that was involved in that war. He was incapable of using himself, or of appealing to others to use, such cries as " Remember the Maine." He was opposed to war; and he listened unmoved by the impatient outcry of party leaders and to the tumult of the people, until all the resources of diplomacy were exhausted and war was inevitable. When it became evident that war must be waged he insured its vigorous conduct, by unambiguous language and by prompt action. He was not only in name, but in reality, the commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces of the United States, in the war with Spain.
It was under his direction that Admiral Dewey was assigned to the command of the Atlantic squadron. It was by his orders that Dewey pursued the Spanish fleet into Manila bay and destroyed it there, and that Sampson blockaded Cervera's fleet in Santiago harbor and destroyed it when it attempted flight. It was he, moreover, who while the war was being carried on, conducted diplomatic negotiations so effectively as to secure the moral support of England, without a formal alliance, and to prevent interference by France and Germany, from both of whom, at one time, interference was seriously apprehended.
The war over, he directed the general course of negotiations which ended in a treaty with Spain alike chivalrous toward her and honorable to the United States.
In the subsequent war with the Philippines his orders frustrated the attempt of Aguinaldo to assume the sovereignty in an island which our army and navy had set free, and the archipelago was saved from an anarchy which threatened greater disasters than even Spanish despotism had inflicted upon it. Civil government was organized on his recommendation before the insurrection was fully over, and the Filipinos were assured all the civil and religious rights enjoyed by Americans in American territories. He shaped the American policy and led the American people.
It has been charged that Mr. McKinley was without a definite policy of his own, and that he followed the shifting comments of public opinion—serving his country only by faithfully representing the majority. In the invidious sense intended by those who make this charge, it is by no means true. He was a strong leader, yet what he accomplished was always consonant with the highest form of true democracy. He did not always go with the majority. He
