Chapter XI: Our Claim to Porto Rico

One great question raised by the recent war was that of territorial expansion, and this question called forth many expressions of opinion both for and against.

There is no doubt, however, but that Porto Rico is ours by the right of conquest, and that it would be a crime from every point of view for us not to retain it.

That we shall retain it, too, now seems certain.

Let us now, in the first place, look back and see what two of our most prominent statesmen have said in the past. They may be looked upon almost as prophets.

The idea of territorial expansion is not a new one. In fact, it dates back half a century, and the thought of this expansion has been silently hatched ever since.

In 1846, William H. Seward, afterward Secretary of State under the administration of Abraham Lincoln, published an open letter under the title, "We Should Carry Out Our Destiny."

To carry out that destiny, said Mr. Seward in this letter, the United States should prepare themselves for their mission by getting rid of the Old World which still continued with ideas of another age upon portions of the American soil.

In the same letter Mr. Seward also said that the monarchies of Europe could have neither peace nor truce as long as there remained to them one colony upon this continent.

This Mr. Seward called buying out the foreigners. In 1846 he counted the ruler of Cuba and Porto Rico among the foreigners which should sell out their possessions to the United States.

It was he who during his term of office purchased Alaska from the Czar of Russia for the sum of $7,200,000. He also negotiated for the acquisition of the Danish Antilles, but this project fell through, chiefly for the reason that at that time the President was opposed to it.

In politics Mr. Seward favored a system which he compared to the ripe pear that detaches itself and falls into your hand.

One thing seemed to him certain, and that was that the United States could not help annexing by force the people who would be too slow to come to them of their own free will.

"I abhor war," he wrote. "I would not give one single human life for any portion of the continent which remains to be annexed; but I cannot get rid of the conviction that popular passion for territorial aggrandizement is irresistible. Prudence, justice and even timidity may restrain it for a time, but its force will be augmented by compression."

It was a half century before the explosion occurred, but when it came its echoes resounded all over the world, carrying joy to some and fear to others, fear of this young giant of the New World.

Again in 1852, in a speech made before the Senate upon the question of American commerce in the Pacific, Mr. Seward thus addressed his colleagues:

"The discovery of this continent and of those islands and the organization upon their soil of societies and governments have been great and important events. After all, they are merely preliminaries, a preparation by secondary incidents, in comparison with the sublime result which is about to be consummated--the junction of the two civilizations upon the coast and in the islands of the Pacific. There certainly never happened upon this earth any purely human event which is comparable to that in grandeur and in importance. It will be followed by the levelling of social conditions and by the re-establishment of the unity of the human family. We now see clearly why it did not come about sooner and why it is coming now."

At a reception given to his honor in Paris, just after the close of the Franco-Prussian war, Mr. Seward found himself the centre of a group, mostly composed of young Americans.

He had just almost completed a tour around the world, and in answer to a question as to what had impressed him most during his travels, he answered practically as follows:

"Boys, the fact is the Americans are the only nation that has and understands liberty. With us a man is a man, absolutely free and politically equal with all, with special privileges for none. Every one has a chance, whereas, wherever I have been I was impressed with the subjugation and oppression of the people. I had all my life talked in public and private of the greatness of our mission of civilization and progress, of the ideas we represented, and the lessons we were teaching the world, but I never realized how true it was that we were of all others the representatives of human progress. Now I know it. I am sure now, from what I have myself seen, that nothing I have ever said or others have said, as to the destiny of our country was exaggerated. I am an old man now and may not see it, but some of you boys may live to see American ideas and principles and civilization spread around the world, and lift up and regenerate mankind."

The opinion of another old-time statesman, given some quarter of a century ago, is of vivid interest to-day.

In 1872, when the Geneva Convention was holding its deliberations, Mr. William M. Evarts spoke words of wisdom to a company of distinguished guests at a luncheon given by him at the house in which he was then living.

Among others present were Charles Francis Adams, Caleb Cushing, Morrison R. Waite, afterward Chief Justice; J. Bancroft Davis, Charles C. Beaman, and others of the American Commission.

What Mr. Evarts said was in substance as follows:

"Gentlemen, God has America in his direct keeping, and lets it work out its destinies in accordance with His own wishes and for His own purpose. When the time came and Europe needed an outlet for its surplus energy, God let down the bars and America was discovered. Then little colonies of enterprising and progressive men, seeking freedom from troubles and oppressions of their native land, founded homes along the Atlantic coast. He had let down the bars again for his own purposes. These men struggled and fought and progressed in civilization and liberty until the time came when again the bars were let down and we had the Revolution, and the colonies became a nation. Again the bars went down, and then came the Mexican war, giving the nation the room necessary for its expansion, the space necessary for the homes of the millions from the Old World who sought the freedom of the New. From Atlantic to Pacific that little fringe of people of the colonial times had evolved until they were a great nation. We needed the precious metals, and gold and silver were found sufficient for our purposes. God had let down the bars. But one thing remained, one canker and sore, one great evil which threatened and worried and troubled, but God in His own good time again let down the bars and it was forever swept away, for He allowed the rebellion. He gave humanity and justice and right the victory. He restored the Union, He will heal the sores, He will lead the people to its final destiny as the advance guard of civilization, progress and the upbuilding and elevation of mankind, and in good time the bars will be again let down for the benefit of humanity--when or why we know not, but He knows."

In the light of recent events, the utterances of these two great men are certainly deserving of the utmost consideration. Both of them really seem to be seers, who, from their observations of the past, saw visions of the future for the native land they loved so well.

The Paris Figaro, in a remarkable article, says that, willingly or forcibly, America must belong to the Americans. The New World must gird up its loins and be ready to fulfill its mission. And this must be done by force when persuasion is not sufficient. And when the Americans shall have rejoined Europe in some portion of Asia, concludes the Figaro, and closed the ring of white civilization around the globe, will they stop or can they stop? That is the secret of the future. Its solution will depend upon what they will find before them--a Europe torn and divided, or, as it has been said, the United States of Europe. At all events, they will have the right to be proud, because they will have carried out their destiny.

Now to turn to an opinion by an Englishman, and be it remembered that England stood by us in a remarkable way from the very beginning of the Spanish-American war and undoubtedly prevented the other European nations from interfering.

The opinion we are about to give is from the pen of Mr. Henry Norman, the special commissioner of the London Chronicle.

Among other things, Mr. Norman says in an article entitled "A War-Made New America":

"The vision of a new Heaven and a new earth is still unfulfilled, but there is a new America. The second American Revolution has occurred, and its consequences may be as great as those of the first. The American people are as sensitive to emotional or intellectual stimulus as a photographic film is to light, but they are also to a remarkable degree, a people of second thoughts. Their nerves are quick, but their convictions are slow. The apparent change was so great and so unexpected that at first I could not bring myself to believe in its reality or its endurance. Unless all signs fail, however, or I fail to interpret them, the old America, the America obedient to the traditions of the founders of the republic, is passing away, and a new America, an America standing armed, alert and exigent in the arena of the world-struggle, is taking its place.

"The change is three-fold:

"I. The United States is about to take its place among the great armed powers of the world.

"II. By the seizure and retention of territory not only not contiguous to the borders of the republic, but remote from them, the United States becomes a colonizing nation, and enters the field of international rivalries.

"III. The growth of good will and mutual understanding between Great Britain and the United States and the settlement of all pending disputes between Canada and America, now virtually assured, constitute a working union of the English-speaking people against the rest of the world for common ends, whether any formal agreement is reached or not."

Mr. Norman goes on to say, after speaking of the possible American army and navy of the present and the future:

"And look at the display of American patriotism. When the volunteers were summoned by the President they walked on the scene as if they had been waiting in the wings. They were subjected to a physical examination as searching as that of a life insurance company. A man was rejected for two or three filled teeth. They came from all ranks of life. Young lawyers, doctors, bankers, well-paid clerks are marching by thousands in the ranks. The first surgeon to be killed at Guantanamo left a New York practice of $10,000 a year to volunteer. As I was standing on the steps of the Arlington Hotel one evening a tall, thin man, carrying a large suitcase, walked out and got on the street car for the railway station on his way to Tampa. It was John Jacob Astor, the possessor of a hundred millions of dollars. Theodore Roosevelt's rough riders contain a number of the smartest young men in New York society. A Harvard class-mate of mine, a rising young lawyer, is working like a laborer at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, not knowing when he may be ordered to Cuba or Manila. He is a naval reserve man and sent in his application for any post 'from the stoke hole upward.' The same is true of women. When I called to say good-by to Mrs. John Addison Porter, the wife of the Secretary to the President, whose charming hospitality I had enjoyed, she had gone to Tampa to ship as a nurse on the Red Cross steamer for the coast of Cuba. And all this, be it remembered, is for a war in which the country is not in the remotest danger, and when the ultimate summons of patriotism is unspoken. Finally, consider the reference to the war loan. A New York syndicate offered to take half of it at a premium which would have given the Government a clear profit of $1,000,000. But the loan was wisely offered to the people and the small investor gets all he can buy before the capitalist is even permitted to invest. And from Canada to the Gulf, from Long Island to Seattle, the money of the people is pouring in."

Mr. Norman concludes his article with these pregnant words, words which will force every man of any brains whatever to pause and think:

"Here, then, is the new America in one aspect--armed for a wider influence and a harder fight than any she has envisaged before. And what a fight she will make! Dewey, with his dash upon Manila; Hobson and his companions, going quietly to apparently certain death, and ships offering the whole muster roll as volunteers to accompany him; Rowan, with his life in his hand at every minute of his journey to Gomez and back, worse than death awaiting him if caught; Blue, making his 70-mile reconnoissance about Santiago; Whitney, with compass and notebook in pocket, dishwashing his perilous way round to Porto Rico--this is the old daring of our common race. If the old lion and the young lion should ever go hunting side by side----!"

Mr. Norman wisely leaves his last sentence unfinished. For no man can predict what the result would be. Would it be the subjugation of the entire world to the Anglo-Saxon race?

After considering what the French and the English have to say, now let us turn to the utterances of the Hon. Andrew H. Green, who spoke purely in the interests of a private citizen, one who desired the retention of the territory acquired by the American Government solely because he wished that the people of the United States should not underestimate the value of their grand opportunities for national enrichment.

"War with Spain," said Mr. Green, in the beginning of his interview in the Sun, "was declared by the authorized authorities, whether wisely or otherwise, it is not now of much profit to discuss. It has been prosecuted with vigor and brought to a successful issue with a dispatch unprecedented in conflicts of equal magnitude. What shall be done with its results? What, in this age of enlightenment and progress, shall we do with the territories and with their peoples and property that the fate of war has placed under our control and guardianship?"

Mr. Green concludes his interview as follows:

"As occasion offered heretofore the American people have insisted upon acquiring and holding territory when the interests of the country required it. Looking at all the precedents, at the present situation, at the signs and needs of the times, there is but little room to doubt that the permanent retention of all territory acquired from Spain will, in the interest of humanity and duty, be demanded with equal firmness. We shall go on in the same course of expansion which we have pursued from our earliest history as an independent nation. We have 'hoisted the mainsail' of the ship of state and started her about the world. While heeding Washington's warnings and the popular interpretation of the Monroe doctrine to keep the people of other nations from getting a foothold on this continent, we shall not pervert their spirit by stubbornly refusing to improve an opportunity to extend and increase our power and our commerce. Every extension of our territory hitherto made has been resisted by a spirit the same in essence as that which now timidly opposes our improving the wonderful opportunities put in our hands by the happy fortune of war; but such opposition has failed of its purpose invariably hitherto, and it will fail now with the American people. The sacrifices of the war will not have been in vain and the victories won by the valor of our navy and army will not fail of their legitimate and well-earned points."

We are a practical people. There can be no doubt about that, but still we are occasionally moved by sentiment, as when we undertook to free Cuba from oppression, but at the bottom of every national action there is a sound practical idea.

It was a pure and unselfish sentiment, however, that impelled us to prevent the extermination of the people of Cuba, a country so near to our own doors, and to demand for them by force of arms, the freedom and independence which was and is most unquestionably their right.

With Cuba freed, the rule of Spaniards in Porto Rico would be both absurd and dangerous. It would be a menace to the perpetual peace between Spain and the United States, which the latter are determined on for the future.

Moreover, as we have seen, Porto Rico wishes most strongly to become an integral portion of the Union, and we desire to receive her as such.

The rule of common sense should be applied, and both sentiment and practicality are united in calling for the conditions which the American Government has demanded as to the former Spanish possessions in the Western Hemisphere.

The war against Spain was inevitable, was just and necessary for the sake of humanity and the progress of the world. Both our army and navy have shown glorious bravery and heroism, and their marvelous achievements must not be allowed to bring forth no results.

By the fortunes of war a great responsibility has been placed in the hands of the United States, and it would be criminal to shirk in any respect this responsibility. We must not give back to Spain any portion of the earth in which to continue her abominable misrule. Let the United States move forward to its manifest destiny.

In a powerful editorial the New York Sun declares that our success will make for the world's peace. We alone were the nation to free Cuba and the other Spanish colonies. No one of the European powers could have come forward to the rescue of the colonies without provoking the enmity and jealousy of the other powers. If we had neglected to discharge our duty, then that duty would probably have fallen to a commission of the European nations. The consequence would have been that Spain would have been superseded in the Spanish Antilles by a strong European power, which would have led sooner or later to a partition of Spanish America. The United States alone could upset Spanish colonial rule without exciting an uncontrollable outburst of envy and greed in Europe, and occasion a general scramble for the spoils of the New World.

Neither Cuba nor Porto Rico could have been kept by Spain with any assurance of the general safety of nations. So long as the so-called mother country exercised any power there, both the islands would have been firebrands, which, if not aflame, would surely have been smouldering.

The Sun concludes its editorial with these words:

"It is, in a word, for the interest of the whole civilized world that all of Spain's colonies, with the possible exception of the Canaries, should be turned over to us. It is for the world's interests because, in her hands, they always have been, and always would be, a menace to the general peace. If this be true, and that it is cannot be gainsaid, the sooner the transfer is made the better. The fire, which now is localized, should be put out quickly, lest it spread. A thousand accidents, contingencies, inadvertencies, may lead to the very complications which all of the European powers, except Spain, are anxious to avoid. We except Spain because, in putting off the evil day and in postponing submission to the terms which our duty to mankind compels us to impose, she can have no other hope, no other purpose, than to bring about such international entanglements as may cause a general war. Spain alone has anything to gain from such a contest; in it she would at least have allies, and would expect to see her thirst for revenge upon us gratified. The great powers of Europe, however, do not mean to risk an oecumenical convulsion for the sake of a decadent monarchy, which, considered as the trustee of colonies, has been tried in the balance and found wanting. They recognize that, in seeking to evade the sentence of rigorous isolation which the conscience of mankind has passed upon her, she is jeopardizing the peace of the world. For that reason they are exerting and will continue to exert all the means of moral pressure at their command to induce the Spaniards to accept promptly such terms as our Government may offer."

The people of the United States, after the armistice was declared, were united in one thing, and that was, that apart from the question of indemnity, the one condition of peace, final and unvariable, would in the nature of the case be this:

The surrender and cession to the United States, now and forever, of all Spain's possessions in the western waters of both Atlantic and Pacific.

The fortune of a war begun for the liberation of one people has put it into the power of the United States to liberate several peoples. All this territory, which is ours by right, must henceforth be consecrated to freedom.

Colonel Alexander McClure, in an address at the laying of the cornerstone of the new State Capitol of Pennsylvania, expressed most eloquently the true American feeling in regard to the possessions which our naval and military prowess won from Spain:

"The same supreme power that demanded this war will demand the complete fulfillment of its purpose. It will demand, in tones which none can misunderstand and which no power or party can be strong enough to disregard, that the United States' flag shall never be furled in any Spanish province where it has been planted by the heroism of our army and navy.

"Call it imperialism if you will; but it is not the imperialism that is inspired by the lust of conquest. It is the higher and nobler imperialism that voices the sovereign power of this nation and demands the extension of our flag and authority over the provinces of Spain, solely that 'government of the people by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.'

"Such is the imperialism that has become interwoven with the destiny of our great free Government, and it will be welcomed by our people regardless of party lines, and will command the commendation of the enlightened powers of the Old World, as it rears, for the guidance of all, the grandest monuments of freedom as the proclaimed policy and purpose of the noblest Government ever reared by a man or blessed by Heaven."