After the fall of Santiago, General Miles began the conquest of Porto Rico, a task which he had almost completed when the peace negotiations brought hostilities to an end. In this campaign the American losses amounted to three killed and forty wounded. The last military episode of the war was the capture of Manila, August 13. By the first of August the health of the American army in Cuba had become alarming. Typhoid and yellow fever proved to be far more dangerous than Spanish bullets, and if the Spaniards had held out a few weeks longer, the American forces would have been utterly incapacitated. By August 3 the situation had become so bad that several officers, including Wheeler, Lawton, and Roosevelt, addressed a "round robin" to General Shafter, in which they made known the plight of their men. "This army must be moved at once or it will perish. As an army it can be safely moved now. Persons responsible for preventing such a move will be responsible for the unnecessary loss of many thousands of lives."

This very unmilitary but sensible communication had its effect, and before the end of August the troops were transferred to a camp at Montauk Point, Long Island. Of the thirty-five thousand who passed through there, twenty thousand were ill. The majority, after two or three years convalescence, recovered their health. In Montauk, at the end of the summer, after the war was over, the troops received their equipment of thin clothing.

PEACE

Peace negotiations began on July 18, when the Spanish authorities asked the French government to ask for terms in its behalf. On July 26, the French ambassador in Washington presented a note to McKinley, in which the Spanish government expressed a desire to know how the Cuban question might be settled. On July 30, the President outlined the terms of peace: the immediate evacuation of Cuba, and the relinquishment of Spanish sovereignty; the cession of Porto Rico, and one of the Ladrones; and the occupation by the United States of Manila, pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace, which should determine the status of the Philippines.

After the preliminary agreement had been signed, commissioners representing the two powers met at Paris. President McKinley appointed his Secretary of State, William R. Day, Senators Davis and Frye, Republicans, Senator Gray, Democrat, and Whitelaw

Reid, editor of the New York Tribune. The make-up of the peace commission served to illustrate McKinley's method of dealing with Congress. Appreciating the fact that the Senate would have the deciding voice in any treaty which was made, he aimed to secure the approval of that body by placing conspicuous members of both parties on the commission itself.

Among the commissioners there was a general agreement on certain points. Cuba was to be free, and Porto Rico was to go to the United States. The Spanish tried to saddle on Cuba certain debts which Spain had contracted before the war, for which Cuban revenues had been pledged as security. These bonds were held in France. The American commissioners refused to consider the proposal and Spain finally yielded.

Concerning the Philippines there was more uncertainty, and more discussion. Both the people and the government of the United States were puzzled as to their disposal, and as is not infrequently the case, those who knew the least about them were the most cocksure in proclaiming what ought to be done. "I know what I'd do if I was Mack," said Mr. Hennessey, "I'd hist a flag over th' Ph'lippeens, an' I'd take in the whole lot iv them."

"An' yet," said Mr. Dooley, "tis not more thin two months since ye larned whether they were islands or canned goods."

Spain assumed that the islands should be restored to her. The war had been begun over Cuba, and the Spanish government reasoned that the surrender of Cuba ought to satisfy the United States. But public sentiment in the United States became less and less inclined to surrender them. Acquisitiveness had never been entirely wanting in American character, and the appeal of "Manifest Destiny" was not cold. Furthermore, it was daily becoming more certain that even if the American forces were withdrawn, Spanish power could not be reëstablished. The war had let loose an active native insurrection against Spanish authority in the Philippines. With the United States withdrawn, and with Spain forced out, some European power would have jumped into the opening. The leader in the Filipino insurrection, Aguinaldo, was not making a favorable impression. He and his followers, with true native amiability, had announced their intention of killing every Spaniard luckless enough to fall into their hands. All things considered, it seemed that the easiest way out was for the United States to retain control of the Philippines,

paying Spain twenty million dollars for her improvements in the islands.

The final treaty was signed on December 10, 1898. Spain relinquished all claim of sovereignty over Cuba, and the United States assumed the responsibility of occupying the island, and restoring order. Spain ceded to the United States Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The treaty also provided that "the civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territories hereby ceded to the United States shall be determined by the Congress." In the Senate there was considerable opposition to the territorial sections of the treaty, on the ground that the Constitution gives the Federal government no power "to acquire territory to be held and governed permanently as colonies." Senator Hoar of Massachusetts declared that the proposal to acquire and hold the Philippine Islands was in violation of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the whole spirit of American institutions.

CHAPTER LXI

BEGINNINGS OF IMPERIALISM

The War with Spain and its resulting territorial acquisitions, carried the United States away from its traditional policy of isolation, and brought into play forces and policies which were characterized as un-American. Cuba of course did not become an American colony; on the contrary there was a general agreement that the island should enjoy "independence," but the authorities were far from being in accord with reference to the meaning of that general term. It was clear for example that the United States could not withdraw at once, and leave the people to their fate. When the Spanish relinquished their hold all governmental organization collapsed; for a time at least the United States would be compelled to exercise supervision. Because of the nature of the struggle for independence, conditions in Cuba were appalling. Everywhere there was filth and devastation, and the ignorant Cubans were helpless. The United States had to care for the sick and the dying, and in general, clean up the island.

CUBAN GOVERNMENT

Under the supervision of the authorities at Washington a provisional government was established in Cuba, with General Leonard Wood in charge. He displayed not only energy but unusual ability as an administrator. The Americans built roads, made provision for schools, and introduced a certain amount of order into the tangle of Cuban finance. Perhaps the greatest progress of all was made in sanitation. Major Walter Reed, an army physician, discovered that yellow fever was carried by a variety of mosquito. Once that fact was demonstrated, it was possible to stamp out one of the greatest scourges to tropical health. Hitherto white people residing anywhere in the American tropics had been always in danger of this disease. Now, in those sections which have the good sense to follow certain simple rules, yellow fever has practically disappeared.

By 1900 General Wood's provisional government had done its work so well that the Cubans were considered ready to take charge of

their own affairs. In the approved American manner delegates were elected to a constitutional convention. This body, with General Wood presiding, drew up a constitution. At this particular time Cuba was in better shape, in the matter of material well-being, government, and public health, than ever before in her history. In spite of this, there was a practical certainty that if the people were left to themselves, the island would be allowed to degenerate, or to pass into the hands of some other power. The United States had not intervened for that purpose.

In order to protect Cuba from the shortcomings of its own people, and from possible foreign intervention, the American Congress decided to make the island a protectorate of the United States. The Cuban convention therefore was required to incorporate in the Cuban Constitution a series of provisions generally referred to as the "Platt Amendment." By this set of restrictions the Cubans were forbidden to permit any foreign power to impair their rights as an independent nation. Cuba was not allowed to contract any debt, the interest on which could not be paid out of the current revenue. The Cuban authorities were required to maintain the system of sanitation established by the American provisional government. In addition to these limitations on Cuban freedom of action, the government was required to grant to the United States certain specified sites for coaling and naval stations, and to permit the United States to intervene "for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty," and for the fulfillment of obligations to the Spanish residents on the island. In 1904 these same provisions were embodied in a formal treaty between the United States and Cuba.

Many Cubans were inclined to denounce the Platt Amendment as unnecessary and ungenerous, forgetting perhaps where they would have been without the help of the United States. One reason for intervention had been the desire to put an end to the intermittent trouble which for years had tormented Cuba, and aroused concern in the United States. Neither the McKinley administration nor any other could afford to let the island relapse into disorder; particularly when such a relapse might well invite foreign intervention. Even the Cuban critics themselves would find it difficult to assert that the protection has been detrimental to the island. General Wood left Cuba in 1902, on the inauguration of the government of the Cuban Repub