Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-26
FEELS THANKFUL
FOR DEVELOPMENT
FINDS CAUSE FOR REJOICING
IN GEOGRAPHY
Rev. Frank Dewitt TaImase Reviews
Blessings that Have Come to
Nation Since Day Was
Set Aside

is'hh DeWlIJ Ialmage reviewed the
many causes which ought to inspire
nations gratitude and arouse its
patriotism. The text was Deut. $40.
Thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for
the good land which he hath given
thee" He said in part:
IN former Thanksgiving sermons 1
nave spoken of the corn and the wheat
and the rye and the apples and the
pears and the oranges and the sheen
and cows and horses and the machines
ana the manufactures and the homes
ana the stores and the railroads and
tne ships and the public buildings
Whlch nave been produced during the
year; but today / would dwell on the
TOUR great geographical Developments
Whlch took place in our American his
tcry, that have given us this good.
broad land for which we give thanks
would dwell especially on the heroic
men to whom, under the providence of
God, we owe those vast regions of land.
rich in fruits and minerals We heard
OF those men in our schoolboy days, but
as we reach middle life their names be-
come unfamiliar and we forget their
splendid achievements This ought not
so to be. Our gratitude as q nation is
due, and we owe it to them that in our
national thanksgivings their names are
remembered
But, alas, now with flushed cheek
OF humiliation and downcast eyes of
shame, we must recall our national
dealings with the poor helpless. strug-
Cling republic of Mexico, In reference
10 the Texan annexation of 1S45, and the
Mexican cession of 1S4S, and the more
we study this sad epoch of our national
history the more we feel that our gov
ernment not only acted unjustly, but
she acted dishonesty.
In the first place, to understand the
chief cause of this geographical expan-
sion, you must enter the United States
senate at Washington and stand for a
little while there amid the slavery agi-
tatlons of ante-bellum time of the early
fcrties. The north was arraying its
congressional forces on the one hand
and the south was arraying it's con-
gressional forces on the other hand
The great center of this forensic strug-
gle was in the United States senate.
we must have more men to represent
us in the senate cried the north. Then,
as speedily as possible, they rushed the
settlers west to fill UP the prairies be-
yond the Mississippi and carve out new
states to send their senators to the
national capital to help them in the
slavery fight. we must have more
men in the United States senate to help
us in the struggle to perpetuate slavery
cried the south. But where were they
to get the new states from which to
select the new senator's?
There was no unsettled land and no
possible new states south of the Mason
and Dixon line. So the south turned its
eyes toward Texas, a part of the Mexi-
can republic. 1t practically said, If the
Mexican republic will not sell Texas we
Will send the settlers of the United
States into 1t, and we will get up a
revolution there and then we will an
mex Texas to the United States, and out
OF Texas can be carved ten new states
In other words, the south overran Texas
with it's people, ts the north rushed it's
settlers in Kansas territory a little
later in order to make 1t an abolition
state. Then, after Texas was admitted
into the Union, the United States gov-
ernment, figuratively speaking, as a
highwayman, put the pistol to Mexico's
forehead and said, Surrender to me all
or California, all of Nevada, all of Ari-
zona and most of New Mexico for a
paltry $15,000,000 or 1 will blow your
brains out and gobble up your whole
country OF course, 1 am telling this
transaction in coarse way, but l am
truthfully, though bluntly, telling you
what the United States government did
%.
Not as a just sister nation did the
United States act toward Mexico. With
one stroke of the sword of war our gov
eminent split the Mexican republic in
half and stole the best part of her
lands. She took this land as a con-
queror. She took it because her armies
were stronger than Mexico's and She
took this land in no other way. This
land steal was done both by the north
and the south.
But. as England acted unjustly in
absorbing the Transvaal and the Orange
Free State; yet, after all, the great
est blessing which could come to those
African lands is the British flag.
Where the British flag goes, there
goes the British capital and British
men and Anglo-SaXon enterprise. Be
cause the British flag now waves over
all the southern territory of Africa,
there is going to grow up a great Afri-
can government which shall rival the
Australian government. and make
those hills TEEN with enterprise and
with Virile life. Because the Stars and
the Stripes wave over Texas and New
Mexico and Arizona and Nevada and
California. those lands have been de-
veloped as they never could or would
have been under Mexican rule. With
all the advantages of climate which
these states have. and with their great
mineral and agricultural possibilities.
Texas and Arizona and New Mexico
and Nevada and California would not
be supporting the vast numbers of
prosperous homes were 1t not for
American rule and the protection Of
the United States flag,
I'm pralsing the climatic conditions
of the great Southwest and especially
of Southern California, we may use
the strongest superlatives. We must
combine in that description of Califor-
MAS climate the invigoration Of the
temperate zone and the balminass of
the tropics. We must describe a.
climate beneficial to the we'll man and
for the sick. In this Edenic climatic
condition, we find all the atmospheric
blessings of the Artics cuddling up and
nesting against ali the atmospheric
blessings of the Arctics cuddling up and
from the destructive blizzards of the
north, which. like an Alpine avalanche
of snow. threaten to destroy the Nor
wegians and the Russians and the