READ: President McKinley's State of the Union Address

Head Note: President McKinley went before Congress to ask for a declaration of war against Spain.

The grounds for such intervention may be briefly summarized as follows:

First, in the cause of humanity and to put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed, starvation, and horrible miseries now existing there....

Second, we owe it to our citizens in Cuba to afford them that protection and indemnity for life and property which no government there can or will afford ....

Third, the right to intervene may be justified by the very serious injury to the commerce, trade, and business of our people, and by the wanton destruction of property and devastation of the island.

Fourth, and which is of the utmost importance.... With such a conflict waged for years in an island so near us and with which our people have such trade and business relations; when the lives and liberty of our citizens are in constant danger and their property destroyed and themselves ruined; where our trading vessels are liable to seizure and are seized at our very door by warships of a foreign nation, ... -- all these and others ... are a constant menace to our peace....

I have already transmitted to Congress the report... on the destruction of the battleship Maine... The destruction of that noble vessel has filled the national heart with inexpressible horror....

[T]he destruction of the Maine, by whatever exterior cause, is a patent and impressive proof of a state of things in Cuba that is intolerable.... [T]he Spanish government cannot assure safety and security to a vessel of the American Navy in the harbor of Havana on a mission of peace, and rightfully there....

Source: Excerpt from President William McKinley’s War Message to Congress, April 11, 1898.