Europe will know us better henceforth; even Spain will know us better; and this knowledge should tend powerfully hereafter to keep the peace of the world.
Whitelaw Reid
The Public Record
Whitelaw Reid was an American politician, diplomat and newspaper editor, as well as the author of Ohio in the War, a popular work of history.
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The war should abate the swaggering, swash-buckler tendency of many of our public men, since it has shown our incredible unreadiness at the outset for meeting even a third-rate Power; and it must secure us henceforth an army and navy less…
It imposes new and very serious business on our public men, which ought to dignify and elevate the public service.
It was a happy thing for us to be able to bring back peace to our own land, and happier still to find that our treaty is accepted by the Senate and the people as one that guards the honor and protects the interests of the country.
Only so should a nation like ours make peace at all.
Come, Peace, not like a mourner bowed For honor lost and dear ones wasted, But proud, to meet a people proud, With eyes that tell of triumph tasted.
The only complaint one hears about it is that we did our duty too well--that, in fact, we made peace on terms too favorable to our own country.
It secured alike for Cubans and Filipinos the release of political prisoners.
It scrupulously reserved for Congress the power of determining the political status of the inhabitants of our new possessions.
It declared on behalf of the most Protectionist country in the world for the policy of the Open Door within its Asiatic sphere of influence.
But the treaty refused to return to Spanish rule one foot of territory over which that rule had been broken by the triumphs of our arms.
It will make an end forever of Spain in this hemisphere.