LAD #18: McKinley's War Message

In the late 1890's, Cuban's revolted againt their Spanish rulers, while the United States decided to take a policy of neutrality, still however sending Madrid a letter requesting that Spanish stop all fighting and grant Cuba armistice. President McKinley, in support of the Cubans gave a speech to Congress explaining how Cuba was hurting their economy, trade was suffering, and on top of this much property we had in Cuba had been lost. The agreement was very important to the United States as they saw it as geographically important to remain in good ties with Cuba, and also felt that they owed it to Cuba to protect them and strengthen their once limited legal protection. Because of geography so close to the U.S, their issues went hand in hand to ours, and when the U.S's economy suffered they knew it was time to invtervene.After our ship the Maine was destructed, brutality had finally come to a head even as a neutral party. Wanting nothing more than a stable government to be headed through Cuba, the U.S promised to give provisions and continue to aid the Cubans as long as they were lacking these necessities and the President soon handed this issue over to Congress to deal with what he saw as a positive step towards saving the economy.