Primary Source Documents – Spanish-American War

The American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and
maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any
European powers... The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly, in
favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of
the European powers, in matters relating to themselves, we have never taken any part... It is
only when our rights are invaded, or seriously menaced, that we resent injuries, or make
preparation for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere, we are, of necessity,
more immediately connected...
We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United
States and those powers, to declare, that we should consider any attempt on their part to
extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere, as dangerous to our peace and safety.
With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered, and
shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence, and
maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration, and on just
principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing
them, or controlling, in any other manner, their destiny, by any European power in any other
light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States....
James Monroe, 1823 (“The Monroe Doctrine”)
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I transmit to the Senate...the annexation of the Dominican Republic to the United States....I feel
an unusual anxiety for the ratification of this treaty, because I believe it will rebound greatly to
the glory of the two countries interested, to civilization, and to the extirpation of the institution
of slavery....
The acquisition of the Dominican Republic is desirable because of its geographical position. It
commands the entrance to the Caribbean Sea and the Isthmus transit of commerce. It
possesses the riches soil, best and most capacious harbors, most salubrious climate, and the
most valuable products of the forest, mine, and soil of any of the West Indian Islands.
President Grant, 1870, on a treaty of annexation of the Dominican Republic
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The island of San Domingo, situated in tropical waters, and occupied by another race, of
another color, never can become a permanent possession of the United States. You may seize it
by force of arms or by diplomacy, where a naval squadron does more than the minister, but the
enforced jurisdiction cannot endure. Already by a higher statute is that island set part to the
colored race....
I protect against this legislation as another stage in a drama of blood. I protest against it in the
name of Justice outraged by violence, in the name of Humanity insulted, in the name of the
weak trodden down, in the name of Peace imperiled, and in the name of the African race,
whose first effort at Independence is rudely assailed.
Senator Charles Sumner's response, 1870
Primary Source Documents – Spanish-American War

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The two great needs of mankind, that all men may be lifted into the light of the highest
Christian civilization, are, first, a pure, spiritual Christianity, and, second, civil liberty....It follows
then, that the Anglo-Saxon, as the great representative of these two ideas, the depository of
these two great blessings, sustains peculiar relations to the world's future, is divinely
commissioned to be, in a peculiar sense, his brother's keeper.
Josiah Strong, 1885
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Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization
of the Great West... The frontier is the line of the most rapid and effective Americanization...
The frontier promoted the formation of a composite nationality for the American people... The
legislation which most developed the powers of the national government, and played the
largest part in its activity, was conditioned on the frontier... The pioneer needed the goods of
the coast, and so the grand series of internal improvements and railroad legislation began, with
potent nationalizing effects... But the most important effect of the frontier has been the
promotion of democracy here and in Europe. As has been indicated, the frontier is productive
of individualism... It produces antipathy to control, and particularly to any direct control... The
frontier states that came into the Union in the first quarter of a century of its existence came in
with democratic suffrage provisions, and had reactive effects of the highest importance upon
the older states...
To the frontier the American intellect owes its striking characteristics. That coarseness and
strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind,
quick to find expedients... What the Mediterranean Sea was to the Greeks, breaking the bond
of custom, offering new experiences, calling out new institutions and activities, that, and more,
the ever retreating frontier has been to the United States directly, and to the nations of Europe
more remotely. And now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred
years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first
period of American history.
Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History, 1893
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God has not been preparing the English-speaking and Teutonic peoples for a thousand years for
nothing but vain and idle self-admiration. No... He has made us adept in government that we
may administer government among savage and senile peoples... He has marked the American
people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the redemption of the world.
Senator Albert J. Beveridge on the Philippine Question, U.S. Senate, January 9, 1900
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The West Indies drift toward us, the Republic of Mexico hardly longer has an independent
life....With the completion of the Panama Canal all Central American will become part of our
system. We have expanded into Asia, we have attracted the fragments of the Spanish
dominions, and reaching out into China we have checked the advance of Russia and
Primary Source Documents – Spanish-American War

Germany....The United States will outweigh any single empire....The whole world will pay her
tribute.
Brooks Adams, 1902
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The forcible intervention of the United States as a neutral to stop the war, according to the
large dictates of humanity and following many historical precedents [examples set before]
where neighboring states have interfered to check the hopeless sacrifices of life by involvement
in conflicts beyond their borders, is justifiable on rational grounds.
The grounds for such intervention may be briefly summarized as follows:
First, in the cause of humanity and to put an end to the barbarities, bloodshed,
starvation, and horrible miseries now existing there…*
Second, we owe it to our citizens in Cuba to afford them that protection and indemnity
for life and property which no government there can or will afford...
Third, the right to intervene may be justified by the very serious injury to the commerce,
trade, and business of our people, and by the wanton destruction of property and devastation
of the island.
Fourth, and which is of the utmost importance.... With such a conflict waged for years in
an island so near us and with which our people have such trade and business relations; when
the lives and liberty of our citizens are in constant danger and their property destroyed and
themselves ruined; where our trading vessels are liable to seizureand are seized at our very
door by warships of a foreign nation, ... -- all these and others ... are a constant menace to our
peace...
I have already transmitted to Congress the report... on the destruction of the battleship
Maine... The destruction of that noble vessel has filled the national heart with inexpressible
horror...The destruction of the Maine, by whatever exterior cause, is a patent and impressive
proof of a state of things in Cuba that is intolerable... The Spanish government cannot assure
safety and security to a vessel of the American Navy in the harbor of Havana on a mission of
peace, and rightfully there...
The long trial has proved that the object for which Spain has waged the war cannot be attained.
The fire of insurrection may flame or may smolder with varying seasons, but it has not been,
and it is plain that it cannot be, extinguished by present methods. The only hope of relief and
repose from a condition which can no longer be endured is the enforced pacification of Cuba. In
the name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in behalf of endangered American interests
which give us the right and the duty to speak and to act, the war in Cuba must stop.

President William McKinley's war message to Congress (April 1898)

*
The first reason refers to the reconcentration camps that the Spanish set up for Cubans to protect them from warfare in the
countryside between Cuban rebels fighting for independence and the Spanish army. The government of Spain claimed they
could protect their Cuban citizens there safely, but newspaper reports revealed horrible conditions and violence.
Primary Source Documents – Spanish-American War

Awake United States! –

Mary Elizabeth Lamb
(1898)
This song was rushed to
print between the sinking of
the Maine in February 1898
and the declaration of war
on Spain in April 1898.

Eagle soar on high, and sound the battle cry! Like wave on wave, on rock on shoal!

How proudly sailed the warship Maine, [Chorus]

a Nation's pride, without a stain!
A wreck she lies, her sailors slain.
By Treacherous butchers, paid by Spain!
[Chorus]
Eagle soar on high,
And sound the battle cry
Wave the starry flag!
In mire it shall not drag!
Why does the breeze such sad thoughts bring,
Like murmuring seas the echoes sing?
Why do clouds thus backward roll.
Awake! Thy Stars and Stripes unfurl,
And shot and shell and vengeance hurl!
Though clouds gather, they will go,
and sunlight follow after woe.
[Chorus]
Awake! it is no dream;
Dost hear the sailors scream?
Comrades will you go?
Avenge the cruel blow!
And crush their marble heart!
Imperialism and the Spanish American War

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When next I realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps I confess I did not know
what to do with them....I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight;
and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed
Almighty God for light and guidance....And one night late it came to me this way....
(1) that we could not give them back to Spain--that would be cowardly and dishonorable;
(2) That we could not turn them over to France or Germany--our commercial rivals in the
Orient--that would be bad business and discreditable;
(3) That we could not leave them to themselves--they were unfit for self-government--and they
would soon have anarchy and misrule worse than Spain's war;
(4) That there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos,
and uplift and civilize and Christianize them as our fellow men for whom Christ also died.
President McKinley on the Philippines
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Thus...duty and interest alike, duty of the highest kind and interest of the highest and best kind,
impose upon us the retention of the Philippines, the development of the islands, and the
expansion of our Eastern commerce.
Henry Cabot Lodge
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Fellow citizens, — it is a noble land that God has given us; a land that can feed and clothe the
world... It is a mighty people that he has planted on this soil... It is a glorious history our God
has bestowed upon his chosen people; ... a history of soldiers who carried the flag across the
blazing deserts and through the ranks of hostile mountains, even to the gates of sunset; a
history of a multiplying people who overran a continent in half a century...
The Opposition tells us that we ought not to govern a people without their consent. I answer,
The rule of liberty that all just government derives its authority from the consent of the
governed, applies only to those who are capable of self-government. I answer, We govern the
Indians without their consent, we govern our territories without their consent, we govern our
children without their consent. I answer, would not the natives of the Philippines prefer the
just, humane, civilizing government of the Republic to the savage, bloody rule of pillage and
extortion from which we have rescued them?
They ask us how we will govern these new possessions. I answer: ... If England can govern
foreign lands, so can America. If Germany can govern foreign lands, so can America. If they can
supervise protectorates, so can America…
What does all this mean for every one of us? It means opportunity for all the glorious young
manhood of the republic—the most virile, ambitious, impatient, militant manhood the world
has ever seen. It means that the resources and the commerce of these immensely rich
dominions will be increased...
Imperialism and the Spanish American War

In Cuba, alone, there are 15,000,000 acres of forest unacquainted with the axe. There are
exhaustless mines of iron... There are millions of acres yet unexplored…
It means new employment and better wages for every laboring man in the Union...
Ah! as our commerce spreads, the flag of liberty will circle the globe.... And, as their thunders
salute the flag, benighted peoples will know that the voice of Liberty is speaking, at last, for
them; that civilization is dawning, at last, for them—Liberty and Civilization, those children of
Christ's gospel...
Fellow Americans, we are God's chosen people...
Albert J. Beveridge, Senate campaign speech - March of the Flag, September 16, 1898
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We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends towards
militarism - as is evidenced in the case of Cuba, and an evil from which it has been our glory to
be free. We regret that it has become necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to
reaffirm that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people is "criminal aggression" and open
disloyalty to the distinctive principles of our Government.
We earnestly condemn the policy of the present National Administration in the
Philippines. It seeks to extinguish the spirit of 1776 in those islands. We deplore the sacrifice of
our soldiers and sailors, whose bravery deserves admiration even in an unjust war. We
denounce the slaughter of the Filipinos as a needless horror. We protest against the extension
of American sovereignty by Spanish methods.
We demand the immediate cessation of the war against liberty, begun by Spain and
continued by us. We urge that Congress be promptly convened to announce to the Filipinos our
purpose to concede to them the independence for which they have so long fought and which of
right is theirs.
The United States have always protested against the doctrine of international law which
permits the subjugation of the weak by the strong. A self-governing state cannot accept
sovereignty over an unwilling people. The United States cannot act upon the ancient heresy
that might makes right.
Imperialists assume that with the destruction of self-government in the Philippines by
American hands, all opposition here will cease. This is a grievous error. Much as we abhor the
war of "criminal aggression" in the Philippines, greatly as we regret that the blood of the
Filipinos is on American hands, we more deeply resent the betrayal of American institutions at
home. The real firing line is not in the suburbs of Manila. The foe is of our own household. The
attempt of 1861 was to divide the country. That of 1899 is to destroy its fundamental principles
and noblest ideals.
Imperialism and the Spanish American War

Whether the ruthless slaughter of the Filipinos shall end next month or next year is but
an incident in a contest that must go on until the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution of the United States are rescued from the hands of their betrayers. Those who
dispute about standards of value while the foundation of the Republic is undermined will be
listened to as little as those who would wrangle about the small economies of the household
while the house is on fire. The training of a great people for a century, the aspiration for liberty
of a vast immigration are forces that will hurl aside those who in the delirium of conquest seek
to destroy the character of our institutions.
We deny that the obligation of all citizens to support their Government in times of grave
National peril applies to the present situation. If an Administration may with impunity ignore
the issues upon which it was chosen, deliberately create a condition of war anywhere on the
face of the globe, debauch the civil service for spoils to promote the adventure, organize a
truthsuppressing censorship and demand of all citizens a suspension of judgment and their
unanimous support while it chooses to continue the fighting, representative government itself
is imperiled.
We propose to contribute to the defeat of any person or party that stands for the
forcible subjugation of any people . We shall oppose for reelection all who in the White House
or in Congress betray American liberty in pursuit of un-American ends. We still hope that both
of our great political parties will support and defend the Declaration of Independence in the
closing campaign of the century.
We hold, with Abraham Lincoln, that "no man is good enough to govern another man
without that other's consent. When the white man governs himself, that is self-government,
but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-
government-that is despotism." "Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in
us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands. Those
who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God cannot long
retain it."
We cordially invite the cooperation of all men and women who remain loyal to the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
"Platform of the American Antilmperialist League," in Speeches, Correspondence, ard
Political Papers of Carl Schurz, vol. 6, ed. Frederick Bancroft (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons,
1913), p. 77, note 1.

If an Administration may with impunity [freedom from punishment] ignore the issues
upon which it was chosen, deliberately create a condition of war anywhere on the face of the
globe, debauch [violate] the civil service for spoils to promote the adventure, organize a truth
suppressing censorship and demand of all citizens a suspension of judgment and their
unanimous support while it chooses to continue the fighting, representative government is
itself imperiled [endanger].
Imperialism and the Spanish American War

We hold, with Abraham Lincoln, that “no man is good enough to govern another man
without that other’s consent. When the white man governs himself, that is self-government,
but when governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government -
that is despotism”.
Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League, 1899
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If we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests
where men must win at the hazard of their lives and at the risk of all they hold dear, then
bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by, and will win for themselves the domination of the
world.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1900
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There is a homely adage which runs, "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." If the
American nation will speak softly and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training a
thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1901
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It is not true that the United States feels any land hunger or entertains any projects as regards
the other nations of the Western Hemisphere save such as are for their welfare. All that this
country desires is to see the neighboring countries stable, orderly and prosperous....Chronic
wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society,
may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention...[and] force the United States,
however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an
internal police power.
Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, 1904