The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-05-18
MIR. INGALLS, ON ANNEXATION

MR. INGALLS, ON ANNEXATION
When the Mayfiower dropped anchor in
Plymouth harbor, 27S years ago, there
were not SO many English speaking peo-
pie in the world as there are inhabitants
now in the state of New York.
When Shakespeare wrote Hamlet,
twenty years earlier, there were not more
than five million people on earth to whom
the language of the soliloquy was not
foreign tongue. In less than three CEN
turtles this precinct and suburb of man
kind has extended it's portals till those
who speak the language of Shakespeare
control the destinies of four hundred mil
lions, and the political ideas of the ex1les
of Plymouth are supreme over more than
a fourth part of the land surface OF the
planet. The most arrogant and rapa-
cious, as well as the most egotistic and
pragma teal of all races, we have been
from the beginning, on both sides OF the
ocean, the most intrepid pioneers the
most adventurous explorers, cOlonizers,
state builders, exterminating Indians, en-
shaving negroes, compelling China to open
her ports and keep her inhabitants off our
continent, Strengthening Egyptians and
Hindoos in the name of justice and order,
forcing laws, institutions, civilization and
religion upon inferior nations, to open
markets for our merchandise and new
fields for ambition.
We are fmpelled by an irresistible i'm
pulse to rule, to govern, to conquer, to
communicate the principles and practice
of government, to organize society, to
make history, to regenerate mankind The
territorial extension of the United States
from the colonial period has been hindered
and INSTRUCTED by Spain. Beyond the Mis-
sissippi was the dominion of Spain to the
Pacific. She is our ancient, inveterate
and implacable enemy. She refused free
navigation of the Mississippi, protested
against the sale of Louisiana by Napo-
leon, retained Mobile, coded Florida I'M
der dureSS, interfered with the annexation
of Texas, and has made her Cuban rela-
lions a perpetual cause of irritation and
menace. President statesmen have long
felt that war with Spain was inevitable.
and now that it has come the people will
insist upon a full and final settlement.
1t has been a long account of intolerable
wrongs, and there must not only be sat
isfaction for the past, and indemnity for
the present, but Immunity for the future.
Taking the census of chickens in the
shell is proverbially uncertain, but it may
be safely assumed that Spain will have no
colonial possessions when we are through
with her, nor any navy, nor any power to
inflict injury except upon herself. If, as
Lord Salisbury says, she is an expiring ma
ton, she will be the victim of the malig-
nant despair which her crimes have en-
gendered, like the scorpion, which, sur
rounded by fire, -stings itself and dies. To
suppose that we shall relinquish the Phil
ippines and Cuba and Porto Rico is to for
get the ruling passion of the Anglo-Saxon
race. In the last century we have, by
purchase and by war. added to our territory
nearly thirty-six hundred thousand square
miles, area more than three times
greater than our original boundaries
Since the Mexican conquest and the
Gadsden purchase and the Alaskan ces-
sion we have ceased to acquire, not be-
cause the appetite was lost, but because
we had enough.
But now we have built up the Empire
of the West, and the public domain is
exhausted. Not acre upon which
wheat or corn can be raised without irri-
cation remains for prescription or home
stead settlement. Our population is be-
coming congested in great cities, and the
crisis predicted by Macaulay seems to be
approaching, when It might be necessary
to sacrifice liberty to preserve civilization
These fertile islands, now almost in a
state of nature, with their enormous ca
pacity for production undeveloped, will Of
fer an open domain over which our sur
plus population can diffuse itself; give
new fields for enterprise; stimulate COM
merce; furnish opportunities for capital;
provide markets from which we are now
excluded; help the young to other careers
for ambition; put end to our insular
ity and provincialism and place US
equal footing inthe fraternity of nations.
JOHN J. INGALLS,.