All this constituted Imperialism, against which many of our
soberest citizens protested. They alleged that as a doctrine it
contradicted the fundamental principles on which our nation was
built. Since the Declaration of Independence, America had stood
before the world as the champion and example of Liberty, and by
our Civil War she had purged her self of Slavery. Imperialism
made her the mistress of peoples who had never been consulted.
Such moral inconsistency ought not to be tolerated. In addition
to it was the political danger that lay in holding possessions on
the other side of the Pacific. To keep them we must be prepared
to defend them, and defense would involve maintaining a naval and
military armament and of stimulating a warlike spirit, repugnant
to our traditions. In short, Imperialism made the United States a
World Power, and laid her open to its perils and entanglements.

But while a minority of the men and women of sober judgment and
conscience opposed Imperialism, the large majority accepted it,
and among these was Theodore Roosevelt. He believed that the
recent war had involved us in a responsibility which we could not
evade if we would. Having destroyed Spanish sovereignty in the
Philippines, we must see to it that the people of those islands
were protected. We could not leave them to govern themselves
because they had no experience in government; nor could we dodge
our obligation by selling them to any other Power. Far from
hesitating because of legal or moral doubts, much less of
questioning our ability to perform this new task, Roosevelt
embraced Imperialism, with all its possible issues, boldly not to
say exultantly. To him Imperialism meant national strength, the
acknowledgment by the American people that the United States are