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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. 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