, not one of you have put half so much enthusiasm into your expressions as Mr. Roosevelt, our Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He has mapped out a programme for the impending war!”