A Brief History of the United States

by John Bach McMaster

[4] Among those who distinguished themselves in this campaign were General Joseph Wheeler, an ex-Confederate cavalry leader; and Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, with his regiment of volunteers called "Rough Riders."

[5] The city of Manila was captured through a combined attack by Dewey's fleet and Merritt's army, August 13, before news of the protocol had been received.

[6] Our flag was raised over Wake Island early in 1899. Part of the Samoa group, including Tutuila (too-too-e'la) and small adjacent islands, was acquired in 1900 by a joint treaty with Great Britain and Germany; these islands are 77 square miles in area and have 6000 population. Many tiny islands in the Pacific, most of them rocks or coral reefs, belong to us; but they are of little importance, except the Midway Islands, which are occupied by a party of telegraphers in charge of a relay in the cable joining our continent with the Philippines.

[7] Porto Rico is a little smaller than Connecticut, but has a population of about one million, of whom a third are colored. The civil government consists of a governor, an executive council of 11 members, and a House of Delegates of 35 members elected by the people. The island is represented at Washington by a resident commissioner.

[8] The Philippine group numbers about two thousand islands. The land area is about equal to that of New England and New York; that is, 115,000 square miles. Luzon, the largest, is about the size of Kentucky. A census taken in 1903 gave a population of 7,600,000, of whom 600,000 were savages. For several years the Philippines were governed by the President, first through the army, and then through an appointed commission. This commission, with Judge William H. Taft as president, began its duties in June of 1900; but by act of Congress (July 1, 1902) a new plan of government has been provided for. This includes a governor and a legislature of two branches, one the Philippine commission of eight members, and the other an assembly chosen by the Filipinos.

[9] In 1898 the emperor of Russia invited many of the nations of the world to meet and discuss the reduction of their armies and navies. Delegates from twenty-six nations accordingly met at the Hague (in Holland) in May, 1899, and there discussed (1) disarmament, (2) revision of the laws of land and naval war, (3) mediation and arbitration. Three covenants or agreements were made and left open for signature by the nations till 1900. One forbade the use in war of deadly gases, of projectiles dropped from balloons, and of bullets made to expand in the human body. The second revised the laws of war, and the third provided for a permanent court of arbitration at the Hague, before which cases may be brought with the consent of the nations concerned.

[10] Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York in 1858, graduated from Harvard University in 1880, and from 1882 to 1884 was a member of the legislature of New York. In 1886 he was the candidate of the Republican party for mayor of New York city and was defeated. In 1889 he was appointed a member of the United States Civil Service Commission, but resigned in 1895 to become president of the New York city police board. In 1897 he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy, but when the war with Spain opened, resigned and organized the First United States Cavalry Volunteers, popularly known as Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Of this regiment he was lieutenant colonel and then colonel, and after it was mustered out of service, was elected governor of New York in the autumn of 1898. He is the author of many books on history, biography, and hunting, besides essays and magazine articles.

[11] Before this time many small areas had been irrigated by means of works constructed by individuals, by companies, and by local governments.

[12] In 1825 Central America invited us to build a canal by way of Lake Nicaragua, and from that time forth the question was often before Congress. In Jackson's time a commissioner was sent to examine the Nicaragua route and that across the isthmus of Panama. After Texas was annexed we made a treaty with New Granada (now Colombia), and secured "the right of way or transit across the isthmus of Panama upon any modes of communication that now exist, or that may be hereafter constructed." After the Mexican war, the discovery of gold in California, and the expansion of our territory on the Pacific coast, the importance of a canal was greatly increased. But Great Britain stepped in and practically seized control of the Nicaragua route. A crisis followed, and in 1850 we made with Great Britain the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, by which each party was pledged never to obtain "exclusive control over the said ship canal." When (in 1900) we practically decided to build by the Nicaragua route, and felt we must have exclusive control, it became necessary to abrogate this part of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. The Hay-Pauncefote treaty was therefore made, by which Great Britain gave up all claim to a share in the control of such a canal, and the United States guaranteed that any isthmian canal built by us should be open to all nations on equal terms.

[13] In accordance with our rights under the treaty, Congress (April, 1904) authorized the President, as soon as he had acquired the property of the canal company and paid Panama $10,000,000, to take possession of the "Canal Zone," a strip ten miles wide (five miles on each side of the canal) stretching across the isthmus and extending three marine miles from low water out into the ocean at each end. On April 22, 1904, the property of the canal company was transferred at Paris, and on May 9 the company was paid $40,000,000; Panama had already been paid her $10,000,000, and on May 19 General Davis, president of the Canal Commission, issued a proclamation announcing the beginning of his administration as governor of the Canal Zone.