In December, of that year, President Grant reported that a number of illegal expeditions had been broken up, but did not refer to those that had succeeded.  In October, 1870, he issued a general proclamation, without specific reference to Cuba, warning all persons against engagement in such expeditions.  During the years of the war, Spanish warships, at different times, seized American vessels, a proceeding which led to some active diplomatic negotiation, and which, on several occasions, threatened to involve this country in war with Spain.  The problem of the industry variously known as filibustering, blockade-running, gun-running, and the shipment of contraband, has two ends.  There is, first, the task of getting the shipment out of one country, and, second, the task of getting it into another country.  While it is generally classed as an unlawful enterprise, there frequently arises a difficulty in proving violation of law, even when goods are seized and the participants arrested.  There is, perhaps, a moral question involved also.  Such shipments may be a violation of the law.  They are generally so regarded.  But they may be, as in the case of the struggling Cubans, struggling against actual and generally admitted wrongs, the only means of serving a worthy and commendable end.  There is no doubt that, in Cuba’s revolution of 1895, Americans who knew about the work were prone to regard a successful expedition to the island with satisfaction if not with glee.  They were inclined to regard those engaged as worthy patriots rather than as law-breakers.

Under date of February 23, 1898, the House of Representatives requested the Secretary of the Treasury to inform that body “at the earliest date practicable, if not incompatible with the public service, what has been done by the United States to prevent the conveyance to the Cubans of articles produced in the United States, and what to prevent ‘filibustering,’ and with what results, giving particulars, and at what expense to the United States.”  A reply was sent on the 28th.  It makes a very good showing for the activities of the officials responsible for the prevention of such expeditions, but from all I can learn about the matter, it is quite incomplete.  There were a number of excursions not set down in the official records.  Sailing dates and time and place of arrival were not advertised in the daily papers.

The official statement shows that sixty reports of alleged filibustering expeditions were brought to the attention of the Treasury Department; that twenty-eight of them were frustrated through efforts of the Department; that five were frustrated by the United States Navy; four by Spain; two wrecked; one driven back by storm; one failed through a combination of causes; and seventeen that may be regarded as successful expeditions.  The records of the Cuban junta very materially increase the number in the latter class.  The despatch of these expeditions was a three-cornered