The provocation to excitement caused by the appalling disaster was great, but the country bore the news with a calmness and steadiness which indicated its inherent strength, and greatly impressed foreign observers. Great credit was given to Captain Sigsbee, who, in that terrible moment when, in a foreign port, surrounded by what must be regarded as a hostile population, his ship sunk under him as the result of a mysterious and deadly blow, showed not only intrepidity, but perfect self-possession. His quiet, dignified, self-restrained dispatch, with its calm statement that any judgment upon the cause of the disaster must be postponed, gave a fine example, which was instantly responded to by the Government and the nation.
Most hearty were the words of praise for Chaplain Chidwick of the Maine, who, day after day, worked incessantly among the ghastly spectacles as the dead were brought to shore, identifying the bodies, performing short religious rites over each, making records of all clues to identity, and in the intervals consoling the wounded at the hospitals.
As time wore on, each succeeding day bringing its rumors of retaliation and intervention in Cuban affairs, and in the midst of war preparations on an unprecedented scale, which were being carried on by the War and Navy Departments, President McKinley and his advisers, and both branches of Congress, acted as strong men act under great blows and great provocation. There was no hasty denunciation. The spirit of the brave men at Havana and of the heads of the Government at Washington was fully shared by the people at large. The United States had a President in whom they trusted.
Admiral Dewey and his Flagship Olympia.
DEWEY’S ACTION AT MANILA.
May 1st, 1898.
A few months prior to this action, one would have been thought beside himself if he had predicted that the first serious encounter between Spain and the United States would take place at the very antipodes—in the Philippine Islands. And this is what did occur, and with perfect success on the part of the American Squadron, the after events in that region having nothing to do with the history of the naval engagement of the First of May.
Commodore Dewey was ordered to “capture or destroy” the Spanish men-of-war in the East, and this he did most effectually; but before giving any relation of his engagement, it would perhaps be well to give some account of the Island in which it occurred.