Spanish Government would not object for its part to accept at once
a suspension of hostilities if asked for by the insurgents from the
general in chief, to whom it would pertain in such case to determine
the duration and conditions of the armistice.

The propositions submitted by General Woodford and the reply of the
Spanish Government were both in the form of brief memoranda, the texts
of which are before me and are substantially in the language above
given. The function of the Cuban parliament in the matter of "preparing"
peace and the manner of its doing so are not expressed in the Spanish
memorandum, but from General Woodford's explanatory reports of
preliminary discussions preceding the final conference it is understood
that the Spanish Government stands ready to give the insular congress
full powers to settle the terms of peace with the insurgents, whether by
direct negotiation or indirectly by means of legislation does not
appear.

With this last overture in the direction of immediate peace, and its
disappointing reception by Spain, the Executive is brought to the end of
his effort.

In my annual message of December last I said:

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.