“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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