APPENDIX J.

HOW DR. WHITMAN SAVED OREGON.

ON page 254 our claims to the Oregon country are stated. Joint occupancy between the British and Americans was maintained from 1818 to 1846. Meanwhile the Astor Fur Company had fallen into the hands of the Hudson Bay Company. This company sought to secure a majority of the inhabitants, intending to make the entire territory British rather than American.

Dr. Marcus Whitman, a native of the State of New York, a missionary physician among the Indians in the region of the upper Columbia, determined to prevent this and to secure the whole country to the United States by the same means; namely, obtaining a majority of the population. Acting on this determination, with intrepid bravery and untold suffering, accompanied by a single companion only, this heroic patriot braved the snows and the cold of the Rocky Mountains and made a winter's journey on horseback, of more than three thousand miles, from the Columbia River to St. Louis and the city of Washington, to warn the government of the designs of the British, and to implore its protection for our citizens in that remote region.

Fearing treachery if he followed the well-known route through the "South Pass," he turned off, a thousand miles out of his way, and took the "Old Indian Trail," southerly, through the Spanish country. His route took him to Fort Hall in Idaho, Fort Uintah in Utah, Fort Uncompagre in Colorado, and to old Fort Taos and Santa Fé in New Mexico. The hardships, perils, and hairbreadth escapes of this remarkable journey can scarcely be equalled in the pages of fiction.

During the following summer Dr. Whitman piloted a great caravan, divided into four bands, consisting of nearly a thousand persons, men, women, and children, with two hundred emigrant wagons, and fifteen hundred head of cattle, from Missouri to the Columbia River. This large addition to the population of Oregon more than doubled the number of inhabitants, and the Americans soon organized and put in operation a provisional government. When, therefore, the treaty of 1846 settled the boundary question, it was only legalizing what, in fact, had already been. made certain by this emigration of 1843.

APPENDIX K.

THE WAR WITH SPAIN - 1898.

IN 1898 the United States engaged in a war with Spain. This grew out of a deplorable condition of affairs in Cuba. An attempted revolution had been in progress in that island since early in 1895.

The Spanish government sent over a large army under Marshal Campos to put down this insurrection. Campos, however, failed to subdue the insurgents, who had declared independence, and had set up a government in the eastern provinces of the island.

Spain recalled Marshal Campos and placed the army under command of Captain General Weyler, an experienced and distinguished officer. From the first, the course of Weyler and his army was barbarous and brutal in the extreme. He began a policy of extermination. Women and children, the aged and the wounded, were massacred with merciless cruelty.

In order to starve out the insurgent forces, the farming population of large areas of territory were driven from their homes and their industries and were concentrated in the cities under military guard. The situation of these people, who were called "reconcentrados," became desperate. Many thousands of them died of starvation. Weyler's system of savage barbarity stirred the hearts of the people of our country until the general feeling throughout the United States was manifested by one united cry of intense indignation.

Early in 1896 Congress adopted resolutions favoring the recognition of the Cuban insurgents by this government as belligerents, and recommending that Cuban independence should be sought by the President through friendly offices with Spain. Soon after this, however, President Cleveland issued a proclamation of neutrality and of warning to filibusters.

The lack of military success on the part of the Spanish army, and the increasing cruelty of Weyler, led the President in his message to Congress in December, 1896, to state, after a review of the bad management of the Spanish army in Cuba, that the patience of this country might be exhausted unless a termination of the barbarous conditions there was speedily reached.

The next year President McKinley issued a similar warning, and, through our consuls, instituted a careful system of examination into

the condition of affairs in the island. The reports which he received, together with previous reports which had not been published, revealed an appalling state of suffering.

At the President's suggestion Congress appropriated $50,000 to relieve American citizens in Cuba. The President also called for popular subscriptions to carry food, medicine, and nurses to the reconcentrados. The people responded, and under the banner of the Red Cross Society large supplies were sent to the island.

The Spanish Cabinet set up an autonomist government, as it was called, but it proved to be a signal failure. About this time our battleship "Maine," after due notification that it was coming, made a friendly visit to the harbor of Havana. On the night of the 15th of February, 1898, when our sailors to the number of more than 350 were asleep on board the "Maine," the vessel was blown up and great numbers of them perished. Indignation in America was intense, but it restrained itself until an official report showed that the explosion was caused by a submarine mine underneath the vessel.

Meantime several United States Senators had been to Cuba, and, in speeches delivered in the Senate, they showed clearly and conclusively that the conditions in that island under the military regime of Weyler were such as to demand our immediate interference on the simple ground of humanity.

Congress at once voted unanimously an appropriation of $50,000,000 for national defence, and the same was placed in the hands of the President to be expended at his discretion. The unanimity of this vote was unprecedented in the history of our country.

In April, 1898, President McKinley sent a message to Congress, pointing out that the destruction of the "Maine" justified interference in Cuban affairs. About a week later Congress declared Cuba free, though the bill did not recognize the insurgent government. This act was passed to protect Americans in Cuba, to preserve our trade with the island, and to end conditions which, on the one hand, were inhuman, and, on the other, menaced our peace.

Our American minister to Madrid was General Woodford. The Spanish government at once gave him his passports, with the statement that Spain regarded the course of the American Congress as equivalent to a declaration of war.

The United States then declared war against Spain, and sent

a fleet to blockade Havana and other ports of Cuba. This was done on the 22d of April, and the next day the President issued a call to the States for 125,000 volunteers. Congress had already greatly increased our regular army, and it further provided for raising several national volunteer regiments. Another call for State troops was issued, and in a few weeks an army numbering nearly 300,000 men had been raised, and Congress had provided ample means for carrying on the war with vigor and despatch.

On the 1st of May Commodore Dewey sailed into the harbor of Manila, the capital of Spain's Philippine Islands, utterly destroyed a Spanish fleet of eleven vessels, captured the fort at Cavite, and held Manila at his mercy. In this remarkable battle the Spaniards lost 400 killed and 600 wounded, while not an American was killed, only six wounded, and not one of Dewey's six ships was seriously injured. For this victory, which astounded the world, Dewey received the thanks of Congress, and was made a Rear Admiral.

Admiral Cervera, with seven war ships, the flower of the Spanish navy, arrived at Santiago de Cuba on May 19th. The two fleets of Rear Admiral Sampson and Commodore Schley concentrated before the harbor and penned in the Spanish squadron. Cervera's escape was made more difficult by the famous exploit of Naval Constructor Hobson, who, before daylight June 3d, with six men, took the collier "Merrimac” into the narrow entrance of the harbor and sank her in the channel, while exposed to the annihilating fire of the Spanish forts and fleets. The little band miraculously escaped destruction, and were made prisoners by the Spanish Admiral himself, who, in recognition of their heroism, announced their safety under a flag of truce to Admiral Sampson.

General Shafter, with nearly 20,000 troops, landed just east of Santiago and invested the place. In spite of prodigious obstacles and unforeseen distresses, the Americans pressed forward, and by a series of desperate fights, culminating in the heroic charge up San Juan Hill, captured the Spanish outposts, and held the city in siege. Sunday morning, July 3d, Admiral Cervera attempted to escape, but his entire fleet was destroyed, and every one of his men either killed or taken prisoner in an engagement as extraordinary as was the battle of Manila. A few days later the Spanish army in Santiago surrendered to General Shafter. Immediately an expedition