II. COLONIAL EXPANSION.* LAST May I spoke before my people at home on the subject of Imperialism. I took my title, as I take now my text, from Kipling's "Recessional," the noblest hymn of our century: "Lest we forget." For it seemed to me then, just after the battle of Manila, that we might forget who we are and for what we stand. In the sudden intoxication of far-off victory, with the consciousness of power and courage, with the feeling that all the world is talking of us, our great stern mother patting us on the back, and all the lesser peoples looking on in fear or envy, we might lose our heads, But greater glory than this has been ours before. For more than a century our nation has stood for something higher and nobler than success in war, something not enhanced by a victory at sea, or a wild bold charge over a hill lined with masked batteries. We have stood for civic ideals, and the greatest of these, that government should make men by giving them freedom to make themselves. The glory of the American * Address before the Congress of Religions at Omaha in October, 1898, published in the "New World" for December, 1898, under the title of "Imperial Democracy." Republic is that it is the embodiment of American manhood. It was the dream of the fathers that this should always be so, that American government and republican manhood should be co-extensive, that the nation shall not go where freedom cannot go. - This is the meaning of Washington's Farewell Address : that America should grow strong within herself, should keep out of all fights and friendships that are not her own, should secure no territory in which a free man cannot live, and should own no possessions that may not in time be numbered among the United States. In other spage words, America should not be a power among the nations, but a nation among the powers. This view of the function our country rests on is no mere accident of revolution or isolation. It has its base in sound political common-sense, and in the rush of new claims and new possibilities we should not forget this old wisdom. This year 1898 makes one of the three world-crises in our history. Twice before have we stood at the parting of the ways. Twice before have wise counsels controlled our decision. The first crisis followed the war of the Revolution. Its question was this, What relation shall the weak, scattered colonies of varying tempers and various ambitions bear to one another? The answer was, the American Constitution, the federation of selfgoverning United States. 2 The second crisis came through the growth of slavery. The union of the States, we found, could not " permanently endure half slave, half free." These were the words of Lincoln at Springfield in 1858,-the words that made Douglass Senator from Illinois, that made Lincoln the first President of the re-united States. These are the words which, fifty years ago, drove the timid away in fear, that rallied the strong to brave deeds in face of a great crisis. And this was our decision: Slavery must die that the Union shall live. The third crisis is on us to-day. It is not the conquest of Spain, not the disposition of the spoils of victory which first concerns us. It is the spirit that lies behind it. Shall our armies go where our institutions cannot? Shall territorial expansion take the place of Democratic freedom? Shall our invasion of the Orient be merely an incident, an accident of a war of kn~hterrantry, temporary and exceptional? Or is it to ma. a new policy, the reversion from America to Europe, from Democracy to Imperialism? It is my own belief that the crisis is already passing. Our choice for the future is made. We have already lost our stomach for Imperialism, as we come to see what it means. A century of republicanism has given the common man common sense, and the tawdry glories of foreign dominion already cease to dazzle and deceive. But the responsibilities of our acts are upon us. Hawaii and Alaska are ours already. Cuba and Porto Rico we cannot escape, and, most unfortunate of all, the most of us see no clear way to justice toward the Philippines. The insistent duties of " of "Compulsory Imperialism" already clamor for our attention. In the face of these tremendous problems, the nation should at least be serious. It is not enough to swell our breasts over the glories of national expansion, roll up our eyes, and prate about the guiding finger of Providence, while the black swarm of our political vultures swoop down on our new possessions. To the end that we may |