Message of the Government of Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, submitted by His Excellency, Mr. J. Cambon, Ambassador of the French Republic, to William McKinley, President of the United States of America.
Mr. President: Since three months the American people and the Spanish nation are at war, because Spain did not consent to grant independence to Cuba and to withdraw her troops therefrom.
Spain faced with resignation such uneven strife and only endeavored to defend her possessions with no other hope than to oppose, in the measure of her strength, the undertaking of the United States and to protect her honor.
Neither the trials which adversity has made us endure nor the realization that but faint hope is left us could deter us from struggling till the exhaustion of our very last resources. This stout purpose, however, does not blind us, and we are fully aware of the responsibilities which would weigh upon both nations in the eyes of the civilized world were this war to be continued.
This war not only inflicts upon the two peoples who wage it the hardships inseparable from all armed conflict, but also dooms to useless suffering and unjust sacrifices the inhabitants of a territory to which Spain is bound by secular ties that can be forgotten by no nation either of the old or of the new world.
To end calamities already so great, and to avert evils still greater, our countries might mutually endeavor to find upon which conditions the present struggle could be terminated otherwise than by force of arms.
Spain believes this understanding possible and hopes that this view is also harbored by the Government of the United States. All true friends of both nations share no doubt the same hope.
Spain wishes to show again that in this war, as well as in the one she carried on against the Cuban insurgents, she had but one object—the vindication of her prestige, her honor, her name. During the war of insurrection it was her desire to spare the great island from the dangers of premature independence. In the present war she has been actuated by sentiments inspired rather by ties of blood than by her interests, and by the right belonging to her as mother country.
Spain is prepared to spare Cuba from the continuation of the horrors of war if the United States are on their part likewise disposed.
[Page 820]The President of the United States and the American people may now learn from this message the true thought, desire, and intention of the Spanish nation.
And so do we wish to learn from the President of the United States upon which basis might be established a political status in Cuba, and might be terminated a strife which would continue without reason should both Governments agree upon the means of pacifying the island.
In the name of the Government of Her Majesty the Queen Regent I have the honor to address this message to your Excellency with the expression of my highest consideration.
Ministre d’Etat.