figured as catcher, and President McKinley as umpire. The home plate was the Joint Resolution. The ball-as the Platt Amendment — had been pitched, and struck toward the outfield by a Cuban figure wielding a bat marked "Convention," and the batsman was shown as making a rapid pace toward first base — Independencia. In another, Uncle Sam, as a highwayman, with the pistol of the Platt Amendment, "holds up" Miss Cuba, and takes from her the Isle of Pines, coaling stations, and the Cuban Treasury, while a long-tailed rat gnaws the torn and mutilated Joint Resolution. Others were clever hits at special steps in the proceedings, but many of them were unintelligible and meaningless except to those who possessed a close acquaintance with the history of the time.

The most unfortunate immediate result of the American official attitude, and the acceptance of the Platt Amendment by the American Congress, was a marked increase in an already well-defined undercurrent of Cuban bitterness toward and distrust of the American administration. This feeling was almost completely limited to American officialdom. Throughout all of our dealings with the Island, the Cubans maintained an abiding confidence in the justness and the kindly and generous intentions of the American people. It was President McKinley and his advisers, and General Wood, upon whom was laid the blame for an act which the Cubans regarded as unjust, unworthy of a great nation, a violation of America's pledge, and a grievous wrong to the Cuban people.

In an address delivered before the Georgia Bar Association, L. Q. C. Lamar, Esq., an American lawyer, practising his profession in Havana, and fully conversant with the immediate situation, summarized the Cuban objection to the Platt Amendment as follows:

"The Cubans objected to the Platt Amendment

"Because; in their opinion, under it the Cuban people were not free and independent.

"Because; the Island, being fully 'pacified,' the United States, in violation of the Joint Resolution, proposed to exercise 'sovereignty, jurisdiction, and control' over it, and did not purpose leaving the 'government and control of the Island to its people.'

"Because; it compelled the Government of Cuba to consent that the United States might intervene for the determination of the question of Cuban fidelity to the terms imposed by the Treaty of Paris, notwithstanding the fact that, by the terms of the same treaty, the obligations of the United States were limited to the term of its

occupancy.

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Because; the highest judicial body in the United States had declared that the President was lawfully exercising jurisdiction in Cuba for the purpose of assisting the inhabitants of the Island to establish a government of their own, under which, ‘as a free and independent people they might control their own affairs without interference by other nations.'

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‘Because; the same court had held that Cuba was 'foreign territory,' and that, as between the United States and Cuba, that Island was, for the time, held in trust for the inhabitants thereof, 'to whom it rightfully belongs, and to whose exclusive control it will be surrendered when a stable government shall be established by their voluntary action.'

"Because; by the terms of their Constitution, they had assembled in Constitutional Convention in order to frame and adopt the fundamental law of their organization as a free and independent state.'

"Because; it was suggested by American authority and introduced as a rider to an army appropriation bill, in contravention if not in flagrant violation of the rules of the Senate which proposed and passed it.

"Because; it was passed hastily and without due consideration, after only two hours of debate, and, as stated on the floor of the Senate by one of its members, without the Congress ever having

seen or read the Constitution of which the amendment was to become a part.

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'Because; the Convention was called to frame and adopt a Constitution for the people of Cuba, and was expressly relieved, by the definite instructions of the American authority, from making provisions and agreements with the Government of the. United States upon future relations a part of their Constitution.

'Because; the functions of the Constitutional Assembly were limited to the purposes expressed in the call to the Convention, and did not include legislative or treaty-making powers.

"Because; it compelled them to change their Constitution by omitting the Isle of Pines from their constitutional boundaries, notwithstanding the fact that the said Island had been, for nearly four hundred years, recognized by Cubans, Spaniards, Americans, and all others alike, as part and parcel of Cuba's territory, politically and geographically."

These and other objections, expressed in similar and in different phrases, were the Cuban answer to the Platt Amendment.

CHAPTER XVI

ACCEPTANCE OF THE PLATT AMENDMENT

THE month of March, 1901, was a time of serious political confusion in the Island. The Cubans came slowly to a full realization of the position in which they had been placed. Definite terms were offered them by the Platt Amendment, and upon their acceptance of those terms depended the withdrawal of American authority. Acceptance meant to them the sacrifice of that sovereign independence for which many had given their lives and for which many others had fought and suffered. Rejection meant the indefinite postponement of even the shadow of independence, and the indefinite continuance of a government which was growing ever more and more objectionable.

“The declaration of the purposes of this Government in the resolution of April 20, 1898," said President McKinley in his inaugural address, immediately after the passage of the Platt Amendment, “must be made good." To the Cubans, that "declaration of purposes" admitted of only one meaning - Cuban independence. They were told that the offensive measure did not modify their independence. On the contrary, President McKinley, Senator Platt, and their supporters, declared that the measure was a guarantee of Cuban independence. They asserted that coaling stations were necessary to protect Cuba against possible foreign invasion. The Cubans and their American supporters declared this to be a subterfuge unworthy of a great people. They were

satisfied with the assurance of protection which rested in the Monroe Doctrine. Had the Platt Amendment asked for coaling stations on Cuba's coasts "for the protection of the southern ports and harbors of the United States," they would have been granted gladly and freely. No independence could exist where there was coercion to obtain coaling stations, or the acknowledgment of the right of intervention in Cuban affairs. Again and again, dissolution of the Convention was imminent.

Washington became uneasy. The independent press of the United States voiced its indignation. Men prominent in public life declared the measure an outrage and a blot upon the history of the country. The administration was forced into the ignoble position of seeking, through its mouthpieces, to explain into the measure a meaning which its terms denied. On April 3, the Secretary of War sent the following despatch to General Wood:

"Wood, Havana:

"You are authorized to state officially that in the view of the President the intervention described in the third clause of the Platt Amendment is not synonymous with intermeddling or interference with the affairs of the Cuban Government, but the formal action of the Government of the United States, based upon just and substantial grounds, for the preservation of Cuban independence, and the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty, and adequate for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the treaty of Paris. on the United States. ELIHU ROOT,

"Secretary of War."

But the Cubans persisted in considering only the letter of the measure, and declined to accept this explanation of its intents and purposes. Their argument was that an agreement of such moment should mean what it said and say