initial commit of ebook 16542HEADmain

9 files changed, 5455 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/16542-8.txt b/16542-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de76081
--- /dev/null
+++ b/16542-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1721 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our
+Forefathers", by Charles Francis Adams
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers"
+
+Author: Charles Francis Adams
+
+Release Date: August 17, 2005 [EBook #16542]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "IMPERIALISM" AND "THE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Sigal Alon and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+Produced from page images provided by the Digital and
+Multimedia Center, Michigan State University Libraries
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+"Imperialism"
+
+AND
+
+"The Tracks of Our Forefathers"
+
+
+
+A PAPER READ BY
+
+CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS
+
+_Before the Lexington, Massachusetts, Historical Society_
+
+TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1898
+
+
+
+"In a word, many wise men thought it a time wherein those two miserable
+adjuncts, which Nerva was deified for uniting, _imperium et libertas_, were
+as well reconciled as is possible."--_Clarendon's History of the Rebellion,
+B. 1. § 163._
+
+"I put my foot in the tracks of our forefathers, where I can neither wander
+nor stumble."--_Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America._
+
+
+
+BOSTON
+DANA ESTES & COMPANY
+210 SUMMER STREET
+1899
+
+
+
+
+"IMPERIALISM"
+
+AND
+
+"THE TRACKS OF OUR FOREFATHERS."
+
+
+What the feast of the Passover was to the children of Israel, that the
+days between the nineteenth of December and the fourth of January--the
+Yuletide--are and will remain to the people of New England. The Passover
+began "in the first month on the fourteenth day of the month at even,"
+and it lasted one week, "until the one and twentieth day of the month at
+even." It was the period of the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb, and the
+feast of unleavened bread; and of it as a commemoration it is written,
+"When your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?
+that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who
+passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote
+the Egyptians. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt
+in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years." And thus, by their yearly
+Passover, were the Jewish congregations of old put in mind what farewell
+they took of the land of Egypt.
+
+So our own earliest records tell us that it was on the morning of
+Saturday, of what is now the nineteenth of December, that the little
+exploring party from the _Mayflower_, then lying at her anchor in
+Provincetown Harbor, after a day and night of much trouble and danger,
+sorely buffeted by wind and wave in rough New England's December seas,
+found themselves on an island in Plymouth Bay. It was a mild, "faire
+sunshining day. And this being the last day of the weeke, they prepared
+ther to keepe the Sabath. On Munday they sounded the harbor, and marched
+into the land, and found a place fitt for situation. So they returned to
+their shipp againe [at Provincetown] with this news. On the twenty-fifth
+of December they weyed anchor to goe to the place they had discovered,
+and came within two leagues of it, but were faine to bear up againe; but
+the twenty-sixth day, the winde came faire, and they arrived safe in
+this harbor. And after wards tooke better view of the place, and
+resolved wher to pitch their dwelling; and the fourth day [of January]
+begane to erecte the first house for commone use to receive them and
+their goods." Such, in the quaint language of Bradford, is the calendar
+of New England's Passover; and, beginning on the nineteenth of December,
+it ends on the fourth of January, covering as nearly as may be the
+Christmas holyday period.
+
+Is there any better use to which the Passover anniversary can be put
+than to retrospection? "And when your children shall say unto you, What
+mean you by this service? ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the
+Lord's passover, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses."
+So the old story is told again, being thus kept ever green in memory;
+and, in telling it, the experiences of the past are brought insensibly
+to bear on the conditions of the present. Thus, once a year, like the
+Israelites of old, we, as a people, may take our bearings and verify our
+course, as we plunge on out of the infinite past into the unknowable
+future. It is a useful practice; and we are here this first evening of
+our Passover period to observe it.
+
+This, too, is an Historical Society,--that of Lexington, "a name," as,
+when arraigned before the tribunal of the French Terror, Danton said of
+his own, "tolerably known in the Revolution;" and I am invited to
+address you because I am President of the Massachusetts Historical
+Society, the most venerable organization of the sort in America, perhaps
+in the world. Thus, to-night, though we shall necessarily have to touch
+on topics of the day, and topics exciting the liveliest interest and
+most active discussion, we will in so doing look at them,--not as
+politicians or as partisans, nor from the commercial or religious side,
+but solely from the historical point of view. We shall judge of the
+present in its relations to the past. And, unquestionably, there is
+great satisfaction to be derived from so doing; the mere effort seems at
+once to take us into another atmosphere,--an atmosphere as foreign to
+unctuous cant as it is to what is vulgarly known as "electioneering
+taffy." This evening we pass away from the noisy and heated turmoil of
+partisan politics, with its appeals to prejudice, passion, and material
+interest, into the cool of a quiet academic discussion. It is like going
+out of some turbulent caucus, or exciting ward-room debate, and finding
+oneself suddenly confronted by the cold, clear light of the December
+moon, shining amid the silence of innumerable stars.
+
+Addressing ourselves, therefore, to the subject in hand, the question at
+once suggests itself,--What year in recent times has been in a large way
+more noteworthy and impressive, when looked at from the purely
+historical point of view, than this year of which we are now observing
+the close? The first Passover of the Israelites ended a drama of more
+than four centuries' duration, for "the sojourning of the children of
+Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years; and at
+the end of the four hundred and thirty years all the hosts of the Lord
+went out from the land of Egypt." So the Passover we now celebrate
+commemorates the closing of another world drama of almost precisely the
+same length, and one of deepest significance, as well as unsurpassed
+historic interest. These world dramas are lengthy affairs; for, while we
+men are always in a hurry, the Almighty never is: on the contrary, as
+the Psalmist observed, so now, "a thousand years in his sight are but as
+yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." The drama I
+have referred to as this week brought to its close, is that known in
+history as Spanish Domination in America. It began, as we all know, on
+the twenty-first of October, 1492; it has been continuous through six
+years over four centuries. It now passes into history; the verdict may
+be made up.
+
+So far as I personally am concerned,--a matter needless to say of very
+trifling consequence,--this verdict was rendered a year ago. It was
+somewhat Rhadamanthine; but a twelve-month of further reflection has
+shown no cause in any respect to revise it. In referring to what was
+then plainly impending, in December, 1897, before the blowing up of the
+battleship _Maine_, before a conflict had become inevitable, I used this
+language in a paper read to the Massachusetts Historical Society: "When
+looking at the vicissitudes of human development, we are apt to assume a
+certain air of optimism, and take advancement as the law of being, as a
+thing of course, indisputable. We are charitable, too; and to deny to
+any given race or people some degree of use in the economy of Nature, or
+the plan of Creation, is usually regarded as indicative of narrowness of
+view. The fatal, final word "pessimist" is apt to be whispered in
+connection with the name of one who ventures to suggest a doubt of this
+phase of the doctrine known as Universalism. And yet, at this time when,
+before our eyes, it is breathing its last, I want some one to point out
+a single good thing in law, or science, or art, or literature,--material,
+moral or intellectual,--which has resulted to the race of man upon earth
+from Spanish domination in America. I have tried to think of one in
+vain. It certainly has not yielded an immortality, an idea, or a
+discovery; it has, in fact, been one long record of reaction and
+retrogression, than which few pages in the record of mankind have been
+more discouraging or less fruitful of good. What is now taking place in
+Cuba is historical. It is the dying out of a dominion, the influence of
+which will be seen and felt for centuries in the life of two continents;
+just as what is taking place in Turkey is the last fierce flickering up
+of Asiatic rule in Europe, on the very spot where twenty-four centuries
+ago Asiatic rule in Europe was thought to have been averted forever. The
+two, Ottoman rule in Europe, and Spanish rule in America, now stand at
+the bar of history; and, scanning the long four-century record of each,
+I have been unable to see what either has contributed to the accumulated
+possessions of the human race, or why both should not be classed among
+the many instances of the arrested civilization of a race, developing by
+degrees an irresistible tendency to retrogression."
+
+This, one year ago; and while the embers of the last Greco-Turkish
+struggle, still white, were scarcely cold on the plain of Marathon. The
+time since passed has yielded fresh proof in support of this harsh
+judgment; for, if there is one historical law better and more
+irreversibly established than another, it is that, in the case of
+nations even more than in the case of individuals, their sins will find
+them out,--the day of reckoning may not be escaped. Noticeably, has
+this proved so in the case of Spain. The year 1500 may be said to have
+found that country at the apex of her greatness. America had then been
+newly discovered; the Moor was just subdued. Nearly half a century
+before (1453) the Roman Empire had fallen, and, with the storming of
+Constantinople by the Saracens, disappeared from the earth. That event,
+it may be mentioned in passing, closed another world drama continuous
+through twenty-two centuries,--upon the whole the most wonderful of the
+series. And so, when Roman empire vanished, that of Spain began. It was
+ushered in by the landfall of Columbus; and when, just three hundred
+years later, in 1792, the subject was discussed in connection with its
+third centennial, the general verdict of European thinkers was that the
+discovery of America had, upon the whole, been to mankind the reverse of
+beneficent. This conclusion has since been commented upon with derision;
+yet, when made, it was right. The United States had in 1792 just
+struggled into existence, and its influence on the course of human
+events had not begun to make itself felt. Those who considered the
+subject had before them, therefore, only Spanish domination in America,
+and upon that their verdict cannot be gainsaid; for, from the year 1492
+down, the history of Spain and Spanish domination has undeniably been
+one long series of crimes and violations of natural law, the penalty for
+which has not apparently even yet been exacted in full.
+
+Of those national crimes four stand out in special prominence,
+constituting counts in a national indictment than which history shows
+few more formidable. These four were: (1) The expulsion, first, of the
+Jews, and then of the Moors, or Moriscoes, from Spain, late in the
+fifteenth and early in the sixteenth centuries; (2) the annals of "the
+Council of Blood" in the Netherlands, and the eighty years of
+internecine warfare through which Holland fought its way out from under
+Spanish rule; (3) the Inquisition, the most ingenious human machinery
+ever invented to root out and destroy whatever a people had that was
+intellectually most alert, inquisitive, and progressive; and, finally
+(4), the policy of extermination, and, where not of extermination, of
+cruel oppression, systematically pursued towards the aborigines of
+America. Into the grounds on which the different counts of this
+indictment rest it would be impossible now to enter. Were it desirable
+so to do, time would not permit. Suffice it to say, the penalty had to
+be paid to the uttermost farthing; and one large instalment fell due,
+and was mercilessly exacted, during the year now drawing to its close.
+Spanish domination in America ceased,--the drama ended as it was
+entering on its fifth century,--and it can best be dismissed with the
+solemn words of Abraham Lincoln, uttered more than thirty years ago,
+when contemplating a similar expiation we were ourselves paying in blood
+and grief for a not dissimilar violation of an everlasting law,--"Yet,
+if God wills that this mighty scourge continue until all the wealth
+piled by the bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
+shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be
+paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years
+ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and
+righteous altogether!'"
+
+But not only is this year memorable as witnessing the downfall and
+complete extirpation of that Spanish rule in America which began with
+Columbus, but the result, when it at last came about, was marked by
+incidents more curiously fitting and dramatic than it would have been
+possible for a Shakspeare to have conceived. Columbus, as we all know,
+stumbled, as it were, on America as he sailed west in search of
+Asia,--Cipango he was looking for, and he found Cuba. It is equally well
+known that he never discovered his mistake. When fourteen years later he
+died, it was in the faith that, through him, Europe had by a westward
+movement established itself in the archipelagoes of Asia. And now, at
+last, four centuries afterward, the blow which did most to end the
+American domination he established was struck in Asiatic waters; and,
+through it and the descendants of another race, America seems on the
+threshold of realizing the mistaken belief of Columbus, and by a
+westward movement establishing the European in that very archipelago
+Columbus failed to reach. The ways of Providence are certainly not less
+singular than slow in movement.
+
+But the year just ending was veritably one of surprises,--for the
+historical student it would, indeed, seem as if 1898 was destined to
+pass into the long record as almost the Year of Surprises. We now come
+to the consideration of some of these wholly unanticipated results from
+the American point of view. And in entering on this aspect of the
+question, it is necessary once more to remind you that we are doing it
+in the historical spirit, and from the historical point of view. We are
+stating facts not supposed to admit of denial. The argument and
+inferences to be drawn from those facts do not belong to this occasion.
+Some will reach one conclusion as to the future, and the bearing those
+facts have upon its probable development, and some will reach another
+conclusion; with these conclusions we have nothing to do. Our business
+is exclusively with the facts.
+
+Speaking largely, but still with all necessary historical accuracy,
+America has been peopled, and its development, up to the present time,
+worked out through two great stocks of the European family,--the
+Spanish-speaking stock, and the English-speaking stock. In their
+development these two have pursued lines, clearly marked, but curiously
+divergent. Leaving the Spanish-speaking branch out of the discussion, as
+unnecessary to it, it may without exaggeration be said of the
+English-speaking branch that, from the beginning down to this year now
+ending, its development has been one long protest against, and
+divergence from, Old World methods and ideals. In the case of those
+descended from the Forefathers,--as we always designate the Plymouth
+colony,--this has been most distinctly marked, ethnically, politically,
+industrially.
+
+America was the sphere where the European, as a colonist, a settler,
+first came on a large scale in contact with another race. Heretofore, in
+the Old World, when one stock had overrun another,--and history
+presented many examples of it,--the invading stock, after subduing, and
+to a great extent driving out, the stock which had preceded in the
+occupancy of a region, settled gradually down into a common possession,
+and, in the slow process of years, an amalgamation of stocks, more or
+less complete, took place. In America, with the Anglo-Saxon, and
+especially those of the New England type, this was not the case. Unlike
+the Frenchman at the north, or the Spaniard at the south, the
+Anglo-Saxon showed no disposition to ally himself with the
+aborigines,--he evinced no faculty of dealing with inferior races, as
+they are called, except through a process of extermination. Here in
+Massachusetts this was so from the outset. Nearly every one here has
+read Longfellow's poem, "The Courtship of Miles Standish," and calls to
+mind the short, sharp conflict between the Plymouth captain and the
+Indian chief, Pecksuot, and how those God-fearing Pilgrims ruthlessly
+put to death by stabbing and hanging a sufficient number of the already
+plague-stricken and dying aborigines. That episode occurred in April,
+1623, only a little more than two years after the landing we to-night
+celebrate, and was, so far as New England is concerned, the beginning of
+a series of wars which did not end until the Indian ceased to be an
+element in our civilization. When John Robinson, the revered pastor of
+the Plymouth church, received tidings at Leyden of that killing near
+Plymouth,--for Robinson never got across the Atlantic,--he wrote: "Oh,
+how happy a thing had it been, if you had converted some before you had
+killed any! There is cause to fear that, by occasion, especially of
+provocation, there may be wanting that tenderness of the life of man
+(made after God's image) which is meet. It is also a thing more glorious
+in men's eyes, than pleasing in God's or convenient for Christians, to
+be a terror to poor, barbarous people." This all has a very familiar
+sound. It is the refrain of nearly three centuries; but, as an
+historical fact, it is undeniable that, from 1623 down to the year now
+ending, the American Anglo-Saxon has in his dealings with what are known
+as the "inferior races" lacked "that tenderness of the life of man which
+is meet," and he has made himself "a terror to poor, barbarous people."
+How we of Massachusetts carried ourselves towards the aborigines here,
+the fearful record of the Pequot war remains everlastingly to tell. How
+the country at large has carried itself in turn towards Indian, African,
+and Asiatic is matter of history. And yet it is equally matter of
+history that this carriage, term it what you will,--unchristian, brutal,
+exterminating,--has been the salvation of the race. It has saved the
+Anglo-Saxon stock from being a nation of half-breeds,--miscegenates, to
+coin a word expressive of an idea. The Canadian half-breed, the
+Mexican, the mulatto, say what men may, are not virile or enduring
+races; and that the Anglo-Saxon is none of these, and is essentially
+virile and enduring, is due to the fact that the less developed races
+perished before him. Nature is undeniably often brutal in its methods.
+
+Again, and on the other hand, the Anglo-Saxon when he came to America
+left behind him, so far as he himself was concerned, feudalism and all
+things pertaining to caste, including what was then known in England,
+and is still known in Germany, as Divine Right. When he at last
+enunciated his political faith he put in the forefront of his
+declaration as "self-evident truths," the principles "that all men are
+created equal;" that they are endowed with "certain inalienable rights,"
+among them "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" and that
+governments derived "their just powers from the consent of the
+governed." Now what was meant here by the phrase "all men are created
+equal?" We know they are not. They are not created equal in physical or
+mental endowment; nor are they created with equal opportunity. The world
+bristles with inequalities, natural and artificial. This is so; and yet
+the declaration is none the less true;--true when made; true now; true
+for all future time. The reference was to the inequalities which always
+had marked, then did, and still do, mark, the political life of the Old
+World,--to Caste, Divine Right, Privilege. It declared that all men were
+created equal before the law, as before the Lord;[1] and that, whether
+European, American, Asiatic, or African, they were endowed with an
+inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And to
+this truth, as he saw it, Lincoln referred in those memorable words I
+have already cited bearing on our national crime in long forgetfulness
+of our own immutable principles. The fundamental, primal principle was
+indeed more clearly voiced by Lincoln than it has been voiced before, or
+since, in declaring again, and elsewhere that to our nation, dedicated
+"to the proposition that all men are created equal," has by Providence
+been assigned the momentous task of "testing whether any nation so
+conceived and so dedicated can long endure," and "that government of the
+people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
+
+The next cardinal principle in our policy as a race--that instinctive
+policy I have already referred to as divergent from Old World methods
+and ideals--was most dearly enunciated by Washington in his Farewell
+Address, that "the great rule for us in regard to foreign nations is, in
+extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little
+political connection as possible;" that it was "unwise in us to
+implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of
+[Old World] policies, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her
+friendships or enmities. Our detached and distant situation invites and
+enables us to pursue a different course.... Taking care always to keep
+ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture,
+we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary
+emergencies."
+
+Accepting this as firm ground from which to act, we afterwards put forth
+what is known as the Monroe Doctrine. Having announced that our purpose
+was, in homely language, to mind our own business, we warned the outer
+world that we did not propose to permit by that outer world any
+interference in what did not concern it. America was our field,--a field
+amply large for our development. It was therefore declared that, while
+we had never taken any part, nor did it comport with our policy to do
+so, in the wars of European politics, with the movements in this
+hemisphere we are, of necessity, more intimately connected. "We owe it,
+therefore, to candor to declare that we should consider any attempt [on
+the part of European powers] to extend their system to any portion of
+this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety."
+
+On these principles of government and of foreign policy we have as a people
+now acted for more than seventy years. They have been exemplified and
+developed in various directions, and resulted in details--commercial,
+economic, and ethnic--which have given rise to political issues, long and
+hotly contested, but which, in their result from the purely historical
+point of view, do not admit of dispute. Commercially, we have adopted what
+is known as a system protective both of our industries and our labor.
+Economically, we have carefully eschewed large and costly armaments, and
+expensive governmental methods. Ethnically, we have avowed our desire to
+have as little contact as possible with less developed races, lamenting the
+presence of the African, and severely excluding the Asiatic. These facts,
+whether we as individuals and citizens wholly approve--or do not approve at
+all--of the course pursued and the results reached, admit of no dispute.
+Neither can it be denied that our attitude, whether it in all respects
+commanded the respect of foreign nations, or failed to command it, was
+accepted, and has prevailed. Striking illustrations of this at once suggest
+themselves.
+
+In one respect especially was our attitude peculiar, and in its
+peculiarity we took great pride. It was largely moral; but, though
+largely moral, it had behind it the consciousness of strength in
+ourselves, and its recognition by others. In great degree, and
+relatively, an unarmed people, we looked with amaze, which had in it
+something of amusement, at the constantly growing armaments and war
+budgets of the nations of Europe. We saw them, like the warriors of the
+middle ages, crushed under the weight of their weapons of offence, and
+their preparations for defence. Meanwhile, fortunate in our geographical
+position,--weak for offence, but, in turn, unassailable,--we went in and
+out much as an unarmed man, relying on his character, his recognized
+force, position, and peaceful calling, daily moves about in our frontier
+settlements and mining camps amid throngs of men armed to the teeth with
+revolvers and bowie knives. Yet, evidence was not lacking of the
+consideration yielded to us when we were called upon, or felt called
+upon, to assert ourselves. I will not refer to the episode of 1866,
+when, in accordance with the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, we
+intimated to France that her immediate withdrawal from Mexico was
+desired; for then we had not laid down the arms we had taken up in the
+Rebellion. But, without remonstrance even, France withdrew. In 1891,
+under circumstances not without grounds of aggravation against us, a mob
+in Valparaiso assaulted some seamen from our ships of war. Instant
+apology and redress were demanded; and the demand was complied with. Yet
+later, the course pursued by us in the Venezuela matter is too fresh in
+memory to call for more than a reference. These are all matters of
+history. When did our word fail to carry all desired weight?
+
+Such were our standing, our traditional policy, and our record at the
+beginning of the year now ending. No proposition advanced admits, it is
+believed, of dispute historically. Into the events of the year 1898 it
+is not necessary to enter in any detail. They are in the minds of all.
+It is sufficient to say that the primary object for which we entered
+upon the late war with Spain was to bring to an end the long and
+altogether bad record of Spanish rule in America. In taking the steps
+deemed necessary to effect this result, Congress went out of its way,
+and publicly and formally put upon record its disclaimer of any
+intention to enter upon a war of conquest, asserting its determination,
+when Spanish domination was ended, to leave the government of Cuba, and
+presumably of any other islands similarly acquired, to the people
+thereof. As an incident to our naval operations on the Pacific, the
+island of Hawaii was then annexed to the United States as an
+extra-territorial possession, or coaling station, this being effected by
+a joint resolution of the two Houses of Congress, under the precedent of
+1845 established in the case of Texas,--a method of procedure the
+constitutionality of which was at the time formally called in question
+by the State of Massachusetts, and against which Mr. Webster made
+vigorous protest in the Senate. In thus possessing ourselves of Hawaii,
+the consent of the native inhabitants was not considered necessary; we
+dealt wholly with an oligarchical _de facto_ government, representing
+the foreign element, mainly American, there resident.
+
+Shortly after the acquisition of Hawaii, we, as the result of brilliant
+naval operations and successes, acquired possession of the harbor of
+Manila, in the Philippine archipelago, and finally the city and some
+adjacent territory were surrendered to us. A treaty was then negotiated,
+the power of Spain being completely broken, under which she abandoned
+all claims of sovereignty, not only over the island of Cuba, the
+original cause of war, but over various other islands in the Philippine,
+as well as in the West Indian, archipelagoes. These islands, in all said
+to be some 1,200 to 1,500 in number, are moreover not only inhabited by
+both natives and foreigners to the estimated number of ten to twelve
+million of souls, but they contain large cities and communities speaking
+different tongues, living under other laws, and having customs, manners,
+and traditions wholly unlike our own, and which, in the case of the
+Philippines, do not admit of assimilation. Situated in the tropics also,
+they cannot gradually become colonized by Americans, with or without the
+disappearance of the native population. The American can only go there
+for temporary residence.
+
+A wholly new problem was thus suddenly presented to the people of the
+United States. On the one hand, it is asserted that, by destroying
+Spanish government in these islands, the United States has assumed
+responsibility for them, both to the inhabitants and to the world. This
+is a moral obligation. On the other hand, trade and commercial
+inducements are held out which would lead us to treat these islands
+simply as a commencement--the first instalment--in a system of unlimited
+extra-territorial dependencies and imperial expansion. With these
+responsibilities and obligations we here this evening have nothing to
+do, any more than we have to do with the expediency or probable results
+of the policy of colonial expansion, when once fairly adopted and
+finally entered upon. These hereafter will be, but are not yet,
+historical questions; and we are merely historical inquirers. We,
+therefore, no matter what others may do, must try to confine ourselves
+to our own proper business and functions.
+
+My purpose, therefore, is not to argue for or against what is now
+proposed, but simply to test historically some of the arguments I have
+heard most commonly advanced in favor of the proposed policy of
+expansion, and thus see to what they apparently lead in the sequence of
+human, and more especially of American, events. Do they indicate an
+historic continuity? Or do they result in what is geologically known as
+a "fault,"--a movement, as the result of force, through which a stratum,
+once continuous, becomes disconnected?
+
+In the first place, then, as respects the inhabitants of the vastly
+greater number of the dependencies already acquired, and, under the
+policy of imperialistic expansion, hereafter to be acquired. It is
+argued that we, as a people at once dominant and Christian, are under an
+obligation to avail ourselves of the opportunity the Almighty, in his
+infinite wisdom, has thrust upon us,--some say the plain call he has
+uttered to us,--to go forth, and impart to the barbarian and the heathen
+the blessings of liberty and the Bible. A mission is imposed upon us.
+Viewed in the cold, pitiless light of history,--and that is the only way
+we here can view them,--"divine missions" and "providential calls" are
+questionable things; things the assumption and fulfilment of which are
+apt to be at variance. So far as the American is concerned, as I have
+already pointed out, the historic precedents are not encouraging.
+Whatever his theories, ethnical, political, or religious, his practice
+has been as pronounced as it was masterful. From the earliest days at
+Wessagusset and in the Pequot war, down to the very last election held
+in North Carolina,--from 1623 to 1898,--the knife and the shotgun have
+been far more potent and active instruments in his dealings with the
+inferior races than the code of liberty or the output of the Bible
+Society. The record speaks for itself. So far as the Indian is
+concerned, the story has been told by Mrs. Jackson in her earnest,
+eloquent protest, entitled "A Century of Dishonor." It has received
+epigrammatic treatment in the saying tersely enunciated by one of our
+military commanders, and avowedly accepted by the others, that "the only
+good Indian is a dead Indian." So far as the African is concerned, the
+similar apothegm once was that "the black man has no rights the white
+man is bound to respect;" or, as Stephen A. Douglas defined his position
+before an applauding audience, "I am for the white man as against the
+black man, and for the black man against the alligator." Recent lynching
+and shotgun experiences, too fresh in memory to call for reminder, and
+too painful in detail to describe, give us at least reason to pause
+before we leave our own hearthstone to seek new and distant fields for
+missionary labors. It remains to consider the Asiatic. The racial
+antipathy of the American towards him has been more intense than towards
+any other species of the human race. This, as an historical fact, has
+been recently imbedded in our statute-book, having previously been
+illustrated in a series of outrages and massacres, with the sickening
+details of some of which it was at one time my misfortune to be
+officially familiar. Under these circumstances, so far as the
+circulation of the Bible and the extension of the blessings of liberty
+are concerned, history affords small encouragement to the American to
+assume new obligations. He has been, and now is, more than merely
+delinquent in the fulfilment of obligations heretofore thrust upon him,
+or knowingly assumed. In this respect his instinct has proved much more
+of a controlling factor than his ethics,--the shotgun has unfortunately
+been more constantly in evidence than the Bible. As a prominent
+"expansionist" New England member of the present Congress has recently
+declared in language, brutal perhaps in directness, but withal
+commendably free from cant: "China is succumbing to the inevitable, and
+the United States, if she would not retire to the background, must
+advance along the line with the other great nations. She must acquire
+new territory, providing new markets over which she must maintain
+control. The Anglo-Saxon advances into the new regions with a Bible in
+one hand and a shotgun in the other. The inhabitants of those regions
+that he cannot convert with the aid of the Bible and bring into his
+markets, he gets rid of with the shotgun. It is but another
+demonstration of the survival of the fittest." (Hon. C.A. Sulloway,
+Rochester, N.H., Nov. 22, 1898.)
+
+Next as regards our fundamental principles of equality of human rights,
+and the consent of the governed as the only just basis of all
+government. The presence of the inferior races on our own soil, and our
+new problems connected with them in our dependencies, have led to much
+questioning of the correctness of those principles, which, for its
+outspoken frankness, at least, is greatly to be commended. It is argued
+that these, as principles, in the light of modern knowledge and
+conditions, are of doubtful general truth and limited application. True,
+when confined and carefully applied to citizens of the same blood and
+nationality; questionable, when applied to human beings of different
+race in one nationality; manifestly false, in the case of races less
+developed, and in other, especially tropical, countries.[2] As
+fundamental principles, it is admitted, they were excellent for a young
+people struggling into recognition and limiting its attention narrowly
+to what only concerned itself; but have we not manifestly outgrown them,
+now that we ourselves have developed into a great World Power? For such
+there was and necessarily always will be, as between the superior and
+the inferior races, a manifest common sense foundation in caste, and in
+the rule of might when it presents itself in the form of what we are
+pleased to call Manifest Destiny. As to government being conditioned on
+the consent of the governed, it is obviously the bounden duty of the
+superior race to hold the inferior race in peaceful tutelage, and
+protect it against itself; and, furthermore, when it comes to deciding
+the momentous question of what races are superior and what inferior,
+what dominant and what subject, that is of necessity a question to be
+settled between the superior race and its own conscience; and one in
+regard to the correct settlement of which it indicates a tendency at
+once unpatriotic and "pessimistic," to assume that America could by any
+chance decide otherwise than correctly. Upon that score we must put
+implicit confidence in the sound instincts and Christian spirit of the
+dominant, that is, the stronger race.
+
+It is the same with that other fundamental principle with which the name
+of Lexington is, from the historical point of view, so closely
+associated,--I refer, of course, to the revolutionary contention that
+representation is a necessary adjunct to taxation. This principle also,
+it is frankly argued, we have outgrown, in presence of our new
+responsibilities; and, as between the superior and inferior races, it is
+subject to obvious limitations. Here again, as between the policy of the
+"Open Door" and the Closed-Colonial-Market policy, the superior race is
+amenable to its own conscience only. It will doubtless on all suitable
+and convenient occasions bear in mind that it is a "Trustee for
+Civilization."
+
+Finally, as respects entangling foreign alliances, and their necessary
+consequents, costly and burdensome armaments and large standing armies,
+we are again advised that, having ceased to be children, we should put
+away childish things. Having become a great World Power we must become a
+corresponding War Power. We are assured by high authority that, were
+Washington now alive, it cannot be questioned he would in all these
+respects modify materially the views expressed in the Farewell Address,
+as being obviously inapplicable to existing conditions. Under these
+circumstances, and in view of the obligations we have assumed, the
+President, and Secretaries of War and the Navy, recommend an
+establishment the annual cost of which ($200,000,000), exclusive of
+military pensions, is in excess of the largest of those European War
+Budgets, over the crushing influence of which we have expressed a
+traditional wonder, not unmixed with pity for the unfortunate tax-payer.
+
+Historically speaking, I believe these are all facts, susceptible of
+verification. I do not mean to say that the arguments developing obvious
+limitations in the application of the principles of the Declaration and
+the Constitution have been avowedly accepted by our representatives, or
+officially incorporated into our domestic and foreign policy. I do
+assert as an historical fact that these arguments have been advanced,
+and are meeting, both in Congress and with the press, a large degree of
+acceptance. And hence comes a singular and most significant conclusion
+from which, historically, there seems to be no escape. It may or it may
+not be fortunate and right; it may or it may not lead to beneficent
+future results; it may or it may not contribute to the good of mankind.
+Those questions belong elsewhere than in the rooms of an historical
+society. Upon them we are not called to pass,--they belong to the
+politician, the publicist, the philosopher, not to us. But, as
+historical investigators, and so observing the sequence of events, it
+cannot escape our notice that on every one of the fundamental principles
+discussed,--whether ethnic, economical, or political,--we abandon the
+traditional and distinctively American grounds and accept those of
+Europe, and especially of Great Britain, which heretofore we have made
+it the basis of our faith to deny and repudiate.
+
+With this startling proposition in mind, consider again the several
+propositions advanced; and first, as regards the so-called inferior
+races. Our policy towards them, instinctive and formulated, has been
+either to exclude or destroy, or to leave them in the fullness of time
+to work out their own destiny, undisturbed by us; fully believing that,
+in this way, we in the long run best subserved the interests of mankind.
+Europe, and Great Britain especially, adopted the opposite policy. They
+held that it was incumbent on the superior to go forth and establish
+dominion over the inferior race, and to hold and develop vast imperial
+possessions and colonial dependencies. They saw their interest and duty
+in developing systems of docile tutelage; we sought our inspirations in
+the rough school of self-government. Under this head the result then is
+distinct, clean cut, indisputable. To this conclusion have we come at
+last. The Old World, Europe and Great Britain, were, after all, right,
+and we of the New World have been wrong. From every point of
+view,--religious, ethnic, commercial, political,--we cannot, it is now
+claimed, too soon abandon our traditional position and assume theirs.
+Again, Europe and Great Britain have never admitted that men were
+created equal, or that the consent of the governed was a condition of
+government. They have, on the contrary, emphatically denied both
+propositions. We now concede that, after all, there was great basis for
+their denial; that, certainly, it must be admitted, our forefathers were
+hasty at least in reaching their conclusions,--they generalized too
+broadly. We do not frankly avow error, and we still think the assent of
+the governed to a government a thing desirable to be secured, under
+suitable circumstances and with proper limitations; but, if it cannot
+conveniently be secured, we are advised on New England senatorial
+authority that "the consent of some of the governed" will be sufficient,
+we ourselves selecting those proper to be consulted. Thus in such cases
+as certain islands of the Antilles, Hawaii, and the communities of Asia,
+we admit that, so far as the principles at the basis of the Declaration
+are concerned, Great Britain was right, and our ancestors were, not
+perhaps wrong, but too general, and of the eighteenth century, in their
+statements. To that extent, we have outgrown the Declaration of 1776,
+and have become as wise now as Great Britain was then. At any rate we
+are not above learning. As was long ago said,--"Only dead men and idiots
+never change;" and the people of the United States are nothing unless
+open-minded.
+
+So, also, as respects the famous Boston "tea-party," and taxation
+without representation. Great Britain then affirmed this right in the
+case of colonies and dependencies. Taught by the lesson of our War of
+Independence, she has since abandoned it. We now take it up, and are
+to-day, as one of the new obligations towards the heathen imposed upon
+us by Providence, formulating systems of imposts and tariffs for our new
+dependencies, wholly distinct from our own, and directly inhibited by
+our constitution, in regard to which systems those dependencies have no
+representative voice. They are not to be consulted as to the kind of
+door, "open" or "closed," behind which they are to exist. In taking this
+position it is difficult to see why we must not also incidentally admit
+that, in the great contention preceding our War of Independence, the
+first armed clash of which resounded here in Lexington, Great Britain
+was more nearly right than the exponents of the principles for which
+those "embattled farmers" contended.
+
+Again, consider the Monroe Doctrine, entangling foreign alliances, and
+the consequent and costly military and naval establishments. The Monroe
+Doctrine had two sides, the abstention of the Old World from
+interference in American affairs, based on our abstention from
+interference in the affairs of the Old World. But it is now argued we
+have outgrown the Monroe Doctrine, or at least the latter branch of it.
+It is certainly so considered in Europe; for, only a few days ago, so
+eminent an authority as Lord Farrar exultingly exclaimed in addressing
+the Cobden Club,--"America has burned the swaddling clothes of the
+Monroe Doctrine." Indeed we have, in discussion at least, gone far in
+advance of the mere burning of cast-off infantile clothing, and
+alliances with Great Britain and Japan, as against France and Russia,
+are freely mooted, with a view to the forcible partition of China, to
+which we are to be a party, and of it a beneficiary. For it is already
+avowed that the Philippines are but a "stopping-place" on the way to the
+continent of Asia; and China, unlike Poland, is inhabited by an
+"inferior race," in regard to whom, as large possible consumers of
+surplus products, Providence has imposed on us obvious obligations,
+material as well as benevolent and religious, which it would be unlike
+ourselves to disregard. It is the mandate of duty, we are told,--the
+nations of Europe obey it, and can we do less than they? "Isolation" it
+is then argued is but another name for an attention to one's own
+business which may well become excessive, and result in selfishness. It
+is true that the nations of the Old World have not heretofore erred
+conspicuously in this respect; and as the "Balance of Power" was the
+word-juggle with which to conjure up wars and armaments in the
+eighteenth century, so the "Division of Trade" may not impossibly prove
+the similar conjuring word-juggle of the twentieth century.
+Nevertheless, "isolation" is not compatible with the policy of a Great
+Nation under a call to assert itself as a World Power. Then follows the
+familiar argument in favor of costly military and naval establishments.
+But, upon this head it is needless to restate our traditional
+policy,--our jealousy as a people of militarism and large standing
+armies, to be used, if occasion calls, as a reserve police. Our record
+thereon is so plain that repetition grows tedious. The record of Europe,
+and especially of Great Britain as distinguished from other European
+powers, has been equally plain, and is no less indisputable. In this
+respect, also, always under compulsion, we now admit our error. Costly
+armies are necessary to the maintenance of order, Heaven's first law;
+and World Powers cannot maintain peace, and themselves, without powerful
+navies and frequent coaling stations.
+
+Finally, even on such matters as the Protective System and the
+encouragement of American Labor, as against the "Pauper Labor" of Europe
+and of the inferior races, Great Britain has for half a century now
+advocated the principle of unrestricted industry and free trade,--that
+is the "Open Door" policy logically carried to its final results. We
+have denied it, establishing what we in time grew to call the
+distinctive American system. It is, however, now asserted that "Trade
+follows the Flag," and that, as respects dependencies at least, the
+"Open Door" policy is the best policy. If "Trade follows the Flag" in
+dependencies, and, by so doing, affords the American producer all
+needful protection and every fair advantage in those dependencies, it is
+not at once apparent why it fails so to do at home. Is it less docile
+to the flag, less in harmony with and subservient to it, in the United
+States, within our own limits, than in remote lands under that flag
+beyond the seas? And, if so, how is such an apparent anomaly accounted
+for? But with this question we are not concerned. That problem is for
+the economist to solve, for in character it is commercial, not
+historical. The point with us is that again, as regards the "Open
+Door,"--free trade and no favor, so far as all outside competition is
+concerned, American labor and "pauper" labor being equally outside,--on
+this long and hotly contested point, also, England appears on the face
+of things to have had after all much the best of the argument.
+
+As regards "Pauper Labor," indeed, the reversal contemplated of
+established policy in favor of European methods is specially noteworthy.
+The labor of Asia is undeniably less well paid even than that of Europe;
+but it is now proposed, by a single act, to introduce into our
+industrial system ten millions of Asiatics, either directly, or through
+their products sold in open competition with our own; or, if we do not
+do that, to hold them, ascribed to the soil in a sort of old Saxon
+serfdom, with the function assigned them of consuming our surplus
+products, but without in return sending us theirs. The great
+counterbalancing consideration will not, of course, be forgotten that,
+like the English in India, we also bestow on them the Blessings of
+Liberty and the Bible; provided, always, that liberty does not include
+freedom to go to the United States, and the Bible does include the
+excellent Old Time and Old World precept (Coloss. 3: 22), "Servants,
+obey in all things your masters."
+
+It is the same in other respects. It seems to be admitted by the
+President, and by the leading authorities on the imperialistic policy,
+that it can only be carried to successful results through the agency of
+a distinct governing class. Accordingly administration through the
+agency of military or naval officers is strongly urged both by the
+President and by Captain Mahan. Other advocates of the policy urge its
+adoption on the ground, very distinctly avowed, that it will necessitate
+an established, recognized Civil Service, modelled, they add, on that of
+Great Britain. If, they then argue, Great Britain can extend--as,
+indeed, she unquestionably has extended--her system of dependencies all
+over the globe, developing them into the most magnificent empire the
+world ever saw, it is absurd, unpatriotic, and pessimistic to doubt that
+we can do the same. Are we not of the same blood, and the same speech?
+This is all historically true. Historically it is equally true that, to
+do it, we must employ means similar to those Great Britain has employed.
+In other words, modelling ourselves on Great Britain, we must slowly and
+methodically develop and build up a recognized and permanent governing
+and official class. The heathen and barbarian need to be studied, and
+dealt with intelligently and on a system; they cannot be successfully
+managed on any principle of rotation in office, much less one which
+ascribes the spoils of office to the victors at the polls. What these
+advocates of Imperialism say is unquestionably true: The political
+methods now in vogue in American cities are not adapted to the
+government of dependencies.
+
+The very word "Imperial" is, indeed, borrowed from the Old World. As
+applied to a great system of colonial dominion and foreign dependencies
+it is English, and very modern English, also, for it was first brought
+into vogue by the late Earl of Beaconsfield in 1879, when, by Act of
+Parliament introduced by him, the Queen of England was made Empress of
+India. It was then he enunciated that doctrine of _imperium et
+libertas_, the adoption of which we are now considering. While it may be
+wise and sound, it indisputably is British.
+
+Thus, curiously enough, whichever way we turn and however we regard it,
+at the close of more than a century of independent existence we find
+ourselves, historically speaking, involved in a mesh of contradictions
+with our past. Under a sense of obligation, impelled by circumstances,
+perhaps to a degree influenced by ambition and commercial greed, we have
+one by one abandoned our distinctive national tenets, and accepted in
+their place, though in some modified forms, the old-time European tenets
+and policies, which we supposed the world, actuated largely by our
+example, was about forever to discard. Our whole record as a people is,
+of course, then ransacked and subjected to microscopic investigation,
+and every petty disregard of principle, any wrong heretofore silently,
+perhaps sadly, ignored, each unobserved or disregarded innovation of
+the past, is magnified into a precedent justifying anything and
+everything in the future. If we formerly on some occasion swallowed a
+gnat, why now, is it asked, strain at a camel? Truths once accepted as
+"self-evident," since become awkward of acceptance, were ever thus
+pettifogged out of the path, and fundamental principles have in this way
+prescriptively been tampered with. It is now nearly a century and a
+quarter ago, when Great Britain was contemplating the subjection of her
+American dependencies, that Edmund Burke denounced "tampering" with the
+"ingenuous and noble roughness of truly constitutional materials," as
+"the odious vice of restless and unstable minds." Historically speaking
+it is not unfair to ask if this is less so in the United States in 1898
+than it was in Great Britain in 1775.
+
+What is now proposed, therefore, examined in connection with our
+principles and traditional policy as a nation, does apparently indicate
+a break in continuity,--historically, it will probably constitute what
+is known in geology as a "fault." Indeed, it is almost safe to say that
+history hardly records any change of base and system on the part of a
+great people at once so sudden, so radical, and so pregnant with
+consequences. To the optimist,--he who has no dislike to "Old Jewry," as
+the proper receptacle for worn-out garments, personal or political,--the
+outlook is inspiring. He insensibly recalls and repeats those fine lines
+of Tennyson:
+
+    "To-day I saw the dragon-fly
+     Come from the wells where he did lie.
+
+    "An inner impulse rent the veil
+     Of his old husk: from head to tail
+     Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.
+
+    "He dried his wings: like gauze they grew:
+     Thro' crofts and pastures wet with dew
+     A living flash of light he flew."
+
+To others, older perhaps, but at any rate more deeply impressed with the
+difference apt to develop between dreams and actualities, the situation
+calls to mind a comparison, more historical it is true, but less
+inspiriting so far as a commitment to the new policy is concerned. At
+the risk, possibly, of offending some of those present, I will venture
+to institute it. In the fourth chapter of the Gospel according to St.
+Matthew, I find this incident recorded: "The devil taketh him [the
+Saviour] up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the
+kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All
+these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
+Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan. Then the devil leaveth
+him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him." Now,
+historically speaking, and as a matter of scriptural exegesis, that this
+passage should be accepted literally is not supposable. Satan, on the
+occasion referred to, must not be taken to have presented himself to the
+Saviour _in propriâ personâ_ with his attributes of horns, tail, and
+cloven hoof, and made an outright proposition of extra-territorial
+sovereignty. It was a parable. He who had assumed a lofty moral attitude
+was tempted by worldly inducements to adopt a lower attitude,--that, in
+a word, common among men. It was a whispering to Christ of what among
+nations, is known as "Manifest Destiny;" in that case, however, as
+possibly in others, it so chanced that the whispering was not from the
+Almighty, but from Satan. Now if, instead of recognizing the source
+whence the temptation came, and sternly saying, "Get thee hence, Satan,"
+Christ had seen the proposition as a new Mission,--thought, in fact,
+that he heard a distinct call to Duty,--and so, accepting a
+Responsibility thrust upon him, had hurried down from the "exceeding
+high mountain," and proceeded at once to lay in a supply of weapons and
+to don defensive armor, renouncing his peaceful mission, he would have
+done exactly--what Mohammed did six centuries later!
+
+I do not for a moment mean to suggest that, as respects the voice of
+"Manifest Destiny," there is any similarity between the case of the
+Saviour and that which we, as a people, are now considering. I am not a
+prophet, nor do I claim prophetic insight. We are merely historical
+investigators, and, as such, not admitted into the councils of the
+Almighty. Others doubtless are, or certainly claim to be. They know
+every time, and at once, whether it is the inspiration of God or the
+devil; and forthwith proclaim it from the house-tops. We must admit--at
+any rate no evidence in our possession enables us to deny--the
+confidential relations such claim to have with either or both of the
+agencies in question,--the Divine or the Infernal. All I now have in
+mind is to call attention to the obvious similarity of the positions. As
+compared with the ideals and tenets then in vogue,--principles of
+manhood, equality before the law, freedom, peace on earth, and good-will
+to men,--the United States, heretofore and seen in a large way, has,
+among nations, assumed a peculiar, and, from the moral point of view,
+unquestionably a lofty attitude. Speaking historically it might, and
+with no charge of levity, be compared with a similar moral attitude
+assumed among men eighteen centuries before by the Saviour. It
+discountenanced armaments and warfare; it advocated arbitrations, and
+bowed to their awards; spreading its arms and protection over the New
+World, it refused to embroil itself in the complications of the Old;
+above all, it set a not unprofitable example to the nations of benefits
+incident to minding one's own business, and did not arrogate to itself
+the character of a favorite and inspired instrument in the hands of God.
+It even went so far as to assume that, in working out the inscrutable
+ways of Providence, character, self-restraint, and moral grandeur were
+in the long run as potent in effecting results as iron-clads and
+gatling-guns.
+
+Those who now advocate a continuance of this policy are, as neatly as
+wittily, referred to in discussion, "for want of a better name," as
+"Little Americans," just as in history the believers in the long-run
+efficacy of the doctrines of Christ might be termed "Little Gospellers,"
+to distinguish them from the admirers of the later, but more brilliant
+and imperial, dispensation of Mohammed. That the earlier, and less
+immediately ambitious, doctrine was, in the case of the United States,
+only temporary, and is now outgrown, and must, therefore, be abandoned
+in favor of Old World methods, especially those pursued with such
+striking success by Great Britain, is possible. As historical
+investigators we have long since learned that it is the unexpected which
+in the development of human affairs is most apt to occur. Who, for
+instance, in our own recent history could ever have foreseen that, in
+the inscrutable ways of the Almighty, the great triumph of Slavery in
+the annexation of Texas, and the spoliation of that inferior race which
+inhabited Mexico, was, within fifteen years only, to result in what
+Lincoln called that "terrible war" in which every drop of blood ever
+drawn by the lash was paid by another drawn by the sword? Again, in May,
+1856, a Representative of South Carolina struck down a Senator from
+Massachusetts in the Senate-chamber at Washington; in January, 1865,
+Massachusetts battalions bivouacked beside the smoking ruins of South
+Carolina's capital. Verily, as none know better than we, the ways of
+Providence are mysterious, and past finding out. None the less, though
+it cannot be positively asserted that the world would not have been
+wiser, more advanced, and better ordered had Christ, when on that
+"exceeding high mountain," heard in the words then whispered in his ear
+a manifest call of Duty, and felt a Responsibility thrust upon him to
+secure the kingdoms of the earth for the Blessings of Liberty and the
+Bible by so small a sacrifice as making an apparently meaningless
+obeisance to Satan, yet we can certainly say that the world would now
+have been very different from what it is had He so done. And so in the
+case of the United States, though we cannot for a moment assert that its
+fate and the future of the world will not be richer, better, and
+brighter from its abandonment of New World traditions and policies in
+favor of the traditions and policies of the Old World, we can say
+without any hesitation that the course of history will be greatly
+changed by the so doing.
+
+In any event the experiment will be one of surpassing interest to the
+historical observer. Some years ago James Russell Lowell was asked by
+the French historian, Guizot, how long the Republic of the United States
+might reasonably be expected to endure. Mr. Lowell's reply has always
+been considered peculiarly happy. "So long," said he, "as the ideas of
+its founders continue dominant." In due course of time we, or those who
+follow us, will know whether Mr. Lowell diagnosed the situation
+correctly, or otherwise. Meanwhile, I do not know how I can better bring
+to an end this somewhat lengthy contribution to the occasion, than by
+repeating, as singularly applicable to the conditions in which we find
+ourselves, these verses from a recent poem, than which I have heard none
+in the days that now are which strike a deeper or a truer chord, or one
+more appropriate to this New England Paschal eve:
+
+    "The tumult and the shouting dies,
+       The captains and the kings depart;
+     Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
+       An humble and a contrite heart.
+     Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
+     Lest we forget--lest we forget!
+
+    "Far-called our navies melt away,
+       On dune and headline sinks the fire--
+     Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
+       Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
+     Judge of the nations, spare us yet,
+     Lest we forget--lest we forget!
+
+    "If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
+       Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
+     Such boasting as the Gentiles use
+       Or lesser breeds without the law--
+     Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,
+     Lest we forget--lest we forget!
+
+    "For heathen heart that puts her trust
+       In reeking tube and iron shard--
+     All valiant dust that builds on dust,
+       And guarding calls not Thee to guard--
+     For frantic boast and foolish word,
+     Thy mercy on thy people, Lord!
+                         Amen."
+
+Taken in connection with the foregoing paper, the following-letter,
+addressed to the Hon. Carl Schurz, is self-explanatory:
+
+
+BOSTON, December 21, 1898.
+
+MY DEAR MR. SCHURZ:
+
+In a recent letter you kindly suggest that I submit to you a sketch of
+what, I think, should be said in an address such as it is proposed
+should now be put forth by the Anti-Imperialist League to the people of
+the United States.
+
+I last evening read a paper before the Lexington Historical Society, in
+which I discussed the question of extra-territorial expansion from the
+historical point of view. A copy of this paper I hope soon to forward
+you. Meanwhile, there is one aspect, and, to my mind, the all-important
+aspect of the question, which, in addressing an historical society, was
+not germane. I refer to the question of a practical policy to be pursued
+by us, as a nation, under existing conditions. That Spain has abandoned
+all claim of sovereignty over the Philippine islands admits of no
+question. Whether the United States has accepted the sovereignty thus
+abandoned is still an open question; but this I do not regard as
+material. Nevertheless, we are confronted by a fact; and, whenever we
+criticise the policy up to this time pursued; we are met with an inquiry
+as to what we have to propose in place of it. We are invited to stop
+finding fault with others, and to suggest some feasible alternative
+policy ourselves.
+
+To this we must, therefore, in fairness, address ourselves. It is, in my
+judgment, useless to attempt to carry on the discussion merely in the
+negative form. As opponents of an inchoate policy we must, in place of
+what we object to, propose something positive, or we must abandon the
+field. Accepting the alternative, I now want to suggest a positive
+policy for the consideration of those who feel as we feel. I wish your
+judgment upon it.
+
+There has, it seems to me, been a great deal of idle "Duty," "Mission,"
+and "Call" talk on the subject of our recent acquisition of "Islands
+beyond the Sea," and the necessity of adopting some policy, commonly
+described as "Imperial," in dealing with them. This policy is, in the
+minds of most people who favor it, to be indirectly modelled on the
+policy heretofore so successfully pursued under somewhat similar
+conditions by Great Britain. It involves, as I tried to point out in the
+Lexington paper I have referred to, the abandonment or reversal of all
+the fundamental principles of our government since its origin, and of
+the foreign policy we have heretofore pursued. This, I submit, is
+absolutely unnecessary. Another and substitute policy, purely American,
+as contradistinguished from the European or British, known as
+"Imperial," policy, can readily be formulated.
+
+This essentially American policy would be based both upon our cardinal
+political principles, and our recent foreign experiences. It is commonly
+argued that, having destroyed the existing government in Cuba, Porto
+Rico, and the Philippines, we have assumed a political responsibility,
+and are under a moral obligation to provide another government in place
+of that which by our action has ceased to exist. What has been our
+course heretofore under similar circumstances? Precedents, I submit, at
+once suggest themselves. Precedents, too, directly in point, and within
+your and my easy recollection.
+
+I refer to the course pursued by us towards Mexico in the year 1848, and
+again in 1866; towards Hayti for seventy years back; and towards
+Venezuela as recently as three years ago. It is said that the
+inhabitants of the islands of the Antilles, and much more those of the
+Philippine archipelago, are as yet unfitted to maintain a government;
+and that they should be kept in a condition of "tutelage" until they are
+fitted so to do. It is further argued that a stable government is
+necessary, and that it is out of the question for us to permit a
+condition of chronic disturbance and scandalous unrest to exist so near
+our own borders as Cuba and Porto Rico. Yet how long, I would ask, did
+that condition exist in Mexico? And with what results? How long has it
+existed in Hayti? Has the government of Venezuela ever been "stable"?
+Have we found it necessary or thought it best to establish a
+governmental protectorate in any of those immediately adjacent regions?
+
+What has been, historically, our policy--the American, as distinguished
+from the European and British policy--towards those communities,--two
+of them Spanish, one African? So far as foreign powers are concerned, we
+have laid down the principle of "Hands-off." So far as their own
+government was concerned, we insisted that the only way to learn to walk
+was to try to walk, and that the history of mankind did not show that
+nations placed under systems of "tutelage,"--taught to lean for support
+on a superior power,--ever acquired the faculty of independent action.
+
+Of this, with us, fundamental truth, the British race itself furnishes a
+very notable example. In the forty-fourth year of the Christian era the
+island of Great Britain was occupied by what the "Imperial" Romans
+adjudged to be an inferior race. To the Romans the Britons
+unquestionably were inferior. Every child's history contains an account
+of the course then pursued by the superior towards that inferior race,
+and its results. The Romans occupied Great Britain, and they occupied it
+hard upon four centuries, holding the people in "tutelage," and
+protecting them against themselves, as well as against their enemies.
+With what result? So emasculated and incapable of self-government did
+the people of England become during their "tutelage" that, when Rome at
+last withdrew, they found themselves totally unfitted for
+self-government, much more for facing a foreign enemy. As the last, and
+best, historian of the English people tells us, the purely despotic
+system of the imperial government "by crushing all local independence,
+crushed all local vigor. Men forgot how to fight for their country when
+they forgot how to govern it."[3] The end was that, through six
+centuries more, England was overrun, first by those of one race, and
+then by those of another, until the Normans established themselves in it
+as conquerors; and then, and not until then, the deteriorating effect of
+a system of long continued "tutelage" ceased to be felt, and the
+islanders became by degrees the most energetic, virile, and
+self-sustaining of races. As nearly, therefore, as can be historically
+stated, it took eight centuries for the people of England to overcome
+the injurious influence of four centuries of just such a system as it is
+now proposed by us to inflict on the Philippines.[4] Hindostan would
+furnish another highly suggestive example of the educational effects of
+"tutelage" on a race. After a century and a half of that British
+"tutelage," what progress has India made towards fitness for
+self-government? Is the end in sight?
+
+From the historical point of view, it is instructive to note the exactly
+different results reached through the truly American policy we have
+pursued in the not dissimilar cases of Hayti and Mexico. While Hayti, it
+is true, has failed to make great progress in one century, it has made
+quite as much progress as England made during any equal period
+immediately after Rome withdrew from it. And that degree of slowness in
+growth, which with equanimity has been endured by us in Hayti, could
+certainly be endured by us in islands on the coast of Asia. It cannot be
+gainsaid that, through our insisting on the policy of non-interference
+ourselves, and of non-interference by European nations, Hayti has been
+brought into a position where it is on the high road to better things in
+future. That has been the result of the prescriptive American policy.
+With Mexico, the case is far stronger. We all know that in 1848, after
+our war of spoliation, we had to bolster up a semblance of a government
+for Mexico, with which to negotiate a treaty of peace. Mexico at that
+time was reduced by us to a condition of utter anarchy. Under the theory
+now gaining in vogue, it would then have been our plain duty to make of
+Mexico an extra-territorial dependency, and protect it against itself.
+We wisely took a different course. Like other Spanish communities in
+America, Mexico than passed through a succession of revolutions, from
+which it became apparent the people were not in a fit condition for
+self-government. Nevertheless, sternly insisting on non-interference by
+outside powers, we ourselves wisely left that country to work out its
+own salvation in its own way.
+
+In 1862, when the United States was involved in the War of the
+Rebellion, the Europeans took advantage of the situation to invade
+Mexico, and to establish there a "stable government." They undertook to
+protect that people against themselves, and to erect for them a species
+of protectorate, such as we now propose for the Philippines. As soon as
+our war was over, we insisted upon the withdrawal of Europe from Mexico.
+What followed is matter of recent history. It is unnecessary to recall
+it. We did not reduce Mexico into a condition of "tutelage," or
+establish over it a "protectorate" of our own. We, on the contrary,
+insisted that it should stand on its own legs; and, by so doing, learn
+to stand firmly on them, just as a child learns to walk, by being
+compelled to try to walk, not by being kept everlastingly in "leading
+strings." This was the American, as contradistinguished from the
+European policy; and Mexico to-day walks firmly.
+
+Finally take the case of Venezuela in 1895. I believe I am not mistaken
+when I say that, during the twenty-five preceding years, Venezuela had
+undergone almost as many revolutions. It certainly had not enjoyed a
+stable government. Through disputes over questions of boundary, Great
+Britain proposed to confer that indisputable blessing upon a
+considerable region. We interfered under a most questionable extension
+of the Monroe Doctrine, and asserted the principle of "Hands-off."
+Having done this,--having in so far perpetuated what we now call the
+scandal of anarchy,--we did not establish "tutelage," or a protectorate,
+ourselves. We wisely left Venezuela to work out its destiny in its own
+way, and in the fullness of time. That policy was far-seeing,
+beneficent, and strictly American in 1895. Why, then, make almost
+indecent haste to abandon it in 1898?
+
+Instead, therefore, of finding our precedents in the experience of
+England, or that of any other European power, I would suggest that the
+true course for this country now to pursue is exactly the course we have
+heretofore pursued under similar conditions. Let us be true to our own
+traditions, and follow our own precedents. Having relieved the Spanish
+islands from the dominion of Spain, we should declare concerning them a
+policy of "Hands-off," both on our own part and on the part of other
+powers. We should say that the independence of those islands is morally
+guaranteed by us as a consequence of the treaty of Paris, and then leave
+them just as we have left Hayti, and just as we left Mexico and
+Venezuela, to adopt for themselves such form of government as the people
+thereof are ripe for. In the cases of Mexico and Venezuela, and in the
+case of Hayti, we have not found it necessary to interfere ever or at
+all. It is not yet apparent why we should find it necessary to interfere
+with islands so much more remote from us than Hayti, and than Mexico and
+Venezuela, as are the Philippines.
+
+In this matter we can thus well afford to be consistent, as well as
+logical. Our fundamental principles, those of the Declaration, the
+Constitution, and the Monroe Doctrine, have not yet been shown to be
+unsound--why should we be in such a hurry to abandon them? Our
+precedents are close at hand, and satisfactory--why look away from them
+to follow those of Great Britain? Why need we, all of a sudden, be so
+very English and so altogether French, even borrowing their nomenclature
+of "imperialism?" Why can not we, too, in the language of Burke, be
+content to set our feet "in the tracks of our forefathers, where we can
+neither wander nor stumble?" The only difficulty in the way of our so
+doing seems to be that we are in such a desperate hurry; while natural
+influences and methods, though in the great end indisputably the wisest
+and best, always require time in which to work themselves out to their
+results. Wiser than the Almighty in our own conceit, we think to get
+there at once; the "there" in this case being everlasting "tutelage," as
+in India, instead of ultimate self-government, as in Mexico.
+
+The policy heretofore pursued by us in such cases,--the policy of
+"Hands-off," and "Walk alone," is distinctly American; it is not
+European, not even British. It recognizes the principles of our
+Declaration of Independence. It recognizes the truth that all just
+government exists by the consent of the governed. It recognizes the
+existence of the Monroe Doctrine. In a word, it recognizes every
+principle and precedent, whether natural or historical, which has from
+the beginning lain at the foundation of our American polity. It does not
+attempt the hypocritical contradiction in terms, of pretending to
+elevate a people into a self-sustaining condition through the
+leading-string process of "tutelage." It appeals to our historical
+experience, applying to present conditions the lessons of Hayti, Mexico,
+and Venezuela. In dealing with those cases, we did not find a great
+standing army or an enormous navy necessary; and, if not then, why now?
+Why such a difference between the Philippines and Hayti? Is Cuba larger
+or nearer to us than Mexico? When, therefore, in future they ask us what
+course and policy we Anti-Imperialists propose, our answer should be
+that we propose to pursue towards the islands of Antilles and the
+Philippines the same common-sense course and truly American policy which
+were by us heretofore pursued with such signal success in the cases of
+Hayti, Mexico, and Venezuela, all inhabited by people equally unfit for
+self-government, and geographically much closer to ourselves. We propose
+to guarantee them against outside meddling, and, above all, from
+"tutelage," and make them, by walking, learn to walk alone.
+
+This, I submit, is not only an answer to the question so frequently put
+to us, but a positive policy following established precedents, and, what
+is more, purely American, as distinguished from a European or British,
+policy and precedents.
+
+I remain, etc.,
+
+CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
+
+_Hon. Carl Schurz,
+16 E. 64th Street, New York City._
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] "Obviously, men are not born equal in physical strength or in mental
+capacity, in beauty of form or health of body. Diversity or inequality
+in these respects is the law of creation. But this inequality is in no
+particular inconsistent with complete civil or political equality.
+
+"The equality declared by our fathers in 1776 and made the fundamental
+law of Massachusetts in 1780, was _Equality before the Law_. Its object
+was to efface all political or civil distinctions, and to abolish all
+institutions founded upon _birth_. 'All men are _created_ equal,' says
+the Declaration of Independence. 'All men are _born_ free and equal,'
+says the Massachusetts Bill of Rights. These are not vain words. Within
+the sphere of their influence, no person can be _created_, no person can
+be _born_, with civil or political privileges not enjoyed equally by all
+his fellow-citizens; nor can any institutions be established,
+recognizing distinctions of birth. Here is the Great Charter of every
+human being drawing vital breath upon this soil, whatever may be his
+conditions, and whoever may be his parents. He may be poor, weak,
+humble, or black,--he may be of Caucasian, Jewish, Indian, or Ethiopian
+race,--he may be born of French, German, English, or Irish extraction;
+but before the Constitution of Massachusetts all these distinctions
+disappear. He is not poor, weak, humble, or black; nor is he Caucasian,
+Jew, Indian, or Ethiopian; nor is he French, German, English, or Irish;
+he is a MAN, the equal of all his fellow-men. He is one of the children
+of the State, which, like an impartial parent, regards all its offspring
+with an equal care. To some it may justly allot higher duties, according
+to higher capacities; but it welcomes all to its equal hospitable board.
+The State, imitating the divine Justice, is no respecter of
+persons."--_Works of Charles Sumner, Vol. II., pp. 341-2_.
+
+[2] Historically speaking, the assertion in the Declaration of
+Independence has been fruitful of dispute. The very evening the present
+paper was read at Lexington the Mayor of Boston, in a public address
+elsewhere, alluded to the "imprudent generalizations of our
+forefathers," referring, doubtless, to what Rufus Choate, forty-two
+years before, described as "the glittering and sounding generalities of
+natural right" to be found in the Declaration, "that passionate and
+eloquent manifesto." Mr. Calhoun declared (1848) that the claim of human
+equality set forth in the Declaration was "the most false and dangerous
+of all political errors," which, after resting a long time "dormant,"
+had, in the process of time, begun "to germinate and produce its
+poisonous fruits." Mr. Pettit, a Senator from Indiana, pronounced it in
+1854, "a self-evident lie." In the famous Lincoln-Douglas debate in
+Illinois (1860) the question reappeared, Mr. Douglas contending that the
+Declaration applied only to "the white people of the United States;"
+while Mr. Lincoln, in reply, asserted that "the entire records of the
+world, from the date of the Declaration of Independence up to within
+three years ago, may be searched in vain for one single affirmation,
+from one single man, that the negro was not included in the
+Declaration." The contention of Mr. Douglas had recently again made its
+appearance in the press as something too indisputable to admit of
+discussion. It is asserted that, in penning the Declaration, Mr.
+Jefferson could not possibly have intended to include those then
+actually held as slaves. On this point Mr. Jefferson himself should, it
+would seem, be accepted as a competent witness. Referring to the denial
+of his "inalienable rights" to the African, he declared at a later day,
+"I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just." What he
+meant will, however, probably continue matter for confident newspaper
+assertions just so long as anybody in this country wants to make out, as
+did Stephen A. Douglas in 1860, a plausible pretext for subjugating
+somebody else,--Indian, African, or Asiatic. As Mr. Lincoln expressed
+it, "The assertion that all men are created equal was of no practical
+use in effecting our separation from Great Britain, and it was placed in
+the Declaration, not for that but for future use. Its author meant it to
+be, as, thank God, it is now proving itself, a stumbling block to all
+those who, in after times, might seek to turn a free people back into
+the paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed
+tyrants, and they meant, when such should reappear in this fair land,
+and commence their vocation, they should find left for them at least one
+hard nut to crack."--_Works_, Vol. I., p. 233.
+
+[3] Green's Short History (Ill. Ed.). Vol. I. p. 9.
+
+[4] The Roman legions were withdrawn from Great Britain in 410; Magna
+Charta was signed in June, 1215, and the reign of French kings over
+England came to a close in 1217. It is a striking illustration of the
+deliberation with which natural processes work themselves out, that the
+period which elapsed between the withdrawal of Rome from England, and
+the recovery of England by the English, should have exceeded by more
+than a century the time which has as yet elapsed since England was thus
+recovered.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our
+Forefathers", by Charles Francis Adams
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "IMPERIALISM" AND "THE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 16542-8.txt or 16542-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/4/16542/
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Sigal Alon and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+Produced from page images provided by the Digital and
+Multimedia Center, Michigan State University Libraries
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+
diff --git a/16542-8.zip b/16542-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aea9f50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/16542-8.zip
diff --git a/16542-h.zip b/16542-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9029d4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/16542-h.zip
diff --git a/16542-h/16542-h.htm b/16542-h/16542-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..57fbd4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/16542-h/16542-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,1997 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers", by Charles Francis Adams.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+         }
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    .linenum  {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */
+    .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .pagenum  {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */
+    .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em;
+               padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em;
+               float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em;
+               font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;}
+
+    .bb       {border-bottom: solid 2px;}
+    .bl       {border-left: solid 2px;}
+    .bt       {border-top: solid 2px;}
+    .br       {border-right: solid 2px;}
+    .bbox     {border: solid 2px;}
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+    .right    {text-align: right;}
+    .right10  {text-align: right; margin-right: 10em;}
+    .left1    {text-align: left; margin-left: 1em;}
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+    .u        {text-decoration: underline;}
+
+    .caption  {font-weight: bold;}
+
+    .figcenter   {margin: auto; text-align: center;}
+
+    .figleft     {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top:
+                 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;}
+
+    .figright    {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;
+                 margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;}
+
+    .footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+    .footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+    .footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+    .fnanchor         {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;}
+
+    .poem             {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem br          {display: none;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem span.i0     {display: block; margin-left: 0em;}
+    .poem span.i1     {display: block; margin-left: 1em;}
+    .poem span.i4     {display: block; margin-left: 4em;}
+    .poem span.i8     {display: block; margin-left: 8em;}
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our
+Forefathers", by Charles Francis Adams
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers"
+
+Author: Charles Francis Adams
+
+Release Date: August 17, 2005 [EBook #16542]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "IMPERIALISM" AND "THE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Sigal Alon and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+Produced from page images provided by the Digital and
+Multimedia Center, Michigan State University Libraries
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h1>"Imperialism"</h1>
+
+<h4>AND</h4>
+
+<h1>"The Tracks of Our Forefathers"<br /><br /></h1>
+
+<h5>A PAPER READ BY</h5>
+
+<h2>CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS<br /></h2>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Before the Lexington, Massachusetts, Historical Society</i><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Tuesday, December 20, 1898</span><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">"In a word, many wise men thought it a time wherein those two miserable
+adjuncts, which Nerva was deified for uniting, <i>imperium et libertas</i>, were as well
+reconciled as is possible."&mdash;<i>Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, B. 1. &sect; 163.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">"I put my foot in the tracks of our forefathers, where I can neither wander nor
+stumble."&mdash;<i>Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America.</i><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+
+<p class="center">BOSTON<br />
+DANA ESTES &amp; COMPANY<br />
+210 SUMMER STREET<br />
+1899
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>What the feast of the Passover was to the children of
+Israel, that the days between the nineteenth of December
+and the fourth of January&mdash;the Yuletide&mdash;are and will
+remain to the people of New England. The Passover began
+"in the first month on the fourteenth day of the month at
+even," and it lasted one week, "until the one and twentieth
+day of the month at even." It was the period of the sacrifice
+of the Paschal lamb, and the feast of unleavened bread; and
+of it as a commemoration it is written, "When your children
+shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? that
+ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who
+passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt,
+when he smote the Egyptians. Now the sojourning of the
+children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred
+and thirty years." And thus, by their yearly Passover,
+were the Jewish congregations of old put in mind what
+farewell they took of the land of Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>So our own earliest records tell us that it was on the
+morning of Saturday, of what is now the nineteenth of
+December, that the little exploring party from the <i>Mayflower</i>,
+then lying at her anchor in Provincetown Harbor, after a
+day and night of much trouble and danger, sorely buffeted
+by wind and wave in rough New England's December seas,
+found themselves on an island in Plymouth Bay. It was a
+mild, "faire sunshining day. And this being the last day of
+the weeke, they prepared ther to keepe the Sabath. On
+Munday they sounded the harbor, and marched into the land,
+and found a place fitt for situation. So they returned to
+their shipp againe [at Provincetown] with this news. On
+the twenty-fifth of December they weyed anchor to goe to
+<a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>the place they had discovered, and came within two leagues
+of it, but were faine to bear up againe; but the twenty-sixth
+day, the winde came faire, and they arrived safe in this
+harbor. And after wards tooke better view of the place, and
+resolved wher to pitch their dwelling; and the fourth day [of
+January] begane to erecte the first house for commone use to
+receive them and their goods." Such, in the quaint language
+of Bradford, is the calendar of New England's Passover;
+and, beginning on the nineteenth of December, it ends on
+the fourth of January, covering as nearly as may be the
+Christmas holyday period.</p>
+
+<p>Is there any better use to which the Passover anniversary
+can be put than to retrospection? "And when your children
+shall say unto you, What mean you by this service?
+ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, when
+he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses." So the
+old story is told again, being thus kept ever green in memory;
+and, in telling it, the experiences of the past are brought
+insensibly to bear on the conditions of the present. Thus,
+once a year, like the Israelites of old, we, as a people, may
+take our bearings and verify our course, as we plunge on out
+of the infinite past into the unknowable future. It is a
+useful practice; and we are here this first evening of our
+Passover period to observe it.</p>
+
+<p>This, too, is an Historical Society,&mdash;that of Lexington, "a
+name," as, when arraigned before the tribunal of the French
+Terror, Danton said of his own, "tolerably known in the
+Revolution;" and I am invited to address you because I am
+President of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the most
+venerable organization of the sort in America, perhaps in the
+world. Thus, to-night, though we shall necessarily have to
+touch on topics of the day, and topics exciting the liveliest
+interest and most active discussion, we will in so doing look
+at them,&mdash;not as politicians or as partisans, nor from the
+commercial or religious side, but solely from the historical
+point of view. We shall judge of the present in its relations
+to the past. And, unquestionably, there is great satisfaction
+to be derived from so doing; the mere effort seems at once to
+take us into another atmosphere,&mdash;an atmosphere as foreign
+to unctuous cant as it is to what is vulgarly known as
+<a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>"electioneering taffy." This evening we pass away from
+the noisy and heated turmoil of partisan politics, with its
+appeals to prejudice, passion, and material interest, into the
+cool of a quiet academic discussion. It is like going out of
+some turbulent caucus, or exciting ward-room debate, and
+finding oneself suddenly confronted by the cold, clear light
+of the December moon, shining amid the silence of innumerable
+stars.</p>
+
+<p>Addressing ourselves, therefore, to the subject in hand, the
+question at once suggests itself,&mdash;What year in recent times
+has been in a large way more noteworthy and impressive,
+when looked at from the purely historical point of view, than
+this year of which we are now observing the close? The
+first Passover of the Israelites ended a drama of more than
+four centuries' duration, for "the sojourning of the children
+of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and
+thirty years; and at the end of the four hundred and thirty
+years all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land
+of Egypt." So the Passover we now celebrate commemorates
+the closing of another world drama of almost precisely
+the same length, and one of deepest significance, as
+well as unsurpassed historic interest. These world dramas
+are lengthy affairs; for, while we men are always in a hurry,
+the Almighty never is: on the contrary, as the Psalmist
+observed, so now, "a thousand years in his sight are but as
+yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night."
+The drama I have referred to as this week brought to its
+close, is that known in history as Spanish Domination in
+America. It began, as we all know, on the twenty-first of
+October, 1492; it has been continuous through six years over
+four centuries. It now passes into history; the verdict may
+be made up.</p>
+
+<p>So far as I personally am concerned,&mdash;a matter needless
+to say of very trifling consequence,&mdash;this verdict was rendered
+a year ago. It was somewhat Rhadamanthine; but a
+twelve-month of further reflection has shown no cause in any
+respect to revise it. In referring to what was then plainly
+impending, in December, 1897, before the blowing up of the
+battleship <i>Maine</i>, before a conflict had become inevitable, I
+used this language in a paper read to the Massachusetts Historical
+<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>Society: "When looking at the vicissitudes of human
+development, we are apt to assume a certain air of optimism,
+and take advancement as the law of being, as a thing of course,
+indisputable. We are charitable, too; and to deny to any
+given race or people some degree of use in the economy of
+Nature, or the plan of Creation, is usually regarded as indicative
+of narrowness of view. The fatal, final word "pessimist"
+is apt to be whispered in connection with the name of
+one who ventures to suggest a doubt of this phase of the
+doctrine known as Universalism. And yet, at this time
+when, before our eyes, it is breathing its last, I want some
+one to point out a single good thing in law, or science, or art,
+or literature,&mdash;material, moral or intellectual,&mdash;which has
+resulted to the race of man upon earth from Spanish domination
+in America. I have tried to think of one in vain. It
+certainly has not yielded an immortality, an idea, or a discovery;
+it has, in fact, been one long record of reaction and
+retrogression, than which few pages in the record of mankind
+have been more discouraging or less fruitful of good. What
+is now taking place in Cuba is historical. It is the dying
+out of a dominion, the influence of which will be seen and felt
+for centuries in the life of two continents; just as what is
+taking place in Turkey is the last fierce flickering up of
+Asiatic rule in Europe, on the very spot where twenty-four
+centuries ago Asiatic rule in Europe was thought to have
+been averted forever. The two, Ottoman rule in Europe, and
+Spanish rule in America, now stand at the bar of history;
+and, scanning the long four-century record of each, I have
+been unable to see what either has contributed to the accumulated
+possessions of the human race, or why both should not
+be classed among the many instances of the arrested civilization
+of a race, developing by degrees an irresistible tendency
+to retrogression."</p>
+
+<p>This, one year ago; and while the embers of the last Greco-Turkish
+struggle, still white, were scarcely cold on the plain
+of Marathon. The time since passed has yielded fresh proof
+in support of this harsh judgment; for, if there is one historical
+law better and more irreversibly established than another,
+it is that, in the case of nations even more than in the case
+of individuals, their sins will find them out,&mdash;the day of
+<a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>reckoning may not be escaped. Noticeably, has this proved
+so in the case of Spain. The year 1500 may be said to have
+found that country at the apex of her greatness. America
+had then been newly discovered; the Moor was just subdued.
+Nearly half a century before (1453) the Roman Empire had
+fallen, and, with the storming of Constantinople by the Saracens,
+disappeared from the earth. That event, it may be
+mentioned in passing, closed another world drama continuous
+through twenty-two centuries,&mdash;upon the whole the most
+wonderful of the series. And so, when Roman empire
+vanished, that of Spain began. It was ushered in by the
+landfall of Columbus; and when, just three hundred years
+later, in 1792, the subject was discussed in connection
+with its third centennial, the general verdict of European
+thinkers was that the discovery of America had, upon the
+whole, been to mankind the reverse of beneficent. This
+conclusion has since been commented upon with derision;
+yet, when made, it was right. The United States had in
+1792 just struggled into existence, and its influence on the
+course of human events had not begun to make itself felt.
+Those who considered the subject had before them, therefore,
+only Spanish domination in America, and upon that their
+verdict cannot be gainsaid; for, from the year 1492 down,
+the history of Spain and Spanish domination has undeniably
+been one long series of crimes and violations of natural law,
+the penalty for which has not apparently even yet been
+exacted in full.</p>
+
+<p>Of those national crimes four stand out in special prominence,
+constituting counts in a national indictment than
+which history shows few more formidable. These four were:
+(1) The expulsion, first, of the Jews, and then of the Moors,
+or Moriscoes, from Spain, late in the fifteenth and early in
+the sixteenth centuries; (2) the annals of "the Council of
+Blood" in the Netherlands, and the eighty years of internecine
+warfare through which Holland fought its way out
+from under Spanish rule; (3) the Inquisition, the most ingenious
+human machinery ever invented to root out and
+destroy whatever a people had that was intellectually most
+alert, inquisitive, and progressive; and, finally (4), the policy
+of extermination, and, where not of extermination, of cruel
+<a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>oppression, systematically pursued towards the aborigines of
+America. Into the grounds on which the different counts
+of this indictment rest it would be impossible now to enter.
+Were it desirable so to do, time would not permit. Suffice it
+to say, the penalty had to be paid to the uttermost farthing;
+and one large instalment fell due, and was mercilessly exacted,
+during the year now drawing to its close. Spanish domination
+in America ceased,&mdash;the drama ended as it was entering
+on its fifth century,&mdash;and it can best be dismissed with the
+solemn words of Abraham Lincoln, uttered more than thirty
+years ago, when contemplating a similar expiation we were
+ourselves paying in blood and grief for a not dissimilar violation
+of an everlasting law,&mdash;"Yet, if God wills that this
+mighty scourge continue until all the wealth piled by the
+bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
+shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the
+lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said
+three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The
+judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether!'"</p>
+
+<p>But not only is this year memorable as witnessing the
+downfall and complete extirpation of that Spanish rule in
+America which began with Columbus, but the result, when it
+at last came about, was marked by incidents more curiously
+fitting and dramatic than it would have been possible for a
+Shakspeare to have conceived. Columbus, as we all know,
+stumbled, as it were, on America as he sailed west in search
+of Asia,&mdash;Cipango he was looking for, and he found Cuba.
+It is equally well known that he never discovered his mistake.
+When fourteen years later he died, it was in the faith that,
+through him, Europe had by a westward movement established
+itself in the archipelagoes of Asia. And now, at last,
+four centuries afterward, the blow which did most to end the
+American domination he established was struck in Asiatic
+waters; and, through it and the descendants of another race,
+America seems on the threshold of realizing the mistaken
+belief of Columbus, and by a westward movement establishing
+the European in that very archipelago Columbus failed to
+reach. The ways of Providence are certainly not less singular
+than slow in movement.</p>
+
+<p>But the year just ending was veritably one of surprises,&mdash;for
+<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>the historical student it would, indeed, seem as if 1898
+was destined to pass into the long record as almost the Year
+of Surprises. We now come to the consideration of some of
+these wholly unanticipated results from the American point
+of view. And in entering on this aspect of the question, it is
+necessary once more to remind you that we are doing it in the
+historical spirit, and from the historical point of view. We
+are stating facts not supposed to admit of denial. The argument
+and inferences to be drawn from those facts do not belong
+to this occasion. Some will reach one conclusion as to the
+future, and the bearing those facts have upon its probable
+development, and some will reach another conclusion; with
+these conclusions we have nothing to do. Our business is
+exclusively with the facts.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking largely, but still with all necessary historical
+accuracy, America has been peopled, and its development,
+up to the present time, worked out through two great stocks
+of the European family,&mdash;the Spanish-speaking stock, and
+the English-speaking stock. In their development these two
+have pursued lines, clearly marked, but curiously divergent.
+Leaving the Spanish-speaking branch out of the discussion, as
+unnecessary to it, it may without exaggeration be said of the
+English-speaking branch that, from the beginning down to
+this year now ending, its development has been one long protest
+against, and divergence from, Old World methods and
+ideals. In the case of those descended from the Forefathers,&mdash;as
+we always designate the Plymouth colony,&mdash;this has
+been most distinctly marked, ethnically, politically, industrially.</p>
+
+<p>America was the sphere where the European, as a colonist,
+a settler, first came on a large scale in contact with another
+race. Heretofore, in the Old World, when one stock had
+overrun another,&mdash;and history presented many examples of
+it,&mdash;the invading stock, after subduing, and to a great
+extent driving out, the stock which had preceded in the occupancy
+of a region, settled gradually down into a common possession,
+and, in the slow process of years, an amalgamation
+of stocks, more or less complete, took place. In America,
+with the Anglo-Saxon, and especially those of the New England
+type, this was not the case. Unlike the Frenchman at
+<a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>the north, or the Spaniard at the south, the Anglo-Saxon
+showed no disposition to ally himself with the aborigines,&mdash;he
+evinced no faculty of dealing with inferior races, as they
+are called, except through a process of extermination.
+Here in Massachusetts this was so from the outset. Nearly
+every one here has read Longfellow's poem, "The Courtship
+of Miles Standish," and calls to mind the short, sharp
+conflict between the Plymouth captain and the Indian chief,
+Pecksuot, and how those God-fearing Pilgrims ruthlessly put
+to death by stabbing and hanging a sufficient number of the
+already plague-stricken and dying aborigines. That episode
+occurred in April, 1623, only a little more than two years
+after the landing we to-night celebrate, and was, so far as
+New England is concerned, the beginning of a series of
+wars which did not end until the Indian ceased to be an element
+in our civilization. When John Robinson, the revered
+pastor of the Plymouth church, received tidings at Leyden of
+that killing near Plymouth,&mdash;for Robinson never got across
+the Atlantic,&mdash;he wrote: "Oh, how happy a thing had it
+been, if you had converted some before you had killed any!
+There is cause to fear that, by occasion, especially of provocation,
+there may be wanting that tenderness of the life of
+man (made after God's image) which is meet. It is also a
+thing more glorious in men's eyes, than pleasing in God's or
+convenient for Christians, to be a terror to poor, barbarous
+people." This all has a very familiar sound. It is the refrain of
+nearly three centuries; but, as an historical fact, it is undeniable
+that, from 1623 down to the year now ending, the American
+Anglo-Saxon has in his dealings with what are known
+as the "inferior races" lacked "that tenderness of the life
+of man which is meet," and he has made himself "a terror to
+poor, barbarous people." How we of Massachusetts carried
+ourselves towards the aborigines here, the fearful record of
+the Pequot war remains everlastingly to tell. How the
+country at large has carried itself in turn towards Indian,
+African, and Asiatic is matter of history. And yet it is
+equally matter of history that this carriage, term it what
+you will,&mdash;unchristian, brutal, exterminating,&mdash;has been
+the salvation of the race. It has saved the Anglo-Saxon
+stock from being a nation of half-breeds,&mdash;miscegenates, to
+<a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>coin a word expressive of an idea. The Canadian half-breed,
+the Mexican, the mulatto, say what men may, are not virile
+or enduring races; and that the Anglo-Saxon is none of these,
+and is essentially virile and enduring, is due to the fact that
+the less developed races perished before him. Nature is undeniably
+often brutal in its methods.</p>
+
+<p>Again, and on the other hand, the Anglo-Saxon when he
+came to America left behind him, so far as he himself was
+concerned, feudalism and all things pertaining to caste, including
+what was then known in England, and is still known
+in Germany, as Divine Right. When he at last enunciated
+his political faith he put in the forefront of his declaration as
+"self-evident truths," the principles "that all men are created
+equal;" that they are endowed with "certain inalienable
+rights," among them "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;"
+and that governments derived "their just powers from
+the consent of the governed." Now what was meant here by
+the phrase "all men are created equal?" We know they
+are not. They are not created equal in physical or mental
+endowment; nor are they created with equal opportunity.
+The world bristles with inequalities, natural and artificial.
+This is so; and yet the declaration is none the less true;&mdash;true
+when made; true now; true for all future time. The
+reference was to the inequalities which always had marked,
+then did, and still do, mark, the political life of the Old World,&mdash;to
+Caste, Divine Right, Privilege. It declared that all men
+were created equal before the law, as before the Lord;<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and
+<a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>that, whether European, American, Asiatic, or African, they
+were endowed with an inalienable right to life, liberty, and
+the pursuit of happiness. And to this truth, as he saw it,
+Lincoln referred in those memorable words I have already
+cited bearing on our national crime in long forgetfulness of
+our own immutable principles. The fundamental, primal
+principle was indeed more clearly voiced by Lincoln than it
+has been voiced before, or since, in declaring again, and elsewhere
+that to our nation, dedicated "to the proposition that
+all men are created equal," has by Providence been assigned
+the momentous task of "testing whether any nation so conceived
+and so dedicated can long endure," and "that government
+of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not
+perish from the earth."</p>
+
+<p>The next cardinal principle in our policy as a race&mdash;that
+instinctive policy I have already referred to as divergent from
+Old World methods and ideals&mdash;was most dearly enunciated
+by Washington in his Farewell Address, that "the great rule
+for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial
+relations, to have with them as little political connection
+as possible;" that it was "unwise in us to implicate
+ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of [Old
+World] policies, or the ordinary combinations and collisions
+of her friendships or enmities. Our detached and distant situation
+invites and enables us to pursue a different course....
+Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments
+on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust
+to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies."</p>
+
+<p>Accepting this as firm ground from which to act, we afterwards
+put forth what is known as the Monroe Doctrine. Having
+announced that our purpose was, in homely language, to
+mind our own business, we warned the outer world that we
+did not propose to permit by that outer world any interference
+in what did not concern it. America was our field,&mdash;a field
+amply large for our development. It was therefore declared
+<a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>that, while we had never taken any part, nor did it comport
+with our policy to do so, in the wars of European politics,
+with the movements in this hemisphere we are, of necessity,
+more intimately connected. "We owe it, therefore, to candor
+to declare that we should consider any attempt [on the part
+of European powers] to extend their system to any portion of
+this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety."</p>
+
+<p>On these principles of government and of foreign policy we
+have as a people now acted for more than seventy years.
+They have been exemplified and developed in various directions,
+and resulted in details&mdash;commercial, economic, and
+ethnic&mdash;which have given rise to political issues, long and
+hotly contested, but which, in their result from the purely
+historical point of view, do not admit of dispute. Commercially,
+we have adopted what is known as a system protective
+both of our industries and our labor. Economically, we
+have carefully eschewed large and costly armaments, and
+expensive governmental methods. Ethnically, we have
+avowed our desire to have as little contact as possible with
+less developed races, lamenting the presence of the African,
+and severely excluding the Asiatic. These facts, whether we
+as individuals and citizens wholly approve&mdash;or do not approve
+at all&mdash;of the course pursued and the results reached,
+admit of no dispute. Neither can it be denied that our attitude,
+whether it in all respects commanded the respect of
+foreign nations, or failed to command it, was accepted, and
+has prevailed. Striking illustrations of this at once suggest
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>In one respect especially was our attitude peculiar, and in
+its peculiarity we took great pride. It was largely moral;
+but, though largely moral, it had behind it the consciousness
+of strength in ourselves, and its recognition by others. In
+great degree, and relatively, an unarmed people, we looked
+with amaze, which had in it something of amusement, at the
+constantly growing armaments and war budgets of the nations
+of Europe. We saw them, like the warriors of the middle ages,
+crushed under the weight of their weapons of offence, and their
+preparations for defence. Meanwhile, fortunate in our geographical
+position,&mdash;weak for offence, but, in turn, unassailable,&mdash;we
+went in and out much as an unarmed man,
+<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>relying on his character, his recognized force, position, and
+peaceful calling, daily moves about in our frontier settlements
+and mining camps amid throngs of men armed to
+the teeth with revolvers and bowie knives. Yet, evidence
+was not lacking of the consideration yielded to us when we
+were called upon, or felt called upon, to assert ourselves. I
+will not refer to the episode of 1866, when, in accordance
+with the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, we intimated to
+France that her immediate withdrawal from Mexico was
+desired; for then we had not laid down the arms we had
+taken up in the Rebellion. But, without remonstrance even,
+France withdrew. In 1891, under circumstances not without
+grounds of aggravation against us, a mob in Valparaiso
+assaulted some seamen from our ships of war. Instant
+apology and redress were demanded; and the demand was
+complied with. Yet later, the course pursued by us in the
+Venezuela matter is too fresh in memory to call for more than
+a reference. These are all matters of history. When did our
+word fail to carry all desired weight?</p>
+
+<p>Such were our standing, our traditional policy, and our
+record at the beginning of the year now ending. No proposition
+advanced admits, it is believed, of dispute historically.
+Into the events of the year 1898 it is not necessary to enter
+in any detail. They are in the minds of all. It is sufficient
+to say that the primary object for which we entered upon the
+late war with Spain was to bring to an end the long and
+altogether bad record of Spanish rule in America. In taking
+the steps deemed necessary to effect this result, Congress
+went out of its way, and publicly and formally put upon
+record its disclaimer of any intention to enter upon a war of
+conquest, asserting its determination, when Spanish domination
+was ended, to leave the government of Cuba, and
+presumably of any other islands similarly acquired, to the
+people thereof. As an incident to our naval operations on
+the Pacific, the island of Hawaii was then annexed to the
+United States as an extra-territorial possession, or coaling
+station, this being effected by a joint resolution of the two
+Houses of Congress, under the precedent of 1845 established
+in the case of Texas,&mdash;a method of procedure the constitutionality
+of which was at the time formally called in question
+<a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>by the State of Massachusetts, and against which Mr. Webster
+made vigorous protest in the Senate. In thus possessing
+ourselves of Hawaii, the consent of the native inhabitants was
+not considered necessary; we dealt wholly with an oligarchical
+<i>de facto</i> government, representing the foreign element,
+mainly American, there resident.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the acquisition of Hawaii, we, as the result
+of brilliant naval operations and successes, acquired possession
+of the harbor of Manila, in the Philippine archipelago,
+and finally the city and some adjacent territory were surrendered
+to us. A treaty was then negotiated, the power of
+Spain being completely broken, under which she abandoned
+all claims of sovereignty, not only over the island of Cuba,
+the original cause of war, but over various other islands in
+the Philippine, as well as in the West Indian, archipelagoes.
+These islands, in all said to be some 1,200 to 1,500 in number,
+are moreover not only inhabited by both natives and foreigners
+to the estimated number of ten to twelve million of
+souls, but they contain large cities and communities speaking
+different tongues, living under other laws, and having customs,
+manners, and traditions wholly unlike our own, and
+which, in the case of the Philippines, do not admit of assimilation.
+Situated in the tropics also, they cannot gradually
+become colonized by Americans, with or without the disappearance
+of the native population. The American can only
+go there for temporary residence.</p>
+
+<p>A wholly new problem was thus suddenly presented to the
+people of the United States. On the one hand, it is asserted
+that, by destroying Spanish government in these islands, the
+United States has assumed responsibility for them, both to
+the inhabitants and to the world. This is a moral obligation.
+On the other hand, trade and commercial inducements are
+held out which would lead us to treat these islands simply as
+a commencement&mdash;the first instalment&mdash;in a system of unlimited
+extra-territorial dependencies and imperial expansion.
+With these responsibilities and obligations we here this evening
+have nothing to do, any more than we have to do with
+the expediency or probable results of the policy of colonial
+expansion, when once fairly adopted and finally entered upon.
+These hereafter will be, but are not yet, historical questions;
+<a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>and we are merely historical inquirers. We, therefore, no
+matter what others may do, must try to confine ourselves to
+our own proper business and functions.</p>
+
+<p>My purpose, therefore, is not to argue for or against what
+is now proposed, but simply to test historically some of the
+arguments I have heard most commonly advanced in favor
+of the proposed policy of expansion, and thus see to what
+they apparently lead in the sequence of human, and more
+especially of American, events. Do they indicate an historic
+continuity? Or do they result in what is geologically
+known as a "fault,"&mdash;a movement, as the result of force,
+through which a stratum, once continuous, becomes disconnected?</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, then, as respects the inhabitants of the
+vastly greater number of the dependencies already acquired,
+and, under the policy of imperialistic expansion, hereafter to
+be acquired. It is argued that we, as a people at once
+dominant and Christian, are under an obligation to avail
+ourselves of the opportunity the Almighty, in his infinite
+wisdom, has thrust upon us,&mdash;some say the plain call he
+has uttered to us,&mdash;to go forth, and impart to the barbarian
+and the heathen the blessings of liberty and the Bible. A
+mission is imposed upon us. Viewed in the cold, pitiless
+light of history,&mdash;and that is the only way we here can view
+them,&mdash;"divine missions" and "providential calls" are
+questionable things; things the assumption and fulfilment
+of which are apt to be at variance. So far as the American
+is concerned, as I have already pointed out, the historic
+precedents are not encouraging. Whatever his theories,
+ethnical, political, or religious, his practice has been as
+pronounced as it was masterful. From the earliest days at
+Wessagusset and in the Pequot war, down to the very last
+election held in North Carolina,&mdash;from 1623 to 1898,&mdash;the
+knife and the shotgun have been far more potent and active
+instruments in his dealings with the inferior races than the
+code of liberty or the output of the Bible Society. The
+record speaks for itself. So far as the Indian is concerned,
+the story has been told by Mrs. Jackson in her earnest,
+eloquent protest, entitled "A Century of Dishonor." It has
+received epigrammatic treatment in the saying tersely enunciated
+<a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>by one of our military commanders, and avowedly
+accepted by the others, that "the only good Indian is a
+dead Indian." So far as the African is concerned, the
+similar apothegm once was that "the black man has no
+rights the white man is bound to respect;" or, as Stephen
+A. Douglas defined his position before an applauding audience,
+"I am for the white man as against the black man,
+and for the black man against the alligator." Recent lynching
+and shotgun experiences, too fresh in memory to call for
+reminder, and too painful in detail to describe, give us at
+least reason to pause before we leave our own hearthstone
+to seek new and distant fields for missionary labors. It
+remains to consider the Asiatic. The racial antipathy of the
+American towards him has been more intense than towards
+any other species of the human race. This, as an historical
+fact, has been recently imbedded in our statute-book, having
+previously been illustrated in a series of outrages and massacres,
+with the sickening details of some of which it was at
+one time my misfortune to be officially familiar. Under these
+circumstances, so far as the circulation of the Bible and the
+extension of the blessings of liberty are concerned, history
+affords small encouragement to the American to assume new
+obligations. He has been, and now is, more than merely
+delinquent in the fulfilment of obligations heretofore thrust
+upon him, or knowingly assumed. In this respect his instinct
+has proved much more of a controlling factor than his ethics,&mdash;the
+shotgun has unfortunately been more constantly in
+evidence than the Bible. As a prominent "expansionist"
+New England member of the present Congress has recently
+declared in language, brutal perhaps in directness, but
+withal commendably free from cant: "China is succumbing
+to the inevitable, and the United States, if she would not
+retire to the background, must advance along the line with
+the other great nations. She must acquire new territory,
+providing new markets over which she must maintain control.
+The Anglo-Saxon advances into the new regions with a Bible
+in one hand and a shotgun in the other. The inhabitants of
+those regions that he cannot convert with the aid of the
+Bible and bring into his markets, he gets rid of with the
+shotgun. It is but another demonstration of the survival of
+<a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>the fittest." (Hon. C.A. Sulloway, Rochester, N.H.,
+Nov. 22, 1898.)</p>
+
+<p>Next as regards our fundamental principles of equality of
+human rights, and the consent of the governed as the only
+just basis of all government. The presence of the inferior
+races on our own soil, and our new problems connected with
+them in our dependencies, have led to much questioning of
+the correctness of those principles, which, for its outspoken
+frankness, at least, is greatly to be commended. It is argued
+that these, as principles, in the light of modern knowledge
+and conditions, are of doubtful general truth and limited
+application. True, when confined and carefully applied to
+citizens of the same blood and nationality; questionable,
+when applied to human beings of different race in one nationality;
+manifestly false, in the case of races less developed, and
+in other, especially tropical, countries.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> As fundamental principles,
+<a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>it is admitted, they were excellent for a young people
+struggling into recognition and limiting its attention narrowly
+to what only concerned itself; but have we not manifestly
+outgrown them, now that we ourselves have developed into
+a great World Power? For such there was and necessarily
+always will be, as between the superior and the inferior races,
+a manifest common sense foundation in caste, and in the rule
+of might when it presents itself in the form of what we are
+pleased to call Manifest Destiny. As to government being
+conditioned on the consent of the governed, it is obviously
+the bounden duty of the superior race to hold the inferior
+race in peaceful tutelage, and protect it against itself; and,
+furthermore, when it comes to deciding the momentous question
+of what races are superior and what inferior, what dominant
+and what subject, that is of necessity a question to be
+settled between the superior race and its own conscience;
+and one in regard to the correct settlement of which it indicates
+a tendency at once unpatriotic and "pessimistic," to
+assume that America could by any chance decide otherwise
+than correctly. Upon that score we must put implicit
+confidence in the sound instincts and Christian spirit of the
+dominant, that is, the stronger race.</p>
+
+<p>It is the same with that other fundamental principle with
+which the name of Lexington is, from the historical point of
+view, so closely associated,&mdash;I refer, of course, to the revolutionary
+contention that representation is a necessary adjunct
+to taxation. This principle also, it is frankly argued, we
+have outgrown, in presence of our new responsibilities; and,
+as between the superior and inferior races, it is subject to
+obvious limitations. Here again, as between the policy of
+the "Open Door" and the Closed-Colonial-Market policy, the
+superior race is amenable to its own conscience only. It will
+doubtless on all suitable and convenient occasions bear in
+mind that it is a "Trustee for Civilization."</p>
+
+<p>Finally, as respects entangling foreign alliances, and their
+necessary consequents, costly and burdensome armaments
+and large standing armies, we are again advised that, having
+ceased to be children, we should put away childish things.
+Having become a great World Power we must become a
+corresponding War Power. We are assured by high authority
+<a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>that, were Washington now alive, it cannot be questioned
+he would in all these respects modify materially the views
+expressed in the Farewell Address, as being obviously inapplicable
+to existing conditions. Under these circumstances,
+and in view of the obligations we have assumed, the President,
+and Secretaries of War and the Navy, recommend an
+establishment the annual cost of which ($200,000,000), exclusive
+of military pensions, is in excess of the largest of those
+European War Budgets, over the crushing influence of which
+we have expressed a traditional wonder, not unmixed with
+pity for the unfortunate tax-payer.</p>
+
+<p>Historically speaking, I believe these are all facts, susceptible
+of verification. I do not mean to say that the
+arguments developing obvious limitations in the application
+of the principles of the Declaration and the Constitution have
+been avowedly accepted by our representatives, or officially
+incorporated into our domestic and foreign policy. I do
+assert as an historical fact that these arguments have been
+advanced, and are meeting, both in Congress and with the
+press, a large degree of acceptance. And hence comes a
+singular and most significant conclusion from which, historically,
+there seems to be no escape. It may or it may not be
+fortunate and right; it may or it may not lead to beneficent
+future results; it may or it may not contribute to the good
+of mankind. Those questions belong elsewhere than in the
+rooms of an historical society. Upon them we are not called
+to pass,&mdash;they belong to the politician, the publicist, the
+philosopher, not to us. But, as historical investigators, and so
+observing the sequence of events, it cannot escape our notice
+that on every one of the fundamental principles discussed,&mdash;whether
+ethnic, economical, or political,&mdash;we abandon the
+traditional and distinctively American grounds and accept
+those of Europe, and especially of Great Britain, which heretofore
+we have made it the basis of our faith to deny and
+repudiate.</p>
+
+<p>With this startling proposition in mind, consider again the
+several propositions advanced; and first, as regards the so-called
+inferior races. Our policy towards them, instinctive
+and formulated, has been either to exclude or destroy, or to
+leave them in the fullness of time to work out their own
+<a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>destiny, undisturbed by us; fully believing that, in this way,
+we in the long run best subserved the interests of mankind.
+Europe, and Great Britain especially, adopted the opposite
+policy. They held that it was incumbent on the superior to
+go forth and establish dominion over the inferior race, and to
+hold and develop vast imperial possessions and colonial dependencies.
+They saw their interest and duty in developing
+systems of docile tutelage; we sought our inspirations in the
+rough school of self-government. Under this head the result
+then is distinct, clean cut, indisputable. To this conclusion
+have we come at last. The Old World, Europe and Great
+Britain, were, after all, right, and we of the New World have
+been wrong. From every point of view,&mdash;religious, ethnic,
+commercial, political,&mdash;we cannot, it is now claimed, too soon
+abandon our traditional position and assume theirs. Again,
+Europe and Great Britain have never admitted that men were
+created equal, or that the consent of the governed was a condition
+of government. They have, on the contrary, emphatically
+denied both propositions. We now concede that, after
+all, there was great basis for their denial; that, certainly, it
+must be admitted, our forefathers were hasty at least in reaching
+their conclusions,&mdash;they generalized too broadly. We
+do not frankly avow error, and we still think the assent
+of the governed to a government a thing desirable to be
+secured, under suitable circumstances and with proper limitations;
+but, if it cannot conveniently be secured, we are
+advised on New England senatorial authority that "the
+consent of some of the governed" will be sufficient, we
+ourselves selecting those proper to be consulted. Thus
+in such cases as certain islands of the Antilles, Hawaii, and
+the communities of Asia, we admit that, so far as the principles
+at the basis of the Declaration are concerned, Great
+Britain was right, and our ancestors were, not perhaps wrong,
+but too general, and of the eighteenth century, in their statements.
+To that extent, we have outgrown the Declaration
+of 1776, and have become as wise now as Great Britain was
+then. At any rate we are not above learning. As was long
+ago said,&mdash;"Only dead men and idiots never change;" and
+the people of the United States are nothing unless open-minded.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>So, also, as respects the famous Boston "tea-party," and
+taxation without representation. Great Britain then affirmed
+this right in the case of colonies and dependencies. Taught
+by the lesson of our War of Independence, she has since
+abandoned it. We now take it up, and are to-day, as one of
+the new obligations towards the heathen imposed upon us by
+Providence, formulating systems of imposts and tariffs for our
+new dependencies, wholly distinct from our own, and directly
+inhibited by our constitution, in regard to which systems
+those dependencies have no representative voice. They are
+not to be consulted as to the kind of door, "open" or
+"closed," behind which they are to exist. In taking this
+position it is difficult to see why we must not also incidentally
+admit that, in the great contention preceding our War
+of Independence, the first armed clash of which resounded
+here in Lexington, Great Britain was more nearly right than
+the exponents of the principles for which those "embattled
+farmers" contended.</p>
+
+<p>Again, consider the Monroe Doctrine, entangling foreign
+alliances, and the consequent and costly military and naval
+establishments. The Monroe Doctrine had two sides, the
+abstention of the Old World from interference in American
+affairs, based on our abstention from interference in the
+affairs of the Old World. But it is now argued we have outgrown
+the Monroe Doctrine, or at least the latter branch of
+it. It is certainly so considered in Europe; for, only a few
+days ago, so eminent an authority as Lord Farrar exultingly
+exclaimed in addressing the Cobden Club,&mdash;"America has
+burned the swaddling clothes of the Monroe Doctrine." Indeed
+we have, in discussion at least, gone far in advance of
+the mere burning of cast-off infantile clothing, and alliances
+with Great Britain and Japan, as against France and Russia,
+are freely mooted, with a view to the forcible partition of
+China, to which we are to be a party, and of it a beneficiary.
+For it is already avowed that the Philippines are but a
+"stopping-place" on the way to the continent of Asia; and
+China, unlike Poland, is inhabited by an "inferior race," in
+regard to whom, as large possible consumers of surplus products,
+Providence has imposed on us obvious obligations,
+material as well as benevolent and religious, which it would
+<a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>be unlike ourselves to disregard. It is the mandate of duty,
+we are told,&mdash;the nations of Europe obey it, and can we do
+less than they? "Isolation" it is then argued is but another
+name for an attention to one's own business which may well
+become excessive, and result in selfishness. It is true that
+the nations of the Old World have not heretofore erred conspicuously
+in this respect; and as the "Balance of Power"
+was the word-juggle with which to conjure up wars and
+armaments in the eighteenth century, so the "Division of
+Trade" may not impossibly prove the similar conjuring word-juggle
+of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, "isolation"
+is not compatible with the policy of a Great Nation under a
+call to assert itself as a World Power. Then follows the
+familiar argument in favor of costly military and naval establishments.
+But, upon this head it is needless to restate our
+traditional policy,&mdash;our jealousy as a people of militarism
+and large standing armies, to be used, if occasion calls, as a
+reserve police. Our record thereon is so plain that repetition
+grows tedious. The record of Europe, and especially of Great
+Britain as distinguished from other European powers, has been
+equally plain, and is no less indisputable. In this respect,
+also, always under compulsion, we now admit our error.
+Costly armies are necessary to the maintenance of order,
+Heaven's first law; and World Powers cannot maintain peace,
+and themselves, without powerful navies and frequent coaling
+stations.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, even on such matters as the Protective System and
+the encouragement of American Labor, as against the
+"Pauper Labor" of Europe and of the inferior races, Great
+Britain has for half a century now advocated the principle of
+unrestricted industry and free trade,&mdash;that is the "Open
+Door" policy logically carried to its final results. We have
+denied it, establishing what we in time grew to call the distinctive
+American system. It is, however, now asserted that
+"Trade follows the Flag," and that, as respects dependencies
+at least, the "Open Door" policy is the best policy. If
+"Trade follows the Flag" in dependencies, and, by so doing,
+affords the American producer all needful protection
+and every fair advantage in those dependencies, it is not at
+once apparent why it fails so to do at home. Is it less docile
+<a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>to the flag, less in harmony with and subservient to it, in the
+United States, within our own limits, than in remote lands
+under that flag beyond the seas? And, if so, how is such an
+apparent anomaly accounted for? But with this question we
+are not concerned. That problem is for the economist to
+solve, for in character it is commercial, not historical. The
+point with us is that again, as regards the "Open Door,"&mdash;free
+trade and no favor, so far as all outside competition
+is concerned, American labor and "pauper" labor being
+equally outside,&mdash;on this long and hotly contested point, also,
+England appears on the face of things to have had after all
+much the best of the argument.</p>
+
+<p>As regards "Pauper Labor," indeed, the reversal contemplated
+of established policy in favor of European methods is
+specially noteworthy. The labor of Asia is undeniably less well
+paid even than that of Europe; but it is now proposed, by a
+single act, to introduce into our industrial system ten millions
+of Asiatics, either directly, or through their products sold in
+open competition with our own; or, if we do not do that, to
+hold them, ascribed to the soil in a sort of old Saxon serfdom,
+with the function assigned them of consuming our surplus
+products, but without in return sending us theirs. The
+great counterbalancing consideration will not, of course, be
+forgotten that, like the English in India, we also bestow on
+them the Blessings of Liberty and the Bible; provided, always,
+that liberty does not include freedom to go to the United
+States, and the Bible does include the excellent Old Time and
+Old World precept (Coloss. 3: 22), "Servants, obey in all
+things your masters."</p>
+
+<p>It is the same in other respects. It seems to be admitted
+by the President, and by the leading authorities on the imperialistic
+policy, that it can only be carried to successful
+results through the agency of a distinct governing class.
+Accordingly administration through the agency of military
+or naval officers is strongly urged both by the President and
+by Captain Mahan. Other advocates of the policy urge its
+adoption on the ground, very distinctly avowed, that it will
+necessitate an established, recognized Civil Service, modelled,
+they add, on that of Great Britain. If, they then argue,
+Great Britain can extend&mdash;as, indeed, she unquestionably
+<a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>has extended&mdash;her system of dependencies all over the
+globe, developing them into the most magnificent empire the
+world ever saw, it is absurd, unpatriotic, and pessimistic to
+doubt that we can do the same. Are we not of the same
+blood, and the same speech? This is all historically true.
+Historically it is equally true that, to do it, we must employ
+means similar to those Great Britain has employed. In
+other words, modelling ourselves on Great Britain, we must
+slowly and methodically develop and build up a recognized
+and permanent governing and official class. The heathen
+and barbarian need to be studied, and dealt with intelligently
+and on a system; they cannot be successfully managed on
+any principle of rotation in office, much less one which ascribes
+the spoils of office to the victors at the polls. What
+these advocates of Imperialism say is unquestionably true:
+The political methods now in vogue in American cities are
+not adapted to the government of dependencies.</p>
+
+<p>The very word "Imperial" is, indeed, borrowed from the
+Old World. As applied to a great system of colonial dominion
+and foreign dependencies it is English, and very modern English,
+also, for it was first brought into vogue by the late Earl
+of Beaconsfield in 1879, when, by Act of Parliament introduced
+by him, the Queen of England was made Empress of India.
+It was then he enunciated that doctrine of <i>imperium et libertas</i>,
+the adoption of which we are now considering. While it
+may be wise and sound, it indisputably is British.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, curiously enough, whichever way we turn and
+however we regard it, at the close of more than a century of
+independent existence we find ourselves, historically speaking,
+involved in a mesh of contradictions with our past. Under a
+sense of obligation, impelled by circumstances, perhaps to
+a degree influenced by ambition and commercial greed, we
+have one by one abandoned our distinctive national tenets,
+and accepted in their place, though in some modified forms,
+the old-time European tenets and policies, which we supposed
+the world, actuated largely by our example, was about forever
+to discard. Our whole record as a people is, of course, then
+ransacked and subjected to microscopic investigation, and
+every petty disregard of principle, any wrong heretofore
+silently, perhaps sadly, ignored, each unobserved or disregarded
+<a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>innovation of the past, is magnified into a precedent
+justifying anything and everything in the future. If we
+formerly on some occasion swallowed a gnat, why now, is it
+asked, strain at a camel? Truths once accepted as "self-evident,"
+since become awkward of acceptance, were ever
+thus pettifogged out of the path, and fundamental principles
+have in this way prescriptively been tampered with. It is
+now nearly a century and a quarter ago, when Great Britain
+was contemplating the subjection of her American dependencies,
+that Edmund Burke denounced "tampering" with the
+"ingenuous and noble roughness of truly constitutional
+materials," as "the odious vice of restless and unstable
+minds." Historically speaking it is not unfair to ask if this
+is less so in the United States in 1898 than it was in Great
+Britain in 1775.</p>
+
+<p>What is now proposed, therefore, examined in connection
+with our principles and traditional policy as a nation, does
+apparently indicate a break in continuity,&mdash;historically, it will
+probably constitute what is known in geology as a "fault."
+Indeed, it is almost safe to say that history hardly records
+any change of base and system on the part of a great people
+at once so sudden, so radical, and so pregnant with consequences.
+To the optimist,&mdash;he who has no dislike to "Old
+Jewry," as the proper receptacle for worn-out garments, personal
+or political,&mdash;the outlook is inspiring. He insensibly
+recalls and repeats those fine lines of Tennyson:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"To-day I saw the dragon-fly<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Come from the wells where he did lie.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"An inner impulse rent the veil<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Of his old husk: from head to tail<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"He dried his wings: like gauze they grew:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Thro' crofts and pastures wet with dew<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;A living flash of light he flew."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>To others, older perhaps, but at any rate more deeply impressed
+with the difference apt to develop between dreams
+and actualities, the situation calls to mind a comparison,
+more historical it is true, but less inspiriting so far as a commitment
+to the new policy is concerned. At the risk, possibly,
+<a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>of offending some of those present, I will venture to
+institute it. In the fourth chapter of the Gospel according to
+St. Matthew, I find this incident recorded: "The devil
+taketh him [the Saviour] up into an exceeding high mountain,
+and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the
+glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I
+give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith
+Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan. Then the devil leaveth
+him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him."
+Now, historically speaking, and as a matter of scriptural exegesis,
+that this passage should be accepted literally is not
+supposable. Satan, on the occasion referred to, must not be
+taken to have presented himself to the Saviour <i>in propri&acirc;
+person&acirc;</i> with his attributes of horns, tail, and cloven hoof, and
+made an outright proposition of extra-territorial sovereignty.
+It was a parable. He who had assumed a lofty moral attitude
+was tempted by worldly inducements to adopt a lower attitude,&mdash;that,
+in a word, common among men. It was a whispering
+to Christ of what among nations, is known as "Manifest
+Destiny;" in that case, however, as possibly in others, it so
+chanced that the whispering was not from the Almighty, but
+from Satan. Now if, instead of recognizing the source whence
+the temptation came, and sternly saying, "Get thee hence,
+Satan," Christ had seen the proposition as a new Mission,&mdash;thought,
+in fact, that he heard a distinct call to Duty,&mdash;and
+so, accepting a Responsibility thrust upon him, had hurried
+down from the "exceeding high mountain," and proceeded at
+once to lay in a supply of weapons and to don defensive armor,
+renouncing his peaceful mission, he would have done exactly&mdash;what
+Mohammed did six centuries later!</p>
+
+<p>I do not for a moment mean to suggest that, as respects the
+voice of "Manifest Destiny," there is any similarity between
+the case of the Saviour and that which we, as a people, are
+now considering. I am not a prophet, nor do I claim prophetic
+insight. We are merely historical investigators, and,
+as such, not admitted into the councils of the Almighty.
+Others doubtless are, or certainly claim to be. They know
+every time, and at once, whether it is the inspiration of God
+or the devil; and forthwith proclaim it from the house-tops.
+We must admit&mdash;at any rate no evidence in our possession
+<a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>enables us to deny&mdash;the confidential relations such claim to
+have with either or both of the agencies in question,&mdash;the
+Divine or the Infernal. All I now have in mind is to call
+attention to the obvious similarity of the positions. As compared
+with the ideals and tenets then in vogue,&mdash;principles
+of manhood, equality before the law, freedom, peace on earth,
+and good-will to men,&mdash;the United States, heretofore and seen
+in a large way, has, among nations, assumed a peculiar, and,
+from the moral point of view, unquestionably a lofty attitude.
+Speaking historically it might, and with no charge of levity,
+be compared with a similar moral attitude assumed among
+men eighteen centuries before by the Saviour. It discountenanced
+armaments and warfare; it advocated arbitrations,
+and bowed to their awards; spreading its arms and protection
+over the New World, it refused to embroil itself in the
+complications of the Old; above all, it set a not unprofitable
+example to the nations of benefits incident to minding
+one's own business, and did not arrogate to itself
+the character of a favorite and inspired instrument in the
+hands of God. It even went so far as to assume that, in
+working out the inscrutable ways of Providence, character,
+self-restraint, and moral grandeur were in the long run as
+potent in effecting results as iron-clads and gatling-guns.</p>
+
+<p>Those who now advocate a continuance of this policy are,
+as neatly as wittily, referred to in discussion, "for want of a
+better name," as "Little Americans," just as in history the
+believers in the long-run efficacy of the doctrines of Christ
+might be termed "Little Gospellers," to distinguish them
+from the admirers of the later, but more brilliant and imperial,
+dispensation of Mohammed. That the earlier, and less immediately
+ambitious, doctrine was, in the case of the United
+States, only temporary, and is now outgrown, and must,
+therefore, be abandoned in favor of Old World methods, especially
+those pursued with such striking success by Great
+Britain, is possible. As historical investigators we have long
+since learned that it is the unexpected which in the development
+of human affairs is most apt to occur. Who, for
+instance, in our own recent history could ever have foreseen
+that, in the inscrutable ways of the Almighty, the great triumph
+of Slavery in the annexation of Texas, and the spoliation
+<a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>of that inferior race which inhabited Mexico, was, within
+fifteen years only, to result in what Lincoln called that
+"terrible war" in which every drop of blood ever drawn
+by the lash was paid by another drawn by the sword?
+Again, in May, 1856, a Representative of South Carolina
+struck down a Senator from Massachusetts in the Senate-chamber
+at Washington; in January, 1865, Massachusetts
+battalions bivouacked beside the smoking ruins of South
+Carolina's capital. Verily, as none know better than we, the
+ways of Providence are mysterious, and past finding out.
+None the less, though it cannot be positively asserted that
+the world would not have been wiser, more advanced, and
+better ordered had Christ, when on that "exceeding high
+mountain," heard in the words then whispered in his ear a
+manifest call of Duty, and felt a Responsibility thrust upon
+him to secure the kingdoms of the earth for the Blessings of
+Liberty and the Bible by so small a sacrifice as making an apparently
+meaningless obeisance to Satan, yet we can certainly
+say that the world would now have been very different
+from what it is had He so done. And so in the case of the
+United States, though we cannot for a moment assert that
+its fate and the future of the world will not be richer, better,
+and brighter from its abandonment of New World traditions
+and policies in favor of the traditions and policies of the Old
+World, we can say without any hesitation that the course of
+history will be greatly changed by the so doing.</p>
+
+<p>In any event the experiment will be one of surpassing
+interest to the historical observer. Some years ago James
+Russell Lowell was asked by the French historian, Guizot,
+how long the Republic of the United States might reasonably
+be expected to endure. Mr. Lowell's reply has always been
+considered peculiarly happy. "So long," said he, "as the
+ideas of its founders continue dominant." In due course of
+time we, or those who follow us, will know whether Mr.
+Lowell diagnosed the situation correctly, or otherwise. Meanwhile,
+I do not know how I can better bring to an end this
+somewhat lengthy contribution to the occasion, than by repeating,
+as singularly applicable to the conditions in which
+we find ourselves, these verses from a recent poem, than
+which I have heard none in the days that now are which
+<a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>strike a deeper or a truer chord, or one more appropriate to
+this New England Paschal eve:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The tumult and the shouting dies,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">The captains and the kings depart;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">An humble and a contrite heart.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Lest we forget&mdash;lest we forget!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Far-called our navies melt away,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">On dune and headline sinks the fire&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Lo, all our pomp of yesterday<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Judge of the nations, spare us yet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Lest we forget&mdash;lest we forget!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"If, drunk with sight of power, we loose<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Such boasting as the Gentiles use<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Or lesser breeds without the law&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Lest we forget&mdash;lest we forget!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"For heathen heart that puts her trust<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In reeking tube and iron shard&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;All valiant dust that builds on dust,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And guarding calls not Thee to guard&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;For frantic boast and foolish word,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Thy mercy on thy people, Lord!<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Amen."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>Taken in connection with the foregoing paper, the following-letter,
+addressed to the Hon. Carl Schurz, is self-explanatory:</p>
+
+<p class="right"><br />
+<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, December 21, 1898.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Mr. Schurz</span>:<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>In a recent letter you kindly suggest that I submit to you
+a sketch of what, I think, should be said in an address such
+as it is proposed should now be put forth by the Anti-Imperialist
+League to the people of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>I last evening read a paper before the Lexington Historical
+Society, in which I discussed the question of extra-territorial
+expansion from the historical point of view. A copy
+of this paper I hope soon to forward you. Meanwhile, there
+is one aspect, and, to my mind, the all-important aspect of the
+question, which, in addressing an historical society, was not
+germane. I refer to the question of a practical policy to be
+pursued by us, as a nation, under existing conditions. That
+Spain has abandoned all claim of sovereignty over the Philippine
+islands admits of no question. Whether the United
+States has accepted the sovereignty thus abandoned is still
+an open question; but this I do not regard as material.
+Nevertheless, we are confronted by a fact; and, whenever we
+criticise the policy up to this time pursued; we are met with
+an inquiry as to what we have to propose in place of it. We
+are invited to stop finding fault with others, and to suggest
+some feasible alternative policy ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>To this we must, therefore, in fairness, address ourselves.
+It is, in my judgment, useless to attempt to carry on the discussion
+merely in the negative form. As opponents of an
+inchoate policy we must, in place of what we object to, propose
+something positive, or we must abandon the field. Accepting
+the alternative, I now want to suggest a positive
+policy for the consideration of those who feel as we feel. I
+wish your judgment upon it.</p>
+
+<p>There has, it seems to me, been a great deal of idle
+"Duty," "Mission," and "Call" talk on the subject of our
+recent acquisition of "Islands beyond the Sea," and the necessity
+of adopting some policy, commonly described as "Imperial,"
+in dealing with them. This policy is, in the minds
+<a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>of most people who favor it, to be indirectly modelled on the
+policy heretofore so successfully pursued under somewhat
+similar conditions by Great Britain. It involves, as I tried
+to point out in the Lexington paper I have referred to, the
+abandonment or reversal of all the fundamental principles of
+our government since its origin, and of the foreign policy we
+have heretofore pursued. This, I submit, is absolutely unnecessary.
+Another and substitute policy, purely American,
+as contradistinguished from the European or British, known
+as "Imperial," policy, can readily be formulated.</p>
+
+<p>This essentially American policy would be based both
+upon our cardinal political principles, and our recent foreign
+experiences. It is commonly argued that, having destroyed
+the existing government in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines,
+we have assumed a political responsibility, and are
+under a moral obligation to provide another government in
+place of that which by our action has ceased to exist. What
+has been our course heretofore under similar circumstances?
+Precedents, I submit, at once suggest themselves. Precedents,
+too, directly in point, and within your and my easy
+recollection.</p>
+
+<p>I refer to the course pursued by us towards Mexico in the
+year 1848, and again in 1866; towards Hayti for seventy
+years back; and towards Venezuela as recently as three
+years ago. It is said that the inhabitants of the islands of
+the Antilles, and much more those of the Philippine archipelago,
+are as yet unfitted to maintain a government; and
+that they should be kept in a condition of "tutelage" until
+they are fitted so to do. It is further argued that a stable
+government is necessary, and that it is out of the question
+for us to permit a condition of chronic disturbance and scandalous
+unrest to exist so near our own borders as Cuba and
+Porto Rico. Yet how long, I would ask, did that condition
+exist in Mexico? And with what results? How long has
+it existed in Hayti? Has the government of Venezuela ever
+been "stable"? Have we found it necessary or thought it
+best to establish a governmental protectorate in any of those
+immediately adjacent regions?</p>
+
+<p>What has been, historically, our policy&mdash;the American,
+as distinguished from the European and British policy&mdash;towards
+<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>those communities,&mdash;two of them Spanish, one African?
+So far as foreign powers are concerned, we have laid
+down the principle of "Hands-off." So far as their own
+government was concerned, we insisted that the only way to
+learn to walk was to try to walk, and that the history of mankind
+did not show that nations placed under systems of "tutelage,"&mdash;taught
+to lean for support on a superior power,&mdash;ever
+acquired the faculty of independent action.</p>
+
+<p>Of this, with us, fundamental truth, the British race itself
+furnishes a very notable example. In the forty-fourth year of
+the Christian era the island of Great Britain was occupied by
+what the "Imperial" Romans adjudged to be an inferior
+race. To the Romans the Britons unquestionably were inferior.
+Every child's history contains an account of the
+course then pursued by the superior towards that inferior
+race, and its results. The Romans occupied Great Britain,
+and they occupied it hard upon four centuries, holding the
+people in "tutelage," and protecting them against themselves,
+as well as against their enemies. With what result?
+So emasculated and incapable of self-government did the
+people of England become during their "tutelage" that,
+when Rome at last withdrew, they found themselves totally
+unfitted for self-government, much more for facing a foreign
+enemy. As the last, and best, historian of the English
+people tells us, the purely despotic system of the imperial
+government "by crushing all local independence, crushed all
+local vigor. Men forgot how to fight for their country when
+they forgot how to govern it."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The end was that, through
+six centuries more, England was overrun, first by those of
+one race, and then by those of another, until the Normans
+established themselves in it as conquerors; and then, and not
+until then, the deteriorating effect of a system of long continued
+"tutelage" ceased to be felt, and the islanders became
+by degrees the most energetic, virile, and self-sustaining of
+races. As nearly, therefore, as can be historically stated, it
+took eight centuries for the people of England to overcome
+the injurious influence of four centuries of just such a system
+as it is now proposed by us to inflict on the Philippines.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+<a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>Hindostan would furnish another highly suggestive example
+of the educational effects of "tutelage" on a race. After a
+century and a half of that British "tutelage," what progress
+has India made towards fitness for self-government? Is
+the end in sight?</p>
+
+<p>From the historical point of view, it is instructive to note
+the exactly different results reached through the truly American
+policy we have pursued in the not dissimilar cases of
+Hayti and Mexico. While Hayti, it is true, has failed to
+make great progress in one century, it has made quite as
+much progress as England made during any equal period
+immediately after Rome withdrew from it. And that degree
+of slowness in growth, which with equanimity has been endured
+by us in Hayti, could certainly be endured by us in
+islands on the coast of Asia. It cannot be gainsaid that,
+through our insisting on the policy of non-interference ourselves,
+and of non-interference by European nations, Hayti
+has been brought into a position where it is on the high road
+to better things in future. That has been the result of the
+prescriptive American policy. With Mexico, the case is far
+stronger. We all know that in 1848, after our war of spoliation,
+we had to bolster up a semblance of a government for
+Mexico, with which to negotiate a treaty of peace. Mexico
+at that time was reduced by us to a condition of utter anarchy.
+Under the theory now gaining in vogue, it would then
+have been our plain duty to make of Mexico an extra-territorial
+dependency, and protect it against itself. We wisely
+took a different course. Like other Spanish communities in
+America, Mexico than passed through a succession of revolutions,
+from which it became apparent the people were not
+in a fit condition for self-government. Nevertheless, sternly
+insisting on non-interference by outside powers, we ourselves
+wisely left that country to work out its own salvation in its
+own way.</p>
+
+<p>In 1862, when the United States was involved in the War
+<a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>of the Rebellion, the Europeans took advantage of the situation
+to invade Mexico, and to establish there a "stable government."
+They undertook to protect that people against
+themselves, and to erect for them a species of protectorate,
+such as we now propose for the Philippines. As soon as our
+war was over, we insisted upon the withdrawal of Europe
+from Mexico. What followed is matter of recent history.
+It is unnecessary to recall it. We did not reduce Mexico into
+a condition of "tutelage," or establish over it a "protectorate"
+of our own. We, on the contrary, insisted that it
+should stand on its own legs; and, by so doing, learn to stand
+firmly on them, just as a child learns to walk, by being compelled
+to try to walk, not by being kept everlastingly in
+"leading strings." This was the American, as contradistinguished
+from the European policy; and Mexico to-day walks
+firmly.</p>
+
+<p>Finally take the case of Venezuela in 1895. I believe I
+am not mistaken when I say that, during the twenty-five
+preceding years, Venezuela had undergone almost as many
+revolutions. It certainly had not enjoyed a stable government.
+Through disputes over questions of boundary, Great
+Britain proposed to confer that indisputable blessing upon a
+considerable region. We interfered under a most questionable
+extension of the Monroe Doctrine, and asserted the
+principle of "Hands-off." Having done this,&mdash;having in
+so far perpetuated what we now call the scandal of anarchy,&mdash;we
+did not establish "tutelage," or a protectorate, ourselves.
+We wisely left Venezuela to work out its destiny in
+its own way, and in the fullness of time. That policy was
+far-seeing, beneficent, and strictly American in 1895. Why,
+then, make almost indecent haste to abandon it in 1898?</p>
+
+<p>Instead, therefore, of finding our precedents in the experience
+of England, or that of any other European power, I would
+suggest that the true course for this country now to pursue
+is exactly the course we have heretofore pursued under similar
+conditions. Let us be true to our own traditions, and
+follow our own precedents. Having relieved the Spanish
+islands from the dominion of Spain, we should declare concerning
+them a policy of "Hands-off," both on our own part
+and on the part of other powers. We should say that the
+<a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>independence of those islands is morally guaranteed by us
+as a consequence of the treaty of Paris, and then leave them
+just as we have left Hayti, and just as we left Mexico and
+Venezuela, to adopt for themselves such form of government
+as the people thereof are ripe for. In the cases of Mexico
+and Venezuela, and in the case of Hayti, we have not found
+it necessary to interfere ever or at all. It is not yet apparent
+why we should find it necessary to interfere with islands so
+much more remote from us than Hayti, and than Mexico
+and Venezuela, as are the Philippines.</p>
+
+<p>In this matter we can thus well afford to be consistent, as
+well as logical. Our fundamental principles, those of the
+Declaration, the Constitution, and the Monroe Doctrine, have
+not yet been shown to be unsound&mdash;why should we be in such
+a hurry to abandon them? Our precedents are close at hand,
+and satisfactory&mdash;why look away from them to follow those
+of Great Britain? Why need we, all of a sudden, be so very
+English and so altogether French, even borrowing their
+nomenclature of "imperialism?" Why can not we, too, in
+the language of Burke, be content to set our feet "in the
+tracks of our forefathers, where we can neither wander nor
+stumble?" The only difficulty in the way of our so doing
+seems to be that we are in such a desperate hurry; while
+natural influences and methods, though in the great end
+indisputably the wisest and best, always require time in
+which to work themselves out to their results. Wiser than
+the Almighty in our own conceit, we think to get there at
+once; the "there" in this case being everlasting "tutelage,"
+as in India, instead of ultimate self-government, as in
+Mexico.</p>
+
+<p>The policy heretofore pursued by us in such cases,&mdash;the
+policy of "Hands-off," and "Walk alone," is distinctly
+American; it is not European, not even British. It recognizes
+the principles of our Declaration of Independence.
+It recognizes the truth that all just government exists by the
+consent of the governed. It recognizes the existence of
+the Monroe Doctrine. In a word, it recognizes every principle
+and precedent, whether natural or historical, which has
+from the beginning lain at the foundation of our American
+polity. It does not attempt the hypocritical contradiction in
+<a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>terms, of pretending to elevate a people into a self-sustaining
+condition through the leading-string process of "tutelage."
+It appeals to our historical experience, applying to present
+conditions the lessons of Hayti, Mexico, and Venezuela.
+In dealing with those cases, we did not find a great standing
+army or an enormous navy necessary; and, if not then, why
+now? Why such a difference between the Philippines and
+Hayti? Is Cuba larger or nearer to us than Mexico? When,
+therefore, in future they ask us what course and policy we
+Anti-Imperialists propose, our answer should be that we propose
+to pursue towards the islands of Antilles and the Philippines
+the same common-sense course and truly American
+policy which were by us heretofore pursued with such signal
+success in the cases of Hayti, Mexico, and Venezuela, all inhabited
+by people equally unfit for self-government, and
+geographically much closer to ourselves. We propose to
+guarantee them against outside meddling, and, above all,
+from "tutelage," and make them, by walking, learn to walk
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>This, I submit, is not only an answer to the question so
+frequently put to us, but a positive policy following established
+precedents, and, what is more, purely American, as
+distinguished from a European or British, policy and precedents.</p>
+
+<p class="right10">I remain, etc.,</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Charles Francis Adams</span>.<br /></p>
+
+<p><i>Hon. Carl Schurz,<br /></i></p>
+<p class="left1"><i>16 E. 64th Street, New York City.</i><br /><br /><br />
+</p><p><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> "Obviously, men are not born equal in physical strength or in mental capacity,
+in beauty of form or health of body. Diversity or inequality in these respects is the
+law of creation. But this inequality is in no particular inconsistent with complete
+civil or political equality.
+</p><p>
+"The equality declared by our fathers in 1776 and made the fundamental law of
+Massachusetts in 1780, was <i>Equality before the Law</i>. Its object was to efface all political
+or civil distinctions, and to abolish all institutions founded upon <i>birth</i>. 'All
+men are <i>created</i> equal,' says the Declaration of Independence. 'All men are <i>born</i>
+free and equal,' says the Massachusetts Bill of Rights. These are not vain words.
+Within the sphere of their influence, no person can be <i>created</i>, no person can be <i>born</i>,
+with civil or political privileges not enjoyed equally by all his fellow-citizens; nor
+can any institutions be established, recognizing distinctions of birth. Here is the
+Great Charter of every human being drawing vital breath upon this soil, whatever
+may be his conditions, and whoever may be his parents. He may be poor, weak,
+humble, or black,&mdash;he may be of Caucasian, Jewish, Indian, or Ethiopian race,&mdash;he
+may be born of French, German, English, or Irish extraction; but before the
+Constitution of Massachusetts all these distinctions disappear. He is not poor,
+weak, humble, or black; nor is he Caucasian, Jew, Indian, or Ethiopian; nor is he
+French, German, English, or Irish; he is a MAN, the equal of all his fellow-men.
+He is one of the children of the State, which, like an impartial parent, regards all its
+offspring with an equal care. To some it may justly allot higher duties, according
+to higher capacities; but it welcomes all to its equal hospitable board. The State,
+imitating the divine Justice, is no respecter of persons."&mdash;<i>Works of Charles Sumner,
+Vol. II., pp. 341-2</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Historically speaking, the assertion in the Declaration of Independence has
+been fruitful of dispute. The very evening the present paper was read at Lexington
+the Mayor of Boston, in a public address elsewhere, alluded to the "imprudent
+generalizations of our forefathers," referring, doubtless, to what Rufus Choate,
+forty-two years before, described as "the glittering and sounding generalities of
+natural right" to be found in the Declaration, "that passionate and eloquent
+manifesto." Mr. Calhoun declared (1848) that the claim of human equality set forth
+in the Declaration was "the most false and dangerous of all political errors,"
+which, after resting a long time "dormant," had, in the process of time, begun "to
+germinate and produce its poisonous fruits." Mr. Pettit, a Senator from Indiana,
+pronounced it in 1854, "a self-evident lie." In the famous Lincoln-Douglas debate
+in Illinois (1860) the question reappeared, Mr. Douglas contending that the Declaration
+applied only to "the white people of the United States;" while Mr. Lincoln,
+in reply, asserted that "the entire records of the world, from the date of the
+Declaration of Independence up to within three years ago, may be searched in vain
+for one single affirmation, from one single man, that the negro was not included in
+the Declaration." The contention of Mr. Douglas had recently again made its
+appearance in the press as something too indisputable to admit of discussion. It is
+asserted that, in penning the Declaration, Mr. Jefferson could not possibly have
+intended to include those then actually held as slaves. On this point Mr. Jefferson
+himself should, it would seem, be accepted as a competent witness. Referring to
+the denial of his "inalienable rights" to the African, he declared at a later day, "I
+tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just." What he meant will,
+however, probably continue matter for confident newspaper assertions just so long
+as anybody in this country wants to make out, as did Stephen A. Douglas in 1860, a
+plausible pretext for subjugating somebody else,&mdash;Indian, African, or Asiatic. As
+Mr. Lincoln expressed it, "The assertion that all men are created equal was of no
+practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain, and it was placed in
+the Declaration, not for that but for future use. Its author meant it to be, as,
+thank God, it is now proving itself, a stumbling block to all those who, in after
+times, might seek to turn a free people back into the paths of despotism. They
+knew the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they meant, when such
+should reappear in this fair land, and commence their vocation, they should find
+left for them at least one hard nut to crack."&mdash;<i>Works</i>, Vol. I., p. 233.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Green's Short History (Ill. Ed.). Vol. I. p. 9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The Roman legions were withdrawn from Great Britain in 410; Magna Charta
+was signed in June, 1215, and the reign of French kings over England came to a
+close in 1217. It is a striking illustration of the deliberation with which natural
+processes work themselves out, that the period which elapsed between the withdrawal
+of Rome from England, and the recovery of England by the English, should
+have exceeded by more than a century the time which has as yet elapsed since
+England was thus recovered.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our
+Forefathers", by Charles Francis Adams
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "IMPERIALISM" AND "THE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 16542-h.htm or 16542-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/4/16542/
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Sigal Alon and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+Produced from page images provided by the Digital and
+Multimedia Center, Michigan State University Libraries
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/16542.txt b/16542.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c513a79
--- /dev/null
+++ b/16542.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1721 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our
+Forefathers", by Charles Francis Adams
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers"
+
+Author: Charles Francis Adams
+
+Release Date: August 17, 2005 [EBook #16542]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "IMPERIALISM" AND "THE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Sigal Alon and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+Produced from page images provided by the Digital and
+Multimedia Center, Michigan State University Libraries
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+"Imperialism"
+
+AND
+
+"The Tracks of Our Forefathers"
+
+
+
+A PAPER READ BY
+
+CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS
+
+_Before the Lexington, Massachusetts, Historical Society_
+
+TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1898
+
+
+
+"In a word, many wise men thought it a time wherein those two miserable
+adjuncts, which Nerva was deified for uniting, _imperium et libertas_, were
+as well reconciled as is possible."--_Clarendon's History of the Rebellion,
+B. 1. Sec. 163._
+
+"I put my foot in the tracks of our forefathers, where I can neither wander
+nor stumble."--_Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America._
+
+
+
+BOSTON
+DANA ESTES & COMPANY
+210 SUMMER STREET
+1899
+
+
+
+
+"IMPERIALISM"
+
+AND
+
+"THE TRACKS OF OUR FOREFATHERS."
+
+
+What the feast of the Passover was to the children of Israel, that the
+days between the nineteenth of December and the fourth of January--the
+Yuletide--are and will remain to the people of New England. The Passover
+began "in the first month on the fourteenth day of the month at even,"
+and it lasted one week, "until the one and twentieth day of the month at
+even." It was the period of the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb, and the
+feast of unleavened bread; and of it as a commemoration it is written,
+"When your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?
+that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who
+passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote
+the Egyptians. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt
+in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years." And thus, by their yearly
+Passover, were the Jewish congregations of old put in mind what farewell
+they took of the land of Egypt.
+
+So our own earliest records tell us that it was on the morning of
+Saturday, of what is now the nineteenth of December, that the little
+exploring party from the _Mayflower_, then lying at her anchor in
+Provincetown Harbor, after a day and night of much trouble and danger,
+sorely buffeted by wind and wave in rough New England's December seas,
+found themselves on an island in Plymouth Bay. It was a mild, "faire
+sunshining day. And this being the last day of the weeke, they prepared
+ther to keepe the Sabath. On Munday they sounded the harbor, and marched
+into the land, and found a place fitt for situation. So they returned to
+their shipp againe [at Provincetown] with this news. On the twenty-fifth
+of December they weyed anchor to goe to the place they had discovered,
+and came within two leagues of it, but were faine to bear up againe; but
+the twenty-sixth day, the winde came faire, and they arrived safe in
+this harbor. And after wards tooke better view of the place, and
+resolved wher to pitch their dwelling; and the fourth day [of January]
+begane to erecte the first house for commone use to receive them and
+their goods." Such, in the quaint language of Bradford, is the calendar
+of New England's Passover; and, beginning on the nineteenth of December,
+it ends on the fourth of January, covering as nearly as may be the
+Christmas holyday period.
+
+Is there any better use to which the Passover anniversary can be put
+than to retrospection? "And when your children shall say unto you, What
+mean you by this service? ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the
+Lord's passover, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses."
+So the old story is told again, being thus kept ever green in memory;
+and, in telling it, the experiences of the past are brought insensibly
+to bear on the conditions of the present. Thus, once a year, like the
+Israelites of old, we, as a people, may take our bearings and verify our
+course, as we plunge on out of the infinite past into the unknowable
+future. It is a useful practice; and we are here this first evening of
+our Passover period to observe it.
+
+This, too, is an Historical Society,--that of Lexington, "a name," as,
+when arraigned before the tribunal of the French Terror, Danton said of
+his own, "tolerably known in the Revolution;" and I am invited to
+address you because I am President of the Massachusetts Historical
+Society, the most venerable organization of the sort in America, perhaps
+in the world. Thus, to-night, though we shall necessarily have to touch
+on topics of the day, and topics exciting the liveliest interest and
+most active discussion, we will in so doing look at them,--not as
+politicians or as partisans, nor from the commercial or religious side,
+but solely from the historical point of view. We shall judge of the
+present in its relations to the past. And, unquestionably, there is
+great satisfaction to be derived from so doing; the mere effort seems at
+once to take us into another atmosphere,--an atmosphere as foreign to
+unctuous cant as it is to what is vulgarly known as "electioneering
+taffy." This evening we pass away from the noisy and heated turmoil of
+partisan politics, with its appeals to prejudice, passion, and material
+interest, into the cool of a quiet academic discussion. It is like going
+out of some turbulent caucus, or exciting ward-room debate, and finding
+oneself suddenly confronted by the cold, clear light of the December
+moon, shining amid the silence of innumerable stars.
+
+Addressing ourselves, therefore, to the subject in hand, the question at
+once suggests itself,--What year in recent times has been in a large way
+more noteworthy and impressive, when looked at from the purely
+historical point of view, than this year of which we are now observing
+the close? The first Passover of the Israelites ended a drama of more
+than four centuries' duration, for "the sojourning of the children of
+Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years; and at
+the end of the four hundred and thirty years all the hosts of the Lord
+went out from the land of Egypt." So the Passover we now celebrate
+commemorates the closing of another world drama of almost precisely the
+same length, and one of deepest significance, as well as unsurpassed
+historic interest. These world dramas are lengthy affairs; for, while we
+men are always in a hurry, the Almighty never is: on the contrary, as
+the Psalmist observed, so now, "a thousand years in his sight are but as
+yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." The drama I
+have referred to as this week brought to its close, is that known in
+history as Spanish Domination in America. It began, as we all know, on
+the twenty-first of October, 1492; it has been continuous through six
+years over four centuries. It now passes into history; the verdict may
+be made up.
+
+So far as I personally am concerned,--a matter needless to say of very
+trifling consequence,--this verdict was rendered a year ago. It was
+somewhat Rhadamanthine; but a twelve-month of further reflection has
+shown no cause in any respect to revise it. In referring to what was
+then plainly impending, in December, 1897, before the blowing up of the
+battleship _Maine_, before a conflict had become inevitable, I used this
+language in a paper read to the Massachusetts Historical Society: "When
+looking at the vicissitudes of human development, we are apt to assume a
+certain air of optimism, and take advancement as the law of being, as a
+thing of course, indisputable. We are charitable, too; and to deny to
+any given race or people some degree of use in the economy of Nature, or
+the plan of Creation, is usually regarded as indicative of narrowness of
+view. The fatal, final word "pessimist" is apt to be whispered in
+connection with the name of one who ventures to suggest a doubt of this
+phase of the doctrine known as Universalism. And yet, at this time when,
+before our eyes, it is breathing its last, I want some one to point out
+a single good thing in law, or science, or art, or literature,--material,
+moral or intellectual,--which has resulted to the race of man upon earth
+from Spanish domination in America. I have tried to think of one in
+vain. It certainly has not yielded an immortality, an idea, or a
+discovery; it has, in fact, been one long record of reaction and
+retrogression, than which few pages in the record of mankind have been
+more discouraging or less fruitful of good. What is now taking place in
+Cuba is historical. It is the dying out of a dominion, the influence of
+which will be seen and felt for centuries in the life of two continents;
+just as what is taking place in Turkey is the last fierce flickering up
+of Asiatic rule in Europe, on the very spot where twenty-four centuries
+ago Asiatic rule in Europe was thought to have been averted forever. The
+two, Ottoman rule in Europe, and Spanish rule in America, now stand at
+the bar of history; and, scanning the long four-century record of each,
+I have been unable to see what either has contributed to the accumulated
+possessions of the human race, or why both should not be classed among
+the many instances of the arrested civilization of a race, developing by
+degrees an irresistible tendency to retrogression."
+
+This, one year ago; and while the embers of the last Greco-Turkish
+struggle, still white, were scarcely cold on the plain of Marathon. The
+time since passed has yielded fresh proof in support of this harsh
+judgment; for, if there is one historical law better and more
+irreversibly established than another, it is that, in the case of
+nations even more than in the case of individuals, their sins will find
+them out,--the day of reckoning may not be escaped. Noticeably, has
+this proved so in the case of Spain. The year 1500 may be said to have
+found that country at the apex of her greatness. America had then been
+newly discovered; the Moor was just subdued. Nearly half a century
+before (1453) the Roman Empire had fallen, and, with the storming of
+Constantinople by the Saracens, disappeared from the earth. That event,
+it may be mentioned in passing, closed another world drama continuous
+through twenty-two centuries,--upon the whole the most wonderful of the
+series. And so, when Roman empire vanished, that of Spain began. It was
+ushered in by the landfall of Columbus; and when, just three hundred
+years later, in 1792, the subject was discussed in connection with its
+third centennial, the general verdict of European thinkers was that the
+discovery of America had, upon the whole, been to mankind the reverse of
+beneficent. This conclusion has since been commented upon with derision;
+yet, when made, it was right. The United States had in 1792 just
+struggled into existence, and its influence on the course of human
+events had not begun to make itself felt. Those who considered the
+subject had before them, therefore, only Spanish domination in America,
+and upon that their verdict cannot be gainsaid; for, from the year 1492
+down, the history of Spain and Spanish domination has undeniably been
+one long series of crimes and violations of natural law, the penalty for
+which has not apparently even yet been exacted in full.
+
+Of those national crimes four stand out in special prominence,
+constituting counts in a national indictment than which history shows
+few more formidable. These four were: (1) The expulsion, first, of the
+Jews, and then of the Moors, or Moriscoes, from Spain, late in the
+fifteenth and early in the sixteenth centuries; (2) the annals of "the
+Council of Blood" in the Netherlands, and the eighty years of
+internecine warfare through which Holland fought its way out from under
+Spanish rule; (3) the Inquisition, the most ingenious human machinery
+ever invented to root out and destroy whatever a people had that was
+intellectually most alert, inquisitive, and progressive; and, finally
+(4), the policy of extermination, and, where not of extermination, of
+cruel oppression, systematically pursued towards the aborigines of
+America. Into the grounds on which the different counts of this
+indictment rest it would be impossible now to enter. Were it desirable
+so to do, time would not permit. Suffice it to say, the penalty had to
+be paid to the uttermost farthing; and one large instalment fell due,
+and was mercilessly exacted, during the year now drawing to its close.
+Spanish domination in America ceased,--the drama ended as it was
+entering on its fifth century,--and it can best be dismissed with the
+solemn words of Abraham Lincoln, uttered more than thirty years ago,
+when contemplating a similar expiation we were ourselves paying in blood
+and grief for a not dissimilar violation of an everlasting law,--"Yet,
+if God wills that this mighty scourge continue until all the wealth
+piled by the bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
+shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be
+paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years
+ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and
+righteous altogether!'"
+
+But not only is this year memorable as witnessing the downfall and
+complete extirpation of that Spanish rule in America which began with
+Columbus, but the result, when it at last came about, was marked by
+incidents more curiously fitting and dramatic than it would have been
+possible for a Shakspeare to have conceived. Columbus, as we all know,
+stumbled, as it were, on America as he sailed west in search of
+Asia,--Cipango he was looking for, and he found Cuba. It is equally well
+known that he never discovered his mistake. When fourteen years later he
+died, it was in the faith that, through him, Europe had by a westward
+movement established itself in the archipelagoes of Asia. And now, at
+last, four centuries afterward, the blow which did most to end the
+American domination he established was struck in Asiatic waters; and,
+through it and the descendants of another race, America seems on the
+threshold of realizing the mistaken belief of Columbus, and by a
+westward movement establishing the European in that very archipelago
+Columbus failed to reach. The ways of Providence are certainly not less
+singular than slow in movement.
+
+But the year just ending was veritably one of surprises,--for the
+historical student it would, indeed, seem as if 1898 was destined to
+pass into the long record as almost the Year of Surprises. We now come
+to the consideration of some of these wholly unanticipated results from
+the American point of view. And in entering on this aspect of the
+question, it is necessary once more to remind you that we are doing it
+in the historical spirit, and from the historical point of view. We are
+stating facts not supposed to admit of denial. The argument and
+inferences to be drawn from those facts do not belong to this occasion.
+Some will reach one conclusion as to the future, and the bearing those
+facts have upon its probable development, and some will reach another
+conclusion; with these conclusions we have nothing to do. Our business
+is exclusively with the facts.
+
+Speaking largely, but still with all necessary historical accuracy,
+America has been peopled, and its development, up to the present time,
+worked out through two great stocks of the European family,--the
+Spanish-speaking stock, and the English-speaking stock. In their
+development these two have pursued lines, clearly marked, but curiously
+divergent. Leaving the Spanish-speaking branch out of the discussion, as
+unnecessary to it, it may without exaggeration be said of the
+English-speaking branch that, from the beginning down to this year now
+ending, its development has been one long protest against, and
+divergence from, Old World methods and ideals. In the case of those
+descended from the Forefathers,--as we always designate the Plymouth
+colony,--this has been most distinctly marked, ethnically, politically,
+industrially.
+
+America was the sphere where the European, as a colonist, a settler,
+first came on a large scale in contact with another race. Heretofore, in
+the Old World, when one stock had overrun another,--and history
+presented many examples of it,--the invading stock, after subduing, and
+to a great extent driving out, the stock which had preceded in the
+occupancy of a region, settled gradually down into a common possession,
+and, in the slow process of years, an amalgamation of stocks, more or
+less complete, took place. In America, with the Anglo-Saxon, and
+especially those of the New England type, this was not the case. Unlike
+the Frenchman at the north, or the Spaniard at the south, the
+Anglo-Saxon showed no disposition to ally himself with the
+aborigines,--he evinced no faculty of dealing with inferior races, as
+they are called, except through a process of extermination. Here in
+Massachusetts this was so from the outset. Nearly every one here has
+read Longfellow's poem, "The Courtship of Miles Standish," and calls to
+mind the short, sharp conflict between the Plymouth captain and the
+Indian chief, Pecksuot, and how those God-fearing Pilgrims ruthlessly
+put to death by stabbing and hanging a sufficient number of the already
+plague-stricken and dying aborigines. That episode occurred in April,
+1623, only a little more than two years after the landing we to-night
+celebrate, and was, so far as New England is concerned, the beginning of
+a series of wars which did not end until the Indian ceased to be an
+element in our civilization. When John Robinson, the revered pastor of
+the Plymouth church, received tidings at Leyden of that killing near
+Plymouth,--for Robinson never got across the Atlantic,--he wrote: "Oh,
+how happy a thing had it been, if you had converted some before you had
+killed any! There is cause to fear that, by occasion, especially of
+provocation, there may be wanting that tenderness of the life of man
+(made after God's image) which is meet. It is also a thing more glorious
+in men's eyes, than pleasing in God's or convenient for Christians, to
+be a terror to poor, barbarous people." This all has a very familiar
+sound. It is the refrain of nearly three centuries; but, as an
+historical fact, it is undeniable that, from 1623 down to the year now
+ending, the American Anglo-Saxon has in his dealings with what are known
+as the "inferior races" lacked "that tenderness of the life of man which
+is meet," and he has made himself "a terror to poor, barbarous people."
+How we of Massachusetts carried ourselves towards the aborigines here,
+the fearful record of the Pequot war remains everlastingly to tell. How
+the country at large has carried itself in turn towards Indian, African,
+and Asiatic is matter of history. And yet it is equally matter of
+history that this carriage, term it what you will,--unchristian, brutal,
+exterminating,--has been the salvation of the race. It has saved the
+Anglo-Saxon stock from being a nation of half-breeds,--miscegenates, to
+coin a word expressive of an idea. The Canadian half-breed, the
+Mexican, the mulatto, say what men may, are not virile or enduring
+races; and that the Anglo-Saxon is none of these, and is essentially
+virile and enduring, is due to the fact that the less developed races
+perished before him. Nature is undeniably often brutal in its methods.
+
+Again, and on the other hand, the Anglo-Saxon when he came to America
+left behind him, so far as he himself was concerned, feudalism and all
+things pertaining to caste, including what was then known in England,
+and is still known in Germany, as Divine Right. When he at last
+enunciated his political faith he put in the forefront of his
+declaration as "self-evident truths," the principles "that all men are
+created equal;" that they are endowed with "certain inalienable rights,"
+among them "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" and that
+governments derived "their just powers from the consent of the
+governed." Now what was meant here by the phrase "all men are created
+equal?" We know they are not. They are not created equal in physical or
+mental endowment; nor are they created with equal opportunity. The world
+bristles with inequalities, natural and artificial. This is so; and yet
+the declaration is none the less true;--true when made; true now; true
+for all future time. The reference was to the inequalities which always
+had marked, then did, and still do, mark, the political life of the Old
+World,--to Caste, Divine Right, Privilege. It declared that all men were
+created equal before the law, as before the Lord;[1] and that, whether
+European, American, Asiatic, or African, they were endowed with an
+inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And to
+this truth, as he saw it, Lincoln referred in those memorable words I
+have already cited bearing on our national crime in long forgetfulness
+of our own immutable principles. The fundamental, primal principle was
+indeed more clearly voiced by Lincoln than it has been voiced before, or
+since, in declaring again, and elsewhere that to our nation, dedicated
+"to the proposition that all men are created equal," has by Providence
+been assigned the momentous task of "testing whether any nation so
+conceived and so dedicated can long endure," and "that government of the
+people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
+
+The next cardinal principle in our policy as a race--that instinctive
+policy I have already referred to as divergent from Old World methods
+and ideals--was most dearly enunciated by Washington in his Farewell
+Address, that "the great rule for us in regard to foreign nations is, in
+extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little
+political connection as possible;" that it was "unwise in us to
+implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of
+[Old World] policies, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her
+friendships or enmities. Our detached and distant situation invites and
+enables us to pursue a different course.... Taking care always to keep
+ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture,
+we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary
+emergencies."
+
+Accepting this as firm ground from which to act, we afterwards put forth
+what is known as the Monroe Doctrine. Having announced that our purpose
+was, in homely language, to mind our own business, we warned the outer
+world that we did not propose to permit by that outer world any
+interference in what did not concern it. America was our field,--a field
+amply large for our development. It was therefore declared that, while
+we had never taken any part, nor did it comport with our policy to do
+so, in the wars of European politics, with the movements in this
+hemisphere we are, of necessity, more intimately connected. "We owe it,
+therefore, to candor to declare that we should consider any attempt [on
+the part of European powers] to extend their system to any portion of
+this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety."
+
+On these principles of government and of foreign policy we have as a people
+now acted for more than seventy years. They have been exemplified and
+developed in various directions, and resulted in details--commercial,
+economic, and ethnic--which have given rise to political issues, long and
+hotly contested, but which, in their result from the purely historical
+point of view, do not admit of dispute. Commercially, we have adopted what
+is known as a system protective both of our industries and our labor.
+Economically, we have carefully eschewed large and costly armaments, and
+expensive governmental methods. Ethnically, we have avowed our desire to
+have as little contact as possible with less developed races, lamenting the
+presence of the African, and severely excluding the Asiatic. These facts,
+whether we as individuals and citizens wholly approve--or do not approve at
+all--of the course pursued and the results reached, admit of no dispute.
+Neither can it be denied that our attitude, whether it in all respects
+commanded the respect of foreign nations, or failed to command it, was
+accepted, and has prevailed. Striking illustrations of this at once suggest
+themselves.
+
+In one respect especially was our attitude peculiar, and in its
+peculiarity we took great pride. It was largely moral; but, though
+largely moral, it had behind it the consciousness of strength in
+ourselves, and its recognition by others. In great degree, and
+relatively, an unarmed people, we looked with amaze, which had in it
+something of amusement, at the constantly growing armaments and war
+budgets of the nations of Europe. We saw them, like the warriors of the
+middle ages, crushed under the weight of their weapons of offence, and
+their preparations for defence. Meanwhile, fortunate in our geographical
+position,--weak for offence, but, in turn, unassailable,--we went in and
+out much as an unarmed man, relying on his character, his recognized
+force, position, and peaceful calling, daily moves about in our frontier
+settlements and mining camps amid throngs of men armed to the teeth with
+revolvers and bowie knives. Yet, evidence was not lacking of the
+consideration yielded to us when we were called upon, or felt called
+upon, to assert ourselves. I will not refer to the episode of 1866,
+when, in accordance with the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, we
+intimated to France that her immediate withdrawal from Mexico was
+desired; for then we had not laid down the arms we had taken up in the
+Rebellion. But, without remonstrance even, France withdrew. In 1891,
+under circumstances not without grounds of aggravation against us, a mob
+in Valparaiso assaulted some seamen from our ships of war. Instant
+apology and redress were demanded; and the demand was complied with. Yet
+later, the course pursued by us in the Venezuela matter is too fresh in
+memory to call for more than a reference. These are all matters of
+history. When did our word fail to carry all desired weight?
+
+Such were our standing, our traditional policy, and our record at the
+beginning of the year now ending. No proposition advanced admits, it is
+believed, of dispute historically. Into the events of the year 1898 it
+is not necessary to enter in any detail. They are in the minds of all.
+It is sufficient to say that the primary object for which we entered
+upon the late war with Spain was to bring to an end the long and
+altogether bad record of Spanish rule in America. In taking the steps
+deemed necessary to effect this result, Congress went out of its way,
+and publicly and formally put upon record its disclaimer of any
+intention to enter upon a war of conquest, asserting its determination,
+when Spanish domination was ended, to leave the government of Cuba, and
+presumably of any other islands similarly acquired, to the people
+thereof. As an incident to our naval operations on the Pacific, the
+island of Hawaii was then annexed to the United States as an
+extra-territorial possession, or coaling station, this being effected by
+a joint resolution of the two Houses of Congress, under the precedent of
+1845 established in the case of Texas,--a method of procedure the
+constitutionality of which was at the time formally called in question
+by the State of Massachusetts, and against which Mr. Webster made
+vigorous protest in the Senate. In thus possessing ourselves of Hawaii,
+the consent of the native inhabitants was not considered necessary; we
+dealt wholly with an oligarchical _de facto_ government, representing
+the foreign element, mainly American, there resident.
+
+Shortly after the acquisition of Hawaii, we, as the result of brilliant
+naval operations and successes, acquired possession of the harbor of
+Manila, in the Philippine archipelago, and finally the city and some
+adjacent territory were surrendered to us. A treaty was then negotiated,
+the power of Spain being completely broken, under which she abandoned
+all claims of sovereignty, not only over the island of Cuba, the
+original cause of war, but over various other islands in the Philippine,
+as well as in the West Indian, archipelagoes. These islands, in all said
+to be some 1,200 to 1,500 in number, are moreover not only inhabited by
+both natives and foreigners to the estimated number of ten to twelve
+million of souls, but they contain large cities and communities speaking
+different tongues, living under other laws, and having customs, manners,
+and traditions wholly unlike our own, and which, in the case of the
+Philippines, do not admit of assimilation. Situated in the tropics also,
+they cannot gradually become colonized by Americans, with or without the
+disappearance of the native population. The American can only go there
+for temporary residence.
+
+A wholly new problem was thus suddenly presented to the people of the
+United States. On the one hand, it is asserted that, by destroying
+Spanish government in these islands, the United States has assumed
+responsibility for them, both to the inhabitants and to the world. This
+is a moral obligation. On the other hand, trade and commercial
+inducements are held out which would lead us to treat these islands
+simply as a commencement--the first instalment--in a system of unlimited
+extra-territorial dependencies and imperial expansion. With these
+responsibilities and obligations we here this evening have nothing to
+do, any more than we have to do with the expediency or probable results
+of the policy of colonial expansion, when once fairly adopted and
+finally entered upon. These hereafter will be, but are not yet,
+historical questions; and we are merely historical inquirers. We,
+therefore, no matter what others may do, must try to confine ourselves
+to our own proper business and functions.
+
+My purpose, therefore, is not to argue for or against what is now
+proposed, but simply to test historically some of the arguments I have
+heard most commonly advanced in favor of the proposed policy of
+expansion, and thus see to what they apparently lead in the sequence of
+human, and more especially of American, events. Do they indicate an
+historic continuity? Or do they result in what is geologically known as
+a "fault,"--a movement, as the result of force, through which a stratum,
+once continuous, becomes disconnected?
+
+In the first place, then, as respects the inhabitants of the vastly
+greater number of the dependencies already acquired, and, under the
+policy of imperialistic expansion, hereafter to be acquired. It is
+argued that we, as a people at once dominant and Christian, are under an
+obligation to avail ourselves of the opportunity the Almighty, in his
+infinite wisdom, has thrust upon us,--some say the plain call he has
+uttered to us,--to go forth, and impart to the barbarian and the heathen
+the blessings of liberty and the Bible. A mission is imposed upon us.
+Viewed in the cold, pitiless light of history,--and that is the only way
+we here can view them,--"divine missions" and "providential calls" are
+questionable things; things the assumption and fulfilment of which are
+apt to be at variance. So far as the American is concerned, as I have
+already pointed out, the historic precedents are not encouraging.
+Whatever his theories, ethnical, political, or religious, his practice
+has been as pronounced as it was masterful. From the earliest days at
+Wessagusset and in the Pequot war, down to the very last election held
+in North Carolina,--from 1623 to 1898,--the knife and the shotgun have
+been far more potent and active instruments in his dealings with the
+inferior races than the code of liberty or the output of the Bible
+Society. The record speaks for itself. So far as the Indian is
+concerned, the story has been told by Mrs. Jackson in her earnest,
+eloquent protest, entitled "A Century of Dishonor." It has received
+epigrammatic treatment in the saying tersely enunciated by one of our
+military commanders, and avowedly accepted by the others, that "the only
+good Indian is a dead Indian." So far as the African is concerned, the
+similar apothegm once was that "the black man has no rights the white
+man is bound to respect;" or, as Stephen A. Douglas defined his position
+before an applauding audience, "I am for the white man as against the
+black man, and for the black man against the alligator." Recent lynching
+and shotgun experiences, too fresh in memory to call for reminder, and
+too painful in detail to describe, give us at least reason to pause
+before we leave our own hearthstone to seek new and distant fields for
+missionary labors. It remains to consider the Asiatic. The racial
+antipathy of the American towards him has been more intense than towards
+any other species of the human race. This, as an historical fact, has
+been recently imbedded in our statute-book, having previously been
+illustrated in a series of outrages and massacres, with the sickening
+details of some of which it was at one time my misfortune to be
+officially familiar. Under these circumstances, so far as the
+circulation of the Bible and the extension of the blessings of liberty
+are concerned, history affords small encouragement to the American to
+assume new obligations. He has been, and now is, more than merely
+delinquent in the fulfilment of obligations heretofore thrust upon him,
+or knowingly assumed. In this respect his instinct has proved much more
+of a controlling factor than his ethics,--the shotgun has unfortunately
+been more constantly in evidence than the Bible. As a prominent
+"expansionist" New England member of the present Congress has recently
+declared in language, brutal perhaps in directness, but withal
+commendably free from cant: "China is succumbing to the inevitable, and
+the United States, if she would not retire to the background, must
+advance along the line with the other great nations. She must acquire
+new territory, providing new markets over which she must maintain
+control. The Anglo-Saxon advances into the new regions with a Bible in
+one hand and a shotgun in the other. The inhabitants of those regions
+that he cannot convert with the aid of the Bible and bring into his
+markets, he gets rid of with the shotgun. It is but another
+demonstration of the survival of the fittest." (Hon. C.A. Sulloway,
+Rochester, N.H., Nov. 22, 1898.)
+
+Next as regards our fundamental principles of equality of human rights,
+and the consent of the governed as the only just basis of all
+government. The presence of the inferior races on our own soil, and our
+new problems connected with them in our dependencies, have led to much
+questioning of the correctness of those principles, which, for its
+outspoken frankness, at least, is greatly to be commended. It is argued
+that these, as principles, in the light of modern knowledge and
+conditions, are of doubtful general truth and limited application. True,
+when confined and carefully applied to citizens of the same blood and
+nationality; questionable, when applied to human beings of different
+race in one nationality; manifestly false, in the case of races less
+developed, and in other, especially tropical, countries.[2] As
+fundamental principles, it is admitted, they were excellent for a young
+people struggling into recognition and limiting its attention narrowly
+to what only concerned itself; but have we not manifestly outgrown them,
+now that we ourselves have developed into a great World Power? For such
+there was and necessarily always will be, as between the superior and
+the inferior races, a manifest common sense foundation in caste, and in
+the rule of might when it presents itself in the form of what we are
+pleased to call Manifest Destiny. As to government being conditioned on
+the consent of the governed, it is obviously the bounden duty of the
+superior race to hold the inferior race in peaceful tutelage, and
+protect it against itself; and, furthermore, when it comes to deciding
+the momentous question of what races are superior and what inferior,
+what dominant and what subject, that is of necessity a question to be
+settled between the superior race and its own conscience; and one in
+regard to the correct settlement of which it indicates a tendency at
+once unpatriotic and "pessimistic," to assume that America could by any
+chance decide otherwise than correctly. Upon that score we must put
+implicit confidence in the sound instincts and Christian spirit of the
+dominant, that is, the stronger race.
+
+It is the same with that other fundamental principle with which the name
+of Lexington is, from the historical point of view, so closely
+associated,--I refer, of course, to the revolutionary contention that
+representation is a necessary adjunct to taxation. This principle also,
+it is frankly argued, we have outgrown, in presence of our new
+responsibilities; and, as between the superior and inferior races, it is
+subject to obvious limitations. Here again, as between the policy of the
+"Open Door" and the Closed-Colonial-Market policy, the superior race is
+amenable to its own conscience only. It will doubtless on all suitable
+and convenient occasions bear in mind that it is a "Trustee for
+Civilization."
+
+Finally, as respects entangling foreign alliances, and their necessary
+consequents, costly and burdensome armaments and large standing armies,
+we are again advised that, having ceased to be children, we should put
+away childish things. Having become a great World Power we must become a
+corresponding War Power. We are assured by high authority that, were
+Washington now alive, it cannot be questioned he would in all these
+respects modify materially the views expressed in the Farewell Address,
+as being obviously inapplicable to existing conditions. Under these
+circumstances, and in view of the obligations we have assumed, the
+President, and Secretaries of War and the Navy, recommend an
+establishment the annual cost of which ($200,000,000), exclusive of
+military pensions, is in excess of the largest of those European War
+Budgets, over the crushing influence of which we have expressed a
+traditional wonder, not unmixed with pity for the unfortunate tax-payer.
+
+Historically speaking, I believe these are all facts, susceptible of
+verification. I do not mean to say that the arguments developing obvious
+limitations in the application of the principles of the Declaration and
+the Constitution have been avowedly accepted by our representatives, or
+officially incorporated into our domestic and foreign policy. I do
+assert as an historical fact that these arguments have been advanced,
+and are meeting, both in Congress and with the press, a large degree of
+acceptance. And hence comes a singular and most significant conclusion
+from which, historically, there seems to be no escape. It may or it may
+not be fortunate and right; it may or it may not lead to beneficent
+future results; it may or it may not contribute to the good of mankind.
+Those questions belong elsewhere than in the rooms of an historical
+society. Upon them we are not called to pass,--they belong to the
+politician, the publicist, the philosopher, not to us. But, as
+historical investigators, and so observing the sequence of events, it
+cannot escape our notice that on every one of the fundamental principles
+discussed,--whether ethnic, economical, or political,--we abandon the
+traditional and distinctively American grounds and accept those of
+Europe, and especially of Great Britain, which heretofore we have made
+it the basis of our faith to deny and repudiate.
+
+With this startling proposition in mind, consider again the several
+propositions advanced; and first, as regards the so-called inferior
+races. Our policy towards them, instinctive and formulated, has been
+either to exclude or destroy, or to leave them in the fullness of time
+to work out their own destiny, undisturbed by us; fully believing that,
+in this way, we in the long run best subserved the interests of mankind.
+Europe, and Great Britain especially, adopted the opposite policy. They
+held that it was incumbent on the superior to go forth and establish
+dominion over the inferior race, and to hold and develop vast imperial
+possessions and colonial dependencies. They saw their interest and duty
+in developing systems of docile tutelage; we sought our inspirations in
+the rough school of self-government. Under this head the result then is
+distinct, clean cut, indisputable. To this conclusion have we come at
+last. The Old World, Europe and Great Britain, were, after all, right,
+and we of the New World have been wrong. From every point of
+view,--religious, ethnic, commercial, political,--we cannot, it is now
+claimed, too soon abandon our traditional position and assume theirs.
+Again, Europe and Great Britain have never admitted that men were
+created equal, or that the consent of the governed was a condition of
+government. They have, on the contrary, emphatically denied both
+propositions. We now concede that, after all, there was great basis for
+their denial; that, certainly, it must be admitted, our forefathers were
+hasty at least in reaching their conclusions,--they generalized too
+broadly. We do not frankly avow error, and we still think the assent of
+the governed to a government a thing desirable to be secured, under
+suitable circumstances and with proper limitations; but, if it cannot
+conveniently be secured, we are advised on New England senatorial
+authority that "the consent of some of the governed" will be sufficient,
+we ourselves selecting those proper to be consulted. Thus in such cases
+as certain islands of the Antilles, Hawaii, and the communities of Asia,
+we admit that, so far as the principles at the basis of the Declaration
+are concerned, Great Britain was right, and our ancestors were, not
+perhaps wrong, but too general, and of the eighteenth century, in their
+statements. To that extent, we have outgrown the Declaration of 1776,
+and have become as wise now as Great Britain was then. At any rate we
+are not above learning. As was long ago said,--"Only dead men and idiots
+never change;" and the people of the United States are nothing unless
+open-minded.
+
+So, also, as respects the famous Boston "tea-party," and taxation
+without representation. Great Britain then affirmed this right in the
+case of colonies and dependencies. Taught by the lesson of our War of
+Independence, she has since abandoned it. We now take it up, and are
+to-day, as one of the new obligations towards the heathen imposed upon
+us by Providence, formulating systems of imposts and tariffs for our new
+dependencies, wholly distinct from our own, and directly inhibited by
+our constitution, in regard to which systems those dependencies have no
+representative voice. They are not to be consulted as to the kind of
+door, "open" or "closed," behind which they are to exist. In taking this
+position it is difficult to see why we must not also incidentally admit
+that, in the great contention preceding our War of Independence, the
+first armed clash of which resounded here in Lexington, Great Britain
+was more nearly right than the exponents of the principles for which
+those "embattled farmers" contended.
+
+Again, consider the Monroe Doctrine, entangling foreign alliances, and
+the consequent and costly military and naval establishments. The Monroe
+Doctrine had two sides, the abstention of the Old World from
+interference in American affairs, based on our abstention from
+interference in the affairs of the Old World. But it is now argued we
+have outgrown the Monroe Doctrine, or at least the latter branch of it.
+It is certainly so considered in Europe; for, only a few days ago, so
+eminent an authority as Lord Farrar exultingly exclaimed in addressing
+the Cobden Club,--"America has burned the swaddling clothes of the
+Monroe Doctrine." Indeed we have, in discussion at least, gone far in
+advance of the mere burning of cast-off infantile clothing, and
+alliances with Great Britain and Japan, as against France and Russia,
+are freely mooted, with a view to the forcible partition of China, to
+which we are to be a party, and of it a beneficiary. For it is already
+avowed that the Philippines are but a "stopping-place" on the way to the
+continent of Asia; and China, unlike Poland, is inhabited by an
+"inferior race," in regard to whom, as large possible consumers of
+surplus products, Providence has imposed on us obvious obligations,
+material as well as benevolent and religious, which it would be unlike
+ourselves to disregard. It is the mandate of duty, we are told,--the
+nations of Europe obey it, and can we do less than they? "Isolation" it
+is then argued is but another name for an attention to one's own
+business which may well become excessive, and result in selfishness. It
+is true that the nations of the Old World have not heretofore erred
+conspicuously in this respect; and as the "Balance of Power" was the
+word-juggle with which to conjure up wars and armaments in the
+eighteenth century, so the "Division of Trade" may not impossibly prove
+the similar conjuring word-juggle of the twentieth century.
+Nevertheless, "isolation" is not compatible with the policy of a Great
+Nation under a call to assert itself as a World Power. Then follows the
+familiar argument in favor of costly military and naval establishments.
+But, upon this head it is needless to restate our traditional
+policy,--our jealousy as a people of militarism and large standing
+armies, to be used, if occasion calls, as a reserve police. Our record
+thereon is so plain that repetition grows tedious. The record of Europe,
+and especially of Great Britain as distinguished from other European
+powers, has been equally plain, and is no less indisputable. In this
+respect, also, always under compulsion, we now admit our error. Costly
+armies are necessary to the maintenance of order, Heaven's first law;
+and World Powers cannot maintain peace, and themselves, without powerful
+navies and frequent coaling stations.
+
+Finally, even on such matters as the Protective System and the
+encouragement of American Labor, as against the "Pauper Labor" of Europe
+and of the inferior races, Great Britain has for half a century now
+advocated the principle of unrestricted industry and free trade,--that
+is the "Open Door" policy logically carried to its final results. We
+have denied it, establishing what we in time grew to call the
+distinctive American system. It is, however, now asserted that "Trade
+follows the Flag," and that, as respects dependencies at least, the
+"Open Door" policy is the best policy. If "Trade follows the Flag" in
+dependencies, and, by so doing, affords the American producer all
+needful protection and every fair advantage in those dependencies, it is
+not at once apparent why it fails so to do at home. Is it less docile
+to the flag, less in harmony with and subservient to it, in the United
+States, within our own limits, than in remote lands under that flag
+beyond the seas? And, if so, how is such an apparent anomaly accounted
+for? But with this question we are not concerned. That problem is for
+the economist to solve, for in character it is commercial, not
+historical. The point with us is that again, as regards the "Open
+Door,"--free trade and no favor, so far as all outside competition is
+concerned, American labor and "pauper" labor being equally outside,--on
+this long and hotly contested point, also, England appears on the face
+of things to have had after all much the best of the argument.
+
+As regards "Pauper Labor," indeed, the reversal contemplated of
+established policy in favor of European methods is specially noteworthy.
+The labor of Asia is undeniably less well paid even than that of Europe;
+but it is now proposed, by a single act, to introduce into our
+industrial system ten millions of Asiatics, either directly, or through
+their products sold in open competition with our own; or, if we do not
+do that, to hold them, ascribed to the soil in a sort of old Saxon
+serfdom, with the function assigned them of consuming our surplus
+products, but without in return sending us theirs. The great
+counterbalancing consideration will not, of course, be forgotten that,
+like the English in India, we also bestow on them the Blessings of
+Liberty and the Bible; provided, always, that liberty does not include
+freedom to go to the United States, and the Bible does include the
+excellent Old Time and Old World precept (Coloss. 3: 22), "Servants,
+obey in all things your masters."
+
+It is the same in other respects. It seems to be admitted by the
+President, and by the leading authorities on the imperialistic policy,
+that it can only be carried to successful results through the agency of
+a distinct governing class. Accordingly administration through the
+agency of military or naval officers is strongly urged both by the
+President and by Captain Mahan. Other advocates of the policy urge its
+adoption on the ground, very distinctly avowed, that it will necessitate
+an established, recognized Civil Service, modelled, they add, on that of
+Great Britain. If, they then argue, Great Britain can extend--as,
+indeed, she unquestionably has extended--her system of dependencies all
+over the globe, developing them into the most magnificent empire the
+world ever saw, it is absurd, unpatriotic, and pessimistic to doubt that
+we can do the same. Are we not of the same blood, and the same speech?
+This is all historically true. Historically it is equally true that, to
+do it, we must employ means similar to those Great Britain has employed.
+In other words, modelling ourselves on Great Britain, we must slowly and
+methodically develop and build up a recognized and permanent governing
+and official class. The heathen and barbarian need to be studied, and
+dealt with intelligently and on a system; they cannot be successfully
+managed on any principle of rotation in office, much less one which
+ascribes the spoils of office to the victors at the polls. What these
+advocates of Imperialism say is unquestionably true: The political
+methods now in vogue in American cities are not adapted to the
+government of dependencies.
+
+The very word "Imperial" is, indeed, borrowed from the Old World. As
+applied to a great system of colonial dominion and foreign dependencies
+it is English, and very modern English, also, for it was first brought
+into vogue by the late Earl of Beaconsfield in 1879, when, by Act of
+Parliament introduced by him, the Queen of England was made Empress of
+India. It was then he enunciated that doctrine of _imperium et
+libertas_, the adoption of which we are now considering. While it may be
+wise and sound, it indisputably is British.
+
+Thus, curiously enough, whichever way we turn and however we regard it,
+at the close of more than a century of independent existence we find
+ourselves, historically speaking, involved in a mesh of contradictions
+with our past. Under a sense of obligation, impelled by circumstances,
+perhaps to a degree influenced by ambition and commercial greed, we have
+one by one abandoned our distinctive national tenets, and accepted in
+their place, though in some modified forms, the old-time European tenets
+and policies, which we supposed the world, actuated largely by our
+example, was about forever to discard. Our whole record as a people is,
+of course, then ransacked and subjected to microscopic investigation,
+and every petty disregard of principle, any wrong heretofore silently,
+perhaps sadly, ignored, each unobserved or disregarded innovation of
+the past, is magnified into a precedent justifying anything and
+everything in the future. If we formerly on some occasion swallowed a
+gnat, why now, is it asked, strain at a camel? Truths once accepted as
+"self-evident," since become awkward of acceptance, were ever thus
+pettifogged out of the path, and fundamental principles have in this way
+prescriptively been tampered with. It is now nearly a century and a
+quarter ago, when Great Britain was contemplating the subjection of her
+American dependencies, that Edmund Burke denounced "tampering" with the
+"ingenuous and noble roughness of truly constitutional materials," as
+"the odious vice of restless and unstable minds." Historically speaking
+it is not unfair to ask if this is less so in the United States in 1898
+than it was in Great Britain in 1775.
+
+What is now proposed, therefore, examined in connection with our
+principles and traditional policy as a nation, does apparently indicate
+a break in continuity,--historically, it will probably constitute what
+is known in geology as a "fault." Indeed, it is almost safe to say that
+history hardly records any change of base and system on the part of a
+great people at once so sudden, so radical, and so pregnant with
+consequences. To the optimist,--he who has no dislike to "Old Jewry," as
+the proper receptacle for worn-out garments, personal or political,--the
+outlook is inspiring. He insensibly recalls and repeats those fine lines
+of Tennyson:
+
+    "To-day I saw the dragon-fly
+     Come from the wells where he did lie.
+
+    "An inner impulse rent the veil
+     Of his old husk: from head to tail
+     Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.
+
+    "He dried his wings: like gauze they grew:
+     Thro' crofts and pastures wet with dew
+     A living flash of light he flew."
+
+To others, older perhaps, but at any rate more deeply impressed with the
+difference apt to develop between dreams and actualities, the situation
+calls to mind a comparison, more historical it is true, but less
+inspiriting so far as a commitment to the new policy is concerned. At
+the risk, possibly, of offending some of those present, I will venture
+to institute it. In the fourth chapter of the Gospel according to St.
+Matthew, I find this incident recorded: "The devil taketh him [the
+Saviour] up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the
+kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All
+these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
+Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan. Then the devil leaveth
+him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him." Now,
+historically speaking, and as a matter of scriptural exegesis, that this
+passage should be accepted literally is not supposable. Satan, on the
+occasion referred to, must not be taken to have presented himself to the
+Saviour _in propria persona_ with his attributes of horns, tail, and
+cloven hoof, and made an outright proposition of extra-territorial
+sovereignty. It was a parable. He who had assumed a lofty moral attitude
+was tempted by worldly inducements to adopt a lower attitude,--that, in
+a word, common among men. It was a whispering to Christ of what among
+nations, is known as "Manifest Destiny;" in that case, however, as
+possibly in others, it so chanced that the whispering was not from the
+Almighty, but from Satan. Now if, instead of recognizing the source
+whence the temptation came, and sternly saying, "Get thee hence, Satan,"
+Christ had seen the proposition as a new Mission,--thought, in fact,
+that he heard a distinct call to Duty,--and so, accepting a
+Responsibility thrust upon him, had hurried down from the "exceeding
+high mountain," and proceeded at once to lay in a supply of weapons and
+to don defensive armor, renouncing his peaceful mission, he would have
+done exactly--what Mohammed did six centuries later!
+
+I do not for a moment mean to suggest that, as respects the voice of
+"Manifest Destiny," there is any similarity between the case of the
+Saviour and that which we, as a people, are now considering. I am not a
+prophet, nor do I claim prophetic insight. We are merely historical
+investigators, and, as such, not admitted into the councils of the
+Almighty. Others doubtless are, or certainly claim to be. They know
+every time, and at once, whether it is the inspiration of God or the
+devil; and forthwith proclaim it from the house-tops. We must admit--at
+any rate no evidence in our possession enables us to deny--the
+confidential relations such claim to have with either or both of the
+agencies in question,--the Divine or the Infernal. All I now have in
+mind is to call attention to the obvious similarity of the positions. As
+compared with the ideals and tenets then in vogue,--principles of
+manhood, equality before the law, freedom, peace on earth, and good-will
+to men,--the United States, heretofore and seen in a large way, has,
+among nations, assumed a peculiar, and, from the moral point of view,
+unquestionably a lofty attitude. Speaking historically it might, and
+with no charge of levity, be compared with a similar moral attitude
+assumed among men eighteen centuries before by the Saviour. It
+discountenanced armaments and warfare; it advocated arbitrations, and
+bowed to their awards; spreading its arms and protection over the New
+World, it refused to embroil itself in the complications of the Old;
+above all, it set a not unprofitable example to the nations of benefits
+incident to minding one's own business, and did not arrogate to itself
+the character of a favorite and inspired instrument in the hands of God.
+It even went so far as to assume that, in working out the inscrutable
+ways of Providence, character, self-restraint, and moral grandeur were
+in the long run as potent in effecting results as iron-clads and
+gatling-guns.
+
+Those who now advocate a continuance of this policy are, as neatly as
+wittily, referred to in discussion, "for want of a better name," as
+"Little Americans," just as in history the believers in the long-run
+efficacy of the doctrines of Christ might be termed "Little Gospellers,"
+to distinguish them from the admirers of the later, but more brilliant
+and imperial, dispensation of Mohammed. That the earlier, and less
+immediately ambitious, doctrine was, in the case of the United States,
+only temporary, and is now outgrown, and must, therefore, be abandoned
+in favor of Old World methods, especially those pursued with such
+striking success by Great Britain, is possible. As historical
+investigators we have long since learned that it is the unexpected which
+in the development of human affairs is most apt to occur. Who, for
+instance, in our own recent history could ever have foreseen that, in
+the inscrutable ways of the Almighty, the great triumph of Slavery in
+the annexation of Texas, and the spoliation of that inferior race which
+inhabited Mexico, was, within fifteen years only, to result in what
+Lincoln called that "terrible war" in which every drop of blood ever
+drawn by the lash was paid by another drawn by the sword? Again, in May,
+1856, a Representative of South Carolina struck down a Senator from
+Massachusetts in the Senate-chamber at Washington; in January, 1865,
+Massachusetts battalions bivouacked beside the smoking ruins of South
+Carolina's capital. Verily, as none know better than we, the ways of
+Providence are mysterious, and past finding out. None the less, though
+it cannot be positively asserted that the world would not have been
+wiser, more advanced, and better ordered had Christ, when on that
+"exceeding high mountain," heard in the words then whispered in his ear
+a manifest call of Duty, and felt a Responsibility thrust upon him to
+secure the kingdoms of the earth for the Blessings of Liberty and the
+Bible by so small a sacrifice as making an apparently meaningless
+obeisance to Satan, yet we can certainly say that the world would now
+have been very different from what it is had He so done. And so in the
+case of the United States, though we cannot for a moment assert that its
+fate and the future of the world will not be richer, better, and
+brighter from its abandonment of New World traditions and policies in
+favor of the traditions and policies of the Old World, we can say
+without any hesitation that the course of history will be greatly
+changed by the so doing.
+
+In any event the experiment will be one of surpassing interest to the
+historical observer. Some years ago James Russell Lowell was asked by
+the French historian, Guizot, how long the Republic of the United States
+might reasonably be expected to endure. Mr. Lowell's reply has always
+been considered peculiarly happy. "So long," said he, "as the ideas of
+its founders continue dominant." In due course of time we, or those who
+follow us, will know whether Mr. Lowell diagnosed the situation
+correctly, or otherwise. Meanwhile, I do not know how I can better bring
+to an end this somewhat lengthy contribution to the occasion, than by
+repeating, as singularly applicable to the conditions in which we find
+ourselves, these verses from a recent poem, than which I have heard none
+in the days that now are which strike a deeper or a truer chord, or one
+more appropriate to this New England Paschal eve:
+
+    "The tumult and the shouting dies,
+       The captains and the kings depart;
+     Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
+       An humble and a contrite heart.
+     Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
+     Lest we forget--lest we forget!
+
+    "Far-called our navies melt away,
+       On dune and headline sinks the fire--
+     Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
+       Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
+     Judge of the nations, spare us yet,
+     Lest we forget--lest we forget!
+
+    "If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
+       Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
+     Such boasting as the Gentiles use
+       Or lesser breeds without the law--
+     Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,
+     Lest we forget--lest we forget!
+
+    "For heathen heart that puts her trust
+       In reeking tube and iron shard--
+     All valiant dust that builds on dust,
+       And guarding calls not Thee to guard--
+     For frantic boast and foolish word,
+     Thy mercy on thy people, Lord!
+                         Amen."
+
+Taken in connection with the foregoing paper, the following-letter,
+addressed to the Hon. Carl Schurz, is self-explanatory:
+
+
+BOSTON, December 21, 1898.
+
+MY DEAR MR. SCHURZ:
+
+In a recent letter you kindly suggest that I submit to you a sketch of
+what, I think, should be said in an address such as it is proposed
+should now be put forth by the Anti-Imperialist League to the people of
+the United States.
+
+I last evening read a paper before the Lexington Historical Society, in
+which I discussed the question of extra-territorial expansion from the
+historical point of view. A copy of this paper I hope soon to forward
+you. Meanwhile, there is one aspect, and, to my mind, the all-important
+aspect of the question, which, in addressing an historical society, was
+not germane. I refer to the question of a practical policy to be pursued
+by us, as a nation, under existing conditions. That Spain has abandoned
+all claim of sovereignty over the Philippine islands admits of no
+question. Whether the United States has accepted the sovereignty thus
+abandoned is still an open question; but this I do not regard as
+material. Nevertheless, we are confronted by a fact; and, whenever we
+criticise the policy up to this time pursued; we are met with an inquiry
+as to what we have to propose in place of it. We are invited to stop
+finding fault with others, and to suggest some feasible alternative
+policy ourselves.
+
+To this we must, therefore, in fairness, address ourselves. It is, in my
+judgment, useless to attempt to carry on the discussion merely in the
+negative form. As opponents of an inchoate policy we must, in place of
+what we object to, propose something positive, or we must abandon the
+field. Accepting the alternative, I now want to suggest a positive
+policy for the consideration of those who feel as we feel. I wish your
+judgment upon it.
+
+There has, it seems to me, been a great deal of idle "Duty," "Mission,"
+and "Call" talk on the subject of our recent acquisition of "Islands
+beyond the Sea," and the necessity of adopting some policy, commonly
+described as "Imperial," in dealing with them. This policy is, in the
+minds of most people who favor it, to be indirectly modelled on the
+policy heretofore so successfully pursued under somewhat similar
+conditions by Great Britain. It involves, as I tried to point out in the
+Lexington paper I have referred to, the abandonment or reversal of all
+the fundamental principles of our government since its origin, and of
+the foreign policy we have heretofore pursued. This, I submit, is
+absolutely unnecessary. Another and substitute policy, purely American,
+as contradistinguished from the European or British, known as
+"Imperial," policy, can readily be formulated.
+
+This essentially American policy would be based both upon our cardinal
+political principles, and our recent foreign experiences. It is commonly
+argued that, having destroyed the existing government in Cuba, Porto
+Rico, and the Philippines, we have assumed a political responsibility,
+and are under a moral obligation to provide another government in place
+of that which by our action has ceased to exist. What has been our
+course heretofore under similar circumstances? Precedents, I submit, at
+once suggest themselves. Precedents, too, directly in point, and within
+your and my easy recollection.
+
+I refer to the course pursued by us towards Mexico in the year 1848, and
+again in 1866; towards Hayti for seventy years back; and towards
+Venezuela as recently as three years ago. It is said that the
+inhabitants of the islands of the Antilles, and much more those of the
+Philippine archipelago, are as yet unfitted to maintain a government;
+and that they should be kept in a condition of "tutelage" until they are
+fitted so to do. It is further argued that a stable government is
+necessary, and that it is out of the question for us to permit a
+condition of chronic disturbance and scandalous unrest to exist so near
+our own borders as Cuba and Porto Rico. Yet how long, I would ask, did
+that condition exist in Mexico? And with what results? How long has it
+existed in Hayti? Has the government of Venezuela ever been "stable"?
+Have we found it necessary or thought it best to establish a
+governmental protectorate in any of those immediately adjacent regions?
+
+What has been, historically, our policy--the American, as distinguished
+from the European and British policy--towards those communities,--two
+of them Spanish, one African? So far as foreign powers are concerned, we
+have laid down the principle of "Hands-off." So far as their own
+government was concerned, we insisted that the only way to learn to walk
+was to try to walk, and that the history of mankind did not show that
+nations placed under systems of "tutelage,"--taught to lean for support
+on a superior power,--ever acquired the faculty of independent action.
+
+Of this, with us, fundamental truth, the British race itself furnishes a
+very notable example. In the forty-fourth year of the Christian era the
+island of Great Britain was occupied by what the "Imperial" Romans
+adjudged to be an inferior race. To the Romans the Britons
+unquestionably were inferior. Every child's history contains an account
+of the course then pursued by the superior towards that inferior race,
+and its results. The Romans occupied Great Britain, and they occupied it
+hard upon four centuries, holding the people in "tutelage," and
+protecting them against themselves, as well as against their enemies.
+With what result? So emasculated and incapable of self-government did
+the people of England become during their "tutelage" that, when Rome at
+last withdrew, they found themselves totally unfitted for
+self-government, much more for facing a foreign enemy. As the last, and
+best, historian of the English people tells us, the purely despotic
+system of the imperial government "by crushing all local independence,
+crushed all local vigor. Men forgot how to fight for their country when
+they forgot how to govern it."[3] The end was that, through six
+centuries more, England was overrun, first by those of one race, and
+then by those of another, until the Normans established themselves in it
+as conquerors; and then, and not until then, the deteriorating effect of
+a system of long continued "tutelage" ceased to be felt, and the
+islanders became by degrees the most energetic, virile, and
+self-sustaining of races. As nearly, therefore, as can be historically
+stated, it took eight centuries for the people of England to overcome
+the injurious influence of four centuries of just such a system as it is
+now proposed by us to inflict on the Philippines.[4] Hindostan would
+furnish another highly suggestive example of the educational effects of
+"tutelage" on a race. After a century and a half of that British
+"tutelage," what progress has India made towards fitness for
+self-government? Is the end in sight?
+
+From the historical point of view, it is instructive to note the exactly
+different results reached through the truly American policy we have
+pursued in the not dissimilar cases of Hayti and Mexico. While Hayti, it
+is true, has failed to make great progress in one century, it has made
+quite as much progress as England made during any equal period
+immediately after Rome withdrew from it. And that degree of slowness in
+growth, which with equanimity has been endured by us in Hayti, could
+certainly be endured by us in islands on the coast of Asia. It cannot be
+gainsaid that, through our insisting on the policy of non-interference
+ourselves, and of non-interference by European nations, Hayti has been
+brought into a position where it is on the high road to better things in
+future. That has been the result of the prescriptive American policy.
+With Mexico, the case is far stronger. We all know that in 1848, after
+our war of spoliation, we had to bolster up a semblance of a government
+for Mexico, with which to negotiate a treaty of peace. Mexico at that
+time was reduced by us to a condition of utter anarchy. Under the theory
+now gaining in vogue, it would then have been our plain duty to make of
+Mexico an extra-territorial dependency, and protect it against itself.
+We wisely took a different course. Like other Spanish communities in
+America, Mexico than passed through a succession of revolutions, from
+which it became apparent the people were not in a fit condition for
+self-government. Nevertheless, sternly insisting on non-interference by
+outside powers, we ourselves wisely left that country to work out its
+own salvation in its own way.
+
+In 1862, when the United States was involved in the War of the
+Rebellion, the Europeans took advantage of the situation to invade
+Mexico, and to establish there a "stable government." They undertook to
+protect that people against themselves, and to erect for them a species
+of protectorate, such as we now propose for the Philippines. As soon as
+our war was over, we insisted upon the withdrawal of Europe from Mexico.
+What followed is matter of recent history. It is unnecessary to recall
+it. We did not reduce Mexico into a condition of "tutelage," or
+establish over it a "protectorate" of our own. We, on the contrary,
+insisted that it should stand on its own legs; and, by so doing, learn
+to stand firmly on them, just as a child learns to walk, by being
+compelled to try to walk, not by being kept everlastingly in "leading
+strings." This was the American, as contradistinguished from the
+European policy; and Mexico to-day walks firmly.
+
+Finally take the case of Venezuela in 1895. I believe I am not mistaken
+when I say that, during the twenty-five preceding years, Venezuela had
+undergone almost as many revolutions. It certainly had not enjoyed a
+stable government. Through disputes over questions of boundary, Great
+Britain proposed to confer that indisputable blessing upon a
+considerable region. We interfered under a most questionable extension
+of the Monroe Doctrine, and asserted the principle of "Hands-off."
+Having done this,--having in so far perpetuated what we now call the
+scandal of anarchy,--we did not establish "tutelage," or a protectorate,
+ourselves. We wisely left Venezuela to work out its destiny in its own
+way, and in the fullness of time. That policy was far-seeing,
+beneficent, and strictly American in 1895. Why, then, make almost
+indecent haste to abandon it in 1898?
+
+Instead, therefore, of finding our precedents in the experience of
+England, or that of any other European power, I would suggest that the
+true course for this country now to pursue is exactly the course we have
+heretofore pursued under similar conditions. Let us be true to our own
+traditions, and follow our own precedents. Having relieved the Spanish
+islands from the dominion of Spain, we should declare concerning them a
+policy of "Hands-off," both on our own part and on the part of other
+powers. We should say that the independence of those islands is morally
+guaranteed by us as a consequence of the treaty of Paris, and then leave
+them just as we have left Hayti, and just as we left Mexico and
+Venezuela, to adopt for themselves such form of government as the people
+thereof are ripe for. In the cases of Mexico and Venezuela, and in the
+case of Hayti, we have not found it necessary to interfere ever or at
+all. It is not yet apparent why we should find it necessary to interfere
+with islands so much more remote from us than Hayti, and than Mexico and
+Venezuela, as are the Philippines.
+
+In this matter we can thus well afford to be consistent, as well as
+logical. Our fundamental principles, those of the Declaration, the
+Constitution, and the Monroe Doctrine, have not yet been shown to be
+unsound--why should we be in such a hurry to abandon them? Our
+precedents are close at hand, and satisfactory--why look away from them
+to follow those of Great Britain? Why need we, all of a sudden, be so
+very English and so altogether French, even borrowing their nomenclature
+of "imperialism?" Why can not we, too, in the language of Burke, be
+content to set our feet "in the tracks of our forefathers, where we can
+neither wander nor stumble?" The only difficulty in the way of our so
+doing seems to be that we are in such a desperate hurry; while natural
+influences and methods, though in the great end indisputably the wisest
+and best, always require time in which to work themselves out to their
+results. Wiser than the Almighty in our own conceit, we think to get
+there at once; the "there" in this case being everlasting "tutelage," as
+in India, instead of ultimate self-government, as in Mexico.
+
+The policy heretofore pursued by us in such cases,--the policy of
+"Hands-off," and "Walk alone," is distinctly American; it is not
+European, not even British. It recognizes the principles of our
+Declaration of Independence. It recognizes the truth that all just
+government exists by the consent of the governed. It recognizes the
+existence of the Monroe Doctrine. In a word, it recognizes every
+principle and precedent, whether natural or historical, which has from
+the beginning lain at the foundation of our American polity. It does not
+attempt the hypocritical contradiction in terms, of pretending to
+elevate a people into a self-sustaining condition through the
+leading-string process of "tutelage." It appeals to our historical
+experience, applying to present conditions the lessons of Hayti, Mexico,
+and Venezuela. In dealing with those cases, we did not find a great
+standing army or an enormous navy necessary; and, if not then, why now?
+Why such a difference between the Philippines and Hayti? Is Cuba larger
+or nearer to us than Mexico? When, therefore, in future they ask us what
+course and policy we Anti-Imperialists propose, our answer should be
+that we propose to pursue towards the islands of Antilles and the
+Philippines the same common-sense course and truly American policy which
+were by us heretofore pursued with such signal success in the cases of
+Hayti, Mexico, and Venezuela, all inhabited by people equally unfit for
+self-government, and geographically much closer to ourselves. We propose
+to guarantee them against outside meddling, and, above all, from
+"tutelage," and make them, by walking, learn to walk alone.
+
+This, I submit, is not only an answer to the question so frequently put
+to us, but a positive policy following established precedents, and, what
+is more, purely American, as distinguished from a European or British,
+policy and precedents.
+
+I remain, etc.,
+
+CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
+
+_Hon. Carl Schurz,
+16 E. 64th Street, New York City._
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] "Obviously, men are not born equal in physical strength or in mental
+capacity, in beauty of form or health of body. Diversity or inequality
+in these respects is the law of creation. But this inequality is in no
+particular inconsistent with complete civil or political equality.
+
+"The equality declared by our fathers in 1776 and made the fundamental
+law of Massachusetts in 1780, was _Equality before the Law_. Its object
+was to efface all political or civil distinctions, and to abolish all
+institutions founded upon _birth_. 'All men are _created_ equal,' says
+the Declaration of Independence. 'All men are _born_ free and equal,'
+says the Massachusetts Bill of Rights. These are not vain words. Within
+the sphere of their influence, no person can be _created_, no person can
+be _born_, with civil or political privileges not enjoyed equally by all
+his fellow-citizens; nor can any institutions be established,
+recognizing distinctions of birth. Here is the Great Charter of every
+human being drawing vital breath upon this soil, whatever may be his
+conditions, and whoever may be his parents. He may be poor, weak,
+humble, or black,--he may be of Caucasian, Jewish, Indian, or Ethiopian
+race,--he may be born of French, German, English, or Irish extraction;
+but before the Constitution of Massachusetts all these distinctions
+disappear. He is not poor, weak, humble, or black; nor is he Caucasian,
+Jew, Indian, or Ethiopian; nor is he French, German, English, or Irish;
+he is a MAN, the equal of all his fellow-men. He is one of the children
+of the State, which, like an impartial parent, regards all its offspring
+with an equal care. To some it may justly allot higher duties, according
+to higher capacities; but it welcomes all to its equal hospitable board.
+The State, imitating the divine Justice, is no respecter of
+persons."--_Works of Charles Sumner, Vol. II., pp. 341-2_.
+
+[2] Historically speaking, the assertion in the Declaration of
+Independence has been fruitful of dispute. The very evening the present
+paper was read at Lexington the Mayor of Boston, in a public address
+elsewhere, alluded to the "imprudent generalizations of our
+forefathers," referring, doubtless, to what Rufus Choate, forty-two
+years before, described as "the glittering and sounding generalities of
+natural right" to be found in the Declaration, "that passionate and
+eloquent manifesto." Mr. Calhoun declared (1848) that the claim of human
+equality set forth in the Declaration was "the most false and dangerous
+of all political errors," which, after resting a long time "dormant,"
+had, in the process of time, begun "to germinate and produce its
+poisonous fruits." Mr. Pettit, a Senator from Indiana, pronounced it in
+1854, "a self-evident lie." In the famous Lincoln-Douglas debate in
+Illinois (1860) the question reappeared, Mr. Douglas contending that the
+Declaration applied only to "the white people of the United States;"
+while Mr. Lincoln, in reply, asserted that "the entire records of the
+world, from the date of the Declaration of Independence up to within
+three years ago, may be searched in vain for one single affirmation,
+from one single man, that the negro was not included in the
+Declaration." The contention of Mr. Douglas had recently again made its
+appearance in the press as something too indisputable to admit of
+discussion. It is asserted that, in penning the Declaration, Mr.
+Jefferson could not possibly have intended to include those then
+actually held as slaves. On this point Mr. Jefferson himself should, it
+would seem, be accepted as a competent witness. Referring to the denial
+of his "inalienable rights" to the African, he declared at a later day,
+"I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just." What he
+meant will, however, probably continue matter for confident newspaper
+assertions just so long as anybody in this country wants to make out, as
+did Stephen A. Douglas in 1860, a plausible pretext for subjugating
+somebody else,--Indian, African, or Asiatic. As Mr. Lincoln expressed
+it, "The assertion that all men are created equal was of no practical
+use in effecting our separation from Great Britain, and it was placed in
+the Declaration, not for that but for future use. Its author meant it to
+be, as, thank God, it is now proving itself, a stumbling block to all
+those who, in after times, might seek to turn a free people back into
+the paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed
+tyrants, and they meant, when such should reappear in this fair land,
+and commence their vocation, they should find left for them at least one
+hard nut to crack."--_Works_, Vol. I., p. 233.
+
+[3] Green's Short History (Ill. Ed.). Vol. I. p. 9.
+
+[4] The Roman legions were withdrawn from Great Britain in 410; Magna
+Charta was signed in June, 1215, and the reign of French kings over
+England came to a close in 1217. It is a striking illustration of the
+deliberation with which natural processes work themselves out, that the
+period which elapsed between the withdrawal of Rome from England, and
+the recovery of England by the English, should have exceeded by more
+than a century the time which has as yet elapsed since England was thus
+recovered.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of "Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our
+Forefathers", by Charles Francis Adams
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "IMPERIALISM" AND "THE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 16542.txt or 16542.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/4/16542/
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Sigal Alon and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+Produced from page images provided by the Digital and
+Multimedia Center, Michigan State University Libraries
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+
diff --git a/16542.zip b/16542.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08e00b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/16542.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ea2934
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #16542 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16542)