Excerpt from History of the Spanish-American War: Embracing a Complete Review of Our Relations With Spain
The war between the United States and Spain was like no other war of ancient or modern times. Begun at once as a protest of civilization and as a plea for humanity, it ended as an act of unpremeditated national expansion; and, from first to last, it abounded in surprises. In its inception, the public men of America were generally opposed to it, as they are apt to be opposed to everything either very original or very decisive; and, if the controlling members of the cabinet at Madrid favored it - as there are some reasons for believing that they did - theirs was rather a choice between two dangers, foreign and domestic, which menaced them, than any deliberate preference for war. In Spain all popular impulse seems to have been wanting. In the United States the declaration of war was forced upon the President and the Congress by the people.
Thus, the war with Spain was essentially a people's war. The destruction of the Maine in the harbor of Havana undoubtedly quickened the pulse of the nation and hurried the action of its official representatives. But, long before, the patience of public opinion in the United States had been exhausted by Spanish misrule in Cuba. The time was come to make an end of an intolerable situation. When we consider not merely the oppression and corruption which had marked a cruel despotism existing in sight of us, and exploiting itself in spite of us, but its actual cost, to us in the treaty obligation of policing our coasts against the filibusters and in its consequent and constant injury to our commerce, it seems a matter of wonder that the day of reckoning should have been delayed so long.
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