ment was, moreover, couched in terms which made it an ultimatum-to be accepted or rejected before November 28. If the Spanish commissioners were in any doubt as to the final character of the American communication, Mr. Reid left no opportunity for any uncertainty, for early the next morning in a conference with Ambassador Castillo the true character to be attributed to the American position was restated in courteous terms but with an unmistakable frankness.42 The Spanish commissioners and the Council of Ministers in Madrid hesitated, haggled, bargained, and talked of yielding all, breaking off communications and making no effort to conclude a treaty of peace.13 Señors Garnica and Cerero were opposed to the pecuniary compensation as insignificant in quantity and as otherwise prejudicial to future action on the colonial debts. There was a faint hope that the terms of peace might be so guarded that Spain would be left free to settle the debt problem with the Cubans at a later time, when America should be eliminated by a treaty of peace.**

A perusal of the communications at this time emphasizes the constant and close communication with the home government and the helpless, hopeless situation of Spain. It dared not return to hostilities, it could not face the humiliating inevitable. Squirm as their responsible authorities would, cast about for alternatives as they tried, there was nothing to do against the inexorable finality of the American propositions; longer resistance had become useless. Long before this the November elections in the United States

Spanish Diplomatic Correspondence and Documents, p. 326. 48 Ibid., pp. 326–27.

“Ibid., p. 319.

had destroyed any flickering hope of dissensions in that quarter.

45

On November 25 the Council of Ministers in Madrid painfully submitted, and ordered the commissioners in Paris to yield to the American terms of peace.1 Only subsidiary matters remained to engage the attention of the Peace Commission after the conference on November 28. The American commissioners sought to secure an island in the Carolines, liberty of worship throughout the group, rights of landing cables on Spanish territories, and the renewal of treaties suspended by the war, but they found the Spanish Government unwilling to consider them until a treaty of peace was concluded. The matters were suitable subjects for negotiations, but were all outside the subjects of the protocol and alien to the true work of the conference. This was the view of Spain. On the other hand the American commissioners were divided upon the character of the concessions to be made in return, and nothing came of the attempt to widen the scope of the treaty. The treaty of peace was finally concluded along the lines laid down in the ultimatum.

The indelicate allusion to the Maine affair in the President's message to Congress on December 7 led to the final effort of Spain for an international inquiry into the causes of the Maine catastrophe. The subject was like the American visions of territories in the Carolines-well outside the lines of negotiations laid down in the protocol, and the same reasons that cut short discussion on the one acted on the other. The final draft of the treaty was signed by the Peace Commission on December 10. The ratification in the Senate met with opposition from those opposed to the 45 Ibid., p. 334.

annexation of territory included in the treaty. An effort was made to secure legislation which would give the Filipinos ultimate freedom, but the treaty was finally ratified by the Senate on February 6, 1899. In Spain the Government met with far greater difficulties. The violent opposition frustrated all efforts to secure the assent of the legislative branch, and the constitutional alternative-the signature of the Queen Regent -was submitted on March 19, 1899. Final ratifications were exchanged on April 11, 1899, and then and not till then was it possible to declare the war formally at an end. On March 2 Congress voted the sum to be paid to Spain under the treaty, and on May I this was formally paid over. On June 3 the diplomatic relations were fully restored by the receiving in Washington of a minister from Spain.

The treaty of peace made no reference to such important matters as the status of treaties declared broken at the beginning of the war, extradition, postal relations, copyright regulations, commerce, amity and general relations, all of which it is quite proper for a treaty to deal with, either by declaring the old treaties revised or by substituting new ones. Several years elapsed before the first action. On July 3, 1902, Bellamy Storer, Minister to Spain, concluded with the Duke of Almodóvar del Rio, Minister of State, a treaty of friendship and general relations for a term of ten years. The twenty-ninth article abrogated all treaties, agreements, conventions and contracts made prior to 1898 save the claims treaty of 1834. Otherwise the treaty relates almost exclusively to commerce and the consular service.4

46

732.

Compilation of Treaties in Force, United States, 1904, p.

CHAPTER IX

INTERPRETATION AND FULFILMENT OF TREATY OF

PEACE

There is no better place to test the spirit of a government than in its conduct as a conqueror after the formal conclusion of a war. Its animus will appear again and again in the execution of the treaty of peace, and the perfection of its governmental institutions be the most severely tried. Law is provided with some of its richest precedents at such times. The SpanishAmerican war was virtually closed with the treaty of Paris, signed December 10, 1898, but from the standpoint of general international law and from that of American administrative law there remained many difficult problems. At the close of the war there were obligations toward neutral powers to be observed; obligations toward the vanquished to be carefully regarded; obligations toward those whom fate had thrown under the jurisdiction of the United States to be sacredly administered.

The first three articles of the treaty of peace have to do with the territorial changes which Spain was called upon to recognize.1 By the first article Spain

1Treaty of Peace, Senate Document 62, 55 Cong., 3 Sess.

66

'Art. 1.-Spain relinquishes all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba. And as the island is, upon its evacuation by Spain, to be occupied by the United States, the United States will, so long as such occupation shall last, assume and discharge the obligations that may under international law

relinquished all claim to sovereignty in Cuba. The United States at the same time assumed and agreed to discharge such obligations as might arise under international law in respect to that island, but the question of its ultimate disposal remained unsettled in the result from the fact of its occupation, for the protection of life and property.

"Art. 2.-Spain cedes to the United States the island of Porto Rico and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies and the island of Guam in the Marianas, or Ladrones.

“Art. 3.-Spain cedes to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, and comprehending the islands lying within the following line: A line running from west to east along or near the twentieth parallel of north latitude and through the middle of the navigable channel of Bachi, from the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) to the one hundred and twenty-seventh (127th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence along the one hundred and twenty-seventh (127th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the parallel of four degrees and forty-five minutes (4° 45′) north latitude, thence along the parallel of four degrees and forty-five minutes (4° 45′) north latitude to its intersection with the meridian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and thirty-five minutes (119° 35′) east of Greenwich, thence along the meridian of longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and thirty-five minutes (119° 35') east of Greenwich to the parallel of latitude seven degrees and forty minutes (7° 40′) north, thence along the parallel of latitude seven degrees and forty minutes (7° 40′) north to its intersection with the one hundred and sixteenth (116th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence by a direct line to the intersection of the tenth (10th) degree parallel of north latitude with the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, and thence along the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to the point of beginning.

"The United States will pay to Spain the sum of twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) within three months after the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty."