The De Lôme Letter, which set off an 1898 iplomatic incident, was written by Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish Minister with the Portfolio of Cuban Affairs at the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C. The letter, which was intended to be private, was sent to his friend, Don Jose Canelejas, a Spanish official in Havana and was stolen from the Post Office in Havana and released by Cuban revolutionists to Hearst's newspaper. In it, the minister wrote disparagingly of US President William McKinley "... McKinley is: weak and catering to the rabble, and, besides, a low politician, who desires to leave a door open to me and to stand well with the jingoes of his party." On February 9, 1898, the letter was published in the New York Journal.