or mitigate. It is no answer to say this is all in another country,
belonging to another nation, and is therefore none of our business.
It is specially our duty, for it is right at our door.

Second. We owe it to our citizens in Cuba to afford them that protection
and indemnity for life and property which no government there can or
will afford, and to that end to terminate the conditions that deprive
them of legal protection.

Third. The right to intervene may be justified by the very serious
injury to the commerce, trade, and business of our people and by the
wanton destruction of property and devastation of the island.

Fourth, and which is of the utmost importance. The present condition of
affairs in Cuba is a constant menace to our peace and entails upon this
Government an enormous expense. With such a conflict waged for years
in an island so near us and with which our people have such trade and
business relations; when the lives and liberty of our citizens are in
constant danger and their property destroyed and themselves ruined;
where our trading vessels are liable to seizure and are seized at
our very door by war ships of a foreign nation; the expeditions of
filibustering that we are powerless to prevent altogether, and the
irritating questions and entanglements thus arising--all these and
others that I need not mention, with the resulting strained relations,
are a constant menace to our peace and compel us to keep on a semi war
footing with a nation with which we are at peace.

These elements of danger and disorder already pointed out have been
strikingly illustrated by a tragic event which has deeply and justly
moved the American people. I have already transmitted to Congress the