New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-09-15
A BELIEVER IN EXPANSION.
AMERICAS ABILITY TO GOVERN THE
ISLANDS wREsTED FROM SPAIN.

4
just now slips from my memory. and whose
| article is not at hand. had much to say in oppo
| sition to territorial expansion. which cannot
| refrain from commenting upon. Most or the
| views which he expresses seem to me very I'M
sound, but as they shared with him by
large proportion OF our people. and as they are
as we'll expressed and argued by him In your
parer as one often finds them, they deserve
| careful consideration.
| The fate Of Rome s referred tn as warning
against expansion. Poor Rome! How many
| thousand distinct causes have been assigned for
her ruin? II has grown to be an old chestnut.
| II IL enough to make Governor Flower yell
Rats again. Any man for the last fourteen
| hundred years who has been opposed TO any
thing has devoutly believed that that particular.
same obnoxious thing was the direct and sole
cause OF tn. decline and fall of the Roman En-
pire or OF the ruin Of the Roman republic.
Some say 1t was corruption; some say it was a
| third term; some say it was kind Of Cice-
| roman universalism. which played the devil
| with pagan theology some say 1t was too much
| circus goinS and feeding the plebs out OF the
public crib gratis; some say 1t was too much
| Christianity In the practical form of Christian
! almsgiving. some say II was the looseness or
the divorce laws. and the great Pascal thought
that the length OF Cleopatras nose had had
much to do with 1t. or. at any rate. had changed
the whole history OF the world
For my part don't assume TO be dogmatc
in the matter but II did once occur to me In
thoughtless moment that perhaps the growing
| stronger OF the Northern ard barbarous nations
might have had little to do with the SUD
version Of the grand old mother of the world
| But surely our friend was unfortunate IN citing
| Rome to prove that expansion produces early
that l,rAR
the wall. commonly stated at 753 b. c.. to the
time when Mahomet carved with his SWORD
upon the altar OF ST. Sophia There Is no Goa
but God and Mahomet is his prophet A. ID
1873 managed TO exc out subsistence Tor
some 22O6 years: and II she had only been wise
and confined her attention exclusively 10 her
| own original little tract about the mouth or the
| Tiber God knows how many tens or thousands
Of years she might now have in store OF peace
| mi pastoral life; for Of course, II she had only
avoided "entahgling alliances" Attila and Alaric
10 say nothing 81 Charlemagre and Bcnaparte
would have scrupulously respected her heu-
| trality or what folly were not the Sciplos
| guilty? How much wiser were the Nolsc'ahs
and the people Of Alba Tonga and OF Ven, VINO
did not attempt to extend their dominions ne
yond the italian peninsula?
But. seriously, territorial expansion IL moth
| more
strict or hinder this Is Ike keeping a babe for
over IN us swaddl!ng clothes. Ii is very like
keeping the girl playing with her doll I'LL she Is
crown an old woman. and keeping the boy
plaving with his top when his schoolmate mas
gone N Congress AMI has become "a man and
put away childish things
But the truth OF the whole matter Is that the
wide world is field whereon all the nauons
are forever struggling. not for supremacy only
hut for their very existence. Our enlightened
| Nation Ike a cabbage plant OF pumpkin
vine must grow larger and stronger and choKe
out the weeds ~ barbarism and oppression. or
those same weeds Of barbarism and oppression
will grow ranky luxuriant and choke out the
free republic.
Might and not always right stn rules IN the
affairs Of this world and will continue to rule
until right becomes eternally aggressive and
crpsnsve and ceases to be pusi,lanmous enough
n surrender its legitimate Victories The same
spirit which a hundred years ago dsmembered
Poland only last year. incarnate In six Powers
instead Of three. turned its guns upon tho Gro
tans and In the Orient even now 10 calny
carving in pieces the most unaggressve and IN
offensive empire Of history. The SENT harharous
and despotic Muscoyite would. II left to him
self spread his blighting influence over the
falres, regions ~ the earth As tho population
OF the planet Increases. the struggle for NatonaI
existence will necessarily grow keencr and more
intense, and a century hence our descendants
will rua this day II America now neglects the
opportunity I'm the Far East which Providence
has opened before her. AS He opened the prom
iscd land before His chosen people OF old. There
Is no middle course. We must advance or re-
treat We cannot stand at gaze Ike joshua
moon In Ajalon" There is an 'lrrepressble
conflict" and just as surely as this Union was
to become all free or all slave. 80 surely the
Il hoe oil no "a
or all despotic.
Rut to return to Roue II will forever he a
marvel that her empire endured go long az II
did. When she was at her zenith there were
thirteen millions OF slaves In Italy There was
not a printing press I'm all the world Men had
pcncrally few books to read and no newspapers
10 kaep them Informed OF pubic events. There
was not a Christian church. There was not a
great and universal system Of popular instruc-
ton. At it's best the so-caled repubhc was 1 nu,
crsar so mercIful 10 his countrymen. thought
nothing Of mutating and crucifying the bar
barians" Wellnigh every institution when we
most cherish AS living at the very foundation
Of our republic was wholly lacking in that So
ciety But Intelligent men among us stu nave
such contempt for the facts Of history. and 80
little regard for the differences of conditions: as
TO venture to compare Rome To the United
states and 10 assert that. because mat Ola.
ignorant. heather ogarchy ventured To extend
its territories and disolace still older more
ignorant. more heathcnsh despotisms ana
denominations. this new. uniVerSaIly lnStrucled
and enlightened, ehtlftIy il'' '"l'H'i"' ''"'
racv having all the lessons Of the past to profit
| by will decline and fall II II now undertakes
10 govern and civzc less than onc-ttirtieth ~
| many less fortunate human beings than are
| fnund alone in the Asiatic dominions of Queen
Victoria
II our Nation. numbering nearly seventy hVe
millions of people. with one hundred and eighty
thousand churches. with the open Bible in every
home with two hundred and thirty thousand
common schools. with perfect freedom OF speech
| and OF the press and with twenty thousand
newspapers To keep an instructed people In
formed Of current history with universal free
dom and manhood suffrage JUSTIFIED ana
strengthened By generations OF experience. not
even SO much AZ to mention its wealth or power
though ass,iredlv the wealthiest and most pow