as to all the relations and interests dependent on the existence of
peace in the island; but they seem incapable of reaching any adjustment,
and both have thus far failed of achieving any success whereby one party
shall possess and control the island to the exclusion of the other.
Under these circumstances the agency of others, either by mediation or
by intervention, seems to be the only alternative which must, sooner or
later, be invoked for the termination of the strife.


In the last annual message of my immediate predecessor, during the
pending struggle, it was said:

When the inability of Spain to deal successfully with the insurrection
has become manifest and it is demonstrated that her sovereignty is
extinct in Cuba for all purposes of its rightful existence, and when a
hopeless struggle for its reestablishment has degenerated into a strife
which means nothing more than the useless sacrifice of human life and
the utter destruction of the very subject-matter of the conflict, a
situation will be presented in which our obligations to the sovereignty
of Spain will be superseded by higher obligations, which we can hardly
hesitate to recognize and discharge.


In my annual message to Congress December last, speaking to this
question, I said:

The near future will demonstrate whether the indispensable condition of
a righteous peace, just alike to the Cubans and to Spain, as well as
equitable to all our interests so intimately involved in the welfare
of Cuba, is likely to be attained. If not, the exigency of further and