1897 William McKinley - New Policy of Spain toward Cuba (Remember the Maine)

In 1897, just months prior the sinking of the USS Maine and the deaths of 266 soldiers, President William McKinley urged Congress to give Spain a reasonable chance and time to make reforms in Cuba work. 

In 1895, Spain's repressive rule over Cuba had caused the Cubans to revolt.   Spain responded aggressively and violently and their brutal attempts to put down the rebellion infuriated many Americans.  According to President McKinley,  "It has utterly failed as a war measure. It was not civilized warfare. It was extermination."   But, McKinley wanted to end the Cuban-Spanish conflict without entering into a war with Spain.  McKinley demanded that Spain acted responsibly and humanely and worked with Spain to draft a resolution which granted Cubans limited autonomy.  Spain agreed to the resolutions, but American press met them with much skepticism.    American relations with Spain improved, and the McKinley administration grew more confident.  Then in his 1897 annual address to congress, McKinley urged congress and America to give Spain a reasonable chance to make the reforms work.  And to prove America's friendly intentions to Spain, McKinley ordered the U.S. battleship Main to the Havana harbor.  McKinley had to find a way to deal with Spain.  In his 1897 address, McKinley listed the options that were yet available:

"Of the untried measures 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 can not be thought of. That, by our code of morality, would be criminal aggression."

First McKinley detailed his reasons at length for not recognizing the belligerent state of Cuba, against the opinion of congress in 1896.  Among his reasons, McKinley stated that it "would give the United States no right of intervention to enforce the conduct of the strife within the paramount authority of Spain according to the international code of war."   But he did not rule it out, "Should that step hereafter be deemed wise as a measure of right and duty, the Executive will take it."

Secondly, he ruled out intervention on humanitarian grounds even though it has received his "most anxious and earnest consideration".  The timing was just not right.   Rather it was time to give Spain a chance to make it's reforms work:

"But should such a step be now taken, when it is apparent that a hopeful change has supervened in the policy of Spain toward Cuba? A new government has taken office in the mother country. It is pledged in advance to the declaration that all the effort in the world can not suffice to maintain peace in Cuba by the bayonet; that vague promises of reform after subjugation afford no solution of the insular problem; that with a substitution of commanders must come a change of the past system of warfare for one in harmony with a new policy, which shall no longer aim to drive the Cubans to the "horrible alternative of taking to the thicket or succumbing in misery;" that reforms must be instituted in accordance with the needs and circumstances of the time, and that these reforms, while designed to give full autonomy to the colony and to create a virtual entity and self-controlled administration, shall yet conserve and affirm the sovereignty of Spain by a just distribution of powers and burdens upon a basis of mutual interest untainted by methods of selfish expediency. 

The first acts of the new government lie in these honorable paths. The policy of cruel rapine and extermination that so long shocked the universal sentiment of humanity has been reversed. Under the new military commander a broad clemency is proffered. Measures have already been set on foot to relieve the horrors of starvation. The power of the Spanish armies, it is asserted, is to be used not to spread ruin and desolation, but to protect the resumption of peaceful agricultural pursuits and productive industries. That past methods are futile to force a peace by subjugation is freely admitted, and that ruin without conciliation must inevitably fail to win for Spain the fidelity of a contented dependency."

America would not intervene.   That was the path, McKinley intended to take.  That is until February 15, 1898. 

"Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!"

At 9:40 on the evening of February 15, 1898, the USS Maine sank in Havana Harbor after suffering a massive explosion. While McKinley urged patience, the news of the explosion and the deaths of 266 out of 355 sailors on board stirred popular American opinion into demanding a swift belligerent response. McKinley asked Congress to appropriate $50 million for defense, and Congress unanimously obliged. Most American leaders took the position that the cause of the explosion was unknown, but public attention was now riveted on the situation and Spain could not find a diplomatic solution to avoid war. It appealed to the European powers, all of whom advised Spain to back down and avoid war.   On April 11, 1898, McKinley asked the Congress for permission to use force against Spain in Cuba.

References

Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). William McKinley: First Annual Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29538 [Accessed 26 Feb. 2018].

Loc.gov. (2018). The Spanish-American War - The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War (Hispanic Division, Library of Congress). [online] Available at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/trask.html [Accessed 26 Feb. 2018].

Miller Center. (2018). William McKinley: Foreign Affairs | Miller Center. [online] Available at: http://millercenter.org/president/biography/mckinley-foreign-affairs [Accessed 26 Feb. 2018].

Pletcher, D. (2001). The Diplomacy of Involvement: American Economic Expansion across the Pacific, 1784-1900. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press.

Ushistory.org. (2018). "Remember the Maine!" [ushistory.org]. [online] Available at: http://www.ushistory.org/us/44c.asp [Accessed 26 Feb. 2018].
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