f Cuba. So it proposed and the Convention adopted
proposals to this effect: That Cuba should never impair her independence
by any agreement with any power, not excepting the United States; that
she should never permit her territory to be used as a base or war
against the United States; that she accepted the obligations expressed
and implied in the Treaty of Paris; that she should validate the acts of
the Military Government "for the good government of Cuba"; and that the
United States and Cuba should regulate their commercial relations by
means of a reciprocity treaty.

Obviously, there was a wide divergence between the two schemes. It was
unfortunate that the American Congress was about to adjourn, on March
4, and was reluctant to reassemble in special session, and also that the
political passions to which we have referred were raging at so high a
pitch. In more favorable circumstances the matter would have been
settled diplomatically without friction or ill-feeling. There was,
indeed, a very considerable conservative party in Cuba, probably
comprising a majority of the substantial, well informed and orderly
inhabitants, who favored some such scheme of American supervision and
control as that which had been proposed, and if there had been a little
more time for calm deliberation they would probably have won the
Convention and the whole island to their point of view. Unhappily the
government at Washington determined to finish the matter up before
Congress adjourned on March 4, and in the short time which intervened
the passionate voice of faction was much more in evidence man the
thoughtful and measured voice of patriotic counsel.

Senator Orville H. Platt, of Connecticut, one of the ablest and
fairest-minded men in that body, was the Chairman of the Committee on
Relations with Cuba. It was probably he who suggested the modification
which was made in the instructions to the Convention. He now declared
that--which was perfectly true--the United States Congress had no power
to approve, reject, or in any way amend or modify the Cuban
Constitution. Cuba was entitled to establish her own government without
let or hindrance. But he also held that by virtue of the grounds of its
intervention in Cuban affairs the United States possessed certain rights
and privileges in that island above those of other powers, and that it
was in duty bound, for the sake of both Cuba and itself, to provide in
some assured way for the permanent s