ch 27 Flashcards
(20 cards)
“A new consciousness seems to have come upon us–the consciousness of strength–and with it a new appetite, the yearning to show our strength…. Ambition, interest, land hunger, pride the mere joy of fighting, whatever it may be, we are animated by a new sensation. We are face to face with a strange destiny. The taste of Empire is in the mouth of the people even as the taste of blood is in the jungle. It means an Imperial policy, the Republic, renascent, taking her place with the armed nations.”
Washington Post commenting on the desire for imperialism in America
“To-day the United States is practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition… Its infinite resource combined with its isolated position render it master of the situation and practically invulnerable as against any or all other powers.”
Undiplomatic note to Britain by Secretary of State Richard Olney:
“The Hawaiian pear is now fully ripe and this is the golden hour for the United States to pluck it”
American minister in Honolulu
“You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war”
Hearst says to Frederic Remington before sending Remington to Cuba:
“The American jingoes… imagine us capable of the most foul villainies and cowardly actions. Scoundrels by nature, the American jingoes believe that all men are made like themselves. What do they know about noble and generous feelings?… We should not in any way heed the jingoes: they are not even worth our contempt, or the saliva with which we might honor them in spitting at their faces”
One Madrid newspaper, spaniards feel that American accusations of Spain blowing up the Maine just reflects American evil and Spanish nobility:
“Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!”
“Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!”
“The very devil seemed to possess him”
John D. Long writes about Roosevelt’s actions when Roosevelt sent Dewey to attack Manila
“Don’t cheer, men… The poor devils are dying”
Captain Philip of the Texas warns his men of cheering when the Spanish fleet retreats out of the harbor, only to get obliterated by waiting American ships outside
“In my regiment nine-tenths of the men were better horsemen than I was, and probably two-thirds of them better shots than I was, while on the average they were certainly hardier and more enduring. Yet after I had had them a very short while they all knew, and I knew too, that nobody else could command them as I could.”
Theodore Roosevelt writes about his “Rough Riders”
“When next I realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps, I confess I did not know what to do with them… I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance… And one night late it came to me this way… 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 and by God’s grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow men, for whom Christ also died. And then i went to bed and went to sleep, and slept soundly.”
McKinley describes his decision to annex the Philippines:
“Goddamn the United States for its vile conduct in the Philippine Isles… puke up its ancient soul in five minutes without a wink of squeamishness!”
William James(Harvard Professor):
If Americans were “morally bound to abandon the Philippines… we were also morally bound to abandon Arizona to the Apaches”
Theodore Roosevelt:
“I have seen two Americas, the America before the Spanish American War and the America since”
Foreign diplomat in Washington after the Spanish-American War:
“The Philippines are ours forever… And just beyond the Philippines are China’s illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either. We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race: trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world.”
Albert J. Beveridge, returns from an investigate trip to the Philippines to defend its annexation:
“You cannot maintain despotism in Asia and a republic in America. If you try to drive even a savage or a barbarian of his just rights you can never do it without becoming a savage or a barbarian yourself”
Senator George F. Hoar breaks from Republican Party to denounce American annexation of the Philippines:
“Splendid little war”
Secretary of State John Hay describing the Spanish-American War:
“To hell with the Yankees! Dammit, I mean the Spaniards.”
Former Confederate general Joseph Wheeler(the other “Fighting Joe”)
Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis
Josiah Strong(inspired missionaries looking abroad for converts) - superiority of Anglo-Saxons and civilize “backward” peoples
The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783
Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan(argued that control of the sea was key to world dominance, helped stimulate naval race, mightier American navy, and canal between Atlantic and Pacific)
“The supreme geopolitical fact of the modern era is that the Americans speak English”
Otto von Bismarck(German Chancellor)
