Columbus.

The splendid new world which Columbus gave to Spain, was the most
marvelous addition of territory that has ever come into the
possession of any nation upon earth. It included the whole of
South America, except Brazil, which was acquired by Portugal, and
the small colonies known as British, Dutch and French Guiana. It
included the whole of Central America and Mexico. It included the
whole of what is now the United States west of the Mississippi
river. It included the whole of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico
and the peninsula of Florida to the southern limit of Alabama and
Georgia, and except for a few scattered islands, it included every
foot of land in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea, all the
coral rocks, as well as the greater islands of the West Indies
and the Antilles. To-day not a foot of all that enormous
possession remains to Spain undisputed, except the islands of Cuba
and Puerto Rico. These hundreds of thousands of square miles are
inhabited by a free and peaceful people, most of them as
republics, and the few exceptions under civilized and liberal
colonial policies. Spain's hold on Cuba has vanished and Puerto
Rico is slipping away. Spain could not preserve the gifts of
Columbus.

SPAINS COLONIAL POLICIES.

The logic of events and the progress of civilization have
commanded that Spain should withdraw from her possessions in the
western hemisphere. Never has there been such a record of ferocity
and barbarity in conquest, as that which blackens the pages of
Spanish history in connection with Spain's acquisition and