"That the Government of Sagasta has entered upon a course from which recession with honour is impossible can hardly be questioned; that in the few weeks it has existed it has made earnest of its professions is undeniable. * * * It is honestly due to Spain and to our friendly relations with Spain that she should be given a reasonable chance to realize her expectations and to approve the asserted efficacy of the new order of things to which she stands irrevocably committed. She has recalled the commander whose brutal orders inflamed the American mind and shocked the civilized world. She has modified the horrible order of reconcentration and has undertaken to care for the helpless and permit those who desire to to resume the cultivation of their fields, * * *" and so on. He finished with the statement that:
"If it shall hereafter appear to be a duty imposed by our obligations to ourselves, to civilization and humanity, to intervene with force, it shall be without fault on our part and only because the necessity for such action will be so
