Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/94

66 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS every effort to re-enforce the army in Cuba and to strengthen the navy. On March 23, after the presi dent had received the report of the naval court of inquiry, Gen. Woodford presented a formal note to the Spanish minister warning him that unless an agreement assuring permanent, immediate, and honorable peace in Cuba was reached within a few days the president would feel constrained to sub mit the whole question to Congress. Various other notes were passed in the next few days, but they were regarded by the president as dilatory and en tirely unsatisfactory. On April 7 the ambassadors or envoys of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Russia called on the president and addressed to him a joint note expressing the hope that humanity and moderation might mark the course of the United States government and people, and that further negotiations would lead to an agreement which, while assuring the maintenance of peace, would af ford all necessary guarantees for the re-establish ment of order in Cuba. The president, in response, said that he shared the hope the envoys had ex pressed that peace might be preserved in a manner to terminate the chronic condition of disturbance in Cuba so injurious and menacing to our interests and tranquillity as well as shocking to our senti ments of humanity, and while appreciating the hu manitarian and disinterested character of the com-