Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/96

68 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS combined in a joint resolution which was adopted by both houses, after a bitter struggle. This reso lution was approved by the executive on the next day. Spain assumed to treat the joint resolution of April 20 as a declaration of war, and sent Gen. Woodf ord his passports about seven o clock on the morning of the 21st, before he could communicate the demands of the resolution. In the United States it was assumed that by dismissing Gen. Woodford Spain initiated actual war, wiierefore congress, by an act approved April 25, declared "that war exists and that war has existed since the 21st day of April, A.D. 1898, including said day, be tween the United States of America and the king dom of Spain." In like manner the Spanish de cree of April 23 simply recites in article one "the state of war existing between Spain and the United States," without assigning a date for its beginning. The president s proclamation of April 26 coincided with the Spanish decree of April 23 in adopting for the war the maritime rules of the declaration of Paris. By the end of the month the troops called for un der the act of April 23, authorizing the president to call for 125,000 volunteers, had begun to con centrate at Tampa, Fla. On April 30 congress au thorized a bond issue of $200,000,000, and a circu lar was issued the same day inviting subscriptions. The total of subscriptions of $500 and less was