The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-02-16
"After Hawaii, Whati"

conquest and acquisition; it would be
departure from the "historic policy"
of the United States to acquire insu-
lar territory; it would demand an i'm
mense navy for the defense of the
islands,; it would mean that Cuba,
Nicaragua, Costa RIGA, and all sorts or
South American countries, will in time
come under the dominion of the stars
and stripes. 1t would mean this thing
or that, according to the capacity of
the lacrymose objector to make him
self unhappy over the somber Pigments
of his imagination.
But the United States is not making
beginning of conquest and acquisi-
ton in the proposed annexation of Ha-
wall. 1t made beginning long time
ago, in the very commencement of the
national career. If the United States
had always been as successful as it de-
served to be, Canada on the mainland
and the Bermudas off the east coast
would have been original parts of the
American Union. The great North
West Territory, Louisiana, Florida,
Texas, California and Alaska are the
products of conquest or acquisition.
These regions, excepting Alaska, are
now among the richest and most pop
ulous parts of the nation; but their
acquisition, each in its day, encounter
ed strong opposition; and if the nation
had followed the counsels of fear or
timidity, or had obeyed the dictates of
supreme folly, as it is now importuned
to do when splendid possession in
the Pacific is offered it, this Union
would be shorn of its strength and
glory.
But these acquisitions have been
made chiefly by peaceful purchase.
Whenever there has been offered a
good bargain in real estate on this
continent, Uncle Sam has seized the OPP
portunity to procure it; and despite
predictions of baleful consequences
these acquisitions have invariably
Injured to the national advantage. Had
the colonies in the time of the Revolu-
ton succeeded in the attempt to cap
ture the Bermudas, the possession of
those islands would have been of in
estimable value, then and since, as out
posts guarding the eastern coast and
breaking the English chain of fortifca-
tions between Halifax and the Carib.
bean. From these islands England
menaces the South Atlantic States.
These islands are the connecting link
between her British American and her
West Indian possessions. Among them
the British blockade runners, during the
civil war, prepared for their expeditions
to rebel ports, carrying aid and comfort
to the enemies of the Union.
Jefferson regarded Cuba, as late as
1928, as "exactly what is wanting to
advance our power as nation to the
point of its utmost interest,"" If this
nation did not, in its earlier years, an
mex the adjacent islands of the seas, it
withheld its hands for other reason
than the impolicy of such annexation.
A generation ago Secretary Seward
found no unwritten law against annex
ing insular territories when he pur-
chased Alaska, and in the act exhibited
a wise foresight that time has vindi-
Gated.
The United States has judged each
to acquire territory on its
individual merits. Some proffers of
territory it has accepted, others it has
rejected, and the government will as
wisely pursue this course in the pres
ent and future as it has in the past. If
the safe guarding of the national inter-
ests shall demand the acquisition of
Cuba, or of Nicaragua and Costa RIGA
for the protection of an inter-oceanic
canal, that will be made plain, in the full
ness of time; and the statesmen of that
period will decide such demands on their
wisdom and foresight as did their prede-
cessors the questions that severally came
before them, from the beginning of the
republic down to 1866 when Alaska was
acquired, and from that time TO the
present when Hawaii will be annexed.
American craftsmanship has been equal
10 every demand from the time of
the Declaration of Independence to the
and there is no cause to worry
over its sufliciency in any future emer-
yency.
The statesmen of the present
and of the future will not suffer
themselves to be handicapped by blind
md unreasoning adherence to old
policies, New conditions demand new
policies. The movements or purposes