months, with the flag flying from the "Halls of the Monte -
zumas,'* was finally relinquished, although the situation
presented every argument urged for the retention of the
Philippines more cogently, and annexation would have in-
volved fewer social, political, and constitutional difficulties.
In the light of present events and of current opinion it is
hardly credible that, if confronted to-day by that situation,
our people would avoid their duty and leave the conquered
to work out their own salvation merely disburdened of some
undeveloped territory.
That a policy so alien to our present ideas should have prevailed only a half century ago invites some explanation in addition to the obvious one that expansion and the ex- tension of human slavery were, in the minds of an increas- ing number, inextricably bound together, and consequently brought the deepening moral abhorrence of slavery, which was taking fast hold of the idealists, to re-enforce the oppo- sition of conservatism. As a result just that idealist element which, to-day, leads the movement for expansion under the banner of political altruism, shrank back fifty years ago from having anything to do with it.
It is to offer some further explanation beyond this obvious one that I undertake a brief inquiry into the rise, diffusion, and probable strength of a desire to acquire all of Mexico. For such an inquiry will show that the movement for expan- sion, although associated in the minds of many people with the extension of slavery, was by no means identical with it, being on the one hand strongly opposed by some of the ablest champions of the institution and on the other hand ardently advocated by its enemies, while the body of its support was in no inconsiderable degree made up of men on the whole indifferent to the slavery question. The emergence of this expansionist movement at this time in spite of the obstacles to its success prepares us for its triumphant career at the present day, when it has no substantial hindrance save the conservative spirit, to whose objections our sanguine people are wont to pay little attention.
