Now, we come down to Monroe's own action, and when we examine the history of his Administration we find that the real crux of
25 the Monroe doctrine was Cuba. Great Britain at that time in her struggle with the Holy Alliance had the same fear. Canning and Monroe,50 when they formulated the Monroe doctrine, did so for the purpose, among others, of preventing Napoleon from getting possession of Cuba, with the power and
75 the dominance which it would give him over our Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico and over the British islands in the Caribbean Sea.100

President Polk did his best by negotiation to purchase the island. The main policy of Pierce's Administration was to buy Cuba, and he made a
125 plump offer to Spain of a hundred million dollars for its transfer. A hundred millions then, compared with our resources now and the value of
150 money, would be at present at least a thousand million dollars.

Still later James Buchanan was minister to England; Mason, of Virginia, minister to France;175 Soule, of Louisiana, minister to Spain. Sugar was then as now the great product of Cuba and also of Louisiana. And yet when these three
200 ministers of the United States met on the call of Buchanan, at Ostend, in Belgium, Soule wrote the manifesto that it was the manifest duty
225 of the United States to acquire Cuba by purchase, and if Spain would not agree to the purchase to take her by force. That was
250 the view of the Louisiana statesman of 1854. There would have been no tariff had he succeeded, but free trade be tween Cuba and
275 the United States, because she would have come in as a State.

Now, the feeling in the United States was so strong at that time,300 as it had been since the formation of the Government, in relation to Cuba and the possible peril to us of her possession by a
325 foreign power, that that manifesto for which Mr. Buchanan got the credit carried him through the Democratic convention with unanimity and made him President of
350 the United States. Buchanan was no sooner firmly seated than he began to negotiate for the purchase or annexation of Cuba in some form, and
375 he also asserted that the United States ought to take possession of the Isthmus of Darien, because California was then looming into importance, by our
400 armies and navies to prevent any interference with transit across that isthmus.

Really the utterances and the actions of statesmen living within the recollection of
425 most of the Senators here are interesting comments upon the present fright, real or imaginary, in the Democratic and the Mugwump mind as to the
450 action of our Administration in the present crisis in Panama.

Of course when the Civil War came on there was necessarily a cessation of our
475 activities in regard to Cuba. But since the Civil War there has been no month in any year when there has not been an agitation
500 among the American people because of intolerable conditions on the island, and when there has not been an intense feeling throughout our country of sympathy
525 with the Cuban people, of the necessity of driving Spain out, and that we ought to have our hand in some form upon her affairs
550 and destiny.

The relations between Cuba and the United States on the sea have been dramatic. As I have already said, from her ports by
575 sea she has interfered with our commerce, our trade, and our peace. By sea she has been the pest hole where tropical diseases, becoming epidemic,600 have been borne across and ravaged our southern country. But by sea have happened three remarkable picturesque and historic events.

In 1854 a Spanish
625 gunboat stopped the Black Warrior in the Caribbean Sea, captured her, took her to Havana, and there she was confiscated. A demand was made for
650 her release or that Spain should give up Cuba; and except for the troubles growing out of the then impending conflict upon the slavery question
675 the military and the naval forces of the United States would have seized Cuba after Spain refused the offer of $100,000,-000. I
700 will state in passing that Buchanan raised that offer to $120,000,000.

In 1873 the Virginius was captured.725 She was carried into Santiago. A drumhead court-martial condemned to death her officers and crew. Fifty-three of them were shot in the market
750 place. There was no American ship there, but happily there was a British man-of-war, the Niobe; and the British commander gave notice to
775 the Spanish authorities that if another Englishman or another American were shot he would bombard and destroy the town. Then the Spanish authorities surrendered the
800 remaining 93, and they were brought back to the United States.

General Grant telegraphed a message to our minister at Madrid to demand from the
825 Spanish Government within ten days a salute of the flag and ample apology and remuneration for the victims of the outrage, or ask for his
850 passports, which meant war. It so happened that at the time that eloquent dreamer, that most beautiful architect in language and in ideas, but infant
375 in practical affairs, Castellar, had so appealed to the Spanish imagination that he had overthrown the monarchy of a thousand years and inaugurated a republic
900 in Spain. Our administration and our people were very sensitive, in the delicate and perilous position of that republic, with the monarchies of Europe all
925 around seeking to destroy it and helping the Bourbons, about interfering with its existence, and so our country forgave Spain for a poor pittance of
950 $80,000 to the victims of the Virginius and an apology.

Once more there came a tragedy upon the ocean. The battleship Maine
975 was in the Harbor of Havana. She was blown up there under conditions which sent a thrill of horror through the United States and all
1000 around the civilized world. Then it was that the feelings of the people of the United States, pent up for one hundred and twenty-five
1025 years, could no longer be restrained. The sentiment of the country swept Congress and the peaceful McKinley into a declaration of war.                                (1047 words,)