nd the United
States. The sailing of General Shafter's army was only one movement in
a comprehensive war against the Kingdom of Spain. More than a month
earlier Commodore Dewey, acting under orders, had destroyed a fleet of
eleven war ships in the Philippines. The purpose of the war was to
relieve the Cubans from an inhumane warfare with their mother country,
and to restore to that unhappy island a stable government in harmony
with the ideas of liberty and justice.

Up to the breaking out of the Spanish War the American policy with
respect to Europe had been one of isolation. Some efforts had been
made to consolidate the sentiment of the Western world, but it had
never been successful. The fraternity of the American Republics and
the attempted construction of a Pan-American policy had been thus far
unfulfilled dreams. Canada was much nearer to the United States,
geographically and socially, than even Mexico, although the latter is
a republic. England, in Europe, was nearer than Brazil. The day came
in 1898, when the United States could no longer remain in political
seclusion nor bury herself in an impossible federation. Washington's
advice against becoming involved in European affairs, as well as the
direct corrollary of the Monroe Doctrine, were to be laid aside and
the United States was to speak out to the world. The business of a
European nation had become our business; in the face of all the world
we resolved to invade her territory in the interest of humanity; to
face about upon our own traditions and dare the opinions and arms of
the trans-Atlantic world by openly launching upon the new policy of
armed intervention in another's quarrel.

While the troops were mobilizing at Tampa preparatory to embarking for
Cuba the question came up as to why there were no colored men in the
artillery arm of the service, and the answer given by a Regular Army
officer was, that the Negro had not brains enough for the management
of heavy guns. It was a trifling assertion, of course, but at this
period of the Negro's history it must not be allowed to pass
unnoticed. We know that white men of all races and nationalities can
serve big guns, and if the Negro cannot, it must be because of some
marked difference between him and them. The officer said it was a
difference in "brains," i.e., a mental difference. Just how the
problem of aiming and firing a big gun differs from that of aiming and
firing small arms is not so easily explained.