-Caveat Lector-
The Beginnings of World Dominion
By Scott Nearing
Chapter 6 of The American Empire (New York: Rand School of Social Science,
1921).
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1. The Shifting of Control
During the half century that intervened between the War of 1812 and the
Civil War of 1861 the policy of the United States government was decided
largely by men who came from south of the Mason and Dixon line. The Southern
whites, -- class-conscious rulers with an institution (slavery) to defend,
-- acted like any other ruling class under similar circumstances. They
favored Southward expansion which meant more territory in which slavery
might be established.
The Southerners were looking for a place in the sun where slavery, as an
institution, might flourish for the profit and power of the slave-holding
class. Their most effective move in this direction was the annexation of
Texas and the acquisition of territory following the Mexican War. An
insistent drive for the annexation of Cuba was cut short by the Civil War.
Southern sentiment had supported the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and the
Florida Purchase of 1819. From Jefferson's time Southern statesmen had been
advocating the purchase of Cuba. Filibustering expeditions were fitted out
in Southern ports with Cuba as an objective; agitation was carried on,
inside and outside of Congress; between 1850 and 1861 the acquisition of
Cuba was the question of the day. It was an issue in the Campaign of 1853.
In 1854 the American ministers to London, France and Madrid met at the
direction of the State Department and drew up a document (the "Ostend
Manifesto") dealing with the future of Cuba. McMaster summarizes the
Manifesto in these words: "The United States ought to buy Cuba because of
its nearness to our coast; because it belonged naturally to that great group
of states of which the Union was the providential nursery; because it
commanded the mouth of the Mississippi whose immense and annually growing
trade must seek that way to the ocean, and because the Union could never
enjoy repose, could never be secure, till Cuba was within its boundaries."
(Vol. viii, pp. 185-6.) If Spain refused to sell Cuba it was suggested that
the United States should take it.
The Ostend Manifesto was rejected by the State Department, but it was a good
picture of the imperialistic sentiment at that time abroad among certain
elements in the United States.
The Cuban issue featured in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates in 1858. It was
hotly discussed by Congress in 1859. Only twenty years had passed since the
United States, by force of arms, had taken from Mexico territory that she
coveted. Now it was proposed to appropriate territory belonging to Spain.
The outbreak of hostilities deferred the project, and when the Civil War was
over, the slave power was shattered. From that time forward national policy
was guided by the leaders of the new industrial North.
The process of this change was fearfully wasteful. The shifting of power
from the old regime to the new cost more lives and a greater expenditure of
wealth than all of the wars of conquest that had been fought during the
preceding half century.
The change was complete. The slaves were liberated by Presidential
Proclamation. The Southern form of civilization -- patriarchal and feudal --
disappeared, and upon its ruins -- rapidly in the West; slowly in the South
-- there arose the new structure of an industrial civilization.
The new civilization had no need to look outward for economic advantage.
Forest tracts, mineral deposits and fertile land afforded ample opportunity
at home. It was three thousand miles to the Pacific and at the end of the
journey there was gold! The new civilization therefore turned its energies
to the problem of subduing the continent and of establishing the machinery
necessary to provide for its vastly increasing needs. A small part of the
capital required for this purpose came from abroad. Most of it was supplied
at home. But the events involved in opening up the territory west of the
Rockies, of spanning the country with steel, and providing outlets for the
products of the developing industries were so momentous that even the most
ambitious might fulfill his dreams of conquest without setting foot on
foreign soil. Territorial aggrandizement was forgotten, and men turned with
a will to the organization of the East and the exploration and development
of the West.
The leaders of the new order found time to take over Alaska (1868) with its
590,884 square miles. The move was diplomatic rather than economic,
however, and it was many years before the huge wealth of Alaska was even
suspected.
2. Hawaii
The new capitalist interests began to feel the need of additional territory
toward the end of the nineteenth century. The desirable resources of the
United States were largely in private hands and most of the available free
land had been preempted. Beside that, there were certain interests, like
sugar and tobacco, that were looking with longing eyes toward the tempting
soil and climate of Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Cuba.
When the South had advocated the annexation of Texas, its statesmen had been
denounced as expansionists and imperialists. The same fate awaited the
statesmen of the new order who were favoring the extension of United States
territory to include some of the contiguous islands that offered special
opportunities for certain powerful financial interests.
The struggle began over the annexation of Hawaii. After numerous attempts to
annex Hawaii to the United States a revolution was finally consummated in
Honolulu in 1893. At that time, under treaty provisions, the neutrality of
Hawaii was guaranteed by the United States. Likewise, "of the capital
invested in the islands, two-thirds is owned by Americans." This statement
is made in "Address by the Hawaiian Branches of the Sons of the American
Revolution, the Sons of Veterans, and the Grand Army of the Republic to
their compatriots in America Concerning the Annexation of Hawaii." (1897.)
These advocates of annexation state in the same address that: "The
revolution (of 1893) was not the work of filibusterers and adventurers, but
of the most conservative and law-abiding citizens, of the principal
tax-payers, the leaders of industrial enterprises, etc." The purpose behind
the revolution seemed clear. Certain business men who had sugar and other
products to sell in the United States, believed that they would gain,
financially, by annexation. They engineered the revolution of 1893 and they
were actively engaged in the agitation for annexation that lasted until the
treaty of annexation was confirmed by the United States in 1898. The matter
was debated at length on the floor of the United States Senate, and an
investigation revealed the essential facts of the case.
The immediate cause of the revolution in 1893 was friction over the Hawaiian
Constitution. After some agitation, a "Committee of Safety" was organized
for the protection of life and property on the islands. Certain members of
the Hawaiian government were in favor of declaring martial law, and dealing
summarily with the conspirators. The Queen seems to have hesitated at such a
course because of the probable complications with the government of the
United States.
The U.S.S. Boston, sent at the request of United States Minister Stevens to
protect American life and property in the Islands, was lying in the harbor
of Honolulu. After some negotiations between the "Committee of Safety" and
Minister Stevens, the latter requested the Commander of the Boston to land
a number of marines. This was done on the afternoon of January 16, 1893.
Immediately the Governor of the Island of Oahu and the Minister of Foreign
Affairs addressed official communications to the United States Minister,
protesting against the landing of troops "without permission from the
proper authorities." Minister Stevens replied, assuming full responsibility.
On the day following the landing of the marines, the Committee of Safety,
under the chairmanship of Judge Dole, who had resigned as Justice of the
Supreme Court of Hawaii in order to accept the Chairmanship of the
Committee, proceeded to the government building, and there, under cover of
the guns of the United States Marines, who were drawn up for the purpose of
protecting the Committee against possible attack, a proclamation was read,
declaring the abrogation of the Hawaiian monarchy, and the establishment of
a provisional government "to exist until terms of union with the United
States have been negotiated and agreed upon." Within an hour after the
reading of this proclamation, and while the Queen and her government were
still in authority, and in possession of the Palace, the Barracks, and the
Police Station, the United States Minister gave the Provisional Government
his recognition.
The Queen, who had 500 soldiers in the Barracks, was inclined to fight, but
on the advice of her counselors, she yielded "to the superior force of the
United States of America" until the facts could be presented at Washington,
and the wrong righted.
Two weeks later, on the first of February, Minister Stevens issued a
proclamation declaring a protectorate over the islands. This action was
later repudiated by the authorities at Washington, but on February 15,
President Harrison submitted a treaty of annexation to the Senate. The
treaty failed of passage, and President Cleveland, as one of his first
official acts, ordered a complete investigation of the whole affair.
The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations submitted a report on the matter
February 26, 1894. Four members referred to the acts of Minister Stevens as
"active, officious and unbecoming participation in the events which led to
the revolution." All members of the committee agreed that his action in
declaring a protectorate over the Islands was unjustified.
The same kind of a fight that developed over the annexation of Texas now
took place over the annexation of Hawaii. A group of senators, of whom
Senator R. F. Pettigrew was the most conspicuous figure, succeeded in
preventing the ratification of the annexation treaty until July 7, 1898.
Then, ten weeks after the declaration of the Spanish-American War, under the
stress of the war-hysteria, Hawaii was annexed by a joint resolution of
Congress.
The Annexation of Hawaii marks a turning point in the history of the United
States. For the first time, the American people secured possession of
territory lying outside of the mainland of North America. For the first time
the United States acquired territory lying within the tropics. The
annexation of Hawaii was the first imperialistic act after the annexation of
Texas, more than fifty years before. It was the first imperialistic act
since the capitalists of the North had succeeded the slave-owners of the
South as the masters of American public life.
3. The Spanish-American War
The real test of the imperial intentions of the United States came with the
Spanish-American War. An old, shattered world empire (Spain) held Puerto
Rico, Cuba and the Philippines. Puerto Rico and Cuba were of peculiar value
to the sugar and tobacco interests of the United States. They were close to
the mainland, they were enormously productive and, furthermore, Cuba
contained important deposits of iron ore.
Spain had only a feeble grip on her possessions. For years the natives of
Cuba and of the Philippines had been in revolt against the Spanish power.
At times the revolt was covert. Again it blazed in the open.
The situation in Cuba was rendered particularly critical because of the
methods used by the Spanish authorities in dealing with the rebellious
natives. The Spaniards were simply doing what any empire does to suppress
rebellion and enforce obedience, but the brutalities of imperialism, as
practiced in Cuba by the Spaniards, gave the American interventionists their
opportunity. Day after day the newspapers carried front page stories of
Spanish atrocities in Cuba. Day after day the ground was prepared for open
intervention in the interests of the oppressed Cubans. There was more than
grim humor in the instructions which a great newspaper publisher is reported
to have sent his cartoonist in Cuba, -- "You provide the pictures; we'll
furnish the war."
The conflict was precipitated by the blowing up of the United States
battleship Maine as she lay in the harbor of Havana (February 15, 1898). It
has not been settled to this day whether the Maine was blown up from without
or within. At the time it was assumed that the ship was blown up by the
Spanish, although "there was no evidence whatever that any one connected
with the exercise of Spanish authority in Cuba had had so much as guilty
knowledge of the plans made to destroy the Maine" (p. 270), and although
"toward the last it had begun to look as if the Spanish Government were
ready, rather than let the war feeling in the United States put things
beyond all possibility of a peaceful solution, to make very substantial
concessions to the Cuban insurgents and bring the troubles of the Island to
an end" (p. 273-4).(1)
Congress, in a joint resolution passed April 20, 1898, declared that "the
people of the Island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent.... The United States hereby disclaims any intention to exercise
sovereignty, jurisdiction or control over said island except for the
pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is
accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its
people."
The war itself was of no great moment. There was little fighting on land,
and the naval battles resulted in overwhelming victories for the American
Navy. The treaty, ratified February 6, 1899, provided that Spain should cede
to the United States Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines, and that
the United States should pay to Spain twenty millions of dollars. As in the
case of the Mexican War, the United States took possession of the territory
and then paid a bonus for a clear title.
The losses in the war were very small. The total number of men who were
killed in action and who died of wounds was 289; while 3,949 died of
accidents and disease. ("Historical Register," Vol. 2, p. 187.) The cost of
the war was comparatively slight. Hostilities lasted from April 21, 1898 to
August 12, 1898. The entire military and naval expense for the year 1898 was
$443,368,000; for the year 1899, $605,071,000. Again the need for a larger
place in the sun had been felt by the people of the United States and again
the United States had won immense riches with a tiny outlay in men and
money.
Now came the real issue, -- What should the United States do with the booty?
There were many who held that the United States was bound to set the peoples
of the conquered territory free. To be sure the specific pledge contained
in the joint resolution of April 20, 1898, applied to Cuba alone, but, it
was argued, since the people of the Philippines had also been fighting for
liberty, and since they had come so near to winning their independence from
the Spaniards, they were likewise entitled to it.
On the other hand, the advocates of annexation insisted that it was the duty
of the United States to accept the responsibilities (the "white man's
burden") that the acquisition of these islands involved.
As President McKinley put it: -- "The Philippines, like Cuba and Puerto
Rico, were entrusted to our hands by the providence of God." (President
McKinley, Boston, February 16, 1899.) How was the country to avoid such a
duty?
Thus was the issue drawn between the "imperialists" and the
"anti-imperialists."
The imperialists had the machinery of government, the newspapers, and the
prestige of a victorious and very popular war behind them. The
anti-imperialists had half a century of unbroken tradition; the accepted
principles of self-government; the sayings of men who had organized the
Revolution of 1776; written the Declaration of Independence; held exalted
offices and piloted the nation through the Civil War.
The imperialists used their inside position. The anti-imperialists appealed
to public opinion. They organized a league "to aid in holding the United
States true to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. It seeks
the preservation of the rights of the people as guaranteed to them by the
Constitution. Its members hold self-government to be fundamental, and good
government to be but incidental. It is its purpose to oppose by all proper
means the extension of the sovereignty of the United States over subject
peoples. It will contribute to the defeat of any candidate or party that
stands for the forcible subjugation of any people." (From the declaration of
principle printed on the literature in 1899 and 1900.) Anti-imperialist
conferences were held in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Indianapolis,
Boston and other large cities. The League claimed to have half a million
members. An extensive pamphlet literature was published, and every effort
was made to arouse the people of the country to the importance of the
decision that lay before them.
The imperialists said a great deal less than their opponents, but they were
more effective in their efforts. The President had said, in his message to
Congress (April 1, 1898), "I speak not of forcible annexation, for that
cannot be thought of. That, by our code of morals, would be criminal
aggression." The phrase was seized eagerly by those who were opposing the
annexation of the Spanish possessions. After the war with Spain had begun,
the President changed front on the ground that destiny had placed a
responsibility upon the American people that they could not shirk. Taking
this view of the situation, the President had only one course open to him --
to insist upon the annexation of the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam.
This was the course that was followed, and on April 11, 1899, these
territories were officially incorporated into the United States.
Senator Hoar, in a speech on January 9, 1899, put the issue squarely. He
described it as "a greater danger than we have encountered since the
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth -- the danger that we are to be transformed from
a republic, founded on the Declaration of Independence, guided by the
counsels of Washington, into a vulgar, commonplace empire, founded upon
physical force."
Cuba remained to be disposed of. With the specific guarantee of independence
contained in the joint resolution passed at the outbreak of the war, it
seemed impossible to do otherwise than to give the Cubans self-government.
Many influential men lamented the necessity, but it was generally conceded.
But how much independence should Cuba have? That question was answered by
the passage of the Cuban Treaty with the "Platt Amendment" attached. Under
the treaty as ratified the United States does exercise "sovereignty,
jurisdiction and control" over the island.
4. The Philippines
The territory acquired from Spain was now, in theory, disposed of.
Practically, the Philippines remained as a source of difficulty and even of
political danger.
The people of Cuba were, apparently, satisfied. The Puerto Ricans had
accepted the authority of the United States without question. But the
Filipinos were not content. If the Cubans were to have self-government, why
not they?
The situation was complicated by the peculiar relations existing between the
Filipinos and the United States Government. Immediately after the
declaration of war with Spain the United States Consul-General at Singapore
had cabled to Admiral Dewey at Hong Kong that Aguinaldo, leader of the
insurgent forces in the Philippines, was then at Singapore, and was ready to
go to Hong Kong. Commodore Dewey cabled back asking Aguinaldo to come at
once to Hong Kong. Aguinaldo left Singapore on April 26, 1898, and, with
seventeen other revolutionary Filipino chiefs, was taken from Hong Kong to
Manila in the United States naval vessel McCulloch. Upon his arrival in
Manila, he at once took charge of the insurgents.
For three hundred years the inhabitants of the Philippines had been engaged
in almost incessant warfare with the Spanish authorities. In the spring of
1898 they were in a fair way to win their independence. They had a large
number of men under arms -- from 20,000 to 30,000; they had fought the
Spanish garrisons to a stand-still, and were in practical control of the
situation.
Aguinaldo was furnished with 4,000 or 5,000 stands of arms by the American
officials, he took additional arms from the Spaniards and he and his people
cooperated actively with the Americans in driving the Spanish out of Luzon.
The Filipino army captured Iloilo, the second largest city in the
Philippines, without the assistance of the Americans. On the day of the
surrender of Manila, 15� miles of the surrounding line was occupied by the
Filipinos and 600 yards by the American troops. Throughout the early summer,
the relations between the Filipinos and the Americans continued to be
friendly. General Anderson, in command of the American Army, wrote a letter
to the commander of the Filipinos (July 4, 1898) in which he said, -- "I
desire to have the most amicable relations with you and to have you and your
people cooperate with us in military operations against the Spanish
forces." During the summer the American officers called upon the Filipinos
for supplies and information and accepted their cooperation. Aguinaldo, on
his part, treated the Americans as deliverers, and in his proclamations
referred to them as "liberators" and "redeemers."
The Filipinos, at the earliest possible moment, organized a government. On
June 18 a republic was proclaimed; on the 23rd the cabinet was announced;
on the 27th a decree was published providing for elections, and on August
6th an address was issued to foreign governments, announcing that the
revolutionary government was in operation, and was in control of fifteen
provinces.
The real intent of the Americans was foreshadowed in the instructions handed
by President McKinley to General Wesley Merritt on May 19, 1898. General
Merritt was directed to inform the Filipinos that "we come not to make war
upon the people of the Philippines, nor upon any party or faction among
them, but to protect them in their homes, in their employments, and in their
personal and religious rights. Any persons who, either by active aid or by
honest submission, cooperate with the United States in its effort to give
effect to this beneficent purpose, will receive the reward of its support
and protection."
The Filipinos sent a delegation to Paris to lay their claims for
independence before the Peace Commission. Meeting with no success, they
visited Washington, with no different result. They were not to be free!
On September 8, 1898, General Otis, commander of the American forces in the
Philippines, notified Aguinaldo that unless he withdrew his forces from
Manila and its suburbs by the 15th "I shall be obliged to resort to forcible
action." On January 5, 1899, by Presidential Proclamation, McKinley ordered
that "The Military Government heretofore maintained by the United States in
the city, harbor, and bay of Manila is to be extended with all possible
dispatch to the whole of the ceded territory." On February 4, 1899, General
Otis reported "Firing upon the Filipinos and the killing of one of them by
the Americans, leading to return fire." (Report up to April 6, 1899.) Then
followed the Philippine War during which 1,037 Americans were killed in
action or died of wounds; 2,818 were wounded, and 2,748 died of disease.
("Historical Register," Vol. II, p. 293.)
The Philippines were conquered twice -- once in a contest with Spain (in
cooperation with the Filipinos, who regarded themselves as our allies), and
once in a contest with the Filipinos, the native inhabitants, who were made
subjects of the American Empire by this conquest.(2)
5. Imperialism Accepted
The Philippine War was the last political episode in the life of the
American Republic. From February 4, 1899, the United States accepted the
political status of an Empire. Hawaii had been annexed at the behest of the
Hawaiian Government; Puerto Rico had been occupied as a part of the war
strategy and without any protest from the Puerto Ricans. The Philippines
were taken against the determined opposition of the natives, who continued
the struggle for independence during three bitter years.
The Filipinos were fighting for independence -- fighting to drive invaders
from their soil. The United States authorities had no status in the
Philippines other than that of military conquerors.
Continental North America was occupied by the whites after a long struggle
with the Indian tribes. This territory was "conquered" -- but it was
contiguous -- it formed a part of a geographic unity. The Philippines were
separated from San Francisco by 8,000 miles of water; geographically they
were a part of Asia. They were tropical in character, and were inhabited by
tribes having nothing in common with the American people except their
common humanity. Nevertheless, despite non-contiguity; despite distance;
despite dissimilarity in languages and customs, the soldiers of the United
States conquered the Filipinos and the United States Government took control
of the islands, acting in the same way that any other empire, under like
circumstances, unquestionably would have acted.
There was no strategic reason that demanded the Philippines unless the
United States desired to have an operating base near to the vast resources
and the developing markets of China. As a vantage point from which to wage
commercial and military aggression in the Far East, the Philippines may
possess certain advantages. There is no other excuse for their conquest and
retention by the United States save the economic excuse of advantages to be
gained from the possession of the islands themselves.
The end of the nineteenth century saw the end of the Republic about which
men like Jefferson and Lincoln wrote and dreamed. The New Century marked
the opening of a new epoch -- the beginning of world dominion for the United
States.
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Notes
1. "A History of the American People," Woodrow Wilson. New York, Harpers,
1902, Vol. V, pp. 273-4.
2. For further details on the Philippine problem see Senate Document 62,
Part I, 55th Congress, Third Session.
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Scott Nearing (1883-1983) was a leading leftist critic of imperialism
throughout most of his long life. In his political autobiography he named
four officers of the Philadelphia branch of the Anti-Imperialist League
among the six people who most influenced his political beliefs in the
period after his graduation from college. He was fired by the University of
Pennsylvania in 1915 because of his outspoken opposition to World War I and
his case led to the movement to establish tenure for teachers and professors
in the United States. Through involvement with the single tax movement in
the early 1900s he was exposed to socialism and joined the Communist Party
for a short time in the 1920s before being expelled because of his
independent (non-Leninist) analysis of imperialism. While a Party member he
served as a trustee and on the publications committee of the American Fund
for Public Service Committee on American Imperialism and on the national
committee and as chair of the All-America Anti-Imperialist League. A
life-long anti-imperialist, Nearing would later oppose U.S. interventions in
Cuba and the war in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Citation: Nearing, Scott. "The Beginnings of World Dominion." The American
Empire (New York: Rand School of Social Science, 1921).
http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/ailtexts/nearing06.html In Jim Zwick, ed.,
Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935.
http://www.boondocksnet.com/ai/ (Feb. 20, 2003).
"Oh what a tangled web we weave,
when first we practice to believe."
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