{"1": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3425", "width": "2066", "jp2-path": "cubanindependenc00wils_0001.jp2"}, "2": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3425", "width": "2066", "jp2-path": "cubanindependenc00wils_0002.jp2"}, "3": {"fulltext": "C-^ t^_\\nV?,\\nr\\n^\u00e2\u0080\u00a2e\\nCUBAN INDEPENDENCE.\\nSPEECH\\nHON. JOHN L. WILSON.\\nOF WASHINGTON,\\nSENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,\\nSaturday, April, 16, 1898.\\nWASHINGTON.\\nI898.", "height": "3425", "width": "2066", "jp2-path": "cubanindependenc00wils_0003.jp2"}, "4": {"fulltext": "F/rU\\n.--_.\\ny^/6.", "height": "3425", "width": "2066", "jp2-path": "cubanindependenc00wils_0004.jp2"}, "5": {"fulltext": "SPEECH\\nHON. JOHN L. WILSON,\\nThe Senate having under consideration the joint resolution (S. R. 149) for\\nthe recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba, demanding that\\nthe Government of Spain relinquish its authority and government in the\\nIsland of Cuba, and to withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and\\nCuban waters, and directing the President of the United States to use the\\nland and naval forces of the United States to carry these resolutions into\\neffect-\\nMr. WILSON said:\\nMr. President: I had hoped that the resolutions of the Com-\\nmittee on Foreign Relations might be adopted by the Senate with-\\nout debate. It was my earnest desire again to witness that mag-\\nnificent spectacle of the representatives of the people, without\\nregard to party, voting to maintain the national honor with the\\nsame calm dignity with which they voted fifty millions for the\\nnational defense.\\nMr. President, the results of that act were worth all the cost.\\nIt said to all the world that the American people were united. It\\nsaid that all sectionalism had been abolished. It said, No North,\\nno South, no East, no West, but one country, one flag, one people.\\nI had hoped for immediate action. I had hoped to see the Sen-\\nate and House hold up the hands of the President, even until\\nthe going down of the sun and until Amalek and his people\\nshould have been discomforted with the edge of the sword.\\nMr. President, I regret, as this debate has progressed, that an\\napparent effort should have been made to obtain some partisan\\nadvantage from such a serious issue as that of war. Our country\\nfirst and party afterwards is the motto that should guide all true\\npatriots. In the last one hundred years no war has Leen declared\\n3252 S", "height": "3425", "width": "2066", "jp2-path": "cubanindependenc00wils_0005.jp2"}, "6": {"fulltext": "or retrained from without criticism, usually unjust, upon those\\nwho have had the responsibility of waging it.\\nIn 1870 France, with the cry On to Berlin! and without prepa-\\nration, rushed headlong into war; and Alsace and Lorraine stand\\nas monuments to her folly. But yesterday Greece clamored for\\nwar, and her Government was forced into it without adequate\\npreparation and with an army and navy that had nothing to fight\\nwith but the remembrance of the glories of Salamis, Marathon,\\nand Lepanto; and it took the combined force of Europe to main-\\ntain her integrity as a nation. Mr. President, what we needed\\nwas adequate preparation; less oratory and more powder; less\\nrhetoric and more rams.\\nI am not versed in\u00e2\u0080\u0094 nor do I care for\u00e2\u0080\u0094 academic discussions of\\nso-called international law. Divesting it of all subtleties and\\napplying the principles of a sound common sense to this question,\\nit must be acknowledged that the United States has grave ground\\nof complaint against Spain. It is not that Spain has maintained a\\nnuisance at our doors; it is not that we have been forced at an\\nenormous expense to maintain our neutrality; it is not the fact of\\nher centuries of misrule in Cuba, culminating in a barbarous and\\ncruel war. It is all of these together that make the situation intol-\\nerable.\\nWhen the Maine went down in the harbor of Havana, she\\ncarried with her the last hope of Spanish sovereignty on the Western\\nHemisphere, and the silent and sunken wreck in that harbor is the\\nharbinger of liberty and independence to the insurgents of Cuba.\\nMr. President, I have heard much in this debate of the cost of\\nwar, and that this, though a powerful, was a peace-loving nation.\\nNo one has greater admiration for the marvelous development and\\ngrowth of the American people than 1. No one has greater admi-\\nration for their business acumen, activity, and enterprise, and no\\none more highly values their importance. The point is often made\\nhere and elsewhere that we must not disturb business, must not\\ninterfere with trade. There is more to deal with in the life of a\\nnation than business or trade. There is patriotism, love of coun-\\ntry, honor, and virtue\u00e2\u0080\u0094 things that money can not make and\\nmoney can not buy. What is it, as we go forth from this Chain-\\n3252", "height": "3425", "width": "2066", "jp2-path": "cubanindependenc00wils_0006.jp2"}, "7": {"fulltext": "ber and see the flag floating above us, that causes our hearts to\\nbeat stronger? Is it because we have become rich and powerful\\nunder its folds? I think hot. When I see it there. I see no dol-\\nlar marks on its broad stripes. I do not see the mctto of the\\nepicure Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow wo\\ndie. When I look I see, if anything, the picture of Washington,\\nmarching from defeat at Long Island to victory at Trenton, going\\nfrom misery and starvation at Valley Forge to glorious triumph\\nat Yorktown. I see the triumphs of John Paul Jones, of Perry,\\nand Decatur. I see the grave and patient face of Lincoln, sur-\\nrounded by all that mighty host that went forth to battle for con-\\nstitutional liberty and that men might be free.\\nMr. President, it is respect and honor for our flag and the prin-\\nciples it stands for that has made this country one of the great\\nnations of the earth.\\nThe Constitution of the United States imposes upon Congress\\nthe right to declare war. And while I wotild not shift upon any\\nman, no matter how high his station, the responsibilities in which\\nI should share, speaking for myself alone, if I could have my\\nway, I would lay aside all other resolutions and cast my vote for\\na direct declaration of war. And I would follow that declaration\\nwith a vote to give to the President of the United States the money\\nto make it effective, that we might wipe out the foul insult to our\\nflag in the harbor of Havana.\\nSince the night of that unfortunate tragedy, if Spam had de-\\nnounced the act and hunted down the assassins, meting out to\\nthem punishment for their crime, some avenue might have been\\nleft open to maintain an honorable peace. But in place of investi-\\ngation we have had a shameful and self-convicting farce. In the\\nplace of honorable amend, we are now brought face to face with\\na foul slander upon the dead and living heroes, and tho Spanish\\nprime minister, in his official capacity, posts the officers and men\\nof the Maine, both living and dead, as cowards, poltroons, and\\ntricksters. In the name of the American Navy and in the name\\nof her heroes of the past and of to-day, I denounce the foal slander.\\nMr. President, Spain reached the height of her glory during a\\npast age. Unwise and wasteful in her day of power arid prosper-\\n3253", "height": "3425", "width": "2066", "jp2-path": "cubanindependenc00wils_0007.jp2"}, "8": {"fulltext": "6\\nity, \u00e2\u0080\u00a2when her splendor dazzled the world, she stands to-day, with-\\nout art, without literature, without science, and without hope, a\\nbankrupt and ruined nation. There can be no glory in war over\\nsuch a carcass. But we shall have war; not a war of conquest\\nnor aggression, not war for territorial aggrandizement, but war\\non behalf of liberty and humanity.\\nMr. President, the issue that confronts us is momentous. But I\\ndo not doubt but that the representatives of the people will meet\\nit with calmness and dignity, and work out its solution with a\\nhigh sense of justice and honor, and when history shall speak of\\nthat nation which is greatest among the nations of the earth, she\\nwill say:\\nEach of the nations around you has fought for her country and line,\\nBut thou hast fought for a stranger, in hate of a wrong not thine.\\nHappy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossessed;\\nBut blessed is she among nations who dared to be strong for the rest.\\n3252", "height": "3425", "width": "2066", "jp2-path": "cubanindependenc00wils_0008.jp2"}, "9": {"fulltext": "", "height": "3425", "width": "2066", "jp2-path": "cubanindependenc00wils_0009.jp2"}, "10": {"fulltext": "L1BKRRY OF CONGRESS\\n015 819 625 6", "height": "3425", "width": "2066", "jp2-path": "cubanindependenc00wils_0010.jp2"}}