Turkey & Armenia
By 1896, the conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the dependent nation of Armenia was full blown. For years, Armenians had suffering under the rule of Sultan Abdul-Hamed II: subjected to unfair trials, corrupt government officials, murder, and robbery with no official path of recourse, Armenians resisted. By the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, the nations of Europe agreed to "secure Christian subjects their full liberty of religious worship and belief," and this included Armenians, most of whom were Christians in a predominantly Muslim empire. During 1896 the Sultan ordered large-scale massacres of Armenian citizens, in order to quell resistance. European nations discussed intervening with plans for reforms, but despite much moralistic verbiage about the evils of the Turks, little was done.

Halfway around the world, the United States had an interest in "the Armenia question." Since 1820, American Protestant missionaries had established a large network of schools and congregations throughout Armenia. Their initial intention was to convert Muslims and Jews, but after little success, the missionaries decided to "reform" the Christianity of the Armenians by teaching them the "true" meanings of the gospel. By 1896 there were hundred of schools and congregations in the region, most led by Americans. As the situation worsened, these missionaries began to speak out about the plight of the Armenians and brought the situation to the attention of the American public.

Women's organizations were particularly active in publicizing the Armenian cause. The Woman's Journal of Boston devoted a great deal of space to describing the atrocities. The most famous U.S. prohibitionist leader, Frances Willard of the WCTU, was living in England in 1896; she raised funds for Armenian refugees in Britain and America. The United States, through resolutions, eventually decided to work indirectly with other nations to secure the rights of not only the Christian Armenians, but also the safety of American lives and property overseas.

Protestant missionaries provided generally accurate reports of human rights abuses against Armenians. They and the American press, however, often stereotyped the "cruel and heathen Turks," implying that they were racially or religiously predisposed to torture and murder. In cartoons from the presidential campaign, depictions of Turks reflected and reinforced such prejudices.

This affair is the business of the whole Christian world, and of the powers directly responsible for the good behavior of the Sultan do not perform their duty, the rest of good Christendom has the right to call them into account.
--Boston Post, in Public Opinion, 6 February 1896

The fact that Turkey owes the snug little sum of $750,000,000 to various Christian nations may somewhat account for the lethargy that has been going along with Turkish outrages.
--Boston Globe, 3 Septemer 1896

The protection of the rights of American citizens in foreign lands and the demand for reparation when those rights are violated belong to the executive department of the Government. There is no serious complaint that the government is neglecting this duty, although it has not acted upon the jingo demand that it shall send a fleet to the Bosphorous to blow the Turk out of his capital. The fleets of England, Russia, and France, would be very likely to to put in a caveat against such a proceeding in behalf of the Berlin treaty. But those governments will hardly treat with seriousness the Senate's gratuitous resolutions of advice concerning their international rights and obligations.
--Philadelphia Record in Public Opinion, 6 February 1896

...The testimony of missionaries, in private letters... [indicates] that the Armenians are not wholly blameless for these troubles; that they are anxious to be free and often provoke attacks that would not otherwise be forced upon them, and do so for the sake of arousing sentiment in Europe against the Turks.
--Minneapolis Journal in Public Opinion, 30 January, 1896

The present position in the levant is literally too shameful for words. The Armenians are still being murdered and starved and outraged as freely as though they were inhabitants of remote Polynesian cannibal islands, instead of next-door neighbors of Christian Europe. The Cretans are up in arms fighting desperately for their freedom against the abominations and criminal stupidity of Turkish misrule.
--Saturday Review, in Public Opinion 27 August, 1896

The attack of the Turks on the Christian inhabitants, with the customary and incidental atrocities, the revolt of the Christians, their gallant fight for life and the saftey of their families, are all typical of the struggles of Christian populations against the horrors of Mahometan supremacy. ...The whole subject of Turkish anarchy and murder is an appalling demonstration of the heartlessness and falsity of European diplomacy. It is a demonstration that the United States has not sunk to a similar sway of selfish and cowardly motives that we urge intervention by our government in the corresponding case of Cuba.
--Pittsburgh Dispatch, from Public Opinion, 16 July, 1896

--from Great Leaders and National Issues of 1896