Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/90

62 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS eyes. On his way he stopped in the United States, called on his friend Dupuy de Lome, the Spanish minister at Washington, and then went on to Ha vana. Soon after the departure of Canalejas, de Lome wrote him a private letter, in which he criti cised severely the policy of the president in regard to the Cuban question, and characterized him as a vacillating and time-serving politician. The letter was surreptitiously secured, and pub lished widely in the press on February 8 ; later the original letter was communicated to the department of state. The following day, the 9th, Senor de Lome admitted the genuineness of the letter in a personal conference with Assistant Secretary Day, stating that he recognized the impossibility of con tinuing to hold official relations with this govern ment after the unfortunate disclosures, and adding that he had on the evening of the 8th, and again on the morning of the 9th, telegraphed to his govern ment asking to be relieved of his mission. Imme diately after this conference a telegraphic instruc tion was sent to Gen. Woodf ord to inform the gov ernment of Spain that the publication in question had ended the Spanish minister s usefulness, and expressing the president s expectation that he would be immediately recalled. Before Gen. Woodf ord could present this instruction, however, the cabinet had accepted the minister s resignation, putting the legation in charge of the secretary*