A letter from the Spanish ambassador to the United States, Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, was published in the New York Journal. In the letter, de Lôme called President McKinley a “weak . . . bidder for the admiration of the crowd.”
Enrique Dupuy de Lôme was the Spanish minister to the United States just prior to the Spanish-American War. In early 1898, Cuban insurgents leaked a letter from De Lôme in which the Spanish minister harshly criticized the character of President McKinley. De Lôme quickly resigned, but the letter, printed in the New York Journal, sparked anti-Spanish sentiment and contributed to the United States going to war with Spain.