d resorted to the most cruel measures,
which entailed horrible suffering upon the women and children, and the
feeling was intensified by the blowing up of the battleship Maine in the
harbor of Havana, February 15, 1898. President McKinley did his utmost
to prevent actual war; and when he saw that to be inevitable, he delayed
it as long as possible and pushed on the preparations for it with all
practicable speed. On April 11th he sent to Congress a message on the
subject, and on the 20th he signed a joint resolution declaring that the
people of Cuba ought to be free and independent, and demanding that the
Government of Spain relinquish its authority over that island.
Diplomatic relations were broken off at once, and a state of war was
declared. Ten days later an American fleet commanded by Commodore George
Dewey entered the harbor of Manila, destroyed a Spanish fleet, and
silenced the shore batteries, without losing a vessel or a man. On July
3d another American fleet destroyed another Spanish fleet that had run
out of the harbor of Santiago, Cuba, and was trying to escape westward.
In this action, again, the Americans lost not a single vessel, and but
one man. Two days earlier than this the American land forces that had
been approaching the defences of Santiago on the east advanced to the
final assault, and after bloody fighting at San Juan Hill and El Caney
they were victorious. The invasion and capture of the island of Porto
Rico, soon afterward, ended the war in the West Indies. In August the
American land forces that had been sent to the Philippines captured the
city of Manila and its garrison. Peace soon followed, and by the treaty
signed in Paris, December 10th, Spain relinquished her sovereignty over
Cuba and ceded to the United States Porto Rico and the Philippines,
receiving $20,000,000 as an indemnity for her expenditures in the
last-named islands.

[Illustration: _From Harper's Magazine Copyright, 1897, by Harper &
Brothers._

President Mckinley taking the oath of office.]

President McKinley travelled extensively during his term of office,
spoke many times in nearly every State, and was probably more generally
beloved by the people than any of his predecessors. He visited the
Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, in September, 1901, and on the 5th
delivered a notable speech, which was admired and commented upon all
over the world. The next day, when he was holding a reception in the
Temple of Music on the E