Mexico. The Pacific Ocean had become the area of interest to the civilized world, and it was not only proper, but essential to the future prosperity of the United States to secure a commanding and controlling station on the Asiatic side of the Pacific.
The argument for a complete cession from a commercial standpoint was that the recent enormous increase in productiveness of American industries and in the export trade required an extension of markets; that it was impossible to enter into competition with European countries without following their methods in securing a base for commercial operations; and that, although the policy of the United States was "the open door," this could not be maintained without asserting American political power, especially in the part of the world where the greatest markets were situated.
The moral grounds for the possession of the Philippines were that the colonial administration of Spain had been conducted with great cruelty, injustice, and in disregard of personal rights; that it would be inhuman and morally wrong to permit Spain to retain her sovereignty; that the weakened power of that government would be unable to tranquillize the disordered and lawless conditions existing in the islands, to protect life and property, and to perform the obligations incident to government; and that it was for the interest of the people of the Philippines in particular, and mankind in general, to extend to the archipelago the principles of civil liberty, equality, and self-government, which form the basis of American institutions, and that to do so was a duty to the world which the United States could not
