On February 11, 1897, the New York Herald ran an article about General Maximo Gomez,

the leader of the Cuban Insurrection, describing him as such, His language is that of a patriot, a
man of strong character and high purposes. When he says that it is the business of Cuban soldiers to
fight for liberty,for Cuban independence he shows that he is the man for this crisis - the
Washington of Cuba[.] The eloquent words of Gomez, like his deeds show that Cuba has a leader
worthy of her cause.1 January 17, 1899, only two years later, the Washington Post ran an article which
described General Gomez somewhat differently. "What is Gomez but an adventurer - a soldier of
fortune, a professional agitator - who thrives upon disorder and who would starve under a
dispensation of peace and civilization?... Who knows what the patient, stupid, helpless rank and file
of the so-called 'Cuban armies' want? They are the dumb assets upon which the leaders trade."2
While these articles were printed in different papers and in different cities, both represent
the general feeling of Americans at the respective times. Maximo Gomez spent fifteen years of his
life fighting guerrilla wars for Cubas independence from Spain. At times he was victorious,
liberating, and a brilliant tactician. At times he was defeated, exiled, and a killer of civilians Todays
historian can paint Gomez in either light, but to late 19th century Americans, he was seen in every
way imaginable. The Cuban people and their plight from 1895-1902 was never a static opinion or
viewpoint in the United States. Rather, for Americans, the Cuban drama was like watching a murder
mystery. It was dramatic, tragic, thrilling, with constantly changing perspectives as more details were
reviled.
The way a nation perspective another nation is very important to their interactions and
relations. Had the US perceived the Hawaiian people as more civilized and cultured, perhaps the
island wouldnt have been annexed in 1898. If England had a better perspective of American
1

Gomez, New York World, Feb 11, 1897, Newspaper Archive, accessed Aug 7, 2014, http://newspaperarchive.com/us/newyork/new-york/new-york-world/1897/02-11/page-6
2
The Filipinos and the Cubans, Washington Post, Jan 17, 1899. As found in Miller, From Liberation to Conquest, 148.
1

Southerners, the South might have gained European support during the Civil War. American
perspectives of Cuba assuredly affected how the US interacted with the island during the 1890s.
It does become a challenge, however, to dissect a nations perspective simply because a
nation is made up of so many different types of people. In the early 1800s, for example, American
East Coast businessmen had a very positive opinion of and a good relationship with Cuba based on
the sugar trade. Looking at newspapers from the time, however, one can see that the general
American public had very little opinion about Cuba one way or another. Varying groups within a
state may have differing viewpoints, but that doesnt mean a general opinion of the majority cant be
observed. Additionally, these varying groups tend to pull together eventually, because they are tied
together, like a net. Newspapers in the 1890s often wrote pro-Cuban stories, but these papers were
focused on sales and pro-Cuban stories sold the most papers. Washington politicians against war
under the Buchanan administration, for the most part, were forced to become Cuban supporters
after McKinleys election showed the will of the people.
How did Maximo Gomez go from being on par with the revered George Washington to a
despicable, cutthroat in just two years? How did Cuba go from a land fighting for liberty to a
quagmire of failed democracy and development in less than six years? These viewpoints can be
explained by looking at sources of the time in newspapers, speeches, correspondence, and journals.
Through them, I hope to explain what were, and what caused, the major swings in general US
opinion towards Cuba and Cuban Independence at the turn of the 20th century.

Early 1800s
The first real interactions between Cubans and Americans came in the form of trade
agreements. Cuba had been a central hub of the Atlantic slave trade for more than a century, but
almost as soon as America came into her own, slave importation from Cuba was banned in a 1794

US bill.3 As a result, US business interests in the island didnt truly develop until Cuban sugar
stepped out onto the world market. It was during this same period that Cubas population nearly
doubled as Spanish entrepreneurs quickly immigrated and carved out new plantations across the
island. Cubas shift to a specialized, export economy and its massive population growth ultimately
left the island in need of basic commodities.4
Seeing an opportunity, US business men established contracts and treaties to sell raw and
manufactured goods to Cuba, and to become the primary buyer for Cuban sugar.5 While Spanish
tariffs and export fees dampened potential profits, the arrangement still proved more than
reasonable to both sides. While US businessmen themselves made up only a very small percentage
of the US population, their power and influence over the public opinion in the 19th century was
tremendous. The positive and professional first impression that US businesses held of Cuba would
be a driving force in maintaining a certain US-Cuban relationship.
Many Americans in the 19th century actually had high expectations that Cuba would be
annexed to the US. With the island just miles off the coast of Florida, sitting within the natural path
of US shipping lanes, many Americans simply saw it as logical for the US to extend its influence
over the Spanish colony. Historian Louis Perez Jr. even goes as far as to say that the annexation of
Cuba was as much of a hope or dream of the American people as was settling the Louisiana
Purchase or expanding the US border to the Gulf of Mexico.6
The value of Cuba was esteemed by US political leaders as well. Thomas Jefferson himself
said, "I candidly confess, that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which

Philip D. Curtain, The Atlantic Slave Trade: a Census, (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), 67. However,
John Hopkins Prof Philip Curtin has suggests that as many as 500,000 slaves were illegally import to the US from Cuba between
1811 and 1870. Meaning Southern slave traders would have much more interaction with Cubans than initially supposed.
4
Louis Perez Jr., Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 13.
5
Perez, Cuba and the United States, 14.
6
Louis Perez Jr., Cuba and the United States: Ties of Singular Intimacy, (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1997), 38.
3

could ever be made to our system of States. The control of which, with Florida Point, this island
would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and the Isthmus bordering on it, as well as
all of those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.7 In
1826, Daniel Webster spoke of the wonderful economic benefits in commanding the Gulf of
Mexico and shipping on highways between New York and New Orleans.8
American interest in Cuban annexation, as the century wore on, only increased given the
mutual interest of Cuban elites. Cuban landowners, or Creoles, saw numerous benefits in throwing
off their Spanish masters and embracing American annexation. Given all of the trade flowing
between Cuba and the US during the period, it would have been advantageous to eliminate the
costly Spanish import taxes and US tariffs that hampered Cuban commerce. Additionally, with the
end of the British slave trade in 1807, it became of prime importance for the Creoles to preserve
their slave-based economy and prevent slave uprisings. The slave states of the southern US could
offer much such support to a fellow slave-based economy. In fact, many US southerners were happy
to welcome another slave state to the South during a period of growing conflict between the North
and the South.9
To further increase the appeal of Cuba for US annexation, leading landowning Creoles of
Cuba appointed an individual, Jose de Arango y Nunez del Castillo, to travel to Washington, D.C.,
and present a case for annexation. In 1810, before a group of businessmen and politicians Castillo
said, speaking of the US, We admire your institutions, your laws, and your form of government; we
see that they procure your prosperity and your happiness. Now such being the circumstances of our

A letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, October 24, 1823, US Congress, Senate, Senate Document No. 26, 57 th
Congress, 1st sess., Ser. 4220, 3-4.
8
Perez, Cuba and the United States, 38-39.
9
Ibid., 35-36.
4

situation there is naturally but one course for us to take, which is to solicit union with you....It
appears to me that such a measure must be equally interesting to both parties."10
The American image of Cuba in the early 19th century was bursting with potential and
opportunity that many were excited to jump at, but the picture wasnt perfect. There were a number
of individuals who were worried about the reality of imposing American rule over a very different
type of state. In 1825, Henry Clay said, "The population itself of the island is incompetent at
present, from its composition and amount, to maintain self-government." And even earlier in 1823,
John Quincy Adams said Cuba was incapable of self-support.11 If Cuba were unable to govern
itself, let alone implement democracy, how would it manage its population that was 72% enslaved?
The Haitian Rebellion had made waves in the South and many pictured an independent Cuba
destabilizing into similar emancipation chaos. President Buchanan himself even asked in the Ostend
Manifesto, "should we permit Cuba to be Africanized and become a second St. Domingo (Haiti),
with all its attendant horrors to the white race, and suffer the flames to extend to our own
neighboring shores, seriously to endanger our actually to consume the fair fabric of our Union[?]"12
While few American in the public or private sector would deny the allure of Cuba in the
early 1800s, few also would willingly take the risks of annexation. Spain was far from the power it
once was, but her naval strength still exceeded that of the US. Even more worrisome to the US than
Spain, was the British Empire. The Crown held extensive territory in the Caribbean and would be
unhappy with US expansion into their sphere of influence.13 Additionally, the US military was in no

10

Perez, Cuba and the United States, 37.

Perez, Cuba, 109.
12
Full Text of the Ostend Manifesto, Aix-la-Chapelle, October 15, 1854 History of Cuba, accessed Aug 9, 2014,
http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/havana/Ostend2.htm
13
Perez, Cuba and the United States, 40.
11

position to start another war after the costly, although victorious, War of 1812. Direct military force
was not an option for US annexation of Cuba at the start of the 19th century.14
A number of attempts to purchase the island were made by the US, but ultimately American
interest in Cuban annexation all but completely disappeared in the 1850s and 1860s as domestic
issues turned national focus inwards.15 But the attention of American businessmen would quickly
return to Cuba by the end of the US Civil War. Just as the US finished putting down its domestic
rebellion in the 1860s, Cuba began its own. The Ten-Years War in Cuba was a valiant fight for
Cuban rights and the abolition of slavery, but for the most part, it went completely unnoticed by the
American public.16 This rebellion, and its protracted duration, all but halted the worldwide
distribution of sugar from Cuba. Seeing a gap in the marketplace, several other nations, including
Britain, France, and Turkey, all establish sugar production ventures of their own.17
By the end of Cubas Ten-Year War in 1888, when Cuban farmers once again brought their
product for export, they discovered their sugar was nearly worthless. Due to new production from
other nations, Cuban sugar fell from 28.6% to 11.2% of the total world market from 1868 to 1888.18
With more sugar on the market without any new buyers, sugar prices sank. The depression Cuba felt
from both the war and the market crash placed the whole island, from farmer to landowner, in a
desperate situation.
While the American public at the time was ambivalent to the plight of the Cuban people,
American businessmen saw a golden opportunity. At once, US capitalists began investing their
money into farm equipment, machinery, and labor costs all across the island. Along with their
14

During the 1860s filibuster period a small army of about 600 men from Mississippi were led by a Venezuelan man named Narciso
Lpez to invade Cuba. Lpez was recruited by Cuban exiles in America and financed by Southerners. His small army was not
backed by the US and quickly defeated by the Spanish forces on Cuba. Perez, Cuba, 99.
15
Ibid., 110.
16
Ibid., 129.
17
Ibid., 130-133.
18
Ibid., 133-134.
6

investments, these US financiers hired new owners and implemented new business strategies that
improved efficiency and limited loss.19
More important than their capital investments, US businessmen began importing sugar
solely from Cuba.20 Not only were US investments in Cuba able to sell their product, but the US
buyers were getting sugar at a discounted rate. By 1894, 90% of Cubas total exports went to the US.
Additionally, 40% of Cubas imports came from the US.21 Cubas total exports to the US were
almost twelve times larger than the export to her mother country, Spain.22 What these numbers
really meant, was that while Spain still held political authority over Cuba, economic authority in
Cuba, the dollars-and-cents power to make things happen, now belonged to the US.
1895
In the early 1890s, while the business class in America had a great deal of interest in Cuba,
the American public had virtually none at all. Even when the Cuban Rebellion broke out in 1895,
most Americans were still rather ambivalent. The New York Tribune reported on the general state of
politics in Cuba on February 2, 1895, saying, "In Cuba only a languid interest is taken in politics
Once in three or four months there are sensational accounts of impending civil warand then the
dispatches will cease altogether."23 The Tribune additionally commented in March, that the American
people werent willing to aid the rebels or to obtain the island by conquest.24
American indifference to Cuban issues quickly changed however, partly because of new
trends in American journalism. Yellow journalism was a new style of press that developed in 1890s as a
19

Perez, Cuba, 135-137.

William H. Dorrance, and Morgan Swanzy, Sugar Islands: The 165-year Story of Sugar in Hawaii, (Honolulu, HA: Mutual Pub.,
2000), 121. While Hawaiian sugar had been imported to the US since the 1840s, its production had never been sufficient enough to
meet the growing consumer needs in the US markets. Cuban sugar however, ample.
21
Perez, Cuba, 149.
22
Ibid., 138.
23
Discontent in Cuba, New York Tribune, 27 Feb. 1895, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Lib. of Congress.
Accessed Aug 5, 2014, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1895-02-27/ed-1/seq-6/
24
Joseph Ezra Wisan, The Cuban Crisis as Reflected in the New York Press, 1895-1898, (New York, NY: Octagon Books, 1965), 39.
20

result of Americas industrialization, increased focus on paper sales, and technological

developments.25 Yellow journalism was a trend that pushed media towards the sensational. It
focused less on facts, research, and accuracy, and more on scandals, dramatics, and shock-value.
Interviews were often falsified and sources often went undisclosed. These papers often featured
large, front-page pictures with cartoons such as The Yellow Kid from which yellow journalism
derives its name.26 Americans in 1895 were dedicated subscribers to newspapers, the most important
morning newspapers coming out of New York City, such as the World, the Journal, the Sun, the
Herald, the Tribune, and the Times (not to mention the evening papers).27
Americans across the country began subscribing to this new sensational form of journalism,
and all the while the yellow press was looking for the next dramatic story to sell. This is truly how
the American public first pulled back the curtains to see a whole Cuban Rebellion raging just next
door. The newspapers saw in Cuba a melodramatic stage on which they could tell hundreds of
stories that would fill headlines.28 In what is more than likely an apocryphal story, William Randolph
Hearst, owner of the New York Journal and Cuban sympathizer, had a correspondent inform him that
there was no war in Cuba to report on. Hearst is famed to reply in the spirit of yellow journalism,
You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war.29
Eager to create a dramatic and gripping image out of the Cuban rebellion and Spanish rule,
the American press cast the Cuban insurgents as noble freedom-fighters and the Spaniards as
25

David Ralph Spencer, The Yellow Journalism: The Press and America's Emergence As a World Power, (Evanston, IL:
Northwestern University Press, 2007), 9-10. "One cannot separate the rise of the industrial urban complex from the growth of the
newspaper industry as an industry in the closing years of the nineteenth century. The cylinder press, the web press, the Linotype,
and the stereotype were all influential in bringing about massive increase in production of the daily newspaper. In 1887, American
newspapers could produce forty-eight thousand copies of an eight-page newspaper per hour."
26
Spencer, The Yellow Journalism, 33.
27
Wisan, The Cuban Crisis as Reflected in the New York Press, 22.
28
Bonnie Miller, From Liberation to Conquest: The Visual and Popular Cultures of the Spanish-American War of 1898, (Boston, MA:
University of Massachusetts Press, 2011), 20-21.
29
Spencer, The Yellow Journalism, 55.
8

villainous brutes. It was logical for the media to cast the two sides in such a manner given the
previous US support for Cuban annexation, the popular root-for-the-underdog stories found in
yellow journalism, old ideals of the Monroe Doctrine, and the similarities to the US Revolution.
Several papers often made the connection that Cuba was, like the US once was, a Western
Hemisphere colony of an aging European empire, trying to throw off the yoke of oppression.30
US citizens began to see Cuban insurrectionists with the same nobility they gave to their own
revolutionary forefathers. From 1895-1896 the rebellions leader, Gen. Maximo Gomez was praised
for his skill and leadership. Papers often over exaggerated his stunning victories and his charisma
that earned him thousands of followers. Even though details of Maximo Gomez campaign were
shaky at best, numerous articles were printed praising his tactics as a battlefield commander.
In July of 1895, as Maximo Gomez prepared to move his forces west, into Spanish territory,
he announced, All sugar plantations will be destroyed any worker assisting the operation of the
sugar factories will be considered an enemy of his country and will be executed."31 Effectively
Maximo Gomez began a slash-and-burn policy toward everyone and everything that would not
support the revolution. Yet, despite these rather brutal tactics, the US press still showed an
optimistic, noble image. The destruction of the sugar plantations is likely to bring Spain to her
senses more quickly than anything else.32
Especially after the end of slavery in Cuba in 1886, the population of the island became
dark-skinned by a large majority. The lower, working class was predominantly black, which was the
same class of Cubans that generally joined Maximo Gomezs rebellion. Despite this reality,

30

No Surrender in Cuba, New York Tribune, January 17, 1897. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of
Congress, accessed Aug 3, 2014, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1897-01-17/ed-1/seq-6/
31
As found in Perez, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment, 26.
32
The New York Journal, December 31, 1895.
9

American cartoonists in newspapers mostly depicted the Cuban rebels as white.33 Papers feared that
American readers would have difficulty putting aside their racial prejudice to sympathize with black
Cuban rebels.
The vision of Cuba held by the American public in 1895 and 1896 was, for the most part,
created by US yellow journalism. While the papers created that image for everyone, Cuban special
interest groups created that same image for everyone that mattered. Native Cubans in America,
Cuban Americans, and white Americans, especially sympathetic to the Cuban cause, were often
associated with activist groups working for Cuban independence from within the States. The largest
of these groups was the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Cuban Revolutionary Party or PRC), chaired by
famous Cuban writer and political thinker, Jose Marti.34
The PRC was a highly organized body that set goals and strategized on how best to appeal to
American support. While Cubans in 1895-1896 were not looking for US annexation or military
involvement on the island, the insurgency was in desperate need of financing and military
provisions. PRC members traveled up and down the East Coast, and as far west as Chicago,
soliciting contributions from the business community and upper class, all in the name of Cuba
Libre.35
To further their cause of Cuba Libre with the American public, the PRC strove to present
the rebellion in a compelling, noble, and honorable light. Great PRC speakers traveled the country
giving lectures and interviews, having public debates and dinner events, all to promote a
sophisticated image of Cuban society. Author Virginia Bouvier notes that a common theme in PRC
publications was, Spain's persecution of rich revolutionaries who unselfishly sacrificed their titles of

33

Fabian Hilfrich, Debating American Exceptionalism: Empire and Democracy in the Wake of the Spanish-American War, (New York,
NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012), 41.
34
Virginia Bouvier, Whose America? The War of 1898 and the Battles to Define the Nation, (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001), 70.
35
Ibid.
10

nobility and wealth for 'freedom.' Indeed, when rendering specific testimony to Congress, PRC
leaders depicted the rebel army as dominated by cultured, wealthy, and mostly white men too long
victimized by Spanish barbarism.36 While such an account would have made wealthy Americans
sympathetic to the Cuban cause, the actual poor, uneducated, black, farmer-insurrectionaries of
General Gomez army didnt exactly match the PRC description.
In April 1895, a similar Cuban group organized two massive cultural fairs in downtown New
York City. Both were meant to display the society and heritage of Cuba, but instead showed a much
whiter, civilized, and US-relatable Cuba. All $19,000 of proceeds went to the Cuban
insurrectionaries, minus the $14,000 worth of expenses from excessive food, drink, music, and
dance.37 In the end, these events were far more successful at generating sympathy for Cuba than for
generating actual donations.
While the PRC had their own newspapers in circulation (Peridico Patria), that didnt stop
them meddling with popular US papers. Cuban groups, especially those based in New York City,
could influence how Cuba was portrayed in other newspapers. In more innocent cases, PRC
members would give rather biased reports to journalists who came looking for information. Much
more drastic cases involve bribing reporters, providing letters of introduction to General Gomez for
war correspondents, planting PRC contacts in Havana for various New York reporters, or even
having PRC members anonymously write front page articles for newspapers.38 The PRC, like the
yellow press, often used over-dramatization in their desperate attempts to change American
perspective of Cuba.
More so than either the public or politicians, American businessmen had been paying keen
attention to the state of affairs in Cuba. In their eyes, the insurrection was a crisis and an
36

Bouvier, Whose America?, 72.

Ibid., 73.
38
Ibid., 74.
37

11

opportunity. US capitalists had millions of dollars invested in Cuban sugar farms and production
facilities. These were the same farms and facilities that Maximo Gomez was burning down all across
the eastern half of the island in 1985. Not only were Americans losing their investments, but the
insurgents were making promises of land reform, dividing up large sugar plantations for smaller,
diversified agriculture.39 No matter how noble and virtuous they were portrayed, an insurrectionist
victory meant the loss of both US investment capital and $98,000,000 worth of cheap imported
sugar.40 Businessmen wanted Maximo Gomez stopped, but if the rebellion ended with Cuba in US
hands, then the entire situation changed. Without taxes or tariffs, and with total legal ownership of
Cuban production property, American businessmen could potentially make more money than they
ever had before.

1896-1897
Looking back on the picture Americans saw of Cuba from 1895-1898, it could be described
as overly dramatic, out of touch, or sensational. However, a slight, but significant change came to
this perspective in 1896. Spain, feeling that the war effort required new management, sent General
Valeriano Weyler to restore order. Weylers arrival marks a noticeable shift in the US press portrayal
of the Cuban people from strong, noble revolutionaries, to that of poor, suffering, victims of
Spanish cruelty.
General Weyler was not an unheard of officer on the international stage by any means. The
US press was well aware of his military experience in Santo Domingo, the Carlist War, the Moorish
War, and the Philippine Rebellion. In fact, it was during his suppression of the Cuban Ten-Years

39
40

Perez, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment, 5.

Perez, Cuba, 149.
12

War that he gained his foreboding nickname, the Butcher.41 Weylers arrival was seen as the
coming of a super villain meant to terrorize the poor souls of Cuba. A Pennsylvania newspaper
reported in January 1896, that on the isle, The residents of the interior are fleeing to the coast."42
New York papers were claiming that Cubans were evacuating the island before Weyler even arrived,
fearful of his cruelty and retribution.
Stories of Cubans fleeing their homes for safety were very different from the propagandistic
stories of noble insurrectionaries. In 1986, the coming of Weyler marked a noticeable shift towards
humanitarian sympathies for the Cuban people, instead of the revolutionary relatability that was built
up in previous years. Speaking of the often front page cartoons of most newspapers, author Bonnie
Miller said, "These cartoonists strove to elicit sympathy for Cuba by illustrating the impact of
Spanish repression on Cuban families. At the same time, they functioned to erase the 'real' war that
Cuban insurgents were waging against Spain for their independence. Designating the Cubans as
objects of pity rendered them powerless."43
During this time, cartoonists began to represent Cuba in more of a female character, often
suffering. The female personification of Cuba (who almost always resembles the American feminine
Colombia or Lady Liberty) is usually pleading for aid, on her knees or in chains, showing her
helplessness before a wicked Spain. Her total submission to the US or Uncle Sam character is often
evident.44 It would have been hard for 19th century notions of masculinity and chivalry in the US not
to be roused seeing such images.

41

Wisan, The Cuban Crisis as Reflected in the New York Press, 88.
Final Struggle in Cuba, The Scranton Tribune, Jan 27, 1896 Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Lib. of
Congress, accessed Aug 5, 2014, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026355/1896-01-27/ed-1/seq-1/
43
Miller, From Liberation to Conquest, 24.
44
Ibid., 26.
42

13

45

While it goes without saying that

descriptions of Cuban suffering and

death under Gen. Weyler were
exaggerated, yet in 1896 yellow
journalism came much closer to the truth
that it was used too. Upon arrival, Weyler
immediately implemented a strategy used
successfully against other guerrilla forces. Because the Cuban Insurrection operated out of the vast
Cuban countryside, Weyler sought to eliminate the resources of the countryside. Forests were
burned, food stores were destroyed, livestock were killed, crops were trampled, but most
dramatically, the people were relocated.46 Entire towns and communities were forcibly uprooted and
taken to re-concentration camps near urban centers. Weyler hoped that moving civilians out of the
countryside would deny the insurgency potential allies and new recruits, but instead it created
disaster.
In the search for dramatic and heart wrenching stories, the American press often wrote
about the inhabitants of Gen. Weylers camps, the reconcentrados. Some 300,000 Cubans were forced
into these camps, where nearly all of faced an inhumane state of overcrowding, exposure to the
elements, famine, and unsanitary conditions. Disease and hunger became so serious that reconcentrados
died in the tens of thousands.47 In reporting on the suffering and gloom of Cuban civilians, papers
often carried emotionally jarring cartoons.

45

Louis Dalrymple, "Save Me from My Friends!" Puck Magazine. 1898. While it was most common for the feminine Cuba to be
portrayed as white and western, this illustration marks a turn towards a more realistic understanding of ethnicity on Cuba. In any
case, like many cartoons of the time Uncle Sam is there to protect a desperate and pleading Cuba.
46
Perez, Cuba, 166.
47
Ibid., 167.
14

This New York Journal cartoon, depicting a skeleton of a woman holding her starving child,
would have surely reached out to American mothers nationwide. The press portrayal of the
reconcentrados and their suffering created an image of a helpless, victimized people in Cuba, desperate
for American intervention. Considering US military intervention, however, was a very serious
decision, and not one that was to be made based on the opinion of newspapers alone. Senator
Redfield Proctor, a Republican from Vermont, traveled to Cuba in March 1898, with the sole
purpose of observing the conditions there. Upon his

48

return to the Senate, Proctor spoke of newspaper

images similar to the one above, saying he carried,
"cuts of some of the sick and starving reconcentrados,
and took it with me, thinking these were rare
specimens got up to make the worst possible
showing. I saw plenty as bad and worse; many that
should not be photographed and shown."49 Proctor
later called re-concentration nothing more than
desolation and distress, misery and starvation.50
The 1898 cartoon of the Journal once again shows a terrorized and desperate Cuba, in the
feminine form. The hero and savior Uncle Sam rushes out with sword in hand to protect the fair
maiden from the evil Spanish beast, only to be held back by President McKinley. By the summer of
1898, more and more Americans felt that McKinley was too afraid to go to war. Yet in the end,
when McKinley asked Congress for war powers, he did so with humanitarian justification. He
48

The Cuban Mother, New York Journal, 1898, Crucible of Empire: The Spanish American War,
accessed Aug 1, 2014 http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_resources.html
49
Miller, From Liberation to Conquest, 50.
50
Proctor Draws a Picture The Times, March 18, 1898, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Lib. of Congress,
accessed Aug 6, 2014, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85054468/1898-03-18/ed-1/seq-1/
15

prayed that the war might, put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed, starvation, and horrible
miseries now existing [in Cuba].51
By 1898, the attitude of the American general public towards Cuba was so sympatric that it
had become interventionist. Americans were now calling for war with Spain. The final straw came
on February 15, 1898, when the USS Maine exploded from an unknown source while docked in
Havana Harbor. The press immediately blamed Spain and called for war. Traditionally, this has been
the American cause for starting the Spanish-American War, but it is far from that simple. Many still
hold that the American publics demand for war came more out of a desire to save Cuban people, as
caused by yellow journalism.
There are a growing number of historians claiming that yellow journalism alone could not
have been the primary impetus behind the Spanish-American War. Among this group, Vanderbilt
Professor Bonnie Miller, author John Vivian, and Evan Thomas all acknowledge the popularity of
yellow journalism, but stop short of faulting it for the war. David Spencer especially finds the idea
that Hearst and the Journal could have furnished the war laughable. These yellow press apologists
tend to go with the more obvious cause, the sinking of the Maine, as the real call to war.
This line of thinking is relatively new, because as soon as enough time had passed from the
actual events of 1898, historians have laid the majority of reason for US intervention in Cuba
squarely at the feet of yellow journalism. Defenders of yellow journalism actually downplay its
popularity in the 1890s to argue its message couldnt have had very much public influence. However,
historian Charles Brown points out the yellow press was incredibly popular. In New York City, the
untouchable giant, the New York Times, dropped to its lowest circulation ever in 1986 at 9,000, all
due to yellow newspaper competition.52 New York City receives much attention in the study of

51
52

Hilfrich, Debating American Exceptionalism, 15.

Charles Henry Brown, The Correspondents' War: Journalists in the Spanish-American War, (New York, NY: Scribner, 1967), 18
16

1890s press as the birthplace of yellow journalism and the great mogul competitions there, but in
reality yellow newspapers were in every major city in America. According to Brown, "By 1898
almost one-half the daily newspapers in twenty-six major cities were of the blatantly yellow
variety."53 With 25% of the US population age ten and up subscribing to at least one newspaper54,
most historians agree that yellow journalism had to have been a driving force behind the US entry
into war.
There are numerous other theories as to why the US started the Spanish-American War.
Louis Perez Jr. simply sees 1898 as a case of US political ambitions to expand territory. John Offner
claims war was merely a means by which Republicans could win the Congressional elections of 1898
and keep control of Washington.55 It is not clear what caused the war to start, and is it the focus of
this paper to discover that cause. What is clear, however, is this: from 1895-1896 the US media
portrayed, and the public believed, the Cuban Insurrection was a noble and successful campaign of
white gentlemen, requiring only minimal support for victory, in the way of financing and armaments.
During 1896-1898, the insurrection was largely forgotten as the press focused on the suffering of
Cuban civilians, creating an image of a helpless, powerless, people pleading for military intervention.

1898
The war between Spain and the US officially began April 21, 1898. Because of the US
Armys general state of unpreparedness, it took more than a month for troops, supplies, and ships to
be properly organized in Florida into an invasion force of 16,000.56 In June of 1898, American forces
first landed on Cuba and quickly linked up with the rebel forces of General Gomez. For the most
53

Brown, The Correspondents' War, 19.

Ibid., 11.
55
Offner, An Unwanted War, xi.
56
Evan Thomas, The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898, (New York, NY: Little, Brown and
Company, 2010), 67.
54

17

part, this was the first time that Americans were able to see and interact with native Cubans.
American military personal expected to find the noble, sophisticated, and virtuous rebellion, as
described by the 1895 press and groups like the PRC. Both officer and soldier alike were shocked at
what they discovered.
After meeting with Cuban rebels, General Joseph Wheeler, commander of all US ground
forces in Cuba, said, "The average Cuban is uneducated. The animal instinct predominates. He looks
for insults and harsh treatment because he has had little experience of the other sort. A combination
of the lower qualities of human nature and nature educated to resentment is what we are dealing
with."57 One US soldier told a journalist, "The Cuban is our inferior, he is ragged, he is dirty, he is
half-starved and steals our food whenever he can get it; he will not work and he will not fight when
we tell him to."58 Immediately unimpressed with the discipline, composure, and appearance of the
rebels, many US soldiers were sure that some other insurrectionists must have been leading the
revolution.
Part of the American disillusionment with the insurrectionists surely came from finally
grasping how large Cubas black population was. The US press, cartoons, and even the PRC had
portrayed Cubans as a very fair-skinned, white, people, but since the end of Cuban slavery, blacks or
mulattos made up two-thirds of the population.59 In 1898, the US was barely a generation past the
Civil War, and prejudice was still common.
Beyond the Cuban rebels themselves, military leaders were often skeptical of the
insurgencys abilities and critical of their tactics. The previous success of General Gomez, the
success so often lauded in US print, was all but forgotten by US commanders who sidelined much
of the rebel forces. In an 1899 book of eyewitness accounts to the Spanish-American War, H.J.
57

Miller, From Liberation to Conquest, 147.

Ibid., 146.
59
Perez, Cuba, 134.
58

18

Whigham states, "In fact, Garcia's60 troops, which were estimated by Lieutenant Rowan as
amounting to nearly 10,000 armed men, were really outside the issue. They could at best keep the
Spanish troops in the eastern provinces busy while the American army was attacking Havana."61 For
the insurgency, which had so much success with less than 4,000 men, 10,000 soldiers was a very
formidable fighting force. It is astounding that the Cuban forces were deemed so useless in
American eyes, that the rebels (the same rebels who had conquered more than half the island single
handedly) were confined to mere diversionary assignments.
After the most famous and significant battle between Spain and the US, the battle of San
Juan Hill, US troops were again very critical of the Cuban rebels. The battle involved two
entrenched, Spanish hills that blocked the US path to Santiago. Despite machine gun and artillery
placements atop the hills, the American forces charged the Spanish positions (crying Remember the
Maine!), ultimately winning the day, but suffering their heaviest battle casualties of the war.
Describing the general feelings of American soldiers about the absence of Cuban rebels at San Juan
Hill, war correspondent H.J. Whigham wrote, "This was not at all surprising to those who knew the
Cubans - knew that they could not stand up against organized troops when it came to storming a
position... To the American soldier it was maddening yesterday to feel that so much American blood
was being shed for men who would not on this one supreme occasion go to the front and do honor
to their nationality.62 This assessment seems rather bitter and biased when you consider the nature
of Cuban guerrilla warfare was to avoid attacking fortified positions and instead sought to provoke

60

Miller, From Liberation to Conquest, 147. General Garcia was a long time fighter for Cuban Independence. During the US invasion
of 1898, Garcia commanded the smaller portion of the insurrectionaries meant to remain closer to the already captured eastern
territory while General Gomez marched his main force west. In reality the rebel force was closer to around 30,000.
61
Spanish-American War, (Chicago, IL: Herbert S. Stone & Company, 1899), 22.
62
The Spanish-American War, 114.
19

enemy pursuit through flash attacks and retreats. More often than not, guerillas would simply march
around such entrenchments.63
The Cubans certainly werent deserving of all this criticism. H.J. Whigham himself admits,
"It may seem strange, in view of the great interest taken before the war began in the Cuban cause,
butWashington made no attempt worth speaking of to communicate with the commander-in
chief of the insurgent forces."64 In fact, cooperation between the US and rebel troops tended to be
initiated by Cuban commanders. American troops saw this as their war, assumed their command
status, and expected all to listen. As the Cuban forces continued to fight in their own fashion, it is
easy to see how Americans would grow frustrated.
The nobility and honor of the insurgency was also questioned after the Battle of Santiago de
Cuba. This naval battle consisted of the vastly inferior and antiquated Spanish fleet attempting to
break out of the Santiago bay, which had been placed under US blockade. The sophisticated, coalburning US ships made quick work of the wooden Spanish ships. Instead of celebration, however,
the US officers insisted the seamen show a sort of chivalrous respect for their defeated foe. A war
correspondent for the Associated Press, W.A. Goode, was aboard one US ship and recorded,
There was no cheering from the New York's crew as they watched the burning enemy. The sight
was too grand, too awful and too sad to allow the struggling spirit of certain victory to find vent in
shouting....'Those damned Cubans are shooting them Spaniards!" yelled a quartermaster, standing
beside me....Never did we feel so ashamed of our allies."65 As Spaniards abandoned their sinking and
burning vessels, they were gunned down by Cuban rebels from nearby cliffs, to the horror of
Americans trying to act with chivalry. In an act of utter frustration, the American captains actually
threatened to turn their guns on the cliffs unless the rebels ceased, which the rebels quickly did in
63

Robert Leckie, The Wars of America: From 1600 to 1900 (New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1992), 265.
The Spanish-American War, 21.
65
Ibid., 17.
64

20

response.66 American forces made no attempt to understand the actions of the insurrectionists, but
simply attributed it to their innate barbarism.
All of these rather negative experiences of the US military in Cuba quickly made their way
back to the American public. News articles emphasized US military success while downplaying any
efforts of the insurrectionists. In papers, Cuban soldiers gradually became scouts. Cartoonists
depictions of Cubans became less white, less civilized, and less intelligent.67 Though speaking of the
PRC, Bonnie Millers words apply just as well to the US wartime press when she wrote, Once the
war begandiscussion of Cuba's humanitarian crisis and struggle for independence took a back seat
to American military glory."68 In the end, the press in 1898 forgot all about Cuba libre, the drama
of human suffering, or the actual state of Maximo Gomez rebellion. The US military stood center
stage as hero and victor, giving newspapers more than enough material to fill headlines.

1898-1902
Traditional histories of the Spanish-American War, particularly those from American
historians, solidly affirm that the Cuban Rebellion of 1895 would have failed without US
intervention. This notion was supported during the period by papers such as the Houston Post, which
stated in 1898, Of the Cubans, it is very apparent that it would have been impossible for the
insurgents ever to win their freedom without our help. We were all deceived by reports from Cuba
that reached us before the war began, and are forced to revise our conclusions as to the chances that
then existed for Cuban success."69 More modern scholars think the insurgency would have been

66

Leckie, The Wars of America, 544.

Miller, From Liberation to Conquest, 146-147.
68
Ibid., 17.
69
We Were Just in Time, Huston Post, July 10, 1898.
67

21

victorious even without the US

intervention. 70 By the wars close in
1898, the US was the acting power in
Cuba and had made no immediate
plans to transfer that power over to
the Cubans. Despite the Teller
Amendment to the Presidential War
Powers, which guaranteed the US
would not occupy or absorb the isle of

72

Cuba, US politicians felt obligated to

leave US military powers in place on the island until 1902.
Most of the press back in the States supported the governments approach and helped to
create an image of a Cuba in need of civilized leadership.71 The media often portrayed the newly
liberated Cuban people as backwards, ignorant, or even rebellious; quite incapable of selfgovernment. In cartoons, Cuba (or Maximo Gomez representing Cuba) is often depicted as a child
to symbolize the ignorance and inexperience of her people. Cubas youthful unruliness is also a
problem that must be corrected, as this cartoon indicates.
Generally speaking, prolonged exposure to foreign cultures will often give individuals greater
appreciation for that cultures abilities and strengths. This was not the case of most military officers
occupying Cuba from 1898-1902. Officially, General William R. Shafter said of the Cubans, Why

70

Perez, Cuba and the United States, 91.

Bouvier, Whose America?, 115.
72
Wanted A Good Licking. New York Herald. Sep 17, 1898, Archives of the New York Herald, accessed Aug 6, 2014
http://fultonhistory.com/my%20photo%20albums/All%20Newspapers/New%20York%20NY%20Herald/index.html
71

22

those people are no more fit for self-government than gunpowder is for hell.73 Military Governor
of Santiago, Leonard Wood, was so pessimistic in his outlook that he wrote, The present
generation will, in my judgment, have to pass away before the Cubans can form a stable
government.74 The experience of occupying officers and soldiers in Cuba only reinforced the public
and media opinion that Cubans were more inept that ever previously believed.
The US might have remained in direct control of Cuba for much longer if not for the Teller
Amendment and anti-imperialist movement. Even before the war started in 1898, Senator Harry M.
Teller came to represent a substantial group of Americans concerned that the US was becoming
imperialistic.75 The Teller Amendment was attached to the Presidential War Powers guaranteeing
that the after the war, the US would withdraw its troops and allow Cuba its independence. After
four years, the pressure to withdraw was growing heavy. Additionally, the anti-imperialist movement
was gaining more traction in the States, especially with the troubles from the developing Philippine
American War.76 The romance of empire building was wearing off among the general public and the
politicians knew it.
In the opposite camp of Teller and his supporters, many Americans still approved of the war
and US expansion, yet they still needed and sought some amount of moral justification to satisfy
their collective conscience. America had always held itself as a nation of principles after all, and to
deny freedom to Cuba seemed hypocritical. Instead of anti-imperialism growing, moral justification
for US expansionism came by the way of Rudyard Kipling and the doctrine of the white mans
burden. Kipling was an English author, who in February 1899 wrote a poem for McClures Magazine

73

Perez, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment 1902-1943, 32.

Ibid.
75
Bouvier, Whose America?, 110.
76
Ibid., 111.
74

23

specifically responding to the US campaigns in Cuba and the Philippines.77 The poem lauds the
nobility of those who seek to lift up the half-devil and half-child, backward, and uncivilized
natives of the world and bring them into the white mans world. It is essentially a humanitarian
argument that all non-white societies are unfortunate, savage, depraved peoples who would be so
happy to have the benefits of education, government, technology, and religion found in western,
white society. The burden, therein, becomes bringing civilization to poor native peoples with or
without the natives consent.78
79

Surely many Americans

believed that the US would make a

great deal of improvement to Cuba if
allowed to remain,80 but the white
mans burden doctrine more than
likely served as justification, not
motivation.
The grand result of this
inflated image of Cuban incompetence and American frustration was the Platt Amendment. While
the US did finally withdraw its military from Cuba in 1902 to allow the free establishment of an
independent Cuba, it was done only after Cuban acceptance of the Platt Amendment. The
amendment (and the associated Cuban-American Treaty of Relations) put limitations on Cubas
77

Modern History Sourcebook: Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden, 1899, Fordham University: The Jesuit University of New
York. Aug 1997, accessed Aug 9, 2014, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kipling.asp
78
Ibid.
79
The White Mans Burden, The Detroit Journal, February 1899. A general depiction of the burden US troops were now
responsible for as they occupied the islands captured in the Spanish American War.
80
Perez, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment, 38. In some cases the US really did make a difference during its occupation. The US
military made huge contributions to the islands by building schools, roads, bridges, telegraph and electrical grids, water and septic
systems, and hospitals.
24

ability make treaties and trade agreements with foreign powers, it required US approval on all Cuban
military operations, and it permitted US intervention to maintain adequate government within
Cuba itself.81 America was able to prevent the potential anarchy of Cuban self-rule thanks to the
Platt Amendment and Cuba had no legal or military means to stop it. The US was empowered to
step in if ever the Cuban government, military, or economy derailed or threatened US interests.
In his own written reflections on the days leading up to the war, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
said, It was this public sentiment that drove Congress forward to meet the popular will, which
members and Senators very well knew could be fulfilled by war and in no other way."82 Lodge was
not the first politician to makes this argument, nor would he be the last, but in this case Lodge says
so not as an excuse, but as self-praise. More so than in most any other US war, the American public
demanded war and the politicians were pressured to capitulate. This demand came from the
remarkably fast evolution of US public opinion towards Cuba at the end of the 19th century.
In the eyes of Americans, in the early 1800s Cuba held much appeal, but only for its natural
resources, not for its strange inhabitants. The 1895 Cuban Rebellion was captured in the dramatic
headlines of the American yellow press and promoted by the efforts of Cuban nationalists groups,
resulting in a false, yet inspiring image of Cuban revolutionaries. In 1896-1897, there began a
growing call for US military intervention as the US press described the suffering of Cuban civilians.
However, images of rebel nobility and plans for an independent Cuba quickly passed from American
minds in 1898 as US service men judged the Cuban people unfit to govern. This rollercoaster ride of
American opinions shaped American policy for the next decade and Cuban policy for the next half a
century. Hopefully, this period will always stand as a historical reminder that there is always more to
the story and never to assume we have figured out the ending.

81
82

Perez, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment, 49.

Henry Cabot Lodge, The war with Spain, (New York, NY: Harper & brothers, 1899), 32.
25

Primary Sources
The Cuban Mother, New York Journal, 1898. Crucible of Empire: The Spanish American War,
Accessed Aug 1, 2014 http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_resources.html
Dalrymple, Louis. "Save Me from My Friends!," Puck Magazine. 1898.
Discontent in Cuba. New York Tribune, 27 Feb. 1895. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib.
Of Congress. Accessed Aug 5, 2014. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1895-0227/ed-1/seq-6/.
Full Text of the Ostend Manifesto, Aix-la-Chapelle, October 15, 1854. History of Cuba. Accessed Aug 9,
2014, http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/havana/Ostend2.htm
Final Struggle in Cuba. The Scranton Tribune, Jan 27, 1896. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.
Lib. of Congress, Accessed Aug 5, 2014. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026355/189601-27/ed-1/seq-1/
Gomez. New York World, Feb 11, 1897. Newspaper Archive. Accessed Aug 7, 2014.
http://newspaperarchive.com/us/new-york/new-york/new-york-world/1897/02-11/page-6
Let Go of Him, McKinley! New York Journal, 1898. Crucible of Empire: The Spanish American War. Accessed
Aug 1, 2014. http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_resources.html.
Lodge, Henry Cabot. The War with Spain. New York, NY: Harper & brothers, 1899.
Modern History Sourcebook: Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden, 1899. Fordham University: The
Jesuit University of New York. Aug 1997, Accessed Aug 9, 2014.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kipling.asp
No Surrender in Cuba, New York Tribune. January 17, 1897. Chronicling America: Historic American
Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. Accessed Aug 3, 2014.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1897-01-17/ed-1/seq-6/
Proctor Draws a Picture. The Times, March 18, 1898. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of
Congress, Accessed Aug 6, 2014. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85054468/1898-0318/ed-1/seq-1/
The Spanish-American War. Chicago, IL: Herbert S. Stone & Company, 1899.
A letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, October 24, 1823. US Congress, Senate. Senate Document
No. 26. 57th Congress. 1st sess. Ser. 4220, 3-4.
Wanted A Good Licking. New York Herald, Sep 17, 1898. Archives of the New York Herald. Accessed Aug 6
2014.
http://fultonhistory.com/my%20photo%20albums/All%20Newspapers/New%20York%20NY%20Herald/inde
x.html
We Were Just in Time. Huston Post, July 10, 1898.
The White Mans Burden, The Detroit Journal, February 1899.

26

Secondary Sources
Auxier, George. The Propaganda Activities of the Cuban Junta in Precipitating the Spanish-American War,
1895-1898, The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Aug, 1939), 286-305. Accessed
July 22, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2507259
Bouvier, Virginia. Whose America? The War of 1898 and the Battles to Define the Nation. Westport, CT:
Praeger, 2001.
Brown, Charles Henry. The Correspondents' War: Journalists in the Spanish-American War. New York, NY:
Scribner, 1967.
Campbell, Joseph. The Year That Defined American Journalism: 1897 and the Clash of Paradigms. New York, NY:
Routledge, 2006.
Curtain, Philip D. The Atlantic Slave Trade: a Census. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.
Chao, Raul Eduardo. Republican Cuba. Washington, DC: Dupont Circle Editions, 2011.
Dorrance, William H., and Francis Swanzy. Morgan. Sugar Islands: The 165-year Story of Sugar in Hawaii.
Honolulu, HA: Mutual Pub., 2000.
Hilfrich, Fabian. Debating American Exceptionalism: Empire and Democracy in the Wake of the Spanish American War.
New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012.
Kemnitz, Thomas Milton. "The Cartoon as a Historical Source," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 4, no. 1, The
Historian and the Arts (Summer 1973): 81-93. Accessed July 25, 2014.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/202359
Leckie, Robert. The Wars of America: From 1600 to 1900. New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1992.
Miller, Bonnie. From Liberation to Conquest: The Visual and Popular Cultures of the Spanish-American War of 1898.
Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011.
Offner, John L. An Unwanted War: The Diplomacy of the United States and Spain Over Cuba,
1895-1898. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1992.
Perez, Louis, Jr. Cuba and the United States: Ties of Singular Intimacy. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press,
1997.
___________. Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
___________.. Cuba Under the Platt Amendment 1902-1943. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press,
1986.
Rosenfeld, Harvey. Diary of a Dirty Little War: The Spanish-American War of 1898. Westport, CT:
Praeger, 2000.
Spencer, David Ralph. The Yellow Journalism: The Press and America's Emergence As a World Power. Evanston, Ill:
Northwestern University Press, 2007.

27

Thomas, Evan. The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898. New York, NY: Little,
Brown and Company, 2010.
White, Trumbull. Our New Possessions-- Four Books in One--: A Graphic Account, Descriptive and Historical, of the
Tropic Islands of the Sea Which Have Fallen Under Our Sway. Richmond, VA: B.F. Johnson Pub. Co,
1898.
Wisan, Joseph Ezra, The Cuban Crisis as Reflected in the New York Press, 1895-1898. New York: Octagon Books,
1965.

28