Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-27
Possession Of the Philippines May
Prevent lis Closing.
and THUS PROMOTE ASIAHIC TRADE
American and Filipino Welfare Co.
incide and Are Promoted together.



corning the annexation of the Philippines
contends that every American acquisition
of land in the past, even though not au-
thorized by the Constitution, has been
made with a distinct constitutional pur-
pose as to establish a seat of government,
to provide the sites Of forts and arsenals,
or to furnish land for the creation of new
states: that this purpose alone justified the
acquisition; and that such condoning pur-
pose is absent in the case of the Philip
pines, which, he alleges, have been ac-
quired merely that we may govern them as
colonies and rule their population as sub.
jects. I'm every acquisition of territory we
ever made" he says, I'VE meant to make
states Of it,
Was the creation of new states the main
idea even in our first annexation, that of
louisiana? Did not Jefferson in making it
have more distinctly in mind the import
ance of control of the mouth of the Mis-
sissippi and of free navigation over that
stream for safeguarding the commercial
and military interests of the republic as it
then stood than any national necessity of
securing ground for new states? jefferson
asked from Napoleon only harbor at the
mouth of the Mississippi as a place of de-
posit for exports and imports and unob-
structed transit over its waters. He wish
ed to secure an assured outlet for
trans-Allegheny settlements, whose natural
course to the sea was by the Ohio and
Mississippi and not across the mountains
and forests to the thin line of settlements
along the Atlantic coast. jefferson at
Paris In 1893 sought from France a single
harbor just as Mckinley at Paris in 1888
would perhaps have been best pleased to
81, k.-{o Ielo,,
The opportunity and necessity to take all
none were presented in both cases, and
the far-seeing statesmanship of the two
Presidents promptly solved their respective
problems in the same way.
Napoleon Forces L0uistana Purchase.
Napoleon is quoted as saying to his min
listers, on the subject of the American pro-
pcsals concerning Louisiana: "They ask of
me only one town In Louisiana; but 1 al
ready consider the colony as entirely lost.
1t is not only New Ogleanss that 1 cede; 1t
is the whole colony, without reserve" In
pursuance of instructions from Napoleon.
Talleyrand asked Livingston tthe American
mtnister) whether we wished to have the
whole of Louisiana. Livingston reported:
Il told him no: that our wishes extended
only to New Orleans and the Floridas. He
said that II they gave New Orleans the
rest would be of little value, and that he
would wish to know what we would give
for the whole" " Livingston then and later
in the negotiations persisted that "wc
would be perfectly satisfied with New Or
leans and the Floridas, and had no dispo-
sition to extend across the river (the Mis-
sIssippO." Livingston, writing to Madison
Of the proposal and of the price asked for
Louisiana, said: Il persuade myself that
the whole sum may be raised by the sale
of the territory west Of the Mississippi,
with the right Of sovereignty, to some pow
er in Europe whose vicinity we should not
fear" Jefferson had sent Monroe to Paris
as special envoy to purchase only New Or
leans and west Florida Napoleon might
have adopted. says Henry Adams, the
simple measure OF ceiling only the island
of New Orleans and retaining the west
bank, which Jefferson was ready to guar
antee. This was the American plan; and
the President offered for New Orleans alone
about half the price he paid fur all Louis
ana. Still Napoleon forced the west bank
on Livingston"
Jefferson. In defending his purchase of
course dwelt upon it's future availability
AS the material of new states. and the
carving OF states from It was agreed upon
in the treaty of cession: but II IS very evl-
dent that the American policy did not con-
template Its annexation primarily for tina.
purpose. Livingston was ready to buy and
sell again to somo unaggrssnve foreign
power, and expressions In Js.fersons writ
ings of this date and later show that he
thought the territory already belonging to
the United States between tho Alleghenies
and the Mississippi, far from needing err
largement to meet the denaud for new
states, would not itself be peopiel for CEN
turtles to come. The original union of
$4,000 square miles, inhabited by slender
chain of settlements along the Atlantic
coast and isolated colonies across the Allie
Gbenies, had more than doubled itself by
acquiring the 1900, 600 square miles of the
Louisiana purchase.
The territory wrung by war from feeble
Mexico was undoubtedly annexed for the
specific purpose Of creating new states
American slave states from Mexican free
soil. The intent indicated by Senator Hoar
as the only constitutional and justifiable
purpose OF American annexation was con-
spfcuous in this case, but whether that
acquisition was thereby rendered nationally
creditable and a modol for American imita-
tion in the future may be doubted.
Why Alaska Was Annexed.
In the case of Alaska, our latest acquisi-
tion prior to those which have come to
US since the war With Spain. was not the
primary purpose of its annexation to gain
fisheries and to give America undisputed
control of the North American border of
the Pacific. whose future Importance In the
worlds trade Seward peroaIved with pro-.
phetic vision? Was the collection Of suf1i-
cient population for a. state. on the narrow
mountainous strip of south Alaska or among
the glaciers and icebergs of north Alaska
ever seriously considered at the time of
the annexation?
The treaty of cession of Alaska differs
from all that preceded 1t among transfers
of territory to the United States in emitting
to pledge the republic to incorporate the
ceded territory in due season in.o the Union
as state or states
Representative Banks was the principal
champion In the House of the measure ap-
proprtating $7,200OOO to carry into effect
the Alaskan treaty, and he spoke long and
eloquently on the subject.
It appears from his speech that in the
Continued on Eighth Pass)