rightfully ignore. It is impossible to read the utterances of President McKinley during and following the negotiations, without being satisfied that these latter considerations exercised a controlling influence with him in determining the destiny of the islands.
There was a large party in the United States which combated all these reasons, and contended that the addition to the American domain of distant regions and races would lead to hurtful innovations in the system of government, to the oppression of an unwilling people, to a large increase in the standing army and the navy with heavy financial burdens, and to threatening foreign complications. But this opposition was no greater than had been manifested at the time of the addition to the American possessions of the Louisiana territory, Texas, California, and Hawaii. Since the beginning of its history, every step taken in the enlargement of the bounds of the Union had been popular with the masses of its citizens, had resulted in increased prosperity to the nation, and in benefit to the inhabitants of the annexed territory. Such, it was argued, would be the result as to the new possessions in the Orient.
Following soon after the acquisition of the Philippines, and while the government of the United States was actively engaged in restoring order and establishing a stable administration in its new possessions, the mutterings of a storm were heard in China which threatened to disorganize the government of that country, to paralyze its commerce, and to put in peril the lives and property of all foreign residents. In a few months the storm broke with a violence hitherto unknown
