How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

by Daniel Immerwahr

“I don’t propose to be swept off my feet by the catastrophe,” wrote McKinley the next day. “The country can afford to withhold its judgment and not strike an avenging blow until the truth is known.” Roosevelt displayed none of McKinley’s caution. “Dirty treachery on the part of the Spaniards” was his diagnosis, and the newspapers concurred. “Remember the Maine!” replaced “Remember the Alamo!” as the battle cry of a wounded nation. In retrospect, McKinley was right to hesitate. As far as we can tell, the Maine’s explosion was probably the result of spontaneous combustion in its coal bunkers, a surprisingly common hazard at the time (barely a month later, the USS Oregon’s coal stores spontaneously burst into flame). Whatever the cause, McKinley was loath to ramp up the conflict with Spain. “I have been through one war,” he said, thinking of his service in the Civil War. “I have seen the dead piled up. I do not want to see another.” Roosevelt rolled his eyes. “McKinley is bent on peace, I fear.”