Teller Amendment - McKinley's War Message

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)

    The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with crime. It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the horrible scourge of its own creation.
    Emma Goldman (1869–1940)

    Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.
    David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)