"Prepared to Move" (Modified)

Some of the language and phrasing in this document has been modified from the original.

Head Note: Lee was appointed the U.S. Consul-General in Havana, Cuba in 1896 by President Grover Cleveland. He wrote this letter to the Assistant Secretary of State in the U.S almost three months before the Maine explosion.

SIR:

I still think that at least two war ships should be at Key West, prepared to move here at short notice, and that more of them should be sent to Dry Tortugas, and a coal station be established there. We should do this to protect the Americans on the island and their properties, both of which are objects of the greatest concern to our Government.

FITZHUGH LEE,
Consul-General.

[Some of the language and phrasing in this document has been modified from the original.]

Source: Excerpt from telegram sent by Fitzhugh Lee, U.S. Consul-General in Cuba, December 3, 1897. Havana, Cuba.