The Politics of Intervention

164 THE POLITICS OF INTERVENTION

fully intended to leave the island in the forseeable future.
His open letter explaining the election plans to Governor
Magoon was circulated throughout the island. It was a clear
pledge of withdrawal, with the proviso that there be no
violence in Cuba. This proviso, that "the carrying out of this
plan is of course strictly dependent on the tranquillity of the
country," may have had a sobering effect on the politicos,
but it also meant that the annexationists within Cuba were
offered one last chance to provoke a protectorate and avoid
a repetition of "the Crime of 1902." In the complex and
confusing events that troubled the tiempo muerto of 1907,
Magoon, the officers of the Provisional Government, and the
Army of Cuban Pacification were to experience their most
trying moments.

1. Taft-Bacon Report, p. 463.


2. James D. Richardson (ed.) A Compilation of the Messages and
   Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1908 (Washington, D.C., 1910), X,
   7436-37.


3. Roosevelt to Sir Edward Grey, February 28, 1907; Roosevelt to
   William Coolidge Lane, April 15, 1907, Roosevelt Papers.
   To his son Kermit, Roosevelt wrote of his talks with Taft and Bacon
   that "they said they never could tell when those ridiculous dagos would
   flare up ... and start cutting one another's throats."


4. Roosevelt to Taft, January 22, 1907, Roosevelt Papers.


5. Taft-Bacon Report, p. 468; Taft and Bacon to Estrada Palma,
   September 24, 1906, in Taft-Bacon Report, p. 509-11.


6. Taft to Charles P. Taft, October 9, 1906, Taft Papers.


7. Root to Wood, October 31, 1906, Wood Papers.


8. James H. Wilson to Root, October 18, 1906, and Root to Wilson,
   October 24, 1906, Root Papers.


9. Bacon and Scott (eds.) Latin America and the United States,
   p. 275.


10. Root to Magoon, December 16, 1907, Root Papers.


11. Editorial, "The Nature of the Government in Cuba," American
    Journal of International Law, I (January, 1907), 149-50. For a con­
    curring opinion, see David A. Lockmiller, "La base legal de la inter­
    vention de los Estados Unidos en Cuba en 1906," Revista bimestre
    cubana, XXXVIII (September-December, 1936), 268-81.


12. Congressional Record, 59th Con., 2d Sess., XLI, 849-50, 2638-40.
    Senator Shelby Cullom stated that the occupation was an administration
    responsibility, and that the Committee on Foreign Affairs was not in­