began, and I am profoundly convinced that they will go on increasing and finally overwhelm your Administration, unless you avail yourself of your last opportunity to take the same moral ground now.
You are still, although now not without some embarrassment, in a certain sense master of the situation; but you will not be that much longer. You might still instruct your Peace Commissioners, when negotiating about the surrender by Spain of any territory, in no manner to commit the United States to the annexation of any such territory, but to leave the question of the ultimate disposition of it entirely open. You might then in your message to Congress say that with regard to the annexation question you had kept in view the pledge implied in the resolution of Congress as to the cause and object of the war, as well as of your own declaration that “annexation by force cannot be thought of because it would, by our code of morality, [be] criminal aggression”; that the annexation of any of the Spanish colonies would not only involve the repudiation of those declarations, but also require the keeping of large garrisons in tropical regions, which would cause heavy sacrifice of life and treasure; that all desirable commercial facilities could be obtained by international agreement, and that all the naval stations needed could be secured without the annexation of populous territories behind them, by which arrangement burdensome political responsibilities and entanglements would be avoided and only small garrisons would be required, while all material advantage of real importance would be secured.
This would open a prospect of a speedy return of most of the soldiers sent to the tropics, and I am sure by the time the message comes out, a large majority of the people will be in a condition of mind to receive this with a sigh of relief.
