New States and Territories
President and Congress were in office. The same is true of Idaho and Wyoming in 1890. Utah in 1896 came in under Democratic rule. Oklahoma in 1907 and New Mexico and Arizona in 1912, completing the Union, were Republican admissions.
The outlying territories belonging to the United States are also with a single exception Republican acquisitions. We have already seen how the great and rich territory of Alaska was secured. The next addition to our territorial possessions was Hawaii, a group of mid-Pacific islands of almost incalcu1able richness and value. These were annexed without cost in 1898 by a Republican President and Congress against the bitter and persistent opposition of the Democrats. The next year, as a result of our little war with Spain for the liberation and independence of Cuba, we acquired Porto Rico, the vast and priceless archipelago of the Philippines, and the small but useful mid-sea islet of Guam. These were secured by a Republican administration against Democratic opposition so bitter that made the matter the leading issue of the 1900 Presidential campaign; in which the Republican policy of “expansion” was overwhelmingly approved by the nation. The acquisition of Tutuila in the Samoan group in 1900 and of the Panama Canal Zone under a perpetual lease in 1904 were also purely Republican achievements. The purchase of the Virgin Islands, or Danish West Indies, in 1917 was indeed effected by a Democratic government, though the policy of making that purchase was originally adopted, against Democratic opposition, by the Republicans.
In addition to such territorial expansion, an enormous extension of American political influence and
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