I have directed that the finding of the court of inquiry and the views
of this Government thereon be communicated to the Government of Her
Majesty the Queen Regent, and I do not permit myself to doubt that the
sense of justice of the Spanish nation will dictate a course of action
suggested by honor and the friendly relations of the two Governments.

It will be the duty of the Executive to advise the Congress of the
result, and in the meantime deliberate consideration is invoked.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.



EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 11, 1898_.

_To the Congress of the United States:_

Obedient to that precept of the Constitution which commands the
President to give from time to time to the Congress information of the
state of the Union and to recommend to their consideration such measures
as he shall judge necessary and expedient, it becomes my duty to now
address your body with regard to the grave crisis that has arisen in the
relations of the United States to Spain by reason of the warfare that
for more than three years has raged in the neighboring island of Cuba.

I do so because of the intimate connection of the Cuban question with
the state of our own Union and the grave relation the course which
it is now incumbent upon the nation to adopt must needs bear to the
traditional policy of our Government if it is to accord with the
precepts laid down by the founders of the Republic and religiously