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amount by very considerable figures, and the report of the ministry of foreign affairs of France for the year 1893 shows only $240,000 receipts and $3,266,960 expenditures, a sum almost double that expended by the United States, including even the incidental and contingent expenses of the consular and diplomatic service of the latter country.

This bill adopts the principle of permanent official tenure, so far as the laws can control that subject, but permanent only as it is of benefit to the service. It leaves the power of removal from office to the discretion of the President. The position of each employee of the service is protected against the uncertain and demoralizing effects of changes for merely political reasons in the administration of the Government as far as Congress can control the subject. But this protection is as necessary in practice for efficient work as it is just in theory, and if the plan is adopted of appointing consuls after they are found to be qualified for the respective classifications of the consular service they will seldom, if ever, be dropped from the service for the purpose of supplying their places with political favorites.

The required examination for appointment and promotion creates an impediment in the way of those who may demand office as a reward for political partisanship, without having adequate knowledge of the duties of this peculiar branch of the public service.

Each consul must on frequent occasions be the judge of his proper line of action without aid or direction from the minister to whom he is required to report or from the Department of State. In such cases it is requisite to the honor and security of the Government that the consul should be well informed as to his duties.

The right of the President to select from the whole body of consuls any man for any place he may prefer, and to assign him to such place for duty, and to transfer him at pleasure to another place, is the full equivalent of the power of appointment to a particular office.

These functions are to be exercised in foreign countries, for the most part distant from the United States, and disconnect the incumbents from participation in our home politics.

In so far as they may be given as rewards for party services, they are a sort of pension system for men who have not been successful in getting offices at home, or who have failed of success in the usual channels of business.

The consular system should be based upon the plan of personal qualification for its important and peculiar duties, ascertained by the examination and experience of those employed in it, rather than upon the plan of selecting those for this service who have failed in other pursuits, or those who desire to go abroad for purposes of travel, recreation, or amusement.

This is the only branch of the public service that has been used, to any great extent, for the gratification of the incumbents, without regard to their capacity to render efficient service to the country, and it is time that our policy in respect of these offices was changed.

Taken in the aggregate, there is no class of representatives of our Government who can so seriously affect our commerce with other countries, in their actual and direct conduct and dealings, as our consuls and commercial agents.

We should encourage our best classes of people to qualify themselves for this important service by giving them just compensation for their work, and by securing them in these offices during good behavior.

They have much to do with the dignity of our Government, its credit in foreign lands, the honor of its flag, and the safety of its citizens.

[See pp. 40, 143, 187, 321, and pp. 119, 199, 276, Vol. VI.]

FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION.

January 29, 1896.

[Senate Report No. 141.]

Mr. Morgan, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, submitted the following report:

The Congress of the United States, deeply regretting the unhappy state of hostilities existing in Cuba, which has again been the result of the demand of a large number of the native population of that island for its independence, in a spirit of respect and regard for the welfare of both countries, earnestly desires that the security of life and property and the establishment of permanent peace and of a government that is satisfactory to the people of Cuba should be accomplished.

And to the extent that the people of Cuba are seeking the rights of local self-government for domestic purposes, the Congress of the United States expresses its earnest sympathy with them. The Congress would also welcome with satisfaction the concession, by Spain, of complete sovereignty to the people of that island, and would cheerfully give to such a voluntary concession the cordial support of the United States. The near proximity of Cuba to the frontier of the United States, and the fact that it is universally regarded as a part of the continental system of America, identifies that island so closely with the political and commercial welfare of our people, that Congress can not be indifferent to the fact that civil war is flagrant among the people of Cuba.

Nor can we longer overlook the fact that the destructive character of this war is doing serious harm to the rights and interests of our people on the island, and to our lawful commerce, the protection and freedom of which is safeguarded by treaty obligations. In the recent past and in former years, when internal wars have been waged for long periods and with results that were disastrous to Cuba and injurious to Spain, the Government of the United States has always observed, with perfect faith, all of its duties toward the belligerents.

It was a difficult task thus forced upon the United States, but it was performed with vigor, impartiality, and justice, in the hope that Spain would so ameliorate the condition of the Cuban people as to give them peace, contentment, and prosperity. This desirabie result has not been accomplished. Its failure has not resuited from any interference on the part of our people or Government with the people or government of Cuba.

The hospitality which our treaties, the laws of nations, and the laws of Christianity have extended to Cuban refugees in the United States. has caused distrust on the part of the Spanish Government as to the fidelity of our Government to its obligations of neutrality in the frequent insurrections of the people of Cuba against Spanish authority.

This distrust has often become a source of serious annoyance to our people, and has led to a spirit of retaliation toward Spanish authority in Cuba, thus giving rise to frequent controversies between the two countries. The absence of responsible government in Cuba, with powers adequate to deal directly with questions between the people of the United States and the people and political authorities of the island, has been a frequently recurring cause of delay, protracted imprisonment, confiscations of property, and the detention of our people and their ships, often upon groundless charges, which has been a serious grievance.

When insurrections have occurred on the Island of Cuba the temptation to unlawful invasion by reckless persons has given to our Government anxiety, trouble, and much expense in the enforcement of our laws and treaty obligations of neutrality, and these occasions have been so frequent as to make these duties unreasonably onerous upon the Government of the United States.

The devastation of Cuba in the war that is now being waged, both with fire and sword, is an anxious and disturbing cause of unrest among the people of the United States, which creates strong grounds of protest against the continuance of the struggle for power between Cuba and Spain, which is rapidly changing the issue to one of existence on the part of a great number of the native population.

It is neither just to the relations that exist between Cuba and the United States, nor is it in keeping with the spirit of the age or the rights of humanity that this struggle should be protracted until one party or the other should become exhausted in the resources of men and money, thereby weakening both until they may fall a prey to some stronger power, or until the stress of human sympathy or the resentments engendered by long and bloody conflict should draw into the strife the unruly elements of neighboring countries.

This civil war, though it is great in its proportions and is conducted by armies that are in complete organization and directed and controlled by supreme military authority, has not the safeguard of a cartel for the treatment of wounded soldiers or prisoners of war.

In this feature of the warfare it becomes a duty of humanity that the civilized powers should insist upon the application of the laws of war recognized among civilized nations to both armies. As our own people are drawn into this struggle on both sides, and enter either army without the consent of our Government and in violation of our laws, their treatment when they may be wounded or captured, although it is not regulated by treaty and ceases to be a positive care of our Government, should not be left to the revengeful retaliations which expose them to the fate of pirates or other felons.

The inability of Spain to subdue the revolutionists by the measures and within the time that would be reasonable when applied to occasions of ordinary civil disturbance is a misfortune that can not be justly visited upon citizens of the United States, nor can it be considered that a state of open civil war does not exist, but that the movement is a mere insurrection and its supporters a mob of criminal violators of the law, when it is seen that it requires an army of 100,000 men and all the naval and military power of a great kingdom even to hold the alleged rebellion in check.

It is due to the situation of affairs in Cuba that Spain should recognize the existence of a state of war in the island, and should voluntarily accord to the armies opposed to her authority the rights of belligerents under the laws of nations.

The Congress of the United States, recognizing the fact that the matters herein referred to are properly within the control of the Chief Executive until, within the principles of our Constitution, it becomes the duty of Congress to define the final attitude of the Government of the United States toward Spain, presents these considerations to the President in support of the following resolution:

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That the present deplorable war in the Island of Cuba has reached a magnitude that concerns all civilized nations to the extent that it should be conducted, if unhappily it is longer to continue, on those principles and laws of warfare that are acknowledged to be obligatory upon civilized nations when engaged in open hostilities, including the treatment of captives who are enlisted in either army; due respect to cartels for exchange of prisoners and for other military purposes; truces and flags of truce; the provision of proper hospitals and hospital supplies and services to the sick and wounded of either army.

Resolved further, That this representation of the views and opinions of Congress be sent to the President; and if he concurs therein that he will, in a friendly spirit, use the good offices of this Government to the end that Spain shall be requested to accord to the armies with which it is engaged in war the rights of belligerents, as the same are recognized under the laws of nations.

FEBRUARY 5, 1896.—Mr. MORGAN, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, reported the following

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

As a substitute for Concurrent Resolution No. 19, reported January 29, 1896:

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That, in the opinion of Congress, a condition of public war exists between the Government of Spain and the Government proclaimed and for some time maintained by force of arms by the people of Cuba; and that the United States of America should maintain a strict neutrality between the contending powers, according to each all the rights of belligerents in the ports and territory of the United States.

Mr. CAMERON, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, submitted the following as the

VIEWS OF THE MINORITY.

After the cessation of our civil war we were called upon to take notice of the struggle in Cuba against Spanish rule which broke out in October, 1868. It is said that early in the year 1869 a proclamation was actually signed by President Grant recognizing the Cubans as belligerents, although the fact was known to very few persons. This proclamation was not promulgated owing to the opposition of Secretary Fish. In December, 1869, President Grant, in his first annual message, called the attention of Congress to this struggle. He said:

For more than a year a valuable province of Spain, and a near neighbor of ours, in whom all our people can not but feel a deep interest, has been struggling for independence and freedom. The people and Government of the United States entertain the same warm feelings and sympathies for the people of Cuba, in their pending struggle, that they manifested throughout the previous struggles between Spain and her former colonies in behalf of the latter. But the contest has at no time assumed the conditions which amount to a war in the sense of international law, or which would show the existence of a de facto political organization of the insurgents sufficient to justify a recognition of belligerents. The principle is maintained, however, that this nation is its own judge when to accord the rights of belligerency, either to a people struggling to free themselves from a government they believe to be oppressive, or to independent nations at war with each other.

He concluded that in due time Spain must find it for its interest to establish its dependency as an independent power which could then exercise its right of choice as regarded its future relations with other powers.

The Cuban war which broke out in 1868 had been in existence for only nine months when our Government felt the necessity of interference. Mr. Sickles was appointed our minister to Madrid in 1869, and instructions were given to him to submit propositions on the part of our Government, in order to bring to a close the "civil conflict" raging in Cuba. The part taken by our Government at that time in Cuban affairs is full of interest, not only as regards the engagement into which the authorities were willing to enter, but also as respects the status which the instructions gave to the Cuban conflict. Our minister was directed to impress upon the Spanish mind "the advancing growth of that sentiment which claims for every part of the American hemisphere the right of self-government and freedom from transatlantic dependence." The good offices of the United States were offered to the cabinet at Madrid for the purpose of bringing to a close "the civil war now ravaging the island of Cuba." The bases of settlement were:

1. The independence of Cuba to be acknowledged by Spain.

2. Cuba to pay Spain an indemnity for her relinquishment of all her rights in the island.

3. The abolition of slavery.

4. An armistice pending negotiations of settlement.

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