1898 – Letter following the explosion of the Battleship Maine from a mother to her daughter reassuring her that if Spaniards come to Philadelphia, “we will give them a warm reception”

Item Details

Philadelphia, 1898, Letter

Very Good

This letter, from a mother in Philadelphia to her daughter, Grace, in Buffalo, was written just over a week after the Battleship Maine exploded and sank in the Havana, Cuba harbor, killing over 260 sailors, many in their sleep. Although it was clear that the explosion of stored munitions doomed the ship, it was unclear how that was triggered. Official opinions varied between a spontaneous engine room detonation, the striking of a hidden Spanish mine, or being hit with a Spanish torpedo. (To this day, multiple investigations have been inconclusive.) However, that was immaterial as “yellow journalists,” Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst accused the Spanish and successfully fanned the flames of war in their newspapers. War fever was raging when this letter was written.

This letter reads in part:

“Well, I thought a week ago you would soon be with us [but] I know what has made you give up coming. You are afraid of the Spaniards here. Well you need not fear them. We are ready for them if they do come, and will give them a warm receptions You have no idea what an excitement there is here over the destruction of the Maine. I wish they would have a way, and annihilate the Spaniards. I wish they would not leave one to tell the story. I wish I was a man. I would go in the first company formed. I never heard of anything as dreadful. I have said all the time the Spaniards did it, and Papa said they did not, so you can imagine the hot discussion we had at the table. . .. Now we are beginning to have the laugh on Papa. Capt. Sigsbee is too careful to permit an accident. . ..”

(For more information, see Walker’s “The Spanish American War and the Yellow Press” at the Library of Congress blog site and Kennedy’s “Did Yellow Journalism Fuel the Outbreak of the Spanish American War?” at History.com.)

A great firsthand historical account demonstrating the potential impact of an unethical mainstream media.

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