erican expansion
and is in the right line of enlarging the area of enlightenment and
stimulating the progress of civilization. The unexpected has happened,
but it is not illogical. It must have been written long ago on the
scroll of the boundless blue and the stars. The incident of war was
the "rush" order of the President of the United States to Admiral
Dewey to destroy the Spanish fleet at Manila, for the protection
of our commerce. The deed was done with a flash of lightning, and
lo! we hold the golden key of a splendid Asiatic archipelago of
a thousand beautiful and richly endowed islands in our grip. This
is the most brilliant and startling achievement in the annals of
navies. Never before had the sweep of sea power, ordered through
the wires that make the world's continents, oceans and islands one
huge whispering gallery, such striking exemplification. There was
glory and fame in it, and immeasurable material for the making of
history. We may paraphrase Dr. Johnson's celebrated advertisement
of the widow's brewery by saying: Admiral Dewey's victory was not
merely the capture of a harbor commanding a great city, one of the
superb places of the earth, and the security of a base of operations
to wait for reinforcements commensurate with the resources of the
United States of America--the victorious hero fixed his iron hand
upon a wonderful opportunity it was the privilege of our Government
to secure at large, according to the rights of a victorious Nation
for the people thereof--a chance for the youth of America, like that
of the youth of Great Britain, to realize upon the magnificence of
India; and this is as Dr. Johnson said of the vats and barrels of
the Thrale estate--"the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of
avarice." It is a new departure, but not a matter for the panic or
apprehension of conservatism, that the Stars and Stripes float as the
symbol of sovereignty over a group of islands in the waters of Asia,
that are equal to all the West Indies. If we are strangers there now we
shall not be so long. We have a front on the Pacific Ocean, of three
great States--Washington, equal to England; Oregon, whose grandeur
rolls in the sound of her famous name, and incomparable California,
whose title will be the synonym of golden good times forever. The
Philippines are southwest from our western front doors. They have
been the islands of our sunsets in the winter. Now they look to us
for the rosy dawn out of wh