Abstract
At the end of the Spanish-American War, the United States occupied Cuba with a temporary military government in order to bring stability to the island. Conditions demanded American intervention because no power existed in the island capable of rebuilding a society weakened by nearly a decade of depression and revolution. Authority to pacify Cuba was given to President McKinley by the Congressional Joint Resolution of April 20, 1898, and the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898.1 These instruments indicated the intention of the United States not to annex Cuba but rather to administer the island’s government until the Cuban people could govern themselves. The prerequisite for withdrawal was the establishment of an independent republic whose stability would satisfy the requirements of the United States.
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References
For the Joint Resolution and the Peace Treaty, see Appendices A and B, noting that the United States refused to accept the cession of Cuba by Spain, and with the fourth (Teller) clause of the Joint Resolution, the United States bound itself to depart from Cuba. More detail, statistics and information may be found in J. Hitchman, “Leonard Wood and the Cuban Question, 1898–1902,” Ph. D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1965.
U. S. War Department, Report on the Census of Cuba, 1899 (Wn: GPO, 1900), 41, 155, 179; H. Hagedorn, Leonard Wood (N.Y., 1931), I, 184–188.
U. S., Congressional Record, 55th Cong., 2d Sess., 3969; O. H. Platt, “Our Relation to the People of Cuba and Porto Rico,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XVIII (July, 1901), 152.
República de Cuba. Senado. Memoria de los trabajos realizados durante las cuatro legislaturas y sesión extraordinaria del primer período congresional, 1902–1904. Tomo 1, Mención histórica, documentación relacionada con los acontecimientos que dieron, como resultado definitivo, la independencia y el establecimiento en república de Cuba, 1892–1902 (La Habana, 1918), 9–11.
Ibid., 15–22.
Jorge Mañach, Martí: Apostle of Freedom (New York, 1950), 355–63.
U.S., Congressional Record, 55th Cong., 2d Sess., 293–297; U.S. Congress, Senate, Report of Committee on Foreign Relations, “Affairs in Cuba,” 55th Cong., 2d Sess., Sen. Rep. 885; G. Flint, Marching with Gómez (N.Y., 1898), 222–236. Cf. Calixto García to Gonzalo de Quesada, May 29, 1897, in Gonzalo de Quesada y Miranda, ed., Epistolario, 2 volumes in one (La Habana, 1948–51), I, 175.
U.S. Congress. Senate, Letter of Gen. Máximo Gómez to the President, Feb. 9, 1897, 55th Cong., 1st Sess., S. doc. 75; Flint, Marching with Gómez, 188–196, 224; D. Méndez Capote, Trabajos (La Habana, three volumes in one, 1929–30), III, 140–198, 232.
Méndez Capote, Trabajos, I, 166–177, III, 243, 255, Masó was often referred to as Masso, but they were one and the same. U.S. Congress, House, Report of the Secretary of War, 56th Cong., 1st Sess., 1899, 12–13.
Méndez Capote, Trabajos, III, 201–13.
U.S. Congress, House, Message of the President of the United States on the Relations of the United States and Spain, 55th Cong., 2d Sess., 1898, doc. 405, LXIV 13.
Méndez Capote, Trabajos, III, 207–213, 219–224.
Mención histórica, 96–100.
Enrique José Varona, De la colonia a la república (La Habana, 1919), 198–199.
Flint, Marching with Gómez, 191–192.
E. Núñez to Quesada, July 25, 1898, Jan. 2, 1899, Jan. 27, 1899, Espistolario, II, 127–132.
Estrada Palma to Quesada, May 18, 1899, Ibid., 141–142; Dec. 13, 1899, Ibid., 148; Mar. 14, 1901, Ibid., 149; E. S. Santovenía y Echaíde, Armonías y conflictas en torno a Cuba (Mexico, D. F., 1956), 231–232, showing Estrada Palma’s appreciation of the fact that while the United States aided Cuba, no Latin American country did.
New York Times, June 23, 1899, July 13, 1899; Wood papers, file 248, Chicago Inter-Ocean, Dec. 9, 1899.
New York Times, March 2, 1899, March 13, 1899, March 15, 1899, April 5, 1899, April 7, 1899; R. P. Porter, Industrial Cuba (N.Y., 1899), 207–210; O. Costa, Manuel Sanguily (La Habana, 1950), 70; A. G. Robinson, Cuba and the Intervention (N.Y., 1905), 106–107.
New York Times, June 7, 1899; R. Infiesta, Máximo Gómez (La Habana, 1937), 213, stresses that during those uncertain days, Gómez used his authority to insist on one theme: union. Since Gómez accepted housing and subsistence from the Military Government, it might be argued that he was unduly influenced, but the old General refused the offer of a sinecure from Wood and possessed too much strength of character to be liable to these accusations. Wood papers, Wood to Root, Dec. 30, 1899; M. Gómez to Wood, Dec. 30, 1899.
Some newspapers supporting McKinley administration policy were: New York Times, Jan. 3, 1899; Cedar Rapids Republican, Dec. 31, 1899; Scranton Tribune, Dec. 27, 1899. Among those opposed were the Indianapolis Sentinel, Jan. 17, 1899, Spring-field [Massachusetts] Republican, Dec. 1, 1899. Other papers expressed gratitude at clean government in Cuba because they were concerned about the lack of it at home: Brooklyn Times, Dec. 15, 1899; St. Paul Pioneer-Press, April 27, 1901. With the exception of the New York Times, all other papers in this note are located in the Wood papers, scrapbooks 239, 248, 251.
New York Tribune, Dec. 16, 1899, Wood papers, scrapbook 248. Whitelaw Reid, the editor, was an expansionist.
Ibid.
Supporting the idea of continuity of policy are Margaret Leech, In the Days of McKinley (N.Y., 1959), 170, 182, 188, 272–3; C. G. Dawes, A Journal of the McKinley Years (Chicago, 1950), 165. In opposition are Henry Adams, letter to Elizabeth Cameron, Jan. 22, 1899, W. C. Ford, ed., Letters of Henry Adams, II, 206, (Boston, 1930); J. H. Wilson, Under the Old Flag (N.Y., 1912), II, 479–80; Robinson, Cuba and the Intervention, 109; D. F. Healy, The United States in Cuba, 1898–1902 (Madison, 1963), 88, 125.
Leech, Days of McKinley, 142.
T. Dennett, John Hay (N.Y., 1933), 264–65.
H. Adams, Education (N.Y., 1931), 423–24.
Leech, Days of McKinley, 273.
General Order 101, L. Wood, Civil Report, 1900, I, 1–5.
C. S. Olcott, Life of William McKinley (Boston, 1918) II, 196–202.
U.S. Congress, House, Message of the President, 1898, 55th Cong., 3d Sess., doc. 1, lxvi–lxvii.
U.S. Congress, House, Message of the President, 1899, 56th Cong., 1st Sess., xxix–xxx.
U.S. Congress, House, Report of the Secretary of War, 56th Cong., 1st Sess., 1899, doc. 2, vol. I, 24; Root to Attorney General, October 12, 1899, National Archives, Social and Economic Branch, Dept. of Interior Division, Record Group 350, Division of Insular Affairs, file 1102. Hereafter cited as DIA.
C. E. Magoon, Reports on the Law of Civil Government in Territory Subject to Military Occupation by the Military Forces of the United States, 2nd ed. (Wn: GPO, 1902), 11–37. Senator Orville H. Platt, of Connecticut, using different sources and the same reasoning, made a similar case in the Senate. Platt papers, 24 page “Memorandum” n.d., n.p. Platt’s theme was that pacification required longer occupation.
Magoon, Reports, 11–37; Report of the Secretary of War, 1899, I, 24–25.
Magoon, Reports, 55: cf. C. F. Randolph, The Law and Policy of Annexation (N.Y., 1901), 173–190, who held that Cuba was a foreign country under U.S. control, was not a protectorate because it existed as an economic, geographical and cultural entity, yet had no sovereignty because it was vested in the representatives of the U.S. who administered the government of Cuba. The military government was not oppressive because it abided by the Paris Peace Treaty and the Joint Resolution. The occupation was terminable at American discretion.
J. B. Foraker, Notes on a Busy Life (Cincinnati, 1916), II, 39–51.
Ibid., New York Times, March 15, 1900.
New York Times, Dec. 2, 1899.
Estrada Palma to Quesada, Aug. 17, 1899, Nov. 27, 1899, Epistolario, I, 145, 146.
U.S. Congress, House, Annual Reports of the War Department, 56th Cong., 1st Sess., 1899, doc. 2, “Report of Maj. Gen. J. R. Brooke on Civil Affairs in Cuba,” 23–26; Robinson, Cuba and the Intervention, 133 ff.
Report of the Secretary of War, 1899, I, 3, 12–13.
“Brooke Report,” 247 ff.; cf. Wood papers, Root to Wood, Dec. 22, 1899, enclosing a ten page letter from Charlton T. Lewis to Root. This letter from the president of the New York Prison Association revealed to Root the extent of Brooke’s neglect of Cuban prisons and administration of justice. Lewis spent part of November and December of 1899 in Cuba, reported his findings to Brooke and Lanuza and was ignored. Lewis believed, “Nothing but prompt interference by the War Department can stop the intolerable cruelty and injustice which now constitute a national disgrace.” The chief ills were confinement without trial or hearing and overcrowded, unhealthy jails. Root to Wood, Jan. 27, 1900.
New York Times, Aug. 9, 1899. The Wood papers contain 7 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings from Dec. 1898 through 1899, indicating a widespread concern throughout the U.S. about the Cuban situation.
Wilson, Under the Old Flag, II, 490.
Ibid., 416; cf. Wilson papers. He employed Albert G. Robinson, a newspaperman, off and on until 1910 to attack Wood. Wilson to Robinson, May 22, 1899, Nov. 22, 1901, Nov. 29, 1901; John J. McCook to McKinley, May 26, 1898; Wilson to D. W. Flagler, March 16, 1899. Wilson argued to Root and McKinley that he wanted to uphold the Joint Resolution, to Flagler he said that he deemed it an error and that the United States should have declared war and annexed Cuba. Wilson to Goldwin Smith, Dec. 27, 1899. See also his inaccurate recollection of an interview with McKinley regarding his influence on the President’s Cuban policy, Under the Old Flag, II, 502.
Root papers, Memorandum dictated by Wood in January 1899; Wood, “The Existing Conditions and Needs in Cuba,” North American Review, CLXVIII (May, 1899), 593–601; New York Times, June 24, 1899; Wood papers, Maj. Gen. Adna R. Chaffee to Wood, Jan. 10, 1899; Wood to Roosevelt, July 12, 1899. Wood told Roosevelt that the Cuban cabinet was simply working to produce friction between the Americans and the great bulk of the Cuban people, believing that if they can show discontent on the part of the Cubans with our administration, that they can, on presenting this fact and supporting it with the ‘Mugwumps’ at home obtain the withdrawal of our occupation…. One year or even six months, of decent, candid, courageous government here will turn the public sentiment all our way and the problem will be solved, as far as Cuba is concerned. The Chaffee letter indicates an incident between Brooke and Wood. Brooke wanted to use the Santiago revenues in the rest of the island, Wood wanted to use them in Santiago. Brooke accused Wood of loose financial methods in a semipublic censure.
Wood papers, Roosevelt to John Hay, July 1, 1899.
Hagedorn, Wood, I, 184–260, passim. Wood papers, scrapbook 248, New York Herald, Dec. 24, 1899; Chicago Inter-Ocean, Dec. 31, 1899.
Wood papers, scrapbook 249, Atlanta Constitution, June 28, 1899, where Wood was complimented for rejecting a $ 30,000 a year job in business. More than 40 articles from around the country praised him for staying in Cuba to perform “humane work.” E. T. Brewster to Wood, June 26, 1899; Reverend John O. Foster to Wood, March 26, 1899, sources indicating a reform interest in Cuba.
Wood papers, Roosevelt to Hay, July 1, 1899.
Wood papers, Wood to Mrs. Wood, June 13, 1900, box 201 (genealogical materials); Hagedorn, Wood, I, Chapters 1–7, passim; E. E. Morison, Turmoil and Tradition (Boston, 1960), 152–53. Wood was 5′ 10″ tall, weighed 180 pounds, and a superb athlete.
Hagedorn, Wood, I, 259.
Root papers, Root to Lawrence F. Abbott, Dec. 19, 1903; DIA 195–4, General Order 206, Dec. 13, 1899; New York Times, Nov. 24, 1899, showing Wood summoned to Washington, D.C.
P. Jessup, Elihu Root (N.Y., 1938), I, 286–87.
Wood papers, Wood to Mrs. Wood, June 15, 1898.
Wood papers, box 239, Boston Evening Transcript, July 12, 1902; Wood, “The Military Government of Cuba,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XXI (March, 1903), 156–57.
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© 1971 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Holland
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Hitchman, J.H. (1971). The Reasons for Occupation, 1898–1899. In: Leonard Wood and Cuban Independence, 1898–1902. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-0749-3_1
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