AMERICAN EXPANSION POLICY. There is no more significant movement in modern history than that of the migrating pro cession which, receiving its start from European conditions and breaking barrier after barner, swept across the American continent within the last century and finally established Ameri can influence and enterprise in the Pacific and at the portals of the awakening Orient. The feverish, restless, ceaseless westward move ment from the tidewaters of the Atlantic coast, slow at first, but gradually gaining momentum and force, furnishing new opportunities to interest and awaken delinquents, creating new necessities to stimulate inventive genius, add ing territory after territory to the American Union, and extending American commerce and beneficent influence to distant lands and peoples, is the great central fact of American history. Expansion, non-parasitic, vigorous and attractive, developing by affinity, contend ing against both restriction and secession, has been America's greatest feat. Expansion of national territory, which in earlier American history was a steady policy, has, with few exceptions, arisen from natural forces or some vital issue — from the necessity of meeting internal or foreign difficulties or from political and economic questions—and probably was in evitable. Although the opposition to slavery was an obstacle to expansion, the Southern de sire to extend this institution was an important factor in all the acquisitions and the demands for expansion from 1820 to 1860. In the dec ade before 1860 annexation was urged by the combined arguments of "manifest destiny" and "international nuisance." Jealousy or fear in regard to the plans of some European power exerted no inconsiderable influence in determin ing the policy to incorporate Louisiana, Florida, Texas, California, Oregon, Alaska and other territories. On this ground the acquisition of Cuba and Yucatan was also urged. Although some acquisitions have been made by war, the greater part have been obtained under the de sire to prevent war. The American policy, with few exceptions, has been to negotiate directly with the governments exercising authority over the territory desired, but in many instances diplomacy contributed principally to justify and confirm expansions already made by the people. The processes of annexation were mainly the fruit, not of artificial intrigue and machination, but of the natural economic and social development of people chiefly engaged in the great human occupation of making a quiet living by agriculture. Each acquisition excited both domestic and foreign opposition and also pessimistic prophecies; but time has proved that extension to the Gulf and to the remote Pacific added strength to the Union. In the dark days of the Revolution there was a buoyant American spirit urging that the Union should include Canada, British West India Is lands and even Florida; but American expan sion began with Clark's invasion of the North west, which aided American diplomacy to secure the extension of the western boundary to the Mississippi in the treaty of 1783. The Constitution of 1787 did not expressly provide for annexation of territory but its makers fore saw annexation. In 1791, Jefferson, the great American expansionist, who had already favored exploration westward to the Pacific, acting as Secretary of State under Washington, opened negotiations for the acquisition of Florida and New Orleans from Spain. In 1803, as a re sult of the western struggle for the mouth of the Mississippi, Driven by necessity and acci dent, before he knew exactly what he was do ing, he began the American policy of peaceful expansion by the purchase of a vast empire, setting American bounds to the Rockies, bring ing doubtful titles to Florida, Texas and Oregon, and making further expansion neces sary and a great united nation possible. Al ready (in 1801) he had looked forward to the time when "American multiplication shall ex pand itself and cover the whole northern, if not the southern, continent" In this he probably expressed an idea similar to that ad vocated by William Thornton in favor* of extending the republican system over all North and South America and the adjacent islands, under 13 distinct sections but united by one central government on the Isthmus of Panama. Later, in 1816, T. L. Halsey, writing to Monroe from Buenos Aires, indicated that it was the American policy, "that the whole continent of America should be united, at least in commercial relations." Jefferson's example was followed long after his authority ceased. The imagination of the pioneer soon passed the limits of the treaty, but with loyalty to the United States, to struggle for disputed regions or for regions clearly foreign. Madison, from apparent necessity, took temporary control of the Gulf shores from the Mississippi to the Mobile and, in the War of 1812, planned expeditions for the conquest of Canada. Monroe, for the same reason, seized Amelia Island and Galveston, finally extended the American domains to the Florida straits, and said that the acquisition of Cuba might becpme necessary to the internal tran quillity and prosperity of the United States. By 1820, the national road and the steamboat were beginning the large influence which they later had in the development of the West and the Americans were preparing to make settle ments on the far-away Columbia. Monroe,
in 1822, discouraged the wishes of Guatemalans and Cubans for annexation. Jefferson, although opposed to annexation that would require the construction of a navy to defend it, favored the annexation of Cuba. John Quincy Adams, who in 1820 suggested the occupation of terri tory in the South seas and foresaw American destiny in the West Indies (especially in Cuba and Porto Rico), later announced that he was inclined to seek no acquisition of non-con tiguous territory. His efforts in 1825 to purchase Texas which had been given up in 1819 were followed by the premature Fredonian republic of 1826 which foreshadowed the later struggle for Texan independence. Jackson con tinued the negotiations for the purchase of Texas, and also wished to acquire territory that would include the Bay of San Francisco on the Pacific, but he expressed no desire for insular possessions. In his administration, the natural course of events was preparing for expansion along the Gulf toward the Rio Grande; and in 1837-38 citizens along the north ern frontier were ready to aid the movement for Canadian independence as a step toward annexation. In 1843, Oregon through an organization for the protection against wolves established a provisional government in prepa ration for American occupation. In 1844, American consuls in California were planning for American occupation to prevent supposed European designs for annexation. In 1845, after the annexation of Texas, the opportunity to meet American needs on the Pacific was fur nished by the Texan boundary dispute, which enabled Polk to acquire a vast territory abutting on the Pacific, and thereby to lay the founda tions for making the United States a great railway nation and an arbiter in the affairs of the Pacific. American extension to California, increasing American interest in the Pacific and resulting in negotiations for isthmian transit routes across Mexico and Central America, stimulated agitation and negotiations for terri tory or protectorates both in the Pacific and in the Caribbean-Gulf region. In the twelve-year period of pro-slavery land hunger which fol lowed, there were plans for acquisitions in Central America and Mexico. Many prominent men advocated the acquisition of isthmian and insular possessions, urging that the United States should hold the gate to the Pacific and the key which controlled it. They opposed the Clayton-Bulwer treaty because it restricted the right of occupying territory which might become necessary for the security of communications. Cuba, especially, standing warden to the Gulf of Mexico, having the institution of slavery which the South wished to see continued, and a system of commercial restrictions and arbi trary government which many others desired to see ended, became an object of anxious solicitude to a large party in the United States. Polk's °profoundly confidential') negotiations for the purchase of Cuba failed, and Fillmore considered that its incorporation would be perilous, but plans for its acquisition continued to be urged. Young America, intoxicated with the progress of a hundred years, and suffering from flights of oratory, joined hands with the slavery extensionists to preach from the text of "manifest destiny.° Every addition to the territory of the American Union had given homes to European destitution and extended representative government, and it was now boldly proclaimed by Southern leaders that the American nation was not to be circumscribed by narrow isthmuses and gulf streams. The feature which characterized the foreign policy of Pierce, and especially that of Buchanan, was the aim to achieve the long-desired result of securing control in the Gulf of Mexico and the Americanization of the region thereabouts. In 1856 Senator Bell of Tennessee said the Monroe Doctrine had become a doctrine of progressive absorption, annexation and con quest of Spanish America. The Pierce admin istration contemplated the annexation of Hawaii and Alaska, opened negotiations for the purchase of Cuba, and, while Walker was fili bustering in lower California, sent Gadsden to secure a large slice across Mexico from the Gulf to the ocean, but secured only the Mexican territory along the Gila River. In 1856, after a riot at Panama, the Pierce ad ministration, in order to protect the transporta tion of persons and property on the isthmus, unsuccessfully attempted to obtain (by treaty) from New Granada a belt of land 20 miles wide from ocean to ocean and certain islands in the harbors at each terminal for naval stations. Seward said it was hard to conceive how the United States much longer could avoid the expansion which had not only brought the Antilles under American surveillance, but also had brought the United States to confront the islands and coasts of Asia. The need of coaling stations in the Pacific, and of an inter oceanic canal, had been urged, especially since the rapid growth of California. Commodore Perry and the American Minister to China recommended the establishment of colonies in the Pacific at the gates of China and Japan.