The Hawaiian gazette., 1903-12-11
DEMOCRACY AND EXPANSION.

In opposing the progressive IDEAS of
the Republican party, the Democracy
Is always obstructed by the record 1t
made when 1t was itself progressive.
Particularly is this true of its hostility
to expansion as political doctrine.
Whenever a Democratic paper begins
to talk about. imperialism and land
robbery and the oppression of weaker
races" 1t Is confronted by the map
and by its own history. jefferson, the
father Of Democracy, bought of France
! the vast empire known as the Louisi-
ana Purchase and he did IL without
asking the consent of the Inhabitants
many of whom were civilized. thereby
making a precedent for the Republi-
can purchase, from Spain, of the Phil
| ippines without a local plebscitum.
The Democratic war upon Mexico was
an act of pure conquest-the seizure of
| a vast domain in which to provide for
the extension Of slavery; a seizure pre-
ceded by revolution in Texas carried
on by American Adventures, inspired
from Washington. The Democrats
wrested California from Mexico by
military force-the invasion beginning
before a declaration of war. Nor
We're these projects disguised by soft
words. The Democracy, for all its
insincere mouthing now, had then the
merit of candor and frankness. 1t
condescended to no disguise. When 1t
was plotting the seizure of cuba 1t
said so in the explicit terms of the
Ostend Manifesto-"and after we shall
have offered Spain a price far beyond
Gl nd hic ch1I
been refused, the question will remain
whether Cuba, in the hands of Spain,
does not endanger our internal peace
and the existence of our Union II so,
we should be justified by every law.
human and divine, in WRESTLING IT
FROM SPAIN IF WE POSSESS THE
POWER"
Nor was the Democracy less forth
right in the matter of the Isthmian
canal. Lewis Cass, Secretary Of State
in the Buchanan administration, writ
ing in 1858, said:
The progress of events has rendered
the interoceanic route across the mar
row portions of Central America vastly |
important to the commercial world, |
and especially to the United States, |
whose possessions extend along the |
Atlantic and Pacific coasts and de- /
mand the speediest and easiest modes !
of communication. When the rights |
of sovereignty of the states occupying |
this region should always be respected |
in a spirit BETTING the occasion and |
the wants and circumstances that have |
arisen, sovereignty has it's duties as |
well as its rights, and none of these |
local governments, even If admins
tered with more regard to the just de-
mands of other nations than they have
been, would be permitted, in a spirit of
Eastern isolation, to close the gates
of intercourse on the great highways
of the world, and justify the act by the
pretension that these avenues of trade
and travel belong to them and that
they choose to shut them, or, what is
almost equivalent, to cucumber them
with such unjust relations as would
prevent their general use.
Here was an explicit Democratic
declaration that the government con-
trolling the isthmus of Panama would
not be permitted to stand in the way
Of canal. Democrats laid down this
doctrine; Republicans are carrying it
OUT and yet Democrats have the
to say that 1t Is un-American.
oppressive and an affront to the prin-
ciples upon which the government of
the United States Is founded