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TRANSCRIPT
“A Splendid Little War”
Some Facts Concerning the Spanish-American War
Cody Swindoll
History and Anthropology
Henri Miller
October 15, 2013
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Many people, if asked, would be hard pressed to tell anyone much about the Spanish-
American War. Many of the particulars and minute details are really only known to historians
and military buffs. The things that might be remembered or stand out for many people might be
the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor, the Rough Riders and Teddy Roosevelt, the
lands the United States gained as a result of the war and possibly the newspaper publisher
William Randolph Hearst. Many of the soldiers involved in the war could not have said what it
was about, except perhaps what they had read in the newspapers and/or the rumors flying
through the ranks. A veteran of the war, John Thomas, said, “We just did what were we told and
told not to worry about what we were there for.”1 Much of the 100 day conflict was seen that
way and the will of the American people demanded that this country help the brave and valiant
Cuban freedom fighters gain their independence from the tyrannical and oppressive Spanish
overlords.
Emerging Imperialism
In the 1898 countries were ready to emerge into the coming century ready to take their place
on the world stage. The United States was poised to become one of the leaders in this new world
and was ready to flex a military muscle that had yet to be tested in the larger world. President
William McKinley, in a speech given in New York City in 1900, said, “There can be no
imperialism. Those who fear it are against it. Those who have faith in the republic are against it.
So that there is universal abhorrence for it and unanimous opposition to it. Our only difference is
that those who do not agree with us have no confidence in the virtue or capacity or high purpose
or good faith of this free people as a civilizing agency: while we believe that the century of free
government which the American people has enjoyed has not rendered them irresolute and
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faithless, but has fitted them for the great task of lifting up and assisting to better conditions and
larger liberty those distant people who through the issue of battle have become our wards.” 2
In other words, the United States was not seeking to gain lands, people and territory but
merely to help all the poor, downtrodden peoples looking for peace, prosperity and liberty who
happened to come under our protection because of military conflict. The banners of righteous
and manifest destiny were once again raised and waved vigorously to assure the rest of the
world that the United States was in no way, shape or form like some of those other
warmongering, land grabbing countries who were busy acquiring territory in Africa, Asia and
where ever they could find it. The Spanish-American War was a quick and painless way for the
United States to get land and people and assert its up and coming place in the new world.
Yellow Journalism: A New Growing Force in Shaping Public Opinion
In the newspaper world of the late 1880s, two men stood out as no others. One was Joseph
Pulitzer, publisher of the New York Word and the other was William Randolph Hearst, publisher
of the New York Journal. They were ruthlessly competitive men in an age when business was
known for its ruthlessness. Hearst, the scion of a mining multi-millionaire versus Pulitzer, the
son of a Hungarian grain dealer, essentially a self-made man. The fight for readership and
therefore money was all that mattered. It was in this arena that these two men used all means at
their disposal to sensationalize the news coming out of Cuba so as to inflame the sentiments of
the American people. Did they outright lie to achieve their ends? Without question the reporting
of the events leading up to the Spanish-American War was sensational, was often characterized
as “yellow journalism.” From the distance of time, it has been evident that the publishers even
went to the length of fabricating stories in order to sell newspapers. Did the press force the
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country into war? There are arguments for and against this idea but there is no doubt that they
certainly help press the issue in the halls of political power.
Hearst went to great lengths to defeat his former mentor Pulitzer. He hired the best writers
and artists of the day and even lured many of them away from Pulitzer’s own papers. One of his
artists, the celebrated Frederic Remington, sent him a telegram after being sent to Cuba to cover
the uprising against Spanish rule. He purportedly told Hearst that he wanted to come back to
New York there wasn’t going to be any war. This led to one of Hearst’s most supposed famous
quotes: “Pleas remain. You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war.”3 Whether or not he
actually said this is still being debated but it certainly was in line with his character.
Pulitzer turned around the New York World after he purchased it by turning it into a journal
that concentrated on human-interest stories, scandal and sensational material. He brought the
paper from one that was losing $40,000 a year to one that had the largest circulation of any
newspaper in the country. He was linked to “yellow journalism” with Hearst but is mainly
remembered for his endowment of a journalism chair at Columbia University in New York City.
It is ironic that one of the men that was instrumental in the use of scandal and innuendo was a
staunch defender of journalism as a force for moral good and the development of society as a
whole. Pulitzer said, ”I am deeply interested in the progress and elevation of journalism, having
spent my life in that profession, regarding it as a noble profession, and one of unequaled
importance for its influence upon the minds and morals of the people.”4 Pulitzer is probably as
complicit in the development of yellow journalism through the use of banner headlines,
sensational stories, and emphasis on illustrations, and color supplements. Despite his
involvement bringing about the Spanish-American War, his contemporary Hearst is the one
remembered for his promotion of the war.
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Remember the Maine!
One of the, if not the main , precipitating events that brought the United States into the war
was the sinking of the battleship the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor on the night of February 15,
1898. The explosion that sent the ship to the bottom of the harbor killed 266 American sailors
and has never been satisfactorily explained. Was it an accidental explosion of the ship’s boilers,
a problem with the powder magazine, sabotage on the part of the Spaniards or by one of
revolutionary groups that wanted the United States to enter the war? No one knows, even today,
and the distance of time has not made it any easier. At the time the Maine was one of the
largest battleship in the United States fleet totally designed and built in a Navy shipyard. Despite
her impressive stance, the Main’s mission in Cuba was a peaceful one. She was there to
basically reassure the Americans and to provide help in case of trouble. The crew was
anticipating no trouble. At 9:40 p.m. there was an explosion and some witnesses say there were
two. Capitan Sigsbee, the commanding officer, wrote, “It was a bursting, rending, and crashing
roar of immense volume, largely metallic, in character. It was followed by ominous, metallic
sounds. There was a trembling and lurching motion of the vessel, a list to port. Then there was
intense blackness and smoke. The situation could not be mistaken. The Maine was blown up
and sinking.”5 The ensuing confusion was massive as the ship quickly sank and many men went
down with the ship. Out of this disaster came the rallying cry, Remember the Maine, and to Hell
with Spain! The outrage about this tragedy provided further fodder for the press and pushed the
country ever closer to war.
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Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders
Teddy Roosevelt was a descendant of an old Dutch family that were among the original
settlers of New York. He was raised in a wealthy environment in New York City and had been a
gentleman rancher in the Badlands of the Dakotas. When the situation in Cuba was heating up,
Roosevelt was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. After the explosion of the Maine he resigned
and petitioned the Secretary of War to form a volunteer regiment. He was commissioned a
Lieutenant Colonel under the command of Colonel Leonard Wood. Together they formed a
regiment that in the end consisted of hunters, cowboys, polo players, Native Americans, college
buddies and others.6 This unlikely group participated in two battles, the Battle of Guasimas and
the Battle of San Juan Heights.
Although neither of these battles were of major importance, due to the skillful writing of
Roosevelt and the careful cultivation of the press, the Rough Riders and their colorful assistant
commander were prominently mentioned in the news of the day. The resulting publicity helped
boost Roosevelt to national political prominence which ultimately ended with his ascension to
the presidency upon the assassination of President William McKinley. One hundred years after
the fact, Theodore Roosevelt would be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for the
bravery he displayed in leading his men at San Juan Hill.7
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Notes
1. Personal conversations with John Garbett, a local medic who attended Colonel John
Thomas, a Spanish American War veteran in the Salt Lake Regional Veteran’s Hospital.
September 7. 2013
2. William McKinley, “Speech On Imperialism,” March 3, 1900, Christ and Country.net ,
accessed
September8,2013,www.christandcountry.net/historic_docs/speeches/mckinley_imperialis
m_speech.html
3. Quoted in W. Joseph Johnson’s, You Furnish the Legend, I’ll Furnish the Quote,2001,
accessed September 8,2013, www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=2429
4. Quotes from Joseph Pulitzer, Ragan’s PR Daily, April 11, 2013, accessed September 9,
2013,
www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/7_insightful_quotes_from_Joseph_Pulitzer_14248.aspx
5. U.S.S. Maine (BB-2), Home of the Heroes, accessed September 9, 2013,
www.homeoftheheroes.com/wallofhonor/spanish_am/02_maine.html
6. T.R. the Rough Rider: Hero of the Spanish American War, National Park Service,
accessed September 10, 2013, www.nps.gov/thrb/historyculture/tr-rr-spanamwar.htm
7. Ibid.
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Bibliography
Home of the Heroes, U.S.S. Maine (BB-2), accessed September 9, 2013,
www.homeoftheheroes.com/wallofhonor/spanish_am/02_maine.html
Johnson, W. Joseph, “You Furnish the Legend I’ll furnish the Quote.” Accessed September 8,
2013,, www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=2429
McKinley, William, Speech on Imperialism, New York City, March 3, 1900, accessed
September 8, 2013,
www.christandcountry.net/historic_docs/speeches/mckinley_imperialism_speech.html
National Park Service, T.R. the Rough Rider: Hero of the Spanish American War, accessed
September 10, 2013, www.nps.gov/thrb/historyculture/tr-rr-spanamwar.htm
Pulitzer, Joseph, Quotes from joseph Pulitzer, Ragan’s PR Daily, April 11, 2013, accessed
September 9, 2013,
www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/7_insightful_quotes_from_Joseph_Pulitzer_14248.aspx
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