The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-05-01
EXPANSION.

The fear of early American states
men that the acquisition of the West
| would prove to be the undoing of the
| republic. was not as unreasonable at
the time of Jefferson's purchase as II
seems to be now. Pessimists these OBJ
temporary and historical ground for
their fears. At very early day-be-
fore settlers had more than crossed the
Mississippi--the spirit of sectionalism
had begun to assail the Union. The
North felt that the South would
eventually secede, and the South be-
leved that national domain which
harbored the North was too large for
common safety. Current politics taught
that vast territory meant conflicting
local interests and that these interests
were likely at any time to set up for
themselves in government. During the
war of 1912, many New Englanders
thought that that section, which had
opposed bringing on the struggle, could
help itself by seeding from the Union.
South Carolina, in Calhoun's time, pro-
posed to get out because of the tariff
laws and but for Jacksons threats, and
his ability and determination to fulfill
them, the State might have made the
attempt long before it did. Sectional
disruption was in the air eighty and one
hundred years ago and it was natural
for the people, in thinking over plans
for the enlargement of the Union to
say: THE wider the country the more
sections and the more sections the more
trouble"
Ill. 80 10
the safeguards of vast area; a set
tlement of the doctrine of States rights
in favor of the national idea and the
building of continental railroads.
Nci;hLr of these issues had been net
wh6 h the Civil War decade began. Nor
was a settlement in sight when public
men warned the people away from the
westward path Of empire. Assuredy
in the then state of things It was
perilous to put settlers at a vast dis
lance from the centers of population
and expect them, in case their local
interests should demand safeguards
which the nation could not afford to
give, to stay in the loose confederacE
of which the Union was then a type.
In those days a silver question like that
of 1896 might have sundered the people
d
time a Pacific republic was seriously
proposed.
In the light of these circumstances
and in that of the downfall of great
coterminous empires of history because
of the scant loyalty of those of their
subjects who lived at distance from
the centers of national life and pride,
it is not a matter of surprise that many
able men in the early history of the
United States should have had their
about expansion. They
We're logical in many ways according
to their lights, but times changed and
lights improved. The Civil War put a
limit to sectional discord and made the
United States a nation; the railroads,
and cheap daily press, by keeping the
people of one section in constant touch
with the people of another made them
1t became possible to eX-
pand with safety; to occupy vast con-
areas; to reach out for possess
sions beyond the sea. One may excuse
the pubicists who lived before these
changes had been wrought for their
desire to keep the Union within mar
row bounds; but who shall excuse those
who, in the light of present achieve
ment, see danger in movement which
would give this country as much elbow
room as some rival powers enjoy?