--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Tanner, J. M. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 2 number: 6 published: 1899-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Tanner, J. M., "Territorial Expansion," *Improvement Era* 2, no. 6 (April 1899): 425–433.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera26unse start_page: 425 end_page: 433 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1899-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera26unse publication_year: 1899 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1899, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Territorial Expansion TERRITORIAL EXPANSION. BY PROFESSOR J. M. TANNER, PRESIDENT AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, LOGAN, UTAH. " Westward the course of empire takes its way," was a perfect expression of the great historical truth when the immense territorial expanse of this western country lay before the vision of the statesmen of a generation ago. That expression may now be enlarged, and be made to include an imperial empire whose domains extend beyond the confines of the nation and beyond the sea. National expansion was the dream of more than one of our great statesmen. They saw our flag floating in the breezes of the arctic circle and extending its authority from the Polar seas on the north to the equator on the south. They looked beyond the seas and beheld our civilization making its way to distant lands and establishing its authority among the semi-barbarous. Among the speculative expansionists of a generation past, there was, perhaps, no one greater than Secretary Seward. Over forty years ago, Mr. Seward, speaking in the Senate of the United States upon the commerce of the Pacific coast, painted this glowing picture: "Even the discovery of this continent and its islands, and the organization of society and government upon them, grand and important as these events have been, were but conditional, preliminary and auxiliary to the more sublime result, now in the act, the consummation the reunion of the two civilizations, which, having parted on the plains of Asia four thousand years ago, and having traveled ever afterwards in 426 IMPROVEMENT ERA. opposite directions around the world, now meet again on the coast and the islands of the Pacific ocean. Certainly, no mere human event of equal dignity and importance has ever occurred upon the earth. It will be followed by the equalization of the conditions of society and the restoration of the unity of the human family. We see plainly enough why this event could not have come before, and why it has come now. A certain amount of human freedom, a certain amount of human intelligence, a certain extent of human control over the physical obstacles to such a reunion was necessary. All the conditions have happened and occurred; liberty has developed under the improved forms of government, and science has subjected nature in western Europe and in America. Navigation improved by steam enables man to outstrip the winds, and intelligence conveyed by electricity excels in velocity the light. With these varying circumstances there has come also a sudden abundance of gold, that largely releases labor from its long subjection to realized capital. Sir, this movement is no delusion." * The American people have been, next to their English ancestors, the greatest expansionists of any people in the world. From a total area of 827,844 square miles in 1790, they have grown to 3,681,236 square miles in 1898. This territorial expansion has been of the most fortunate character. In the first place, it began by the incorporation of contiguous territory until it extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific. At each step the expansionists were met by the most solemn warnings, by the fear of a surrender of constitutional liberty, and the warnings contained in Washington's farewell address, namely, that we should not complicate our affairs with foreign nations, has been constantly in the minds of those who felt that in this expansion, or national aggrandisement of territory, there were to be found the gravest dangers. As long as we were dealing, however, with contiguous territory, the commercial advantages and the political safety of our country furnished the most decisive argument in favor of a policy in which we have engaged from the very beginning. A large number, however, of influential statesmen have always opposed territorial expansion that would lead us beyond our continental boundaries and carry us over the sea. Many efforts were made to annex Cuba. At one time North American Review, July, page 80. TERRITORIAL EXPANSION. 427 the President of the United States purchased St. Thomas of Denmark. But these efforts of territorial expansion by annexation of islands were overcome. In 1867 Alaska was purchased from Russia through the influence of Seward. However, both Polk and Buchannan had favored the purchase of Alaska, so that this idea of Alaskan purchase was not new with Seward. There was a determined a,nd strong opposition to this new policy. Its opponents said that it foreboded no good; that it incorporated into the American commonwealth a foreign people whose habits and customs were so much at variance with our own; that they never could be assimilated to our people by any form of government or education. Besides it was regarded as a commercial burden upon the country. Its resources were then very few. Its fisheries and its furs were the only resources for which we could hope. Yet how suggestive the acquisition of Alaska has been in the disposition which has grown up in the last few years to continue our old habits of territorial expansion! Just about the time we were taking up arms against Spain its great gold fields opened, which gave promise of millions and millions of wealth. The friends of Alaskan annexation were more and more indicated. They called the attention of their -opponents to the fact that Alaska was now to prove a great benefit to the United States. It would not only open its great treasures of gold, but it was rich in iron and other minerals which gave promise of commercial advantages to that territory, and they further held that the day was not far distant when the American people would colonize the territory to such an extent that it would become a fitted applicant for statehood. The argument of history, therefore, in every instance up to the acquisition of this territory in 1867, has been in favor of territorial expansion from a commercial as well as a political point of view. It is at this point, however, that those who will willingly acknowledge the benefits of America's policy in the past, hesitate and declare that we have reached the end; that we dare not go beyond the limit of safety; that the dangers of further annexation are so grave as to threaten the overthrow of free institutions in our country, without bringing any corresponding good to the nations with which we are likely to interfere. 428 IMPROVEMENT ERA. It is remarkable that only a few years ago when the question of the annexation of the Hawaiian islands was up the popular sentiment throughout the United States defeated the efforts of the President to make those islands a part of this country. Popular sentiment was strong, too strong, to afford any encouragement to the expansionists. Just at the time when they felt that their policy of acquiring this group of tropical islands must be abandoned, war was opened with Spain. This is unquestionably the turning point in the history of the American people. It is entitled to the distinction of one of three great national epochs. Though not comprehended in its fullest extent, it is not too much to say that it stands on a parallel with the establishment of the Constitution and the achievements of the civil war. It means a foreign policy, something the American people know but little about. It means the growth of a militant spirit, something the American people have been jealous of and regarded as inconsistent with the professions of a free republic. It means commercial complications abroad. Yet the spirit is here. There is a general feeling that we cannot surrender what we have acquired. We may not always be able to analyze the logic of events. It is sometimes^tyled our "manifest destiny," and the argument ceases there. Fortunately for the expansionists, the spirit has taken root in the heroic feeling that has been engendered by the recent war. Benjamin Kidd, an English writer of great ability on social questions, observes that "it is one of the deepest truths of philosophy that the meaning of living things cannot be put into logical formulas." Respecting our own constitutional government he observes: " The spirit behind the Constitution of the United States is probably one of the most vital and healthy influences in the world; and yet, under the Constitution itself there are already the most illogical results. One of the fundamental principles of government in the United States is the assumption of the right of every citizen to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The negro is a citizen of the United States, and yet in some states of the Union he is forbidden to marry a citizen of a different color. The Indian is a ward of the United States and not a citizen, and the Chinaman is forbidden to vote. All this is illogical. But it is not therefore wrong; and the fact remains that the spirit behind the American constitution is probably one of the healthiest forces in the world." * * Atlantic Monthly, December, 1898, page 726. TERRITORIAL EXPANSION. 429 There has always been —and justly so —a strong disposition to measure the commercial progress and territorial expansion by constitutional formulas, and already American statesmen are crossing bridges which in time to come, they feel sure, must be constructed. The question is asked, how shall we govern these distant islands inhabited by mongrel populations, of whom the great majority are in dense ignorance? Can we place them on an equal with ourselves? Can they ultimately attain to statehood? Is that the purpose of their annexation? or, behind this claim of national expansionists, is there a disposition to adopt a colonial policy? Then again, the commercial interests of this country have been aroused. They evidently see that financial policy of distant islands cannot prudently be assimilated to our own. The products of tropical islands are as a rule unlike those of the United States. Louisiana, however, sees a menace in the annexation of Cuba, fearing that this country might suffer from the free imports of sugar from that island. The annexation of Hawaii has already increased these dangers, and that of Cuba would make them grave indeed. The constitutional aspect of the question of annexation, is the one question that is now most seriously discussed in the newspapers and in the halls of Congress. We are coming back to the old question that has been agitated again and again. Was the constitution made for the original thirteen states, or was it made also for the territories? Do its provisions restrain Congressional efforts in territorial legislation; or has Congress unqualified power to govern its trans-oceanic colonies? Recently in the Senate of the United States when the ratification of the Paris treaty was up, there was an intense academic discussion from this point of view. Men who had favored annexations of the past became skeptical and questioned the wisdom of our present policy. The announcement of a doctrine in the halls of the Senate that Congress was free to legislate for territories as it saw fit, that Congress was not bound by the letter of the constitution, however much from policy of consideration, wisdom and justice it may be supposed to follow its spirit, awakened within the minds of many a feeling of alarm. The theory upon which annexation was to be carried on was in their minds more dangerous than the fact of 430 IMPROVEMENT ERA. annexation itself. This is clearly seen from a statement made by- Senator Rawlins in a speech delivered by him in the Senate, February 1st, in which he took a stand against the policy of national expansion. Senator Rawlins said: " Mr. President, the mere idea of expansion, or extending our borders, does not alarm me so much as some of the startling doctrines advanced in its justification. We are today confronted with the question as to whether we shall change the name of the republic; and if so, what shall the new name be,and what shall it symbolize? Shall it be 'the United States of America and the kingdom of the Philippines,' or shall it be the 'Empire of America and Asia?' Already there are spectral visions of this in the political sky." While these constitutional questions are involved in the discussions now carried on by the legal fraternity and statesmen of this country, it is safe to say that the commercial question is one of far-reaching consequence to the American people. Constitutional questions will be kept before the country during the discussions of the Senate when treaties are up for consideration, but as soon as that body adjourns the commercial interests will step to the front and the press will take up this universal phase of a question which later on awaits the solution of the American people. It is remarkable to note at the present time that those who occupy different positions upon this question are not divided by political party considerations. Whether or not at some future time it will become a source of division to the great national parties of this country, awaits to be seen. If it is carried into the arena of politics it is safe to say that in the next political campaign it will obscure all other questions. Is it wise to annex the Philippines? That is the question frequently put by the conservative element of this country. At present doubt is a large factor in the case, and it is difficult now to say how a popular vote would go in case the question were referred to the ballot. This doubt has, however, been met, and • the skeptical are, in a large measure, satisfied. Opponents are measurably conciliated by a recent statement of the President that so far as any policy has been outlined, it has been one merely of temporary occupation, a policy announced also by Senator TERRITORIAL EXPANSION. 431 Morgan on the floor of the Senate. But what does "temporaryoccupation" mean? If we may judge by the experience of the past, there have been by the European nations a great many temporary occupations. Indeed, India is an object lesson of temporary occupation. England kept Egypt after the struggle in 1882 temporarily, and the French entered upon a temporary occupation of Tunis. Years ago England excused herself in her Egyptian policy by saying that as soon as certain problems were solved, certain difficulties adjusted, she would withdraw from Egypt. But these necessary conditions upon which England could withdraw multiplied, the obstacles became more difficult, and of late years we hear but little of England's withdrawing from Egypt, and any statement to that effect evokes merely a smile. England is in Egypt to stay. France will remain in Tunis, and if history is to repeat itself the American people will find that it is much easier to get into Cuba and the Philippines than it will be to get out of them. As to the commercial advantages, it is not easy to measure the possibilities of the future.At present the trade journals of this country in discussing the commercial aspect of this question, are very much divided. The commercial advantages of the past will always remain strong arguments with the expansionists of today. They will say: "You predicted new and unnecessary financial burdens in the territorial aggrandisement of the past. In every instance you have been wrong. We do not question the motives of your alarm, nor the patriotism of your intentions; but if the professions of the past are of any value we may justly question the correctness or the wisdom of your judgment." The question, however, of national expansion is not such as presents any adequate solution by a simple balance sheet. In it are involved questions of humanity. Experiences abroad may react upon the conditions at home and produce effects beneficial to the interests of our country. There are political questions in the United States today that are more menacing to the institutions of this country than territorial aggrandizement. Political methods confront us with the greatest dangers. The spoils system of this country is degenerating to its civil service, a service which today is more incomplete and vastly more inefficient than that of either 432 IMPROVEMENT ERA. England or Germany. If the question were asked what were the two greatest effects of the war with Spain, political scientists might not inappropriately answer, the election of Roosevelt and the conciliation between the North and the South. The corrupt political influences of the Empire State had to yield in the presence of national patriotism; and then the great question of the negro element in this country, if solved in the interests of humanity, must be by the co-operation of the North and the South, and the political distinctions that have hitherto lain in the way of the obstacles that the race question has afforded, must, in a large measure, give way. One thing is certain, that if we are to enter upon a colonial policy — and that policy must have something in common with — European nations our civil service must be reformed. The inauguration of this reform abroad must, in a large measure, result in its adoption at home. It would be difficult today to measure from a financial point of view the advantages which England has derived from India. India has been a field of education for diplomats, for statesmen, for consuls, and men whose wisdom and education have done much to broaden the field of English commerce and increase the force of British progress. We are at the forks of the road. The present civil service in this country, so far as it has been unaffected by reform, will lead us in the direction of Spanish mal-administration . A change in the service by the political convulsions of this country would deny us the service of the best and most capable men. The service would be that of carpet-baggers, men inadequately remunerated by the government and forced to pay themselves when the government could not pay them. Besides, these tropical countries have shown more wonderful powers of development and progress than has been usually attributed to them.Wise administration and just government will do much to transform them from the ignorant and bar. barous condition in which they now exist into more enlightened and progressive peoples. Russia has done much; Germany is contributing to the welfare of these unfortunate races, as England has done marvels in their development, and along with their intellectual development have come intellectual and commercial advancement. They are contributing to the sum total of the TERRITORIAL EXPANSION, 433 world's wealth, and whatever may be said of the open-door policy by which all nations are permitten to trade on equal footing in the ports of these tropical oceanic countries, the fact nevertheless remains that the greatest advantages always accrue to the nation in control of the local government. But the progress of European nations has been along certain lines. That progress for the most part has been commercial. The natives have, in some measure, become trained as artisans; but there is a distinct field for missionary work abroad which the United States, above all nations, is prepared to fill. What these countries, these semi-civilized peoples, most need now is development along agricultural lines. In this country we have met almost every condition of climate, and as agriculturists, horticulturists, and tillers of the soil, we are without a parallel among the nations of the earth. America can do more for tropical countries; she can do more in the improvement of methods of cultivation of the soil than any other nation, and if we may judge from the history of the Anglo-Saxon abroad, it is not too much to say that the new foreign policy, whatever dangers it may carry, must react upon the social and political institutions of this country and bring to the United States advantages which now possible to define, any more than it is possible to say it is not what the results in the future will be. The more thoughtful men who are now watching the commercial interests of this country, are not so much concerned about the Philippines as they are about the future opportunities that will come to this country from China by reason of our occupation of those islands. Of all foreign commerce none today is more promising to this country than that which may come from the probabilities of dissolution in the Chinese empire. When once that comes to be felt by the American people it is doubtful whether any constitutional barriers can be erected that will thwart the determined purposes of the people, for it must always be remembered — and this is a historical truth in our government — that there is rarely a constitutional way of escaping a general political purpose. Annexation is a question; for that reason it has two sides. It is possibly good and it is probably dangerous, and on whichever side of this question we may array ourselves it may be well to remember that