Restoration and Withdrawal 245American interests that have placed the country where it is now, and
which makes it feel the lack of government that is responsible for its
actions.^9The Conservatives, in the meantime, were having a difficult
time shaking their image as "men of books and laws who
wished to deceive the Liberals" and only the Liberal split
encouraged them to campaign. The Junta Patriotica (old-time
conservative patriots) and the Independent Party of Color
were making little headway. Still, despite the talk of violence,
Magoon was satisfied that the municipal elections would be
orderly though the vote close.^10American-Cuban Relations and the Restoration
In his annual message to Congress on December 7, 1907,
Theodore Roosevelt expressed his pleasure over the Provisional
Government's work. He announced that elections were in the
offing to turn Cuba over to a government "chosen by the
people." Once more he emphasized what he considered the
irreducible elements of the United States relations with Cuba:
Cuba is at our doors. It is not possible that this Nation should permit
Cuba again to sink into the condition from which we rescued it. All
that we ask of the Cuban people is that they be prosperous, that they
govern themselves so as to bring content, order and progress to their
island... and our only interference has been and will be to help them
achieve these results.^11
To formally begin the restoration of self-government, Roose
velt set the date of the American withdrawal as no later than
February 1, 1909.^12
In the wake of Roosevelt's announcement, the British
Foreign Office attempted to find out just how the United
States was going to give Cuba both independence and sta
bility. The charge in Havana, A. C. Grant-Duff, thought that
the political situation did not promise tranquillity or any
lessening of antiforeign sentiment in Cuba; he suggested that
the Foreign Office get concrete guarantees of protection of