The people
and Government of the United States entertain the same warm feelings
and sympathies for the people of Cuba in their pending struggle that
they manifested throughout the previous struggles between Spain and
her former colonies in behalf of the latter. But the contest has at
no time assumed the conditions which amount to a war in the sense of
international law, or which would show the existence of a _de facto_
political organization of the insurgents sufficient to justify a
recognition of belligerency.
The principle is maintained, however, that this nation is its own judge
when to accord the rights of belligerency, either to a people struggling
to free themselves from a government they believe to be oppressive or to
independent nations at war with each other.
The United States have no disposition to interfere with the existing
relations of Spain to her colonial possessions on this continent. They
believe that in due time Spain and other European powers will find their
interest in terminating those relations and establishing their present
dependencies as independent powers--members of the family of nations.
These dependencies are no longer regarded as subject to transfer from
one European power to another.
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