prolonged debate on the question, but
no final action was taken. In his message of December, 1897, President
McKinley said: "Of the untried measures (regarding Cuba) there remain
only: Recognition of the insurgents as belligerents; recognition of the
independence of Cuba; neutral intervention to end the war by imposing a
rational compromise between the contestants; and intervention in favor of
one or the other party. I speak not of forcible annexation, for that
cannot be thought of. That, by our code of morality, would be criminal
aggression."

[Illustration: COUNTRY ROAD _Havana Province_]

Recognition of the Cubans as belligerents would have effected a radical
change in the situation. It would have given the Cubans the right to buy in
the American market the arms and supplies that they could then only obtain
surreptitiously, that they could only ship by "filibustering expeditions,"
by blockade-runners. In law, the propriety of granting belligerent rights
depends upon the establishment of certain facts, upon the proof of the
existence of certain conditions. Those conditions did then exist in Cuba.
An unanswerable argument was submitted by Horatio S. Rubens, Esq., the
able counsel of the Cuban _junta_ in New York. The Cubans never asked for
intervention by the United States; they did, with full justification, ask
for recognition as belligerents. The consent of this country was deemed
inexpedient on political rather than on moral grounds. Had it suited the
purposes of this country to grant that right, very much the same arguments
would have been made in support of the course as those that were used to
support the denial of Cuba's requests. Recognition of Cuban independence,
or intervention in favor of the Cubans, would have been the equivalent of
the grant of belligerent rights. But the policy adopted, and the course
pursued, did not serve to avert war with Spain. The story of that war has
been written by many, and is not for inclusion here. The treaty of peace
was signed, in Paris, on December 10, 1898, duly ratified by both parties
in the following months, and was finally proclaimed on April 11, 1899. The
war was over, but its definite termination was officially declared on the
anniversary of the issuance of President McKinley's war message. On January
1, 1899, the American flag was hoisted throughout the island, as a signal
of full authority, but subject to the provisions of the Teller Amendment to
the Joint Resolutio