that any progress has thus far been made toward
the pacification of the island or that the situation of affairs as
depicted in my last annual message has in the least improved. If Spain
still holds Havana and the seaports and all the considerable towns, the
insurgents still roam at will over at least two-thirds of the inland
country. If the determination of Spain to put down the insurrection
seems but to strengthen with the lapse of time and is evinced by her
unhesitating devotion of largely increased military and naval forces
to the task, there is much reason to believe that the insurgents have
gained in point of numbers and character and resources and are none
the less inflexible in their resolve not to succumb without practically
securing the great objects for which they took up arms. If Spain has not
yet reestablished her authority, neither have the insurgents yet made
good their title, to be regarded as an independent state. Indeed, as
the contest has gone on the pretense that civil government exists on
the island, except so far as Spain is able to maintain it, has been
practically abandoned. Spain does keep on foot such a government, more
or less imperfectly, in the large towns and their immediate suburbs;
but that exception being made, the entire country is either given over
to anarchy or is subject to the military occupation of one or the other
party. It is reported, indeed, on reliable authority that at the demand
of the commander in chief of the insurgent army the putative Cuban
government has now given up all attempt to exercise its functions,
leaving that government confessedly (what there is the best reason for
supposing it always to have been in fact) a government merely on paper.

Were the Spanish armies able to meet their antagonists in the open or in
pitched battle, prompt and decisive results might be looked for, and the
immense superiority of the Spanish forces in numbers, discipline, and
equipment could hardly fail to tell greatly to their advantage. But they
are called upon to face a foe that shuns general engagements, that can
choose and does choose its own ground, that from the nature of the
country is visible or invisible at pleasure, and that fights only from
ambuscade and when all the advantages of position and numbers are on its
side. In a country where all that is indispensable to life in the way of
food, clothing, and shelter is so easily obtainable, especially by those
born and bred on the s