American Imperialism

Henry Cabot Lodge

In the interests of our commerce and of our fullest development, we should build the Nicaragua Canal, and for the protection of that canal and for the sake of our commercial supremacy in the Pacific we should control the Hawaiian Islands and maintain our influence in Samoa. England has studded the West Indies with strong places which are a standing menace to our Atlantic seaboard. We should have among those islands at least one strong naval station, and when the Nicaragua Canal is built, the island of Cuba, still sparsely settled and of almost unbounded fertility, will become to us a necessity. Commerce follows the flag, and we should build up a navy strong enough to give protection to Americans in every quarter of the globe and sufficiently powerful to put our coasts beyond the possibility of successful attack.

      The tendency of modern times is toward consolidation. It is apparent in capital and labor alike, and it is also true of nations. Small states are of the past and have no future. The modern movement is all toward the concentration of people and territory into great nations and large dominions. The great nations are rapidly absorbing for their future expansion and their present defense all the waste places of the earth. It is a movement which makes for civilization and the advancement of the race. As one of the great nations of the world, the United States must not fall out of the line of march.

      For more than thirty years we have been so much absorbed with grave domestic questions that we have lost sight of these vast interests which lie just outside our borders. They ought to be neglected no longer. They are not only of material importance but they are matters which concern our greatness as a nation and our future as a great example. They appeal to our national honor and dignity and to the pride of country and of race.

Henry Cabot Lodge, Forum, March 1895.

ew York Herald Tribune

The balance of probabilities is still on the side of peace. That is to be said with confidence, despite the alarmist rumors and truculent menaces so generally extant. Delay is making for peace by giving reason time to conquer passion. Men do not keep at white heat permanently. They either cool off or are consumed. A dozen times since the Cuban war began there has been a fierce clamor for intervention. Those who were loudest then see now that such action would have been a deplorable mistake. When Antonio Maceo was killed, men demanded war. But peace was kept, and with it the credit and honor of this Nation. When the Maine was destroyed indignation rose to fever pitch. But seven weeks have passed, and the peace is still unbroken. Again, the report on the Maine was to be the signal for hostilities. But it was not. It was a report that satisfied the American people. So did the Message [from President McKinley] that accompanied it. And they are now a week old and there is no war. The chances are that, thus kept off week after week, the dreaded catastrophe will be altogether averted. . . . The honor and welfare of the Nation are safe in William McKinley's hands. It will be well to leave them there.

      Not least of all, the outlook is still peaceful, and we trust increasingly so, because peace--so long as justice is supreme--is right, and war--unless justice and honor are at stake--is wrong.

* * *

It is to be feared that the exceedingly able and energetic manner in which the newspapers intrusted with the National honor have conducted the war up to the present time may lead to overconfidence on the part of the seventy million American citizens who catch the newspapers on the fly as they come from the press and read them while they are hot. . . . If it isn't war that we have been enjoying at the comparatively low price of twenty-four pages for a cent then nothing is war; all the verities have vanished; truth crushed to earth under job type six inches deep cannot rise again. An Error clad in the most gorgeous garb of the spacewriter's opulent vocabulary, instead of writhing and dying, just stalks abroad with several bands in front of a procession of her worshippers.

      War: Of course it's war. If it isn't war then the newspapers which have consented in the most self-sacrificing way to become the custodians of the National honor have been emitting lies at the rate of about a million a minute, and that is simply inconceivable. That is to say, it was inconceivable before the possibility of issuing and selling for cash a million newspapers a minute had been demonstrated by the actual affidavits of well-known votaries [devoted adherents] of the truth. . . . So as soon as the issue can be made plain to the American people, and the fact is established beyond a doubt that President McKinley has violated the unwritten law of the Republic which makes it obligatory upon him to declare war whenever any newspaper with a circulation of a million a minute demands it, this war will be concluded with the impeachment of McKinley and the general uprising of the outraged sentiment of the American people under Joseph Bailey of Texas against the Republican party.

New York Herald Tribune, 5 April 1898.

(Translation of letter written by Senor Don Enrique Dupuy de Lôme to Senor Don José Canelejas. Undated, but from internal evidence probably written about the middle of December, 1897.)

LEGACION DE ESPAÑA.
 WASHINGTON.

His Excellency
 Don José Canalejas.


 My distinguished and dear friend:
 You have no reason to ask my excuses for not having written to me, I ought also to have written to you but I have put off doing so because overwhelmed with work and nous sommes quittes.

nscript of De Lôme Letter (1898)

The situation here remains the same. Everything depends on the political and military outcome in Cuba. The prologue of all this, in this second stage (phase) of the war, will end the day when the colonial cabinet shall be appointed and we shall be relieved in the eyes of this country of a part of the responsibility for what is happening in Cuba while the Cubans, whom these people think so immaculate, will have to assume it.

Until then, nothing can be clearly seen, and I regard it as a waste of time and progress, by a wrong road, to be sending emissaries to the rebel camp, or to negotiate with the autonomists who have as yet no legal standing, or to try to ascertain the intentions and plans of this government. The (Cuban) refugees will keep on returning one by one and as they do so will make their way into the sheep-fold, while the leaders in the field will gradually come back. Neither the one nor the other class had the courage to leave in a body and they will not be brave enough to return in a body.

The Message has been a disillusionment to the insurgents who expected something different; but I regard it as bad (for us).

Besides the ingrained and inevitable bluntness (grosería) with which is repeated all that the press and public opinion in Spain have said about Weyler, it once more shows what McKinley is, weak and a bidder for the admiration of the crowd besides being a would-be politician (politicastro) who tries to leave a door open behind himself while keeping on good terms with the jingoes of his party.

Nevertheless, whether the practical results of it (the Message) are to be injurious and adverse depends only upon ourselves.

I am entirely of your opinions; without a military end of the matter nothing will be accomplished in Cuba, and without a military and political settlement there will always be the danger of encouragement being give to the insurgents, buy a part of the public opinion if not by the government.

I do not think sufficient attention has been paid to the part England is playing.

Nearly all the newspaper rabble that swarms in your hotels are Englishmen, and while writing for the Journal they are also correspondents of the most influential journals and reviews of London. It has been so ever since this thing began.

As I look at it, England’s only object is that the Americans should amuse themselves with us and leave her alone, and if there should be a war, that would the better stave off the conflict which she dreads but which will never come about.

It would be very advantageous to take up, even if only for effect, the question of commercial relations and to have a man of some prominence sent hither, in order that I may make use of him here to carry on a propaganda among the seantors and others in opposition to the Junta and to try to win over the refugees.

So, Amblard is coming. I think he devotes himself too much to petty politics, and we have got to do something very big or we shall fail.

Adela returns your greeting, and we all trust that next year you may be a messenger of peace and take it as a Christmas gift to poor Spain.

Ever your attached friend and servant,
 ENRIQUE DUPUY de LÔME.

ereas the Congress of the United States of America, by an Act approved March 2, 1901, provided as follows:

Provided further, That in fulfillment of the declaration contained in the joint resolution approved April twentieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, entitled "For the recognition of the independence of the people of Cuba, demanding that the Government of Spain relinquish its authority and government in the island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters, and directing the President of the United States to use the land and naval forces of the United States to carry these resolutions into effect," the President is hereby authorized to "leave the government and control of the island of Cuba to its people" so soon as a government shall have been established in said island under a constitution which, either as a part thereof or in an ordinance appended thereto, shall define the future relations of the United States with Cuba, substantially as follows:

"I.-That the government of Cuba shall never enter into any treaty or other compact with any foreign power or powers which will impair or tend to impair the independence of Cuba, nor in any manner authorize or permit any foreign power or powers to obtain by colonization or for military or naval purposes or otherwise, lodgement in or control over any portion of said island."

"II. That said government shall not assume or contract any public debt, to pay the interest upon which, and to make reasonable sinking fund provision for the ultimate discharge of which, the ordinary revenues of the island, after defraying the current expenses of government shall be inadequate."

"III. That the government of Cuba consents that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the treaty of Paris on the United States, now to be assumed and undertaken by the government of Cuba."

"IV. That all Acts of the United States in Cuba during its military occupancy thereof are ratified and validated, and all lawful rights acquired thereunder shall be maintained and protected."

"V. That the government of Cuba will execute, and as far as necessary extend, the plans already devised or other plans to be mutually agreed upon, for the sanitation of the cities of the

island, to the end that a recurrence of epidemic and infectious diseases may be prevented, thereby assuring protection to the people and commerce of Cuba, as well as to the commerce of the southern ports of the United States and the people residing therein."

"VI. That the Isle of Pines shall be omitted from the proposed constitutional boundaries of Cuba, the title thereto being left to future adjustment by treaty."

"VII. That to enable the United States to maintain the independence

of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its own defense, the government of Cuba will sell or lease to the United States lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain specified points to be agreed upon with the President of the United States."

"VIII. That by way of further assurance the government of Cuba will embody the foregoing provisions in a permanent treaty with the United States."