100 THE POLITICS OF INTERVENTIONPalma had called another special session of congress to accept
his resignation on September 28; the Peace Mission had but
two days to find a replacement. Zayas was working with
some Moderates, Taft reported, and he himself had warned
them that any intervention would be temporary. This warn
ing, he hoped, would dishearten the annexationists in the
Moderate party.^56 When Taft worried about the constitution
ality of a new government, Roosevelt told him the problem
was meaningless. The American goal was still any settlement
which avoided war and intervention:
Remember that we have to do not only what is best for the island
but what we can get public sentiment in this country to support, and
there will be very grave dissatisfaction here with our intervention unless
we can show clearly that we have exhausted every method by which
it is possible to obtain peace and the perpetuation of the government
with some show of order prior to our taking control ourselves.^57
The provisional government scheme, however, did not
gain much support, and Taft, upon learning that the Moder
ates were planning a counterinsurrection, again asked for
Roosevelt's approval for immediate intervention. The Presi
dent's reply re-emphasized the need to justify intervention
to the American public:
... I do not see that two revolutions would be ... more objection
able than one, and as far as our attitude before the people of the
United States is concerned it would make our position even better, for
if we have to intervene I shall not object to any additional proof that
the intervention was inevitable. ... If we have to put down the
insurrection it will, of course, take many months and a large force, and
the people of this country will need to be convinced that there was no
later alternative... -^58
On September 28, Taft, Zayas, and other Cuban politicos
went on with the charade of forming another government
before the congress met that afternoon. By now Taft realized
that both the Liberals and Moderates favored an American
occupation, the former to have their new elections, the latter
because they hoped it would bring annexation: