THE GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES 379 



promise of early profit, was made, whereby a territory estimated 

 at 531,000 square miles, with a relatively extensive coast line, 

 was added to the national possessions. The influence of this 

 purchase on national progress and on national character was 

 limited, save as a hard-worked occasion for criticism of the pol- 

 icy of territorial development. The reaction from the internal 

 tension of the early '60s and from the nearly profitless expan- 

 sion of '67 naturally made itself felt in public polic}^ ; it is ex- 

 pressed in the thirty-one years of respite from external growth. 

 Now, after long begging for admission, as Texas begged fifty 

 years before, Hawaii is admitted, with 6,640 square miles of 

 area and a wealth of coast line ; the garden island of Porto Rico, 

 3,670 square miles in area, is gladly entering the domain of Amer- 

 ica as an incident of a war for humanity's sake; and the hun- 

 dreds of Philippine islands, comprising 114,326 square miles of 

 aggregate territory, are looking to America for protection and 

 ultimate absorption. Considered merety as territory, these ad- 

 ditions, aggregating 124,636 square miles, would form but a rip- 

 ple on the stream of national progress, even if consummated at 

 once ; the area is little more than twice that of the Gadsden 

 purchase, less than twice that of the Florida purchase, only a 

 third that of the Texan annexation, less than a quarter so large 

 as either the Californian acquisition or the Alaskan purchase, 

 less than an eighth of the nation-shaping acquisitions of 1803, 

 less than 4 per cent of the previous area. 



Apart from the events of 1898, one of the striking features of 

 American history has been almost unparalleled territorial ex- 

 pansion with quite unparalleled territorial assimilation ; and, 

 viewed in the light of this' history, the comparatively slight ex- 

 pansion of 1898 but marks the resumption of a career tempora- 

 rily checked by a combination of circumstances. 



The territorial growth of the United States has been shaped 

 constantly by natural conditions rather than national policy ; 

 for, since the days of the first President, it has been the idea of 

 the American citizen to avoid " entangling alliances " and foreign 

 complications. Partly for this reason, the rapid enlargement of 

 the domain of the United States met opposition at every step 

 from conservative statesmen. The Louisiana purchase was 

 almost a surprise even to those by whom it was consummated, 

 while a large part of Oregon territory was literally thrown 

 away in 1846 by dint of political maneuvering, despite political 

 platforms and the wishes of the inhabitants ; and the self-pro- 



