ion of the Spanish War. The invasion of Porto Rico cost
us 3 killed and 40 wounded.
Through the intervention of Cambon, the French Ambassador at
Washington, negotiations were opened which resulted in a protocol
which bound Spain to relinquish all sovereignty over Cuba, to cede
Porto Rico and other West India island possessions to the United
States, and it provided for a Commission to agree upon a treaty of
peace, to meet in Paris, not later than October 1, 1898; also
provided for Commissions to regulate the evacuation of Cuba and
Porto Rico.
The treaty was signed in Paris December 10, 1898; was submitted by
the President to the Senate January 11, 1899, and ratified by it,
and its ratification approved by him, February 6, 1899. The Queen
of Spain ratified the treaty March 19, 1899, and its ratifications
were exchanged and proclaimed at Washington April 11, 1899. It
provided for the cession, also, to the United States of the Philippine
Islands and the payment of $20,000,000 therefor.
The total casualties in battle, during the war, in our navy, were
17 killed and 67 wounded (no naval officer injured); and, in our
army, 23 officers and 257 men killed, and 113 officers and 1464
men wounded; grand total, 297 killed and 1644 wounded, of all arms
of the service.
The deaths from disease and causes other than battle, in camps and
at sea, were, 80 officers and 2485 enlisted men. Many died at
their homes of disease; some of wounds.
An insurrection broke out in the Philippines in February, 1899,
which is not yet suppressed.
The war was not bloody, and the end attained in the cause of humanity
and liberty is a justification of it; but whether the acquisition
of extensive tropical and distant island possessions was wise, or
will tend to perpetuate our Republic and spread constitutional
liberty, remains to be shown by the infallible test of time. Our
sovereignty over Cuba, thus far, appears to be a friendly usurpation,
without right, professedly in the interest of humanity, civilization,
and good government. Our acquisition of Porto Rico and the Philippine
Islands, all in the tropics, is a new national departure which may
prove wise or not, according as we deal justly and mercifully with
the people who inhabit them. It may be in the Divine plan that
these countries should pass under a more beneficent, enduring,
newer, and higher civilization, to be guided and dominated by a
people speaking the English tongue.
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