The De Lôme Letter
by: Selase B
Description
In the year of 1898 Enrique Dupuy De Lôme was the Spanish ambassador to the US, specifically Washington. Because he was the ambassador, he worked with high officials. He found that he did not agree with President McKinley or his policies. In a letter to his friend in Cuba, a government official in Havana, De Lôme admitted his true feeling about the US president writing that McKinley was a weak, people-pleasing, and low politician. Unfortunately for De Lôme, his letter was somehow intercepted from the mail by Cuban revolutionaries. They handed the letter over the Heart who was the head of the New York Journal. On February 9, 1898 Heart published the letter on the front page with the headline "The Worst Insult to the United States in Its History." Within a few days, the scandal was known nationwide. In response to the angry public and president, De Lôme resigned.
Significance
Works Cited
"De Lôme Letter (1898)." Our Documents -. National Archives, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2015. <http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=53>.
"February 9, 1898: Dupuy De Lôme Letter Scandal." PBS. PBS, 1999. Web. 17 Feb. 2015. <http://www.pbs.org/crucible/tl9.html>.
Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, Thomas Andrew Bailey, and Thomas Andrew Bailey. The American Pageant: A History of the Republic. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Enrique Dupuy De Lôme in The Spanish-American War." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 17 Feb. 2015. <http://www.shmoop.com/spanish-american-war/enrique-dupuy-de-lome.html>.