He did not ask for war, but Congress made the decision and declared war on April 20, with the addition of the Teller Amendment, which disavowed any intention of annexing Cuba.[137] Nick Kapur says that McKinley's actions were based on his values of arbitrationism, pacifism, humanitarianism, and manly self-restraint, and not on external pressures.[138]
The expansion of the telegraph and the development of the telephone gave McKinley greater control over the day-to-day management of the war than previous presidents had enjoyed, and he used the new technologies to direct the army's and navy's movements as far as he was able.[139] McKinley found Alger inadequate as Secretary of War, and did not get along with the Army's commanding general, Nelson A. Miles.[140] Bypassing them, he looked for strategic advice first from Miles's predecessor, General John Schofield, and later from Adjutant General Henry Clarke Corbin.[140] The war led to a change in McKinley's cabinet, as the president accepted Sherman's resignation as Secretary of State. William R. Day agreed to serve as secretary until the war's end.