Template:1060-1061
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"The nation has repaid its entire cost of $52,000,000 for all the territory purchased in a single year by the product of the mines of California. Texas was annexed in 1845, not by purchase or treaty, but by a joint resolution of Congress. The acquisition of Louisiana and the Floridas more than doubled the original million square miles of territory on which the United States started into business; then Texas came in with 300,000 square miles more, next California and New Mexico with still a greater extent of territory, then Arizona in 1853 with a large slice more, and Alaska in 1867 with 500,000 more, so that now the original million of our area has been swelled by annexation to four times its first size, and, in fact, the center of the Republic has traveled west into the territory annexed.
"There has not been an annexation of territory made that has not added greatly to the material grandeur and to the prosperity of the whole United States, and it would now be difficult to find throughout all these broad realms a single American, not a crank, who wouldn't be willing we should go to war rather than any acre acquired should be wrested from us. The acquisition of territory by America is very much like the birth of children---- not always longed for by the parent or prospectively welcome to the family, but once they join the home circle they are valued above all price and are too precious to be bought with money. So would it be once that Hawaii became an American possession.
"NO PLEBISCITE OR VOTING ON ANNEXATION.
"It is claimed by some of the Clevelandites that Hawaii should not be annexed without a majority vote of the aboriginal natives, who are themselves a minority of the whole permanent inhabitants, in its favor. This is against all American precedent in annexations in this country, and generally in all practice throughout the world. The question of the annexation of any of the territory acquired by us was never submitted to a vote of the people of the country acquired in any case. It is probable that if the inhabitants had voted, including those of the aboriginal natives, the vote in each case would have been against annexation. The Indians in these countries would have been against annexation, and with their votes annexation would have been defeated. Even as it was the Louisiana acquisition was opposed strongly there, and serious riots in opposition resulted in New Orleans. In our acquisitions the government in control of the territory transferred arranged the terms of each transfer, and there was no popular vote on the subject.
"Those who controlled territory to transfer transferred it, as has been proposed in the case of Hawaii, and all such transfers have been approved as wise, popular, patriotic, and glorious by the American people. And as those who are represented in the Provisional Government now propose to cede Hawaii control and own nine-tenths of the business and private property of the islands and have shown their ability to sustain that Government against all opposition that can come from within the country, their right to act on the question is indisputable.
"WHAT THE MAP SHOWS.
"The accompanying map shows that Hawaii is the great crossing point in traversing the Pacific Ocean-the hub that sends out spokes to all other prominent points and ports of that greatest ocean of the world. All the steamer lines, other than coastwise, here cross and
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diverge to all points of the compass. It is the strategical and naval key to the whole Northern Pacific Ocean. All naval and military authorities concur in the statement that the strong nation that has power to hold Hawaii will have the dominion over this great sea and can control the vast commerce of the Pacific, for it is the gateway and toll gate of the water roads to China, Japan, the Indies, the Orient, as well as the focusing point of vessels bound to North and South America, to Australia, and to the innumerable groups of islands composing the Indian Ocean archipelago. Here are some ocean distances, in miles, from Honolulu to----
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"Thomas Hart Benton long ago declared that the dominion and empire of the world lay along the route to the Indies and with the country that controlled the commerce over it. This has been true ever since the discovery of America. The map shows that the mainland of Alaska is west of Honolulu, and the Aleutian Islands, a part of American territory in Alaska, are more than 300 miles west of the Hawaii's. With the laying of an ocean cable to Honolulu, which there is good assurance will be done by a British company very soon, and the completion of the Nicaragua canal, which is also sure to come later, the importance of the Hawaiian Islands will be vastly increased. Within five years after American annexation Honolulu would become the Hong Kong of the Pacific, with a population of at least 100,000, and the population of the whole group would be doubled with a steady increasing growth thereafter.
"The growing commerce of our Pacific coast with the Orient and elsewhere on that ocean will be immensely increased in the near future, and these American interests demand the acquisition of these islands for commerce in time of peace and for defense in time of war. It should be remembered that the United States are being builded for all time and not for a day. If the United States acquire these islands on the terms proffered by the Hawaiian Provisional Government, our Government would get $10,000,000 of actual value in property for nothing, besides the Pearl River coaling station on the same terms, which may be easily and cheaply fortified at small cost, so as to become a naval Gibraltar of the Pacific, strong enough to be held by our white squadron against any force likely ever to be brought against it. And there is no civilizing or Americanizing to be done to train the annexed people into accord with our institutions, for the white men now at the head of the Provisional Government are all of the best New England stock, as well as those who support it. All the executive heads of the Provisional Government, except one, are white men born on the soil of Hawaii, sons of American missionaries, who Christianized, civilized, and raised Hawaii from heathendom, although declared 'aliens' by Secretary Gresham.
"CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS.
"The islands have the finest climate in the world, and Hawaii has been justly styled the Paradise of the Pacific. It raises the products of the tropic and the temperate zones. It is the richest piece of cane