A big question I had when starting this project was why did the US enter the war in the first place. Everyone, I would hope, knows about the USS Maine reason for entering the war but this document detailed a part that not a lot of people talk about. Now, whether this speech actually was a factor in deciding to go to war and/or whether this speech was actually genuine about needing to help Cuba and not just advancing US interests is not extremely relevant to this project, but it is a good topic to look at in the future. On to the speech, In 1898 Senator John Thurston delivered this speech about going to war with the Spanish. In the speech he laid out the reason why we should go to war as being the need to stop the humanitarian crisis in Cuba.
The reason that this speech is so important is because it gives us a window into the arguments for the US to enter the war. I picked this because it is a not really talked about speech.
Thurston, John M. “We Must Act!” American Empire at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. (1898).