overnor and his
soldiers were carried to Manila as prisoners, and an American garrison
of a few men left to take charge of this new American territory in the
Pacific.

CONCLUSION.

Thus at the close of the nineteenth century, the Greater United States
assumes its appointed place among the foremost nations of the world, and
stands on the threshold of achievements whose grandeur no man dare
attempt to prophesy. We pause, awed, grateful, and profoundly impressed,
when we recall the mighty events, the amazing progress, and the
wonderful advancements in discovery, science, art, literature, and all
that tends to the good of mankind that are certain to give the twentieth
century a pre-eminence above all the years that have gone before.

The new era of our country has opened. The United States enters on the
first stage of the transformation from an isolated commonwealth into an
outreaching power with dependencies in both hemispheres. We can no
longer hold an attitude of aloofness from the rest of the world. With
vulnerable points in our outlying possessions, we must make ready to
defend them not only by force of arms but by diplomatic skill.
Entangling alliances as heretofore will be avoided, and the conditions,
complications, and policies of foreign powers must in the future possess
a practical importance for us.

The original thirteen States have expanded into forty-five, embracing
the vast area between the two oceans and extending from the British
possessions to the Gulf of Mexico. To them has now been added our
colonial territory, so vast in extent that, like the British Empire, the
sun never sets on our dominions. Where a hundred years ago were only a
few scattered villages and towns, imperial cities now raise their heads.
Thousands of square miles of forest and solitude have given place to
cultivated farms, to factories, and workshops that hum with the wheels
of industry. The Patent Office issues 40,000 patents each year. We have
three cities with more than a million population apiece, and twenty-five
with a population ranging from a hundred thousand to half a million.
Greater New York is the second city in the world, and, if its present
rate of growth continues, it will surpass London before the middle of
the coming century. Our population has grown from 3,000,000 at the close
of the Revolution to 75,000,000. When Andrew Jackson became President
there was not a mile of railroad in the United States. To-day our
mil