Our Admiral, six hundred miles from Hongkong, the closest cable connection, could not afford to leave Manila in direct communication with Madrid.

It was for this reason and not that he desired to keep out of way or orders, as some able publicists have kindly promulgated, that the Admiral cut the cable.
The gravest of his responsibilities came upon him after his victory freed the harbor of declared enemies, and placed the great city at his mercy.

If the Spaniards used their big Krupp guns against his ships, he could bombard the city and burn it.

He held the keys to the Philippines, with Manila under his guns, and the question before him then was the same before the country now.

The question that incessantly presses is, whether the Dewey policy is to be confirmed, and the logic of the stay in the harbor, and the dispatch of troops to take the town made good.