The Teller Amendment

The Teller Amendment

Thus, in April 1898 Senator Henry Teller of Colorado proposed an amendment to the U.S. declaration of war against Spain which proclaimed that the U.S. would not establish permanent control over Cuba. It stated that the United States "hereby disclaims any disposition of intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island except for pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people." The Senate passed the amendment on April 19. True to the letter of the Teller Amendment, after the last Spanish troops left the island in 1899, the U.S. withdrew from Cuba. However, the Teller Amendment was succeeded by an amendment to the Army Appropriations bill introduced by Senator Orville Platt of Connecticut in February 1901. It allowed the United States "the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty...." The Platt Amendment was repealed in 1934, when a new treaty with Cuba was negotiated as a part of President Franklin Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy," but the U.S. still maintains a military base at Guantanamo Bay.
[Return to Lecture 5]

Liberation of Cuba from repressive Spanish imperialism was one of the main motives expressed by President William McKinley and Congress when the decision to declare war on Spain was made in 1898. Sensational reports of Spanish atrocities in Cuba--some real and some invented by Cuban insurgents and sympathetic journalists--drew comparisons to Americans' own oppression under British colonialism in 1776. But Anti-imperialists feared that the idealistic rhetoric might be overpowered by territorial ambitions of U.S. political and business leaders.

© 2006 David C. Hanson, Virginia Western Community College

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		Thus, in April 1898 Senator Henry Teller of Colorado proposed an amendment to the U.S. declaration of war against Spain which proclaimed that the U.S. would not establish permanent control over Cuba. It stated that the United States "hereby disclaims any disposition of intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island except for pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people." The Senate passed the amendment on April 19. True to the letter of the Teller Amendment, after the last Spanish troops left the island in 1899, the U.S. withdrew from Cuba. However, the Teller Amendment was succeeded by an amendment to the Army Appropriations bill introduced by Senator Orville Platt of Connecticut in February 1901. It allowed the United States "the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty...." The Platt Amendment was repealed in 1934, when a new treaty with Cuba was negotiated as a part of President Franklin Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy," but the U.S. still maintains a military base at Guantanamo Bay. [Return to Lecture 5]
Liberation of Cuba from repressive Spanish imperialism was one of the main motives expressed by President William McKinley and Congress when the decision to declare war on Spain was made in 1898. Sensational reports of Spanish atrocities in Cuba--some real and some invented by Cuban insurgents and sympathetic journalists--drew comparisons to Americans' own oppression under British colonialism in 1776. But Anti-imperialists feared that the idealistic rhetoric might be overpowered by territorial ambitions of U.S. political and business leaders.