Document 1: Teller and Platt Amendments, http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/teller.html
“In April 1898 Senator Henry M. Teller (Colorado) proposed an amendment to the U.S.
declaration of war against Spain which proclaimed that the United States would not establish
permanent control over Cuba. It stated that the United States "hereby disclaims any disposition
of intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island except for
pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the
government and control of the island to its people." The Senate passed the amendment on April
19. True to the letter of the Teller Amendment, after Spanish troops left the island in 1898, the
United States occupied Cuba until 1902.
The Teller Amendment was succeeded by the Platt Amendment introduced by Senator Orville
Platt (R-Connecticut) in February 1901. It allowed the United States "the right to intervene for
the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the
protection of life, property, and individual liberty..." The Platt Amendment was finally abrogated
on May 29, 1934.”
Document 2: Henry Cabot Lodge, February 20, 1896 Boyer, American Nation in the Modern
Era, page 333.
“We know that they have formed a government; that they have held two elections…They have
risen against oppression, compared to which the oppression which led us to rebel against
England is a dust in the balance…No useful end is being served by the bloody struggle that is
now in progress in Cuba, and in the name of humanity it should be stopped…The responsibility
is on us; we cannot escape it. We should…put a stop to that war which is now raging in Cuba
and give to that island once more peace, liberty, and independence.”
Document 3: Senator Proctor Exposes Spain’s Brutality in Cuba,Vermont Senator Redfield
Proctor, March 17, 1898 after a visit to Cuba.
“I went to Cuba with a strong conviction that the picture had been overdrawn. I could not
believe that out of a population of one million six hundred thousand, two hundred thousand had
died within these Spanish forts…My inquiries were entirely outside of sensational
sources…What I saw I cannot tell so that others can see it. It must be seen with one’s own eyes
to be realized…To me the strongest appeal is not the barbarity practiced by Weyler, nor the loss
of the Maine…but the spectacle of a million and a half people, the entire native population of
Cuba, struggling for freedom and deliverance from the worst misgovernment of which I ever had
knowledge…”
Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Social Studies Document 4: Source: PBS, Crucible of Empire, http://www.pbs.org/crucible/
New York Journal USS Maine Headlines
February 16, 1898
CRISIS IS AT HAND—CABINET IN SESSION; GROWING BELIEF IN
SPANISH TREACHERY
MCKINLEY SUSPICIOUS OF SPANISH PLOTS
DE LOME, IN PANIC, FLEES
Source: PBS, Crucible of Empire, The Spanish-American War, http://www.pbs.org/crucible/headline6.html
February 17, 1898
DESTRUCTION OF THE WAR SHIP MAINE WAS THE
WORK OF AN ENEMY
Assistant Secretary Roosevelt Convinced the Explosion of the War Ship Was Not
an Accident.
The Journal Offers $50,000 Reward for the Conviction of the Criminals Who Sent 258 American
Sailors to Their Death. Naval Officers Unanimous That the Ship Was Destroyed on Purpose.
Hidden Mine or a Sunken Torpedo Believed to Have Been the Weapon Used Against the
American Man-of-War – Officers and Men Tell Thrilling Stories of Being Blown Into the Air
Amid a Mass of Shattered Steel and Exploding Shells—Survivors Brought to Key West Scout
the Idea of Accident—Spanish Officials Protest Too Much—Our Cabinet Orders a Searching
Inquiry—Journal Sends Divers to Havana to Report Upon the Condition of the Wreck.
Source: PBS, Crucible of Empire, The Spanish-American War, http://www.pbs.org/crucible/headline7.html
Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Social Studies Document 5: The De Lome Letter, Virginia Western Community College,
www.vw.cc.va.us/vwhansd/HIS122/DeLome.html
Although this letter was intended to be privately received, it was leaked to the American press
and printed nationally on February 9, 1898. After the scandal broke, Ambassador De Lome of
Spain futilely tried to defuse the situation by purporting that the letter was taken out of context.
LEGATION DE ESPANA, WASHINGTON
Eximo Senor DON JOSE CANALEJAS:
…The situation here continues unchanged. Everything depends on the political and military
success in Cuba. The prologue of this second method of warfare will end the day that the
Colonial Cabinet shall be appointed , and it relieves us in the eyes of this country of a part of the
responsibility for what happens there, and they must cast the responsibility upon the Cubans,
whom they believe to be so immaculate.
Until then we will not be able to see clearly, and I consider it to be a loss of time and an advance
by the wrong road - the sending of emissaries to the rebel field, the negotiations with the
Autonomists not yet declared to be legally constituted, and the discovery of the intentions and
purpose of this government. The exiles will return one by one, and when they return, will come
walking into the sheepfold, and the chiefs will gradually return. Neither of these had the courage
to leave en masse, and they will not have the courage thus to return.
The message has undeceived the insurgents who expected something else, and has paralyzed the
action of Congress, but I consider it bad. Besides the natural and inevitable coarseness with
which he repeats all that the press and public opinion of Spain has said of Weyler, it shows once
more what McKinley is: weak and catering to the rabble, and, besides, a low politician, who
desires to leave a door open to me and to stand well with the jingoes of his party.
Nevertheless, as a matter of fact, it will only depend on ourselves whether he proves bad and
adverse to us. I agree entirely with you; without a military success nothing will be accomplished
there, and without military and political success, there is here always danger that the insurgents
will be encouraged, if not by the government, at least by part of the public opinion.
I do not believe you pay enough attention to the role of England. Nearly all that newspaper
canaille which swarms in your hotel are English, and at the same time are correspondents of the
Journal, they are also correspondents of the best newspapers and reviews of England. Thus it has
been since the beginning. To my mind the only object of England is that the Americans should
occupy themselves with us and leave her in peace, and if there is a war, so much the better; that
would further remove what is threatening her - although that will never happen.
It would be most important that you should agitate the question of commercial relations, even
though it would be only for effect, and that you should send here a man of importance in order
that I might use him to make a propaganda among the senators and others in opposition to the
Junta and win over exiles.
Always you attentive friend and servant, who kisses your hands.
ENRIQUE DUPUY DE LOME
Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Social Studies Document 6: US Recognition of Cuban Independence, 1898, Fordham University, Modern
History Sourcebook, www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1998Cuba-us-recog.html
A resolution passed in response to a message sent to Congress by President McKinley, April 11,
1898, asking for permission to intervene in Cuba. As was often to be the case in the twentieth
century the professed anti-colonialism proved to be a useful tool in extending US power.
Joint Resolution for the recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba, demanding
that the Government of Spain relinquish its authority and government in the Island of Cuba,
and to withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters, and directing the
President of the United States to use the land and naval forces of the United States to carry
these resolutions into effect.
Whereas, the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the Island of
Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States,
have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a
United States battleship, with two hundred and sixty-six of its officers and crew, while on a
friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, and cannot longer be endured, as has been set forth by the
President of the United States in his message to Congress of April eleventh, eighteen hundred
and ninety-eight, upon which the action of Congress was invited: Therefore,
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in
Congress assembled, First. That the people of the Island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be,
free and independent.
Second. That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the Government of the United
States does hereby demand, that the Government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and
government in the Island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban
waters.
Third. That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to
use the entire land and naval forces of the United States, and to call into the actual service of the
United States, the militia of the several States, to such extent as may be necessary to carry these
resolutions into effect.
Fourth. That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise
sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said Islands except for the pacification thereof, and
asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the
Island to its people.
Approved, April 20, 1898.
Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Social Studies Document 7: U. S. Intervention in Cuba, 1898, Patterson, Thomas C., “U. S. Intervention in
Cuba, 1898: Interpreting the Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War,” OAH Magazine of
History, Spring, 1998, pages 5-6
…As its power grew, the United States became increasingly interested in China, where the opendoor policy was in the making; in the Pacific, where Hawaii was drawn into the U. S. vortex; and
especially in Latin America, where U. S. influence flowed most dramatically.
The impressive ascent of the United States in the international system and the imperialists’
vigorous rivalry for spheres of influence, particularly evident in Asia and Africa, gave real
urgency to American participation in the great-power game – an urgency that infused the war of
1898. The United States feared that it might be left out of the international race for territory and
especially that other imperialists would cut them off from the markets necessary to America’s
economic health. It seemed urgent to Americans that they act boldly in international relations or
suffer economic – and hence social and political – distress at home…
By 1898, the United States largely dominated the Western Hemisphere, turning it into a
dependent region in uneasy relationship with a towering hegemon. The United States saw the
Western Hemisphere as a system or unit – unique, different, and vital to U. S. security and
prosperity and in need of constant vigilance and control. Latin America was seen as a ‘natural
market” for U. S. goods, and as fertile ground for implanting American core values of democracy
and constitutional government in order to develop nations modeled after the United States, which
would become allies of the United States.
One of the consistent goals of U. S. foreign policy in the nineteenth century was the eviction of
European influence from the Western Hemisphere. The United States-sponsored Pan American
movement in the 1880s, for example, sought to rally Latin America around the United States in
order to blunt the “competitive European metropole powers.” In the crisis over Venezuela, the
message rang loudly: get out and stay out. The war against Spain in 1898, then, lay in regional
context as the latest decision to oust Europe from the Western Hemisphere…
Document 8: “The Lust for Empire” by Senator George Hoar, 1899, Congressional Record,
55th Congress, 3rd Session, pages 493-503
The question is this: Have we the right, as doubtless we have the physical power, to enter upon
the government of ten or twelve million subject people without constitutional restraint? Of that
question the senator from Connecticut takes the affirmative. And upon that question I desire to
join issue…But the question with which we now have to deal is whether Congress may conquer
and may govern, without their consent and against their will, a foreign nation, a separate,
distinct, and numerous people, a territory not hereafter to be populated by Americans, to be
formed into American states and to take its part in fulfilling and executing the purposes for
which the Constitution was framed, whether it may conquer, control, and govern this people, not
for the general welfare, common defense, more perfect union, more blessed liberty of the people
of the United States, but for some real or fancied benefit to be conferred against their desire upon
the people so governed or in discharge of some fancied obligation to them, and not to the people
Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Social Studies of the United States…We have no more right to acquire land or hold it, or to dispose of it for an
unconstitutional purpose, than we have a right to fit out a fleet or to buy a pack of artillery for an
unconstitutional purpose. Among the constitutional purposes for which Congress may acquire
and hold territory and other property are the building of forts, and the establishment of post
offices and subtreasuries and custom houses. In all these cases it is accomplishing a clearly
constitutional purpose.
Document 9: “In Support of An American Empire” by Senator Albert J. Beveridge, 1900,
Congressional Record, 56th Congress, 1st Session, pages 704-712.
MR. PRESIDENT, the times call for candor. The Philippines are ours forever, "territory
belonging to the United States," as the Constitution calls them. And just beyond the Philippines
are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either. We will not repudiate our duty in
the archipelago. We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our
part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world... But to hold it
will be no mistake. Our largest trade henceforth must be with Asia. The Pacific is our ocean.
More and more Europe will manufacture the most it needs, secure from its colonies the most it
consumes. Where shall we turn for consumers of our surplus? Geography answers the question.
China is our natural customer. She is nearer to us than to England, Germany, or Russia, the
commercial powers of the present and the future. They have moved nearer to China by securing
permanent bases on her borders. The Philippines give us a base at the door of all the East… But,
senators, it would be better to abandon this combined garden and Gibraltar of the Pacific, and
count our blood and treasure already spent a profitable loss than to apply any academic
arrangement of self-government to these children. They are not capable of self-government. How
could they be? They are not of a self-governing race. They are Orientals, Malays, instructed by
Spaniards in the latter's worst estate. They know nothing of practical government except as they
have witnessed the weak, corrupt, cruel, and capricious rule of Spain. What magic will anyone
employ to dissolve in their minds and characters those impressions of governors and governed
which three centuries of misrule has created? What alchemy will change the Oriental quality of
their blood and set the self-governing currents of the American pouring through their Malay
veins? How shall they, in the twinkling of an eye, be exalted to the heights of self-governing
peoples which required a thousand years for us to reach, Anglo-Saxon though we are?
Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Social Studies Document 10: Excerpts from the Proclamation of the U.S. Commission Toward Conciliation
and the Establishment of Peace, 1900, U.S. Government Printing Office, Volume 1, January 31, 1900
3. The civil rights of the Philippine people will be guaranteed and protected to the fullest extent;
religious freedom assured, and all persons shall have an equal standing before the law.
4. Honor, justice, and friendship forbid the use of the Philippine people or islands as an object or
means of exploitation. The purpose of the American Government is the welfare and
advancement of the Philippine people.
5. There shall be guaranteed to the Philippine people an honest and effective civil service, in
which, to the fullest extent practicable, natives shall be employed.
8. The construction of roads, railroads, and other means of communication and transportation, as
well as other public works of manifest advantage to the Philippine people, will be promoted.
9. Domestic and foreign trade and commerce, agriculture, and other industrial pursuits, and the
general development of the country in the interest of the Philippine people, will be promoted.
Document 11: Speech by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, 1900, Congressional Record, 60th
Congress, 1st Session, Volume 33, pages 2618-2630.
I hope and believe that we shall retain the islands, and that, peace and order once restored, we
shall and should reestablish civil government, beginning with the towns and villages, where the
inhabitants are able to manage their own affairs. We should give them honest administration,
and prompt and efficient courts. We should see to it that there is entire protection to persons and
property, in order to encourage the development of the islands by the assurance of safety to
investors of capital. All men should be protected in the free exercise of their religion, and the
doors thrown open to missionaries of all Christian sects. The land, which belongs to the people,
and of which they have been robbed in the past, should be returned to them and their titles made
secure. We should inaugurate and carry forward, in the most earnest and liberal way, a
comprehensive system of popular education. Finally, while we bring prosperity to the islands by
developing their resources, we should, as rapidly as conditions permit, bestow upon them selfgovernment and home rule…
Baltimore County Public Schools Office of Social Studies