Protocol for the End of Hostilities with Spain
By the President of the United States of America.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, By a protocol concluded and signed Aug. 12, 1898, by William R. Day, Secretary of State of the United States, and his Excellency Jules Chambon, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of France at Washington, respectively representing for this purpose, the Government of the United States and the Government of Spain, the Governments of the United States and Spain have formally agreed upon the terms on which negotiations for the establishment of peace between the two countries shall be undertaken; and,
Whereas, it is in said protocol agreed that upon its conclusion and signature hostilities between the two countries shall be suspended, and that notice to that effect shall be given as soon as possible by each Government to commanders of its military and naval forces;
Now, therefore, I, William McKinley, President of the United States, do, in accordance with the stipulations of the protocol, declare and proclaim on the part of the United States a suspension of hostilities, and do hereby command that orders be immediately given through the proper channels to the commanders of the military and naval forces of the United States to abstain from all acts inconsistent with the proclamation.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this 12th day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-third.
By the President,
William R. Day, Secretary of State.
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Terms of the Protocol
1. Spain will relinquish all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba.
2. Porto Rico and other Spanish islands in the West Indies and an island in the Ladrones1 to be selected by the United States, shall be ceded to the latter.
3. The United States will occupy and hold the city, bay and harbor of Manila pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace, which shall determine the control, disposition and governance of the Philippines.2
Cuba, Porto Rico and other Spanish islands in the West Indies shall be immediately evacuated and Commissioners, to be appointed within ten days, shall, within thirty days from the signing of the protocol, meet at Havana and San Juan, respectively, to arrange and execute the details of the evacuation.
5. The United States and Spain will each appoint not more than five Commissioners to negotiate and conclude a treaty of peace. The Commissioners are to meet at Paris not later than the 1st of October.3
6. On the signing of the protocol hostilities will be suspended and notice to that effect will be given as soon as possible by each Government to the commanders of its military and naval forces.
Source Note Print: Army and Navy Journal, 20 August, 1898, p. 1050.
Footnote 1: This is a reference to the Island of Guam, captured by the United States Navy on 20 June 1898. See: Capt. Henry C. Glass to Secretary of the Navy John D. Long, 24 June 1898.
Footnote 2: The United States annexed the Philippines. See: RAdm. Montgomery Sicard to Long, 19 August 1898.
Footnote 3: The American Peace Commission consisted of Former Secretary of State William R. Day, Senator William P Frye, Republican from Maine, Ambassador to France Whitelaw Reid, Senator George Gray, Democrat from Delaware, and Senator Cushman K. Davis, Republican from Minnesota. The Treaty of Paris (1898) between the United States and Spain was officially signed on 10 December 1898. Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American War, vol. 2, 468-69.
