The question of belligerency is one of fact, not to be decided by
sympathies for or prejudices against either party. The relations
between the parent state and the insurgents must amount in fact to
war in the sense of international law. Fighting, though fierce and
protracted, does not alone constitute war. There must be military forces
acting in accordance with the rules and customs of war, flags of truce,
cartels, exchange of prisoners, etc.; and to justify a recognition
of belligerency there must be, above all, a _de facto_ political
organization of the insurgents sufficient in character and resources
to constitute it, if left to itself, a state among nations capable
of discharging the duties of a state and of meeting the just
responsibilities it may incur as such toward other powers in the
discharge of its national duties.
Applying the best information which I have been enabled to gather,
whether from official or unofficial sources, including the very
exaggerated statements which each party gives to all that may prejudice
the opposite or give credit to its own side of the question, I am unable
to see in the present condition of the contest in Cuba those elements
which are requisite to constitute war in the sense of international law.
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