Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/97

WILLIAM McKINLEY 69 $100,444,560, and the total in greater amounts than $500, including certain proposals guaranteeing the loan, amounted in the aggregate to more than $1,400,000,000. The navy took the first steps in actual hostilities; orders for a blockade of Cuba were issued on April 21, and the blockade was established and pro claimed on April 22 ; in his proclamation of April 26 the president set forth at length the principles that would govern the conduct of the government with regard to the rights of neutrals and the other points of naval warfare. The nation had scarcely felt a realizing sense of the existence of war before there came news of Dewey s magnificent victory at Manila. This event, coming at a comparatively early date in the war, fired the national heart with great enthusiasm, and added immensely to the pres tige of our navy abroad. The country s elation over such an unprecedented victory caused the peo ple to wait with eager expectation for news from the operations in Cuban waters. On May 4 Ad miral Sampson s squadron sailed from Key West; on the 12th it engaged the forts at San Juan de Puerto Rico. This was but a reconnoissance to discover whether or not the fleet under Admiral Cervera was in port; for the main object of the navy was to engage and destroy the Spanish fleet, which had left the Cape Verde islands on April 29. On May 19 Commodore Schley s flying squadron