The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-05-01
EXPANSION.

Inc fear of early American states
men that the acquisition Of the West
would prove to be the untloing OF the
republic, was not as unreasonable at
the time of Jefferson's purchase as it
seems to be now. Pessimists these OBJ
jectors were but they had some con-
temporary and historical ground for
their fears At very early day--oe-
fore settlers had more than crossed the
Mississippf-the spirit of sectionalism
had begun to assaiI the Union. The
North felt that the South would
eventually secede, and the South be-
1ieved that a national domain which
harbored the North was too large for
common safety. Current politics taught
that a 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 1872, many New Englanders
thought that that section, which had
opposed bringing on the struggle, could
help itself by seeding from the Union. I
South Carolina, in CaIhoun's time, pro-
posed to get out because of the tariff
laws and but for Jackson's 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" II
the safeguards of vast area: a set {
Element of the doctrine of States rights {
in favor OF the national idea and the
building of continental railroads.
Eeitbt- of these issues had been net
when the Civil War decade began. Nor
men warned the people away from Inc 9
westward path OF empire. Assuredly =
In the then state of things It was :
perilous to put settlers at a vast dis :
tance from the centers of population 9
and expect them, in case their local +
4
which the nation could not affor1 to
give, to stay in the loose confederacy T
of which the Union was then a type. p
La those days silver question like that =
of 1896 might have sundered the people r
and erected western republic. AT one r
lime a Pacific republic was seriously $
Ia the light of these circumstances +,
md in that OF the downfall of great p
empires of history because. o
If the scant loyalty of those of their 9
subjects who lived. at distance from r
t is not matter of surprise that many +,
lbie men in the early history of the o
United States should have had their y
about expansion. They
we're logical in many ways according p
o their lights, but times changed and "
INIT to sectional discord and made the II
United States a nation; the railroads, g
md cheap daily press, by keeping the a
,eopIe of one section in constant touch n
With the people of another made them n
1t became possible to ex-
,and with safety; to occupy vast con-
mental areas; to reach out for posses "
ions beyond the sea. One may excuse -
he publicists who lived before these =
.hanges had been wrought for their =
Iesire to keep the Union within mar -
ow bounds; but who shall excuse those >
Who. in the light of present achieve n
nent. see danger in movement which ;,
would give this country as much elbow :,
Dom as some rival powers enjoy?
g
= V