The Path of Empire. A Chronicle of the United States as a World Power
by Carl Russell Fish
personal service to the cry of suffering anywhere in the world. Just before the Spanish American War,
Gladstone had made his last great campaign protesting against the new massacres in Armenia; and in the
United States the Republican platform of 1896 had declared that "the massacres in Armenia have aroused
the deep sympathy and just indignation of the American people, and we believe that the United States
should exercise all the influence it can properly exert to bring these atrocities to an end."
John Hay wrote to Henry Cabot Lodge, of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, April 5, 1898, as
follows: "For the first time in my life I find the drawing-room sentiment altogether with us. If we wanted
it - which, of course, we do not - we could have the practical assistance of the British Navy - on the do ut
des principle, naturally." On the 25th of May he added: "It is a moment of immense importance, not only
for the present, but for all the future. It is hardly too much to say the interests of civilization are bound up
in the direction the relations of England and America are to take in the next few months." Already on the
15th of May, Joseph Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, had said to the Birmingham Liberal Unionists:
"What is our next duty? It is to establish and to maintain bonds of permanent amity with our kinsmen
across the Atlantic. There is a powerful and a generous nation.... Their laws, their literature, their
standpoint upon every question are the same as ours."
In Manila Harbor, where Dewey lay with his squadron, these distant forces of European colonial policy
were at work. The presence of representative foreign warships to observe the maintenance of the
blockade was a natural and usual naval circumstance. The arrival of two German vessels therefore caused
no remark, although they failed to pay the usual respects to the blockading squadron. On the 12th of May
a third arrived and created some technical inconvenience by being commanded by an officer who
outranked Commodore Dewey. A German transport which was in the harbor made the total number of
German personnel superior to that of the Americans, and the arrival of the Kaiser on the 12th of June
gave the Germans distinct naval preponderance.
The presence of so powerful a squadron in itself closely approached an international discourtesy.
Disregarding the laws of blockade, as Dewey, trained in the Civil War blockade of the South, interpreted
them, the German officers were actively familiar both with the Spanish officials of Manila and with the
insurgents. Finally they ensconced themselves in the quarantine station at the entrance of the Bay, and
Admiral Diedrichs took up land quarters. Further, they interfered between the insurgents and the
Spaniards outside of Manila Bay. In the controversy between Diedrichs and Dewey which grew out of
these difficulties, Captain Chichester, commanding the British squadron, supported Dewey's course
unqualifiedly and, moreover, let it be clearly known that, in the event of hostilities, the British vessels
would take their stand with the Americans.
CHAPTER IX. The Blockade Of Cuba
While the first victory of the war was in the Far East and the possibility of events of world-wide
significance hung upon the level-headedness of Commodore Dewey at Manila, it was realized that the
war must really be fought in the West. Both President McKinley and the Queen Regent of Spain had
issued proclamations stating that they would adhere to the rules of the Declaration of Paris and not resort
to the use of privateers. The naval contest, therefore, was confined to the regular navies. Actually the
American fleet was superior in battleships, monitors, and protected cruisers; the Spanish was the better
equipped in armored cruisers, gunboats, and destroyers.
|
