“May the worn and wasted followers of Gomez and Garcia come to appreciate the blessings of liberty under the law.  No other wish is in consonance with the aims of the American people.  We would not, if we could, be their masters.  The gigantic power of the country has been put forth for their salvation and for their pacification.  Connected with them by bonds of genuine sympathy and indissoluble interest, we will labor with them to secure for them established justice, domestic tranquility, general welfare and the blessings of liberty to themselves and to their posterity.  For the common defense, in the blue ether above the beautiful island of Cuba is poised the eagle.’

’Whose golden plume
Floats moveless on the storm and in the blaze
Of sunrise gleams when earth is wrapt in gloom.’

“It was not enough, however, for the American people to recognize the independence of the Spanish-American republics.  It soon became our duty to notify the world that in certain eventualities it was our purpose to defend their national existence.  The holy alliance, as it was termed, had been formed.  The great powers who signed the famous compact declared its purpose to maintain as Christian doctrine the proposition that useful or necessary changes in legislation, or in the administration of states, can only emanate from the free will and well-weighed convictions of those whom God has rendered responsible for power.  Whom had God made responsible for power?  What is a well-weighed conviction?  These are questions about which the irreverent Americans might perchance differ with royalty.  We had been lead to believe, and yet believe, that the voice of the people is the voice of God.  When, therefore, the absolution of the holy alliance, not content with smothering a feeble spark of liberty in Spain, initiated a joint movement of their arms against the Spanish-American republics, it gave the people of our country the gravest concern.  In the meantime our relations with Great Britain had grown cordial.  That they may grow ever stronger and more cordial should be the prayer of every man of the English speaking race.  An unspeakable blessing to mankind of the struggle from which we are now emerging is the genuine brotherly sympathy for the people of the United States flowing from that land.

“And it is returned in no unstinted measure.  But two months ago the flagship of Admiral Dewey steamed slowly into the battle line at Manila.  As she passed the British flagship Immortalite its band rang out the inspiring air ‘See the Conquering Hero Comes,’ and as the gorgeous ensign of the republic was flung to the breeze at the peak of the Olympia there now came thrilling o’er the waters from our kinsmen’s ship the martial strains of the ‘Star Spangled Banner.’

“Finally, when our gallant seamen, reposing in fancied security in the scorching blast of the treacherous explosion were cruelly and remorselessly slain, and calm investigation had developed the truth, we had been despicable on the historic page had we not appealed to the god of battle for retribution.  The pious rage of seventy millions of people cried aloud to heaven for the piteous agony, for the shameful slaughter of our brethren.  Our noble navy was swiftly speeding to its duty.  Poetic genius bodied forth the spirit of our gallant seamen as the mighty ships sped on their way.