desired freedom, and Bolivar would fain have gone to their aid.  Mexico and Colombia, in 1825, planned to invade the island, and at that time invasion was sure to be successful.  What power stayed the oncoming tide which had swept over a continent?  Not Cuban loyalty, for the expression ’Faithful Cuba’ was a lie from the beginning.  The power which prevented the liberation of Cuba was the United States, and more than seventy years later this republic has had to fight a war because at the appointed time she set herself against her own teachings, and brought to a halt the movement she had herself started to free the New World from the oppression of the Old.  The United States held back Mexico and Colombia and Bolivar, used her influence at home and abroad to that end, and, in the opinion of contemporary mankind, succeeded, according to her desires, in keeping Cuba under the dominion of Spain.”

For a number of years, Cuba’s destiny was a subject of the gravest concern in Washington.  Four solutions presented themselves; first, the acquisition of Cuba by the United States; second, its retention by Spain; third, its transfer to some power other than Spain; fourth, its political independence.  That the issue was decided by the United States is shown by all the history of the time.  While other factors had their influence in the determination, it is entirely clear that the issue turned on the question of slavery.  In his book on Cuba and International Relations, Mr. Callahan summarizes his review of the official proceedings by saying that “the South did not want to see Cuba independent without slavery, while the North did not want to annex it with slavery.”  In his work on the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Mr. Henry Wilson declares that “thus clearly and unequivocally did this Republic step forth the champion of slavery, and boldly insist that these islands should remain under the hateful despotism of Spain, rather than gain their independence by means that should inure to the detriment of its cherished system.  Indeed, it (the United States) would fight to fasten more securely the double bondage on Cuba and the slave.”

From this point of view, unquestionably correct, it is altogether evident that the United States assumed responsibility for Cuba’s welfare, not by the intervention of 1898, but by its acts more than seventy years earlier.  The diplomatic records of those years are filled with communications regarding the island, and it was again and again the subject of legislation or proposed legislation.  President after President dealt with it in messages to Congress.  The acquisition of the island, by purchase or otherwise, was again and again discussed.  Popular interest was again and again excited; the Spanish colonial policy was denounced; and the burdens and sufferings of the Cubans were depicted in many harrowing tales.  For the policy that led to the imposition of a restraining hand on proposals to free Cuba, in those early days,