On February 15, 1898, the United States Battleship Maine that had been sent to Havana on a friendly mission, and at all events as a visitor from a neutral power, was blown up in Havana harbor. Instantly the country was ablaze and a just and true course for the administration became difficult. House and Senate both proved impetuous and indulged in heated debates, whose prevailing sentiment was speedy war with Spain, without waiting the results of investigation by either the Navy Department or other commissions.
President McKinley remained calm and retained hope of a peaceful settlement. He was chided by the hot-headed of both parties. It became plain that Congress was bent upon some radical step, and the President took occasion again, April 11, to review the entire Spanish and Cuban situation in a special and deliberate message, and to state that he had now exhausted every obligation imposed on him by the constitution to relieve an intolerable condition of affairs. He therefore left the issue with Congress, with the request that it authorize him to intervene for the purpose of stopping the war in Cuba and securing a stable government for the island by the use of the military and naval forces of the United States.
On April 19 Congress, after exciting debates, passed a joint resolution demanding that Spain relinquish at once her authority in Cuba and withdraw her land and naval forces, and that the President of the United States be empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States, and to call on the militia of the several states to carry the resolution into effect.
On the next day the Spanish minister at Washington demanded his passports, and Spain declared diplomatic relations with the United States ended. A state of war existed, and Sampson’s fleet was ordered to blockade Cuban ports.
President McKinley threw into the war all his personal experience as a soldier, all his energy as a statesman, and all the power and influence of his administration, which last he had so deliberately and happily conducted as to leave it and the country free from the charge of seeking war in a hasty spirit and through selfish aims. It was an unsought war, one rendered necessary only after every honorable means to avert it had been exhausted, one whose existence was justified by every humanitarian principle. But it was nevertheless one to be fought in earnest and to the nation’s glory. So it was fought. The country and Congress reposed the utmost confidence in the President. He had acted wisely in every preliminary step. He had disarmed fear of intervention by foreign powers. Congress voted him fifty millions of dollars to meet preliminary and extraordinary expenses, and on April 23 he called for 125,000 volunteers. The complement was quickly filled, and on May 25 he called for 75,000 additional men. The response was immediate. Transports were provided for the invasion of Cuba, the navy was strengthened by additional ships and Commodore Dewey, in command of the naval squadron at Hongkong was ordered to strike the Spaniards at Manila, and on May 1 occurred the great battle there which resulted in the destruction of the Spanish fleet, and the events that followed to give to the United States the group of islands, known as the Philippines that are so opulent in resource as to be of great commercial value, as well as strategic. These events are matters of history familiar to all readers, or readily available in the records of the war.