McKinley's War Message
In the political atmosphere in the U.S. growing out of the Cuban struggle for independence, and following on the February 15, 1898 sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor President William McKinley, on 11 April 1898, asked the Congress,
"... to authorize and empower the President to take measures to secure a full and final termination of hostilities between the government of Spain and the people of Cuba, and to secure in the island the establishment of a stable government, capable of maintaining order and observing its international obligations, insuring peace and tranquillity and the security of its citizens as well as our own, and to use the military and naval forces of the United States as may be necessary for these purposes."
Read more about this topic: Teller Amendment
Famous quotes containing the words mckinley, war and/or message:
“The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.”
—William McKinley (1843–1901)
“Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus, 44:14.
The line “their name liveth for evermore” was chosen by Rudyard Kipling on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission as an epitaph to be used in Commonwealth War Cemeteries. Kipling had himself lost a son in the fighting.
“What’s the use? She would only want me to take a message to dear Albert.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)