into military camps, where they died by the hundreds of disease and starvation.  Stories of the atrocities, bad enough in simple form, became lurid when transmuted into American news and deeply moved the sympathies of the American people.  Sermons were preached about Spanish misdeeds; orators demanded that the Cubans be sustained “in their heroic struggle for independence”; newspapers, scouting the ordinary forms of diplomatic negotiation, spurned mediation and demanded intervention and war if necessary.

[Illustration:  Underwood and Underwood, N.Y.

CUBAN REVOLUTIONISTS]

=President Cleveland’s Policy.=—­Cleveland chose the way of peace.  He ordered the observance of the rule of neutrality.  He declined to act on a resolution of Congress in favor of giving to the Cubans the rights of belligerents.  Anxious to bring order to the distracted island, he tendered to Spain the good offices of the United States as mediator in the contest—­a tender rejected by the Spanish government with the broad hint that President Cleveland might be more vigorous in putting a stop to the unlawful aid in money, arms, and supplies, afforded to the insurgents by American sympathizers.  Thereupon the President returned to the course he had marked out for himself, leaving “the public nuisance” to his successor, President McKinley.

=Republican Policies.=—­The Republicans in 1897 found themselves in a position to employ that “firm, vigorous, and dignified” foreign policy which they had approved in their platform.  They had declared:  “The government of Spain having lost control of Cuba and being unable to protect the property or lives of resident American citizens or to comply with its treaty obligations, we believe that the government of the United States should actively use its influence and good offices to restore peace and give independence to the island.”  The American property in Cuba to which the Republicans referred in their platform amounted by this time to more than fifty million dollars; the commerce with the island reached more than one hundred millions annually; and the claims of American citizens against Spain for property destroyed totaled sixteen millions.  To the pleas of humanity which made such an effective appeal to the hearts of the American people, there were thus added practical considerations of great weight.

=President McKinley Negotiates.=—­In the face of the swelling tide of popular opinion in favor of quick, drastic, and positive action, McKinley chose first the way of diplomacy.  A short time after his inauguration he lodged with the Spanish government a dignified protest against its policies in Cuba, thus opening a game of thrust and parry with the suave ministers at Madrid.  The results of the exchange of notes were the recall of the obnoxious General Weyler, the appointment of a governor-general less bloodthirsty in his methods, a change in the policy of concentrating civilians in military camps, and finally a promise of “home rule” for Cuba.  There is no doubt that the Spanish government was eager to avoid a war that could have but one outcome.  The American minister at Madrid, General Woodford, was convinced that firm and patient pressure would have resulted in the final surrender of Cuba by the Spanish government.