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214 that we go to war with Spain at once because of it. But Spain professed utter ignorance of the explosion, and a board of inquiry was appointed to make an examination into the affair. This board later on reached the important conclusion that the battleship had been blown up from the outside, and not from within, as Spain wished to prove.

"This means war, and nothing but war," was heard upon every hand; and the situation in Cuba was the sole topic of conversation. At once a number of important cabinet meetings were held, and President McKinley pointed out that the United States were in no shape to wage war on even such a secondary nation as Spain.

"She has an army of almost two hundred thousand men in Cuba," he said, "and a navy which is considered first-class, while we have but an army of a few thousand within immediate call, and a navy which is sadly lacking both in guns and ammunition. We must have an appropriation and get into shape to fight before we do anything else."

The word was passed along, and in a few