Resource Center OLLibrary
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419. Our Seventh Step in National
Expansion, -- Annexation of Hawaii1 and of the Islands
ceded by Spain; the Treaty of Peace; Our Total Territorial
Additions, 1803-1917. After Dewey's splendid victory at Manila
(§ 415) Captain Mahan and other eminent men in our navy urged
the annexation of Hawaii. They believed that we needed the islands
as a military base of defense and of naval operations in the
Pacific.
When the question came up in the United States
Senate a number of senators declared that the people of the
republic of Hawaii had not been fully and fairly consulted, and
that the great majority of them were unfit for self-government.
But Congress passed a resolution to annex, and Hawaii became a
part of the territory of the United States (1898).
The following year (1899) we came into
possession of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific. We now own
a number of other small islands in the Pacific, several of which
we use as coaling, naval, or telegraph stations. (Map, p.
380.)
Meanwhile, the final treaty of peace between the
United States and Spain had been signed (1898). The terms of the
treaty were as follows:
1. Spain gave up all right and title to
Cuba.
2. Spain gave up Porto Rico2 and
Guam, the largest island in the Ladrones,3 to the
United States.
3. Finally, Spain gave up the entire group of
the Philippines4 to us, on payment by us of $20,000,000
for the public works which the Spanish government had constructed
in those islands.
1 The Hawaiian group
consists of twelve islands having a total area of less than 7000
square miles. The total population in 1900 was a little over
153,000. Of this number over 61,000 are Japanese and 25,000 are
Chinese. There are over 28,000 white inhabitants and about 30,000
Hawaiians. Only a part of the population can speak English.
2 Porto Rico, with its three small dependent
islands, has an area of a little over 3600 square miles, and is
therefore nearly three times as large as the state of Rhode
Island. It has a population of nearly a million, composed of
whites, negroes, and mulattoes.
3. Guam (Map, p. 380) has an area of 200 square
miles and a population of 8661. It was seized by the United
States, during the war with Spain, as a naval port.
4 The Philippines (Map, p. 380) comprise over
400 islands, many of which are very small. They have a total area
of over 122,000 Square miles. Luzon, the largest of the islands,
of which Manila is the capital, has an area of nearly 40,000
square miles and is therefore nearly as large as the state of
Ohio. The Philippines have a population of less than 8,000,000.
The greater part of the inhabitants are (1) Malays, (2) savage
tribes of an undersized negro-like race, and (3) Chinese.
[Click to View Full Size
Map]
Island possessions of the United States: (1) in the Atlantic --
Porto Rico and a group of three small islands which we purchased
from
Denmark in 917; (2) in the Pacific -- Hawaii, the Philippines,
Guam, Aleutian, Midway, Baker, Howland, Wake, and Tutuila and
Manua in the Samoan group. We hold the Panama Canal Zone by a
lease (§ 425), and under certain conditions we hold
the right to act as guardians for Cuba. Several of the small
islands are used as telegraph or landing stations.
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When the question of accepting the treaty
came before the Senate,1 a part of the members objected
to our taking possession of the Philippines. They contended that
we could not give the semicivilized or barbarous people of those
islands the rights and privileges of American citizenship; and
that, on the other hand, we could not hold them under permanent
military rule without violating the spirit of the American
Republic. They urged, too, that the expense and difficulty of
governing so distant a territory would be very great, and that
there would be serious danger of our getting into war with some of
the nations of Europe over questions that would arise about the
islands.
They wished to amend the treaty so that it would
simply make us the guardians over the Philippines, as in the case
of Cuba, until the people of those islands should be able to
govern themselves.
But a large majority of the Senate held that the
Philippines would be safer, and in every way better off, if they
became a part of the United States. They argued that we had no
choice; the war, said they, has forced us to annex distant
islands; it has thus made us a "world power"; and our trade
interests with China and the Far East demand that we should own
the whole of the Philippines. We can hold them, they said, as we
do Alaska, under some form of territorial government, until we see
our way to do differently.
While the discussion was going on the natives
attacked our forces at Manila. A fierce battle ensued, with the
result that General Otis and Rear Admiral Dewey drove back the
insurgents with terrible loss. The news of the battle was at once
sent to Washington. The next day the Senate met to take action on
the treaty of peace with Spain (1899). Fifty-seven senators voted
for the treaty as it stood, against twenty-seven who voted against
it. The result was that the treaty was accepted by one more than
the two thirds' majority which the Constitution
requires.2 This gave the whole Philippine group and the
islands of Porto Rico and Guam to the United States.
1 The President may
make a treaty provided two thirds of the senators present vote in
favor of it. See the Constitution in the Appendix, p. xv, Article
II, Section 2, Paragraph 2.
2 See the Constitution in the
Appendix, Article II, Section 2, Paragraph 2.
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Let us stop here long enough to review the
seven great steps of our national territorial expansion from the
first step to the present time (see Map, p. 332).
1. (1803) We purchased the province of Louisiana
from France (§ 215).
2. (1819) We purchased Florida from Spain
(§ 238).
3. (1845) We annexed the independent state of
Texas at the urgent request of the people of that state (§
285).
4. (1846) We settled our claim to Oregon by a
treaty with Great Britain (§§ 287, 289).
5. (1848-1853) We added California and other
Mexican land cessions obtained through the Mexican War (§
294), and the Gadsden tract obtained by purchase from Mexico
(§ 294).
6. (1867) We bought Alaska of Russia (§
368).
7. (1898-1917) We got peaceful possession of
Hawaii, and obtained the Philippines, Guam, and Porto Rico through
our war with Spain. Later (1904), we hired the use of the Panama
Canal Zone (§ 425). Finally (1917), we bought the Virgin
Islands in the West Indies (§ 444) (see Map facing p. 380).
In these ways we added nearly 3,000,000 square miles to the United
States.1
When the natives of the Philippines ceased to
fight against us, we established a government there in which we
gave the people power to help make the laws. We also opened many
excellent public schools for their benefit.
In the meantime the Spanish had withdrawn from
Cuba, which was to remain under our guardianship until the people
should be prepared to govern themselves (§ 413). At noon on
New Year's Day (1899) the Spanish flag was hauled down at Havana
and the Stars and Stripes were hoisted above the palace and the
castle of that ancient city. The Spanish general then bade a
sorrowful farewell to the beautiful island. Spain, once so rich in
American possessions (§ 410), does not now own a single foot
of land on this side of the Atlantic.
1 The total area of
the United States in 1800 was 827,844 square miles; its present
area (including Alaska and our island possessions) is 3,756,884
square miles. The total additions amount to nearly 3,000,000
square miles.
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Three years later (1902) the United
States formally recognized the new republic of Cuba, but
on the condition that the Cubans should acknowledge the
right of the United States to take what ever action might
be necessary to preserve the independence of the island
and to protect the life, property, and liberty of its
people. |
President
resigned his office and appealed to the United States for
help. We made Secretary Taft provisional governor of the
island and held it, for a time, by military power. Our
government now has good reason to hope that the people of
Cuba have succeeded in reëstablishing their republic
on a permanent and peaceful foundation.|
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421. The Omaha
Exposition; Cheap Lands; Agricultural Prosperity; Agricultural
Colleges. While the war with Spain was going on, an Exposition
was opened at Omaha, Nebraska (1898). The object of this grand
fair was to exhibit to the world the marvelous growth and
resources of the states and territories West of the
Mississippi.
Spain held that vast region when Coronado
wandered through it in his search for gold (§ 22). Then
France laid claim to a large part of it (§§ 131, 143).
Finally, we purchased the French province of Louisiana (§
215). Seventy years ago the greater part of it was an unexplored
wilderness. Not a single mile of railway penetrated the country;
and the school maps of that day marked a central portion, covering
many thousand square miles, with the forbidding name
"GREAT AMERICAN
DESERT."1
The building of railways (§§ 255, 270,
370) and the generous offer by the government of cheap lands, and
finally of free lands, made rapid changes in that part of the
country and converted the "American Desert" into what is now
popularly called the "Bread Basket of the World."
Under the Homestead Act, to which reference has
been made (§ 371), every permanent settler received 160 acres
of land practically free of charge. It is estimated that Western
farmers have taken up so many millions of acres that they cover
260,000 square miles. This area is more than four times the size
of England and Wales, and nearly six times larger than
Pennsylvania. Once it was the home of the buffalo and the hunting
ground of the Indian; now it is cultivated by men who own it, live
on it, and prosper by it.
A noted writer has said that it is a great thing
for any one to make two ears of corn or two blades of grass grow
where only one grew before. But the Omaha Exposition showed that
the Western farmer had done even better than this; for he made
1 The Great American
Desert: this name was formerly applied to an unexplored region
lying west of the Mississippi. It had no very definite limits.
Later, the name was given to a tract of country south and west of
Great Salt Lake, Utah. At present the name is scarcely ever used,
but when it is, it designates a section of the region lying
between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada and Cascade
mountains. Irrigation (see §§ 279,422) is rendering
portions of this barren tract increasingly productive. Much of
this and region is rich in valuable
minerals.
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corn grow where it never grew before, and in some cases he made
grass spring up where not a blade of it was ever seen.
Furthermore, he planted groves on land which for hundreds of years
had been as bare of trees as a barn floor. In many cases the
farmer's children helped him in this excellent work and they now
enjoy the results of their labor.
The liberal government policy which gave
homesteads to tens of thousands of hard-working, thrifty settlers,
and thereby enriched the country, also gave large tracts of land
to each state to establish agricultural and mechanical colleges.
More than sixty of these educational institutions have been
founded. In many cases they have been productive of much good;
and, if well managed, they will sow the seed for a harvest of
still greater good.
The same year (1898) was one of great
agricultural prosperity for the United States. The West raised
enormous crops of grain. The foreign demand put up the price.
Millions of bushels were sent abroad which wore paid for in gold,
filling the farmer's pockets and adding largely to the wealth of
the country.
Since then American farmers and planters have
harvested in a single season crops of corn, cotton, wheat, and
other products of the soil, and raised cattle and other animals,
which were together worth, as estimated by the Secretary of
Agriculture, about nine billion dollars! Out of the profits, the
producers could have paid all the ordinary expenses of the
national government for that year and still have had a handsome
balance left in the banks.1 That was thought to be a
remarkable year's work; but we have since seen just as great
results, or possibly even greater.2
422. The Preservation of Our Forests;
Irrigation of Desert Regions. Progress has been made in other
directions, equally important to agriculture and to the country at
large. An old maxim tells us that a "penny saved is a penny got."
This holds as true of millions of dollars as it does of
pennies.
One of the chief sources of waste in the United
States has been the unwise destruction of great areas of forest.
Where the
1 The ordinary
expenses of the government for that year were a little under
$660,000,000.
2 See government reports for
1918-1920.
