of nations. So long as the so-called
mother country exercised any power there, both the islands would have
been firebrands, which, if not aflame, would surely have been
smouldering.

The Sun concludes its editorial with these words:

"It is, in a word, for the interest of the whole civilized world that
all of Spain's colonies, with the possible exception of the Canaries,
should be turned over to us. It is for the world's interests because, in
her hands, they always have been, and always would be, a menace to the
general peace. If this be true, and that it is cannot be gainsaid, the
sooner the transfer is made the better. The fire, which now is
localized, should be put out quickly, lest it spread. A thousand
accidents, contingencies, inadvertencies, may lead to the very
complications which all of the European powers, except Spain, are
anxious to avoid. We except Spain because, in putting off the evil day
and in postponing submission to the terms which our duty to mankind
compels us to impose, she can have no other hope, no other purpose, than
to bring about such international entanglements as may cause a general
war. Spain alone has anything to gain from such a contest; in it she
would at least have allies, and would expect to see her thirst for
revenge upon us gratified. The great powers of Europe, however, do not
mean to risk an oecumenical convulsion for the sake of a decadent
monarchy, which, considered as the trustee of colonies, has been tried
in the balance and found wanting. They recognize that, in seeking to
evade the sentence of rigorous isolation which the conscience of mankind
has passed upon her, she is jeopardizing the peace of the world. For
that reason they are exerting and will continue to exert all the means
of moral pressure at their command to induce the Spaniards to accept
promptly such terms as our Government may offer."

The people of the United States, after the armistice was declared, were
united in one thing, and that was, that apart from the question of
indemnity, the one condition of peace, final and unvariable, would in
the nature of the case be this:

The surrender and cession to the United States, now and forever, of all
Spain's possessions in the western waters of both Atlantic and Pacific.

The fortune of a war begun for the liberation of one people has put it
into the power of the United States to liberate several peoples. All
this territory, which is ours by right, must henceforth