Mr. Day to Mr. Cambon.
Washington, August 15, 1898.
Excellency: I have the honor to make formal acknowledgment of the note you addressed to me, under date of the 12th instant, informing me of your receipt, through the medium of the department of foreign affairs at Paris, of a telegram, dated Madrid, August 11, in which the Duke of Almodovar del Rio, minister of state of Spain, by order of Her Majesty the Queen Regent, conferred upon you full powers to sign, without other formality and without delay, the protocol already drawn up by you and me, leaving the documentary confirmation of your said full powers to follow by mail; and adding that, the Government of the Republic having authorized you to accept the powers so conferred upon you by the Spanish Government, you were ready to sign the protocol at such time as I might designate.
The signing of the protocol on the afternoon of the 12th instant by you and me, in the presence of the President, followed by the immediate action of the President in issuing his proclamation suspending hostilities, in accordance with the appropriate stipulation of that protocol, testified in a most gratifying manner the full recognition by this Government of the powers conferred upon you, and, I am glad to believe, marked the first and most effective step toward the happy restoration of peace between the United States and Spain. It is especially gratifying to the President and to this Government that you, as the honored representative of the French Republic, allied to our American Commonwealth by the unbroken ties of more than a century of close friendship and to the Kingdom of Spain by propinquity and intimate association, should have been thus instrumental in contributing to this auspicious result.
Referring to the observation contained in your note relative to the internal order of Cuba during the suspension of hostilities, I may remark [Page 827] that the forces of the United States, in proportion as they occupy Cuban territory in the course of the evacuation thereof by Spain and its delivery to the arms of the United States under the terms of the protocol, will, it is believed, be adequate to preserve peace and order, and no doubt is entertained of their ability to restrain any possible injury to the inhabitants of the island in the country which shall by degrees come under their control.
Be pleased, Mr. Ambassador, to accept the renewed assurances of my highest consideration.