WM. McKINLEY,
President of the United States.
CHAPTER XXII.
McKINLEY AND EXPANSION.
When the thirteen original states won freedom from England and independence before the world, the new republic possessed an area of 827,844 square miles.
That expansion, or an extending of the borders of the republic, has been the fixed policy of the nation it is necessary only to say that there have since been added 2,895,380 square miles. The territory now embraced within the confines of the United States of America is almost five times as great as the original area, vast as was the extent of that great region which America won for Americans—native and naturalized. The territory acquired by expansion since the Revolutionary War is three-and-a-half times greater than the original thirteen states.
With such a record it is pretty clear expansion is an American policy, and in keeping with the traditions of the republic.
In the one hundred and fifteen years following the peace with Great Britain, 2,771,040 square miles had been added by conquest or purchase—usually by conquest first, and later by a sort of consolatory payment of what the property would have been worth if the enemy had ceded it without the trouble or expense of a war.
In the three last years of McKinley’s administration the area of the nation was extended 124,340 square miles. In truth, however, this extension of territory was all accomplished in a single year. It may be interesting to add, however, that the total annexation preceding the war with Spain averaged 24,696 square miles annually; while the expansion accomplished by President McKinley’s administration from the moment he secured the first treaty of addition down to the present time averages 41,446 square miles annually.
He secured almost double the average annual increase of territory credited to any or all previous administrations.
Briefly stated, the several former annexations were as follows: