The United States, the Cuban Rebellion, and the Multilateral Initiative of 1875*

Abstract

Ulysses S. Grant's annual message to Congress in 1875 announced a striking foreign-policy initiative. For the preceding seven years, Spain's heavy-handed response to a rebellion in Cuba had threatened the interests and ideals of the United States. Repeated unilateral protests from Washington had failed to moderate Spain's tactics in dealing with the insurgency. With no end to the rebellion in sight, Grant declared that his government could no longer tolerate disorder ninety miles from U.S. territory. It was now the duty of “ other nations,” the president contended, “to assume the responsibility which devolves upon them, and to seriously consider the only remaining measures possible— mediation and intervention” (emphasis added).1 Indeed, on the day before Grant's message, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish instructed U.S. ministers in six European capitals to arrange a coalition of governments to join the United States in an attempt to compel Spain to end its war in Cuba.