Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-12-05

p00Sa DE. Ii all dPpiS, S0NSISu
hy the tempest from it's native tree,
cannot choose but fall to the ground,
Cuba, forcibly disjoined from its I'M
natural connection with Spain, and
incapable of self support, can gravi-
state only toward the American Union,
which, by the law of nature can not
cast her off from it's bosom" In the
same year, Thomas Jefferson wrote
to President Monroe: 81 would not
Immediately go to war for it, (Cuba)
| because the first war on other ac-
counts will give it to US, or the island
will give itself to us when able to do
So" In 1858 Edward Everett, just
| leaving the secretary of states Office,
wrote to Lord John Russell: 'When
I cast my thoughts back upon our
| brief history as a nation, | certainly
am not led to think that the United
| States have reached the final limits of
their growth. = \ The island of Cuba
lies at our doors. 1t commands the
approach to the Gulf of Mexico,
which washes the shores of five of our
! states. 1t bars the entrance to that
great river which drains half the
| North American continent, and with
! its tributaries forms the largest sys-
tenn OF internal water comm unication
in the world. 1t keeps watch at the
doorway of our intercourse with Cal
| ifornia by the Isthmus route. : *Can
| Spanish rule there long continue? Can
| it resist, the mighty current in the
fortunes of the world!" For fifty
years, nearly every secretary of state
has had occasion to insist that ''the
condition of Cuba is mainly an Amer
lean question" Nothing is more APP
parent than that we have assumed
the moral responsibility for good gov
eminent in Cuba of which we can not
divest ourselves. The performance of
the duties thus necessarily, and his
torically considered, logically impos-
ed upon US, whatever form it may as
sumo, is expansion. It is here, now
at hand. The part of wisdom would
seem to be to recognize the conditions,
and devote our highest energies to
the best development of free institu-
tons in the land for which we have
made ourselves guardian.
Every one recognizes the necessity
of canal across the isthmus, con
Meeting our Atlantic and Pacific
coasts, and controlled by Americans.
The conviction that it must DE built
and controlled by our govern
ment is constantly becoming more
deep and fixed, and has found
definite lodgment in political party
platforms. Appare ntly its construc-
ton is work of the near future. Yet
nothing could be more marked il
lustration Of the doctrine OF expan-
sion than the ownership and operation
by our government OF a great inter-
ocean highway entirely in a foreign
and non contiguous country.
Historically considered each ques-
ton of territorial expansion has stood
ana must stand upon IT'S own basis.
No theory has heretofore been able
to restrict or permanently define tie
limits beyond which we would not go.
The Philippine problem is imme date
ly at hand awaiting solution. No
sane and we'll informed man can doubt
that the problem is Weighty and diff
ficult one. That the president has he s.
itated, doubted, invef tigated, sought
every avenue of fuller information,
and felt the pulse of the senate that
must ultimately act upon any treaty
negotiated, and of the great mass of
people whose agent he is, is only
another way Of saying that he is
bringing the Hottest sense of duty and
the highest wisdom to the determi ma
ton of a great national issue. Clearly
that issue cannot be determined by
any theory of fixed national policy.
The precedents are nearly all in favor
OF expansion. Nor is the fact, if fact
it is that some part Of all the Philip
pine debt may have to be assumed or
guaranteed by the United States, de-
cisive. We paid many millions upon
each OF the purchases above referred
to, and assumed the Hawaiian debt
upon the annexation of that country.
At the close of successful war with
Mexico, we paid to her nearly wenty
million dollars for the territory which
she surrendered to US. Ii the Philip
pines ought to be ours, we are willing
to pay such sums as in equity ought
to be paid, just as we paid Mexico I'M
der similar circumstances.
Probably no one in this country be-
lieves that the inhabitants of the Phil
ippine Islands now are, or for many
years will be, competent to form