United States Congress (April 20, 1898) in a Joint Resolution, passed following a message from President McKinley, recognized the independence of Cuba and declared war with Spain:
<Whereas the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the Island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to Christian civilization, culminating, as they have, in the destruction of a United States battle ship, with two hundred and sixty-six of its officers and crew, while on a friendly visit in the harbor of Havana, and can not longer be endured, as has been set forth by the President of the United States in his message to Congress of April eleventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, upon which the action of Congress was invited: Therefore,
Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States assembled...that the people of the Island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent.> 1898US001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
1898US001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). United States Congress, April 20, 1898, in a Joint Resolution recognizing the independence of Cuba and declaring war with Spain, passed following a message from President McKinley. Charles W. Eliot, LL. D., ed., American Historical Documents-1000-1904 (New York: The Harvard Classics, P.F. Collier & Son Company, 1910), Vol. 43, p. 467.