Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/87

WILLIAM McKINLEY 59 dent desire to make himself accessible to the public. On April 27, accompanied by his cabinet, he at tended the ceremonies connected with the dedica tion of the Grant monument in Riverside park, New York. Immediately afterward he was pres ent at the dedication of the Washington monument in Philadelphia. President Cleveland, in his last annual message, had stated plainly the position of the United States on the Cuban question, saying that the suppression of the insurrection was essentially a matter for Spain, that this country would not fail to make every effort to prevent filibustering expeditions and unlawful aid of any kind for the rebels, but adding the warning note that there might come a time when intervention would be demanded in the name of hu manity, and that it behooved Spain to end the struggle before this should become necessary. This was hardly a statement of party policy, but rather the expression of the sentiment of the whole coun try, and after the close of the first year of the new administration it was seen that its policy had been much along these lines. In his note of September 23, 1897, Gen. Woodford had assured the Spanish minister of foreign affairs, the Duke of Tetuan, that all the United States asked was that some last ing settlement might be found which Spain could accept with self-respect, and to this end the United States offered its kindly offices, hoping that during