nguish at our very doors!

But when General Weyler inaugurated a system for the deliberate
starvation of thirty thousand "Reconcentrados," an innocent peasantry
driven from their homes and herded in cities, there to perish, the
limit of patience was reached. It was this touch of human pity--this
last and intolerable strain upon our sympathies--which turned the
scale.

While a profound feeling of indignation was prevailing on account of
these revolting crimes against humanity, the battleship _Maine_ was,
by request of Consul General Lee at that place, dispatched to the
harbor of Havana to guard American citizens and interests. The sullen
reception of the _Maine_ was followed on February 15, 1898, by a
tragedy which shocked the world. Whether the destruction of that ship
and the death of 266 brave men was from internal or external causes
was a very critical question. It was submitted to a court of inquiry
which, after long deliberation, rendered the decision that the cause
was--_external_.

It looked dark for lovers of peace! President McKinley exhausted all
the resources of diplomacy before he abandoned hope of a peaceful
adjustment which would at the same time compel justice to the Cuban
people. But on April 25, 1898, it was declared that war existed
between Spain and America.

Less than a week after this declaration, in the early morning of
May 1, a victory over the Spanish fleet at Manila was achieved by
Commodore Dewey, which made him virtual master of the Philippines;
and just two months later, July 1 and 2 were made memorable by two
engagements in the West Indies, resulting, the one in the defeat of
the Spanish land forces at San Juan, and the other in the complete
annihilation of Admiral Cervera's fleet in the Bay of Santiago de
Cuba--misfortunes so overwhelming that overtures for peace were
quickly received at Washington from Madrid; and the Spanish-American
War was over.

The colonial empire of Spain was at an end. The kingdom over which
Alfonso XIII. was soon to reign had at a stroke lost the Spanish
Indies in the West, and the Philippines in the far East. To America
was confided the destiny of these widely separated possessions, Porto
Rico being permanently ceded to the United States; while, according to
the avowed purpose at the outset of the war, Cuba and the islands in
the Pacific, as soon as fitted for self-government, were to be given
into their own keeping; a promise which in the case of Cuba has