million square miles. This added nearly a million square miles more. But
what had we really bought? Nothing but stolen goods. The Indians were
there before La Salle, from whose boat-sailing the title we bought was
derived. "But," you may object, "when whites rob reds or blacks, we call
it Discovery; land-grabbing is when whites rob whites--and that is where
I blame England." For the sake of argument I concede this, and refer you
to our acquisition of Texas. This operation followed some years after the
Florida operation. "By request" we "annexed" most of present Texas--in
1845. That was a trick of our slaveholders. They sent people into Texas
and these people swung the deal. It was virtually a theft from Mexico. A
little while later, in 1848, we "paid" Mexico for California, Arizona,
and Nevada. But if you read the true story of Fremont in California,
and of the American plots there before the Mexican War, to undermine the
government of a friendly nation, plots connived at in Washington with a
view to getting California for ourselves, upon my word you will find it
hard to talk of England being a land-grabber and keep a straight face.
And, were a certain book to fall into your hands, the narrative of the
Alcalde of Monterey, wherein he sets down what of Fremont's doings in
California went on before his eyes, you would learn a story of treachery,
brutality, and greed. All this acquisition of territory, together with
the Gadsden Purchase a few years later, brought our continent to its
present area--not counting Alaska or some islands later acquired--
2,970,230 square miles.

Please understand me very clearly: I am not saying that it has not been
far better for the world and for civilization that we should have become
the rulers of all this land, instead of its being ruled by the Indians or
by Spain, or by Mexico. That is not at all the point. I am merely
reminding you of the means whereby we got the land. We got it mostly by
force and fraud, by driving out of it through firearms and plots people