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PUKSIDKNT AND (rKNTI.KMKN : The (|ue.sti<>n : " Shall the policy of the I'liitcd SlaU's )to to ex- tend its dominion r' whirh forms the theme of our dis<Mission, does not a(hi)it of a catej^oricHl answer. In passinjr judgment u|)on any i)roposed exten^don of our dominion, much depen is upon the nature and <reo<rraphical location of the country to Iw annexed, the character of its })opulation, the means to be employed in soenr- in<r it and the possible [)i)litical conse»piences of such annexation, l)oth with respect to our domestic and with regard to our foreign re- lations. To extend our dominion from the same motives, merely, which were the propelling force of con<iuerors like the great Napo- leon, is of course out of the question. To extend it by means which would in\'olve us in the horrors of war with great European powers, appears equally impolitic. To obtain dominion over coun- tries very remote from o\ir shores, or little productive, or of a thickly settled population either entirely uncivilized or of a civilization much lower than ours, will dso be admitted to l)e very undesirable. What, then, must be the conditions and circumstances which will make an extension of our dominion appear in the light of wise and judicious statecraft? A correct answer will Ik? found rather easily if we in- vestigate the accessions to the territory of the United States from the formation of our government to the present time. At the termination oi' the revolutionary war our dominion con- sisted of a narrow Inilt of land along the Atlantic coast, hemmed in on three sides by European possessions. After occupying our rightful possessions wesivvard to the banks of the Mississippi, we lost no opportunity to extend our dominion as fast as possible over the North American continent. The first act was the purchase from T France of the (Miorinoiiii territory then callod Loiiisiann, the very heart of the continent, now coniprisinf; fifteen states and one terri- tory, having an area of eleven hundred and eighty thousand s»|iiarc miles andhoing tive times greater than the area of France. Then foUowed tlie ae(|iiisiti()n of the Fh)ridas with tiie complete southern maritime frontiers upon the (Julf of Mexico. Next in (»rder was the ac<|uisition of Texas, a territory greater than that of the (lerman Empire. This was foHowed l>y the a«*(|uisition of California and of New Mexico and of Ariscona. Lastly, l»y the jxirchase of Alaska, we extended our dominion over a territory entirely di^con- nected from the main lK)dy of our coimtry, hut still on the North Anierican continent. With a territory of only S2T,S44 s<|uare miles in lis;? the dominion of the I'nited States was steadily extended so that in less than one hundred years it compriseil :^,«i(>3,- {SS-i S(juare miles, or more than four times its original teri'itory. With the exception of Canada on the north and Mexico on the south, our dominion has lieen thuscoiistantly extended over the entire North American continent. In the light of hi.story, therefore, the policy of the United SUites seems to have l)een unvarying and per- sistent in favor of an extension of its dominion, at least as far as the North American continent is concerned. Had it not l)een for this |)olicy and its constant aj)plication, sometimes in a manner of more than'doid>tful constitutionality, our country would hutown a frajrment of its present |)ossessions. Its position among the great nations of the earth would be one of hut secondary importance, nor wouhl we have been enal>led to enjoy the l)les->ings of peace with our neighl)ors, nor those of the highest agricultural and commercial prosj)erity. It is idle to conjecture what our lot wouM have been had not the patriots and statesmen from the earliest days to this been imlmed with the necessity, not only from a selfish standpoint, with extending the dominion of our flaj;, hut also with the sncred, lii^fhor mission of Hpreudinji; tlio gospel of domociiitic self-government, religious lilx-rty und eciiml rights over the entire eontines of the eonlinent. That tUo curse of slavery could not have been eradicated from North Ameri- can soil, that the great ircm highways would not now extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the far north to the Mexican (lulf, that the furnaces and mills of the east would not have been busy in supplying the needs and wants of a vast empire, and our Chicago W(»uld not have l>eeu able to rise to the grandeur and power of the present day, hud it not l>een for this extension of territory, is a probability amounting almost to a cerUiinty. The successful extension of our dominicm, the comj)lete amalga- mation of the vast territory thus accpured with the United States, the comparative ease and speed with which large populations be- longing to the Latin race have intermingled with, and been welded to, the great bulk of our Saxon population, now forming one mighty, and for all practical pur[)08es homogenous nation, the grand results thus accomplished, both from iho standpoint of material prosperity, as well as of moral, intellectiial and political progress, furnish the very l)est proof of the absolute correctness of the estab- lished policy of the United States with reference to this continent. And this policy has been carried out, despite the doubts and, often- times, the opposition of some of our greatest political thinkers ; carried out because in it lies the realization of the historical destiny of the republic. Daniel Webster, in a speech at Faneuil Hall as late as the 7th day of November, 1848, exclaimed : "And let me ask if there be any sensible man in the whole United States who will say for a moment that when fifty or a hundred thousand persons tind themselves on the chores of the f i- PaciHc Ocean, tlioy will long <^on8©nt to l»e under the rulen of the American CongroHs. They will raiHe the standard for thein- iielves, and they ought to do it." And before him that great, if not greatest of all Amerinin stiiten- men, Thonnis Jetierson, when referring in a letter to John Jaool» Aslor on March 24, 1H12, to a new settlement on Colnml)ia river, Kpoaks of — "Their descondantH spreading throiigli the whole length of that coast, covering it with free and indepondent Americans, n/iconwctetl inith m hut hij the tti'x of' hlood awl of Intcivat, en- joying like lis the rights of self-government." These predictions to the contrary notwithstanding, California i» today a loyal part of our Union, and with it Texas and the Floridas and all the states and territories gained liy the extension of our dominion. The policy to extend our dominion having lieen estal»lished as firmly impressed upon the history of our past national life, shall it, and will it he continued, and what territory should it embrace ^ Will anybody at this day dispute that the accession of Canada would not lie of the highest benefit to the United States J Its popu- lation is to an overwhelming degree com{)osed of people of our idood, of our religion, of our customs, trained in the arts of husbandry and of manufacturing, skilled in conunerce and trade and navigation, ac- custometl to self-government, peaceable, law-abiding and enjoying even to a highei degree than our own, the blessings of civil servico reform and of an impartial and swift execution of the laws of the land. As there can be no annexation of Canada except with the consent of its people, the problem is rendered difficult because of the political wistlom of the British government. While the Span- iards and Portuguese, after founding their colonies, have held them T mi^mm mi^i.^m:mmL.. \ i w I nndwr dospotic subjection, rind hnvc djMiiod tlioin {hv v\<s\i\ df self •jfovorninont, aiil thus Ikivc ftu'cod tho stni<;<.'l(' for «Mimii('i|)!iti(m on \\mv pint, tlio cimiiinu; of British ^tiitccnift hns proliti'tl liy thr Ufsaon of our stru^;;h' for imtionul iiKh'pciidciuT, and " hiis rt'hixi'd the ohl system of coloniid (h-pi'iidciKM'. '" Hut <lillifult and in the far distance as tho solution of thr prulthMU of ('ana<iian arnicxation may upponr, tiic (hiy '/'/// conu* when tlic stars ainl >lri|»('s shall float from t'vory housetop of llu* ('anadian Nonunion. Still more iniproliahh* i id far r<'nioviM|, and to man\ , indcsiraliic. will the aci'ossion of Mcxi. o appc ul the pn'scnl lime. And yet. HS illustrious a statosuian r.^ Lucas Alannm in his iri'cal work on the llistor. of the Mexicat RepultJic speaks of jiis country as ''A land ()f prospei-ity, '>ut it will not he so for the races who now inhaliM it," and prophetically points to ^^ in'nf/ifr i^'rc'^ destined to siippiani it. Will not and shoidd not Mexico share tln' fate f the Kloridas. of Louisiana, of 'H'xas and of California, and will not he, who no\v shakes his head in <lissent, in years to come prove to have heen as nuicli mistaken as Daniel V>'el)ster and Thomas detlerson were .vith reference to the land kissed l)y the blue wav«>s of the l'aciti<' ocea i '. A problem of annexation nnich m«)re pressing upon tlie attention of ))atriotic Americans relates to the pearl of the Antilles the island of (Julia. The problem is not a new one. It is almost as old as the history of our Republic itself. In 1823, when Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams wrote: *' Numerous and formidable objections to the exterision ()f our territorial dominions present themselves to the tirsl contem- plation of the subject ; obstacles to the system of policy l>y which ahuie that residt can be compassed and maintained are to 6 he foreseen and .snrniountcd, lK)th from sit home and uln'oad ; but there are hi\v.s of |)olitieal as well as of physical gravitation, and if an a[)i)le severed l»y the temi)est from its native tree can- not choose but fall to the ground, Cuba, if forcibly disjointed from its own unnatural connection with Si)ain and incapable of self-support, can gravitate only to the North American Union, Avhich by the laws of nature, cannot cast her otT from its bosom.*' Thus early was the Cul)an (piestion of annexation clearly and pre- cisely stated l)y an American patriot and statesman of the highest au- thority. And before and since those days, at every attempt of the unfortunate people of that island to cast off the j'oke of Spanish op- pression, the (]aestion of extending the dominion of the United States over Cuba has been agitated, and political scholars and states- men have predicted the annexation of Cuba as the inevitable and lojrical result of existincj conditions. I do not underrate the difficulties, diplomatic and otherwise, which still have to Ije overcome before the stars and strij)e.s will iloat on the public buildings of Havana, nor do I underrate the difficulties, i)erhai)s still greater, of dealing with the new member of our political family, after its admission. But a people which conceived and carried out the problem of American independence, which devised our Constituti(m; which suppressed rebellion and managetl.the problem of reconstruction, which enlarged its original territory by almost three millions of square miles in less than a hundred years and successfully amalgamated with it large popula- tions of Spanish and French and Indian origin, which built the Pacific railroad and invented the cotton gin, and the electric tele- graph and the telephone, and, last but not least, conceived and car" ried out the miracle of the World's Fair at Chicago, will not fail in ) ' the solution of the prohleni how to deal with and make contented a niillion an<l a half of Cubans. Again, the political stomach of the United States has not lost its wonderful digestive powers. If it iiad, the diet of millions of im- migrants, some of whom as little, and some, like the Chinese, much less prepared for the resi)onsihilities of American citizenshij) than the people of Cuba, W(Mild long ago have terminated disastrously for the life of the nation. Xot only because they are our nearest neighbors, not only because of Spanish desi)otism, l)ut also because of the cHunmunity of com- mercial interests, do 1 regard the annexation of Cu))a as an inevi- table result of political necessity. From twelve millions of dollars in 1870 our exports to the island increased to twenty-four millions in 1893, in which year our imports reached the sum of fifty-four millions of dollars. \Miat would those exports have amounted to if the barrier of the Spanish customs house had been removed ? And how well could we, in such case, afl'ord to remove the l)arriers of our customs houses from the products of its sunny cjime^ .Vnother, and eiiually powerful, tie is that of sympathy of one free jieople for anothcf struggling for freedom. Hamilton Fish. when secretary of state, well expressed the current feeling iu llic Ignited States regarding Cul>a, when, in his letter of Novcndter T), l"^"."), to Mr. Cushing, Cnited States Minister at .Madrid, he said : " While remembering and observing; tlie duties which this government, as one of the family of nations, owes to another meml)er, by pul>lic laws, treaties, or the particular statutes of the United States, it would l)c idle to attempt to conceal tlie interest and sympathy with whii-h .Auiericans in the I'liitcd States regard any attempt of a numerous jwopU' on this conti- I wmm I uent to he relieved of the ties which hold them in the position of colonial subjection to a distant power, and to assume the independence and ri<rlit of self control which natural rights and the spirit of the age accord them." One more consideration an<l I am done. The experience of the last few years demonstrates the fact that we can no longer rely upon our supremacy as an agricultural country. With such powerful competitors as the Argentine Kepul)lic, India and Russia, the price of our cereals was bound to decline. On the other hand, with the increase of education, refinement and luxury, our imports from Eu- rope increase. We are forced to l)orrow money to maintain the Htandard of our currency, and, as we spend more than we receive, we are going from bad to worse. We have always been told that we are the richest country on earth. Superlatives have always been in great demand with us. But when we need money for the gov- ernment, or to build railroads or for other large enterprises, we have to go to the |)oor countries of Europe to borrow it. The fact is, while we are rich in resources, rich in skill, rich in energy, we are poor in the nnitter of accunudated wealth, poor in the science of political economy and finance, poor as regards statesmen fitted by education and training for the difiicult tasks of the day. At the same time, many of our rich men spend their millions in Europe, and some of them sell their daughters to European rakes for a title of more or less unsavory origin. It is time for us to change, and one of the most desirable changes would be an increase in our com- mercial relations with other countries, and an extension of the dominion of the United States in the right direction. Let us have, not more patriotism, l)ecause I l)elieve that the patriotism of the broad masses of the American people cannot be •> yf^^f \ increatied, but more uitelUxjent patriotism. Let us have u little less conceit and a little more determination to improve the administra- tion of our [)ul)lic affairs. Let us realize our true condition, and \ stop thinking that we are, and that everything pertaining to us is, the best and the greatest on earth. Let us, abovo all, realize that the material prosperity of a nation caiuiot, in the long run, be maintained except l)y the exercise of wise and trained statesmanship. Let us (piit thinking that one fellow is just as good as another and a great ileal l»etter, and that every one of us is fitted for every oflSce in the gift of the American paoplc. Then the dream of Charles Sumner of "Our country covering the continent from the frozen sea to the tepid waters of the Mexican Gulf," will be realized as well as the projjhecy of the great Spanish states- man, Emileo Castolar, when, in his celel)rate(l speech in the Spanish Cortes on June 22, 1871, he said : " America, and especially Saxon America, with its immense virgin territories, with its republic, with its equilibrium between stability and progress, with its harmony between liberty and democracy, is the continent of the future — the innnense con- tinent stretched by God between the Atlantic and Pacific, where mankind may plant, essay and resolve all social problems.'' And then only will the words of Alexis de Toc(jueviIle l)ecomP true : " There will then arrive a time when there will l)e seen in North America one hundred and fifty millions of men, equal together, who will have the same point of de[)arture, the same civilization, the same language, the same religion, the same hab- its, the same manners, and over which thought will circulate in the same form and paint itself in the same colors. All else is 10 doubtful, but this certuin. Here is u fact entirely new in the world, of which civilisation can hardly seize the extent. The Americans of the United Stattis will become one of the greatest people of the eaith ; they will cover with their offshoots ahnost all North America. The continent which they inhabit is their domain ; it cannot escape them." \m. «» Ai*»4f 1.)- > "P,