States, and must do so in order to be redeemed from the disabilities deeply implanted, and released from having the intolerable burdens imposed by the rule of Spain.  The consciousness of the Spaniards, that the shadow of the United States lowered over the misgovernment of Cuba, and that there was a thunder-cloud in the north that must burst—­with more than the force of the hurricanes that spin on their dizzy way of destruction from the Caribbean Sea—­aroused the fury of passion, of jealous hatred and thirst for revenge, in anticipation of the inevitable, that caused the catastrophe of the blowing up of the Maine, and kindled with the flame of the explosion, the conflagration of warfare in the Indies West and East, that has reddened the seas and the skies with the blood of Spain and the glow of America’s victory both in the Antilles and the Philippines, wiping from the face of the earth the last vestiges of the colonial imperialism of Spain that gave her mediaeval riches and celebrity, for which—­as the system always evil became hideous with malignant growth, so that each colony was a cancer on the mother country—­there has been exacted punishment of modern poverty, and finally the humiliation of the haughty, with no consolation for defeat, but the fact that in desperate and forlorn circumstances there were seen glimpses of the ancient valor in Spanish soldiers, that was once their high distinction among the legions of embattled Europe.

The United States was not ready for war.  Our regular army was a 16 to 120 Spanish troops in Cuba, our field guns 1 to 6 of Blanco’s batteries, our siege train nowhere, and fortified cities to assail; and the ability and industry of the Spaniards as well as their skill and strength in surveying and fortifying military lines, and their food resources were dangerously undervalued.  The war was rushed upon the country, contrary to the calm executive judgement of the President.  The army and navy were admirable but faulty in hasty equipment, the navy a perfect machine in itself, but without docks and arsenals in the right place for the supply of a fleet in the old battle field of European navies, the West Indies.  The energies of the Government were put forth as soon as the war was seriously threatened, and the mighty people arose and swiftly as the aptitudes of Americans in emergencies could be applied, deficiencies were supplied.  The first stroke of arms came as a dazzling flash from the far southwest, in the story of the smashing victory of Dewey at Manila.  That splendid officer, gentleman and hero did not signal his fleet as Nelson at Trafalgar, that every man was expected to do his duty, but he reported that every man did his duty; and the East Indian fleet of Spain vanished, smashed, burned and sunken by a thunderbolt!  The theory of war countenanced by the impetuous and demanded by the presumptuous, was that our aggressive forces must attack Havana.  In and around that city were an enormous garrison,