THE WAR WITH SPAIN.

For many years there has been a growing sentiment in the United States that Spain was governing Cuba and her other West Indian colonies in an oppressive and unjust manner, and the desire to interfere in behalf of the Cuban people received a good deal of encouragement, and its general expression succeeded in creating very strained relations between Spain and the United States. It is a well known fact that the Spanish people, from the north line of Mexico to Cape Horn, as well as the inhabitants of the Spanish Islands, hate the Americans most heartily. Why, I do not know; except that our social, governmental and religious habits, customs and beliefs are radically different from their own; but that such is the case no one doubts who knows these people. In 1897 some effort at conciliation was made, and Spain sent one of her warships to New York on a friendly visit; but she did not stay long, and got away as soon as she decently could. The United States sent the battleship Maine to Havana on the same friendly mission, where she was officially conveyed to her anchorage. She had been there but a short time when she was blown up, on Feb. 15, 1898, and 260 American seamen murdered. There was an official investigation to determine the cause of the explosion, but it found no solution of the disaster. Various theories were advanced of internal spontaneous explosion, but no one was misled. The general sentiment of Americans was that the Spanish in Cuba deliberately exploded a submarine torpedo under her, to accomplish the result that followed. Previous to this cowardly act there was much difference of opinion among the people of all sections of the country as to the propriety of declaring war against Spain, but public sentiment was at once unified in favor of war on the announcement of this outrage. On the 25th of April, 1898, congress passed an act declaring that war against Spain had existed since the 21st of the same month. A requisition was made on Minnesota for its quota of troops immediately after war was declared, and late in the afternoon of the twenty-eighth day of April the governor issued an order to the adjutant general to assemble the state troops at St. Paul. The adjutant general, on the 29th, issued the following order, by telegraph, to the different commands:

"The First, Second and Third Regiments of infantry are hereby ordered to report at St. Paul on Friday morning, April 29, 1898, not later than eleven o'clock, with one day's cooked rations in their haversacks."

The order was promptly obeyed, and all the field, staff and company officers, with their commands, reported before the time appointed, and on the afternoon of that day went into camp at the state fair grounds, which was named Camp Ramsey. Such promptness on the part of the state militia was remarkable, but it will be seen that they had been prepared for the order of the adjutant general before its final issue, who had anticipated the declaration of war.

On April 18th he had issued the following order:

"The commanding officers of the infantry companies and artillery batteries composing the national guard will immediately take steps to recruit their commands up to one hundred men each. All recruits above the maximum peace footing of seventy-six men will be carried upon the muster roll as provisional recruits, to be discharged in case their services are not needed for field service."

On the 25th of April the adjutant general issued the following order:

"In obedience to orders this day received from the honorable secretary of war, calling upon the State of Minnesota for three regiments of infantry as volunteers of the United States, to serve two years or less, and as the three national guard regiments have signified their desire of entering the service of the United States as volunteers, the First, Second, and Third Regiments of Infantry of the national guard of the State of Minnesota will immediately make preparations to report to these headquarters upon receipt of telegraphic orders, which will be issued later."

This commendable action on the part of our military authorities resulted in the Minnesota troops being the first to be mustered into the service of the United States in the war with Spain, thus repeating the proud distinction gained by the state in 1861, when Minnesota was the first state to offer troops for the defense of the Union in the Civil War. It is a curious as well as interesting coincidence, that the First Minnesota Regiment for the Civil War was mustered in on April 29, 1861, and the first three regiments for the Spanish War were mobilized at St. Paul on April 29, 1898.

The mustering in of the three regiments was completed on the eighth day of May, 1898, and they were designated as the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Regiments of Infantry, Minnesota Volunteers. This classification was made because the state had furnished eleven full regiments of infantry for the Civil War, and it was decided to number them consecutively.

The Twelfth and Fourteenth left Camp Ramsey on the sixteenth day of May for Camp George H. Thomas in Georgia, and the Thirteenth departed for San Francisco on the same day. The Thirteenth was afterwards ordered to Manila. The others did not leave the country, and were subsequently mustered out. The Thirteenth did gallant service in the Philippines, in many battles, was mustered out in San Francisco, and, on Oct. 12, 1899, returned to our state. A warm welcome was given it in Minnesota, where it will always be regarded with the same pride and affection formerly bestowed upon the old First, of patriotic memory.

President McKinley and several of his cabinet arrived in St. Paul at the time of the arrival of the Thirteenth, and assisted in welcoming them to their homes.

There was a second call for troops, under which the Fifteenth Regiment was mustered in, but was not called upon for active duty of any kind. It is to be hoped that the war may be ended without the need of more volunteers from Minnesota, but should another call be made on our people no doubt can be entertained of their prompt response. Having given the part taken in the war against Spain and the Philippines by Minnesota, its further prosecution against the latter becomes purely a federal matter, unless we shall be called into it in the future.

When Spain sued for peace, soon after the destruction of her second fleet off Santiago de Cuba, a commission to negotiate a treaty of peace with her was appointed by the president, and Minnesota was honored by the selection of its senior senator, Hon. Cushman K. Davis, chairman of the senate committee on foreign relations, as one of its members. The commission consisted of William R. Day, secretary of state of the United States, Cushman K. Davis of Minnesota, William P. Frye of Maine, George Gray of Delaware, and Whitelaw Reid of New York. It met at Paris, and concluded its labors the tenth day of December, 1898, when the treaty was signed by the commissioners of both contracting parties. It is hardly necessary to add that the influence exerted on the result by the distinguished and learned representative from Minnesota was controlling.

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