Beveridge's Support Of Colonialism: The Comparison Of Imperialism

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Imperialism The United States had taken part of an agreement in 1898 called The Treaty of Paris. This treaty officially ended the Spanish-American War. The United States acquired three new territories, including Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. The nation had all this new land, and they could not decide what they wanted to do with it. This was one of the first opportunities the nation had to begin imperialism and it consequently started disputes between Americans. Part of the nation believed that it was part of their Manifest Destiny to take advantage of this land and enhance its political, social, and economic impacts. The other view point that many people believed, was that it would be unconstitutionally wrong to take over this new …show more content…

Senator on September 16,1898. Albert Beveridge expresses his support of imperialism through his “March of the Flag” speech. Beveridge was speaking on this topic because it was a big dispute in America at the time, and he was wanting to give his expert opinion on the subject. He used his words as a counterpoint to those who were against imperialism. One could say that Beveridge believed it was part of our manifest destiny to take over these new territories to enrich our country. The majority of his speech was written through the concept of manifest destiny. For example, Breveridge argued that it was the right thing to do as white Americas who were God’s “chosen people” to expand their country. Another convincing argument he presented to his audience is that without expansion, European powers would have the opportunity to take these territories that God had specifically assigned to America. He expressed that it would be selfish of America to continue isolation policies by stating “Has God endowed us with gifts beyond our deserts and marked us as the people of His peculiar favor, merely to rot in our own selfishness, as men and nations must, who take cowardice for their companion and self for their diety…” It is easily seen that Beveridge did not take this situation lightly, and was confident in his viewpoint. He supports his viewpoint by relating his cause to the forefathers’ …show more content…

However, Albert Beveridge also had strong suits throughout his speech that backed up his stand point. Both senators had speech’s that were well put together, and used convincing writing to get their point across. I think America needed professional thoughts on the subject, so they could logically see why or why not they should expand their country It is easily inferred that the underlying purpose of both of these speakers were to make America a better nation. Both had good intentions, they just had opposing view points. Both of these men help Americans understand what was going on, and I think it helped people make their decision on what side they were going to agree

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