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 THE WAR TO FREE CUBA. 
 
 "Patriotism is again supreme in our hearts. 
 
 R E M ARKS 
 
 OP 
 
 HON. JAMES R.MANN, 
 
 OF ILLINOIS, 
 ^C/h^^^ IN The 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 March 8 and Apr it, 28, 1S9S. 
 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 1898. 
 
V* 
 
 
 <^* 
 
 
 68471 
 

 REMARKS 
 
 OF 
 
 nON. JAMES E. MANN, 
 
 March S, ISDS. 
 $50,000,000 DEFENSE APPROPRIATIOX. 
 
 Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, it would be a great pleasure to my 
 heart if 1 could subscribe to the idea suggested by the chairman 
 of the committee that this is a measure of peace. I have been 
 consistently in favor of this country preserving peace, if peace 
 could be preserved; but I recognize in this measure now that it 
 means war. Believing that, still, when the Administration, which 
 has the confidence of the people, asks for money supplies, though 
 it may mean war, I say, heartily, that the people are in favor of 
 the appropriation. War is not only coming, Mr. Speaker, but war 
 now exists between the two countries. Not open war, not de- 
 clared war, as we know, but the real, the insidious first entrance 
 upon war has already been made. And this country, upon the 
 suggestion of the Administration, is now justified in spending its 
 money as necessary, its blood.as may be called upon, for the pur- 
 pose not of commencing war, but for the purpose, in war, of up- 
 holding the honor and the dignity of the countrj', and of bringing 
 about peace as soon as possible. [Applause.] 
 
 ******* 
 
 Ajyyil 2S, 1S9S. 
 
 WAR REVENUE BILL. 
 
 Mr. HOPKINS. Mr. Chairman, I yield now to the gentleman 
 from Illinois [Mr. MannJ . 
 
 Mr. MANN. Mr. Chairman, the spirit of commercialism has 
 been subordinated to the spirit of humanity. Patriotism is again 
 supreme in our hearts. Greed and the love of gold have yielded to 
 the touch of sympathetic nature. No nobler offering to human- 
 ity, no greater sacrifice of self-interest, no loftier example of 
 human kinship has ever been made. A mighty nation, wholly 
 
 devoted to the arts of peace, absorbed in trade and gain, perme- 
 3^87 3 
 
ated with the desire for wealtii and comforts, without a powerful 
 army and with only a moderate navy, goes to war witli a deter- 
 mined, cruel, and revengeful people because it dares to fight for 
 tiie right and is determined to stop forever the despotic and cold- 
 blooded cruelt}- to and robbery of the Island of Cuba by tlie nation 
 of Spain. 
 
 To our shame be it said that there are still those in our country 
 who are unmoved by the piteous pleadings of the starving thou- 
 sands in Cuba and whose eyes do not moisten or liearts swell when 
 they read of the starving babes endeavoring vainly to draw sus- 
 tenance from the breasts of dead and starved mothers. 
 
 Some of these have hypocritically preached tenderness and 
 honor for years, and now their fear of suffering or their greed for 
 gain overcomes all other emotions. But they are few in number. 
 They do not count in this contest. They are the Judases of our 
 nation's real honor. 
 
 A short time ago we engaged in a political contest in our land 
 which many of us believed vitally involved the sacred honor of our 
 country. The lesson of that campaign would have been lost if it 
 had not taught our citizens that the honor of a country is above 
 gain, above gold and silver, above ideas of currency or tariff, and 
 that the honor of our country can only be sustained and upheld 
 by the inner consciousness that we have done that which we be- 
 lieve to be right and sacred, whether it means war or peace; 
 whether it means the beating of the sword into the plowshare or 
 the plowshare into the sword. [Applause.] 
 
 - We do not fight for a fancied slight; we do not fight for a com- 
 mercial wrong; we do not fight for an increase of territory; we 
 do not fight because our commercial spirit has been outraged; we 
 do not fight because our land has been invaded; we fight because 
 it has become necessary to fight if we would uphold our man- 
 hood; because the leader of nations on our continent can not stand 
 idly by while Spain is, with cold blood and cruelty, slaughtering 
 and starving our next-door neighbors to death; because unless we 
 are willing to fight we must abandon our vaunted pretensions of 
 enlightened humanity and civilization; because we can not "pass 
 by on the other side."' 
 
 And then we fight for honor. On the 25th of January last the 
 
U. S. warship Maine, on a peaceful errand, arrived in the harbor 
 of Havana, after notice being given to the Spanish authorities at 
 that place, and was taken to Buoy No. 4 by tlie regular Spanish 
 Government pilot. In the opinion of the board of inquiry tlie 
 effect upon the Maine caused by the explosion on February 15 
 " could have been produced only by the explosion of a mine situ- 
 ated under the bottom of the ship." 
 
 That court found that the loss of the Maine was not in any re- 
 spect due to fault or negligence on the part of any of the officers 
 or members of the crew, and that it was destroyed by the explo- 
 sion of a submarine mine, and that the inquiry court was unable 
 to obtain evidence fixing responsibility for the destruction of the 
 Maine upon any "person or persons." The J/auiewas moored at 
 a place selected by the Spanish pilot; blown up by a submarine 
 mine located under the ship. No person could have located the 
 mine where it was except Spanish officials, and no one could have 
 controlled the shore connection of the mine except Spanish officers. 
 
 The child who can add one to one and make two can tell what 
 authority caused the destruction of the Maine. The act has not 
 been disavowed by Spain; no Spanish official has been investigated, 
 arrested, or punished. The people of America know vvho destroyed 
 the Maine. The American Government and the Spanish Govern- 
 ment know who destroyed the Maine. "~| 
 
 It has been said that war was terrible; that war is hell. Lot it 
 be so! War was terrible when the English Parliament levied a 
 small tax upon tea imported to this land, but our forefathers 
 fought for freedom. They were not afraid of war, nor are their 
 descendants. 
 
 War was terrible in 1812, but the American people, few in num- 
 ber and small in wealth, were not then afraid of the mighty power 
 of Great Britain. 
 
 War was terrible in 1845, but our people were not afraid to help 
 the liberty-loving Texans, and my father was among those who 
 then fought for his country and for freedom to another state on 
 this continent. 
 
 War was terrible, war was hell, in 1861, but it did not frighten 
 either those who wore the.blue or the gray in behalf of what they 
 believed to be right and freedom. 
 
 33S7 
 
6 
 
 Has war grown so terrible that we now are afraid of it? Shall 
 we muffle our ears and blind our eyes and pluck out our hearts to 
 the piteous moanings and pleadings of the starving thousands in 
 Cuba because we are afraid to spill our blood? Thank God, the 
 American people have red blood instead of ice water running in 
 their veins! 
 
 "^ I was for peace. I wanted this countrj' to attend to her own 
 affairs. I did not think that we ought to interfere between Spain 
 and her rebellious subjects. I was not in favor of the Cuban 
 plank in the national Republican platform when it was adopted. 
 I did not then know the facts. No one now disi^utes the facts. 
 The facts being admitted, the conclusion is inevitable. There is 
 but one thing for us to do. We should free the Island of Cuba 
 from Spanish interference or control. We should return the first 
 deadly blow of war given us when the Spanish officials, by delib- 
 erate, i^reconceived intention, destroyed our war vessel and mur- 
 dered our sailors. Whether war be terrible or whether war be 
 hell or not, no people or nation is worth surviving or is entitled 
 to the blessings of freedom who will not fight under such circum- 
 stances. We would all hail honorable peace, but there can be no 
 honor coupled with peace now. 
 
 Have we grown so rich, so enervated, .so attached to the unholy 
 dollar, that we are afraid to fight for freedom? We freely ten- 
 dered our sympathies to the Armenians suffering from Turkish 
 cruelty. Shall we prove ourselves cowards by refusing to tender 
 our sympathies, coupled with our might, to the Cubans? 
 
 No, Mr. Chairman, we have taken our stand. We insist that 
 no nation on this continent shall have the liberty to torture and 
 starve her subjects deliberately and coldly to death, and that 
 position we are willing to defend with our fortunes and our lives. 
 
 Washington led an army and a people through a war against 
 foreign oppression and to obtain their independence. Lincoln 
 led the North through a war to preserve the integrity of our na- 
 tion and the liberties and rights of our people. Lee led the people 
 of the South through a war when they believed that they battled 
 for the freedom of their firesides and the rights of their States. 
 But the noblest and most inspiring example of history is Presi- 
 dent McKinley, holding aloft the Stars and Stripes over an undi- 
 
vided North and South, leading the American people and the 
 modern civilization to the rescue and relief of suffering and tor- 
 tured and pleading humanity, for the sake of humanity, and to 
 satisfy the longings of the enlarged sou!. [Applause.] 
 
 Mr. Chairman, we can not carry on this war without money. 
 It requires cash in hand. There must be no doubt in the start of 
 the power of the Government to incur the necessary obligations 
 and to pay all of its bills promptly. The Republican party pro- 
 poses, as set forth in the bill novf before the House, to raise the 
 money by the means usually adopted in times of war. There is 
 nothing new in the scheme proposed by the Republicans. No 
 new experiment is to be made. On the other hand, the proposi- 
 tion submitted by the Democratic members of the committee is 
 one of visionary schemes and theoretical speculations. It involves 
 the change of the policy of our Government. It introduces at 
 once the most bitter partisan politics; and if carried into effect by 
 the adoption of it as a -law, it strikes a deadly blow at the honor 
 of our countrj- and the preservation of its financial credit. 
 
 It is the duty of the Republican party at this time, while it is 
 endeavoring to obtain freedom for a foreign people, to presexwe 
 unquestioned the integrity and honor of the credit of our coiintry 
 and to keep untarnished and uninjured the solid financial policy 
 voted for by the American people less than two years ago. 
 
 The Republican party, which has never faltered in its duty, 
 "Which has never failed in its obligations to the people, will not 
 betray our country now. 
 
 A free flag will soon float over the Island of Cuba, and the honor 
 and financial integrity of the United States will at the same time 
 be absolutely maintained. 
 
 May God bless our President, our country, and our cause. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 O 
 
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